(raylee).

Vintage Theme Collage/Mixed Media

 working on a pair .......collage mixed media on old book covers, still in progress.

 the inside of the book cover, i used the black outside of the cover.....

 painted book pages, torn for collage....& torn magazine pages,.......a vintage theme.....

paper doily & gel medium to create some texture.....

 over the collage.....

......more to come......

(raylee).

Wee Jasper Journal Pages - ( pre Creative Awakening)

 collaged & stitched pages for the "wee jasper journal" showing photos of "Nell".

 two "cretonne" hand sewn pot holders made by my great grandmother, "Nell".(they still have the black soot marks on them from the black kettle that hung from a hook over the open fireplace).
"Nell" in her younger days.

 i have been stitching the paper pages onto fabric & making tabs which will be used to secure all the pages when they are completed.

an excerpt from the journal:
 "her name was Ellen Mary but she was known as "Nell".
to me she was nana grace, my great grandmother. she lived in a small house built by the men in her family, from timber cut from the bush. (this was also my first home).
the floors were dirt, the walls were papered with newspaper & magazine pages to keep the draughts out.
no running water, it was carried in kerosene tin buckets from the river.
no electricity. kerosene lamps & candles provided light, we went to bed early!
there was a fuel stove & an open fire in the kitchen, which was the dining, living area, no lounge room.
washing up was done in a dish with boiling water from the black kettle that was always on the fire, & sunlight soap.
her days were filled with work. washing was done in a copper tub with a fire underneath to boil the water. the clothes & linen were moved around with a long stick & when they were clean, lifted out steaming with the stick & had to cool before they could be wrung out by hand & hung on the line with the long prop in the middle to keep the line up.
a blue bag was added the water to make the whites whiter!
she had a vegetable garden, fruit trees, & a flower garden. chooks, turkeys, dogs & cats & cows for milk. she made her own jams, pickles & preserves & still found time to make clothes & furnishings  & she sewed her own aprons from calico with embroidered "crinoline ladies", also tablecloths, doilies & potholders etc.
next to the fireplace there was a small window & hanging at the window were curtains made from a pink floral that nana grace called "cretonne". i have two worn tattered potholders made from those curtains.
her "waste not, want not " ways have stayed with me.
(raylee).

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

our backyard is surrounded by greenery so i thought i would show you some......as it is St. Patricks Day .
there are lots of trees so there are lots of birds. rainbow lorikeets are the most colourful.
a couple of recycled projects, the tablecloth i made from a  hand painted cloth that had seen better days, added some pieces of of old patchwork from bed covers & stitched embroidered doilies over the holes.
a work in progress on a used canvas.......creating a  textured surface with moulding paste, stencils & stamps, buttons, & acrylic paint.
enjoy your day whatever you are doing!
(raylee).

Bits and Pieces

I recently got the opportunity to change my space...

so have been going through my "stuff "...

 

found a couple of lacy tablecloths... 

which became a curtain for the window...

a bit of a look at what I've been working on...

with the nose of the new machine...

sample fabric which still has the colour name stickers on...

trying to match up some similar colours...

to make a bigger size quilt...

also found this odd creation from my Grannie...

all the rage in my early teens...

baby doll face with crochet plastic raffia to hold a ball of string...

and the string end comes out her mouth...

funny...the stuff we keep...

an old box that I had covered in paper mache brown paper...

with the old Christmas images from a magazine...

and this box is full of maps...

places we've been...

and collections for use one day...

 

and a couple of Raylee's early works...

that I took from her stash...

a few years ago...

so everything old is new again...

different things to look at for a while...

till I pack them up again...

 

its no wonder that I cant throw anything away...

Creative Awakening - Wee Jasper Journal Pages

this afternoon i have been putting together some pages for "the wee jasper journal"........my earliest memories of people who sowed the seeds of creativity for me: in the beginning my mother & all my grandmothers, & my great grandfather.

 

 my mum with three of her uncles.

 my great grandmother "Nell". a collaged page for the wee jasper  journal......

 the old wee jasper school where my school days began. here is an excerpt from today's journalling:
 " i  started school later than most kids, i was close to nine! it was 1963, i remember it well as it was the year president Kennedy was assassinated. that was the biggest news during my early childhood.
my older cousin went to the wee jasper school, so my aunty volunteered to take me too. i was not keen on the idea, anyway after a lot of sulking & tears i went with them.
it was a one class room , one teacher school. the ages of the pupils ranged from about six to sixteen.
most of the lessons were all jibberish to me. i had no idea what the teacher was talking about a lot of the time.
i learnt three things at that school,: i hated boiled egg sandwiches,
                                                    lunch time was the best part of the school day, we played rounders i think it's like softball?,
                                                    the third & best of all was the first time we were told to go outside for a lesson.
what a surprise when we were introduced to a pretty young blonde woman - Miss  Nancy Cathles.
Nancy changed my mind about school, she taught us to weave - just the simple kind with wool & a piece of cardboard. this was major for me, i had only seen sewing & knitting until that day.
this was new & exciting & easy. i could do it without help from an adult!, which wasn't the case with sewing & knitting.
from that day on i looked forward to school, well just the days that Nancy came to teach us crafty things."

                                                  

 some of the kids i went to school with.

 Nancy was a pupil at the school in 1950 (kneeling on the right side of photo).

  i have stitched this page from the journal onto an old doily. i have decided to make a paper & cloth journal using embroidered doilies, calico & cotton florals.

 the embroidered side of the doily is the back side of the page......

a close up of the machine & hand stitching with tabs at the side. each page will have three  tabs.
  when all the pages are completed the tabs will be placed one over the other & held together with  buttons.
(raylee).

Tea For Two.......

.......a pretty quilted wall hanging given to me  by my sister many years ago. she hand stitched the appliqued teapot, cups & reused an embroidered doily for the cloth.

 the hanging did live on a wall somewhere in the house, i can't remember where. 

it's next place of abode was on the seat of a chair, & as things come & go it went to a box in the cupboard along with other bits & pieces that had out lived their lives.

every now & then i pull these boxes from the cupboard to see what they contain, & to see if there is anything that can be reused.

 along side the wall hanging there were pieces of block printed calico left over from previous bag makings. most of them blue, my favourite. 

one can never have too many bags, so here is my newest. 

a good size for shopping or carrying sketch books, or lunch.

side gusset.......

 ......lined inside, with a pocket......

 .........the back, long handles.....

......or short handles.
(raylee).

Mango Chutney

 i fell in love with mangoes at the first smell........growing up we had never heard of mangoes.
it wasn't till later when we moved from the country into town that  mum brought some home from the fruit & vegetable shop.
 i had never tasted anything like them before........you just can't eat one.......

 i was given some recently,...... well a lot,..... so many we couldn't eat them all.
so i peeled, & cut them up, added garlic, ginger, chilli, spices, salt, sugar & vinegar........

 brought all the ingredients to the boil,.......simmered slowly, let it cool for awhile.......mango chutney!

spooned  the chutney into jars.

put labels on the jars........ i found the labels in a magazine ......."daphne's diary" www.daphnesdiary.com

 went through my scraps of fabric (all bought at the op shop), found some pink  block printed calico, ( previously curtain lining that i had block printed  with acrylic paint & textile medium to make bags), some pieces of  floral linen  & an embroidered doily , & tied these onto the lids with raffia.

my favourite part of this was not the cooking, but decorating the jars & taking the photos.
(raylee).

Nature Collage - 365 Creative Challenge 2013

yesterday's collage today......my grand daughter gave me the gumnuts & feather  to use in a collage.
 i rescued the cardboard, christmas  wrapping paper & raffia from the bin, & the hessian & old bits of doily were scraps from the wedding decorating.
all put togetther  with gel medium on an old book cover.

two more to go!
(raylee).