Another Project Finished!

Early last week the Christmas boxes got unpacked and the Christmas tree was lovingly decorated by our four children while listening to Christmas music. I went around and decorated the house which is now looking quite festive and it's great to see the children enjoying it all.

During the unpacking of Christmas decorations I discovered I few things that I must have bought just after Christmas on sale... and one lot of them was a bit disturbing! It was a bag full of mini Christmas stockings!

I have a 'thing' for advent calendars... it must be my love of little pockets, boxes, containers, etc (that I referred to in my last post), and I had been wanting to make an advent calendar with Christmas stockings hung on a string, and I now remember seeing these little Christmas stockings so cheap that I decided to purchase them (instead of making them!). The disturbing feeling came when I pulled them out of the bag and remembered that I hadn't dealt with them - ie. make them into advent calendar!

I had nine which had been pre-decorated (machine appliqued and embroidered) when I bought them and 16 undecorated ones. So I wouldn't get that disturbing feeling next year, I decided that:
1. They wouldn't go back in the Christmas box until they were dealt with.
2. They would go in the mending/fixing/making pile until then.
3. That I didn't want them in my mending/fixing/making pile for long.
4. That I didn't want to add them to my UFO or To Do list!

In the meantime, my task was to clean up my craft room and associated mess (spread around a few rooms) which I was steadily plodding away on. By the end of the week I achieved enough (a huge lot actually) that I started to feel like doing some more craft, but the mending pile was begging at me to get smaller. So I tackled half the pile and the items are now back in action... what a great feeling!

The Christmas stockings started staring at me too much, so I felt it was time to get them out of the making pile - after all, it couldn't be too hard to make them into the desired advent calendar! I was initially going to stitch numbers on, and decorate them somehow, but I decided that was going to prove difficult with them already made into stockings. After a little fiddling around, here is what I came up with:

With the use of some pre-cut gold paper stars, some vieslofix, some pre-cut sticky felt stars, some fabric paint and some pretty pre-decorated pegs, I transformed the plain stockings into what became an easy advent calendar! I hung it up today, stuffed them with treats (one for them and one to give to someone else) and started using it with the children, better late than never I say!

Last post I mentioned that I finished my low relief sculpture, which I gave you a sneak peek at here. The requirement was (for TAFE) that we had to make a low relief sculpture from corrugated cardboard, the theme being "Your Family". I found it extremely difficult to come up with a concept/design, and found it extremely difficult to work with the cardboard - it is terribly hard to work with and has some real limitations, however I eventually fiddled around and used the medium to my advantage and came up with this:

It is representative of our four children, and I'm happy with my first attempt at low relief sculpture!

Just to tease you a bit more with my junk sculpture here is another progress peek!

"Heirloom"

November saw me working on my TAFE sculptures, which were to be finished for assessment late November. Not much else was achieved in that time! The good news is that I passed assessment with no dramas... that's always good! I gave you a sneak peek of one of my sculptures here and mentioned about my 'craft heritage' in this post - merge the two together and what do you get? A textile sculpture called Heirloom...

Plaster, wood, cotton, silk, wool, synthetic fibres, feathers, buttons, copper, paper, beads.

I am really happy with the result, which is full of colour, interest and texture and is currently being exhibited with other cast arms at Toowoomba TAFE. The idea behind the sculpture is that I have textiles in the veins (or blood) and this (skills, knowledge and talent) has been passed down from my grandmother to my mother and then to me. It is a treasure (signified by the cupped hand) which can't be contained (a passion and desire for textiles that is uncontainable and has to be expressed) and is abundant (abundant skills, abundant fibres, abundant heritage). There are a number of 'containers' (which refers to my love of containers, boxes, nooks and crannies!) - horn of plenty/cornucopia idea, with 'stuff' (including 'milk and honey', ie. bee and silk) spilling out which reinforces the idea of 'uncontainable' and 'abundant'.
The little doll in the hand is something I knitted when I was a girl (Mum might remember how old I was!) - the significance being that the skills I learnt as a girl were and are a treasure, and the little girl has grown up (signified by the fact that the doll is small in an adult size hand). On the little girl's hand is an origami crane made with paper and silk fabric - origami is a skill I learnt many years ago; represents a connection I have with Japan; symbolises the origami silk/paper journey I'm ready to embark on; and gives a sense of freedom for the future as the crane looks like it is ready to fly off.
The large brown piece of textiles is a 'granny' square I crocheted when I was in primary school. It is representative of one of the treasured skills learnt as a child which is now being taken over by other textile pursuits, but is still one of the foundations of my creativity. The green cotton reels and buttons (if you can see them) were my Grandmother's, and the crocheted doily around the bottom, even though it was not my Grandma's (I couldn't bear to cut up one of her treasures!) is symbolic of her as she was a brilliant crocheter (you can see some of her work here).
I have included other objects and techniques learnt over the years (bobbin lace, stumpwork, embroidery, knitting, crochet and weaving) and also from this year (basket and furry wool thing, copper french knitting which is sitting on my old wooden french knitting spool from when I was a young girl). These things signify skills learnt from my Mother (for example - embroidery, knitting, crochet) and also others learnt independently or from others. I have also included different un-worked fibres - wool, silk, synthetic yarns and Angelina fibres which show some of what I want to work with in the future, or am yet to explore. There is even more meaning and significance in the whole piece than I have explained, but I hope that this gives you some insight into the artwork.

I have also completed my low relief sculpture and temporarily finished my junk sculpture (which is also being exhibited at TAFE this week) but I've decided to keep you in suspense and tell you more about those next time. One of them has something to do with the photo below and has kept me very busy over the past few weeks! I wonder if you can guess what they are?

While madly working on my TAFE sculptures, something else was happening behind the scenes. My friend Valda was coming up with a craft for the end of year church craft group activity, which was delivered to the group a week ago. She brought her silk colours along, and we all got to play with them as well as some shaving foam, silk, paint and embellishments. With a purchased organza bag, we coloured the ribbon, and then coloured and cut out our silk Christmas tree. As I help run the craft group, all I managed on the day was to colour, so on Monday evening (the OPAM deadline for November!) I decided it was time to do the rest. With a bit of fiddling around and with the addition of Angelina fibre (the shiny background) I came up with the following:

I love it! So in the nick of time I got my two finishes done for the One Project a Month Challenge - the textile sculpture and the bag!

Believe it or not, I have already got a head start on December's projects, with another organza Christmas bag made and completed yesterday at the Tuesday night craft group at my place.

Valda and I organised a surprise for the ladies that come along - we gave each of them their own Christmas bag to do as well as one to make as a gift for one of the mum's at Fresh Hope. I handed over my Fresh Hope one to Cassie as she was in her element decorating the trees with glitter paint and was doing such a great job! I think we all had fun doing something different to what we normally do!

Last post I mentioned some other things I was going to show or tell you, but I think this post is long enough already... there's always next time!

Feet and a Name Tag

Try as I might, I did not achieve my goal of completing two projects in October for the One Project a Month Challenge. I was a little disappointed, but I always say that something done is better than nothing! One thing that I did do, was almost complete a woven bag that I started earlier in the year and had made little progress on until the beginning of October. There's always November! I did complete one thing in October though... my needle felted name tag!

I actually ended up remaking the one that I had started as I wasn't quite happy with how it was turning out, and I am glad I did as now I am pleased with the result! So it will be all ready for next year's craft retreat and anything else I might need it for!

I couldn't resist hanging some dingle dangles I made (except for the keyboard key) off my name tag for something a little different... but it's up to you to guess their significance! Each one has more than one point of interest... all giving a little insight into what makes up me and a talking point when people see my name tag! I'd love to hear what your guesses are and I'll consider posting the correct answers at the end of the month if I can hold out that long!

I have been frequenting my local Spotlight store during the past couple of weeks as they are about to move premises and so have been having lots of great specials. I have come home with many goodies including interesting yarn, machine embroidery thread, felt, and other bits and pieces! The highlight of my shopping expeditions would have to be the feet I brought home! Sewing machine feet that is! I have been planning on buying a new sewing machine but am not ready to at this stage. The machine that has all the features I would like is $7000 I think! I'm hoping that if I hold out long enough that some of the cheaper machines will take on some of the features that I deem necessary in a sewing machine! When I stumbled across the sale on feet and discovered that they were only $1 each or $10 for a box of 'special ones' I couldn't resist and decided that it would make my sewing machine 'do' for a bit longer yet (sorry Mum!). (Now all it needs is a service!). I brought home a bundle (open toe embroidery, darning foot, walking foot, flower circle foot, and more) and even picked up an attachment so that I can now use clip on feet (which were also only $1)! Now I am ready to do some more experiementing on my machine!

Yesterday, I went to a few of the op shops and happened upon another 'gold mine' - one of the shops had fill a bag with manchester for a $1! The thing that caught my eye in the first place was some old doilies on top, so I ended up scrounging the manchester bin for all the old (mostly stained or holey) pretty doilies and mostly unused afternoon tea cloth serviettes. I definitely got my dollar's worth as I came home with a bulging bag full (more than a hundred items in the bag!), and after being through the wash they are now happily hanging on the line.

As they are mostly hand embroidered or crocheted, it makes me wonder who made them and what their history is, and what the stain or hole is from, but of course I will never know - I can only imagine! As I was washing them, I was imagining some once getting washed in a boiler with a prodding/poking stick to swish them around! My plan is to mostly use them in some textile projects, which may require cutting or dyeing as well as more stitching and embellishing. It will be interesting to see what ends up happening with some of them! I'll show you a couple of my favourites in the next post.

November will see me working on all my unfinished sculpture projects for TAFE - four now! Hopefully I'll have plenty of photos to show you of my completed work!

A Little Distracted

Yes, I have been very distracted over the past month or two with the Creative Craft Retreat and all that involves. It is such a very big job to organise it all, but worth it to see all the ladies at the end of the retreat with big happy smiles and some great crafting results! As a result, I haven't achieved much in my own craft world, and didn't even manage to get my name tag finished in time for the retreat... I was minus an 'e' on my name tag the first night! It still isn't 100% finished although it at least has my whole name on it now!

As well as the retreat to organise, this term I started teaching some ladies how to make an origami ball (see this post for a photo of the ball) at the craft group I attend once a fortnight. The first week I handed them their kit which included the paper, some cord to make a tassel and some instructions on how to make the ball, however I think they were a bit shocked when they found the instructions were written in Japanese! No, I can't read Japanese either, but I know enough about origami and how to make these balls, that I can 'interpret' the instructions and help my students learn what to do! Some of them are finding that folding the paper is surprisingly fun and therapeutic, which is exactly the reason I love doing origami!

On Monday, straight after Craft Retreat it was our now nine year old's birthday and he decided he wanted a bee hive cake... not quite sure why, but it appealed to him, and of course I had to make the cake on Monday! I was pretty pleased with his choice... an easy cake (great in the limited time I had) and I love bees and bee skeps, so it also appealed to me! (Maybe he has similar to tastes to his mother??!)

Of course it had to have nine bees... for a nine year old! Amazingly, I have now made 25 cakes for the children, all of which can be seen here. With four children and possibly 18 cakes each by the time they are 18 that makes a total of 72 cakes to make... I can't believe I'm already a third of the way through! Time goes too quick!

Speaking of cakes, I entered a competition that Natalie Ross held on her blog last week and she was talking about birthday and parties, so I left a comment about my cakes and theme parties... and what do you know... I won her very cute "Wishful Thinking" pattern! How exciting! And she wrote a wonderful comment about my cakes also... Thanks so much Natalie, you made my day!

I must be on another winning streak as I also recently won a little something from Di at Quilting is Blissful which came in the mail the other day!

I also recently received a present from her for participating in her Christmas Challenge in August, so I'm feeling a little spoilt!

I'm amazed that she sent me a quick unpick (seam ripper) as I was actually in need of another, one of my other ones is a bit worse for wear, and I like to have one in my take anywhere stitching folder, and the other in my sewing cupboard. Thanks so much Di!

Mum (Val Laird) came to teach at Craft Retreat last weekend so she came bearing gifts for the nine year old, one of which was this:

He had put is order in for another of Grandma's 'Cupboards' and so we now have quite a collection adorning the wall.

Mum is so very talented and my aim is to fill up this wall with her beautiful handiwork! The children love pulling bits off, playing with them in their pretend play games, and putting them back on when they are finished, and they make such a pretty decoration when they're not being played with. If you are really keen to have one in your home, you can buy a pattern from Mum's shop and make your own!

Yesterday I tripped down to Brisbane to go to the Craft and Quilt Fair with a friend, and the time spent there was no where near long enough! We well and truly ran out of time this time, however we still managed to bring home lots of goodies and were very much inspired! I mainly came home with some supplies for the cupboard - some silk caps and threads, some special interfacing products and some lutrador along with some other bits and pieces... mainly to experiment with!

Experiments in Crochet

September has been very busy with lots of preparation and organising for the Creative Craft Retreat as well as going on a couple of trips south to places of my past. I was hoping (wishful thinking!) that I would get more done on my nativity scene (see last post) but the sewing machine and dolls are still where they were a month ago! I have progressed a little on Gail Pan's Christmas Wish BOM by finishing block number 4:

I have also been working a little on my TAFE sculpture projects which takes me to some experiments in crochet. This hand (from my last post) is yet to be finished and will incorporate some textile work (see Blankets and Baubles to get a hint of what I might be doing!) so some experimenting was required! With some scraps from my mother-in-law's wool bag and a couple of her patterns, (both of which I grabbed on the way on my current trip as I didn't think to take my own!) and my crochet hook (which I did think of taking!) I started fiddling. As I was doing so, I was lamenting the fact that I would not even get one project finished in September for the One Project a Month Challenge, as the name tag I was hoping to get finished in time, that I started to make myself a week ago for the Creative Craft Retreat is not finished and the supplies not very transportable at short notice. Then I had a 'light bulb' moment! There was no reason why I couldn't transform a crochet experiment into something finishable... and by the end of September! I even had time to do something with two experiments, to fulfill my goal of completing two things for each month... and this was the result:

Now, I'm not quite sure what use they might have as they are 5-6 cm tall and the same in diameter. The best I (and my children) could come up with at this stage was a pouch for buttons, threads, coins, a Tamagotchi, game pieces or 'treasures'. Have you got any suggestions??

September also saw me win Rosalie Quinlan's Leon the Lion pattern! So cute! The kids thought so too, so I guess I'll have to make him one day sooner than later! Thanks Rosalie!

I'm hoping that October (Craft Retreat) will see me completing a few of my unfinished projects... probably not the ones on the UFO list, but the ones that I started this year as part of my TAFE course! I really don't want to have more things on the UFO list at the end of the year!

Half a Christmas Challenge!

The past few weeks have flown past just like the rest of the year and here I am, nearly a week after a started writing this post, still trying to finish it!

I run a craft retreat each year in association with the church I attend, and realised that I needed to finalise all the retreat brochures and registration forms before the craft weekend was upon me! So it was head down for a week to get the job done!

The next thing to do was provide Mum with some jobs to do while she was visiting... this time it was not a big mending pile as I have mostly stayed on top of it. She decided to mend fairy wings for our four year old's fairy birthday party instead, and provided our five year old with a fairy outfit of her own. You'll have to visit her blog to see the photos!

We've had school photos, excursions and dress-ups for book week at school also, as well as a four year old's birthday and party on the weekend just to top it off! This, of course, involved making a fairy cake (my original design), a pity I can't use it for my low relief sculpture homework for TAFE! However, the chance to do something creative and the joy I see on my children's faces makes it all worth it!

You can have a look at all my other cakes here.

I had two craft challenges to attend to in August - the regular One Project A Month Challenge (OPAM) I'm a part of, as well as Di's Christmas in August Challenge that I mentioned in my last post. As you know (from my last post), I was aiming to make three Christmas items which included decorating these Christmas 'baubles'. Yes I did get all twelve of them finished (in August!) and there are a few of you who are very keen to see what I did with them... so here they are:

They took longer than I expected as they were a little on the challenging side regarding shape and colour, and I restricted myself to only using what I had in the cupboard (I have a great stash!). I toned down the bold contrast of red and white by painting on red dye to cover the white, which made them much more workable. With the addition of lots of different bits and pieces and some hot glue, I managed to transform them into lovely, useful Christmas decorations.

My second project for the Christmas challenge was to make a nativity scene designed by a local designer Deb Pacholke. I've had the instructions and some of the bits to make it for about two years now, and decided that this year I would like to see it complete for Christmas. I was hoping to use fabric from my stash, and after colouring a few pieces of fabric and making one cloak for Joseph, I ended up purchasing all new fabric and had to make another cloak! As a result, I have a half finished nativity scene - here is the work so far:

They are still hairless and faceless, however Mary's body (not pictured) is already assembled, ready to be dressed. So I only managed half of Di's Christmas Challenge, but I figure that getting half done is far better than getting nothing done at all!

Considering I did not complete the nativity scene which I was working on, on the 31st August, and that my aim for the OPAM challenge is to complete two projects every month, I realised on the last evening of August that I needed to quickly finish another project! I decided that the other daughter's scarf that I'd been working on for a month should be able to be finished that night, so the knitting needles came back out and in a short amount of time it was time to end it off and fringe it... all done by the end of August!

I'm still working on a number of projects that I started at TAFE this year, maybe I'll show you some sneak peeks of them next time! On second thoughts, maybe I'll show you a couple of peeks now!

Blankets and Baubles!

I'm still recovering from my topsy-turvy week but I thought it was time to tell you what I'm getting up to in August. Di from Quilting is Blissful is having a Christmas in August challenge... the challenge is to make three Christmas items in August so that you're ready for when Christmas comes speeding towards you! Considering that I already had two projects in mind that I wanted done ready in time for Christmas, it was just a matter of finding a third one (an easy job as I have so many patterns and things!) and saying 'yes' to the challenge! My first project is to transform these Christmas 'baubles' or decorations, as I like to call them. I have about ten of them that I bought very cheaply from the craft group I attend.

Someone had obviously spent a fair bit of time stitching fabric covered circles together, but I'm not sure what their intention was or what they had planned for them. I couldn't bear to see them go to waste, and I thought there was surely some way that I could make them suitable as Christmas decorations... I'm always up for a challenge! I have seen them often in my cupboard over the past nine months wondering what on earth I could do with them, so this was a perfect chance to make the decisions and get on with transforming them. I have completed two so far, and the others are in stages... you'll have to wait for the photos!

In the meantime you can feast your eyes on some of my special treasures - the promised crocheted blankets and two other treasures. My grandmother (who passed away a few years ago) was a very talented crocheter. She did dabble in other crafts during her lifetime, however, crochet was definitely her 'thing'. She crocheted hundreds of beautiful doilies (I have quite a collection!), coat hanger covers, blankets, bookmarks and other things in her life time, giving many away, and selling others for charitable causes. I have a few favourites in my cupboard...
the single bed blanket which I've had since I was a little girl...

the cot blanket that Grandma made for me for when I was born - she didn't quite have it finished in time as I was born early. The funny thing is that my husband's Grandma was making a blanket for our first child and didn't have it finished in time because he was born early!

The crocheted 'tea cloth' which Grandma made me when I turned 18 (I think it was!) It is a small afternoon tea cloth which is absolutely gorgeous... it's sitting on my sideboard and I love seeing it everyday. When we bought our very large dining table (1.2 x 2.4 metres) in the 1990s I asked Grandma if she would be up to making me a special tablecloth for it... a massive task, I knew, but she did agree. I'm pretty sure it would've been the biggest, most time consuming thing she ever made, and I remember her being worried that she may not finish it before she died, but there was no need to worry, as it was well and truly completed way before that time came.
Unfortunately, with four young children it doesn't see the light of day very often, but the time will eventually come! Even though it's not as old and as well used as my other treasures, it's still a special treasure, as I know that much more time and love than I can imagine would've been put into it.

The last treasure for today (there are many more in the cupboard!) is a crocheted doll blanket that my Mum made me when I was very young girl.

My three and five year old daughters love to play with it now, but it is still a treasure of mine. It has lovely three dimensional crocheted flowers in the centre of each square, which still really appeal to my senses! Mum has also dabbled in many crafts over the years... you will have to go visit her blog or website to see what her 'thing' is!

I was pondering my 'craft heritage' this past week as I came up with a concept for a cast hand/arm that I'm working on in my sculpture class at TAFE. I certainly have a treasure, not only in the many items that have been made for me by my mother and grandmother, but also in the skills, knowledge and genes that have been passed down to me. You'll have to wait and see how that will be expressed in my sculpture!