By sion, on August 29th, 2006%
Show’s over, was a great success. I had some great feedback, and some hilarious consoling over not winning the Spring in the Valley challenge (apparently the judge said it was too hard to choose between the lovely works, so she went for quirky humour). The local quilt mafia can get a bit scary when they decide to be on your side … this one woman in particular was totally bent out of shape on my behalf, totally cracked me up. Whatever disappointment I felt was pretty much swamped by all the friendliness and compliments about the work I’d done. Gosh, mum wasn’t half cranky though lol.
Anyway, so since I was pretty much holding off just in case mum or I won the sewing machine, and Don was offering a show discount, and Hazel wanted one too, I let her negotiate us an extra good deal on a Janome 6600P each. On layby until I’m sure I can cover the car rego if I blow my tax return, but woot! Plus, comes with a nintendo portable thingummy (DS? something stupid like that) with a sudoku game, just what I need for times I’m stuck somewhere with nothing useful to do (doctor’s office or whatever – and yes, I know I could do handwork, but I’ve done it and it feels all “look at me!” for some reason. Possibly cos I’m a dumbass, but we won’t go into that).
Anyway. I did get the dragons pattern finished in time for the show, too. Yay me! No bugger bought one yet, of course lol … possibly all got sick of waiting. Margaret made up the carousel horse, and it looks terrific – I need to nab a pic of it, and ask her if she’d mind hanging it in the shop so El can have hers where it belongs. Well, I brought El’s home, so it’s where it belongs in any case now, but you know.
Sunday I did the Genesis silk painting workshop Judy Hills bought me a place in – she’d been going to do it herself, but then Ken decided they needed to go on one of their trips straight after the show, so she paid for a place anyway and told me I had to go and have fun and then show her the ropes when she gets back. So I went along, not really expecting to be that into it, but I had a BALL. We use her paints quite often on the cotton etc, and I’d caught a bit of her sales/history spiel when she did a workshop with the girls on my balcony a few months back, so once we’d started playing I kind of wanted her to shut up and let me just paint! Paint! Paint! Too much fun, give me more silk already …
we started with an abstract to get the hang of using the dimensional paint as a resist, then traced a design on another piece and did the resist on it, then while they were drying painted a long scarf (folded & painted & rolled up & squooged, then opened up & salt sprinkled on top), then mopped up the paint left on the board with a small square and chucked a bit of salt on it too (wonderfully subtle silvery result in my case; it’s the square behind the long scarf). After lunch we painted the abstract one, and then the design, and when it was close to packup time we sopped up the leftovers in the palette with a fat quarter of silk and rolled them up. When I got it home I unwrapped it & sprinkled alternating bands of sugar & epsom salt – the sugar makes these terrific marbley/erosion watercoloury marks when you rinse it out. Anyway, I picked el up from mum’s (and grabbed a selection of the paints while I was there) came home and found a container to stretch the dragonfly design over so I could finish painting it, and started another gumleaf/moth one before I went to bed. Took Boof down to Port so I could go to Spotlight and grab some hoops and maybe some silk (cheaper thru G, so no), spent way too much on fabric pens and various fabrics etc and a few yummy setacolours, came home & finished painting the gumleaf/moth thing and started one based on bro’s wedding dragons.
By sion, on August 24th, 2006%
and yay me, I finished the Arizona quilt. It’s 6am, but I did finish! I even took a photo, but it’s super crappy thanks to dumb flash issues, so I’ll take one when it’s a bit lighter outside. The fleece I’d chosen for the backing was a fraction too small, so I toyed with various ideas – just trim the border back far enough and bind normally, do a facing to cover the gap out of black fleece (given the no-fray properties of polar, I figured I could shape the edges to follow the quilting and it could look quite nifty), bind with wide enough fleece to act as a facing a la previous item. Ended up cut back the fleece to 3.75″ from the last seam, then doubled the excess border and took it over to the back like a hem. Put embroidery thread in the bobbin and sewed it down from the back, corners mitred. You can tell how tired I am by seeing how much difficulty I have figuring out how best to handle a mitre with that many layers …
you’ve no idea how happy I am to just have that top quilted. It’s been drug halfway round the world & back, basted and used and washed and fought over and washed some more and unpicked and folded and, finally, re-basted and quilted something like 5 yrs after it was made.
ugh. going to sleep. stupid o’clock, and mum’s ringing me at nine to make sure I drag my arse out of bed.
By sion, on August 23rd, 2006%
… and the colours are still odd. Oh well.
By sion, on August 23rd, 2006%
I bound the trees piece, didn’t like it, so turned it completely to the back & handstitched it down (ugh). Stabbed myself twice in the thumb, of course, which occasioned great concern from the pook and multiple retellings of the tragic story the next day. Found a stick for it (my dad had been clearing the property up and dragged piles of branches to the house so I didn’t even have to go foraging, isn’t he nice?). Stick found for the challenge piece too, and I even got all my stories written (we print little blurbs for all the quilts at the biennial exhibition) except for the challenge piece. Mum wants me to print the pertinent bits of this blog for that, but I’m not sure anyone cares that much heh – I’d rather just put the bare bones down with a link to the blog, but mum’s all concerned about the people who don’t have the net. Gods forbid anyone miss out on me crapping on about nothing and/or crowing about some minor achievement heh.
 Anyroad. So I don’t have pics of the others on their sticks, but I do have a pic of the piece I started night before last though (couldn’t work on it again until this arvo; pest control was here spraying toxins yesterday so we spent the day & night at mum’s). The original drawing had a tiara-like affair, but I think this one’s going to have flowers or leaves or something instead. I have tried to make her before (sewing from the back, not fused), but I stuffed it up.
I started to lay her out on white and then suddenly rather liked the idea of a coloured background that showed through between the pieces. So I reshaped all the pieces I’d already cut, and cut the rest to suit. I’m kind of hoping I’ll get some kind of weird effect when I quilt, thanks to the gaps being less stiff than the fused shapes, but even if not, I like the gaps. Looks much lighter and less dense with the pale bright apple-green peeping through. The colours are really funky, stupid flash – it’s much more subtle IRL, although the orangeypinks are pretty vibrant. I’ll have to grab a daylight shot tomorrow, because obviously it was too much for my camera’s tiny brain to handle.
I’m really torn between finishing her, or quilting the Arizona mystery quilt that’s been a UFO for ~5 years. For the show, like, I mean obviously I want to finish all of them eventually, but I’ve only got tomorrow to work in so I have to choose. I did want to at least get her assembled, because it’s a good showcase for the fabrics even unfinished. And I am determined to get something else finished for the show.
By sion, on August 20th, 2006%
 somehow the day ended up super-productive, go figure … the trees are quilted, ready for me to figure out what the hell I’m going to do with them. The original idea was that this would be one of a series of seasonal or similar (just atmospheres perhaps – fog, fire, moonlight, etc) panels set into a large hanging. Then I thought this one might be best as a standalone practise piece, and I was going to put a wide border with a giant fuzzy moth or two. Now I dunno … I’m kind of obsessed with the moths since I thought of that though, and the deliciously soft fake suede I bought to make one is sitting over there tempting me. I keep thinking an evening bag shaped like a moth could be terribly cool …
By sion, on August 19th, 2006%
w00tness!
finished. Wow. Ahead of deadline! I’m frankly gobsmacked. I’ll go walkabout looking for a good funky stick when I go to mum’s on Monday, and figure out then where to attach the ties.
I suppose I should put a label on it, hey.
By sion, on August 19th, 2006%
 … meet the Eastern Water Dragon. Under construction (hand-dye, fusible webbing, fabric pens) image linked on the left, and here he is in place on the hanging:
not stitched on yet. He’s got a facing over the back of the quilt, and a little extra padding. There’s a piece of hand-dye reminiscent of timbergrain folded along the top edge; it’s under consideration for the binding on top and left side above the dragon’s head. I originally thought black, but think it’s too stark, and the backing fabric is too … something.
edit: heh … el, formerly not particularly interested in this (other than occasionally telling me it’s “very dood” and I’m “a very tever dirl”) keeps going up to the hanging and stroking the lizard’s back, saying “that’s your dinosaur! I nike your dinosaur, and I nike this bird, and I nike this bird, and … “
By sion, on August 18th, 2006%
from the back, as promised
By sion, on August 18th, 2006%
have gone back to the trees wallhanging while I ponder the spring finish. I just checked, and it looks like I hadn’t mentioned it here before, so I spose I should include a few stages-of-completion pics.
   
Added a few closeup leaves just before sandwiching. I used a half-metre piece of purple-navy hand-dye for the backing, and was rudely reminded of just how much fabric can give across the width. Probably wouldn’t have been as bad had I not doubled up the batting, but I managed to get a couple of teeny pleats while quilting. Eased some others out, but am stuck with a couple. Still, it’s looking okay, even on the back, especially where I’ve got some top thread peeking through to the back like teeny little highlights. Funny that something which ordinarily drives me bats can look groovy in the right circs (I’ll have to get a pic in daylight, the fabric’s too dark to get anything useful with the flash). I’ll include in that “usually annoying things I’m digging” list the warping and misshaping from the heavy threadpainting. Come tomorrow when I’m trying to figure out a finish for it, the main thing I’ll be racking my brain over is preserving the wonkiness in such a way that it’s obviously not just uselessness.
 
By sion, on August 16th, 2006%
  I’m much happier looking at this thing in daylight. Took some pics of both sides, out in the lovely warm sun. Bit large to put inline, so linking them.
By sion, on August 16th, 2006%
I’ve been slowed and periodically stalled for a few days, both because I had other things to work on (dragon pattern to write, more signs to design & print, that sort of thing) and because a) both the pook & I finally succumbed to the godawful lurgy that seems to have poleaxed half the town, and b) as a result of all the above I spent a few days at the folks’ place and experimented with the new Janome 6600P.
Not an unqualified success, I must say. It’s much, much fussier about threads than the 8000, and I just could not get it to freemotion nicely. I think I’ve done more unpicking in the last few days than the whole rest of my life to now (heh I guess that’s really a testament to my tendency to fudge and disguise or even bury in the permanent UFO pile rather than do any shteenkin unpicking). Stupid bloody machines. It does have some lovely features though, and when I got it stitching beautifully on a sample it was very nice. Weird deal with the darning foot: the dooverlacky that sticks out from the foot and rests on the screwshank that holds the needle in is in the wrong spot for the 6600P. Works fine on the 8000, but sits at least 8mm above the screwshank on the 6600 – and it has to rest on it or it won’t be lifted up by the needle movement. I don’t know if they’ve supplied the wrong foot or we’re all idiots or what, but it was bloody annoying having the silly thing slide around on top like a hockeypuck, lifting up fused edges & sliding straight underneath fibres etc. Anyway.
so I was going to face it, at least the edges I planned to shape, but I ended up satinstitching. Kind of like it, but it also kind of disturbs me. Sometimes I’m terribly amused by the hidebound aspects of my nature having a fit of the vapours over breaking the rules. Onyroad I stopped there because I’m not sure how I want to handle the top & nests edge. I may prop it somewhere for a few days and work on the trees or something while I think about it.
In any case, it’s 4.33am, I have a screaming headache from this mongrel of a headcold, and I think the codral has just started to kick in …
By sion, on August 9th, 2006%
computer was playing up when I went to post last night’s efforts. Haven’t done any more today, other stuff on the plate (upside of which is, yay, new desk is where it belongs instead of cluttering up my front porch, and a bunch of depressing junk I really wanted gone off the riverview balcony is also gone).
 Not sure how much you can see, but it’s somewhere between 1/3 & 1/2 quilted. It’s been a battle not sitting down to play with it until it’s done, I tellya what …
By sion, on August 7th, 2006%
 Last night I did a bit more stitching on the girl bowerbird (a little shiny acidic olive on her head & shoulders), did everybody’s feet, finished the girl wren, and did the green tree frog. I decided the bowerbird’s stuff was too attention-grabbing and knocked most of that area back with a bit of photographic-print floral chiffon; the baby’s breath or whatever on it looks rather like dappled sunlight, and the edges of roses make for interesting light & shadow.
This is what it looks like from the back. Messy!
By sion, on August 6th, 2006%
to the left are the three stages of the female bowerbird – from top to bottom: fused shapes with minimal painting, wings and breast painted, stitched to background. Note changed feet to accommodate stick. I may go back over a bit of the threadwork with a fabric pen to darken it; my variegated thread was a bit TOO variegated towards the light end.
Below: male fairy wren, stitching complete, inc grey variegated thread to indicate his cocked wing.
Further below: two of the frogs and the swamp orchid & xmas bell flowers stitched (not particularly happy with the job I did, to be honest; hopefully it’ll look ok after quilting). A little pink added to the morning glories, too.
By sion, on August 5th, 2006%
added an extra cattail whatchamacallit thingy, some detail on the female bowerbird’s wing, and a bunch of blue stuff. Picture me sitting here with vliesofixed fabric and scissors in hand, scratching my head trying to remember what other peculiar things I’ve seen the bowerbirds collect. Milk bottle tops & rings, thread, fabric scraps, ALL of mum’s new blue pegs once, scraps of plastic, straws, bits of blue styrofoam meat-tray, buttons, … if it’s blue, small enough to carry, and you leave it outside, don’t expect it to be there when you come back. Anyway, so there’s thread and scraps and pegs and buttons and a broken toy and a straw and a pencil and half a hairclip and a few other random things decorating my little friend’s porch.
 I also fiddled around taking the critters off, putting pellon under them, and then replacing them and making sure their edges were well-secured w vliesofix. I discovered during this process that vliesofix has some sort of self-destruct process built in, which apparently you hit the umpteenth time you press something: a bunch of my wee fiddly details started slip-slidin away and required a little infusion of fresh stickystuff. I was a bit pissy, I mean for pete’s sake, this was the very last time they’d be pressed before being stitched down firmly! Couldn’t the fusible have kept its shit together just that little bit longer? Stoopid stuff.
SO anyroad, that all taken care of, I started stitching. Morning glory flowers first, then a little stitching to hold the blue threadbundles in place, then the male fairy wren (still got his white and his legs to do), then the bowerbird (beak to do), then the kingfisher (finished).
By sion, on August 3rd, 2006%
tried to post this last night (read 5 am this morning heh) but my computer was being stupid so I went to bed instead.
stitching done on leaves and vines of both lots of milkweedything (marsdenia), both groups of morning glories, and the rearmost (phragmites) reeds. The morning glory at front almost completely obscures both the stitching I’d just done AND all the fussycutting on the lower edge of all that “dried grass” fabric, which made me laugh. I’ve also managed to cover up a bunch of the fussycutting on the edge of the ferns with the other vines, and the foliage I carefully overlapped onto the streambed is obscured by the reeds and orchid. Those mostly obscure the stitching on the water and pondscum-stuff and rocks in the streambed, too. This is why smart people make proper plans and drawings before doing lots of fartarsing around that nobody will ever see …
anyway. So, both wrens are in position, as is the kingfisher, and three of the frogs are in place. I put the xmas bells on and made stems for them, too. The girl wren has some very thin iron-on pellon behind her, which I rather like the effect of – adds a barely perceptible dimensionality, and effectively hides the lumpy vines etc behind her (original reason for using it heh). I think I’ll take the boy wren and the kingfisher off and put a little behind them too. I’ll put the bowerbirds on today, and a rock so the lowest frog isn’t floating in mid-air, and a few other fiddly details. Still trying to figure out how I’m doing my dragonflies, but they’d go on after most of the stitching anyway so it’s all good.
By sion, on August 2nd, 2006%
 somehow it got to be 4.36 am, and I have an appointment for xrays & u.s. of defective elbow & back in 5 hours, so no blather, just pics. Detail of milkweed (or whatever it is) vine and bower: >>
The 3 panels, joined:
By sion, on August 1st, 2006%
… well, suffering, anyway. The art is more of a distraction from feeling bloody miserable than the cause. Between feeling hardcore ill and the pook living up to her alternate “monstergirl” nickname in funky digging implements, I’m amazed I got anything done today. But, I did, yay me. Fiddly shit mostly, like making some viney stalks by mangling cotton batting scraps and painting rouleuax & crochet cotton for same. Got the nest panel pretty much done, and then possibly bollixed it while trying to press it flat.
I’ll have another go at de-wrinklifying my poor wee eggs tomorrow. I couched some neat multihued lumpy bumpy fringey yarn over the discharged nests. I’d taken the eggs off earlier and put them on some thin wadding so I’d get a bit of trapunto effect happening, so I sewed those back on and did a bit of freehand scribbling in various colours around the edges. Looked quite good until I pressed from the back and flattened the batting :(
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