Buttonhole stitch

Todays exercise was Buttonhole stitch, irregular and square. This time I put a piece of hand-dyed fabric over my (I think) linen so that Icould leave gaps without them glaring at you. This way the gaps become part of the work. I don't like this as much as the Herringbone but it's not bad...

Buttonhole - irregular -square - 8cm x 8cm

Take A Stitch...

Sharon from In-a-minute-ago put ot the challenge to textile artists called Take a Stitch Tuesday. The idea is to explore a different embroidery stitch each week. I'm holding off joining the challenge officially but figured that it wouldn't hurt to follow along anyway.

This challenge reminded me of an excerise in the book Stitch Magic by Jan Beaney and Jean Littlejohn which suggests that you choose a stitch and exploure it in various forms - regular/irregular, square/diagonal/round/random, etc. I have always wanted to give this a go...

So here's my challenge. I'm going to take the stitch suggested for the Take a Stitch Tuesday challenge and explore it using Jan and Jeans suggestions. To keep thins random I've put the options into a box and will choose a type (regular/irregular) and an arrangement (square/diagonal/round...) blindly.

The first TAST stitch was Herringbone. Not a stitch that I have used much but that's the challenge. Here was my task:

Herringbone Stitch - Irregular - Square

I had myself stumped for a bit - how to do a square arrangement with irregular stitches?... If the stitches were regular and even that would be easy, so I worked 'squarish' patches of the stitch and created a dense work of overlapping patches that filled my block.

So here it is....

Herringbone Stitch - Irregular - Square(ish) - 27 January 2007 - 8cm x 8cm

Close-up

Other stitches already challeged by TAST are Buttonhole, Detatched Chain and Cretan Stitch. I'll get to them soon.

Just fiddling...

Today I wanted to create, but nothing was inspiring me.

I had a pile of fabrics that I dyed early last year cut up ready for a quilt pattern that I'd bought a while back so I figured that'd be a good place to start.

I made 5 squares and it just wasn't inspiring me. I like the colours, but the way it goes together just isn't me so I decided to give up on that one - it'd never get finished anyway.

Then I figured I'd try some fusing like Melanie ar Fibremania does. Because I'd already cut all the fabric up into pieces I reassembled them onto the vliesafix and fused away. After a bit of playing I came up with a few little pieces but nothing that I'm absolutely wrapped in.

This is probably the favourite. I'm going to try some hand and machine stitching onto it and see where it goes.

This picture doesn't look right here on blogger, so for a better look try my Flickr account.

Back to our regularly scheduled program...

Or something like that. Our holiday is over - it felt like a whirlwind trip but I managed to catch up with the family, bruise myself attempting to surf, play cards until the wee hours of the morning and eat seafood and icecream (not together of course!).

Now it's back to work and time to get create again.

Stay tuned

It's beginning to feel a lot like Christmas!!!

I know, Christmas was two and a half weeks ago but!....

Today I received my present from B. We've both been eagerly awaiting the postie, only to discover today that the parcel had actually arrived way back on January 2!!!!!!!!! Yes the ever reliable (NOT!!!) Australia Post Contractor who is supposed to know on our door and then leave a calling card if we're not home DIDN'T!!! This is the second time in 2 months that this has happened. Apparently Aust Post are "aware of the situation" and "dealing with it". But had we not gone to the post office to check I'd still be waiting.

Anyway, here is my pressie, it's a heart rate monitor and a watch and does lots of other healthy excercise/fitness related stuff. As I've only just opened it I haven't quite worked out all that it does but I'll have time tonight during (and before) our flight!!

Yes today we are flying to Queensland for our holiday - and NO our room was NOT double booked and that was a really, really mean trick to play on me M and G. Perhaps I'll just forget to pack their Chrissy presents... (See you soon!!!)

And lastly here's a pic of the harvest from my garden that B and I enjoyed for lunch today.

Cyberfriend soon to becomes reality!!

I'm going to meet a blog friend!!!

Maureen of Tangled Threads in WA is coming to Melbourne so we're going to meet up for coffee.

I know, when the internet begn and people started chatting and internet dating we were all warned of the dangers of providing personal information and meeting people in real life... but this is different!

Yes Mum, I'll be careful!

Can't wait to meet you Maureen.

Has anyone seen my creativity?....

I seem to have lost it for a bit....

I'm sure I'll find it somewhere....

I'm just not looking for it at the moment.....

Perhaps I'll try the internet, or a holiday!!!


As everyone else is winding down from their holidays and heading back to work, I am gearing up for mine!! B and I had 5 days of being really lazy and doing nothing much at all between Christmas and New Year - and had a wonderful time doing so! Since then we've had week and a bit of work and are heading to Queensland on Thursday for our proper holiday for a week.

What have we got planned I hear you ask? Well here is a brief run-down.

1. See my Mum and Dad who I haven't seen since last Christmas and am desperate to see again (as usual!!)
2. Eat fresh Mud crab from McKenzies on the River. McKenzies is this magnificent seafood shop where you choose your own and they prepare it however you want and then you sit on the deck beside the river and eat to your hearts content (or stomachs).
3. Catch up with Grandma, the boys (my 4 cousins who almost double in size each time I see them - fair enough too given it's been a couple of years), Aunty J & Uncle J and the alpacas (oooh so cute, and there was a newby born just before Christmas), and anyone else in the fandamily who happens to drop by.

AND THAT'S IT!!!!!!

What a busy time we'll have LOL!! Of course there's whispers of shopping, and B has mentioned the possible purchase and subsequent testing of a body board and swims at the beach so I'm sure we'll keep ourselves suitably occupied.