Haven't gotten off to a good start

I haven't gotten off to a good start, have I? Life has been turned upside down at the moment. January has seen so many changes.
First I started a new class with Karen Ruane. Called Alchemy. This has been great & taking up a lot of what little spare time I have these days.
Then I was told a few weeks ago, that we have to move out of our house as the owner wants to sell it vacant possesion. So time is being consumed with packing & looking for a new home. No joy so far.
Then we where told over on the Embroiderers Guild site that they will no longer be housing the forum, where I personally have made lots of dear friends. We now have a new home independant of the Guild called Embroidery friends. You can drop me an email if you would like to join us.

Well enough of the doom & gloom. Here are a few photos of what I have been up to since my last posting.

This is where I am up to with my Embroider, Embellish & Create quilt. When I have finished all of the blocks, it should measure 60 inches square.

This is a snippet from my Alchemy class ledger. I have chosen the subject Nature & tea pots. I hear you saying, "Nature & Tea pots"! Yes. I am going to be making a series of fabric & felted 3D tea pots & am then going to add stumpwork elements of nature to the surface of the tea pots.

My first tea pot is felted knitting based, & will have 3D elements of nature on it.

When we where first given the breif for this class. We where asked to choose a subject that was close to us. I first chose nature. But them my dear friend Isabell, brought to my attention my love of tea pots. So I got to thinking, why not merge the two, & creat a series of fabric based tea pots with my other passion stumpwork of natural elements.

They will be my version of myjolica tea pots☺☺I have gathered inspiration from many people, as well as my extensive collection of nature photos that I have taken myself. A few of the other artists out there that study nature. That have inspired me are: Jane Hall, Julie Crabtree & Gilda Baron. Their work is amazing & so inspirational.

I am hoping as I always say. To keep a record of my work through out the Alchemy class, here on my blog. So keep watching & see what comes up.

Warm Hugs
Your Friend
Elizabeth xxx

HAPPY NEW YEAR

Sorry it has been so long between posts. I hope that in 2013, I can devote more time to keeping my blog up to date.

I hope that everyone had a safe & Merry Christmas, & an even safer & Happy New Year. I pray that 2013 is the year for us all to shine & achieve all our goals & dreams.

This year I will be teaching online classes in stumpwork embroidery. So watch this space. I was lucky to be given a camcorder for Christmas this year from my DH & My son bought me a tripod for the camcorder to stand on. So I thought, why not use it to teach. This way I can reach more people around the world.

There is a bit for me to learn before I start the online classes, so hope to be ready for my first on line class around May.

Over the past few months I have been doing an online class with Karen Ruane as most of you know. I am making a highly embellished quilt/throw for my bed. It is a slow journey. But one I am enjoying greatly. Here is a photos of what I have done so far.

I am currently working on two more panels for this quilt. I think for it to be big enough for my queen sized bed I may have to make 20 panels in total. I am making the quilt out of old napkins, vintage fabrics & laces & anything in my stash that is white or cream. I have also added embroideries done for me by my mum & dear friend Isabell.

Well, on that note. I will close as I am off to pick my daughter up from the air port. She has been in Cairns this past week. Then home to do some more on my quilt blocks.

Take Care all my blog friends.
Warm Hugs
Your Friend
Elizabeth xxx

New photos

Over on my flickr, I have uploaded 35 new photos of laces, fabrics & bits & bobs, that I will be using in an upcoming class with Karen Ruane. The next & final class with Karen for now. Will be starting on the 2nd of November, & is called Embroider, embellish & create. I could not wait to share my fabrics & laces, so have put them on my flickr.

Hope that is ok Karen?

I will add more to my blog soon. I have just been so busy doing the Extended embellishments class with Karen, & have not had much time to post on here. Sorry everyone. I will try to be a bit better at adding things to my blog.

Warm Hugs to you all
Your Friend
Elizabeth xxx

Busy making samples for the Extended Embellishments class

 There are lots of photos today. This first one is Free Machine Embroidery (FME) done on to some cotton bangage fabric. As I did not have the scrim needed at the time. The pattern is Vermicelli.

 This next sample is done on the same piece of cotton bandage but this time in a circular motion of FME

 Again same fabric, this time in a flower pattern

 This is the samples out of the hoop, to show the floatiness of the fabric.

 These samples are done on some actual scrim. I forgot that I had this piece when I started doing my samples.

 We then moved onto grids on scrim. I have again used the cotton bandage fabric. The kind you get in the first aid kits for arm slings. I still have more work to do on this piece so keep watching :-)

 This sample we added snippets of another fabric to the scrim before doing the FME on it. I really like this piece of work, & as you will see further down on this post. I have worked on it some more & am even more happy with the results.

 We then moved onto doing FME onto silk paper ( Unryushi paper) This was quite an interesting technique. I quite liked making the holes into the paper then adding the FME around the hole & lacing over the top. Close up below.

 I then moved on to do the grid onto the silk paper, & also doing more holes. You will see further down that I have worked more on this piece as well & am happy with the finished results.

 Here is the scrim with the fabric snippets finished. I have cut it out & then needle laced around the edges of the piece to stop it falling to pieces. It is a very fragile piece of work. I have also done some needle laced circles around some of the FME circles to add some extra depth to the piece. I have shown it twice as it is on two different backgrounds, & looks different on each one. I can see me making a lot more of these sorts of pieces :-)

 Here is the grided paper worked more & finished. I am quite happy with this piece as well. I have needle laced around the edges & also done rows of needle lace on two of the rows. I have then added some web stitches & some needle woven bars. I have also done some webbing in one of the cut holes, see below.

Well, I think that  is it for todays posts, I think I have shown all that I have for now. I will post again soon, with some more samples. More scrim & holes & also mirrors. So keep tuning in for more samples.
Warm Hugs
Your Friend
Elizabeth xxx

Extended Embellishments With Karen Ruane

 These two photos show my mood board for the extended Embellishments workshop with Karen.

I am basing my designs for this class, on lace, nature, Art Neuvoe & illuminated lettering. All seem to have a common link, in there shapes & designs.

Plus I will be carring forward some of the work that I did in Karen's other class, The Embroiderer's Ledger. A fantastic class & one I highly recomend to anyone who not only loves embroidery & art, but books as well.
Warm Hugs
Elizabeth xxx

Embroiderer's ledger classes have finished. Or have they

 This is the last thing I made for the embroiderer's ledger class. But it will not be the last thing I ever make for this book. The surrounding photos where taken when I went to the Hand & Lock confrence when it was in Sydney a few years ago. It was held at the Power House museum, in conjunction with the Dianna exhibition. The photo's are from works by the Hand & Lock team, & have been a great source of inspiration for me for some time now.

This is a close up of the work that I have done on this piece. All of the fabrics where kindly given to me by my dear friend Isabell. They are from a sample pack of silk fabrics from the Silk Rout. The perls in the second row are from another good friend Arlene. The large pearl cluster at the bottom is one I picked up at a vintage craft fair just recently. For a tiny sum of $2. This would have to be one of my most favourite piece of work that I have ever done, & I can see great potential to expend on this piece.

I have really enjoyed doing the Embroiderer's ledger class with Karen Ruane. I highly recomend it to everyone. Karen is a great teacher & also very generous with her knowledge & ideas. If you would like to take one of Karens classes or just want to see what she does. Visit http://karenannruane.typepad.com/karen_ruane/ You wont be disappointed.

Warm Hugs
Your Friend
Elizabeth xxx

More Photo's from my Embroiderer's Ledger

 I have shown this page before. I just wanted to show that I have added my FME practice piece to represent lace. This is done on tissue paper. Then on top of that I have added some lace motifs of a flower & two dragonflies.

On the page beside it I have FME some dragonflies onto tussue the cut them out & added them to the page.

I have done this to show continuity of workings from my original dragonfly design.

 This is the back of the previous page. I have added anothe photo of the original piece that I used for this project.

I have then taken elements from this piece & done some sketches for later projects.

 This is a close up of the sketches, from the above photo

 These next two photos are just a few more of the sketches that I have done from the main design.

The photo below shows how I have taken the sketch above further. I have worked it more in colour & stitch. The scroll & three of the petals on the flower are cut out to reveal the original design behind. I have then stitch around the scroll in gold thread & added a few extra scrolls. I have also added some web stitches to the page as well.

The edge of the page is a tissue paper lace that I made with FME. I have done it onto the edges of the page as well. I have then added a cut out dragonfly that has had the cenral wing cut so that it sits of the page, & I have added some clear dimensions paint to make it shinny.

 The photo below is another page that I have all ready shown. But have also added to. Well, taken away in this case. Behind this page is some fabric that I made by FME onto silk organza. I love the fabric & felt it was not being shown to its potential, being hidden by the top page. So I have cut out another wing on the page to act as a window to the page beyond.

 This is my emulsion painted page. I have stamped a lace design onto the emulsion using Stampin up felt pens onto a chantilly lace stamp that I have. The results where not quite as clear as I would have liked. The section at the bottom is more emulsion. But this time I have used water colour paints to draw my lace design. The emulsion had sections of resist in it, which has resulted in the paint beading. But patience has let the paint dry & it looks destressed.

 This picture below shows what the stamp looks like when stamped onto cartridge paper.

 This emulsion painting has the design stamped onto it using acrylic paints & an Indian wood block. I much prefer this one to the one before.

 In this photo I have grouped together all of my tissue paper & FME samples. I could not decide where I wanted to put them. So I added them all together as a group of samples.

This photo is of the page in which we added embroidered inserts to the page. Along with emulsion paints & embroidery direct onto the page. I am very pleased with this page.

I have been having so much fun doing this workshop with Karen Ruane. I am sad that it has ended. But at least I still have access to her if I need it in the future & I can still get inspiration from the groups flickr page. Plus I will be taking Karen's next workshop. Extended embellishments. So I will add what I learn in that class into this book as well. Plus there are still a few things that I need to do from this class. So you have not seen the last of my work yet :-) Until next time.

Warm Hugs
Your Friend
Elizabeth xxx