They Came To Williamstown, by Edna Campbell (my 2nd cousin)

Introducing an early study into the Phillips Family:

The Chaise Rug

The rug is 220 x 112cm. Backing fabric is nylon (I think). I 100% prefer to use linen, but couldn’t get it wide enough. I don’t really like working on this stuff as it splits a bit and it feels plasticky. The hooking is wool.
Much as I love hooking with silks etc., it’ll use tons of fabric and I don’t have it. I do, however, have heaps of old blankets and plenty of dye.
The drawing is roughly based on the Uzbekistan style of textile. I just love Central Asian textile designs, particularly Uzbeki, with their organic, hand-drawn, flowing motifs and pointiness. They are embroidered but lend themselves to hooking.
I made one already, which looked good in front of the beautiful old chaise (and rubbish in its intended position), so decided to do this new biggie and the first can go somewhere else. The chaise is covered in deep cerulean blue French (hand-woven) brocade, the absolute centre-piece in the house, so any rug needs to be a bit glowing and a bit subtle, hence the warm grey background. It deserves a major chunk of my time!
In the central, large polka-dot area, The big orangey-yellow dots are raised, Waldoboro style, which should look good as seen from an angle. That bit will be under the middle of the chaise.

The Garden Spring 2015

The Reo 'Hedge'. Covered in Boston Ivy. The doors are smothered here, but still open.

Looking past the Dracunculus Vulgarus (Cobra Lily).

The tank took 6-7 goes to get the colour right. The rose Pinky will be trained  up and around over it, with perfect contrast.



Looking into the Copper Beech hedge pathway. Spirea doing its thing on the right there.

Cotinus Grace starting to shoot up. We coppice it every (late) winter. Often we leave a couple of shoots from last year, to allow flowering, but mostly grow it for the foliage.

It has to be said that my One True does all of this. I put my two bob in, that's mostly it, then enjoy the results.

Proggy / Clippy Rug No.1



Using the Kaitag Rug/Embroidery as inspiration, I've drawn this onto hessian for my clippy rug. I have to think it through a lot yet, as it takes an enormous amount of cloth to complete. I want to use Grandma's curtains, which are peacock blues and very precious. No wasting... once it's cut, it's no good for anything else.
Of course, the patterning is 'fuzzed' with clippy's, as opposed to hooked rugs, so there's no point having a lot of detail. Just broad patterning.
I intend to outline the pattern in taupe/creams and then use reds, deep pinks, turquoise/peacock's and oranges. Very rich colours.

The rug below is another example of the type. I like the little bits of red. It's conducive to the fact that you run out of colours and may need to add bits of whatever you have at hand.

Brother Glenn

I Don't Have A Camera...

So I haven't been posting my stuff of late because I can't take decent photo's. That's why. I'm still busy, of course. What I'll do is post rubbish phone shots...
I've just made a few more Hanky Boxes. Not that they're for hankies neccessarily. I found a load of chandelier crystal drops in a skip/dumpster some time back, so these newbies are terribly blingy. Lovely, over-the-top sparkles. For a cheap, easy to make craft, I've managed to add a whole lot of expense with the beading too, but I don't care. It could be done cheaper I'm sure (like if I dived into my vast stash for example?). In fact, they don't really need beads, it's just that this is what I like at the moment.
On that note (beads), I bought  a stack of cheap-shop containers and sorted out my beads. They are so gorgeous I feel quite inspired. A few beads are from my Grandma and Nanna (great-grandmother) and others my Mum. Mostly my excited purchases. You know, start a new craft to use up your stuff... then gets all excited and buy a ton of new stuff.

So, using more of the books I cut up for my Honey Bunch's Box, I've made another two boxes (extra to The One True's... The larger two are the same panels, only one uses 6 and the other 8. The smaller one is the same as Zoe's Hanky Box and a few Mill's & Boon boxes.

NOTE: Please follow the links and the labels at the end of this post for tutorials, patterns, etc.