Challenges

So I've been having quite a few challenges these last few weeks. The last of which is trying to post blog entries and more so,  trying to post the tutorial I wrote a few weeks back.
Being without a computer is so much more challenging than I had ever expected.

In the mean time,  I've been busy doing a touch of designing and sewing,  some spinning and a whole heap of family stuff.

I'll attached a few photos that are just a sneak peek of my current project. They'll be posted in my Etsy store soon for sale.

Australia Day

Australia Day this year was quite relaxed.
I did some spinning in the morning,  then went out with my beau for a couple of hours. We just grabbed a milkshake and spent some very valuable time together. It was bliss <3

Then I headed over to my sisters where I played with the kids a little,  did some more spinning then we had a BBQ with marinated lamb chops,  sausages and a vegetable bake.

Later in the evening we played darts.

Happy Australia Daychannelling my inner bogan

Little Oscar with a pumpkin

real Aussie kid with his 2.5kgs of marinated lamb

My beautiful, handsome boy

Our Australia Day spreadOscar and Aunty Chelle watching the darts tournament. 

Oh my, do you have idea just how challenging it is to get pics and words to happily when you're trying to post from a phone? Arrggghhhh.....

Incredibly challenging and frustrating.

Its taking me days to write one pos. :-(

But its finally here now.

Yay!

Custom Orders

I've only been spinning for six months. I sat down at my gifted little Ashford Traveller one July morning in 2013 after dropping my beau at work and just started spinning.

I haven't looked back.

I thoroughly enjoying spinning and dyeing and natural fibres and I feel I've finally found my creative niche.
I could not have come this far without the support and assistance of some amazing ladies who I've never even met,  The wonderful creative genius behind Inverleigh Fibre Farm and another genius behind Elisabet's. Their gentle encouragement and advice has been invaluable. Along with some other wonderful ladies in the Australian Handspinners and Knitters Group and also the Indie Dyers Down Under.
There must be made mention of the creative colourist behind Forest Hill Hand Dyed Yarns also. Without her support I would never have started my dyeing exploits.

I must also mention my bff and creative genius being Get Knitted. Honestly,  without her encouragement and support,  I don't think I would have even started spinning.

Anyway,  that's not what I'm here for today. I'm here to share with you some of my latest spins.

I'm told my spinning is of an exceptable standard and as a result have been receiving many custom order's. I love it. It keeps my mind active and relaxes me at the same time.

So today I'm sharing some images of a recently spun skein. This is a hand spun, hand dyed raw silk. This silk certainly challenged me. I did not expect it to all be in cocoons. I don't own carders or brushes or anything so I just spun it straight from the cocoons. It was hell on the hands,  often tearing into them as I drafted. I'm so glad I persisted,  I'm incredibly pleased with the outcome, although quite organic,  I really like it.
It had been plied with some gorgeously soft cashmere that I've spun.
The end result is so much nicer than I ever imagined.

Stay tuned as this skein will soon be added to an upcoming yarn stocking for sale. You could have it all to yourself.

Ravelry

I've started a Rav Group today called Gladys and Maude click on the banner above or the words Gladys and Maude to be taken there.
You can go here to share anything you may have created with Gladys and Maude yarns.
There is a forum where we can talk, share, question and learn. I also hope to get a SAL (Spin-A-Long) and a KAL (Knit-A-Long) happening soon as well.

Please fell very welcome to come on over and join in. We sure look forward to meeting you :-)

Inverleigh Mohair. Absolutely delicious to work with.

Wedgwood

Today I spun some gorgeous 18.5 micron merino, hand dyed by Inverleigh Fibre Farm in Wedgwood.
I wanteda rather organic look to the yarn so I spun it irregularly and then plied it with some apricot coloured mohair.

I'll take some more photos once I've skeined it.

New Years Eve

Well, it's New Years Eve here in Aus and it's a sorry state.
I'm at home, alone, with the cats, spinning.
I can't be with my love - again, my sister and BIL have taken their children into Newcastle to see the fireworks, my children are with their father and I'm here with the cats.
Does that officially make me a crazy cat lady yet?

I'm spinning some lovely silk/merino blend, waiting for some pea and ham soup to cook (yes, I used the ham bone from the Christmas ham) and contemplating a glass of champagne while juggling my helper at the wheel :-\

Spinning

So I've been doing quite a bit of spinning. Heaps really, hence my lack of updates.
Below is one of my latest spinning exploits;

This is some beautifully soft and decadent handdyed mohair from Inverleigh Fibre Farm. It was beautiful to spin and the colours look fantastic together. It has blues, greens, mauve and apricot.

Giveaway

Gladys and Maude is having a giveaway.

 

To go into the draw, please head on over to Facebook, like the image HERE and leave a comment and then like our page HERE as well.

 

As soon as we reach 400 Likes, we will draw a winner.

 

You will receive

1 x Handmade Gladys and Maude Project Bag

1 x Skein of Gladys and Maude Handspun Yarn 100% Merino

1 x Pair Bamboo Knitting Needles

1 x Crochet Hook

and

Pk 2 Stitch Holders

My Head Is Spinning

Well, who said it was easy keeping an FB Page, Blogger, Instagram and Twitter up to date was easy, I laugh in their face. Sure, it's easy keeping one or two updated but put them all together and inevitably, one is forgotten about. I bet you'll never guess which has been forgotten about?
Poor Blogger :-(

So much has been happening here behind the scenes at Gladys and Maude. I'm sure by now you would have noticed the shift from handmade, hand sewn items to hand spun and hand dyed fibres. There are several reasons for this. The main one being that sewing was jus becoming too taxing on my body and I could no longer bear the constant pain. Spinning on the other hand, I seem to find quite relaxing and it still affords me the creativity and challenges that I need.

Of course I have been incredibly busy with spinning and dyeing, not to mention my duties as a mother, daughter, girlfriend and volunteer.

One of the things I currently do in my spare time (because I have so much) is repairing clothing at the Aged Care Facility near where my son does work experience. So one day a week, while he is at the aircraft mechanics, I go to the home.

 

I am always presented with some interesting challenges. These pyjama pants were almost torn completely in two. Would I be able to save them?

 

All sewn up, repaired and in excellent working order!

Ooops, almost missed the tear down the bottom near the cuff. It's fixed now. This resident should be nice and warm now :-)

Here's another, only this time the tear is at the front of the pants, just below the fly.

 

All fixed, you can see the button up fly just above the patch. My only worry is that it looks a little like a smiley face.

I can never match the fabric but no one seems to mind.

 And that my friends, is what keeps me busy on Wednesdays :-)

 

MIA

Hi there all,

You have all been so incredibly patient with me and I thank you so much for that.
I am going to get back here to Gladys and Maude very, very soon, that's a promise.
I have so much in the works to surprise you all with including a new little venture that will take me away from quilting a little. Quilting will still be a part og Gladys and Maude but there will be some new and exciting things happening as well.
I will give you a little hint....

 

 

I am working hard on getting these done and packaged but currently have a lot of family thing happening as well, including the loss of my grandfather last week.

 

 

This is my Pop.

Wasn't he a handsome fellow?

 

 

I know I keep saying that I will be back, I will, truely. Just have so much going on and not having access to a computer at home tends to slow me down a bit as well but I will be back and I thank you once again for your patience with me.

 

Have a fabulous day and Happy Mothers Day...

 





Happy Easter

Wishing you all a very Happy Easter with your loved ones.

There is much happening behind the scenes of Gladys and Maude at the moment, including new stock, new creations and new love.
So much to do, so much to tell, so much happening.

Until I can reveal more, Happy, healthy, safe Easter.

BUSY!

I know, I have been such a bad blogger.

It has been way too long since I have blogged and it's been too long since I've worked on any PhDs either.
Things have become insanely busy here of late and it's just fabulous. Unfortunately, it hasn't left much time for creativity.

My son has started work experience at an aircraft repairs shop in Pokolbin. It is such an incredible opportunity and honour for him to be there. He has wanted to work with aircraft since he was three years old. Although it is almost an hours drive away, we still manage to get there each week.
His work experience is not at all like the work experience we did when I was at school. In my day, we did two weeks placement, every working day of those two weeks and that was that! it's main purpose was for us to get a taste of what the profession is really like that we wanted to work in. Connor's work experience is one day a week for 12 - 24 months. Of course it has several variables including whether he actually enjoys it, whether the owner/manager enjoys having him around, whether Connor has work to do, whether it turns out to be what he expected etc, etc.
We are now entering week 4 and he is as happy as ever to be attending.
We leave home on the Tuesday night, drive to Bellbird where we stay then Wednesday, Connor goes off to work at 7am, chauffeur driven by his Uncle and is then delivered back to me around 5.30pm.

I decided to do something constructive while he was at work and applied to a voluntary position as in-house seamstress at The Retirement Village. I am pleased to say, my application was approved, I passed my criminal check and I am heading into week three.

Last week, Connor had an opportunity to meet one of his idols, Matt Hall. I was so excited to be taking him in to meet Matt, but I think I was more excited than Connor was. He was a very nice man, a true gentleman and spent a huge amount of time talking to Connor, encouraging him and telling him that he can achieve anything he wants.

Here's Connor (on the right) with Matt.

Then there is the driving Connor to school every day that he is not at work experience and although it should only be a 40 minute drive each way, it has developed into a 2.5 hour round trip. It's exhausting and incredibly hard on the hip pocket.

There has just been so, so much going on here. I don't now what else I have to fill you in on.

My sister is expecting her third child, a little boy and the little cherub has been in a rush to get here. She started having contractions eight weeks ago and she still has another six weeks to carry him full term. She has been placed on medication to stop the contractions but it has only slowed them. With all of this happening, I try to get over there to help her out with the other two munchkins any possible opportunity I get. Which, to be honest, doesn't seem like much.

Oh, of course, I can't forget to tell you that I have met a wonderful man. We have been seeing each other for some time now and I am just completely and totally in love with him. He is such a sweetheart and now that I have been seeing him, I understand why I didn't work out with anyone else. We have such an incredible connection, like nothing I have ever experienced before. He is just beautiful. Not only does he care for me and love me, he absolutley adores me as well and I him.
He calls me his gorgeous girl, his princess, his baby, his love.
Yep, I've completely and totally fallen for him.
He is a couple of years younger than me and works as a psychologist.

Well, that's the round up of what I'm up to of late. As you can understand, there hasn't been much creativity happening, but please stay tuned. It won't be the end. I have been stockpiling yarn and fabrics to get some stock made and posted very soon and I try to work on my PhDs when time permits.

I hope you are all as happy and feeling as fabulous as I am right now!

More PhD's Have Been Added

OK, so I've finally made the time to sit down and add to my list of Sewing PhD's. You can go HERE to read all about the PhD's.
I have fourteen on my list at the moment, of course, I have so many more but I think I will stop at this or I will never get them done :-)

This is how it now looks;

1. Friendship Tree - Natalie Bird
2. Hearts Return - Natalie Bird
3. Berry Branch Wool Tote - Natalie Bird
4. Prairie Flower Tote - Natalie Bird
5. Red Home Pincushion - Natalie Bird
6. Angel Project Tote - Natalie Bird
7. Sewing Angel Tool Store - Hatched and Patched
8. Caddy Pad Jnr. - Sister's Common Thread
9. Robots @ Play x 2 - Janelle Wind
10. Shashiko Quilt
11. Shashiko panel/bag
12. Desert Morning - Judy Wilford
13. Knitted Sampler Rug
14. Scrappy Quilt Along

If you would like to join in, please go and visit Cheryll over at GoNe STiTcHin