Finally I am back in the studio

Well for a moment there I thought I was never going to pick up a needle again - I fluffed about cleaning up my studio, got the sewing machine serviced, cut out material and gathered patterns and put projects together in little bags - and now I have finally finished something!

I has been a very special making year for me with Places and Pieces, The Enlightenment Project, Easter in the Conservatory and some smaller commissions. Not forgetting Knotty Ladies came into being!

Right now I am enjoying making gifts for Christmas and sewing for my daughter.

The skirt above took about 15minutes using a tutorial by Oliver & S dead easy I am pleased to crow.


These are some flags for my nephew - he is turning two early December - easy and satisfying to bring them together. I have finished off some other gifts - but I can't post about just yet!

Last Weeks Warrnambool Trip

At the opening of Come on the Scene, Warrnambool with the very special Carly Preston (in the middle) and the darling Trevor Flinn.

Me in my latest opshop find in Colac - half price day - perfect therapy for calming nerves after a car accident.

Hmmmm - I wonder why I have one hand in my pocket - what am I trying to hide? It seems that I haven't given up hope of pretending that my bottom isn't really that big!



Here are some more special people that I caught up with in Warrnambool for a quick breakfast. Again life arriving to me in my thirties in little snatches of wonder.
This is Kel who I spent many leisurely hours enjoying life while we were meant to be at Uni - what a great time before mobile phones, ipods and the internet thing... In fact we were living in caves around smokey camp fires and scratching our bellies - how did my bottom get so big without a computer for so long in my life?

That's what friends are for

It has been over a week since a very special visit from my darling friends from Uni with their kiddies.

I really enjoyed myself getting my home ready for my guests (be it small and pokey!) and cooking.

Although we only catch up once a year (they all managed to catch up a bit more than that - I am hopeless) we write a regular group letter - but despite this distance and time between catch ups we are all good friends & I am so thankful for them in my life.

It is very comfortable to be around them and we are all very similar valuing simple life, and enjoying our homes and families. We all have different career paths and also manage to live in different corners of the state!

I picked up some great hints on picking pumpkins and also the virtues of vinegar (by the way the vinegar did clean up my pressed tin just lovely!)

Hows that pic above - I think I was 19 or 20 (gee 12 years ago!) when that shot was taken (I am the dopey one in middle) I am terrible it was the only picture I could find of my friends and one darling friend isnt even in this photo - and silly me forgot to take any photos last Sunday.

Oh well next time!

Thank you so much for your love and friendship.

Space in between book project

OOoo - I nearly forgot all about this - some how I thought March would never arrive; but I have some work in a show at the Bendigo Art Gallery called Space in between book project. (it was originally shown at the VCA Gallery August last year)

It is a touring exhibition curated by Tara Gilbee, and includes the work of 32 artists who have each responded to the internal space of a book carved and presented to them for their artistic intervention.

I am involved in presenting in an artist talk 11am this coming Thursday, the 20th of March (munch on nails) at the Bendigo Art Gallery.

Tara emailed while I was away to say that the show has been reviewed in Artlink by Simon Gregg. Unfortunately the review isn't online - will have to pop out and buy a copy.



This is a close up shot, taken by Tara, of my work Gentle and Useful.

I made it last year while spending a glorious month in Sydney baby sitting my sisters apartment in Sydney - it is embroidered onto a linen that was incredibly expensive >$70 a meter (I don't think my husband reads this!).

The embroidery patter is a pattern I have used many times as you will see here, here, and here.

The pattern is from an amazing wall paper from a commission/residency I did in 2005 with the Castlemaine State Festival at Tutes Cottage, a historical relic from the Castlemaine Diggings.

I loved this lavish red wall paper that the resident - I am assuming a woman, would have ordered and awaited for its arrival to adhere to the tiny, stone plastered walls in her living room.

It was the last layer of many layers - must have been over ten layers of wall paper.

I imagine that she would have spent a great deal of time and also money decorating this room to entertain her family and friends and to present herself as the woman of this household in this room. I wonder what she baked for them.
I am reading lots of decorating books at the moment as we are doing a little decorating to make the best use of our own tiny stone gold rush cottage and today I came across a wonderful little idea and lead for more research and thinking.

"After the Second World War, Germany embarked on a huge program of new housing. This boom was followed by the discovery that people who lived in these homes started to suffer from disase and ill health, and a connection was very swiftly made with the construction methods and matrials that were being used. It led to the formation of the Bau Biologie movement which fosters a view that a home is an extension of the human body and that there are various ways to building homes that reconcile modern construction methods with nature. If we are indeed connected to the homes we live in, then it is quite possible that any changes in their construction and their contents may have an adverse affect on our health." (The Healthy Home, Gina Lazenby)


Funnily enough my sister Joy Chell has just done a post on her blog about how the clutter in our homes relates to the amount of fat we have on our thighs and bums!

Sunday afternoon cafe stitiching

I had a lovely Sunday afternoon with a good friend stitching in our local Wine Bank. Very nice - lots of gossping and lots of stitching. - a regular stitch in bitch

Here is a poker shot of my friend and also her work - isnt it lovely!