Arisa goes home

I took Arisa to the airport this morning, at the end of her 11 weeks in New Zealand. She is going back to Japan with the 26 other girls from her school in Hokkaido. She gave me this card at the airport, which I was to open when I got home. Although I was looking forward to having the house back to myself, I cried at the airport.

And this note was left in her room. While it was difficult for me to have a teenager from another country live with me after 5 years of living alone, I couldn't have had a nicer student than Arisa.

Today I'm doing some more experimenting with stitching first, dyeing afterwards, this time with layers. More soon!

Autumn Reds

Pineapple sage beside the front steps

This looks like a Virginian creeper. It's only just turned red, so I really hadn't noticed it before.

And of course, my Berry socks! Err....sock!

Random stitch'n'paint

I took a fat quarter of PFD white fabric and folded it in half - because I couldn't be bothered backing it. When I have a creative urge, I just want to GET ON WITH IT. Then I stitched it randomly with textured stitches with my Janome 6500P. I played with stitch sizing a bit, but it was very random.

Then I painted it with leftover dyes. There were only 4 colours, and I was dyeing onto dry fabric. To fill the gaps, I diluted some colours and put a wash over the white bits. I quite like the effect - it's quite different. I may do some more of this, in a less random way.

Animal crackers

When I moved to this house, I gave a lot of thought to the cat/dog flow. Poodles chase everything that runs. This means cats. In order to promote harmony in the house (translation: to keep me sane), I had a cat door installed in the back door near my bedroom, and put up the kiddiegate in the hall. The intention was that the cats would sleep in my room ( as they did before) and generally stay in the rear of the house. The dogs would be in the front and could come upstairs when I was working in my office/studio. A cunning plan, I thought.

I hadn't reckoned on 2 things. Firstly, the dogs were not used to stairs, and didn't want to use them. Secondly, my older cat Seven thinks more like a dog than a cat. Sev didn't WANT to stay in the rear of the house. So she started jumping over the gate and going upstairs.

Because I didn't want to have to keep the hall door shut, I have let this situation stay. If Sev walks across the back of the living room to go upstairs, the dogs watch her. If she runs, they chase her. And they chase her if she tries to get past them when they're close to the kiddiegate.

Frodo (usually called Dudey) is not the smartest poodle in the world. But he's learned to do the stairs all by himself, and now comes up when I'm there. I was interested to see how he and Sev would get along.

Yup, Sev just considers him to be another piece of warm-blooded furniture to rub against. Dudey doesn't know what to think.
Here is the "Kiwi" hat I've made for Arisa from the wool I painted last weekend. It's representing our national colours and I hope it'll be a nice reminder of her time in New Zealand, as she goes back to Japan in a week.

In which I show off my hand dyed wool

This is the scrumptious berry mixture you saw being painted in the last post. These skeins are all reclining on my lovely white flokati rug which is in front of the fireplace.
Left is a Golden yellow, Lilac and Avocado mix, with several shades of each colour; middle is a pale Yellow, Turquoise and Blue mix; and right is Boysenberry in light , medium and dark shades.
This is the multicoloured brigade. Each one has 8 or 9 colours.
This Red and Berry mix is destined to become a pair of socks for me!
And this will be a hat for Arisa - already on the needles, as she leaves to go back to Japan in 12 days.

Boysenberry, Mulberry and Plum

Not a delicious fruit compote, but the colours that are going on this skein of wool. I went to a Creative Fibre (formerly Spinners & Weavers) open day yesterday, and got all inspired seeing as I spent 4 hours surrounded by lovely fibre. More photos coming once the skeins are all dry.
A Cute Animal shot of the dogs sitting together on the settee...all together now.....awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww.
One of my Zygocactus in full glorious bloom.
And a wee hank of lovely, soft silk in a vibrant blue colour. I have no idea what I'll do with this but I couldn't resist it.

The Evil Twin has been on Amazon again....

These 2 exciting books arrived today but I haven't had a chance to look at them yet. I haven't done much with distorting fabric, though I can get quite carried away with my little heat tool.

I thought this one might solve my problem of never getting the second sock knitted........what do you think?

Back to basics

This has been a busy weekend, but not a creative one. I spoke to the Canterbury Patchwork & Quilting Guild on Saturday afternoon - it was the AGM, traditionally a fairly dull meeting but I'm sure my talk, entitled "From Naked Men to Rust" enlivened the proceedings somewhat. Ahem. The theme of the talk was "moving outside your comfort zone" and I illustrated with my work over the past 3 years, almost all of which is uncompleted and largely experimental. They can't have been TOO horrified, as they later asked me to be a judge at their show in August.

After packing my dye orders on Sunday, I started to get everything together for the 2009 Quilting Symposium Committee, as they need to print their class booklet 12 months out. So above is the photo I'm using for the "Basic Dyeing Class" - a set of colour gradations.
This set of pieces is for "Beyond The Basics" - hmm, could have used some more ironing. Damn. It was hard to find suitable fabric to illustrate these classes, as I don't tend to dye this way any more. All the photos I had on hand, and from last Symposium, were too small, so I needed to produce more as well as write a tutor profile and class information.
This is the original wallhanging that I will teach again. This was a lovely relaxing class to teach on the last day after 4 hectic days of dyeing. I loved seeing what the class came up with last time.
And this is the sample for the "Surface Design" class which is 2 days long and very full on.

Another chore out of the way! I would love to have more time to develop other classes, but this is going to be a tough year, what with having to put so much energy and time into my other business (the one that earns the money, and owes the money as well).

Such is life.

Promises, promises

As promised, here's some other things I've been working on. Here is a "half" piece of painted duoprint which I have done some stitching on - click on the photo for a closer look.
Over Easter, I started this cardigan which I think is lovely. The yarn is 50% Tencel and 50% acrylic - I wouldn't normally ever knit acrylic, but I had heard the Tencel was good to knit with, so I wanted to try it. Plus it was cheap at The Warehouse! It is indeed a lovely smooth yarn - the colour is charcoal (deep grey), not black as it looks in the photo.
And now completed is this brushed wool wrap cardigan - it's a loose-fitting lacy design, and I have adapted my version from a more or less sleeveless summer pattern, by adding extra sleeve stitches, then picking up and knitting long rib cuffs and a rib edging all the way around. Wool from the local Salvation Army Op Shop, around $10 cost.

Painted Duoprints

Click on the photos for a larger version, where you can see the colours more clearly.

Here are some "Before" and "After" shots of my recent monoprints. Each piece was monoprinted twice with dye, so I call them "Duoprints". This series came out quite different from the earlier ones I did last month - they had large areas of dye and large areas of white space, and I painted the white space in blocks of colour.

This time, the dye separated much more into small spots, and I swirled it around a lot on the plastic, so these prints have a lot more movement. I decided to paint that movement.

While these are only small pieces of fabric, around 11" by 15", it has taken me hours to paint them.


Paints don't act the same way as dyes when you mix them, but I blended most of the colours I've used, as I wanted the background dye to be visible, not obscured. Also, I wanted all the colours to be muted.

The colours are fairly subtle, in keeping with the dyes I used.

Question is - what do I do with them now? Frame them as completed works? Sandwich them and stitch them? Cut them up and make things from them?

Your suggestions are welcomed.

Flour Resist - the process

This was the original fabric with flour paste, and designs drawn in it. I allowed the paste to dry.
This time, I painted over the dried resist with fabric paints, rather than dye. I divided it in two, and coloured each half.
Here's the finished sample. A lot more of the brass colour penetrated the resist, and the drawn lines are less obvious.

Omigod

This is from the latest edition of Knitty, a fabulous (free) online knitting magazine which I adore for its fresh original designs.

I have a bit of a thing for hand knitted socks - the modern kind, not what your great Auntie Edna might have knitted you in 1960. Unfortunately, my short attention span flags after getting one sock done so I haven't ACTUALLY managed to produce a pair yet. Maybe this winter, as I enjoy all that lovely firewood!

Anyway.....the latest edition of Knitty (spring 2008, they are upside down to me) features this delicious sock made from hand painted wool (what else?) and wee mitred squares out of "Knits from a Painter's Palette" which I have.

I may have to make this sometime. Just because.

Pictures of Autumn

A pretty pink salvia.....
...Helenium in flower. That fence behind is 2 metres (6 ft) high.
....Colchicum (Autumn crocus). today was cloudy so the flowers didn't open at all
.....and the firewood! There is 9 cubic metres here, enough to keep me plenty warm all winter.

And there IS creative content coming .......watch this space for more monoprints, more flour resist and some completed knitting.

Jaffas

For those readers who don't come from Australia or New Zealand, you may have been puzzled by my reference to Jaffas in the "I am from..." post.

Jaffas are a yummy chocolate sweet coated with an orange flavoured exterior (but are red). See this reference in Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jaffas_(candy).

As an aside - not to be confused with Jafas. This is what people from Auckland are often known as in other parts of New Zealand -it stands for Just Another F***ing Aucklander. Auckland is the biggest city, with 25% of NZ's population, and some of the yuppies who live there don't endear themselves to Heartland NZ with their attitudes and ways. I come from Auckland, incidentally, but I'm exempt as I choose to live elsewhere.

Creative Black Hole.......

.....which I am filling with a sunrise photo. I didn't do any artwork at the weekend, only knitting. Now I feel deprived, and wonder if I haven't taken too much on.

I am from...

I have seen these on several sites (like Susie Monday's ,and Kirsty Duncan's) and love them. These sites go into more detail about where this came from. I just about cried after reading Kirsty's, as she is a transplanted Kiwi in Australia, and I have a huge capacity for emotion about my country. Annnnnnnnyway.....I decided to write my own, so here goes:

I am from a state house, from school milk and Sunday night comedy programmes on the radio.

I am from strong working-class women, who toiled endlessly to feed and clothe their families, who grew gardens from cuttings and gifted plants, who knitted and sewed and made do.

I am from Irish farmers who fled to Scotland during the potato famine, and ancestors who emigrated for a better life in the colonies.

I am from the pointsettia that grew by the back door, the peas that my grandmother grew that we had to shell before eating, the freesias that grew along the front path, and the mushrooms that sometimes grew in a fairy ring on the back lawn.

I am from rolling Jaffas down the aisles at the pictures (you have to be a Kiwi to understand that) and standing up for "God Save the Queen".

I am from the long bus trips up north to visit my grandparents which were the only holidays we had. I'm from the estuary where we caught eels, carrying blackberries wrapped up in my cardigan, cycling around with my brother, and climbing trees.

I am from austere Presbyterians who eschewed extravagance. I am from Auckland, where my throat still catches when I see One Tree Hill, now without its tree. I am from Christmas in summer, the fountain at Mission Bay, wee pots of homemade jam from the church fair, and Rangitoto Island.

I am from a school where we wore hats, ties and gloves, and heard the broadcast of man landing on the moon in German class.

These are the things of my childhood that have shaped my life.

Hot stuff

I have just received this book "Hot Textiles - Inspiration and techniques with heat tools" from Amazon. I haven't been able to look through it yet as I'm at work. Blogging at work? Shame! But at least I don't have to worry about the boss catching me....I AM the boss, for those not familiar with the blog. Also the tea lady, file clerk, telephonist and every other role imaginable, seeing as it's a one-person business.

The down side of having to work my butt off fulltime in my day job is that the creative stuff is pretty much confined to weekends. Sometimes I have to make calls or visit clients in the evenings, or else I may have to do stuff on my other business (Tillia Dyes). But I can't complain. Well, I can, but who's taking any notice? And I guess I don't have much to complain about all things considered.

I'm reading The Secret at present and while I don't think it's the answer to everything (just way too many holes in it), we all could spend more time being grateful for what we have, and thinking positive thoughts. Those things I fully support.

Have you read (or watched) The Secret? What do you think about it?

Dust Never Sleeps

That is today's philosophical comment. Which has nothing to do with the rest of the post, but is more a reflection of the state of my house.

I have been tagged by Valeri and earlier on by someone else (sorry, too rushed to go back and look). Now I have in fact done both those memes before, so I am going to take blogistic licence here and tell you ONE thing about me that most people don't know.

I am incredibly uncoordinated. As in clumsy.

I can't dance. I can't swim. And I am totally unable to follow the likes of an aerobics or yoga instructor because I mix up right and left.

I spill things a lot. I break crockery and glasses a lot. I use mass produced dinnersets for this reason, and buy several of the bone china mugs I like at a time.

Having read a bit about this sort of thing recently, I think I have a mild form of dyslexia. Not the reading/writing dyslexia most people have heard of. I read prolifically, and I'm an articulate speaker. No, there are other horses in the dyslexia stable, and every dyslexic has some variety of symptoms, and with differing degrees of seriousness. When I was a child, dyslexia was unheard of. Anyway, I was good at school. It was only in other stuff that I was hopeless. My mother loved dancing and swimming, and no doubt wonders how she produced such an awkward daughter who can do neither. And so never goes on a dance floor, and seldom enters the water.

Today, I opened a cupboard to get a cloth. A container fell out and as I retrieved it, I knocked over 2 bottles of dye. These had squirt tops on them, so as they fell, they squirted dye onto my jeans, the kitchen mat and the cupboard doors. I would like to say this is unusual but it isn't.

I am not feeling sorry for myself here, so I hope it doesn't come across that way. I have long ago accepted my limitations, which is why I immerse myself in the things I CAN do. And today's thing is some more flour resist. Here's a photo of a pattern I'm trying out, plus I've also done a plain piece and re-floured one of the pieces I did before but wasn't happy with. As it's very windy, I won't do more - I'll paint the monoprints until the flour pieces dry and I can apply dye to them.