MERRY CHRISTMAS

I'd like to take this opportunity to wish everyone a safe and happy Christmas. I hope the New Year is a healthy, happy and safe year for you all.
I intend to make some changes to my life next year. Not big ones but little achievable ones. Hopefully spend more time with my husband, after a dreadful year of recovery from back surgery, my daughters wedding (a good thing), and moving our business to new premise (more stressful than moving house) I'm hoping for a more fun relaxed and joyfull new year.

I've missed some of the small things this past year like spontaneous little things, so I will look forward to a new beginning in 2009.
I'd also like to take a new direction with my studio and textile work but just not sure what at the moment. I will reflect over the holiday break and allow myself the chance for change.

I'm wondering if all this reflection has to do with my age, past experiences, the current economic woes or all of these....?

Anyway a VERY HAPPY CHRISTMAS TO EVERYONE IN BLOGLAND.

Spirit Doll

My little nephew is nearly 2 and this Xmas I decided to make him his first CQ item from his Aunty Larna. His bedroom is themed in Ships and Pirates so the doll is themed on the sea.
I used sea themed charms like shells, star fish, fish etc and found a fabric I had for the head (I think it looks like Neptune) and a great print of a ship at sea. As this was for a little boy I kept the flowery embroidery out of it. This was a challenge as most of my work contains flowers of some sort.
I do hope his mother likes it as it is meant to hang somewhere in his room.
The aim of the spirit doll is to represent love and affection to the owner offering the owner good things from the maker.
The doll also has enclosed in the middle (stuffing) some of departed Grandmothers' hair and the first hair of the baby boy who is the recipient. Our Grandmother Mary was a very special lady and was a huge influence on my creative self. She single handedly enticed me into being creative.
It has been raining today and roads very slipery.

Our son is housesitting for a friend and informs my husband and I this morning that He has had an accident in his car. Luckily he is unhurt but took out a front fence of a house and the car had the hole right side smashed in. I thank my lucky stars he is OK but I hope he learns from this experience he is not infalable. If only we could bestow wisdon on the youth.
Better day tomorrow.

Teaching Weekend

It's so close to Christmas and I haven't finished all the shopping yet. Uhhhh
I've been asked to teach in Victoria next year so I'm teaching my 'Crazy in Cream and Gold" Crazy cushion. A little town outside Melbourne called Cohuna goes into quilt mode for the weekend. I'm so looking forward to it, meeting new ladies and introducing them to CQ.
It should be a lot of fun.
I'm off to help DH cook chicken satay skewers on the BBQ, I also made a potatoe casserole to have with it. I'm getting hungry just talking about it.
Cheers for now.

The wedding photos

Raelene walking down the isle with her father. It was a great day and I did lots of crying. She looked absolutely gorgeous. I'm so proud of her. Will post more photos as I get them.
Didn't DH look stunning in his suit and tie.

This is a photo of the bride and her bridesmaids on our front verandah before leaving for the ceremony.

This is the bride, my daughter Raelene and her dad, my husband Don. The wedding car in the background. This photo was taken in our front driveway before leaving for the wedding venue at Baulkham Hills.

The day has come and gone so quickly. I had to consentrate and absorb all the details of the day. I didn't want to miss any of it.

Surprise in the mail

Pat winter sent me a lovelly surprise in the mail a couple of weeks ago. I have been slack posting the photo due to wedding business in my house. Now that it's over I'm catching up on some posts. I asked pat for some advise on the heat tool she uses to transfer imaged to fabric as I was not having much success. Well Pat sent me some of her images to try and also some of her lovelly ribbons. Thanks Pat I will be using them in something special. Anyway after much trial and error I've discover that I need to find a different photo copier as the ones I've tried so far don't work. So.....Thanks again Pat for your help and kindness.

I'V BEEN TAGGED

My first tag. Sharon has tagged me. Thanks Sharon, her blogspot is http://wildflowerhouse.blogspot.com/ Sharon Chapman was kind enough to explain the procedure of tagging to me so I hope I get it all right. I've enjoyed chatting to Sharon and always enjoy her lovely CQ work and projects.

Well I'm suppose to give 6 obscure facts about me, here goes

1. I love watching The Bold & The Beutiful on TV @ 4.30pm with a cuppa and a biscuit in hand

2. I miss having kids around the house.

3. The older I get the less I like being alone.

4. I don't know what I'd do with myself if I couldn't sew.

5. I have to push myself to get involved in new technology. LOL like Blogging.

6. I'm not at all athletic.

Now for my the 6 blogspots to visit and enjoy.

My first is http://gatherings100.blogspot.com/ by Pat Winter. Pat got me into blogging in the first place and has been a great inspiration. I'm sure we will meet one day. Love her work.

Then there is http://blog.prettyimpressivestuff.com/ by Rissa. A very busy talented lady who is behind the CQ magazine we all love and wait for each issue. A very gifted lady.

http://karrinscrazyworld.blogspot.com/ by Karen is another great site. I enjoy seeing Karens' posts on her work and the beautiful scenery shots she takes.

Another blog is http://cpaphilblog.com/ is a great site for vintage postacards and the history of them too. by Marie Reed.

Karens' http://graphicsfairy.blogspot.com/ is a fabulous site for Victorian clip art and more. A lovelly person to give so much of her collections.

Lilla Levine is a lady who I have admired for some years so it has been great finding her blogspot and viewing her lovelly work. Lilla is at http://justlilla.blogspot.com/.

Hope you enjoy looking at the blogs. You need a mug of coffee/tea not just a cup.

CQ Wedding Cushion

The wedding cushion is finished. I'm very happy with how it turned out. My daughter went thru my stash and picked the fabrics and threads to match the colour theme of her dress and wedding decor. The purple was very strong so I had to use it sparingly otherwise it took over the 'wedding look' of the cushion.

I incorporated some of my dear grandmothers fabric of one of her old dress shirts, ans Eifel Tower charm, (that's where the couple were engaged), a messenger dove charm, MOP love heart charm.

On one corner I put their initials over a satin heart corner treatment. It came up well I thought. Two rings entwining to represent the wedding rings.

I also put a love poem and the marriage date on the back of the cushion. I did this on my bubble jet printer. It turned out really well.

Soo.... breath, sigh,breath......the last of the last minute wedding jobs are being done. Need to have dress rehearsal tonight. Check table decorations, placement of tables etc.

I hope we haven't forgotten anything.......I keep drifting off into thinking and panic land in my head. I think I need a massage, when will I fit that in ?

Next post will be of the wedding itself. Wish me luck, I hope I can hold it together.

My CQ purse for wedding

Well I've finished my bag for my daughters wedding. I can't beleive she gets married next Friday. The months of planning have flown by.

I'm wearing a black chinese pant suit with a burnt cream velvet tassled coat with maroon,green and beaded flowers. I will post photos of this and others after the wedding.

I wanted to make myself something special to commemorate the big day, just for me. Selfish, no...I'm the mum and she's my baby girl. So something special for me was the order of the day.

The bag was constructed with a picture from Pat Winter and I dyed it to blend with the greens in bag. Then I needle felted the fabrics with wool around the picture. After the felted base piece was finished I embroidered and beaded to suit. Antique beads, crystal button, antique dyed lace motif were added. I attached the handle with beads and added bead edging all around finishing with bead fringing with crystals. Black felted hearts were added to symbolise the day of love (wedding).

Don't worry I have made the wedding cushion too, just lovelly. Not too bright in colour to overshadow the bride, just enough for interest. I also beaded her veil at the top, just enough, she doesn't like things to be over the top. Pictures for cushion in next post.

We had a dress rehearsal yesterday and she looks lovelly too. I've been waking up at night hoping we haven't forgotten anything. You know details like flowers etc. I'm sure all will be right on the day.

We had to go and get my DH fitted for his suit today and he brushes up very nicely. I love suits on men they look so gorgeous...

A black suit and vest. White shirt with maroon tie and kerchief to match me. Lovelly.

Mobile Pouch

I decided to make a pouch for my mobile phone. It's on a long cord so it hangs around my neck. The great thing about it is my phone is in easy reach and lots of people ask about the pouch itself as well.

Any opportunity to advertise the versatility of CQ is a good one.

I used vintage lace and metallic threads. The fabrics were mostly green silk, organza and gold. I painted the lace to match the colour of the fabrics too. I then added a cute tassel trim to the bottom.

Halloween decorating

Halloween brings back memories of Maine in the USA in 1996 when I visited. I'll never forget we visited a pancake place where they made Maple Syrup and the pumpkins were everywhere as decoration for Halloween. I fell in love with them then and I still love them now. Australia doesn't tend to do much celebration for this special day but I get great pleasure from the contrast in colours of black and orange. I wonder what they represent ?

I was shopping at Aldi the other day and found these gorgeous pumpkin lights so I hung them in my family room. Their little faces cheered me up straight away.

Hens day out

Wow, what a busy weekend. My daughter gets married in a couple of weeks so we had her Hens party at the races yesterday. Yes the gi-gi's, horses, races that is. We had our own private booth. Eight ladies in all.
We all dressed up with hats and fasinators and lots of pretty dresses. The booth was overlooking the finish line, four stories up. The food was great and plenty of wine and bubbles all around. We even had a bet or two on some of the races. I actually won a few and came home with extra money.
Raelene, my daughter, was given plenty of challenges over the course of the afternoon like pinch a guys bottom, chat up a stranger, even a few police men, things like that. She had a great time.
My mum was here for the event as she lives up on the Gold Coast of Queensland, my girlfriend Sylvana and Raelene's close girlfriends too.
We hired a taxi bus to bring us home so that we could all have fun and a few wines.
We had such a great day, so much fun. Only a few weeks to the wedding. Wow the time has flown by.

Crazy pillow pattern kit

Another first for me. This time making up one of my teaching projects into a pattern kit which is for sale thru my studio/shop. It was an exercise putting it all together but I'm happy with the results. I have a bus load of ladies from Epping to see my studio/shop on Thursday so I thought it as good a time as any to get a pattern put together.

I did enjoy the process and look forward to putting more of my work into pattern/kit form.

First time dying

Well I finally did my first dying job. I used a paint brush for all of the items and I salt dyed the multi coloured thin ribbon. I am quite pleased with how it turned out and look forward to more play time with the paint. It is a great way to colour your lace and ribbon in matching colour hues. The paints I'm using are more like a dye called Setacolour paints. I'ts a lot quicker than I thought it would be too.

My Birthday picnic

Yesterday, 11 October, my family took me to the Blue Mountains for a picnic.

The Leura garden fair was on so we stopped by a took a look at the stalls and had a great time. The main street is blocked off for the fair so you can wonder tru and enjoy the stalls. We also visited an open garden called "Everglades" a magnificent garden designed by Paul Sorrenson back in the Art Deco period. The property is now owned by the National Trust so is in good hands for us all to enjoy. I have included some photos of our day in the garden which include the Tulips in flower, Azaleas and Lilacs, a view of the Grose Valley from the back of the garden which takes your breath away. And a few others for your pleasure.

We then stopped and had a picnic lunch on the way home at a park at Wentworth Falls. A place I used to take the kids on school holidays, which doesn't seem that long ago. How time flys.

Moo card pouch

I've just finished my Moo business card pouch. Love these little business cards, they don't take up too much room in your handbag. Soooo cute.

I had some leftover small bits from previous project so decided they needed to be used.

Making something so small is a challenge, as the items need to be smaller than usual too.

I made it like a little envelope & put a small piece of plastic inside the lining to make it a bit rigid for the cards. I did a beaded edging all round and made a small loop for the bead to act as a closure.

More work by Larna

I'm adding another picture of my work. This piece was done for our Art Trail open studio weekend a couple of weeks ago. It was very successful with about 45 people visiting from far afield over the weekend thru my studio.

I always look forward to introducting textiles as an art form to the public. The reactions are always positive.

The piece in the photo is called 'Leaves' a study of. It is a mounted, not quilted, crazy piece so is more of a textile art piece I guess. I love a challenge and I set myself one with this.

I will be doing more of this type of work in the future.

Spring in the air

I thought I'd post a photo or two of my garden. It is the start of Spring here and the garden is waking up. The wisteria is comming out in bloom and the birds are in abundance. Singing and making their presence felt.

My husband and I have been out in the garden today planting a few minature Japanese box hedges to define some of our gardent borders. The fountain was added last year for our daughters' engagement party in the garden. This is definately my favourite time of year.

The last photo is the garden outside my studio with a flagstone edging and mini mondo in between.

Enjoy, Larna

Sample of my work

I just thought I'd put a photo in of a project I'm teaching at my studio. This evening bag has a drawstring top and black velvet trimming. It was fun to make and I'm sure fun to teach. I love the Victorian style and shape of the bag.

Starting up

I have just started up my blog page. This is a real learing curve....How long does it usually take to get the hang of this ? Any feedback would be appreciated.
Thanks, Larna