New Doll

I am back from my holiday and back down to work.

Lots of samples to make for my upcoming classes. Along side my embroidery classes this year I am teaching a doll making class. I have taught a design your own doll a couple of times, but these are hard to fill because people are afraid of the word 'design', I have no idea why but there you are.

Well this year I am going to teach all the same doll, which I have designed and see how that goes. And here she is, no name as yet and she may end up with a flower on her tummy!

She will join the Dixey doll family. I hope the others make her feel welcome!

My exhibition opens tomorrow, I can't wait to see how it looks.

exhibiton on its way

I have just posted my exhibition work down to Wellington. The show opens next Monday (30th Jan) at Minerva, 237 Cuba street.
I will feel worried now until I know the work has got there, hopefully tomorrow.

Building Blocks of life

Life leaves an impression

I am off for a few days holiday now to recharge my creative soul after doing all the exhibition work.

Kiwi Icon

I have just sent off my entry to the Kiwi Icon challenge being run by Bernina NZ,

Here it is, a cooking All Black! All done by hand so not sure if Bernina will like that!

Grandma to snails

Jan 17th

My children have had pet garden snails for some time.They live in glass containers in our kitchen. Well now we are the proud parents and grand parents to a collection of baby snails, we have counted 14. The orange lid in the photos is from a milk bottle, the snails are 5mm long.

I am sure some these will lead to a piece of work, if not more than one. Could even be a whole snail exhibition!

Cake stand

Jan 15th 2012

My life is not all fabric and thread, although most of the time it is.

Having seen heaps of these home made cake stands in books, I decided I would have a go. The result was pretty cool apart from the glasses going foggy, something to do with the glue I used. We have it on the table all the time just to make us smile! The biscuits didn't last too long!

Challenge

Jan 10th 2012

At last I have started to stitch together my latest challenge. I belong to Colour Quarterly, A group that meets 4 times a year at All Things Patchwork. In Nov we were given the dark fabric in the photo and the piece should be finished by the end of Feb for the next meeting.

I decided to get lots of colour ways of the same print and piece squares together so it looks like the patchwork was done first then the pattern printed over the top. I have done one seam and I think it looks cool!

Not sure how much I will get done,It may just grow over time.
I can't wait to see what all the other members of the group have done with the same fabric.
Hopefully today I will get more than one seam stitched!
Jo

more circles

Jan 7th 2012
I have become slightly addicted to the 'cut a round ' ruler that means you can cut perfect curves with no problems. This quilt will be my 4th circle quilt! and every one I do gives me an idea for another one.

Well it has been rainning for so many days that my studio needed a bit of summer colour

And this is the result of some circle fun, not all stitched together yet.

I will be teaching how to do quilts like this later in the year so more people can become just as addicted as I am.

All my exhibition work is sorted and ready to be posted down to Wellington, my stress level is about to rise when the exhibition date comes closer, its always a worry when you put your work out for everyone to see. I tell myself it is good for me!

Off now to finish stitching the circles.

Jo

Amazing avocados

Jan 4th 2012

8 years ago I found that an avocado stone had started to grow in my compost heaps, after a few weeks it looked like this

Now after 8 years in the ground, with not really much care we now have our first crop of avocados

Not sure how long we will have to wait before we eat them, but its all very exciting that all this came from a compost heap!

Jo

Exhibition work

Jan 2nd 2012

Wow, I did it again. I feel this may become part of my day if it is as easy as this.
I have to now think of interesting things to blog along with doing all the stuff I normally do!

                                                                    " Listen" ( detail )

Here are a couple of photos of my latest work. They are ready to go to Wellington for my next exhibition.

" Random Thoughts " at  Minerva, 237 Cuba Street, Wellington NZ from Jan 31st - Feb 25th.

                                                               

                                                             ' Look ' ( detail )

Off now to plan my workshops for the year ahead, I will keep you posted on the new stuff I am planning.

Jo

Here at last

Jan 1st 2012
I can not believe I have started a blog. Maybe 2012 is the year of the blog!
I will try my best to wirte something interesting and put on some cool and inspiring photos of stuff I am doing.

Kiss

This is the quilt I have in the USA at the moment as part of the Festival of Art Quilts, Good for you. The photo was taken in the studio before I sent it off.

Thats it for now, hopefully I will keep this up and you will hear more from me

Jo