Mandy in Oz

There was a very big birthday in the family recently.  My eldest daughter, Miss N, turned 18!  Yep, nothing makes you feel like an oldie, quite so much, as knowing that you have an *adult* child.  Anyway, moving right along.  I decided to make her a quilt at the last minute, as you do....turns out, the ragging process on a raggy quilt takes a while :S  Who would have thunk it?  It was a bit of a race to get it finished, but she seems to like it, so it's all good ;)

Mother is the name for god, on the lips and hearts of all children - Eric Draven In keeping with the day, I've made this quilt block to represent May, a start of something.......big.  Maybe. I'll see where the vision takes me :)

What do you get if you take some blank paper, a 'reference' picture (lol), acrylic paints, a trusty pencil and me?  Some excited and hovering children, and a Dr Seuss themed painting for their room :P  Whipped this up using the kids Ikea easel, on some of that Ikea butchers paper, in an afternoon and evening.  They seem impressed, though it's probably just a matter of time until little J destroys it!

Shalom.....it was thrown into the naughty corner for a while, but I frogged most of it and am having another go... I'm spinning cotton..that I grew in the garden, from seed.  Spinning from the boll is wonderful.  The portrait of my grandfather....completed at last.  Lily's bed, with her mummy-made, insanity inspiring *all knit materials* quilt. Jackson's crazy making *also all knit materials* quilt (easier than the previous one though, being MM fleece backed rather than cuddlefleece lol). And that is it, for now.

Oh boy, it's full steam ahead on the Christmas crafting! I've done a heap of *making*, with loads more yet to do. But I'm not panicking..... *shifty eyes* Anyway, here's a bit of what I've been up to this weekend. Some dyeing that's currently batching, and some yarn for a swap. I think I'm in love with this one, which I've dubbed 'Dawn's first light'. It's soft and lovely. Wonder if it would be wrong to keep it for me?

how I love thee. I have a couple on the go currently ;) One I'm taking part in is within a great group on Ravelry - we always have the most awesome swaps, thoroughly enjoyable! And.....I've now also received a secret santa brief - I'm so excited! This one will be fun :P Here are some piccies of what I've been working on for my rav swap....anyone who is averse to yellow, you may like to look away.....right about now.

Once again, I'm in great company! Some beautiful work up for grabs tonight, currently previewing here Here is what I created for the stocking - two sets to celebrate the arrival of a new baby, with colours inspired by the elements and a mythical mother and child theme.

A special opportunity has had me crafting my little heart out :P Here's some of the goodies I've been working on......some of these might just be spotted soon, at a stocking near you ;)

it appears that project dye painting may be a win! woot! a couple of rinses and some hot, soapy water later - colour still looks nice and strong, lines are nice and crisp (as crisp as it gets, painting with dye, anyway) and I'm feeling pretty confident. I deliberately did this experiment with turquoise, as I've found it to be a bit of a heartbreaker when dyeing. Starts off looking good, after rinse it's a bit faded, ends up looking totally washed out. It's notorious for being difficult to set. So, the plan is to use these as appliques or pockets on some stuff for the kiddies, or maybe on bags and see how they fare after some washing and wearing......fingers crossed!

A little dye painting today......working on technique and using a new recipe. These aren't quite done, a couple more steps and I'll see if it's good or an epic fail :P Some finishing touches added to my alien landscape Twilight inspired on linen