Early mornings...............

Hi friends,
This term has been filled with lots of early morning starts again as I head to another primary school. Not as many children as I normally have - but boy have we been busy!
This theme is fairytale and these photos give you an idea of the layout of prefelts we have made before the final push starts and we felt it to completion.

The glorious rosy border was created one evening when I taught a class to all the staff. They got to take a flower home and donate the others to the wall hanging.

You can probably guess the fairytales. Amongst the most popular were Jack and the beanstalk and the Gingerbread Man.

There will be a great deal of add ons created this week. Including other felted items as well as hand and machine embroidery.

All the leaves and the border colour ( which is actually a brick wall ) were created at a parents class. So all in all this has very much been a community project and it will hang in the foyer of the school eventually when it has been framed.

I don't have a favourite bit although the candy canes are pretty special and I just love Red Riding hood and the wolf.

The beanstalk for Jack is on the right hand side of the border with bunches of green beans made by the preps!

Lovely calorie free "lollies" for the Hansel and Gretel cottage.

Wish us luck doing all the final rolling! My arms ache just thinking about it!

Love Elizabeth

XXX

Out the back..............

Dear Friends,
Howdy! No I haven't dropped off the end of the world! Just so very busy - I have schools booked all term so lots of felting at primary level! Pics soon.

Also the garden is yelling with new life! This is the view as you come down the stairs out the back door.

This most magnificent shade of yellow - I haven't retouched the photo at all. In actual fact these are the remnants of the winter broccoli and broccolini (baby broccoli) . They have gone to seed of course but they were so pretty that we couldn't bear to remove them - I think that our bees watched with disgust as they were all ripped out this evening.

New cherry blossoms! "So what" I hear you say - well actually cherries take aaaaaaaaaaaaages before you get any fruit. So after 6 years we have blossoms! I know you are all thrilled for us!

More seeded veges - so gorgeous.

Pink geraniums - whenever I am in the garden -and today was a particularly pretty day - I make up lists in my head of my top fave flowers. I am so easily pleased! It changes a bit but geraniums are often in my top five. There are about 100 different shades of pink I am sure.

A recent nuno felt scarf, shades of blue and cinnamon with a few olive and lavender highlights.

It really is wonderful how you can make a regular colourway less predictable by adding a small amount of colour to act as an accent or highlight. I find that I spend a great deal of time thinking about these sorts of additions - what is the element that will make it more unusal.

Frequently it is the colour. Whether these highlights occur during the laying out stage or are saved until embroidery or beads are added doesn't really matter. There are some really great zinger colours - ones that I often dwell on are red, lime, lavender grey and mustard and olive.

Every best wish for a creative week ahead, dear friends

Love

Elizabeth

XXX

Spring is creeping in.........

Hi fellow artists,
Just dropping in to give you an update on the felt in the last post. After much stitching it is cut up and starting to take shape into a new figure. She is sitting on a few other felts of similar shades that I may add to her. If anyone is keen to help me out with her name please drop me a line.

Meanwhile the outside is starting to reveal that Spring is on the way. Each morning I go into the garden with my first cup of tea (first of many!) and see what has decided to show its' face. This is the first of many lavenders.

Poppies are just about to burst.

Snapdragons are simply showing off amongst the delicate wild freesias that we do nothing to and they continue to appear year after year. As I garden away with Mum, beds are dug over and manure thrown in, stuff pulled out and new things planted.

Mum planted the freesias when she first built the house (1962). I never can recall the garden without them and yet year after year they poke through fanfaring the commencement of the new season. NOT ONCE have we replaced them and yet like some magnificent wake up call they appear on cue. The bluebells and snowdrops are the same. Pretty groovy isn't it?

This very soft grey bush is sporting these gorgeous lavender shades.

Whilst the euphorbia (green stuff) and the statice are complementing each other well.

Well I can't say I mind the turn in the weather as I am longing to be in the garden again.

Hoping everyone has time to enjoy a garden somewhere this week, no matter what the season
Love

Elizabeth

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100th Posting!

Hi to all!
This is my 100th posting! Hurrah! I am so pleased to have started this blog - having met so may wonderful friends. I think I may have held off for a while thinking it was all too hard but in reality it has become a very real part of my day! How important it is to remain open minded.
I check in every morning and catch up on everyones news and feel that before I have left my seat I have travelled to so many wonderful places!

Well Spring is having a wobbly start here in Melbourne. Maybe this has something to do with the shades of this felt I am working on! Very much more subdued for me as you can tell but no less enjoyable. I always find changing just one element in my work a good challenge. The most obvious is colour. But you could easily select shape, size, orientation, decoration or subject amongst others.

These seed beads are so lovely a brushed golden colour - not too shiny! They look a reasonable size here but the whole container is only about an inch across!

Selecting threads to enhance the felt.

Over coordinating is always an easy hole to fall into. Throwing in something out of the ordinary keeps it fresh.

I hope everyone has something really lovely planned for the weekend. I have 5 super students coming tomorrow so I better not stay glued to this laptop all night!

Cheers until next time,

Love

Elizabeth

XXX

Details...........

Dear friends
Hoping this Sunday evening finds everyone well and happy.
Here are a few pics of the finished Underwater Felt installation. All seperate items were made by children from Prep to Grade 6. Many hours have been spent stitching everything into position which has enhanced everything quite beaitfully I think.

I hope I don't make this sound as if it was an arduous task - it cetainly wasn't, far from it!
I really loved watching it become more detailed. I was quite disappointed to have to return it -
although I am really quite pleased to have my tables back!

It now travels to the framer who will have the fun job of box framing it ready to be hung.

I could not get a good shot in of the whole piece sorry! When it is vertical I will be able to get a better shot at it and will post them when it gets back from the framer.

Have wonderful week everyone.

Love

Elizabeth

The lovely straight stitch

Hi dear friends,
Thankyou to everyone for your comments in the last post! I always let the children know that people are interested in their artwork and although we are accustomed to informing each other about our own artwork, children are just thrilled to bits to know that there are poeple out there in the world that are keen to see what they have achieved. They are so surprised that anyone would be interested. So thankyou!

Meanwhile I am working on a small piece that has yet to reveal its purpose to me, so am stitching whilst I wait. The lovely straight stitch is just so effective for outlining and light quilting effects.

Once again I am doing the simple straight stitch and am really enjoying it. My favourite threads are perle 3 and perle 5. The sheen is just so beguiling.

Now usually I am a purist for using natural fibres. Wool, silk, soy, bamboo, linen etc. Now and then I break out and use something entirely SYNTHETIC!!!!!!!!!

The white spotty fabric was such an instance and you can see they are a flocked circle on a very fine bridal tulle. Just gorgeous really! I love the way the net almost disappears and leaves the white spots floating above the wool.

There is still quite a way to go. Some machine stitching next I think!

See you soon

Love

Elizabeth

XXX

Still stitching........................

Dear friends,
Well the Watery World continues with the felting having taken place. It was so large that it was felted by walking on it for about 4 hours, then lots of rolling another half day and then some massaging and rubbing. Lots of little feet walked up and down and back and forth and because we kept rotating with new people every 10 minutes, nobody became bored!

Here you can see many of the 3D items in place and it really is just lovely.
These photos were taken today, standing on a chair and reaching my arms out as far as they would go to get the whole work in! It measures 2.2 metres by about 1.7 metres. It will be easier when it is vertical and I can get a better angle on it.

Everyone loves the octopus and I must confess that he is one of me faves as well.

Crabs clinging to rocks

and a little of school of fish in the background - travelling in a very purposeful way. Eventually it is going to be hung in a new part of the school still under construction. At least the art will be ready on time!

This is my only piece of work this week - using odds and ends of merino and some throwsters silk. When I am tired I find that making something with no purpose is really quite restful. No end result to worry about, no measurements to consider, no shapes or colours to plan.

Just making for the joy of it.

It is an attitude and state of mind that can yeild great results. Not every time of course, but certainly unexpected and quite removed from what one would normally achieve.

Hoping everyone has time to make a little something this week, simply for the joy of creating.

love

Elizabeth

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