Sun Printing.

 It was lovely and sunny this morning, so I decided to have a go at sun printing with a new (for me) product from Jacquard called Solar Fast. First I had to make some negative images on transparent film. I wanted to use some pictures that I had taken of cracked and dry mud, but the photos had to be made very contrasty to be used for this process, so a bit of Photoshopping was required.

   Some Solar Fast was spread over a piece of cotton fabric and the transparency laid on top.

 I used Burnt Orange for this test, leaving the film in place for 20 minutes.  Unfortunately the sun started to go behind the clouds at this point, so it was really only intermittent sun shine, but the mud cracks showed up well on this sample.

 By the time that I got to the second trial the sun had gone completely, so I didn't get much of a print at all. This was supposed to be Teal in colour, but it does need the UV rays to develop the colour properly. The technique definitely has potential, but as I don't have a lighting set up inside, I'll have to wait for another good sunny day.

Who's Been Walking in my Mud Puddle?

                                A lovely clear wombat print on the edge of the mud puddle.

Now what's this, 2 wombats out together in broad daylight? Usually solitary and only active at night, this is most unusual. If they are seen during the day it is usually because they are sick, but these 2 don't appear to be sick at all. Maybe it was just such a beautiful morning that they couldn't sleep in!

Unexpected sighting.

                          We spotted this little fellow/girl while out walking this morning.

            It's amazing what a good job a small point and shoot camera can do with its telephoto lens.

Finished!

                   With the exception of a couple of little tidying up stitches, the UFO is finished.
It was not a good idea to hang it from the clothes line in the direct sun for photographing though, as every slight pucker and wrinkle shows up.

                            It looks much better from the reverse however, as it is not in the full sun.

Final Touch.

After quite a bit of trimming of the edges I finally managed to get it all lined up and ready to attach the binding. Not long now until this UFO is finally finished after starting it 5 years ago!

The end is in Sight.

I have just started, or at least spent a few hours working on the quilting of the kaleidoscope quilt.
As a non-quilter I have found it pretty demanding, especially fitting the whole thing through the machine. I have no idea how people would wrestle a Queen size quilt through a domestic sewing machine, or even a double one for that matter. Now I have run out of the right coloured thread, so once I get some more I should be able to finish the quilting. Then of course comes the binding. The quilt police will definitely be waiting to nab me as a result of this project, it's pretty rough and ready, but as it's not going on public display I'm not worried, I just want to finish it!

iPad Play.

 I'm always on the look out for ways of using my iPad for artwork, so I've been experimenting with ArtStudio. As I have been using Photoshop since Version 5, I'm delighted to find that ArtStudio works in a very similar way. Here I've loaded a collage, then added another layer of a different collage and blended the 2.

                           This is a simple inversion with some pen lines added for emphasis.

    I decided that I didn't like the 'bulls eyes' so I've removed them. Under the sea or in the jungle?

Spring Sunshine.

                             A water skink comes out for it's first taste of spring sunshine.

                              How lovely to bask in the warmth after a long and cold winter!

Intruder!

 This is the somewhat dilapidated 6 year old's bush play house. A wombat has decided that it would make a perfect cover for a new burrow.

Deep under the wall of the cubby house is the burrow, which I can't get close enough to really look into as I'm a bit worried that the roof of the cubby might fall on top of me given the slightest of bumps!

More from the Bush.

 This tiny little Honeydew plant is only a couple of centimetres high, the scale is given by the blades of grass alongside. I love the little coronets with their tiny drops of honey on the end of each spike.

                              Three visitors this morning, Yellow Tailed Black Cockatoos.

Spring is Sprung!

 A bunch of beautiful daffodils naturalised in a bush setting. The previous owner of our bush retreat planted bulbs everywhere around the house and also on a hillside leading down to one of the creeks.
It is definitely not good to have exotics growing in the bush, but this part of the land was once cleared, so it's a bit different to planting in untouched bushland. I don't pick the daffodils very often, preferring to see them like this.

This is a floating foamy egg mass of the Banjo frog, also called the Pobble Bonk frog after the sound that a chorus of these frogs make. The frogs in this dam were full of the joys of Spring and could be heard a long way off.

Curves, Lines and Triangles.

 I only just missed my train home this morning, having been into the city to see a textile exhibition.

 I had 11 minutes to wait for the next train, so I started looking up and around, marvelling at the amazing geometry all round me.

             This is Southern Cross Station, the main city station for metropolitan and rural trains.

 Not much colour around, just the blue of a departing train and a couple of red walls.

                  Of course I couldn't resist fooling around with part of an image in Photoshop!

Slippers-Shoes?

 I have no idea what vintage this footwear is or even if they are shoes or slippers. They are very large, so maybe they are slippers for a man.

I spotted them in a small rural museum many years ago and have never got around to researching  them. The hole for the foot to go in appears to be very small and would have been a  tight fit I think. The embroidery appears to be of wool on a cross stitched background.

Photoshop Gauze Play.

 With a little while to spare before I had to go out, I decided to have another play in Photoshop with my various gauze photos.  Here I've made 3 of them into brushes and just put them in various places on a white page.

        Some I've changed colours and some I've altered the size. Just random play, but a lot of fun!

Return to the Quilt.

As today was not a good day for gardening and I was sick of seeing the quilt top on my sewing table I decided to get on the with back of it.  I had several more of the patterned kaleidoscope pieces left, so I decided to incorporate them into the back.  It was a lot more work than just using the whole cloth in one piece, but it does look more interesting.