A better day

These are pages from the book that I made for my daughter in Oz. I apologize for the poor photos.I started this book a year ago to remind her of some of the things and places she misses at home, she wanted ducks so one birthday we gave her 2 they turned out to be male and female, and they went at it hammer and tongs, I never had to explain about the birds and the bees to my 3 as they saw it everyday, they had 24 offspring and won lots of pet shows.They ruined the garden, and what do you do with 10 plus ducks when you want to go on holiday?Although we shut them up at night we had trouble with foxes and we often came home to a blood bath which was agonising,we did manage to rescue a couple by charging after the fox throwing things but eventually they got the lot.

Cotswold village and our house

Halftimbered dwelling in
Painswick .

bluebell woods . Apart from a quilt which she wants I have promised not to make her anything else as she unlike her Mother is a mimimalist!

what a waste of a day

Spent a long time stamping previously dyed fabric with manutex thickened fabric paint, it looked great, ironed it to set the dye and the washed it, most of it washed out.ARRGGGG.Why? the paint is usually stable so what difference did the manutex make? should I have used some kind of mordant? if any kind soul is reading this and has any ideas I would love to know. I have now done some writing using procion and manutex, I have added washing soda this time, ironed it and whacked it in the tumble dryer to blast it.I cannot wash it at the moment as my dear husband had to fix a leaking pipe on the washing machine and now the cold water isnt going into the machine,DIY is not his forte, so its the repair man tomorrow.It can only get better, can`t it?

What a waste of a day!

Top 2 syringe with procion dye thickened with manutex,bottom 2 black 1talic pen the best of the lot as long as it doesn`t wash out, so watch this space! The fabric was stamped with the thickened dye,stamping and I do not get on, I can`t keep it in line or tidy and I get blodges everywhere.

This one I used procion dye thickened with Manutex in a syringe with the needle on it worked fairly well and with a bit more practise might be of use.

drawings

The kangaroo and turtle are copies of

aborigine paintings so is this superb fish. The creature below the sea urchins is a sea hare they are beautiful and all different we saw them when we were snorkelling

I have been trying to draw more often just to improve. I can copy quite well but drawing from life is still hard, whilst in Oz I did try to draw or paint everyday, and I enjoyed it.This is eucalyptus fruit /seeds with a turtle and an abstract abalone shell.The other two are copies of aborigine paintings the originals are gorgeous.

Completed hanging

This is the finished wallhanging some of the rectangles are not true and the whole piece has a lopsided effect but I am fond of it as I am reminded of sunny beaches.

These are close ups of some of the rectangles the background is blue, although it looks grey in some of the photos.It brings back happy memories of collecting the shells and of where I embroidered it. I picked up most of the shells off the beach but some I found whilst snorkelling

Off to Oz

What bliss 4 weeks in sunny Oz seeing our lovely daughter,sand sea and fun. Because of the long flight to Oz I always take plenty of sewing so the time goes quickly as it is such a luxury just to sit and sew.I quilted the background of this wallhanging and also patched the rectangles before I went I took threads to embroider with and intended decorating it with shells and bits found on the beach. I get immense pleasure from walking along a beach picking up shells and Western Oz with the Indian ocean has superb shells and corals

I took these 2 bookwraps to Oz to finish

These are the finished book wraps, I buttoned holed 22 rings around the edge of kimono which took ages but more enjoyable to do when you are sat on a beautiful beach in the sun.This one is called chinese book jacket, the other is Monets Garden