Seasons Greetings

Christmas is nearly upon us, and soon will be a memory again. A bit like this Blog which will soon fade into cyberspace as the transfer to Wordpress seems to be going well. There are things about the new host that I really like, but a few issues to yet sort out.

Do come and have a look, I would hate to lose any of my regular readers, and you can subscribe to the new site at........

http://paddysdaughter.wordpress.com

Trials and Tribulations....

I have been extremely irritated and frustrated by Blogger in recent times, formatting of the written word is often tedious, needing several attempts to get it right. What looks good in the preview does not look the same when posted, so one has to do it again - and again. Photos upload in strange places and need further fiddling to get them in the correct spot in the text, and sometimes as in recent days they refuse to upload at all! A change was required, so I have just transferred my blog to Wordpress, and am going to trial it for a while. I shall not close this down just yet, but for those regular readers please note that the next few postings are going to be here:-

http://paddysdaughter.wordpress.com/

It looks a bit different, and I'm not yet sure how to make it more individual, so shall be learning as I go along. Hopefully it will be better in the long run. Any comments or suggestions welcomed!

Continued ............

Can you hear me screaming......??
Stupid and irritating Blogger again!! This was supposed to come with the post below, but for some reason was left behind! These are the ones I was hoping would be forest green! I think the gremlins are watching me at the moment!

Recent Dyeing Results

I did these a day or two ago, I was trying for bright reds and forest greens - not raspberry and yukky mustard brown! The blues are OK, in fact I really like the one with lines, it has some lovely effects on the bits you cannot see. I obviously need to do a bit more research on colour mixing. I think the problem may have been that the dyes I used were not pure ones, but premixed by the manufacturer and I'm not sure what the various letters in the labels really mean..........

The purple H is my TIF offering for November. The theme was to use some typography in some way - I wonder if just one letter will count? This is made with silk fibres on felt that had some foil applied first, various snips of other fabrics, and punched with the Embellisher. Appliqued bits and some embroidery - when completed it will be the front of a journal cover for a friend for Christmas.

This is an experiment to see if Blogger will let me post any photos. Have tried using Internet Explorer, and Firefox, but nothing happens. These are being uploaded directly from Picasa. If it work, they are shots of the centre of a lily, and an Oriental Poppy, with one of my girls on the way in to collect pollen.

Hooray! It worked, but this is a cumbersome way of doing it. I shall to hope that whatever is happening, the computer geeks at Blogger fix it!

Blasted Blogger............

I have been trying to post more photos today -close ups of flowers and bees, fabrics I have dyed, and TIF for November. All to no avail. Getting this blog to look good takes some time at the best of times, adding photos means heaps of fiddling and formatting the lines etc etc, and for some time I have been thinking about changing the host site. Today it will not let me upload any photos - yesterday it was OK, but not this afternoon or now. Most frustratingly aggravating, so until it is fixed or fixes itself, there will be no new photographs.

Couture and Cameras

Yesterday I went to the Bendigo Art Gallery to see the current exhibition - The Golden Age of Couture which will run until March of next year. It would not be exaggerating to say that this is one of the best exhibitions I have ever seen. More than 100 garments by Dior, Balenciaga, de Givenchy, Balmain, Norman Hartnell, Hardy Aimes and many others, made between 1947 - 1957 with photographs and films of the era, plus textiles, accessories, and other archival materials.

Conservation of the textiles is obviously the reason, but it seemed a bit dark and I would have liked a little more light to see the fantastic fabrics, details and designs. Nonetheless it was just great and I shall be going again and would recommend it to anyone who has any interest in textiles, sewing or fashion. One delight I had not expected was a series of dolls, made of wire and plaster, about two feet tall wearing couture garments as well. One had a total wardrobe from lingerie and silk stockings to mink coat and travelling accessories, with everything else in between - she was amazing.

As a pre Christmas treat to myself, I purchased a new digital camera. My current one is being held together with a fat rubber band, and will eventually fall apart. This afternoon, despite the pouring rain - more than 60mls since yesterday morning, I have been playing with it. A couple of close up shots of - you guessed it - roses and the centre of a poppy! Love the rain drops on the rose petals.