I've moved Anlabyhouse to Wordpress

Hi everyone,
I've finally taken up the offer to join my friends Catherine and Sandie and move my blogging to Wordpress however for awhile I will leave this blog here on blogspot, just in case I decide to remain here. The link to the new blog is here

Farewell Pugsley

I feel so sad to say goodbye to Pugsley tonight but he was over fifteen years old, had heart problems and lately, fluid on the lungs which made it very difficult for him to breathe. He has suffered a lot the last few days and I'm sure he will be glad of the release from the stress at last. He has gone to join our other gorgeous dog Winnie who used to look after Pugs when Pugsley was younger. Winnie died two years ago aged fourteen and a half. Here's a photo of our lovely boys, Winnie (short for Winston) and Pugsley. When I stop crying long enough, I'll get myself a stiff drink and try to remember the good times, of which there were thousands. Here they are,Winnie on the left, Pugsley on the right.

Fibres for Paper Making

I arrived home from work today to find a yummy looking big parcel on the kitchen bench. I bought a lot of mixed fibres on eBay from Teresa Simons of Mountain Shadow Ranch. The photos just don't do these beautiful soft fibres justice, especially the Mystery Batt. My mystery batt which Teresa had called "Wizard's Magic" contains several different black and grey fibres (no two of her mystery batts are the same mixture) intertwined with vivid sparkly hot pink, turquoise, purple and gold Angellina fibres. I also bought a bag of Dragon Waste which come in the most gorgeous colours and also a bag of "Forest Green" Angellina Fibres. I am really thrilled with my booty and can hardly wait to start making fabric now. I remember buying wool tops before but these are from Cotswold sheep and are soooooooo soft!


When I did the silk paper making workshop with Judith Pinnell and Nancy Bellesteros several years ago, I remember laying the fibres one way (north - south), then a second layer over the top of the first at right angles (so east - west) and finally a third layer in the same direction as the first. Then we manipulated the fibres with the textile medium. It made a lovely fabric about the thickness of lightweight felt.

Close-up of Angel's dress

This photo is a close-up of the broderie anglaise embroidery on the bodice. It is a creamy colour and not stained yellow as in the photo, I think the reflection is from the yellow wall (which will be a lovely colour called "Double White" tomorrow). This whole christening dress was hand-sewn, all the seams, the feather stitching trims and the lace. Once upon a time, it was a gorgeous garment but unfortunately, 100+ years plus some rough play by children dressing dolls resulted in some stains, little tears in the fragile cotton fabric and some stitching around the neck being undone.

Not to worry, I manage to dress this doll plus there is enough fabric and lace left to make another outfit for a smaller doll or teddy so I think I got my value for the couple of pounds that it cost me. I love working with old fabrics and vintage laces, they look and feel so much nicer than the modern ones.

Ugly Angel cloth doll

Today was one of those quiet Sundays when everbody was busy doing their own thing around the place. Eddie spent most of the morning taping the door frame, skirting boards and window in the bedroom in preparation for painting the walls tomorrow then in the afternoon he framed a print of his favourite railway engine "Hull City". Pippa spent the afternoon busy at the computer downloading images of galleons and underwater creatures because she is painting her brother a picture for his birthday next week and needed some reference sketches. I decided to cut up an old, stained, torn, antique christening gown which I bought in England for a song due to the horrible condition of the garment and make an ugly Angel doll to hang on the wall.

It was great to use all the best bits of the christening gown including some wonderful hand-embroidered broderie anglaise and tiny featherstitching on the bodice and also some of the tucked skirt bottom with another hand-embroidered broderie anglaise edging. The embroidery is so fine, even the buttonhole stitched scalloped edge is gorgeous. I cut out the bodice for the doll leaving it attached to the skirt so that I could use the lovely even gathering at the waist and the featherstitched border. I tea-dyed the doll but not the dress and used some ghastly silk thrums for the hair. When I finished the doll, she was hanging around looking a bit lost so I made her a stuffed heart and covered it with very vintage Mother-of-Pearl buttons. Anyway, she is hanging on the wall with her ugly face, her beautiful dress and her button heart. Not a bad effort for a boring old Sunday......

My own block from the Easter Gathering

I have FINALLY finished my thirteenth block - the one for myself. I have used all the colours that were in all of the other blocks, pink, green, aqua, mauve, yellow and cream. I worked my class piece of Melanie Roses on the block and also stitched the variegated green tatted circle which I completed on the plane so it is truly an Easter Gathering block. I can start sewing the squares together now as I think I am only waiting on three blocks to come and I know they are going to go well with the ones I have at the moment and can form the bottom row of the wall hanging quilt. Actually I have some other blocks from a previous DYB swap, I might include them as well.....after all, thirteen is a bit difficult to fit evenly into a quilt....

ANZAC Day Library Bag......

I have been promising my grand-daughter Taylia that I would teach her to sew on my sewing machine and we decided that if she had a sleep-over Tuesday night then we could make something on Wednesday (ANZAC Day) holiday. I told her she could choose some fabric from my patchwork stash and this girl has good taste - she spotted the hand-dyed fabric pieces that I bought from Catherine at the Easter Gathering and swooped!! Then she had to decide what to make so I suggested a few projects that only involved sewing straight lines and she finally chose to make a new Library bag for school. I couldn't believe how fast she took to the machine - two practice lines on some scrap material and she was off (mind you, I had turned the machine down to half speed)....all I did was cut the strips of fabric, pin them together every 10 centimetres along the edge and rule a guide line with a pencil. I kept thinking how proud my Mum would have been if she could see her great-granddaughter sewing away......maybe Mum could see us, I don't know.......

Work in Progress

This is the outer shell of the library bag before the lining went inside and before the strap handles were sewn. At this point it was a very serious work in progress as you can see from the expression on a seven year old's face. Some of the corners of the squares leave a bit to be desired but hey! when it's the first time you've used a sewing machine, that's OK..... Taylia had been busy for about two hours by this stage and all I had done was cut and pin th pieces of fabric and rule guide lines to sew along.

Sewing the Handles

This was the tricky part, sewing the handles in long, straight lines then sewing across the bottom of each strip. At this point I decided to teach her how to sew in reverse and then forward again to secure the ends of the straps. Her eyes were like saucers when I pushed a knitting needle into the strap and she pulled them inside-out to the right side. Talk about concentration!! I told her that the black pin-tin (actually papier mache) belonged to her Gramps's Grandma so it is very old. The matching lid is on the table somewhere. All I did with the straps were to fold them over lengthwise and put pins in to hold them plus rule the pencil line - Tay did the rest.

The Best Library Bag Ever!!

Success! Taylia is so proud of her finished Library Bag. The only sewing that I did was the line around the top of the actual bag to (a) close the opening where she turned it inside-out and to (b) make the handles a little bit more secure. She took to the sewing machine like a duck to water and made the bag in two 2-hour stretches with a little break in between for Nanna to have a cuppa. I took the photos as she worked so she can take them home to show Mummy and Daddy because she reckoned that they would not believe she did it all herself.

Op Shop Spoils

I had the most wonderful morning shopping in our local Good Samaritans Op-Shop today. I scanned the best bits because I can't believe the fabulous haul. There are two purses, one covered in yellowy/gold sequins and beads and the other one "hand-beaded" in tiny dull gold beads. Eddie is about to "un-hand-bead" them both and at the moment is unpicking abother one which was covered in red beads and coral coloured sequins. Believe it or not, he finds unpicking and sorting beads and sequins off bags, purses and clothing very relaxing and doesn't mind how much I give him to do. There is also a cream waistcoat in the photo with rows and rows of different rayon laces, a pearl collar for unpicking and the very best item would have to be a dull fawny-yellow silk skirt with appliqued machine-embroidered leaves around the bottom. The leaves are attached with stitches about one inch long so real quick and easy to unpick. The leaf veins are yellowy-gold glass beads. That would have cost me $3.50 but because it was 50% off everything in the clothing lines today, I got it for $1.75. Unfortunately, it had been part of a two piece suit and the top was apparently better than the skirt. Although the lady looked high and low for it, it was no-where to be seen and in the end she came to the conclusion that it had "walked" out under a jacket or jumper - what a shame!! Anyway, I am drooling over my spoils in any case....double click on the photo for a larger than life image.

Blocks for Andrea and Margaret

 

 

I have finally finished the last two Easter Gathering blocks. The pastel Apricotty one is for Andrea and the blue and yellow one is for Margaret. Now the only one left to do is my own.....mostly pastel colours. At last I can put away all the threads, laces, beads etc which I have been carting around since I took the first blank blocks to England to sew while I was there. Five months later I can put everything back where it came from.........hooray!! Anyway, here are the two blocks, I hope the girls are happy with them. Unfortunately the scanner has created a shadow at the top of Margaret's padded silk print which is not there in the flesh.