Hand woven 100% Australian pure wool baby/cot/pram blankets (only 2 left)

Today, as a mid school holiday treat I brought Seán and Lexie to our local beach a 30min drive away to find huge ’shark warning’ posted in the car park!

The kids were too terriffied to even get their feet wet. They kept a shark spotting report every two minutes which made me giggle, as there was a greater chance of being injured on the sand than in the water. The beach was covered in washed up bluebottle jellyfish (known globally as Portuguese Man o’ War)

I had never seen them in such large numbers along the coast before and their colours were awesome. The less time out of the water, the greater the intensity of colour (I got wet taking these pics!). I just love this vibrant blue and purple. Inspiration for another art project….




A woven image to finish with… Lexie (5) practicing her weaving ;o)

WOW! I just noticed her selvedges are perfect!!! It must be in the genes.
I’m one proud Mum ;o)

Yesterday I had a visit from the amazing Sydney weaver Liz Calnan. It was great to meet Liz, see some of our work and to chat about weaving and looms. Liz is a wonderful lady and I was most thankful she stopped by for a cuppa.
In the afternoon I finished the tea towels warp (design by Ingrid Bosel) and today finished the towels off and ready for family gifts for Christmas.

My beautiful new loom, Audrey, is a 16s AVL mechanical dobby loom fitted with compu dobby II and an e-lift. I am trying to bring it back to its original mechanical dobby state….why?…. because I already have a weavebird and I would like to see how easy an AVL loom converts forwards and backwards. At a later date when I’m ready for a new project I will add the solenoids back onto the loom.
I am toying with removing the e-lift…. I can’t seem to get it to work effectively with the mechanical dobby, besides, I’m young, fit (at last) and treaddles don’t bother me plus it’s school holidays and I need an in-house/studio weaving project ;o)

This how ‘Audrey’ arrived.

and this is how far I got with the process today. I was very pleased with my efforts but then Lexie (5) wanted to do some painting with me. Here is her painting of some Australian animals with a butterfly flying over Mammys aubergines. A beautiful day!

My two girlfriends Karen Richards & Annie Rawle have an exhibition in Port Fairy, South Australia. An exhibition well worth seeing as both of these girls are simlpy amazing textile artists…..

My baby loom was set up with a play warp for the kids, I just couldn’t resist…..Out came the emu feathers and…..vola!
Instead of having them just on the edge as a fringe I wove them in an ‘S’ shape through the warp. Half way through the weave I changed the direction of the feathers.

My new car has a grey & black interior so I set up the weavebird with a fiberworks ‘blob’ pattern. I have used this throw heaps and acts as a shawl when it is really chilly.

The second project with the same pattern (10epc) are 100% Australian cotton tea towels. My first time weaving tea towels and with a short production run they provide instant satisfaction. The tighter sett makes the large ‘blob’ shape look like an avocado which is perfect for the kitchen.

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I picked this large empty brown sewing box up for $5 at the Weaver’s Guild meeting yesterday.♥ I knew what it was straight away as I have a little pink one I aquired last year from a charity shop for about the same money but it was full with threads and accessories.
Lexie (5) & I got to sorting out some of my sewing ’stuff’ and this is what the boxes look like from the inside now.
A fact about me: My favorite word is haberdashery

I have alot to catch up on so: todays judging has been blogged about and pictures have been loaded on the guild’s site.
Thank you girls for the inspiration. Getting back to the loom now and finishing those tea towels.