Today i....Op Shopped till I dropped

Schools back and that means some unrestricted me time...

Today was enrolment day for the craft group I attend. I will be joining my good friends in patchwork again and can't wait to get started next week.We start our day with coffee/ breakfast down the road at the EDGE Cafe...a funky 70's style coffee shop that has the most amazing salads on display and make a really good vego breakfast.

I knew I would be hanging around for a while at the sign up as my friend kirstie is one of the group leaders/ coordinators this year and we were going op shopping together afterwards. So I brought along some crochet to do and decided to  use the wool that has been naturally dyed..it was actually the wool wrapped around my bundle that I showed you the other day. So my cream wool has become a lovely variegated pinky-brown

Op shopping was great fun as I haven't been able to do a lot of it when working full time.
I fell inlove with this print in one of the first shops we stopped at and only $6.50..bargain
I dont particularly like the mountboard surround its in , it is actually a pale green silk and is set awkwardly in a teak wooden frame. I think I can live with the frame and a plain mount board would be to my taste...but the print is divine.

 Another little treasure found is this cute egg cup. I have a few now and will happily dig them out for you in the near future.

For my sister I bought yet some more white/milk ware. I bought her a piece yesterday as well, so she is doing really well this week!

And for the sewer in me I couldn't resist this pattern

I also bought a bag of bright green crochet cottons, about five golden books and a few other older picture books
A total of 10 shops visited, not a bad effort. So happy to have done that mad dash of shops. Lucky a few of them are grouped together on the same roads.

I have purchased the biggest spool of yarn ever imagined. Well not quite, but it is enormous. Hunting the  op shops for grey yarn led me to spy this massive beauty for $20. I will have a life time of grey yarn out of it. It is not the softest yarn/wool being a rug wool but utilitarian all the same. Feeling obliged to utilise my purchase I decided I might as well make another rug for winter.I really like the bobble pattern and had been hankering to do a circle within a square so Sarah London s pattern printed in Homespun met this criteria.

Bright flowers in amongst the grey day. I probably should have found a brighter yellow but Spotlight at the time only had this muted colour yellow when I went shopping, so beggars cant be choosers especially when they are tired after work.

And yesterday the neighbour down the road put out this winged back chair for hard rubbish collection. It is still well sprung, no rips and the foam in good condition, just needs a fabric makeover. I'm thinking a fitted slip cover might do the trick and have had a look on line, basically a new chair for $100 dollars OR I could print up some fabric and recover it myself.....but do I really want to pull the chair apart and tackle it with the staple gun???? (Sounds to hard)
If you want to see a fabulous chair makeover look at Brooklyn to West blog - I am in love with this chair and if you have time troll back through her renovating adventures of doing up a restaurant with recycled woods - truly fab -such a clever lass and it all started in her lounge room. Just goes to show where there is a
will there is a way. Find the chair HERE

Thrifting

Friday seems to be the day that my girlfriend and I go op shopping and travel to differing areas and frequent the local op shops. Today we visited a lot of smaller community and church op shops and a couple of the larger organizations (Salvation Army Stores, Vinnies ).

The smaller stores are always run by volunteers and have more of a jumble sale feel to it. Its is often a little more haphazard in their arrangement but usually have hidden treasures to discover.

Today's' treasures Blue and white plates for my sister. Three in total , Japanese made. 

I really love the patterning on this one and was tempted to keep it myself.

They fit in beautifully with the other blue and white china she already has

 The large plate settled in with the cups and saucers I picked up thrifting a while ago

This lovely lamp shade is destined for a new life... I intend to recover it with some new handprinted fabric. If I fail the lamp bas only cost $3. Nice ovoid shape though.

A this little retro stool also earmarked for makeover, sweet. Cant wait to get started.

Printing, Dyeing and Op Shopping

Well I've attempted my first silk screen printing.

It's definitely not a success but its not the total dismal failure I originally thought it was. The image I made was a double image of the black design below. 

Initially after exposing my screen and attempting my first print I got nothing at all. So slightly dejected feeling I went to wash off my screen and gave it a bit of a scrub with hot water. As I scrubbed away I noticed that the screen was being exposed a little more and the water was passing  through the screen easier. I couldn't entirely get all the blocking agent to be removed but at least I did obtain some of my pattern. 

Things I learnt from this attempt. 1. Make sure I protect the floor before placing my screen under the bed because now I have to clean up under the bed. 2. Find a photo exposure bulb so I can expose my screen correctly. I exposed my screen in the sunlight and I wasn't sure how long to leave it out there. 3. Make sure I use a slightly thicker image / design, unless I want to go to a printer to expose my screen for me. Fine lines are harder to obtain but I was unsure what the manufacturer meant by fine lines.

 Dye pots

I was out in the back yard and my sisters dog whom was visiting for a few days pulled out  the dried branches of the butterfly plant that my neighbour gave to me at Christmas for decoration. It has lovely green seed heads and attract butterflies to its scent. The seed heads had dried and as they layed on the lawn I wondered if I could extract some colour from them. The appear to have given off a yellow dye and have since thrown them and some material into a bucket to ferment for a while.

 These are cottons I have dyed in the last week.

Yellow from pomegranate
Pink / purple from ivy berries
pale orange from berries
Grey from eucalyptus

Co incidentally yesterday I received my copy of ecocolour by India Flint  and have been devouring its pages... her blog can be found here.
Inspired I took the dog for a walk over the back hill to collect some new colour. I picked fennel heads and know that I 'd get yellow - green dye from it.
The wind blowing through the grasses was quite therapeutic sounding

I picked this weed seed heads (below) and cooked up  a pot that is russet in colour

I had to photograph the thistle heads even though I didnt pick them (no room in my bag), because they are so beautiful.

 Also did a couple of hours of op shopping with a girl friend and found some blue and white crockery for my sister. A Johnston brothers and 3 Alfred Meakin cup and saucers sets. And some lovely pianola rolls (bargain at $3 each)  I'm thinking Ill use the paper to draw on and wrap presents and the reel will be used to wrap yarns around

 And a lovely green vase to sit with my other green glasses, all thrifted items, all under $5 each.

Take care I'm off to read my fab book. I'll show you sometime during the week. Its inspiring and makes me drool with possibility...

Free Downloadable Calender

I've been visiting Jezze prints here and saw her reference to valentina Ramos and her free downloadable calender which I love. Jezze has photographed it more thoughtfully, but its 5 in the morning I don't really care too much at the moment about my photography. The boys have gone off to early morning swimming squad and every body has to wake up with them at 4.30 am, so here I am with some time to spare and not a lot of inclination.
The photos of the calender!

I'd accidentally printed off 2 copies of  December sand decided a quick watercolour to compare the difference. My personal preference is for black and white, but that might just be my colour choices

Still working on my silk screen but need a photo-bulb to flood expose my screento light. I will purchase the bulb today and then maybe I can print some stuff...Stay tuned

A little bit of wall and ceiling love for you. My girlfriend and I were in Handorf, a small town in the hills of Adelaide, settled by German setllers and rich with grape growing and an artist community.
I fell in love with the tin walls and ceilings in some of the original cottages which thankfully havent been destroyed for new and modern.

These patterns inspire, they'd make a lovely design repeated on material dont you think?

And i couldn't walk past this set of loveliness. A set of 6 dinner plates, bread and butter plate and cake plate for $20. Love it!

Stamping

I've been doing a little stamping today. I first tried to stamp white fabric ink on to a naturally dyed cotton but it just didn't get the definition of line that I was hoping for, so once it was dried I restamped with black to give a kind of echo effect. It kind of makes the mushroom pop out more. This is just a scrap that I was doing in between stamping a dozen mushroom bags for a friend.

Drying sheets stamped and ready to be set with heat of the iron. Thank goodness it is cooler today

Here is a pomegranate print made up into a pull string bag today, the pink fabric is also naturally dyed with same berries as the brown of the mushroom bags above. Its amazing the differences in colour extracted just a few weeks apart. Same material, same plant!

A here is a photo of my lovely chairs rejuvenated by my father. They make my other chairs look very ugly and make me  very desirous to find some more chairs like these. There is no staining on these chairs just natural wood and wax. I have been instructed to give them a couple more waxes to lift the shine and ensure it penetrates the wood to protect it. I love them!