Empress Wu Designs with Wilma

One of the textile things I love doing is making fabric out of scraps... I think this is often called pizza fabric because all sorts of bits and pieces are thrown down onto a base. This was one of the activities at last Sunday's Crafternoon Tea. For those not familiar with a 'crafternoon tea', it is a lazy Summer Sunday afternoon  when a few like minded people get together and "create" and indulge in a scrumptious afternoon tea.  Prior to the Fabric Fun day, we've had a felting afternoon, and a clay play day , with another clay play day planned for next month. Last Sunday, we had demonstrations of felt embellishment with angelina fibres, glitter and organza and paper collaged fabric as well as some experimenting with the embellishing machine and making the "pizza" fabric with free form machine embroidery. The days are lots of fun as well as being inspirational, so when Autumn and Winter arrive, we will change to Souper Skills Sundays - learning new c...

 Today was the first of the summer "crafternoon teas" I am hosting on Sunday afternoons.  Crafternoon teas are Sunday afternoons spent with wonderfully spirited people, who enjoy being creative, learning new techniques or brushing up on previously learnt skills and  love sharing a scrumptious afternoon tea. Today was felting fun when we used plastic resist templates to create dimensional seamless pieces. I demonstrated the way I made the series of nature bowls. You can see them here . Above is one of  my most recent blue bowls, one of a pair. The first one has already found a home during a DUST craft swap ( Down Under Street Team - Etsy) Here are some of the pieces that the felting crafternoon tea participants made this afternoon - a felt "forest" bowl, a needle book cover, a glasses pouch and a very 'organic" sculptured bowl.    While we enjoyed felting and its results, somehow we "forced" ourselves to enjoy the afternoon tea. ...

I am determined this year to be better prepared for Christmas. I decided to give cards as gifts for a few people this year, so this meant having them made and sent, ready for them to use as Christmas greeting cards. This last week was devoted to card making. I went crazy and spent almost every spare moment making cards. I was also very happy that I used only paper and card which I already had. Some are in traditional colours and others are just using leftover bits and pieces. Having sworn that I would not take up yet another creative interest, I started some life drawing classes last month - only of course, to help me improve my doll making. Tonight will be the fourth week of a six week course and I am really enjoying it. Ann, my teacher is great and  has classes for beginners and the more experienced. Look on  Facebook the drawing room . These are some of my drawings from last week's lessons. And, I almost forgot - Happy Halloween to blog friends particularly i...