camouflage chook

Roger the rooster in my garden this morning camouflaging himself as a Salvia.....

Red Cross Garden Ramble

Yesterdays Red Cross fund raising garden ramble was a great success. The weather was pretty good, just a light breeze. Rodney and I were flattered to get many compliments about the garden.

Heres pictures of what it was like...

garden beds in front of the studio

pathway at side of garden studio, leading to the gazebo and ponds

door of my garden studio and some Yucca trees

front gate of our house

Bali style gazebo

house frontage from the footpath of Haydon Street, we planted the verges about 10 months ago

mondo grass and paving at the back of the garden studio

a bridge across a pond channel

Roger, our pet Bantam Rooster inspecting young tomatoes as a potential dietary supplement

looking down the garden to the home studio

our garden today

I can't resist showing some more pictures of my garden, it's lovely at the moment

Today is the last day for preparing the garden for the Red Cross Ramble tomorrow. So this afternoon I'll take more pictures in the afternoon, when the light is at the best and show more views.

New PDF pattern - Serenade

Today I've just published my new PDF pattern - the Serenade Skirt. I really love the flattering cut of this A-line skirt and the ever so practical elastic waistband. 

I had lots of fun making samples for Serenade. The multiple panels of the skirt give so much scope for creative mixing and matching of fabrics. As a sewist of many decades I have a big stack of leftover short fabric lengths and it was a delight to go through them to mix and match a heap fabric of leftovers to make the olive green skirt shown here.

Then I went all ecstatic Summery with the bright orange and blue cotton version, which is a mix of those 2 vibrant colours and one of my fabric designs printed by Spoonflower. 

pattern cover of Serenade Skirt

The main picture on the pattern cover shows a black skirt made in a crepe georgette that has red contrast stitching showing on the outside. This fabric has a lovely weight and drape and this skirt feels wonderful to wear. While the red thread was still on the overlocker I also made the bright lime green cotton knit version.

Serenade Skirt, made in knit from a variety of prints and solid colours.

uber Summer version of Serenade in lightweight cotton

Serenade in black crepe georgette with stitching featured on the outside

Serenade in medium weight lime green cotton knit and red stitching

I hope you like this new design. To go with it I've also designed a wonderful little sleeveless vest with applique detailing and hope to have that ready for publishing in 3-4 weeks. Will show you some pictures of the Serenade Vest soon....

On a completely different subject....You are all invited to see my garden! This Sunday October 16th my garden will be opened for viewing as part of the local Red Cross' annual fund raising Garden Ramble. There are 2 other gardens included and the cost is $20 to see all.

Here are the addresses

1. "Rosewood", 4 Debenham Street. Blandford 10am - 1pm

2. Swansborough Garden, 34 Haydon Street, Murrurundi, 10am - 4pm

3. Riverside Garden, 505 Pages River Road, Murrurundi, 10am - 4pm

a view of my garden at 34 Haydon Street

new pattern - "Grecian Tunic"

This is my newly published PDF pattern - Grecian.

Grecian tunic made in grey 

I often have a hard time finding a name that feels right for a design but this one came easily as the way the fabric of the garment drapes and swirls reminds me of the way greek women in ancient times wrapped the "toga" cloth around their body.

The Grecian Tunic is a long line loose fitting pullover tunic with elbow length sleeves. The hemline is irregular, slanting to a V point at the right side front hemline. At the left front the side seam falls in looping soft drapes from the underarm to below the hipline. 

There are 2 versions of the garment to make, VIEW ONE has a deep round neck and VIEW TWO has a wide and softly draping cowl collar. There are no zips or button openings, it just pulls on over your head. Much of the reason why the garment drapes so elegantly is because the front pattern piece is cut on the bias of the fabric. This also results in any print lying diagonally across the front, offering the possibility for creative use of stripe fabrics.

Grecian Tunic pattern cover

Grecian Tunic made in an open weave cotton gauze

Grecian Tunic in a polyester elastane knit, note how the print lies diagonally across the front
because the pattern piece is cut on the bias of the fabric

back view of the Grecian Tunic

in defence of chooks

I had to post this entreaty on behalf of KFC on my community forum this morning.....

As regards the matter of the feathered outlaw known as KFC:

The notorious complainant “Anonymous” has been roused to call upon the local Council by-laws to protect tender ears and the sleep they are entitled to. This morning I received a visit from “Compliance Officer” - Anonymous having turned me in as the party harbouring the feral noisome Haydon Street cock-a-doodle-rama.

KFC, as the bandit feathered throat has become referred to in our household, is a bantam rooster that did in fact find asylum in our backyard about 2 months ago. KFC found it an environment conducive to rooster flourishment, being able to avail himself of the water and parrot seed provided in daily abundance for his feathered relatives. We didn’t bring him here as a pet and initially tried to catch him, intending to turn him over to the border control authorities who would duly torture and punish him for his presumption….KFC however proved a wily escape artist capable of flying literally into the treetops to prolong his outrageous desire for survival.

After a few weeks we got used him, despite his enthusiastic proclivity for celebrating the arrival of daylight around 4 am (though Compliance Officer astonished me with Anonymous’ assertion that the immodest Rooster starts whooping at 1am and goes on to 10am…..)

I would like to sincerely apologise to Anonymous and any other residents of Haydon Street, who have lately suffered the affliction of KFCs awful assault on their eardrums, particularly for the infelicitious hour of the morning when KFC is aroused to perform his Olympic scale yodelling.

In the manner of bleeding heart latte sippers my husband and I would like to plead for “live and let live”. Can we beg the Rooster Intolerance Posse to pause it’s pogrom long enough – perhaps up to a couple of weeks? – while we seek to instigate a solution that has been put to us by a fellow dissolute  poultry lover. We have heard that a wide Velcro collar may be applied to the offending feathered throat, thereby obstructing the windbaggery from filling the bladder from which the opera of offence is subsequently emitted.

To perform this procedure we take on the challenge of capturing the wily critter and this may take several days….? This morning we are obtaining a cage to be able to enact this. Regrettably we are away this weekend as a relative is inconveniently turning 80….but promise to be back on the case Monday morning at whatever hour the 2 legged descendent of the dinosaur starts his furore…

In the interim we beg you not to resort to throwing poison into our yard as we have little dogs we adore (rescued from another canine prison camp….) Fortunately for them they aren’t inclined to noisome barking!

Compliance Officer is satisfied we are actively seeking to remedy riotous rooster and will give us a couple of weeks grace to capture and de-bark the aforementioned.

Anonymous, may all your eggs be fresh and praying you don’t choke on your next chicken roast dinner

All the beast,

Pearl Moon (defiant defender of the under-chook)

PS. Compliance Officer arrived at the door when I was in the middle of writing a letter of outrageous indignation to politician and local MP Barnaby Joyce after hearing him on Radio National this morning coming out in defence of maintaining the Greyhound racing “industry”,  which I’ll now resume……..

Pearls news

Hi everybody....long time, no posting....but I'm still here and plodding on with the work.

Tomorrow I'm off to Rockhampton in Queensland to teach for 5 days at "Wrapt in Rocky" and greatly looking forward to it.

For those who've been asking me the WAVE pattern is now available for sale in either my Etsy or Shopify shops and I've fixed the problem that was occurring with Etsy.

WAVE pattern cover

Front of WAVE dress

Recently I had the privilege to be asked to participate in a 3 minute documentary style film for television. Createability 2016 is a project open to professional filmmakers to profile artists with disability living and creating in regional NSW.  I look forward to talking about my life experience of being on the autistic spectrum (I have Aspergers) as an adult woman.When I come back from Rocky at the beginning of July the producer will come to Murrurundi to spend a couple of days filming at my home and studio. The resulting short film will be shown on TV from time to time, as a "filler" item between programs, over a few years. I'll let you know more about this as things progress....

earrings

Just added to my Etsy shop. More tomorrow......

embroidery scrolls

Pink neon delight

Wrapt in Rocky not far away

Last year I wrote about "Wrapt in Rocky" an art event that I'll be teaching at during 26th July - 2nd June. Theres only a few weeks left to book a place either in my class or in one of the other 11 fantastic choices on offer. The classes at Wrapt in Rocky are 5 days so this is a wonderful opportunity to really immerse yourself in learning new skills and techniques in the presence of the talented tutor of your choice and surrounded by other enthusiastic student artisans.

Over the next couple of weeks I'm going to show you some of the skills and projects you could learn in my class. My class is called "Bling your Cloth" and I'll be teaching the variety of techniques I combine to create a piece of art cloth.....

This is a skirt I finished yesterday. Its just called "Libby's Skirt" after the customer who commissioned me to make it.

Front of Libbys Skirt

This is essentially a straight skirt that has an assymetric wrap overlay attached at the waistline.

The main decorative techniques I'ved used are applique, stenclling, machine embroidery and hand stitching. It took about 12 hours to make it.

front view of Libbys skirt shows how the overlay is a flap that closes across the midriff at the top right of the waist

The overlay wraps right around the skirt, lapping across the front and closing with a button and loop at the right side waistband. There is no zipper, but a vent that is open on the left side under the flap.

closure of the flap at the right waistband. I've made those cute budgie buttons and they're for sale in my Etsy shop.

back of Libbys Skirt showing the front flap opened out, the slit along the hemline is actually the side seam

back view of Libbys Skirt

a close up of the decorative work across the front flap. The loop at the top can close on any of the 4 buttons on the right side

I'd love to meet you at Wrapt in Rocky and show you how to make a garment like this.

More tantalising creations will be featured in the next few days.

Footnote... in my last blog I showed the "Byzantium Treasure" necklace and said I'd be giving away 3 kits. I still intend to do that in the near future when I can get enough time away from the multiple other pressing priorities...!

Treasure to give away...

This is a new adornment called "the Byzantium Treasure"

Close up of the focal piece of the Byzantium Treasure

I'm surprised there isn't a lot more mixed media wearable art being made. I think the combination of materials makes strikingly beautiful decoration. Here we have metal, glass, cloth and stitching in a juxtaposition of mediums; putting together the <soft - hard> and <shiny reflective - matte, light absorbing> surfaces makes this an intriguing object, to me....

Three of the very well known mixed media adornment designers you might know are Ayala Bar from Israel, Odile Mandrette and Marie le bas Bleu, both from France (not sure whether the latter is a person or a brand...?)

On my Pinterest page "Adornments - fibre and cloth" I've collected hundreds of images of items I admire so if you'd like to see more here's a link to have a look -

https://www.pinterest.com/pearlredmoon/adornments-fibre-and-fabric/

If you like this necklace stay tuned for my next blog towards the end of this week as I'll be giving away 3 kits for the Byzantium Treasure!

I'd love to hear what you think so please post a comment....