September 14

It was a small group of only five of us last Saturday. Some of us were working on our collaborative project, while others had finished, and were setting into other projects. All will be revealed on this project in the near future.

Show and  tell on the day included the following:-

Jenny had finished a Bedfordshire lace (a form of bobbin lace) bookmark. The pattern is by  Olwyn Scott and  Robyn Hueppauff, published in Australian lace, 2005, and came with no instruction at all. Jenny is grateful to all the members of this group for all their help and encouragement.

Wendy had started her "New Life", a tree fern bud found in Bermagui at the "Four Winds" music festival.

Donna had been given some lovely black and white fabric scraps by Wendy. After looking at them for a while, she decided to work a free form pattern in white on black, incorporating the fabric scraps. The plan is to continue to stitch for a while, add batting, a backing and a bind.

Donna had also made these cacti by binding aluminium wire with Paverpol  (a water based fabric hardener) dipped cloth. The first one has been  made by wrapping aluminium wire around a polystyrene ball, then covering with T-shirt fabric. Inspiration for these two cacti came from a wool wrapped cactus that Donna had seen on-line.

This is Susan's "Earth Stripe Bag" in the making. Using double crochet stitch variations in the round in a variety of yarns, improvizing the stripes as it is worked.

Next month may be the big reveal of our collaborative project. Please come back for another visit to see what this could possibly be.

August 2014

Our August meeting brought seven members and one guest.

Show and  tell as always is a major part of our day, with this month being no exception.

 Susan had finally finished her Candy Crochet Throw. The throw is finished beautifully with a seven row border, including a ruffle. Made with 18 balls of cotton yarn that she wanted to use up, Susan created the pattern as she went along. Great fun was had working out which yarn to use where, and the main aim was achieved which was to use up the  yarn.

Sheila has been stitching for sheer pleasure using raised chain stitch, and adding in found objects as she works.

 Donna had been playing with colour,  and enjoying a few quiet evenings, dipping into a grab bag of threads. The result are these fabulous Dorset Buttons.

 Jenny had finished another pair of socks. These are her first 'pretty' pair, and  have been knitted with  'Araucania', a 4 ply sock yarn from the UK.  It is 75% wool and 25% polyamide, and supposed to wear better than 100% wool.  The next pair will feature some cables.

Robyn had been playing with Sashiko designs. This bag  features Sashiko stitching ( seen close up below). 

This bag, is also by Robyn, is a work in progress featuring a  Sashiko design being worked in white back stitch.

This bag has been made by Sheila, and is her version of a bag by Jean Griffiths.

I wonder what we we all get up to next month? Come back for another visit to find out.

July 2014

At our meeting this month, we had much discussion re our collaborative project, when it is due, how to display, a name etc, etc, All will be revealed in good time. There was also a small discussion re a money making/publicity exercise, and more may be revealed about that one too at a later date.

For show & tell, their were eight of us present.

Sheila had been making faces to make into brooches. Based on an unknown artist's work, the faces were first stencilled onto fabric then stitched.

Sheila had also made this bag using a  foundation pieced centre left over from an earlier quilt.

Jenny had finally finished her bobbin lace fish. Made from Guttermann sewing machine cotton, using a pattern given to her by her lace teacher Ethel Zuccolotto,  this fish was a challenge in more ways than one. More details may be found on Jenny's personal blog .

These socks were also made by Jenny. Knitted in Shepherd Baby Wool Merino, these socks will be ready for when the snow falls next, not too far away. They are the first socks that Jenny has knitted in approx 30 years, and there will be more to come.

Annette had been weaving. These two pieces had been done at a Start Craft Workshop Winter School in July with Kaz Maddingan, from Old Bar, in country NSW.

This is Dianne's tambour sample. Simple chain and beads have been worked with a tambour hook, and the sample has been a huge distraction to all of Dianne's other pieces.

Show & tell is a huge feature of our day, so please make us another visit to see what we get up to next month.

June 2014

Our meeting this month brought nine of us, and as usual there was show & tell a plenty.

Robyn was continuing on her piece from last month, adding some petals and more spirals  to her corn pad flower.

Sheila had made this fabric post card, inspired by a sketch of  the Miner's Memorial in Broken Hill. The postcard is hand panted, then free machine embroidered.

Wendy was continuing on this piece, using threads from an impulse buy. The piece used stitches that she enjoys working and is time well spent.

Sheila had been making bags, using up some of her fabric. The blue one above has been hand printed, then stitched in running stitch. The red gingham check one features recycled English Pieced hexagons with added stitching.

Gerri's "Love Life" beaded cross stitch piece. The piece features a neighbourhood scene and has given Gerri hours of enjoyment.

Next we have a variety of winter warmers, especially for the chilly weather of this week, and the weeks ahead.

Susan's granny square blanket is being worked in Payton's Gem, a 100% cotton yarn. Nine years ago, Susan was given 21 balls in 5 colours. What to do with it? The granny squares are joined together with a double crochet in white.

Annette had been knitting socks in a 4-ply yarn from Turkey. The socks are very comfortable & very warm.

This cloche hat is also by Annette. Knitted in 12 ply wool on circular needles, then felted in the washing machine. A very quick knit and very warm.

These gloves were made by Jenny, using her own  de-constructed version of the pattern  found in  " A Gathering of Lace" by Meg Swansen. Knitted in Paytons Embrace, a 2 ply yarn of  90% Merino , 10%  Silk, the gloves feature a moss stitch cuff.

There was also more chat about our collaborative piece. All will be revealed in the next few months, so please keep visiting to find out more.

May 2014

Before we start into our May creativeness, whatever happened to April ? Our April meeting happened in the middle of Easter, and considering some of our members were going away, we decided we would have an excursion for those of us left. Five of us gathered at the Art Gallery of N.S.W. to view the  "Afghanistan: Hidden Treasures" exhibition. We met in the coffee shop for morning tea, and as we were leaving to view the exhibition, spotted another group at a nearby table. This group were a part of "Meet Up Sydney - Knitting In Public", and were having a wonderful chat, complete with lots of show and tell. So our visit to the Art Gallery was full of inspiration, not only from the exhibition, but also  from other creative textile workers.

Now to our May meeting.

There were only five of us for our meeting, but the show and tell and chat was certainly abundant.

Jenny had finished her Teneriffe doily. Started because she wanted something to take to a lace meeting one day, the doily is worked in DMC Cordonnet Special thread No 80. Each wheel is worked separately, then joined together. A filling has been  added to the center, then a final edge of detached buttonholed scallops worked to finish it off.

Donna's crazy patchwork piece which will end up in a Hussif, planned to be in a book form.

Robyn's corn pad inspired flower embroidery around a continuing crewel work piece. Note the fabulous  pattern darning giving the water ripple effect behind the body beautiful.

Dianne's corn pad inspired spiral design to front an embroidery roll.

Dianne's doily featuring Maderia work. The piece was worked in a class taught by Ellen Wells.

Jenny had been having some fun playing with her new digitizing program. This dragonfly is the first one that she had digitized, and above is the first test stitch-out. Although checking on-screen with a slow re-draw tool, the file still had some faults and will need to be fine tuned. The finished product is still usable and will be used to decorate a mug bag. The full story of this can be found on Jenny's personal blog.

Jenny had also set herself a new challenge, to knit a pair of gloves in 2ply yarn. After knitting a scarf in the same yarn, there was still plenty left over to make a pair of gloves. Knitted in Paytons Embrace, a 2 ply yarn of  90% Merino , 10%  Silk, the pattern came from a book " A Gathering of Lace" by Meg Swansen. The full story of these gloves can also be found on Jenny's personal blog.

Now for some pages of Susan's "Transformation" book, originally for the printmaking unit of he BFA course.The dust jacket was created from cut-out prints left over from another project, a close-up of a print created from a  'glue' collagraph plate, and the same plate over the end papers. This book is now an on-going project, further exploring the theme of transformation with prints, mixed media and even textiles.

I wonder what we will all get up to in June? Come visit us again to find out