Updating News, Lace, Spinning

the BIG news is that Colin has come through his operation, and although the recovery process is long and not that easy, he is now through the danger period and adjusting at home ... BIG HAPPY DANCE!!!

The doll lace attracted some admiration once Colin was moved onto a general ward and I could spend some time playing...it now measures just over 1.5 meters...just over half way....Yayyyyyy!!!!

The past couple of days, I have turned my focus to the Beds mat in my spare time.

This morning at breakfast time and 2 flowers down, I was here...now there are only 2 flowers to go :)

 From a little further away, you can see my own handmade bobbins and beads...maybe that is why this piece is taking soooooooooooo long to finish.

 Colin and I escaped to the West Coast for a couple of days just prior to the hospital stay.  In Zeehan,we encounted a couple enjoying the beautiful day outside a local cafe with their spinning wheels.  My interest was sparked (again) when the lady showed me a skein of fibre...1 ply was spun wool and the 2nd ply was Guttermans sewing silk.  I really liked this idea...it makes the possibility of using the fibre for lace making much closer.  Once we came home I dug out my lovely Ashford spinning wheel and discovered that the flyer has flown.  I promptly ordered a new one, but was eagerr to get going.  I found a local contact and obtained some Corridale fleece, asked the 'Oracle' (Gumlace) for advice and found a link to a homemade drop spindle with lessons on how to use it on Interweave. 

With the need of a distraction, I dived in!

The spindle is made from a foot long length of dowel, a brass eyelet, slightly opened, a rubber grommet and 2 old CDs...easy peasy!!

My arm aches so progress is slow.  The flyer (and an Ashford beginners spindle) have arrived so I plan on making more progress in the coming weeks so stay tuned :)

many hugs to all my friends in the lace and bloggy world for your wonderful support...

God bless.

A rare Sunday off!

First of all, I would like to share the work of one of the ladies who comes to my home a couple of times a week.

Our local Lace Guild group had a workshop recently with a tutor from Hobart.  Each student had to pick a pattern they wanted help with.  Several girls picked patterns from Jenny Ree's Lace from the Australian Bush.  I didn't make the workshop because there was just not enough time!

This is Sue's completed bookmark!

 I had the pleasure of a visit from my grandsons today.  They came for a roast lunch.  2 1/2 year old Travis helped me make a self saucing chocolate pudding. 

Then he helped me decorate these cupcakes. 

The silicon cups come from Avon and are shaped like bugs and flowers.  Although the cook in me said only fill them 3/4 of the way up with batter, the packet suggested they get filled.  Should have stuck to the cook's advice!!  And bought some more cups!!

However, the cakes are yummy, and the boys are looking forward to a feast when they get home!

 Finally, I completed the butterfly for my shirt :)

I have not stitched it completely, and will maybe add a couple of tatted butterflies to complete the picture...depends on time :)

The doll lace is around 55 cms now, the beds ring pillow is almost at the next corner and the 3rd pillow made lots of progress yesterday too.  I think I should make myself a wire butterfly too...

Until next time, I look forward to hearing from you :)

Happy lacemaking....

Just for starters

Ohhhh how I have missed my bloggy friends :( Life has been crazy, but what's new?!?

This scarf is now almost 150 cm long and is being worked by one of my students. The pattern is in an Australian Lace Magazine from a few years ago and it is being worked in 'Misty' Alpaca wool...mine will be shades of mauve and I am soooo looking forward to some time to make it as this really is gorgeous!! BTW - the maker started making lace 1 year ago today!!

This is also the work of one of my 'girls'. The design is from Rosemary Shepherd's "Fantasy Flowers" and worked in Lizbeth thread.
I have finally finished my last 'big' project...will share some of it in June or there abouts. At the moment, I am just chilling and making bookmarks...these are from one of my favorite patterns...a possum...also from an Australian Lace mag. They are made in Thai silk, available in a large range of gorgeous colours from a local thread supplier...when her website is up and running I will be happy to share :)
These little friends will be winging their way to Canada and the UK by the end of the week with the following...

The Bucks Point design on the left is by Irene Tomlinson and another favorite...it always reminds me of Guzzie Sue - a bloggy friend - and this is the 3rd time I have made it (and the bobbins are wound to make number 4!!) I used brok 80/2 with a perle 8 gimp this time.

The torchon bookmark on the right was given to me to 'work out the pattern' for a friend.
this one has been worked in the Brok 80/2 and I have wound bobbins to work it again in Brok 100 as suggested...I guess that means it was fun to work lol.

This cool Aussie Green Tree Frog eating an Aussie Mozzie now resides in Thailand, in a quilt made by a local church craft group. I have been teaching lace making there since June last year, and felt that the quilt needed a little lace. Everyone contributed a square with an Australian theme and then the quilt was constructed by 2 or 3 of the members. It has candlewicking, embroidery, painting, printing and quilting as well as this lace. I did not have my camera on the night it was shown to the group after being completed, but I can assure you it looked fantastic!!

On top of everything else I have made 2 of these wire lace horseshoes for friends. I do love working with wire and they were both received with open hearts.

The design is from Christine Springett's Lace for Children of All Ages.

Next visit I will show you the completed truck quilt, which now resides with my gorgeous 2 year old grandson and is very well loved, and my garden make over...although I am not so sure I have a "before" pic for you to compare?!?!

I promise it will not be sooooo looonnngggg into the future when i drop in again, so please say hi before you go :)

Hugs and happy lace making to all.

Cotton, glass and wire

Here goes 25 motif challenge number 3!!

I thought about making 25 coasters...there are some gorgeous patterns out there in blogland and beyond!

But...I was reminded of my design tat course this week, and my ambition to make a tablecloth or bedspread in tatting, so I have decided to see if I can design 25 motifs this coming year, then choose 1 of them (or maybe more) to start work on that tablecloth or bedspread!

2 days in the truck and here is the start to my new challenge...

Number 1...I do like this one :)

Number 2...not like the drawing, and the spokes need to be a touch longer to make it sit right, but passable I think?

Number 3 is no closer to the drawing, but I kinda like it too :)

Number 4 come about from a piece that I cut off, then played with. I think this one might join nicely, and allow for some more experimenting in that process to create some lighter areas to balance the dense rings...

Tomorrow, I plan on playing with the glass again! Some serious trolling of the internet has my head bursting with ideas to try out. Most of them will have to wait until I have a bit more experience, but I have a few ideas ready to go now.

Here is a necklace I have put together as a Christmas gift.The next two pics have not scanned so well, but you can get the idea!

Here are the final 10 Christmas tree decorations to go with my cards. You cannot see it very well, but I used 2 colours in each plait, and the 'real life' effect is quite pretty.

Finally, the last of the necklaces for Christmas! I love the black/silver colour combination, but I had soooo much trouble with breaking wire in this project, and there is a leaf missing - it fell out when I pulled the pins and I decided not to remake the section!

I am thinking the tension was in me, as the same wire was used in the pieces above and I didn't break a single wire then.

Sorry about the pic quality - I might take a real photo tomorrow!

That is long enough for now...thanks for reading on :)

Don't forget to let me know what you think before you go.

Christmas hugs for all in this busy final week of crazy!

A little bit of lace and...

I have now finished my Withof scroll that I started at Yvonne Scheele-Kirkhof's workshop in Melbourne several weekends ago :)

I have taken the picture of both pieces with an Australian dollar to show you the sizing...

maybe I also need to grab a measureing tape?

Let me know what you think...

Next I want to try one of the smaller pieces in her book...Dutch Bobbin Lace Patterns...

I have also been getting on with some quilting. This one is pieced onto card by hand and was introduced to you in this post.

When it is finished, I will be giving it to D.S.2 and his lady...there are 42 of each of 4 different squares. This is the first lot of boats with a single sail...stay posted to see the next batch of completed squares.

A change of pace now...

Every second Monday evening I go to a quilting/sewing/craft group. The ladies are very skilled at machine quilting, and as I can do the hand sewn ones at home, I have been trying my hand at the machine constructed variety.

My first attempt can be seen here...BTW the quilt measures 110 cm (43 inches) square.

Now it is time to get on with a new project?!?!?!???

My gorgeous little grandson turned 1 year old yesterday. Unfortunately I do not get to see him these days, but that does not mean I have forgotten him!

Although this will be very late, I am making him a quilt for his bed.

I have put together the applique pictures featuring wheels...what do you think?

Now they have to be placed on calico backgrounds, stitched and then the quilt can get going.

I will decide next week if I will hand or machine stitch the blanket stitch.

With Christmas coming fast, I had best get back to my work...so many gifts to make so little time!!

Hugs for now...

Happy New Year

I hope that this year will be everything you want it to be!

Here is a pic of the completed fan, mounted on sticks and sunning itself in the pansies.

I have to admit that I am charmed at the end result, and the recipient was happy too.

25 motif challenge

We will call this one no 19 - sorry about the photo - camera is not happy at the moment :(
(actually completed Christmas morning at its new home - phew, I leave things til the last minute!)

Numbers 20, 21 and 22

Numbers 23, 24 and 25 are complete, but photo is not recognisable, so will try again later.

Now for the New Year Project!

My aim this Summer is to make the ring pillow (lessons 7-10) from Barbara Underwood's Floral Beds in 20 Lessons book.

I hope it is not true that what starts the new year will continue as I cut this off this morning!

I started it a couple of days ago in finca 60 (labelled as equivellent to tanne 50 as called for in the pattern), but having unpinned the first repeat this morning, and wanting to complete the whole pillow, I think I will like it much better in finca 80. Life is just too short to make the whole thing in a thread I am not happy with!

Hmmmm...shades of Barbara's workshop there as the same thing happened - lesson not learned!

While waiting for pics to download, I made the first ring on the final round of the Lizbeth doily, and have now cut that off too :(

I am going to go focus on the first pattern repeat on the tatting, then wind bobbins and start the ring pillow again! There WILL be progress today!!

Happy New Year everyone, thanks for the friendship and kind words throughout 2009, and I really look forward to the continued friendships and sharing in 2010.

Back to the Beds :)

Greetings All,
After spending some time at the sewing machine making our new hovercraft skirt yesterday, I was finally able to get back to the Beds ring :) This was the progress at 11 pm!

Yup! The lace is finished...yippppeeeeeeeeeee! It was time for bed so a very good excuse to allow the lace to rest too :D

There were 26 pairs to join up, and that was completed this morning...an easier task than I envisaged as 2 pair went into each pin hole. So, here 'tis! Slightly smaller than a CD and only about 80 "furry bits" to sew in :)

The bunch on the right are going to be threaded through the leaf. I was not happy with the result after throwing so many back. I was trying not to need them all thrown back at once, but the result is that the threads are bare on the bottom half of the leaf. I will stitch them through with a fine needle, and hopfully that will sort out the problem...lesson learned for next time :) The left hand lot are the finishing off line...will be able to darn through the cloth stitch bits to finish off nicely I think.

This little parcel arrived in the post this morning...my Arachne secret pals gift all the way from the U.K. Am I a lucky Gal or what!! Last month there was a reel of green Oliver Twists thread, and my friends below are eagerly awaiting me to choose a pricking and get started...I am thinking torchon hankie edge to complete the white Batiste here...then I will have a gorgeous gift in my pocket, all from somewhere in the U.K :)
These little "pillow pals" keep me company whilst lace making. The mouse pin cushion and the horse shoe were gifts from my Gumlace secret pal and have become very welcome on this pillow...made themselves right at home in no time at all :) The 5 divider pins on the right are handmade glass pins, made by one of our Tassie lace makers. I think my favorite is still the ladybird, but I love them all.

My quilt blocks are safely in the post and should be winging their way somewhere near Alice Springs by now. I have made a "piece" to be chopped into my first ever ATC's, once they are adorned with a little fancy needle work and some lacey bits. But first...many bobbins to wind...lace starts at school on Friday!

Enjoy :)

Nearly done :)

Thanks everyone for the interest in this piece of Beds...here is a pic of the whole thing so far...
As I had to move the cover cloth, I thought just 1 more pic before it is finished :) Just 1 cloth leaf and then a half st with an overlaid tallie and 8 leaf tallies to go...yippeeeeeee.

It is not going to happen for a few days...I am a working girl for the rest of the week, so watch this space next week :) Hugs

Vehicles, students and WIPs

Hi All,


Thanks for your kind comments, Jenny, the baubles were fun to make, if rushed at the last minute...all recipients were thrilled to bits too :)
I cannot share a lot of the lace I have been making at the moment for 1 reason and another, but on Saturday, we got to ride in this restored 1915 Model T Ford on (one of) it's first excursions out of the garage. This has been a 12 month project and came home from Newcastle (Australia) as a trailer load of rust!

And whilst Father laboured over the 1st vehicle, Son (aka DB) has been 6 years labouring over this bag full of fun...and stubbornness...and frustration...and did I mention fun?? Although we played 2 years ago, there has been some major reconstruction work and yesterday was the "new" maiden voyage. Heaps of fun, sand...and repair work! But it was worth it...even if he is threatening to sell it again - over my dead body! :)

OK, OK, what about the lace? The pic on the bottom is the full lace story of a new friend. She came to stay for a week, on a visit to renew old acquaintances (DB being 1 of them). As I have been working flat out on lace, she became interested and after completing the snake (a Christine Springett design) she was eager to go again. From my collection, the bookmark was chosen...and completed! One very happy and enthusiastic new lace maker is born!

My floral beds piece was started in September on a visit from Barbara Underwood...the workshop was challenging and heaps of fun...I learned soooooo much! I took the pillow to school to show my students what I was working on and despite being asked not to touch please, one lass decided to 'rearrange the bobbins and divider pins for me .... Grrrrrr. Tis OK...no harm done and the bobbins are finally untangled and work is progressing...all be it very slowly!

Happy lace making and thanks for visiting :)