I'm Back! (& I'm starting 2008 with an imaginative blog title as you can see!!)

Well despite my best intentions I haven't had a chance to blog since getting back late on Wednesday night. This means this is a bit of a long post as I have received some beautiful postcards and Christmas cards. More to come on my next post.

(Wonderful textural fabric postcard from Jacqueline in the Netherlands)

(Karin Hutchinson's beautiful Christmas card)

(Lovely beaded Christmas card from Danielle & Stephanie)

We had a lovely family type Christmas and holiday in Perth and Josh, my 19 year old son and myself, drove back on Wednesday. Unfortunately (major understatement) parts of Western Australia have had terrible bush fires again and one of them was in a National Park that we would normally drive through to get back to Kalgoorlie. The road was closed as a result but due to some sort of error some trucks were allowed through last weekend and a number were caught in the fire. The road has been closed ever since and as Kalgoorlie is quite isolated and is basically serviced by only a couple of major roads we had to take a very long detour to get home. A normal trip takes us about 7 hours but it was 14 hours this time (we did however get to see parts of our state that I have never seen before!!). Anyway we are home and trying to cope with extremely hot summer temperatures!

As I anticipated I was not productive at all while I was away but I have come back very motivated and keen to get into some projects. The only thing I took with me to work on was a mini abstract art quilt that is based on some of my rusted fabric. I am doing lots of random hand quilting on it and it was very relaxing as I didn't have to concentrate too hard.


I did a bit of shopping while I was away - couldn't let the opportunity to get some new decorator napkins (serviettes) and fabric slip by, could I??? These are the napkins - I showed a lot of restraint considering how many beautiful ones there are out there!

And these are the fabrics I bought - I have nothing in mind for them - just couldn't resist the colours and patterns (although the two heavy weight ones would make great totes). Aren't they beautiful? They all look much much better in real life - especially the lightweight Indian ones that have lovely delicate gold bits that just don't show up in the scan.

And some more beautiful fabric postcards -

(Ruth Kelly's gorgeous Pattern Fabric Postcard)

(Ruth Kelly's ethereal Fragments Fabric Postcard)

Now to go make some art to share before I go back to work on Monday!

My Last Post for a Little While...

Just want to wish all my blogging friends a wonderful joy-filled Christmas and a great New Year. We are "on holidays" now and leave tomorrow for Perth. I'm driving back on the 2nd of January so I will be back blogging that night probably!! (I'll have withdrawal symptoms by then I expect.)

Yesterday's mail brought this gorgeous card and stunning silk postcard from Sue Smith - just beautiful Sue! I probably shouldn't have scanned the card with some rust fabric behind it(!) and the silk was so reflective the scan is hopeless but believe me when I tell you it really is a beautiful brown silk and not a rainbow pattern!!

Last night, when I should have been packing and/or wrapping presents, I got this overwhelming urge to have a play with a background for an autumn themed art quilt I need to have finished by the end of January. I don't know whether I will actually use this piece for it but I was really happy playing around with the technique!

(The left side is just the tissue paper in its original but crumpled state
and is there just for comparison in the scan)

The result is quite leathery looking. It is a variation on a technique I have blogged about before which I learnt from the wonderful Dale Rollerson - it is based on tissue paper and cotton quilt batting. It is very soft and pliable and will be great to machine or hand sew onto. At this point I am imagining adding some applique, hand stitching/quilting and some beading.

So now I am off to pack and wrap and clean and generally get myself ready for 10 days away from home. As much as I love holidays I miss my home when I am away, especially all my art, craft and sewing supplies! As this holiday involves some relaxing I need to pack some things I can work on, but of course I can't make up mind what to take and will probably do what I usually do and take nothing other than reading material!

Wonderful Christmas Mail

From Barbara

From Kari

I have received some wonderful handmade Christmas mail - from Barbara in Germany, Kari in the US and Kate Palmer on the other side of Australia! Aren't they all wonderful. I feel very very blessed, especially as I haven't made cards again this year (that is so bad for a stamper, you know!)

From Kate Palmer

And look at these great Christmas napkins - won't they just be wonderful in mixed media art!! I found them tonight at a great little gift shop - imagine using them for your fingers!! What a waste...

And this is the rest of the jigsaw pieces that I finished on the weekend and fully intend to get in the post tomorrow.

Vintage Nudes for Annie

Vintage Women with Wings for Natalie

More Jigsaw Pieces

Vintage Bathing Beauties for Elaine

Well I am now in panic mode - I can't believe Christmas Day is only 6 days away!! We leave town on the 23rd and come back on the 2nd of January so I am trying to get my act together so that there are some remnants of sanity left by the 25th.

Vintage for Jen

The result of course is that I am having to restrict my nightly creative time as there is so much else to do that really is much more urgent and probably more important too. So I have just uploaded some more close-up scans of the jigsaw pieces and hope that you enjoy them.

Vintage for Sarah

A Northern Hemisphere Christmas Postcard

Today's post brought this wonderful mixed media Christmas postcard from Kate North - it is just gorgeous! Thanks Kate.

I have been posting here recently about my first attempt at the January Postcard for the Calendar Girls challenge and this is my finished effort. The beauty of starting early is that it gives me a chance to reflect on it and do another one in January if I get some better ideas! Since the last picture I have added beading to the flower centre, glossed over the whole flower with Antique Dimensional Magic and added backing and finishing to the edges.

And as I am celebrating the completion of the jigsaw, here are scans of some of the pieces:

"Beauty" for Lexie

My "Vintage Dressmaking" pieces

"Vintage Children" for Marg

The Jigsaw is Finally Finished!

Well yesterday I managed to finally (!!) finish my second lot of jigsaw pieces for the swap that I messed up first time round. Fortunately everyone has been very patient waiting for me. This is a blurry photo of the finished pieces altogether. I will upload scans of the individual pieces tomorrow. I am so relieved to have them finished - the need to do them has been hanging over me!

Other things I finished yesterday - a Lutradur/Lace and Beading ATC for a trade with Bina in Israel (at the bottom of this post), the tag to go with Vicci's Square Deco (back above, front below) and my January postcard for the Calendar Girls (which I will post tomorrow). I am away for a couple of weeks over Christmas so unfortunately will have to skip the various blog challenges for a while, particularly as I just don't have any spare time this week before we go away.

Sunday Underway

Once again I just could not think of a good blog title!

This is my second page in Vicci's square journal - it is water colour paper with multiple layers of stamping and colour washes, another vintage image printed on inkjet fabric and a grungeboard flourish. Because the journal is so thick it was a bit hard to get a good scan of the page - it looks rather crooked but isn't really!

I'm planning on playing some more today with the grungeboard - it is incredibly robust and flexible and takes wet colour very well. I really think this will be one of those products that becomes a staple item for paper artists and not just a fad.

PS In case anyone is interested we had a lovely Christmas party last night - fortunately we all managed to stay warm enough to have a good time! And we have woken today to thunderstorms and rain which feels extremely bizarre considering what the temperatures are normally like at this time of year. Great for the garden!