Autumn.

Four months have passed since I finished my course and had my exhibition and I don't know where the time has gone.  I have graduated, at last, and have done 2 small tapestries, but I am enjoying pottering about the garden. The wicking bed was great for the basil and tomatoes and the other bed has had beetroot, different coloured carrots, rocket, cucumbers,  lettuce and 1 self sewn small yellow tomato the seeds of which I intend to keep for next year.

 This month I have picked about 40 + saffron flowers, not a huge amount but enough for maybe 2 risottos.

They are beautiful flowers and the saffron returns are small;  no wonder it is so expensive.

Lots different coloured tomatoes and loads of basil.

The zuccini are still staggering along.

Beautiful berries for breakfast. 

Beetroot hummus..

Nothing nicer than your own produce. 

Is It Art

My lovely husband asked me the other night if his lastest creation is "art".

I think his reading glasses look great and it is quite inventive.  He dabbles in quirky, or some might say bent, installations.  I did a blog about a money tree that I blogged about in Feb. 2012 called the Tree of Life.  I don't know how it came to be called that as he always calls it his money tree.  However here are some of his works.

He is a very good occasional painter but prefers unusual surfaces rather than canvases.  This painting is done on the top of a table he rescued that had been thrown out from the pub over the road.  In it's previous life it served as a table in the beer garden.

The shadow in the background is from another head he did that he didn't like so he turned it into a
a shadow.  He only draws heads that people his brain. 

Last 2 tapestries.

Well, the exhibition which I had before Christmas is over as is Christmas, the New Year and the cricket so I had better put up photos of my last 2 tapestries.

When I had to come up with designs for the Yr.6 part of my course I spent hours thinking about what to weave and one morning woke up with this design in my head, which is how  a lot of my designs happen.  So I went with it.  It represents the 3rd Sunday of Advent with the Angel's candle.  The next design was a lot more difficult to come by.  I was not happy with any of the designs  was playing with so I went back to the cloth and played with it in photoshop and this happened which is what I wove.

It represents post Christmas and the strange shapes are like the ghosts of Christmas. Both of these tapestries are app. 40 cm X 40 cm and took about 140 hours each to weave.  These are the only 2 tapestries I have left as I gave the other sets to the people who inspired them which pleased me.

So, after 9 years I finally get to graduate sometime this year.  Hooray.

Tapestry Exhibition

After nine years, I have finally finished studying!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! and I am having an exhibition in the crypt of the Good Shepherd Chapel at the Convent Complex at Abbotsford.  This is an amazing place and an amazing space and if you are not familiar with it, do what is standard procedure these days - Google it.   I started this journey in 2006 at RMIT and did a few subjects per semester then in 2011, I transferred to  Warnambool which specialises in tapestry weaving.   I started this blog to use as a visual diary in Yr. 3 at Warnambool and the first tapestry I put up was one for my son who built me a loom.  People keep asking me what I am gong to do with myself now that this is finished; I am sure I will find something.
Here is the invitation.

Quite a few of the tapestries in the exhibition,  are posted about in the blog earlier this year.

It would be nice to see any blog lookers there.

Not Tapestry

My sister turned 70 this year so for her birthday I made a Family Sampler to give her.  I used to do lots of cross stitch so I knew it would take a lot of time and I  started in Feb. to have it finished by her birthday in July. 

I used 32 count linen and only sewed in the middle of the day when I could see  properly.

It took me ages to work out the design; the surnames are blocked out for obvious reasons.

It looks much better ironed.

 

Tapestry 4

The whole of the last blog didn't get published because I inadvertently pressed the jump break button and the rest of the blog disappeared.  Now I know to avoid it.

Finished.  I have enjoyed weaving these tapestries.  My sister said they looked like I had cut them up and rewoven them; they are meant to look like that.

Now for a larger one to complete the series.

Tapestry 4

I have finally finished the 8 tapestries relating to the Christmas Table Cloth.  I used the same process throughout.  I wove a small 10cm X 10cm using images and letters from the cloth.

I then played with this image in Photoshop to come up with a background I liked.

 Then I collaged a Christmas symbol and other bits to complete the design.

It looks a bit dull as I scanned it.  In this cartoon I added the Christmas stocking, made a line from the white weaving and completed the C.  Then I wove.