Mushrooms and Anzacs

Mushrooms in the garden .... we have had some rain in the last week, but these mushrooms are the beautiful hand printed Thea and Sami Fabric. http://www.thea-sami.com.au/ I was fortunate enough to win some of this hand printed linen from Thea's blog giveaway in February, and this is what I made with it.

This woodland elf is an adaptation of Jacquie Lecuyer's pattern, Uma . This was a pattern of the month in January at Hello Dollies http://www.agbhellodollies.blogspot.com/ - my doll group at Anne's Glory Box . My version of Uma not only features the prize fabric, but some my embellished felt and one of my husband's wooden buttons. It is a cloth doll, with a needle sculpted face. I am still very much a beginner as far as needle sculpted faces go, as I tend to make most doll heads from clay, but I like the idea of "soft sculpture" so am determined to keep practising.

Mother's Day is coming up , so with the remnants of the mushroom fabric, I made some very simple little matryoshka dolls. I really enjoyed making these and think I will make some more, with other little bits of leftover fabric I have stashed away because I've liked the prints so much.

Tomorrow is Anzac Day - an important day of remembrance in Australia.for those who have been lost in war. The dawn services and other memorial ceremonies are very moving and allow for serious reflection, but later there is usually time for celebrating mateship and family. Our family love ANZAC biscuits. There are lots of variations of the recipe, and while this one isn't original , it makes the biscuits just the way we like them and we pretend it's healthy because it comes from the Weight Watchers' site.

Anzac Biscuits
POINTS® Value: 2.5

Servings: 18

Preparation Time: 10 min Cooking Time: 15 min

Level of Difficulty: Easy

Fast to make and utterly delicious, these ANZAC biscuits are not too crunchy or chewy, but just right!

Ingredients
1 spray Gold 'n' Canola Canola oil spray
150 g plain white flour, sifted
1/2 cup caster sugar
1 cup rolled oats
100 g butter, melted
2 tbs golden syrup
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp vanilla essence
Instructions
Preheat oven to 180°C. Spray 2 baking trays with oil and cover with some baking paper.
Mix flour, sugar and oats together in a large bowl until well combined.
Melt butter and golden syrup together. Combine one tablespoon of boiling water with baking soda and add to butter mixture, with vanilla essence.
Mix butter and oat mixture together to form a dough. Drop teaspoonfuls onto baking trays, gently flattening each one. Leave 3cm aside each biscuit for spreading.
Bake biscuits until edges turn golden, about 15 minutes. Let biscuits stand on trays for 5 minutes before removing to a cooling rack to cool and crisp completely.
Notes
You can also add ½ cup of dessicated coconut to the dry ingredients for a slight change

Fish and Sticks : Art Dolls

This week I've been working on fish and sticks .... The sticks are the message stick art dolls which were very popular, attracting some attention and a few orders at the Wise Women exhibition. Each of the message stick dolls are from the Wise Women series, each with her own personality and message of wisdom, handwritten on a handmade timber tag. I gather the sticks during my walks around my neighbourhood and the tags are made from special bits of timber, some collected by me or my husband or from off cuts gifted to us from another doll making friend whose husband makes bagpipes. These dolls start off very simply with a wrap around a stick, in the general shape of a body. 'Naked" message stick dolls - strips of wadding wrapped around found sticks. Then I usually wrap other layers of fabric, wool, and/or fibres, over which I do some simple embroidery. I sculpt or mould small face masks for these dolls. I really like using "sari ribbon" as w...

Fragments

Some days are just your lucky days - today I was very fortunate and privileged to open the first ever Australian exhibition "Fragments" by UK Fibre Artist Sue Hotchkis . Here is a little about the techniques of this amazing textile artist from her own website ... Working intuitively with print and stitch, marks, textures and colours are exaggerated, intensified to reveal the detail and complexity within the images. Materials are deconstructed using modern methods, ripped, burnt and dyed. Time is invested in their reconstruction; pieces can take from a week to several months to create. Whilst being aesthetically pleasing the work can also act as a metaphor for deterioration and ruin, associated with urban decay and ultimately death and loss. They evolve organically, built up with layers of print, cloth, paper, and stitch into three-dimensional abstract forms that hover between object and image; to create a unique, visual and tactile lan...

Fabric Tags for Tag Tuesday

At Tag Tuesday, this fortnight Sandie is hosting the Steampunk/Mechanical challenge. Although this isn't a theme I usually tackle, Sandie's tags are so fantastic and inspirational that I was motivated to create a tag this afternoon. I had some fabrics on my desk which I discharge dyed last week.and this piece with the addition of a few copper cogs reminded me of " industrial and mechanical" . The way the background fabric was created was by applying bleach gel with a roller over the top of a plastic stencil. The fabric was originally a bluish dark grey cotton, When the bleach had removed the colour, the process was halted with a commercial neutralizing solution called AntiChlor. I have been told that a vinegar solution will also stop the discharge of colour and act as a neutraliser. The metal cogs were stitched on to the fabric by hand. Here are a couple of great resource sites for discharging colour with bleach. - Threads ...

Empress Wu Designs with Wilma

Search This Blog