my creative space

for once i'm more organised and actually posting my creative space on a thursday - the catch is i haven't been that creative lately. a combination of not much time, a bad case of Weather and being really tired has conspired against productivity.

i did get some landscape stitching practice in last weekend - i can highly recommend colette wolff's book manipulating fabric if you're interested in getting interesting textures and effects. on the right is my journal/sketch book for the recording of ideas and sketching of potential pieces. and some pieces of excitingly textured and sparkly gift ribbon all ready to become something quite different from its intended purpose.

i couldn't resist adding an extra couple of photos to show you these amazing bamboo brushes and to die for turquoise pigment powder bought today from that den of temptation, dean's art in gertrude street, fitzroy.

find more creative spaces here

dyeing in the heat

this weekend we have had a real foretaste of summer - 34 degrees yesterday and today and it will dip down slightly on wednesday to 27 before going back to the 30s for another week. i am emphatically not a hot weather person and get peevish and red cheeked in the heat. - not helped by billthedog breathing loving hot breath on my feet.....

but it was excellent weather to dye wool blanketing and silk so the fig tree was festooned in what will become a desert night quilt.

peeved of thornbury writes...

just returned from a bizarre supermarket trip where (in ascending order of offence taken)

• i observed a man squeezing avocadoes as if they were stress balls
• i was asked by the young whipper snapper of a checkout person if i were hungry
• i was winked at by an ancient mariner in one of those ride-on scooter things

harrumph!!

2 words

in-defatigable

you may remember that miss molly moth, spinster of this parish, likes to recline on newly minted textile art - preferably burnt and prickly
i thought i had foiled her by covering the sewing table with a large piece of fabric
which must be fur-permeable because when i came to put the hanging sleeve and label on ginkgo shadows so it could go off respectably finished to the one step further exhibition it had grown a thin but discernible pelt of pale grey tabby fur. cussing and brushing followed and it was restored to presentability...

both quilts were packed and in the box ready to be addressed and sent off when miss moth seized her opportunity for the last laugh - there was nearly a supplementary entry to the show

land of the long weekend

especially if you don't work on fridays and the creche is shut on monday...

the muse was relaxing on the beach today so sent her long suffering sister martha instead and i made hanging sleeves and labels for the 2 quilts which will be in the victorian quilters' one step further exhibition.i made myself a new top in a fabric that looks and feels like liberty but cost $5 from darn cheap fabric :)
i did the next ice dyeing experiment - this time on some stitched hessian over silk and cotton and in the more controlled surroundings of a plastic tub in the laundry....we also did shirtloads of washing and tidied the house ready for that angel of mercy, angela who will come and work her cleaning magic again tomorrow.

and if you ever wondered what we looked like chez seascrump here is w's family portrait done on linen with my new fabric pen - clockwise from bottom left we are w (5), a (14), m aka the scrumpster, e (12) and me

oppy joy

on friday w and i did our usual op shop scrounge and this time we hit the jackpot. w found a musical toy that plays music that we like and i got a pair of levis that fit for $10, a groovy apron (seen here in the background) and the most wondrous thing ever -
isn't it splendid? and it was excellent timing as only that morning w had run up to me shouting mum mum mollymoth is licking her chops and i caught miss molly moth in dairy flagrante delicto with her snout in the butter

back in black

i don't know if anyone apart from susan noticed but i didn't do my customary 'cram a week's worth of blogging into a weekend' thang last week.

there has been much activity chez seascrump as e turned out to have whooping cough, not asthma and has been confined to barracks until at least the end of next week, w continued his prep orientation with a noticeable thawing towards the whole concept of school and the muse pretty much zoomed off in her skoda and left me to it. which has meant that for the past couple of days i have been gripped by angst at the mt everest of creative work that loometh and hoping it doesn't turn into a mt etna. so gripped in fact that i was up in the murk midnight mending monkeys on friday night
(here he is in recovery)
and revising the list of southern lands quilts i have in the pipeline. you may remember that i need to make 8 pieces for this exhibition - i have finished 4 and i have ideas for at least another 12...... so inspiration is not the problem - or rather it is because i keep thinking of things.

this started as an experiment in sewing layers of tulle, painted tyvek and canvas and then turning the heat gun on it.
and this is evolving quite nicely
the ice dyeing experiment wasn't so good - but next time i won't leave it to melt/dry in the sun, on a slope, where billthedog can run over it..... this i think is rescuable.
as it is a loooong weekend here in melbourne i will try and blog some more - i plan another ice dyeing experiment this time with some hessian which i have stitched onto silk and cotton with string and perle 8 thread.