Foggy morning

These photos were taken early yesterday morning, but it looked much the same this morning. the first taken looking out towards the back gate and the second down the drive to the front gate. The Cootamundra wattle is in full flower and so it the winter honeysuckle.
I am getting ready to head off early tomorrow for Melbourne so there may not be very many posts until I get back. We will see.

TAST buttonhole wheels

I have finished off my face in her surroundings. I think she may go onto a card but I havent quite made up my mind.
We are off to Melbourne for a week on Sunday so I am tidying up a few things before we go and one was to finish my TAST for this week. All done in pale greens, wool this time and as they reminded me of dandelion heads that what they became.
I had got out the wools as I am about to start on the wool embroidered cot rug for the newest grand child. That is never a quick project although I must confess I use a lot of stem stitch, chain stitch and knots! I dont get too ambitious and it starts off with a circular garland that I just keep working on until I am pleased with the way it looks, I havent done one for over 10 years and I really cant remember what I did for the last ones. I thought this was a good thing to take away with me to work on.

The latest baby jumper

This photo didnt come out all that well and there is a mistake so perhaps it is just as well. Any way another jumper finished.

Playing a bit with the face

I added one of the faces to some fabric and did a bit of free motion stitching around it. I dont think it has quite finished. I think maybe some buttons and some hand stitching.
I finished the jumper today.
Have felt very flat and tired. Hope I perk up for Melbourne.

Wattles blooming

I am so tired and I ache, I left at 8.30 this morning and was in Adelaide by a bit after 10 am and called in to see my mother, took her and a friend out for a drive. they were so pleased to go out, and it wasnt a long drive as my mother isnt moving at all well and I was not sure how she was going to cope. I took them up to Brownhill Creek which is rolling hills and big trees and green and only about 5 minutes away and then around a few suburban streets as they love to see the gardens.
When I got them home and into their sheltered area my mothers friend turned to me and said"Is this where I live too?" Poor old dears, they are bright and chirpy but dont remember much for long. They are both in their 90's.
Actually I find it very depressing.
I called in to a friend for a cup of much needed tea and she gave me something to eat and I drove home. After collecting the mail and a couple of other things I was back by 3 pm but oh I was tired.

Faces on fabric

I have been playing with faces on fabric to see if I can use them for other things, not as easy as it looks and I have been using the blerol pencils this time that I use for cloth doll faces. I have a few ideas but will have to keep playing for a while before it all comes together.
Visitors to day so not much got done.

Playing with paper and fabric

I have been meaning to do a few more of these faces and get them onto fabric so I have been playing with this over the last few days.
I wasnt sure what was the best medium to use on the face, normally I use blerol pencils but this time I used the water soluble oil sticks made by Portfolio to see what they would do.
This was backed onto a previously made piece from felt with wall paper stuck to it and then stamped.
The scan has thrown a few shadows.
Some machine and hand sewing.
I think will go into a fabric book I am making.

TAST Arrow head stitch

As usual a wonky line on my embroidery stitches, my book will be full of wonky lines!
I loved this stitch as it has such a geometric look as used in African and North west American tribes.
I walked this morning trying to blow this cold away, went over near Middleton at Bashams Beach to see if there were any whales, if there were I didnt see any but while John read the paper I walked the beach and tried out the new camera. I cannot see a thing in the led display so it was point and hope I got something, my old digital I could see through a view finder. This one is hopeless. Any way I was pleased to get this oyster catcher who was eating the insides of sea urchins that had been washed up on the beach.
I must see if there are any ideas on how to see a led in bright light. then again it may be my wonky eyes and the glasses I have.

First page of my stitch book

Sheesh I cant believe I put the embroidery on crooked! I dont know if it is the cold I have or my eyesight, I really do begin to wonder about exactly how well I see, I know I have a hole in the retina so my left eye doesnt see much but really!!
Apart from that I like the concept, pinched from Beryl Taylors book and next time perhaps I will slant it the other way.
Painting 52 pages of watercolour paper, well 26, using various inks and things is taking time.
John has a cold and is getting over it, I think I am half way through, I hope. 1 degree outside the back door this morning, 6 when I left to get the mail at 10. It has been cold and this poor old leaky house doesnt warm up quickly.

Rusted fabric, wet and muddy

I took the fabric i was rusting out yesterday, I think that being so wet, and the stuff i found to rust with was so rusty, we are a farm after all that they rusted very quickly.
The photo is of my old male pug Tuppy negotiating the ruts and mud in the gateway where we walk most evenings. Jake the rescue dog is half obscured. Walking has become a bit of a marathon as the cows (about 400 dairy cows) have been out this way lately and with the rain we have had negotiating around in it is a bit of a worry. I either slip or lose a rubber boot.

Another tag

Blogger wouldnt let me post a photo yesterday, or perhaps our internet connection was too overloaded as it is school holidays.
Very very cold here and John not at all well infact we are heading off for a doctors appointment in a few minutes.
All I had to put up was another tag I made, this time using an off cut of an embellished bit put on with brads.
I am still knitting so not much else creative being done.

Tag

Well I have made a mess of this entry, things went all over the place and I published and didnt mean to. Ah well, The tag below is about all I did today, apart from make a mess with inks and trying to get some pages done to put some embroidery stitches on for my sample book of stitches. I was trying out various papers and of course have a lot left over.This page was done using walnut ink and then I had to try the stamp I bought the other day at Spotlight, liked its simple design and cut out some tops of champagne foil with a punch. Fun but not exactly getting anything useful done.
John isnt feeling well and has a cold so that maybe why I am not doing much either.

TAST Sheaf stitch

I really liked this stitch, stars, butterflies and little people were a few things I made out of it. Done in silk on doctors flannel ( how did it get its name?) backed onto felt.

Walking Encounter Bay

This morning early I went in with John who thinks he is developing a cold and he dropped me off rather than walk with me to walk from half way along the foreshore at the Bay to just over the Inman river.
Cold and crisp with some interesting clouds. the first one is taken from the bike track and I rather liked the way the repair work glistened in the light.
I must be mad because I came home and pulled a barrow load of weeds and am now feeling sore and achy. I must get at the garden and slowly prune the roses and hack back the Gaura and other perennials.
I havent achieved much this week but I have finished another pair of bootees.

More photos from Glenside

The first photo is of a wood duck on top of the down pipe and the chimneys around the main courtyard. the second is another shot of the building for the criminally insane, this one looks as if it came straight out of India.
They are such wonderful buildings.
I will try a few sketches taken from these photos. I must say I think the security guards wondered what we were doing. perhaps escaping inmates.
Freezing cold and raining this morning, now overcast and cold the sort that gets into your joints.

Walking Glenside

I spent the night in Adelaide after a night meeting and the friend I stayed with and I set off at about 8 am to walk around part of her area. this is part of the Glenside mental hospital, probably not called that now but was in my day, before that it was the Mental Asylum.
These are some of the lovely old buildings. Not the best morning to photograph them as it was damp and cold and as the last photo shows there was fog on the hills behind the city.
The first two are now the administrative buildings, I am not sure what they were originally used for, perhaps the same thing.
The third photo is of the area that is heritage listed but not used or I dont think it is and the sign says built in 1885 for the criminally insane. I would not have liked to have gone there.Such lovely buildings and all you could hear was the sound of birds at that time of the morning and yet about 2 ks in a straight line from the center of the city. We walked for about an hour and a half, then I headed out to see my mother and home.

Bootees

I havent knitted bootees in years but these were fun to make, although I did make a mess in the pattern in one. I will do better next time. Now I have a jacket and bootees done for the new baby that is coming in November I am not in quite such a panic about getting more done. I will quietly do them in the midst of all the other things I am doing. November is heading in to our summer so I dont have to have a lot done by then any way.
At the moment I am thinking of new dolls to make, I think I may go back to some small wire wrapped ones to sell next year.
My Playways Module 5 from Dale at The Thread Studio arrived yesterday too, it looks like a lot of fun but I must clear up a few things before I can get going on that.

Baby jacket

Not a terribly good photo I far more used to scanning these days .
Any way this one is finished so a few more to go. I have finished one bootee but wont scan that until the other is finished. I am going through vintage knitting patterns at the moment, the ones I used for my children.
fog this morning, after the last few days of wet and cold sun will be nice.
I have a busy week gong to Adelaide and various amounts of paper work to do.
The lap top is still not working as I would like it, frustratingly I keep losing things again and every time I stop typing the flashing bar disappears up into the text some where and if I dont notice I have half sentences every where.

TAST bullion stitch

TAST bullion stitch. We have a strange plant here, I am not sure what it is called, rather like a rush who has its flowers tucked down at the bottom of its leaves so as bullion stitch is one I have a few problems with I thought that this was a good way of using it, and not going overboard with the stitch!! Oh and there is a caterpillar on a leaf.
My computer has been off line for a day or so while being fixed and then when it came home it didnt want to talk to the scanner so John spent a very frustrating day yesterday trying to get it all together. I now have to scan in a very convoluted way and hope I will remember how.
I had bad stomach pains all yesterday morning so I didnt do any of the things I was going to do but I did finish the little jacket I am knitting but to my dismay found that the red that came off a top I was wearing while I was knitting it didnt come out in the wash. Will have to be second best. I am now knitting a pair of boottees. I feel a bit tired and washed out but better, thank goodness.
Very wet and windy yesterday but at least I watched the football and saw the Crows win.

After the storm

This morning John had a meeting at Mt Compass so I went on to Noarlunga to do some shopping and ducked down to have a look at the sea after the wild weather we had yesterday.the first two are of the jetty at Christies beach and the other is looking north from Noarlunga Beach.
I dont go there very often but it is interesting to look at it all.
Very wild weather yesterday but not a lot of rain, they said it was all moving so fast there wasnt a much time for the rain to land!
I am going to be without the computer for a few days as it is going in to be looked at.

Back to the embellisher

Dale asked me what I had been doing on my embellisher and I actually havent had time so I got stuck into it yesterday and this morning as I had bought a photograph album from my local $2 store yesterday and I thought it might be useful if I pulled it apart and used it to put some of my stitch samples in. It has post attachments and I quite liked the cover which is sludgy green with stars all over it but felt it needed something else, so this is what I came up with, I got the big button last night at beading, I think it is coconut shell and added others, found the mad bit of knitting I had done and felted that onto the base I had made of pre felt a bit more wool tops and then some scrim. Not quite heavy enough so felted onto some commercial felt. Then a bit of embroidery and I think that will do. Pleases my not very conventional soul.

Victor Harbor

I have lost these 3 times so I hope this works. Photos from our walk on Saturday when it all looked calm and peaceful. Yesterday it was very rough and windy and we very nearly lost 15 people who were out kayaking in very poor conditions near where these photos were taken. Helicopters and sea rescue in full force.
We were in Adelaide and I had a long and tiring day seeing my mother and hanging around for John to finish meetings. Thank goodness for friends who put up with me. too wet and miserable to go for a walk so we sat and talked and I knitted.

TAST half Chevron Stitch

The edges of this look very wispy, a bit the way I feel at the moment. I have spent all day in a cold shed at a horse seminar in the cold Adelaide hills. (I am a judge and we are required to go to a seminar every 2 years or off the panel we go.)
Any way I was going to add some beads to this but I have run out of puff and time.
I will be in Adelaide all day tomorrow as well.
My dinner went well last night but driving up to the horse thingy this morning I couldnt believe how many idiot drivers there were driving with no lights or only parking lights in thick fog. I was lucky not to be collected by one as I turned across the traffic.
Cold and tired I am going to sit by the fire as soon as the dogs are fed and get on with knitting this baby jacket.