Roses, what is it about the rose? it must be the queen of flowers! They are such a thing of beauty, smell divinely, look amazing. Talking of roses, two of my most favourite people have recently started blogging.
Jules of http://creativeblessingsofjoy.blogspot.com/
And Barbara of http://rosesonthewater.blogspot.com/
You need to pop on over and introduce yourself and get acquainted with them.

Some of my roses, all gifts to us from friends when we lost Callum. These are Dublin Bay, Winchester cathedral and treasure box you can also see Heritage in the distance. Also lots of lavender, one of my favourite alltime flowers and smells and viscara. The rose flower must be one of the most beautiful of all God's creations. truly magnificent and the scent!!!!!! Well, I know man has worked at them and changed them but the fragrance is divine.
The weather over Christmas here has been wet and cold but that suits me fine coming from the northern hemisphere, Christmas is not christmas if its not cold. But the weather is changing again and the sun is peeking out from the clouds and it is going to be a nice day.

Some of the goodies I usually bake or make at Christmas. The top ones are a Vienesse almond/vanilla shortbread type biscuit, the next is what is called Taiblet in Scotland but Russian fudge in New Zealand. Then there are 3 other fudges. I usually only ever make fudge at Christmas these days and even then, I sometimes don't get around to it.
I loved looking at the picture of Pat's caramel turtles. Also fascinating to see what traditional things that other do at Christmas.

As we are all pondering this year and looking forward to the next I thought you might like to read a little quote which I think is just lovely. It is from the main character Flavia, in Mary Nickson's latest book, called "Facing the music"
She is playing her flute with a group of schoolboys who are delighted with her playing. One small boy asks her how she gets it to sound like that and she replies.

'JUST LOTS AND LOTS OF BORING PRACTICE, I'M AFRAID", SAID FLAVIA LAUGHING, "BUT ALSO MAKING THE SOUND BEAUTIFUL IN YOUR OWN HEAD BEFORE YOU EVEN PLAY A NOTE. IT ALL STARTS INSIDE YOU"

This is enchanting and I love the concept of making it beautiful inside of you first. It fits in with Sharon's "Slow cloth" and what creating, and making something is all about.

One of favourite scriptures is Isaiah 45, "I will go before....... break down gates of bronze and bars of iron........ There is a lot more to it than those few words but you get the picture. I am also in love with the work that http://ruthrae.blogspot.com/ does. She had a article in Cloth paper scissors or Quilting arts, I forget which one, on doorways. Her work is fantastic and I love the way she designs and brings her pieces together. I got the template for the door from QA and have wanted to have a go for a while. This piece is all done on the embellisher. The base is black acrylic felt which has had a cheap organza embellished all over then some glitzy fibres have been added and finally some angelina. On reflection it didn't need the angelina, either that or I just don't like the look of the angelina this time. The words are just walnut ink stained paper embellished with the organa to hold in place. The inside door is also embellished felt, this time with other layers added, including some painted fusible web.
The jewels done the bottom are the hot glue one that are applied with an applicator.

I finished this fan a few months back but just got the seam sewn up and the icicles
attached last night. The gorgeous glass icicles are from Terry of my glass garden.

My log cabinish cushions. They are not finished yet, so much going on at the moment. I stumbled across these through sew mama sew again when visiting one of the blogs mentioned there, infact the one where I got the bag tutorial.
http://tinyhappy.typepad.com/tiny_happy/2007/11/log-cabinish.html
she had made a couple and she got the idea from
http://www.daciaray.com/?p=160
I had to go and have a look in what little information I have at home on quilting and read it is best to have a dark side and a light side. I sort of got it. But the fabrics speak for themselves, they are "Lonni Rossi" from 2005, my Darling sons bought them for me, after a little gentle and not so gentle hints as I have been in love with them since reading an article about her in Quilting Arts 2005. Hopefully once I am organised for the Cgristmas holidays I will be able to get them finished.

This is the bag from the tutorial posted on Sew mama sew,
you can find the tutorial here
http://tinyhappy.typepad.com/tiny_happy/2006/06/shoulder_bag_tu.html

It is a lovely easy bag, finished very quickly, and it is one of those nice, and useful things at the same time. I am really happy with it. It is fully lined and made the same way as you would make a quick waistcoat. I used some upholstery weight fabric that I have had for yonks, so long infact that there was a distinct musty odour to it. That is gone now, thank goodness.
Go check it out if you haven't done already. Also check out sew mama sew as there is something new and exciting every day.

It is such a long time since I lasted posted, I don't know where the time has gone. I got bogged down in my studies, finding it harder than expected, but it is behind me now for the year and that is good. I did enjoy it very much. Towards the end of my last assignment I reread an article by Lonni Roosi from QA from 2005 she said "Art is about the process not the destination" The words were just right for me at the time as it made me realise how much I enjoy learning something new process but I had managed to get myself bogged down in worring about the grade and passing rather than enjoying the learning of new things. The process is fun the end results is not the be all and end all. I want to remember that for the future years of studying.
About 8 or 9 weeks ago my eldest son had a bad accident while snowboarding where he broke his back. He had three broken vertebrae and a cracked rib. We got he call just a few weeks before the 2nd anniversary of our youngest son death. The first thing my husband said was "Now don't panic but...... I can't tell you just how much I did panic, when you have lost one child you hold on with all your might to the others. Now we are on the side of that and he is fine, doing well and back into life again. Hopefully he will not snowboard so fast in the future???????
Since the studies have been finished I have signed up to do "Playways" with Dale of "The thread studio. I am looking forward to playing a bit before the academic year starts again.
On an other note, I stumbled across: http://www.sewmamasew.com/blog2/
a delightful blog showcasing several great tutorials everyday for November. That has gotten me doing a bit of sewing, making a bag, a couple of cushions and a small throw. I must take some pictures to post. Its nice to be back.

I am gathering lots of samples. Things like cloth/paper, lutradur and lace, embellished backgrounds etc. So I decided I needed somewhere to keep them rather than shoving them in a drawer and never seeing them again.
The outside is cloth/paper using calico, watered down PVA, strips of handmade paper, paint and tissue paper. I ripped the various handmade papers, laying them onto the pva on the calico. Then added some paints inbetween, more pva, large sheet of crumpled tissue, finishing off with more paint. The inside is black felt with various fibres embellished into it the the embellisher machine. I then fused the two surfaces together, stitched around the outside and have a simple folio/cover to keep the samples in one place. It isn't very photogenic and for once actually looks nicer in real life then in the photo. May be the metallic and interference paints playing with the lense somehow.

An other piece of lutrador and lace. I think I prefer the texture of the cheescloth on the lutrador, not too sure about the lace. Anyhow, I wanted a quick cover for a A5 journal and this worked quite well. Exactly the right size. There are lots of layers of paint, painted the back first with black paint, then layered lots of colours on the front. I also added an old heart crossstitch that was tattered and torn and a needlepunched motif to the front. Now seeing the photos's I prefer the back, which means, I can just change the cover around, easy peacey.

Spring has sprung in New Zealand.

Busy working on an assignment and trying to take 15 min breaks by doing work either outside or in. It has been up to 15c here today and I managed to get a little while in the garden to weed. I found these delights while there, pansies are one of my favourite flowers. They don't do to well in my garden, as we have a high rainfall and tend to get blackspot. Must try and do something about it this year, as I have almost given up growing them.

Used Deka silk dyes for this ribbon but I don't like the finish. Somehow this dye has changed the feel of the ribbon, there is a stiffness. Can anyone explain this to me? What do others use for dyeing? I would really love to hear.
And while I am here, thank you so stopping by and leaving comments. It is very encouraging.

Blue block, I wanted the words to stand out so kept everything else simple.

I finally got around to making a coffee cuff for myself seeing that I am such a coffee lover and always have a latte at lunchtime at work. I was really looking forward to buying my coffee and slipping it into the cuff, when guess what!!!! My favourite coffee shop have changed the size of their takeaway cups and it didn't fit into my cuff. I was gutted, so took it home again to throw it on the pile in disgust. Never mind, there will be a takeaway shop somewhere with the right size cups. This one is a cloth paper concoction, alah Beryl Taylor. It is my own paper made with red hot pokers.

The first issue of the new emagazine is out, it is called "Fibre and Stitch" If you haven't subscribed you may want to have a look at their website for yourself. http://fibreandstitch.com/index.htm
Sue B has issued a challenge to everyone via their new yahoo group to make something based on one of their articles. And yes you guessed it. Lutrador and lace. Using cheescloth lace, lutrador and paints. This is my first try and I loved playing.
You lightly freemotion sew your bits just to attach them them start painting. The back first and several layers of different paint on the front. I have used purple lumiere, cream, interference in two colours, gold and a couple of others. It is quite stiff so I am not sure how it will be for sewing.
I want to play more but I have to go and study now. One of the lovely things about lutrador is that the light shines through, yummy.

Last one for now. Been experimenting with different flowers and the variegated ribbon. I particularly like the chrysanthemums. This is a work in progress.
Rissa, thanks for visiting, great to hear from you.
Sambob, love it that you stop by and I love your comments too.

A couple more, in this first one I lightly pained the background.
The variegated ribbon really adds some depth which I really like

Some more. Why is it that when you look at a photo you can see what is right and what is not so right with your composition.? I can look at an embroidery for ages and not see things about it. As soon as I looked at these photoes, I could see things that are not quite right. Like the organdy ribbon, the pink flowers, bottom right?
Also the blue ribbons in these photoes are actually purple. Someone told me there is a way to correct it but it is complicated!!!

SRE one with dyed ribbons.
I think you have to pick the flowers that you used the variegated ribbons with, the daisies need to have more of a solid colour, or else ribbons with a slight variegation. Not sure if you can see but on the sre on the left the little lavender daisies? I painted some dye on them to try for some depth.
I like the tall spikey flowers being varigated. Just realised that I have forgotten to finish the left one off - no greenery yet, Duh!!!!