Felt embroidery workshop

 While at Bicheno I also did a workshop on embroidered felt pieces. The wonderful Marilyn from the Westbury area showed us how the create some magical felt designs. She very kindly gave us some of her felted alpaca pieces. With such a wonderful starting point  we were destined to create a magical piece. The top two pieces are her work and the last one is my work in progress. I am in love with her work. A huge thankyou to her for sharing her work with us.

bicheno time again

My annual trip to Bicheno for the Handweaves spinners and dyers Guild weekend away has rolled around again. I was so looking forward to having a weekend holiday with my mum. Even though I though I would just sit back and relax and do a little spinning this year I ended up doing 4 workshops and had a great time. Tara from the Delorain group ran this class on eco dyeing. Some of us headed down to the beach to collect saltwater to add to our jars and we collected some leaves, seaweed and gumnuts to add to our bundles . We then boiled the jars to seal then. Mine now sits on the back verandah until christmas before I can open it and see what it looks like.

Dads paintings

I thought I would share some of my fathers paintings with you (R V Hodgman). I wanted to have a reminder of some of his works as my grandfather was also an artist but his paintings are mainly in private collections and there is no photographic record of his collective works. I was able to take photos of these ones, maybe later I can share others if I get photos of them as well.

As with all art everyone likes something different and my favourites are usually not the same ones as my Dads favourites. I hope you enjoy looking.

 I have this self portrait, he sits at the head of the table and keeps an eye on us all.

where does my time go?

 I have been working away at this applique quilt for the past year. I bought the kit from the craft fair from a local lady Hugs and Kisses.  I think I have done well getting this far in my first quilt. I have re found my love of hand sewing. But I still have a long way to go before it is finished so spinning and knitting will have to wait.

And then I have been doing some natural dyeing with the four o'clock flower.( I think it is mirabilis jalapa) The leaves were given to me from the medieval garden housed at our botanical gardens. This was one of the early dyes used in England which had been brought back from south America, Peru I think. I had read a PHD paper written on the subject but I was very disappointed as I was hoping for a nice pink colour. From the left I used no mordant, next three had alum and the last two had copper. the far right is a mix of native Tasmanian plants I had thrown together from left over pots. The alum wool did not take at all even though the water was looking strong. Maybe I will have another go next time the plants are pruned.

a quick felting note

 I have been playing around with making felt flowers. I will have to finish these two off with some central beads or stamens.

 And I had to add this lovely lady, made by one of the other Tassie felters, JustJan, What a beautiful doll, and wearing a felt jacket.

native orchids

 While wandering in the bush at our place I came across these little gems.
They were growing in a hollow on a rock . Please forgive my finger in the photo but it was all I had to show how small these native orchids are. Nothing much may be growing in my garden but these seem to be doing very well all by themselves.