From Melbourne to Brisbane, and back to work.

My last days down south were very rushed as I tried to see as many people as I could.  Unfortunately, I missed seeing many of my family and friends, but at least I spent some time with 2 of my grandkids.  It was such fun - if exhausting!  They are really full of love and laughter.

They enjoyed their "add water to paint the picture" sheets. I was fascinated to see their different techniques. Will liked the "dab with the brush" method, but Jac preferred applying the paint with a sponge squeezed onto the paper, or her hand. I discovered a liking for finger painting.

I tried to use them as child labour to clean my windows by giving them sponges and paintbrushes to "paint" the windows.  They were making great progress, but unfortunately lost interest before I got the whole house done.

I was also spoiled by my good Jamaican friend, Derica, and my son-in-law preparing a Jamaican lunch for me on the last day.  We had a delicious meal of

 ackees and saltfish:

johnny cakes:

jerked chicken:

accompanied by a salad I made up, which is sort of Vietnamese in style, but tropical enough to go with the food:

So good!!!!! My daughter is going to describe the process of cooking the ackee, saltfish and johnnie cakes on her blog ( www.kaetoo.blogspot.com.au).  Check it out!

And then it was home to Brisbane with the dogs, where we were greeted by Bridie, the cat, who seemed rather repentent for having run away and missing the trip down south.  She is voluntarily staying in the house and sticking close to me (which means that I am continually covered with her hair, and have little needle holes all over from her kneading), so she obviously missed us.  She is very lucky that our kind friends offered to feed her while we were away.  She has always been a very thin cat, in spite of the amount she eats, but she would have been a skeleton without them.

It is humid and warm here in Brisbane, but I have resumed my morning walks  along the creek with the dogs.  I find the time outside not only improves my health, but gives me time to think and get ideas for my art work - and gives me the opportunity for scavenging.  On one of my walks, I collected a lot of feathers, which gave me an idea about decorating some books.  Cooled by a combination of air-conditioning and fans, I made up some little artist books from my pile of eco-dyed papers.  I decorated one of them with feathers and some of my photocopied gum leaves.  The inside of the booklets consisted of a mixture of writing paper made from a roll of paper I bought in Japan, and a variety of eco-dyed papers with the prints and stains of leaves and flowers and fruits on them.  I bound them with coloured threads and the flattened and rusted bottle tops I found in Lake Bolac.  I  really like the results and can't wait to write in some of them.

I have also continued to work on embroidering my sampler quilt.  It is coming along well, but it is going to take a lot of time!  Here are some views of it:

I am going to take advantage of being inside to catch up on ordering supplies of dyes  from Batik Oetero ( www.dyeman.com ) and Kraftcolour ( www.Kraftcolour.com ).  Hopefully, there will be a break in the hot spell so I can go outside and do some more dyeing.  I need some more fabric dyed to make more fish and birds.

In addition, I want to cut some more lino to do more printing this year, and do some more watercolours and oil painting, and do some painted thread pictures.  Plus, I have lots of ideas and fabrics for quilts.

So many ideas, so little time!

Tripping in the new year.

Our Christmas break didn't start off very well.

  Bridie, the cat, managed to disappear at the last minute after we  had bought her a new carry cage, booked her a spot on the plane, and kept her locked in all night and most of the morning, then refused to emerge from where she was hiding when we called.  As a result of her antics, I was stressed, my son was disappointed in not getting the cat of his dreams, and our poor friend had to spend his holidays checking up on her and providing food and water.  Considering she was a wild farm kitten, covered in fleas, full of worms, and starving, that my other son donated to me after he saved her from being shot by a farmer, she has not proved to be very grateful.  Not only does she have fussy taste in food, spurn us when outside, and  cover the house and us with fur, she turns down an interstate holiday and the chance of being the only animal in a large house.  Spoiled brat!

Then,  once we got to Melbourne, we started  a series of marathon road trips.

After leaving the dogs at the family home, we had to go to a funeral in Mt. Gambier which proved to be very sad in more ways than one.  Very few people knew that the deceased had been ill or died, so many who would have liked to be there were absent.  The service was very short and the celebrant got lots of facts, including his name, wrong.  The eulogy was limited to  one person  who appeared not to know him well, and omitted mentioning some important facts about his life, including his relations with friends and family.  Such a shame when one has lived 96 years, has been well respected and loved, and led a very interesting and fulfilled life, inspiring many others in the community. I believe that funerals should be celebrations of a person's life and  their  effects on others, and love funerals where lots of people reminisce about the deceased.  At the best of funerals, there should be at least as much laughter as tears.  Sometimes, I think I would like funerals to be like the ones conducted by Ender in Orson Scott Card's the "Speaker of the Dead" (1986), where a neutral speaker sums up a person's life, including flaws, so that the survivors understand them, but I think most people prefer to focus just on the good aspects of the deceased, and participating in a positive service does help to heal the survivors.

On the up side, we got to spend some time with family we had not seen for a long time,  caught up with my eldest son and his family, and my mother in law agreed to have Christmas lunch with us (early, so the kids could share Christmas day with in-laws).

On the trip back to Melbourne, we re-explored Western Victoria, where hay-making and harvesting of wheat were in full swing, rediscovered the fantastic cafe we had discovered in Dunkeld on the previous trip, where we bought some "sheep yard Flat Reserve Port", which is " a full- bodied blend of sheep dags, toe nail clippings and sheep dog's pee...... And meticulously strained through a jillaroo's undies".  And I got a lot of embroidery done on my new quilt on the drive.

The family dinner was fantastic since it included all generations - from great- grandma to babies, and cousins, in- laws - and friends, lots of presents, laughter and bad jokes.  The food was  a fiasco in one sense since I mistimed the veggies, but we all ate enough food to feed a small town and still had leftovers for people to take home.  Plus, Barbados rum added to Nick and Jess' fruit punch, and some nice beer and wine kept the mood mellow. The ham and turkey were good, but the desserts were magnificent: Elle's berry and mango meringue concoction, and berry and pavlova concoction, Derica's incredible rum filled Xmas pudding, fresh berries, custard, Jon's chocolate peppermint ice- cream, Jessie's incredible raspberry cake, and Jon's chocolate birthday cake (from Helena's Cakes in Camberwell market).  Yummmeeeee.

Everyone seemed to like their Patapanart gifts, and I got a new book from Kris Kringle to inspire me further: "Printing by Hand" by Lena Corwin, which I plan to put to good use.  Among some really great gifts, I got some "arty" ones. My niece, the sculptor Jessie McLennan, gave my son and I one of her sketch sculptures each. 

The next day it, was off to Mt. Gambier on a 5 1/2 hour road trip ( more time for embroidery) with grandson 2 and his mum, stopping at the Lake Bolac pub, which is very old and made of bluestone, for some nice fish and chips and friendly service.  We were pretty taken by some of the work of a local craftsperson who makes clocks from old shearer's blades.  As you do, I collected flattened and rusted bottle tops from the carpark, to add to some future piece.  Don't know what the drinkers looking out the window thought.

Mt.  Gambier was fun as our two dogs made friends with my sons two dogs ( and contributed to wrecking the back yard - they seem to be trying to dig to China underneath the back porch steps) and treated their two cats with a lot of respect and fear, as dogs should.  We helped my son, wife and son move into their newly purchased, Mt. Gambier stone house, and gave endless advice on revamping the garden.  We had several very nice meals from and in local restaurants.  And, as usual, we were struck by the generosity and friendliness of the locals.  We were invited to a magnificent Christmas lunch in the beautifully restored and extended home of my daughter-in-law's friends.  Not only did they include us into the celebration with their extended family, but we were made to feel very welcome, given gifts, and even presented with 2 take-away bags of oysters, which proved to be very tasty indeed.

The day before we set off for the return trip to Melbourne, we discovered that the radiator of the car had died.  Luckily, my son is a mechanic.  He located a new one in Warnambool, lent us his car, and we drove 2 hours through wind and rain to pick it up, returned in two more hours to the mount, and he installed it an hour later.  Phew!

Then, it was time for Road Trip Number 6 back to Melbourne in the rejuvenated car.  I drove most of the way, so no embroidery.  Luckily, the weather had improved and there was little traffic, but I am not impressed by the deteriorating state of Victoria's roads.  Putting warning signs up is no remedy for pot-holes.  Spend more money on infrastructure!

A day's break in Melbourne saw us at our third Xmas party - a very enjoyable bar-b-q at Laura and Long's with oodles of great meat, colourful vegetable shasliks and beautiful salads, laughing children and, once again, thoughtful presents.  Desserts were, as usual, out of this world: berries and Tres Leches cake.  On the art side, my friend, Trish, gave me a lovely little bell made by potter Shoko Mafune, who I intend to keep an eye on in the future.

The next day, New Year's Eve, we were off to Bairnsdale, via Pakenham, with my daughter number 2 and her son.  Gippsland is very different to the Western District, which is much older in terms of settlement. No bluestone or extinct volcanoes, less scraped landscapes from years of ring-barking trees, less plantations of pines and eucalypts.  I am very fond of the rolling hills near Yarragon, and mourn that Melbourne is gradually creeping towards them as the government encourages the destruction of good farm land and the destruction of wild country.  I embroidered on the way, and nobly did not insist on stopping at every craft store along the way, so we got to Bairnsdale in the expected 3 hours.

Bairnsdale was, as usual, a haven of rest in an idyllic location - between the ocean and Gippsland Lakes and the mountains.  My mother- in law's home is in an acre of lovely garden and, perched on a ledge, looks out over the Mitchell River,  farmed river flats, and distant mountains.  Beautiful.  Grandson number 1 had fun cuddling the chickens, digging in the vegetable bed, and collecting beetles.  He obligingly accompanied us to River Grill, a very good restaurant in the town, where I enjoyed an Asian style dish of muscovy duck and a very moreish dessert of honey creme brulee and stewed rhubarb, while grandson ate my icecream.

Only too soon, we returned to Melbourne on our 8th and last road trip - I swear my hips are resisting being forced out of the chair postion they have been stuck in during these car trips.  Everyone kindly let me stop in Yarragon for cofee and a quick visit to my favourite gallery, Town and Country Gallery.  Once again I displayed  self-sacrifice and did not invest in the gorgeous amber necklaces, the oil paintings, the hand crafted furniture and the glassware I lusted after.  My embroidery, as usual, benefited from the drive.

Collapsing in a very hot Melbourne (today is 41 degrees), I got to catch up with old friends and more relatives, play with my two eldest grandchildren, pat the neighbours cats, hear about the Falls Festival from a very sunburned ( he calls it "Tanned") Son Number 2, eat cup-cakes made by my young friend, Gemma,  and pay vast amounts of money to the vet, the cost of being told that my dogs, who have been coughing all week, will mend without any medication.  I swear these animals are not worth the nurturing I give them, and give me more worry than I deserve.  Why do I love them?

So, I have survived 2012 and my entrance into my new career as artist and blogger and am looking forward to expanding the markets for my work, developing my art, and discovering new food, in 2013.  I would never have got this far without the encouragement of friends and family, and the hands-on help of my daughter, Kate, of "kaetoo" Canvas Photo Boards. Thank you all!

Wrapping up the year

The end of the year has been a mixture of frantically trying to finish off work for the exhibition, orders and gifts and collapsing in a heap.  I always forget how fraught the lead up to Christmas is.  The weather veers all over the place but, in Brisbane is hot and steamy.  It is the end of the work year so everyone is tense trying to finish jobs off.  Everyone suddenly decides to throw parties and it is impossible to go to all of them. There is a mad rush  to buy and make presents for Christmas, and buy and make seasonal food.  All the bills come in, and you are spending more money than at any other time of the year.  If you are travelling, you are trying to clean up the house and pack, according to the airplane or car's limits.  Kids finish school.  People are emotional. And, generally this is the season when one or more disasters tends to get reported in the media, which adds to the stress.  Nevertheless, I always remember how much I like Christmas.  I love catching up with the nearest and dearest.  I love cooking the treats and sharing them with other people.  This year, I made individual cathedral cakes, panaforte, prunes in port and rocky road.  I love decorating the house when I have children around.  I love GOOD Christmas carols in the background (I still haven't forgiven you for stealing and binning my "Little Drummer Boy" cd, Nick).  I love planning who will get what, and giving presents.  I love checking out the lights people put up - from the truly awful displays of kitsch to the ones that surprise you into admiring them (very rare).

The Brisbane Instititute of Art had its exhibition of student's art, "Parade", on the 7th December, and I was happy that other people seemed to like my work too, judging by the comments and the fact that I managed to sell 11 pieces.  It has inspired me to get my act together and start putting things up for sale on Etsy, and maybe MadeIt, next year. The large quilt, a scarf, a shirt, the bird, the fish, the napkins, the tea towel, the fish and a t-shirt went, and I got orders too. I also loved a lot of the pieces that other people made - especially some of the pottery and the sculpture ( Deb Magee is an artist to watch).  Unfortunately, a lot of what I coveted was not for sale, or someone had bought it first.  Never mind, there will be other exhibitions.

Since then, I have been finishing off Christmas presents and completing work to be put up for sale next year. 

My birds are nearly finished.  They are made of hand printed fabric which has been embroidered and then varnished so they are stiff, glossy and easy to clean.  I got absoutely fed up with the amount of sanding and respraying they needed and am thinking of doing a range that are not varnished, and more embroidered.  They just need their hangers made, and they are ready to go to new homes.

I took a detour, and did some watercolour work on some of my prints and am pleased with the results .  (These will be for sale in January at a special price of $50 AUD plus postage and handling).

Tree Moods I.

Tree Moods 2.

Tree Moods 3.

Tree Moods 4.

Tree Moods 5.

I also started making my new quilt which uses samples of my hand dyed fabrics embroidered onto a piece of fabric that I clamped and dip-dyed to make a square pattern.  I want the finished work to look a bit like a patchwork quilt, but completely different (great description).  I am very amused that after all these years, I am embroidering again.  When I started learning embroidery at St. Augustine Girls'  High School in Trinidad years ago, the teacher was very condemning of my efforts and told me I sewed like a cobbler.  That put me off, somewhat.  Then, years ago, my only time out from being a mother was a weekly night out with a group of friends that we called "Bitch and Stitch".  There was a lot of laughter and a lot of cake eating, but we did do some craft.  One of our friends, Sue Cooper, was a very talented embroiderer and she taught us the stitches so we could we could make wool embroidery hot water bottle woolen bags and cushions.  She was so kind, tolerant, patient and encouraging that I got interested and did a series of samplers for each child and some little pictures of houses with cottage gardens. I even got my daughters interested, using Diana Lampe's two books  "Embroidered Garden Flowers"  and  "More Embroidered Garden Flowers" as our guide.  (They did not embroider like cobblers).  I gave up the fine work when I began to need magnifying glasses to see it, but I still occasionally enjoy doing it.  I have never been a perfectionist kind of embroiderer, and I still sew like a cobbler, but I think it suits the style of the work I produce.  It is individual in style!  So now, I seem to be adding it to a lot of my work.  This quilt has been great for the days I want to collapse.  Yesterday I did the unheard of and lounged all day on the couch, watching a series of taped of episoodes of the Swedish Wallander and Silent Witness while I embroidered.  Unheard of but very therapeutic. 

 

 

Lastly, I have finished all my presents.  Still got to wrap them, but the feeling of running against the clock is over.  Now I can give them out, and hope that the recipients like them!

Apart from art, Bob has been involving me in his new coffee craze. For most of his life, he never drank coffee, but he has suddenly become an afficionado and loves trying out new coffee places - usually in the the most unlikely places.  He is very funny after a cup as the caffeine really affects him and he gets terribly talkative and uses his hands a lot while he talks.  Kind of Micky Mouse on speed.

On Sunday he took me to a favourite, Elixir, located in an industrial district in what looks like an old motor mechanics shop.  I was very dubious, but inside the food was very good, slightly Italian in style, and the coffee excellent.  In spite of its unlikely location there were queues waiting to order.  Obviously, word of mouth was at work.

 So Brisbane!  Because of the more liberal planning laws, all sorts of shops can be found in industrial and residential areas which is exceedingly strange for someone coming from Melbourne where laws are very tight.  Round the corner from me, in amongst all the homes is a piano shop.  Near my old house was a tropical fish store.  My favourite store for quilting fabrics is in a sort of layby.

Another cafe in an unlikely location, where I had a nice Vietnamese chicken salad, which wasn't very Vietnamese, but which was yummy, is a  cafe called Dello Mano in Doggett st, Fortitude Valley.  I was very tempted by their chocolate treats too, but didn't succumb.  The chocolate salamis looked amazing.  The coffee was good too.  Plus, it is near a great shop for buying things for the house, Mediterranean Living, and a very good wool shop,Tangled Yarns.

  Some of my readers are Christian, and this time of year is of special significance to you as the time of new promise and hope for mankind.  Some of you are not, and for many, this is just a holiday for you.  Whoever you are, I hope that you manage to spend some time with your friends and family, both receiving and giving kindness, appreciation and warmth, as 2012 draws to a close and 2013 begins. May the year ahead be filled with love, laughter, enjoyment, fun and creativity.  I have learned so much this year, and received so much kindness and generosity from old and new friends, and even from strangers.  I hope that I have given a little of that back too.  I am really looking forward to seeing what 2013 has in store!  Have a great Christmas and New Year period!  Eat, laugh, talk and play! 

And now, time to go look for the cat, which has chosen to disappear before we can pack her up for her new life as my son's cat.  Wish she would fill my life with joy!  Bah!  Humbug!

The results of my efforts come rolling in

 

 

 

 

What a mixed bag of results I am getting from my experiments!  I am certainly learning a lot as I go, although in one session of dyeing, it felt like I was forgetting more than I was learning as I kept doing step 2 before step 1 as I dyed.  Thank God for Miranda and Elisabeth acting like aides for the mentally handicapped in keeping me from ruining everything.

The indigo finally stopped running, but the fabrics no longer have a nice clear distinction between navy and white.  Instead, they are a much more muted variation of blues.  Obviously, this technique has to be refined if I want to keep the navy look, but I am growing quite fond of the paler hue after looking at some silk georgette scarves in a Finder's Keepers Market and at some of my final work.  The trouble is, pale blue looks ghastly on me, and I only look okay in navy.  Guess I'll have to sell everything pale or give it away!



 I decided to print on the dyed t-shirts to add interest and rather like the little dog design I came up with. 

 

 I have also designed a fox, which I intend to use on some commercially coloured t-shirts.  I used two old tree screen prints on some of the t-shirts and on some cotton napkins I bought in the Freedom sale, and I am quite pleased with them too.  Some of these works have gone into the Brisbane Institute of Art's end of year exhibition, and they have sold, so I am chuffed other people like them. 

By the way, it is so hot and humid up here that it is impossible to print in the tin shed without expiring.  I am now using the dining table and the house is covered with drying pieces of material, screens, paints and paper.  The cat has been ordered to remain on the couch and not venture into the bathroom, where the floor is lined with drying napkins.  Not at all home beautiful.  I really neeeeeeed a proper studio - that is air-conditioned.

The henna was huge disappointment.  Instead of coming out red, the result was a boring beige and the clamps left no imprint.  More research needed here too.  I decided to over-dye with commercial dyes and left the  broth stewing away.  It looked quite nice when I took off the clamps and washed out the residue dye, but again, the colours don't suit me.  So, it is for sale too!

 Thank God I am using cheap Target shirts and t-shirts.  The failure rate is getting to be expensive.  Mind you, it could be worse.  My young friend, Riley, tried to print his fabulous designs on denim jackets he bought at vast expense.  There is something wrong with the ink he used and he got a very patchy sludge instead of a nice clear print.  The ink was so bad, it clogged the screen mesh which couldn't be cleaned properly.  He was very calm, but I would have been spitting.  Time to chuck out the dud ink, methinks.  White is a bugger of an ink as it tends to thicken and dry very quickly - especially, as I have found, if you have a fan on in hot, humid weather, but the stuff he used is particularly revolting. I bought one of his successes at the BIA exhibition and can't wait until the weather cools down to swan around in it.  He designs using a computer, rather than an old-fashioned pencil like I do, and his work is intricate and very beautiful.  He is going to move to Melbourne next year to do an art course, so you southerners may be lucky enough to see some of his work down there too.

The silk scarves have all turned out well, and next year, I am hoping to find a silk wholesaler and try dyeing shirts, scarves and maybe even dresses.  There are some lovely caftans in the shops up here, but they are so expensive, I can't afford them.  I really must improve my sewing skills and make my own.  I think I would look fabulous wafting around in an elegant silk caftan as I walk the dogs in the morning in my runners!

 

In addition, my goldfish have really come up well.  The two fabric varnishes I used were useless, so I sanded them off and used several more coats of marine varnish.  Now they have a lovely satin sheen.  I am so pleased, I am making more fish.  One of my fish had sold in the BIA exhibition when I was there, so other people like them too.  They  really take a lot of time and work, but they are fun to make, and each one has a different character. 

They are so enjoyable to make that I have decided to expand into embroidered birds using hand-dyed fabrics too.  I think they look fun as mobiles.  This one has just had the first of up to 6 layers of varnish.

I finished one set of  drink coasters using the Japanese prints I made earlier in the semester based on heraldry and they look very stylish.  The placemats I have made using the leaf prints have also turned out well, thank goodness. 

I am currently designing some new coasters based on my eco-dyed fabrics, and incorporating sashiko thread, and hope they come out as well.  Not sure when I'll actually get round to making them, but the idea is there.  I am still thinking of other ways of using earlier printed fabric.  Cushions? Bags? panels for skirts?  Not sure.  I will keep mulling.

The piece de resistance turns out to be my tree quilt which is totally eco-dyed and hand printed, pieced, quilted and machine embroidered.  I am really pleased with it even though I didn't use "my" colours.  It is much more muted than my usual fare, but still looks good. It makes me feel as if I am getting the hang of eco-dyeing, even when I still get the disasters noted above.  Even better, someone else liked it at the exhibition and bought it!

I was so pleased with it, I made another quilt for the exhibition, using some screenprinted material I printed earlier in the year, and adding some machine embroidery, then binding it with some of my darker eco-dyed material.  It is very different in style, but I still think it works well.

I am so excited, that I have decided to make a "traveller's blanket" inpired by Dijanne Cevaal's  work featured in this issue of Quilting Arts Magazine.  I might take it with me on holiday so I can keep working on it - if I get I get the material cut up, adhered and wadded in time!  I have so many plans described above, I wouldn't be surprised if they don't all end up in my UFO (unfinished objects )pile!

I have also gone back to some of my prints on paper and am embellishing them with watercolours.  This adds different moods and atmospheres to the prints which I am liking.  Unfortunately, in the mess that is my house, I have mislaid the masking tape that is necessary to keep the paper flat, and my adventures in this medium have come to an abrupt halt.  Guess it is time to clean up!

Meanwhile, in the lead up to Christmas, I have been cooking a lot too.  I have gradually assembling the ingredients to make my annual fruit cakes, prunes in port, cathedral cake and chocolate panforte in the next two weeks.  We have been having a lot of lighter meals too:  Thai fish cakes, grilled oysters, prawn salads, chicken and beef stir fries, and a rather nice recipe I got from a lady in a Vietnamese food store using pork, mustard greens and salted duck egg flavoured with oyster sauce.  Bob and I have also been eating a lot of pickled vegetables with our meals, inspired by the yummy ones we had in Japan.  I have bought a lot from the food shops in Fortitude Valley and we are working our way through them.  I have also discovered abalone sauce, some dried forest mushrooms, some chutneys and some marinades which we are going to try out.  I was assembling some gift baskets for some friends and couldn't withstand the temptation of getting some things for us too!