More felting...

Yesterday I dug out the bag of alpaca fleece, the hand carders, the bubble wrap, detergent and some silk and set to work...



I layed the fibres in a grid pattern onto a piece of tissue silk.







The results were small - I can't believe how much it has shrunk - but I was happy with how it had turned out. Next time I might not take the felting so far, to keep the fibres softer, but all in all a successful day...


...until...

I left my felted piece hanging on the line overnight. No problem there, except that I got up this morning and let "The Supervisor" out (AKA our dog Tyler). Turns out she wasn't so impressed with my efforts and tore a hole in the silk as she pulled it off the line with her teeth...



Maybe she smelt the alpaca and thought... well she is a hunting breed afterall...

It's my fault - I left it there and I know she's partial to the fluffly stuff because while I was working yesterday, she'd pick up bits of fleece and start eating them... it was the funniest sight to see her with a big white beard... I just wasn't thinking straight first thing this-morning.

I guess I should be glad that there's only a hole in one section and that after pulling it off the line that she didn't proceed to play with and chew it. Anyway, I now need to work out if this is "repairable" or make "good" of it, or if I throw it back into the cupboard and call it a sample...

Work, work, work...

I've had a very relaxing and productive long weekend and am NOT ready to go back to work.

When I say go, I mean walk down the hall to the office...

That's the problem with working from home - the sewing machine and the rest of my art stuff sits on the other side of the room calling to me... It hasn't been a problem for the last couple of weeks because the sewing table has been buried under a huge pile of stuff (remains of pre-Christmas bag making and quilt finishing, and paperwork (house stuff, wedding stuff, bills etc)that somehow got 'dumped' there.

The sewing table is now clear and calling out for a project and that's the table I'd rather be sitting at than the work desk...

I have no pictures today - so I'll leave you with a photo of The Supervisor (aka Tyler) on holidays (check out that smile!)

Happy New Year!!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!

We've just arried home from our holiday in New South Wales with friends and I'm wishing I was still there. We had a great holiday... we went to the beach and walked for hours, took the dog for swims and laughed at her being scared of the water, went out for coffee in the morning and got distracted and stayed out the whole day, had afternoon 'nanna-naps' on the days when we were at home, went exploring on the train and browsed the shops... Phew, no wonder I'm tired!!

The Man-bag I mentioned last year went down a treat, Sue loves her Japanese Quilt and has been installed on her bed (along with the new bedding and knick-knacks aquired from a couple of op-shop trips that all went together to make the whole 'ensemble' work) and the new owners of the recent bags were wrapped.

Ill add pictures tomorrow but for now here's a pic of Tyler smiling and enjoying her holiday - check out that tongue!!

slow progress...

I've neglected my blog of late... Most of my thoughts are taken up with thoughts of our house that is in it's very early stages and all that goes with it (colour choices, loans, deposits, conveyancing, where we want power points....)

I am slowing getting the hand-stitching done on Sue's Japanese Quilt and only have 2 and 3/4 blocks to go. That's about the equivalent of 3 movies worth of stitching (as long as the movie doesn't have sub-titles as last nights choice did...)

I've also cut out fabric for 2 handbags and 2 zippered purses which I've been working on bit-by-bit. I'm currently up to ironing on the interfacing and have been grabbing time whilst I take a lunch break to do a bit. (I'm struggling between wanting to sew bags and wanting/needing to get the handsewing of the quilt finished). I also have a few other bags planned but thought I'd better not get too far ahead of myself!

So as nothing's finished and you've seen enough of the quilt, I'll leave you with a pic of Tyler - the Supervisor in her new and very UPSIZED bed!!

"The Supervisor" is a textile fiend!

"The Supervisor" a.k.a Tyler, our 7 month old Weimaraner pup. I call her that because when she keeps such a close eye on me at all times.

The Supervisor at 8 weeks - when we first got her

When she's outside she regularly come to check on me by running up to the window, briefly putting her (massive) paws on the window sill, checks that I'm still here and OK, pushes off and continues running. If she's not too sure that all is well, she'll stand back and watch for a while - she's just tall enough to see over the window sill without jumping up, depending on where I am in the room.

"are you still in there?... good! I'll off then... but don't go away 'cause I'll be back!"

On the occassions when I let her into the workroom I bring her bed in and that's where she stays - usually - it's either there or sitting at my feet waiting for pats!!. But usually she sleeps on her bed, or at least I think that she's asleep, until I get up or leave the room in which case she's up and at attention, on my heels ready to follow me wherever it is I'm going - don't want to miss out on anything...

"are we off somewhere?... where are we going?... is there food where we're going?... what about something to chase?... doesn't matter, I'm coming along anyway!!"

So "The Supervisor" seems to have developed an interest in textiles! At the moment she seems very taken by the wool that I bought to finish Bryan's slippers and keeps stealing a ball of it and running away to her bed like she does with all of her 'trophies' (I thought I'd put them out of her reach but she still finds them!). Some things she gives up easily but she really clamps her jaw around a ball of wool. Now I do intend to felt the slippers when I've knitted them, but I'm not sure how it'll work if the wool is felted before I knit them.

Running off with trophy held high (Bryan's thongs are also a much prized trophy and are starting to look a little worse for wear)

Other things she's taken a shine to is....

• anything from the fibre box - silk hankies, mohair, wool tops and silk tops
• threads - she finds threads dangling from the table and starts chewing (sometimes they're still attached to a roll) and threads on the floor she manages to gather up and tries to eat!
• bits of fabric left within her reach - I found her chewing (or was it sucking) on a piece of calico that I'd used to iron the cross stitch with.

Basically she's not too pciky - anything of value to me, is worth a go - probably because she gets attention when I try to remove it from her jaw...

The moral of this story?... keep the workroom clean or don't allow "The Supervisor" in (oooh she won't be happy with either of those options!)

And just for a siz comparison on the left is The Supervisor at 8 weeks and on the right at 6 months (and there's still growing to be done).

BTW There's heaps more pictures of "The Supervisor" over here at Flickr.

Ooops!!! - I've double booked...

The Geelong Fibre Forum Open Day has been in my diary for weeks as you would know from my post detailing the events of the day here.


A Garage Sale has also been on the agenda for our house since we moved back in June and has been put off for the past 4 weekends running primarly because we would leave it till the Friday before to think about and would decide 'next weekend'. As you might also know the need for a garage sale was ramped up this weekend after our friendly neighbourhood hooligans decided the shiny paint-job on our car could use some scratches (posted here)


Saturday is also dog training day for Tyler at the Werribee Obedience Dog Club

...as well as the biggest day on the AFL (Australian Rules Football) calander - Grand Final Day - in which the Geelong (the town I call home at the moment) Football Club's, The Geelong Cat's, is battling to keep their premiership title. Needless to say that Geelong is a sea of blue and white and most houses and shops are sporting shrines to their beloved Cats. Bryan and I aren't great footy fans but have jumped on the bandwagon with this one "Got Cats!!!". (that's not our house - just a random picture I found).




So Saturday 27th of September is a rather busy day but we have reached a compromise.


The garage sale starts is from 7am to 1pm(ish) but no doubt the early birds will be lined up outside before 7 - they came with torches to the last one we had and were waiting at 5am! I've learnt my lesson this time and have put a start time on the ad - for all the difference it will make.


At about 10am Bryan's agreed to hold the fort while I do my best effort to see all there is to see at the Forum Open Day for a couple of hours.


About 12.30 (I can never work out if it should be am or pm - I mean the midday one) Bryan will take Tyler and head to Werribee for Dog training.


2.30pm is game time. Bryan and Tyler will probably miss the first 30 minutes but as I said, we're not avid fans so we can cope with 30 minutes or so. If it were Bathurst (the V8 Supercar Bathurst 1000 on the other hand - well that's a completely different matter!!

Pictures of the forum to come...

Introducing.... Tyler!!

Let me introduce you all to Tyler.



Tyler is a beautiful Weimaraner who is now 6 months old.



Tyler joined us in April when she was 8 weeks old and has taken up a lot of my time since then. Oh how life changed with a puppy... up early in the morning for toilet trips - despite the fact that it's FREEZING outside. Trips outside every hour or so in order to avoid puddles on the floor. Playing the 'leader game' to ensure that she knows that her place in the pack is at the bottom. She absolutely adores us and spends her days following me around the house (preferably stepping on my heels because thats the closest she can get) or running from window to window trying to work out which room I'm in and then settling down to sleep where she can see me.

She loves my slippers and stealing shoes. The bin is a treasure trove and bench surfing is a favourite past-time (she ate half a lamb backstrap when I had my back turned last week argh!!). She's a smoocher who likes a cuddle and enjoys watching TV on the couch with me when she's allowed - although she is getting bigger and the couch isn't, so very soon it'll be me or her and I promise you it won't be me on the floor!

9 weeks


Showing off the coat I made her - see I have done some sewing...


Favourite staring spot - see the look in her eyes... "OK, so if you won't let me I'll just sit here and stare at you until you give in (or I fall asleep)"


We're off for a walk now. Jus a quick one because it's about to rain, and because until I can get her to walk on a lead WITHOUT PULLING theres' only so long I can managed to tug a 20kg+ dog around the streets before I'm over it.