A trip to Walkerville South and spring blossoms.

We went down south to Victoria for a weekend at Walkerville South with some very old friends and were stunned at all the green growth and the spring blossoms.  I had forgotten how beautiful spring can be.

We stayed at Bear Gully Coastal Cottages, which are wonderfully situated on the cliff overlooking Wilson's Promontory, and beautifully landscaped with a mainly native garden to give the feeling of privacy, and yet take advantage of the view.

One of our friends had brought a wildflower book so we wandered around trying to identify the plants and photographing the nicest flowers.

Then we walked down to the foreshore through wonderful ti-tree woods

to the foreshore.  The birdlife was fantastic:  sea eagles, blue wrens, magpies, kookaburras, crimson rosellas, honeyeaters, and my favourite, beautiful little swallows.  (  At night, we were visited outside by sweet little bats swooping after the insects drawn to the lights of the house).  We saw no snakes, but did see a wallaby, and this blue tongue lizard sunbaking by the side of the path:

The beach was full of wonderful textures in its rock, sand, shells, plants and water, so we spent a lot of time walking, rock pool exploring, shell seeking and photographing inspirational sights:

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On the last day, we went up to the Cape Liptrap lighthouse to admire the incredibly rugged view.  No wonder they have had so many ship wrecks along this coast.

 

Back in Melbourne, we discovered that the spring had sprung too!  There were flowers all over the garden, and visiting ravens, honeyeater and lorikeets:

 

 

Makes me itch to get out the watercolours.  What a pity it was a flying visit.

Pinterest inspiration

If you have been following my Pinterest boards, you will have noticed that I have spent a lot of time over the past few weeks pinning inspirational ideas.  However, this time has not really been wasted, because I have also been doing a lot of creating as a result of some of my pins.  For instance, I made these little creations using felt, embroidery threads and bits from some of my discarded jewellery and left over beads:

Also as a direct result of my pins, I have been making bowls out of PVA glue and mulberry paper impregnated with leaves that I found in my local Thai supermarket.  Yes, I know that it is very retro, but it is fun and I really like the results.

Speaking of my local Thai supermarket, I bought dried Red Cotton Tree flowers  and  Sorrel ( hibiscus sabdariffa)

I boiled the cotton fabric in soda ash, mordanted it with alum and boiled it in the dried flower soup.  The colour was amazing, but I had to rinse the fabric to get off the sludge and it faded a lot.  I also dyed with purple carrots and the same thing happened. I really haven't got much control in this eco-dyeing yet.  I need to do a workshop.  I still like the fabrics I got, but was hoping for something darker.  I haven't lost enthusiasm though, because my efforts with dyeing waterproof paper were much more successful.  Now to decide to do with all the fabric and paper.

Pinterest also encouraged me to embroider on a jean shirt with variegated Japanese yarn.  Subtle but I really like the effect.  Here are some of the images I free-hand embroidered

And, I finally finished knitting the beanie for the other half.  Believe it or not, he has actually worn it up here in Brisbane!

Exhibitions in Brisbane and working bees with friends

I've had a friend from Melbourne staying with me and it has reminded me how peculiar the location of craft shops is in Brisbane for outsiders.  They seem to be dotted in the most unlikely places, and subject to no zoning laws. The Quilter's Store is situated beside some factories, Apatchy Quilting is underneath a house in the suburbs, The Patchwork Tree appears to be in an isolated old store in the suburbs, Patches Indooroopilly is in a strange little slip road and almost impossible to access for an outsider, Tangled Yarns is in a office/factory area.  They all seem to reply on word of mouth rather than being in a shopping strip, so, for an outsider, access to the internet or a local is a must.

We visited Tangled Yarns for wool as both of us are knitting.  I have to resist buying more wool than I have time to knit, even though the colours are so tempting:

As well as knitting together, we made our usual visit to the art gallery, to see the exhibition, "Quilts 1700-1945", which was fascinating.  Far more than just a display of sewing.  More like a visual history lesson, craft lesson and art lesson combined. I especially loved the old silk quilts which had been embroidered with such skill, because they were so beautiful, but I also found the stories behind many of the quilts interesting, and the variations in the styles and methods illuminating.  For instance, "The Rajah Quilt", 1841, was pieced and embroidered by the female convicts on board the Rajah, on the way to Australia.  Another quilt was made by girl guides in a prisoner of war camp.  One was made by sailors.  Another was intended for a hospital, and was a bit depressing - full of biblical quotes to do with death.  Glad I wasn't the patient under it.  One had a description of the stages of courtship. Some things never change!  I eavesdropped on the volunteer guide who was giving a talk to a group of visitors, but he wasn't really very knowledgeable.  I think using the headphones would have been more informative.

While we were there, we also visited the exhibition, "Ruth Stonely: A Stitch in Time".  Ruth Stonely was a well known Brisbane quilter.  I liked her white quilts, but wasn't so keen on the coloured and black ones.  Still, her methods were interesting.

On the way out, we checked out the exhibition of glassware.  Such beautiful colours and patterns.

We also admired William Robinson's "Four Seasons" (1987).  It has such humour and movement.

Another  visit was to the Brisbane Powerhouse in New Farm, which had an exhibition called "Spare Parts", where different artists decorated used prosthetics.  It always amazes me how different people can take the same idea and come up with such individual responses.  It is simply wonderful

All the limbs were sold to raise money for charity).

We also visited the photographic display of "Yangon (Rangoon) A City to Rescue" which consisted of photographs taken by Jacques Maudy and Jimi Casaccia in 2012.  Again, socially and artistically, very interesting.

Apart from knitting, I  am really enjoying embroidering my strip of pieced hand dyed and hand printed fabrics.  So much fun, even though I have no idea what to do with it.  Who cares?  It can be a sampler if I can't think of anything!

 

 

I have also been dyeing fabric and paper using purple carrots, daffodils and purple cabbage. The daffodil was not very successful, and the fabric faded as it dried, even though I used rusted metal and alum.  I think I need to do some more research on using mordants.

 

 

When my friend left, I was invited my some local friends to a craft get-together.  We were all working on different things, but shared ideas and encouragement.  Here  are some of the things that we five got up to:

patchwork and quilting

 

knitting

making an art bag out of plastic

and making placemats from Kaffe Fassett fabrics.

 Fabulous!  What with exhibitions, the work of friends and Pinterest, I have so many ideas swirling round my head that I will never run out of things to do!