Auckland Anniversary Weekend 23-27 January 2009

Our plans to leave Auckland late afternoon on Friday to get to Katikati were complicated after David was caught up in gridlocked traffic. Police had closed the North-western Motorway after a man that had snatched a bag in Glen Eden fired shots, took off in a stolen car, and eventually tried to hijack a van on the motorway. The Armed Offenders Squad shot and killed the van driver by accident, but did catch the crim.

In the end we met up at my parents house, leaving his car there, and I drove my car down to Katikati to surprise Becca, who’d spent the last week with the Grandparents.

We went via Waihi, and once we’d had some rather good Chinese takeaways, stopped to have a look at the Martha Hill (hole) open-cast gold mine. An enormous hole in the earth, there was a group of diggers that were dwarfed by the depth.

Becca was absolutely thrilled that we arrived on Friday night, instead of Saturday, but was disappointed that we wouldn’t be going home till Sunday afternoon. She’d enjoyed the stay, trips to the beach, petting zoos, Karangahake Gorge and getting some good books from the library, but was ready to go home, and have life return to normal.

RUST DYEING GROUP
One of the main reasons for leaving on Friday evening, other than to miss the worst of the holiday traffic, was that I’d arrange to meet some ladies who are members of the Rust Dyeing and Alternative Quilt List groups I belong to, to talk about rust dyeing. On Saturday morning I drove to Thompsons Track Road, which was once considered as an alternative route over the Kaimai Ranges, to find Barbara Hilford’s place, where we were supposed to meet. Being me, I decided to drive to the end of the road. It ended in a beautiful stand of ancient Puriri trees, tho the track carries on into the forest. I didn’t have time to do more that chill out in the peace and calm of ancient forest.

Barbara, Deryn Pittar (the lady I’d been communicating with), and Beryl (an Art Teacher and artist) weren’t expecting me till nearly 11.00, so they were sitting having morning tea on the verandah of a beautiful white stucco two story house, with amazing views of Mt Maunganui and Tauranga, when I arrived just after 10.00. These three women have obviously known each other a long time.

After some lovely scrummy shortbread, and a glass of cold water, we went thru to Barbara’s workroom, where she showed us some of the projects she’s working on, including a piece that Deryn re-named Rusty Rivers, and a beautiful black tree on hand-dyed red-orange-yellow silk with echo quilting.

Deryn showed us her rust and tannin dyed fabrics, and gave each of us a small container of Sulphate of Iron, a pack of Tannin, and a rust/tannin dyed silk scarf. She has achieved some amazing deep-indigo patterns, and demonstrated how to do this after lunch.

Beryl showed us a landscape about 20cm sq, that she had woven from a photo of Clyde, framed by roofing iron.

HOME ON SUNDAY
The rest of the weekend was spent completing the setup of the inlaw’s new computer. It was great to get home on Sunday afternoon, tho the dogs were completely neurotic after spending the weekend at my parents, with their new dog, who seems to have bullied them constantly.

TUESDAY
(Happy birthday to me!) – bathed 2 stinky dogs, 3 loads of washing, shopping, and spent 20 minutes waiting at a counter at Spotlight for a woman with no available credit on 3 different cards to give up and go away. She eventually had her friend pay for her purchase.

EMERGENCE
Deryn made the following comments on the “Emergence” piece I’m working on: ‘I like the flow of your emergence but couldn't pick out the face so didn't click that it was a woman. Yes, a little bit "fussy" but that could just be the cataract in my one eye. I always avoid faces. Can't do them at all. However, I like the idea. Can you perhaps put hands on the end of the arms and have them grasp something? Or put more at the bottom of the piece so it is heavier at the bottom to balance what you are doing at the top. The bits sewn onto the sides could be removed. All in all I like your idea and as I said - couldn't pick out the face so missed the idea of a woman completely, till you pointed it out.‘

I’ve followed some of her suggestions, but now added other bits to the sides, and am not sure if they work. I had a Plan A for a face, which was to print my face, cover it with Gel Medium, peel off the backing, then adhere it to an acrylic button. Unfortunately it didn’t work with an ink-jet print. Plan B is to use some bugle beads to make a “face”.

Jumping in the deep end

with Goldilocks – TAG Teams 1 & 2.

TAG-2 isn’t so scary – I’ve had Susan Stein’s “Fabric Art Workbook” for a while, and although I’ve looked thru it, hadn’t actually got around to trying anything in it. I’ve been having problems locating most of the supplies, and haven’t heard back from most of the on-line companies I emailed queries to. I’ve received the Dye-Na-flow, Lumiere and Neopaque from Tillia, which is a start. Waiting, waiting, waiting. But I’ve got till early February, hooray!

TAG Team 1 is definitely more scary. When I saw the schedule for the book “Color & Composition” by Katie Masopust, which starts on 15 January – a Thursday for goodness sake! my heart leapt into my throat. I’m still waiting for the book, which was ordered from TheNile.co.nz on 25 December. This one might actually involve hard work, where the other one looks like just plain fun!

This is what the first 8 weeks looks like: Contour Drawing, Contour Cutting & Stitching; Line & Shape; Value and Colour, Monochromatic & Achromatic Colour Schemes; Analogous Colour Scheme, Warm or Cool Colour Scheme.

I’m taking Friday off, having spent the week catching up at work. I’m hoping to spend the weekend working on my 2009 Intentions Challenge Quilt for AlternativeQuiltList, but the HP Inkjet isn’t working well – it hasn’t been used in a while, and won’t clean the print heads properly – I think the cartridges have dried out. So I couldn’t print out my forest stream tonight – having spent last night preparing some PFD silk. Might have to go and buy NEW cartridges, rather than recycled ones!

At some stage I also need to think about the two postcards for Feb/March, and possibly a third one for a kid with brain cancer in the States. Here's the link. I'm thinking classic Kiwi summer - bush, beach, birds (of the feathered variety).

I’ve ordered the book “Taming Your Gremlins” by Rick Carson from Fishpond – the depression demons are gnawing away at me, and I’ve decided I have to DO something, not just feel miserable, or burst into tears when someone (DH) makes me feel stupid. Starting reading Vein of Gold, but the morning pages are SUCH a bummer - I want to be creating, not writing!

Teri Springer recommends Twila Tharp's book "The Creative Habit"and Alyson Stanfield's "I'd Rather Be in the Studio" as being much more helpful. Have to do a search for them.

Tomorrow is hopefully a trip to Karekare first thing in the morning, before it gets too hot. Just me, Becca and the dogs, and back for lunch.

Rust Dyes

I found some lovely, soft, low-loft cotton batting in my stash - and of course wondered how it would dye.

The rust is from a hanging basket that's been happily rusting outside for the last couple of years - I peeled the last of the plastic coating off earlier this week.

After soaking the fabric in water and white vinegar, I pegged it around the basket, wrapped it in black plastic, and then literally forgot it for a few days. When I unwrapped it, I found the base was sitting in a puddle of rusty water, which explains the circle.

Once it was washed, I used a teabag of Bell tea - which turned out to be a horrid powder, rather than leaves, to make the blue-grey semi-circles on the second image, and some decaf Moccona to make lighter blue spots on the first image, which is the other end of the fabric.

I like the bluey-grey colour that resulted.

Fabric Bowl

Bowl Base with flash, bowl sides without flash!

Well, Christmas and New Year are over for another year. Bah Humbug.

This bowl was inspired by a blogsite I came across while following other links (as you do!).

I couldn't find instructions anywhere for making a round bowl, only square ones, so basically guessed. The templates were a small bowl and large dinner plate. I did find that once you start creating multiple layers, I had to trim the inside edge of the bowl sides, and the bowl bottom back by about 5cm in total. The inside fabric is a blue batik with gold "lightning" bolts, shading from light blue to purple. I put two layers of my heaviest fusible interfacing on the back, as I can't source the "Timtex" suggested on various sites (well, not at Spotlight, anyway!)

I then embellished with rust-dyed cotton, machine embroidery thread (two spools thru 1 needle); layered fibres, feathers, and bits and bobs under solvy, then free-motioned embroidered. The solvy came off pretty easily, so my "glue-pot" of solvy is filling fast. I've ordered some "Thermogauze", which hopefully will come soon, and see if that would work better.

I put another two layers of heavy fusible interfacing on the underside fabric, then put low loft batting and another couple of layers of newly purchased heavier interfacing. I then sewed the bowl into a circle with satin stitch - 2 shades of variegated blue inside, and red outside, then sewed branching lines from the outside to inside edge to stiffen it. Then hand-sewed the bottom to the inside, hand-sewed the bottom, interfacing and batting to the bottom, and satin-stitched the bottom of the bowl in.

The underside of the bowl is a totally insipid pale blue, I tried layering pieces of waste sari-silk and free-motion embroidery, but it's still yucky. Today I hope to attack it with dry-brush paint and change the colour to a darker blue, and try some stencilling on it - it's gotta be better than it is now.

FABRIC ART WORKBOOK: I'm going to start an online course working thru this book by Susan Stein in January, so have been making up a shopping list of required goodies - it would be nice if I could actually afford all the things I need, let alone want.

STOATS: Went up into the Waitakere's this morning and checked my stoatline. The Dam is overflowing with water - there was very heavy rain again last night for about 5 hours. 1 horribly dead squashed rat, and replaced 15 rotten eggs. Normally the smell of dead things doesn't bother me, but these eggs nearly made me loose it! At least 24deg up there, before midday.

Stained Glass Poppies

I made a decision a couple of weeks ago to stop reading quilt/art books, watching Simply Quilts (so far I've watched every one from episode 1 to episode 757), and surfing the web, and start making things that have piqued my interest from what I've seen/read.

So, not counting my rust-dyed Ghost Gums and small landscape, I've decided to start creating a series of small works, around A4 size (11 1/2" x 8"), to try interesting techniques.

Here's the first one - Stained Glass Poppies. The pattern came from a "free" website. Originally I was going to do the leaves all in a dark green batik, but they didn't have enough light shining thru, so I've used a little of the dark green, lime green "snail trail", a lovely orange batik, and a piece of rust-dyed fabric for the background. The leading is done using Clover 4mm fusible bias tape, and the border is some hand-dyed cotton.

Most of the sewing is done using clear monofilament thread - I still don't really like this stuff, but I think I've bought cheap and nasty (Birch!), and on a bulk cone, so I found it works better to transfer some to a smaller spool - and what a pain that is! I used a blind-hem stitch on the bias, and a straight stitch to outline the outside area. It's backed with a low-loft polyester batting, adhered with bits of visoflix.

I'm quite pleased with the result, and like the orange of the poppies and the rust-dyed fabric best.

Where Did December go?

Saturday 29 November
"Shore Thing" Stitchers Exhibition, Devonport, Auckland.
Dropped Becca off at Drama class, and David and I went to have a look at this exhibition. Lots of lovely works. They've been going about 12 years, and do a lot of fibre art work, and "fun" quilts.
Then played hookey - collected Becca from Drama class and went to a friends' for a BBQ dinner - much more fun than going home to #1 son.

Monday 1-Tuesday 2 December
Flew to Sydney to meet the President/CEO of the company I work for, was totally blown away when I was given an award; "Hidden Treasures", which included a coin, a certificate, and MONEY to spend on craft stuff (oh GOODY!) - for being a good girl and making things happen! Flew home again.

Friday 5-Sunday 7 December
Got my eyebrows & eyelashes done, flew to Sydney, explored Darling Harbour - pretty lights! Darn, where was the camera? Oh, that's right, we wouldn't be out long! Saturday morning we walked up to Hyde Park, said hi to all the Ibis's, (who were trying to get a burger out of a paper bag), walked down to the Opera House, caught a bus back up to the top of the hill, talked to the security guard outside a Synagogue (finding out later that the Karaoke bar next door had been firebombed the previous night). Walked down to the Queen Victoria Building - beautiful, Titanic-like architecture and decoration - then back to the hotel. Got mini-bused to Rosehill Racecourse at Parramatta for Races and yummy food, then back to Sydney to Helm Bar for more yummy food and alcohol, finally stumbling back to the hotel around 2230 - getting old!

Took 2 hours to get thru check-in at Sydney airport due to lack of staff - arrived 0930 for an 1130 flight, thru the gate at 1115! And then of course the plane was delayed 30 minutes.

Friday 12-Saturday 13 December
"non" Dress rehearsal, and then the real thing for Becca's drama production - she's only been going to class for the last school term. We thought her group's performance of "The Beast" was pretty adventurous, and certainly enjoyable. And yes, I'm her parent, so I'm certainly biased, but it was still pretty good!

"Ghost Story" by Becca

The oaken door slowly opened, and as he cautiously stepped forward the old floor creaked. Justin almost screamed, quickly looked around and shuddered. He was a slim, pale-skinned boy with blue eyes and light brown hair. He was easily scared, especially in the old castle where he lived.

It was a very old building, with maze-like hallways and forgotten, dark rooms. He was in one of them now, trying to make a map of these old and rotting rooms. Justin hated it, but his rich parents had ordered him to, so he had to do it. He flicked on his bright torch and looked around the room. This place was the creepiest room yet! It had an old-fashioned bed with a blood-red canopy, an old wardrobe that looked like it was going to collapse any minute, and a mirror.

The mirror was the scariest thing in the room. It had a dark, rough-edged frame around it that had a little carved bat at the top. He shuddered again. The bat’s eyes were red, as if they were on fire. The surprising thing about this room was that it had a window. That meant he was on one of the outer walls already, and he had only been to about twenty of these rooms so far.

He cautiously went over to the window, the floor creaking with his every step. When he finally reached the stone window frame, he found that it had torn, fire-red curtains, which were blowing into the room. Justin slowly opened the curtains, to look out at the view below. There was now a roaring thunderstorm outside, with lightning ripping apart the sky and thunder crashing through the air. There was also a howling wind, and as Justin looked down he saw he was in a tower three stories up. He quickly looked away, not wanting to look at the terrifying drop below. He backed away from the window. He could now see, in the light from the open window, the amazing tapestries hanging from the walls. He added the creepy room to his map. Then, he bolted out of that terrifying room, and forcefully slammed the oaken door behind him.

As he was walking towards the next door, he thought he heard whispering voices behind him, in the now pitch-black hallway, back by the creepy room with the oaken door. Justin spun around, his bright torch cutting through the darkness.

There was nothing behind him.

He continued to the next door, this one older-looking and made of a strong type of wood. He forced the door aside, and continued into the room. He thought he heard the voices again, and spun around to face the hallway. Once again, there was absolutely nothing there. He shuddered, and turned back into the room. This one looked like a dungeon! There were bare stone walls, not a window in sight, and the only piece of furniture in there was a lump of straw, which may have been used for a bed. It did not look like a very good place to sleep, as the floor was covered in dead moss and other dead weeds. There must have been a window here once, he thought.

He added this room to his map, turned to the door and… stopped. The door was closed. Oh, come on you big scairdy cat! He thought to himself; it must just be a self-closing door! He reached for the iron handle. The door was locked! Justin tried not to scream. He started beating on the door with his fists, crying “help! Help! I’m locked in! HELP!!!!” but it didn’t work. The thick wood of the door absorbed his voice. Besides, there was no one out there to hear him. His parents didn’t come into these forgotten rooms; they had no need to. It looked like he was spending the rest of the night in this dungeon of a room.

He slowly walked over to the straw bed, sat down, and started to cry silently. He must have somehow fallen asleep, because he eventually woke up. He stood up and started to walk to the heavy door to check if it was unlocked, but he clumsily fell over. He slowly got up and dusted himself off. He looked behind him and saw a heavy metal ball attached to his ankle by a chain. Someone must have put it on him during the night. Justin tugged, pulled and heaved at the metal ball, but it wouldn’t budge.

He looked around the room for something that could help get this thing off him, but the room was bare, just the same as last night. Except, just within his reach, was a tray of food. He pulled the tray closer and ate hungrily. The food wasn’t exactly delicious, just some bread and water.

Then he realised he might be a prisoner in this place. He remembered something his dad had told him, when he was younger: “Remember, son, if you are ever trapped in one of these rooms, then you are a prisoner of the ghosts that have haunted this castle since medieval times; they will let you go eventually, but just play along and stay calm until they do.”

So that was what was happening. The ghosts had trapped him in this dungeon, and he was perfectly safe. He slowly fell asleep, knowing he was fine.

The next morning when he woke up, the metal ball was nowhere in sight and the door was wide open. He ran out of the creepy dungeon in that dark hallway in this forgotten part of the old castle, to his nice, warm bed, where he lay down, pulled the covers over his head and tried NOT to think about ghosts.