Baubles

Farewell Post

2011-08-16T13:06:00.004+10:00

As you see, I've stopped posting here, because I stopped making new Baubles. Just ran out of interest, I guess.
If you're interested, I've begun a new blog about my family history, Sunday's Child
Maybe we'll meet again there?

Changes are afoot

2010-01-03T01:07:00.004+11:00

The New Year is bringing big changes to Casa Marcie. My lovely grandson, Mr T, is moving to the Big Smoke. I'll miss having him around, but it's time for him to try his wings in the big wide world, and he's pretty excited about it.

Now I will have a whole roomful of extra living space, and re-arrangements will be made. A Big Springclean is under way, (there may have to be a Garage Sale too) and new projects are planned.

Temptation

2009-12-19T22:44:00.006+11:00

I went to the local Saturday market this morning to buy some fruit and vegies, and catch up with some old friends. I used to be a stallholder myself a few years ago, and my daughter Katie and her husband Hugh sell fruit there every summer.
I got a big bag of cherries from Hugh, the last of the season sadly (though Katie will keep some for our family Christmas dinner, I'm sure.)
Had a good wander around, stocked up on local honey and home-made tomato sauce, perused the bookstalls, (but resisted the urge to buy) then spotted Jackie's stall - so tempting, she always has things I just can't do without!
Today it was a stack of crafty magazines, always good for inspiration; and lots of gorgeous novelty yarns. Just couldn't resist these-
Now since I rarely knit, and they really aren't suited to crochet, you might wonder what I'll do with them. Especially since I already have a goodly assortment.
You'd be surprised...

They can decorate cards like this -
I used to sell cards like this at the market a while back.

They can be used to finish the edges of a fabric piece -
This is a page from a fabric book I made a couple years ago.

They can be needlefelted onto fabric - remember these Baubles?

There's always doll hair, of course...
And doubtless I'll think of other ways to use them, too.

Kris Kringle

2009-12-12T22:57:00.005+11:00

Today was the Goldfields Quilters Christmas party. This year we gathered at the home of one of our members, who has a beautiful old stone house, set in a peaceful valley a few km out of town. We had a tour of the garden, a delicious buffet lunch, and plenty of time to relax and chat. We all brought presents for a Kris Kringle, and I had fun yesterday creating something special.
I made this little purse organiser, holding a selection of supplies for any contingency. I have a similar purse myself, and I've made them for my daughters too. So handy to pop into whichever bag you're using, and know that you have all the essentials.
This one holds a tiny notebook, a pen, a couple of bandaids and headache pills, a tape measure, and a sewing kit.
The sewing kit is pretty basic, and I couldn't find a small scissors to add, but it turns out that the recipient (who loved it) already has the ideal pair.
Then I made a card out of some pretty scraps, and wrapped it all in shiny paper.
The card was the best fun - I haven't made any cards for ages, but now I'm inspired, and I plan to create some handmade Christmas cards tomorrow.
And my present? A cake of delicious-smelling French soap, which will scent one of the dressing table drawers, or possibly the linen cupboard, for a while before I actually use it.

Hexagon progress & a new toy

2009-12-09T22:56:00.005+11:00

I'm going to join the hexagons as I go, in blocks of twenty. Here's the first block, don't they look bright and happy? (The dark green section at the bottom was an experiment in filling in the shapes for the top and bottom edges of the rug.)
Another 18 motifs made, still unblocked. Today I took them to the quilters meeting, got all the ends darned in. No further progress though, as I had to work on my Kris Kringle pressie for our Christmas part on Saturday. Pictures when it's finished.
Casting my eye around a local thrift shop the other day, I found this.
It's a tiny calculator/ruler/magnifiying glass - just five inches long, in it's own vinyl case. The calculator works; it seems to be powered by exposure to light - any light. And how much for this wee treasure? One dollar!
How could I resist?

Shrek!

2009-12-06T23:02:00.006+11:00

This is what happens when you spend some time with your hands in a dyepot...
I'm more accustomed to dyeing cotton fabric with fibre reactive dye, and I always wear gloves for that, but this was just food colouring and vinegar, and it didn't occur to me that it might stain. (It wore off pretty soon)
I needed a few more colours for the hexagons, and I had some white and cream wool,
so I decided to try my hand at acid dyeing.
I used little dropper bottles of food dye from the supermarket, and found my instructions here.
I used an old stainless steel saucepan, and heated the wool in its dyebath on the stove. It was fun to watch the water turn clear as it heated up.
It worked fairly well, the first two balls were a bit light, but useable,
the next three were better. It's an amazing process, much faster than fibre reactive dyeing - and not so messy.
But there seems to be a limit to the depth of colour I can get this way, so I may yet have to buy some wool.
The pile of hexagons is growing steadily, I have 30 now. Tomorrow I'll start sewing them together.

It's loquat time!

2009-12-04T22:54:00.004+11:00

Do you remember this old-fashioned fruit? Best eaten standing under the tree, because the large stones and tough skins lead to a certain amount of spitting?
My tree is next to the letterbox, and I've been picking a handful every day.
The loquat, eriobotrya japonica, is a distant relation of the apple, and native to China. Evergreen, and apparently immune to frost and drought, the loquat makes a good shade tree, and flowers in early winter, perfuming the garden for a couple of weeks.
The fruits are delicious, sweet and juicy, but with an underlying tang. I've never found a practical use for them; I know you can make loquat jam or chutney, but it would be so tedious to prepare them...

Goodies!

2009-12-02T21:50:00.006+11:00

A lovely parcel arrived today, some of Dijanne Cevaal's wonderful hand-dyed fabric.

Dijanne is relocating to Europe, and offered some parcels of surplus fabric which she couldn't take with her. It's years since I bought fabric from her, but I am always amazed at the intensity of colour she achieves with her hand dyeing. These didn't disappoint.
These three are my favourites - a rich burnt orange, a deep textured blue/green, and the wonderful murky shibori-style patterns on the top one. I have no idea what I'll do with them, but I'm sure they'll be used and treasured to the last scrap.

I've had a bit of a re-think on the crochet hexagons. The first ones I showed you were done with acrylic yarn. Now, given that I'm going to have to make several hundred of the little critters, and it's going to take months, not weeks, and if I finish the rug it will likely be a family heirloom; well then, who ever heard of an ACRYLIC heirloom??
So I'll have to use wool. Expensive. But wait, I have wool - a big box full stashed away at the top of the linen press. A rummage through the box yielded quite a few balls of suitable colour, enough to make a start, anyway.
I made a sample hexagon using the pattern I showed in the last post, just to check for tension and size. Now it's a funny thing, but wool yarn works up quite differently from acrylic. I didn't like my pretty pattern nearly as much in wool.
I tried several hexagon patterns I found on the Web, but they all had too many spaces for my liking. I think a crochet rug/blanket/afghan is meant to keep you warm, and large gaps kinda defeat that purpose. After some experimenting, I came up with this pattern.
I found I had to work the fourth round in half treble(hdc) instead of treble(dc) to get them to lie flat, but I think these will work. Join-as-you-go doesn't work very well in half-treble, so I'm going to stitch them together in the good old-fashioned way, which I really don't mind; it's the darning in of ends I hate. So I'm taking care of the loose ends as I finish each motif, and will probably stitch them together as I go too. I'll keep you updated on progress (12 made so far)

A decent puddle

2009-11-27T23:39:00.006+11:00

After last week's heatwave, we have had lovely rain - 50ml (2 inches) here in the last few days. On my way down the street yesterday, I saw this huge puddle, no doubt there's a blocked drain in there somewhere.
And the rain had turned this patch of oil into a small piece of art.
Thanks to the cooler weather I have nearly finished the top of the charity quilt, and I've been experimenting with some crochet. (I get these crochet attacks from time to time, but I've learned to live with them.)
There are lots of online photos of wonderful hexagon blankets, like this one, but nearly everyone seems to use the same pattern.

I wanted something a bit different, so I came up with these. Not sure about the final colours yet, and they are rather small - I calculate I'd need 248 for a reasonably sized blanket. Is that doable, I wonder; would I ever finish them? I don't have a very good track record for finishing crochet rugs. (But I will finish that ripple rug, trulyI will, - eventually)
Baubles, you ask? There are actually two 'on the go', but not enough hours in the day...

More round things

2009-11-15T22:27:00.005+11:00

You might have noticed that I am an admirer of round things, I thought I'd share some beauties that I stumbled across the other night.
These pictures are from an old website called Morphographic created by Michael Spall, which doesn't seem to have been updated for about five years.
None of these are real objects, they are computer graphics, but some of them are beautiful -
or unusual!
Most of the links are broken, so I can't tell you more about them, or their creators.

In the real world, it's honeysuckle time, and the honeysuckle vines which have gone feral down the side of the house are covered in blossom.
Apart from our sparse rainfall, these get no water at all, but they don't seem to care. I've been picking great bunches of the stuff, and the house smells divinely lemony.

I've been working on the charity quilt I started last week, so nothing much is happening in the Bauble department just now - although there have been mysterious experiments with acrylic paint on fabric, which may eventually lead to interesting Bauble developments - or not.

It's not supposed to be this hot!

2009-11-11T23:11:00.006+11:00

Not in early November, with summer still three weeks away. But we are having a heat wave nevertheless. It was 41C (103F) on the back verandah yesterday.

Today, Goldfields Quilters had scheduled a working bee to replenish our stock of charity quilts. This year we have donated around twenty quilts to bushfire victims and others in need of the comfort that a quilt can bring.

The day began well, as people decided how to use a collection of donated blocks and fabrics.
Brenda and Chris debated how to put together a heap of half-square triangles.
(some people don't want their faces shown in photos, but Chris didn't mind at all)
Christine sewed the blocks together.
Now we can see where this is going....
Someone was well organised with pre cut strips
While Julie pondered a collection of half-finished blocks...

The day warmed up. Pressing seams was sticky work, and needles grew slippery. Our meeting room is pleasant, but we don't have an airconditioner.

By 2.30 the temperature outside had hit 40C, and commonsense prevailed. We packed up and went home.

A nod to Jane Austen

2009-11-09T23:15:00.006+11:00

It seemed to me that a lady who owns a fitted sewing box might also have need of a dainty workbag, so I created my own version in pale eau-de-nil crepe.
The base is 5" across, just the right size for a Bauble-in-progress.
The lining of pretty Liberty lawn seems in keeping.
I took the coward's way and sewed the base on by hand, covering the join with some glitzy braid.
Note the hand worked buttonholes for the drawstring.
An embroidered posy on each side finishes it off. This was so much fun to make, I think I might make another one...
And just because she seems to fit here, rosa Reine des Violettes, with ruching far more beautiful than anything I could sew.

A basket, a box, and some memories

2009-11-05T15:09:00.008+11:00

A long post today - one thing kind of led to another, as you'll see.
My mother didn't really enjoy sewing, though she dutifully made little dresses when my sister and I were small. But she loved to embroider.
Convent educated, she learnt the skills of fine needlework from an early age, and became adept at embroidery, crochet and knitting. She taught me to embroider too, although I don't think my work ever came up to the high standards of the nuns.
This was her workbasket (though from the style of it, possibly my grandmother's originally). I inherited it when Mum died, and brought it out today to compare with the project I've just finished.
The dear old basket is crumbling now, and the lining is perishing. But wasn't it grand?
These scraps were tucked into one of the corner pockets. I don't know where the lace originated, or the lovely button, but the embroidery came from summer pyjamas that Mum had in her trousseau. Her work is finer than anything I could do - perfect satin stitch berries in shaded cotton, and the tiniest of chain stitches for the leaves and stems. And it's worked on art silk, which was really a kind of rayon (would have been done in the 1930's, as Mum married in 1939).
The cloth under the basket is coarser, embroidered in thick, unplied silk thread. The back, of course, is almost as neat as the front. This was intended for a cushion cover, but never made up.
I've never had a workbasket, but recently I bought this sewing box. A cheap, possibly Chinese, import, it was finished in that peculiar red stain that tends to come off on your hands.
A scrub and polish fixed that, and I turned my attention to the interior, which was roughly lined with cheap, nasty cotton.
But look at it now! I lined it in an olive-y green furnishing fabric, and added pockets on the lids.
A little embroidery added a touch of class, and I even made a matching needle book.
This will be my Bauble-box, holding all the threads and equipment for decorating a Bauble.
Just to let Mum have the last word, here's a close-up of that white cloth. She was good, my Mum, wasn't she?

Golden days

2009-10-29T23:07:00.008+11:00

We are having a spell of lovely warm 30C (85F) days, and the roses are flowering their heads off; the whole garden is perfumed with them at the moment. This is the eerily-named Crepuscule (Twilight) the most spectacular plant in the garden.
Beautiful coppery-apricot flowers, strong perfume, hardly a thorn - every garden should have this one!
This is the 'Melbourne Cup' rose - if you watch the race on the TV next Tuesday you'll see long hedges of Crepuscule growing beside the track. The bushes are pruned in late August (with hedge-clippers) and specially fertilised to ensure a glorious display on the Day.
Here's a close-up. Thanks to the rain we had last month, the flowers are the largest ever, though mine have been neither pruned or fertilized.
And across the path, another beauty, Just Joey, is coming into bloom.
Around by the carport, the crab-apple is covered in frilly pink and white - a display to rival cherry blossom, I think.
This is Malus ioensis 'Plena' - no fruit to speak of, but pretty autumn leaves.
This spring is the best we've had in years, everything is so green and fresh, I'm trying to store it all up before the hot winds of summer arrive to turn everything dry and dusty.

Mamushkas

2009-10-27T22:33:00.005+11:00

I saw something like these in an Etsy shop a while back, and decided to see if I could make something similar. It took a while to figure out a pattern, but I finally came up with these.
This was the first one, very Russian in colouring, I made a little stand for her.
But I prefer them in pastels,
soft and pretty and cuddly
They only take a few scraps of fabric - the backs are different prints
They are about 6" high. I sent them off to the trading table at our Quilt-in, and I'll find out at our meeting tomorrow if any of them sold.

Gazanias galore

2009-10-22T22:05:00.006+11:00

I've been admiring brilliant displays of these cheerful daisies all over town.
They mostly colonise nature strips, and are considered 'weeds', but the gardener at the Uniting Church obviously likes them; combined with pink succulents they make a happy picture.
Closer to home, these are growing outside my fence, some of them are lovely soft colours,
others a bit more strident.

Very little progress with the current Bauble, I just couldn't keep my hands off the Noro wool, and have begun a scarf. Pictures soon.

And I'm reading this
a most useful little book, which gives calorie/kilojoule values for absolutely everything you could imagine eating, including lots of brand name products + fat, carb & fibre contents.
I bought it here, and my copy arrived speedily. It's a useful site, with lots of helpful information and dieting tips - and all free.

Why? Because one of the results of my lovely weekend, was discovering just how unfit I really am!
I actually struggled to climb all those steps up from the beach, and was uncomfortably breathless at the top. Not good.

Unfortunately, when you like to sew, embroider, and crochet you don't move around much. So I've started walking, just short distances for a start. I took the dog with me yesterday, and found that, though pathetically grateful, she's nearly as unfit as I am! Clearly regular walks will do us both good.
I'm seriously considering getting a pedometer, to keep me motivated, because clearly this needs to be a permanent regime. 'Regime' sounds a bit off-putting, doesn't it? But I hate newspeak like 'lifestyle change'.
I'd also like to shed about 10 kilos, hence the calorie counting. Wish me luck, won't you?

I do like to be beside the seaside

2009-10-19T22:32:00.007+11:00

We had a wonderful weekend at Point Lonsdale, my 4 daughters and I.

L. to R. Susie, Janet, Liz, Katie

We watched the ships squeeze through the Rip (the narrow, treacherous entry to Port Phillip Bay).

This was a huuuge container carrier

We spent hours on the beach, collected interesting 'bits' along the sands,
inspected William Buckley's cave,
Buckley was a convict who escaped from an early penal settlement at Sorrento in 1803. Making his way on foot around Port Phillip Bay, he arrived at Barwon Heads, where he was adopted by a local Aboriginal tribe, and lived with them for 30 years. He is thought to have lived at some time in this cave in the cliffs under the present light house.

We checked out the gift shops - I bought this Paul Ropp bag as inspiration for further experiments in fabric embellishment
and I just had to have this gorgeous Noro wool, a scarf for next winter I think.
On the way down, I finished crocheting this scarf, and wore it all weekend.
At night we played Scrabble and cards, and stayed up far too late. And oh, how we ate - tapas, fish'n chips, brunch, dinner, coffee and cake; we didn't cook at all! It was the best holiday ever.
Katie took hundreds of photos, which will appear on Facebook in due course, hopefully I can borrow a few for the blog.

My birthday present

2009-10-15T22:14:00.004+11:00

The actual birthday was back at the end of August, when I received this card -
on the inside was this -
why, goodness me, that's this weekend! Woohoo!

Such wonderful daughters, are they not? From several conversations with one or another daughter in the last few days, I think they are nearly as excited as I am.
Although we see each other often for birthdays and such, this will be the first time since they were teenagers that we have spent so much time together. It really is an inspired birthday present, especially as we are going to the beach.

Not Phillip Island, though - we discovered that the Motorbike Grand Prix is happening there this weekend, far too noisy for us! So we are going to Point Lonsdale, near Geelong, instead.

We are taking Scrabble, and Georgette Heyer novels, and plan a lovely lazy weekend with the Age crosswords and lots of eating out - and walks on the beach, of course!
I'll report back next week.

It's hard to kill a rose

2009-10-12T23:18:00.001+11:00

My garden was planted 10 years ago, when I built my current house. I planted nearly 50 of my favourite roses (it's a big garden, far too big as it turns out.) For the first few years they were watered every summer, using a dripper system. Then the drought really set in, and with it came severe water rationing.
For the past 5 years they have had to rely on rainfall alone, and by the end of summer, they look pretty sad. But amazingly nearly all have survived, and this winter and early spring we've had better rains, and the roses have responded with lots of new growth.
So I've been waiting for the first flowers.
The lovely old-fashioned Mme Alfred Carriere is always the first,
closely followed by the little climber Pinkie, bravely budding despite some dieback from last summer. I have 3 bushes of Mme Alfred, all grown from cuttings from a friend's garden.
It's so nice to have some roses to pick at last.
Quinces belong to the Rosa family too, and my tree is a joy - maybe I'll even get a crop this year.

Oriental berries

2009-10-10T23:36:00.009+11:00

Finally finished this, it speaks to me of Chinese brocades
Worked in three shades of gold, with a deep tangerine for the berries, on dark green linen.
The little cushion it sits on is my solution to the issue of display, inspired by this picture
of a dorodango, or Japanese clay ball.
Here it is unburdened, with a flower embroidered to make a hollow for the Bauble.
From the back, not quite so neat, but you can see it's made from a simple square of fabric.

On a different note, I'm still thinking and studying about the future of this blog. I invested in a couple of e-books from Diane Gilleland, over at CraftyPod. I think they are going to be really helpful; I've only read the first book "Making a Great Blog" so far, which covers topics like blogging goals, content, eye-candy, and blogging ettiquette, with lots of handy hints. I plan to take a while to study and use her work sheets to improve my blogging skills.

Lazy blogger

2009-10-08T23:12:00.006+11:00

It's been six weeks or so since I last posted, and I really have no excuse. I just sort of fell by the wayside. It's so easy, I've discovered, to fall off the blogging wagon, and quite hard to climb on again - and the longer you leave it, the harder it becomes.
The main reason for stopping was that I had no new Baubles to show you (although there is one on the way, almost finished.) The previous one wasn't completed because I fell out of love with it, almost at the finishing post :-(
Then I fell out of love with cotton stuffing, too; and then I spent a week or two refining the basic pattern, to make it less prone to unexpected distortions. I learned a lot about fabric grain and stretchability in the process.
The new bauble finally begun, I succumbed to a crochet attack, made a scarf or two, and began a new ripple rug. And all the while, in the back of my mind, that little accusing voice "but what about the blog?"
The truth is, I didn't plan ahead when I began this blog, intending simply to tell the world about my Bauble journey. But as I've discovered, the Bauble production is far too slow for a sustainable blog - if I want to keep going, I'll have to find other things to write about - in short become a Better Blogger.
I want to continue, I enjoy blogging - but I need to think about my future direction in the blogworld. So please bear with me, I'll be back soon.
Now every blog needs some eye candy, so here are a few pics of of some of the other 'round things' I've found online.
Made from Canson paper, picture from Flickr, I saw it a while ago, sorry I didn't record the maker's name and details.
Made from a LOT of rubber bands, don't you love it? Also from Flickr, and again I have no idea who made it. (If you belong to either of these pics, and are not happy with my use of them, please let me know and I'll remove them.)

By an artist named Jamie Lee Byars, I can't find out anything more about him

Crazy purple

2009-08-28T22:46:00.005+10:00

Another crazy Bauble. This time the crazy patches were applied onto a 'couldabeen' ball - yes, I do sometimes recycle the failures! I used raw-edge applique, as turning the edges under makes too much of a ridge. Don't you like my snail?
And of course there has to be a spider, hanging from his web.
I could go on on with more of these, but it's time to move on to a new embellishment. (You'll remember the original plan was to devote the whole year to exploring the possibilities of Baubles - and it's almost September!)
These have re-kindled my love of crazy patchwork though; I'm thinking maybe it's time to start that crazy quilt I always planned to make... maybe next year?

It won't be long

2009-08-20T23:28:00.007+10:00

It's raining as I write, and thunder rumbles around the hills. The dog is hiding under the bed. But it's not cold, a mild 10C tonight. Here in south Eastern Australia, the days are getting warmer and longer. Spring is on the way.
Wattles are flowering -
and the bees are busy among the Satsuma plum blossom.
All too soon it will be summer, lately known as Fire Season. We will undoubtedly have days of searing heat and relentless northerly winds, like those of last February, which culminated in the dreadful bushfires of Black Saturday, when 173 people were killed.
A Royal Commission is in progress, to investigate the causes of these fires and make recommendations to increase our safety in future fires. The State Government has compiled a list of towns considered 'vulnerable'. Our town is on the list.

Stuffing around

2009-08-20T22:24:00.004+10:00

It would be nice if all I did was make lovely Baubles, photograph them, and post them on my blog. It's a simple process, after all - stitch the pieces together, leaving an opening for stuffing; turn right side out, stuff firmly, stitch up the opening; decide on a design, and stitch away happily. Then admire perfect creation, and repeat the process.
Ya think so? Then where did these come from?
There's so much that can go wrong, even at the stuffing stage. Overstuffed balls will stretch and become misshapen. Some balls just WANT to be lumpy. With the synthetic fibre-fill I've been using, closing the opening is a real challenge, as the fibre is springy and tries to escape, the opening gapes, you haul on the thread, which either breaks or cuts the fabric. The final seam is ugly.
I tried using a woollen stuffing, with little improvement. Jinny Beyer recommends cotton stuffing, but she's in America, where would an Aussie find such a thing?
At the local Futon Factory, that's where. Yes, the lovely Belinda was happy to supply a sample of cotton, which proved much easier to use. Cotton is kinda inert, lacking the rebellious spring of fibre-fill, content to stay where it's put, allowing for a nice tidy closure. And it's a natural fibre, which I like.
OK, now I have a nice round ball, all I have to do is embellish it. There are lots of possibilities. Let's see, I could... or maybe... no, that won't work. What about... or - no, I don't think so...
This process can take a while. Hours, days even.
Finally a decision is made, and work begins, with lots of happy anticipation. This will be the best yet!!!
Sometimes, everything falls into place, and I stitch away happily, watching my creation unfold in my hands. But not always. Oh no.
Perhaps, after a day or two, it doesn't look at all like what I envisaged - the colours/shapes/layout are all wrong. Should I press on, hoping it will improve with more stitching, unpick it, bin it?
Or maybe it's going according to plan, but it lacks - something... yaaawn... I'm bored.
Which is why I have a boxful of couldabeens...
Birthing a Bauble can be painful.

Sweet and Crazy

2009-08-17T23:12:00.007+10:00

I bore easily. After the monotony of the all that chain stitching in Aerial View, and Sea Urchin wasn't much better, I needed a bit of variety. So I returned to a secret vice of mine, not indulged for a while - crazy patchwork.
My usual taste in crazy work is of the gypsy variety, lots of rich colours, but for this experiment I chose a safer palette of pink, green and cream.
Each of the eight segments was foundation pieced before assembling and stuffing the ball, then I embroidered it. Despite looking 'crazy', the fabric placement had to be carefully planned. You wouldn't believe how difficult it is to achieve this. I made up a diagram using isometric graph paper, as each segment of the ball is basically an equilateral triangle with slightly curved sides. Even so, I made a couple of boo-boos, but I don't think you can tell.
The embroidery was great fun, and not at all boring. It turned out better that I'd hoped, and there will definitely be more of these!
Incidentally, for the very best of crazy patchwork, have a look at Robyne Melia's work - this is her old blog, worth exploring for some marvellous pictures.

Sea urchin

2009-08-13T21:36:00.005+10:00

I've always loved the delicate shells of Sea Urchins, and though it might make a pretty Bauble.

I did my homework, and discovered that sea urchins are divided into five segments.

This one is not quite correct in every anatomical detail, but certainly conveys the idea.

I chose pale creams and pinks for the embroidery - it was a good opportunity to practise my french knots!

Aerial view

2009-08-10T22:00:00.006+10:00

Another Bauble inspired by Aboriginal depictions of the land. I imagined a river flowing across the country, bordered by greenery, fading gradually to desert sands and rich brown hills.

Worked with stranded cotton, using chain stitch throughout.

I think I achieved what I set out to do with this, but it took a long time to cover the ground!
And while as a decorative piece it succeeds, but as Art? No, I don't think so.
It reminds me of an earlier Bauble which I needlefelted with variegated wool - decorative, but lacking in a focal point, and not interesting enough to hold the viewer's interest for more than a minute or so.

Ethnic

2009-07-26T20:45:00.003+10:00

I've been reading a lot about Aboriginal art lately, and wishing I could convey some of the unique mark-making in non-western art. This is an attempt, I think it looks more African than Australian.
I used a patterned fabric for the base, which gives an extra richness to the finished Bauble.

Harmony

2009-07-19T23:06:00.004+10:00

All the Baubles so far have been embroidered, this one's a bit different. After some experimenting I devised some crochet motifs, using Pearl 8 cotton.
I love it, and can see lots of possibilities for using crochet, but it's very slow, and a bit hard on the eyes.

Fantasia

2009-07-15T23:24:00.009+10:00

I love Paisley, and after reading Aimee Ray's sweet little book Doodle-Stitching, I decided to make a paisley style Bauble.
Side view

I used some unusual purple shot cotton for the base, and worked the paisley motifs in several shades of pink and lavendar.
Top view

Base, with initials

There are twelve motifs, all different; I had great fun designing them, with occasional consultation of my stitching bible - "The Stitches of Creative Embroidery" by Jacqueline Enthoven, for inspiration.
This is a wonderful reference, purchased many years ago, and well-thumbed. Most of the stitches I will never use, of course - but they are fascinating to read about.

What I'm doing

2009-07-15T22:24:00.004+10:00

Not blogging very much, obviously. Sometimes Life gets in the way of Art, doesn't it? Bauble-making continues, slowly, but for the last few days I've been working on this-
I finally got sick of searching through several containers like this, looking for the exact shade I needed, so I decided to fix the problem once and for all.
First, I cut a heap of cardboard 'spools' - size is 2 1/2" x 1 3/8", if you're interested. Then I began the big job of winding all those skeins of stranded cotton onto the spools. Each one is labelled (if a label still exists). I have so much of this cotton, most of it bought in tangled boxes at garage sales or markets. Some of the skeins are quite old, I've come across several labelled as 'wartime' - that would be WW2, early 1940's. A few appear to be even older, with brand names I've never heard of. Most were made by Semco, the most popular brand in Australia for many years, but no longer available.
Many skeins are unused, and fairly fast to wind onto the cards, but some are tangled and take ages to sort out. There's quite a lot of duplication - there seem to be an awful lot of greens!
Mercifully I haven't found any moth damage so far. I'm going to keep them in these boxes, just plastic storers from GoLo, (I made the insert from card).
I estimate this box holds about half the greens. I originally bought 10 boxes, but clearly I'll need more.

Serenity

2009-07-02T22:44:00.003+10:00

For this Bauble I began with blue cotton fabric, which I sponged with acrylic paint in a paler blue- as quite a lot of the fabric would show, I wanted to add a bit of texture.
The design came from a doodle. I tidied it up a bit, enlarged it on the photocopier, printed it on copy paper, then cut it out, making a template which I pinned onto the ball and traced around with a white gel pen.
The outline is stem stitch worked in Pearl 8 cotton, the "feathers" are worked in two strands of stranded cotton.
I like it a lot.

But is it Art?

2009-06-29T22:30:00.007+10:00

Do you remember the story of the Emperor's New Clothes, where the Emperor was hoodwinked into paying for a fabulous new suit of invisible clothes, and none of his courtiers dared to tell him the truth, for fear of being labelled stupid or incompetent? He embarks on a grand procession to show off his new finery, and a small boy, as yet unaware of political correctness, blurts out the truth.
Well, in the interest of truth over PC, I have to say that this is an ugly quilt.
And so is this.
And yet these quilts, with many others made by the women of Gee's Bend in Alabama, have been exhibited in prestigious museums, sold for noteworthy sums, and praised by the foremost art critics. The U.S. Postal Service even issued a series of Gee's Bend Quilt stamps.
Most of you probably know the story of the women of Gee's Bend and their quilts, sewn from worn clothing and factory offcuts to keep their families warm. The quilts are, at best, primitive in their design and construction, yet the praise for them has at times verged on the hysterical, if not downright ridiculous.
New York Times art critic, Michael Kimmelman, called them "some of the most miraculous works of modern art America has produced".
Others spoke of "ravishingly minimal blocks of beige, brown, black and red corduroy" with "irregular quilting stitches wandering triumphantly in dotted lines across fields of colour" and
"recycled denim creating panels of skyscapes and clouds, the faded knee patches immortalising hours of toil in the fields."
"The Quilts of Gee's Bend" (Tinwood Books, Atlanta, Georgia) tells the story of this small settlement and the women who made quilts there. Many of their stories are poignant and courageous, and one can only rejoice that they have gained recognition in the wider world, and a ready market for their work after generations of struggle.
But, is it really Art?

All wrapped up

2009-06-25T23:26:00.004+10:00

It's been a while since I posted, but I've not been idle. Not, unfortunately, sewing.
Mr T's plastered arm has been a right nuisance, to me as well as to him. Riding a bike (his usual mode of transport) is forbidden, so someone has to drive him to the station for his commute to TAFE in Bendigo, and to his part-time job - we live about a mile from the town centre, and it's winter...
Domestic duties like washing up or - Heaven forbid - cooking are also out of the question.
So chauffering and general Domestic Goddessing duties have eaten up some sewing time. Add in two family reunions, a grandson's Year 8 graduation, and some Goldfields Quilters stuff - no wonder Bauble production has slowed down.
When I do make it into the sewing room, nothing works out as planned, anyway. The last attempt at a Bauble wound up in the bin; it seems as if my brain doesn't have room for creativity, being stuffed too full of the mundane at present. So for the moment, I'm making small crafty gifts for the upcoming trading table. There's a Quilters working bee on Saturday, I'll show you what I've been making after that.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

However, there are still some Baubles you haven't seen yet. These were the result of some experiments in wrapping strips of fabric around a ball. Here's the first one -
I'd like it more, I think, in different colours.

Then I did this -
fine cream cotton, embroidered in pale green and lemon.
I called it "Simplicity".

Here's one I prepared earlier

2009-06-17T21:44:00.005+10:00

Still working my way through the backlog of Baubles, this one I'm quite pleased with.
The foundation ball was light green cotton, which I covered with stretch lace - an op-shop find. The lace even came with toning spangles. With judicious cutting it was easy to make it appear seamless.
The leaves? I'm glad you asked, I'm quite proud of them.
Here's how they were done. I used two pieces of medium weight Vilene, ironed together. Painted it green with acrylic paint. Made a cardboard leaf template, traced around it, cut out the leaves. Then sponged gold paint around the edges of each leaf.
Then the leaves were attached with gold-coloured thread, each group finished off with a sequin centre.

The artist's day

2009-06-16T00:02:00.004+10:00

I've been working on a new Bauble. It's just not going right. This morning I unpicked two days worth of embroidery.
Then I drove Mr.T to the doctor's - he who went on a trip to the snow late last week, and predictably, fell off his snowboard. Nasty swollen wrist.
At 11, he rang "I have to go to Bendigo, the local x-ray machine is on the blink." (his Mum, Ms. J. is at work all day) 60k round trip to find out if his wrist is broken.
I came home, surveyed the needlepocked and slightly grimy Bauble, and sewed up a new one.
4.15, back to the doctor for a verdict on the x-rays.
6 p.m, Mr. T finally emerged, resplendent in a large, knuckle-to-elbow plaster cast.
Arrived home neck and neck with Ms. J, cooked dinner (fried rice, the best thing that happened all day. Enough left over for Ms. J's lunch tomorrow, too)
After dinner, devise a plastic bag/elastic band combo for Mr. T's shower in the morning.
8 p.m. stuff new Bauble. Turns out I should have used a heavier interfacing, the seams twisted as I stuffed it. Aaaagghhh!

But it is Art?

2009-06-15T22:50:00.004+10:00

Today's subject is a little hard to describe. It's a site I found using StumbleUpon (more about that later) called Zentangle. Zentangles are basically doodles, created using a set of formalised patterns. Here's one-
The creators of Zentangles, Maria Thomas and Rick Roberts, enthusiastically promote the advantages of guided doodling, describing it as "fun and relaxing. It increases focus and creativity. Zentangle provides artistic satisfaction and an increased sense of personal well being."
They sell kits comprising high quality paper tiles, pens and pencils, an instruction book and DVD, and patterns for "Tangles". The Zentangle empire appears to be growing rapidly, with classes and weekend seminars on offer, and even a program to train licensed teachers.
It's a brilliant idea, and my congratulations to Maria and Robert on their entrepeneurship. Much of their work, and that of their students, is decorative, but is it Art?

Shocking

2009-06-12T20:18:00.008+10:00

I think of this as my 'French' Bauble, because of the colour, a deep intense pink.

In 1937, the Parisian coutourier Elsa Schiaparelli released her perfume Shocking, which was packaged in this shade of pink, her signature colour. The bottle, designed by Dali, was reputedly modelled on the body of Mae West, a client of Schiaparelli's.
Since then, bright cerise pink has been known as Shocking Pink.
I applied layers of fabric and lace, then stitched spirals in shaded cotton thread.
Finally I added embellishments of shot silk, with tiny gold beads in the centre.
I'd like to think Mme Schiaparelli would have approved.

Les Girls

2009-06-10T22:10:00.003+10:00

Today at Goldfields Quilters, I finished a few more pin dolls.

They have a brooch pin on the back, and are about 3" high - the cotton reel in the photo gives an idea of their size. These little cuties will be used as door prizes at our Quilt-In next October.
Though I think the purple striped one with pink hair might find her way onto my new winter jacket...

But is it Art?

2009-06-08T22:56:00.006+10:00

The first in an occasional series of links that inspire/delight/intrigue me.
Nikon's Small World runs an annual competition for the best photos taken through a microscope. The site has galleries of the winning photos for the last 32 years - stunning images like these -

Well worth a look. Is it art? I think so.

Mothball

2009-06-05T23:52:00.004+10:00

Well, what else could I call it?
Eight pastel moths on a creamy background, embellished with sequins and outline stitched.
I used Vliesofix to attach the moths, ironed them down with my nifty little Clover iron, then outlined them in backstitch.

Running repairs

2009-06-04T23:52:00.014+10:00

Initially this blog was supposed to be exclusively about the process of making Baubles, but looking back over the posts so far, it all seems a bit too earnest, somehow. When I think about the blogs I most enjoy reading, it's the off-topic stuff that makes them more interesting to me - glimpses of domestic life, pet stories, sharing of links, even (occasionally) travel pics.
Like this one, written by a Japanese-American woman living in a rural Japanese city. Tanya shows us her quilts, but she also talks about day-to-day life in Japan, giving us fascinating glimpses of a different culture.
Or my friend Susan, a fellow Victorian who can make almost anything entertaining, from the antics of her menagerie to her completely over-the-top Christmas decorating, as well as her knitting and quilting activities.
So I'm diversifying, beginning with a small domestic disaster, and a happy ending.
My washing machine is old. No, I mean really old. I found the original guarantee:
the date is December 1981 - that's over 27 years ago!
It's had a hard life, with more than a few battle scars. Way too old to have any electronic components, it still works just fine.

When I moved house around 10 years ago, the plastic lid got badly cracked. I filled the cracks with Superglue - problem solved..

Last week, something heavy fell on the lid, the cracks came apart, and one corner of the lid broke off entirely. This effectively put the machine out of commission, because there's a small pressure switch behind the lid which makes everything go round, and now there was no pressure on it...

Of course I could have just bought a shiny new machine, with a computer and assorted electronic gizmos, that might last for two or three years at best - but, why on earth would I dispose of a perfectly good machine, with years of life left in it? There had to be a way to fix it.
I Superglued the cracks again, which sorta worked, but it was still pretty wobbly. Pity it wasn't a pair of jeans, then I could put a patch or two on it!

Then I remembered the sheets of plastic someone gave me, which I use for cutting templates. About the same thickness as heavy card, but much tougher. Out came the glue again, I cut a couple of patches, stuck them on, and weighted them down for a few hours.

Voila! Good as new! Now, if it would just stop raining, I'd do some washing...

Random words

2009-06-02T20:51:00.007+10:00

I still think words would be good on a Bauble, if only I could figure out how to get them there. My first attempt was on Fiesta, not very successful :-(
This time I tried printing text on fabric, a process I'd used before. You just iron freezer paper onto the back of the fabric, feed it through the printer, then iron to set the ink.

Then I cut out the quote, in two parts, and appliqued it on. I added hearts and flowers, also appliqued and embroidered. Finally I echo 'quilted' it all over.

It's not a great success, the proportions are out of whack, somehow. The text should have been smaller. Another learning experience, I guess (sigh)

Malachite

2009-06-01T21:46:00.007+10:00

I've always admired the endless variations of banding on malchite, a copper-based semi-precious gemstone.

So I adapted them to a Bauble, using a pale green cotton fabric for the base.

I began by sewing on six randomly distributed clusters of sequins in various shades of deep green, which I outlined in dark green buttonhole stitch. Then I worked successive lines of stem stitch around each cluster, using five shades of green in all.

I allowed the shapes to join together as they grew larger, and filled in the gaps with more lines of stem stitch.

With hindsight, I think this would have been better with more variation in the stitching - chain stitch, for example - and maybe some prepainted lines on the ball to add a bit of depth. Oh well, there's always a next time...

Delft blue

2009-05-28T21:04:00.006+10:00

"Delft" was made as a present for someone who loves blue and white china. I didn't have the exact shade of blue stranded cotton I wanted, and when I went to buy some, it was actually called 'Delft Blue'.

As this Bauble was to be displayed on a shelf, I made a little velvet 'donut' for it to sit on.
This time I laid the design out differently, working a line of embroidery that followed the seams from one intersection to the next - a peak, a vally, a peak, a valley - 3 times in all, dividing the ball in half. Can you see what I mean?

Then, starting in the centre of the top section, I worked a floral design, like the centre of a china plate.

The bottom section has formal trees, radiating from the centre bottom, where I also signed the piece.

It took about a week (on & off) to complete the embroidery, and I'm well pleased with it. So, I think, is the giftee.

Size matters

2009-05-25T22:50:00.001+10:00

CAUTION - ugly pictures!
The Baubles you've seen so far are just the ones I consider fit for publication, but there were others...
So far I had been using a simple 8 piece pattern from an old craft book. Then I went looking for other possibilities, and found these juggling ball patterns, free downloads in PDF format.
I experimented with a few of these, but the only one I liked was the dodecahedron* - made of 12 pentagons, or 5 sided pieces. Only trouble was, it's tricky to sew by machine. It can be done, but I suspect handsewing would be just as fast.

Eventually I settled for an adaptation of my original pattern, based on an equilateral triangle, with slightly curved sides. After several attempts, I arrived at a template that gives me a Bauble slightly larger than the early ones, exactly 12 inches in circumference. I discovered that maintaining an accurate seam allowance is vital; even a fraction of an inch difference multiplies considerably over 12 seams!

Stuffing a bauble is an art, one I wish I could say I've mastered! But every so often, I wind up with a funny-shaped, definitely not-quite-spherical object. Perhaps the seams don't match, or I mucked up the closing stitches.

I've learned to turn this to my advantage by using the 'failures' as design balls - happily drawing on them, trying out new techniques, sticking pins in them, wrapping rubber bands around them, testing paints and generally having a good time.

I've learned a lot about the geometry of spheres with these balls, and even read further on the subject at Wikipedia.

*Until recently, words like dodecahedron, and terms like Platonic solids, spherical geometry and great circle were not a part of my everyday vocabulary - I'm the one who failed Geometry at High School, right?
(I failed at Art too, by the way, because I 'couldn't draw'.) So who's laughing now, Mr B----?

Recycling

2009-05-24T21:52:00.020+10:00

"Fiesta"

I decided to see if I could create an earth-friendly Bauble. Fabric, from a repurposed shirt - check.
Embroidery thread, well I have boxes of the stuff, much of it from op-shop and garage sale finds - check. Stuffing, fibre-fill from Spotlight - uh,uh, I don't think so!
So, what else could I use to fill my Bauble? I tried winding strips of rag into a ball. It was

not quite round
very dense and heavy
hard to stitch into

I didn't think using cut-up rags as stuffing was likely to work - too lumpy. I suppose I could have frogged an op-shop sweater and made a yarn ball, but hey, life's too short.

Finally I settled for cutting up plastic supermarket bags. I sliced up half a dozen with my rotary cutter, then six more - my word how that stuff compresses! In the end it took 21 bags to make a nice firm ball.
I wasn't entirely happy with the result, could have been rounder, quite hard to reposition the plastic once it was in there. And it didn't feel right, not much 'give', and again, too heavy - more of a cannonball than a playful ball, if you know what I mean.
And that was important, because I had plans for this one - it was to be a present with a message.
"Live, love, laugh, be happy" for someone beginning a new phase of her life.

I chose a Mexican colour scheme, and embroidered the words first in chain stitch, then surrounded them with the brightest flowers I could devise.

As you can see if you look closely, I never finished it.

It just didn't feel right.

Origins

2009-05-17T19:23:00.007+10:00

Perhaps I should just clarify something here. In my last post I claimed to have discovered/invented Baubles.
As far as I know, that's true - the name is certainly my creation.
I've never seen anything like them before, and have searched online without finding anything remotely similar. I recently bought a copy of Jinny Beyer's "Patchwork Puzzle Balls", but she only makes a passing reference to embellishment.
A bit surprising really, you'd think someone would have thought of it by now.
So, dear readers, if you know of anyone else doing this, I'd love to hear about it.

There are other, beautiful textile balls called Temari - a traditional Japanese handcraft, you can read about them here.

And the name? Well, if you look up baubles in the dictionary, you find this -
child's toy, plaything; a showy trinket or gewgaw; the baton of the Court fool or jester; a foolish matter; a paltry thing.
Since they are undeniably pretty and fun to play with, and serve no useful purpose that I can think of, Baubles seems an appropriate name.

Jesters carried a mock sceptre, also known as a bauble

Seriously Hot

2009-05-17T18:12:00.014+10:00

Did I mention that when I first discovered/invented Baubles, it was late January, midsummer in my part of the world? One heatwave followed another, and it was too hot to think, let alone do any Serious Stitching.

But I made another ball anyway, and this time tried a new form of embellishment - needlefelting. I used some space dyed knitting wool, followed the useful tennis-ball line, and this was the result.

It was ...OK, I suppose, but not very exciting. I think these balls need to hold your interest enough so that you keep turning them over, to examine all the details of the design. On that criteria, I'd only give this one about a 4. (I have a habit of rating my creative work on a score of 1-10). But at least I knew that needlefelting was another embellishing possibility - though it does weaken the underlying fabric, so the ball might not have a long life.

By now it was February, and we had the worst day of all - 47C heat (that's around 116.6F) and a howling North wind. I listened to the radio, as the tragedy of the Black Saturday bushfires unfolded across the state. By Sunday, we knew that nearly 200 people were missing, and whole towns had been destroyed.
As I listened to the stories of tragedy and destruction, I worked on another ball, which became my personal reminder of Dorothea MacKellar's words on the beauty and the terror of this wide brown land of ours.

I called it "Fireball".

Aquamarine

2009-05-13T22:40:00.010+10:00

So of course I made another one. Beginning with a plain blue ball, I applied scraps of fabric, using various textures and shades of blue/aqua.

Then I embroidered some scrolly, leafy patterns in light greens, and added some sequins for a bit of bling.

There's actually an underlying design this time. I was beginning to discover some of the possibilities of layout on a spherical shape - a very different proposition from designing for a flat, two-dimensional surface.The first thing I discovered was how to create a "tennis ball" line, very useful for planning embellishments.
Here's how I did it.
I'd used a simple 8 piece pattern for the ball (more on pattern possibilities in a future post).

This gives you 6 intersections - the points where 4 segments meet.
It might help to describe them like points on an Earth globe. Point #1 is the North pole, #2 the South Pole; 3,4,5 &6 are evenly distributed around the Equator.
If you imagine a circle drawn around the points 1,2,3 & 4, and then draw a curved line connecting these, voila! You have a continuous line like the one on a tennis ball.

A discovery

2009-05-10T21:48:00.013+10:00

The first Bauble was the result of one of those happy "what if?" moments. Needing a small baby gift, I made a little stuffed fabric ball in bright cottons, like this one.

Very cute, fast and easy. I made a couple more, just for fun.

Then I thought Wonder what else I could do with these?
So I tried a little experiment.

I made another ball in plain calico, and I sewed patches all over it, mostly browns and greens.

Hmm, now what? Embroidery, maybe?
We seem to have a woodsy theme going here, so how about some leaves and wildflowers?

Several days passed, and finally it was finished – I called it "Wildwoods".

I was pleased.