Fabric and Lacebook re: Birds from Downunder

I know that birds are most often associated 

with Spring but I love them in any season

and

I wanted to share a book which I created

for Lisa of Tarnished and Tattered Blog

(as part of a swap we engaged in

several months ago)

about our native Australian birds here

- the "Honeyeaters".

The bird theme was a total surprise for Lisa!

I have also included a couple of other birds but it is mainly

focused on the Honeyeaters.

I took several pieces of fabric away with me on a short

holiday last year so that I could hand piece 

some fabrics together in the evening where we stayed

in a beautiful cabin on the beach.

This Wonga Pigeon graces the cover

and here are the first two pages inside.

I know how much Lisa loves birds and themes

related to nature but I doubt that she ever sees

any of these beautiful insect loving birds

in her garden!!!

Oh and popped in the left hand pocket on these

pages is a tag with one of our Kookaburras

on it!

You can clearly see this pocket displaying the Black Honeyeaters

was created from a rusted linen serviette.

In this pocket are a couple of vintage cigarette cards

from my collection of ephemera.

The Heron which is actually from a piece of fabric

I identified from my bird books as a Reef Heron!

I'm not quite sure where in the book this appears

but I simply loved that beautiful nest 

which I had to incorporate.

You can also see more rust dyed and blue silk fabrics

which have been collaged and hand stitched

with some vintage lace.

This photo on the back of the lacebook came from

 a dear friend, Ron.

See the little Blue Wren sitting on the fence post?

Now you can see how the many pages of fabrics

and lace look together to give it a

very rustic feel!

Last, but not least, is the spine adorned with a metal finding.

I can't tell you how much I enjoyed the creation of

this book with its many layered fabrics and laces of hand stitching

and I was very happy with the result

not to mention how thrilled Lisa 

was to receive it.

I will share what I received from Lisa in a future post seeing that

I have managed to take up so much of your precious time

in viewing this post already!

I'm joining the party at What's It Wednesday
Ivy and Elephants this week!

I do have at least two more lacebook journals that I will

share with you as we go along - one of which

relates to nature again!

Finally I'm just sending some Autumnal hugs

from our garden to all my friends and followers

in blogland with this beautiful

Windflower!

Enjoy♥♥♥

Have a lovely weekend!

Suzy xox

Nature's Easter Eggs

Easter has come around one more time again

and

I decided to use just a few things 

from nature to create a couple

of Easter vignettes to share

as a reminder of this

special event!

I saved this nest so I could pop it under this cloche

along with some feathers and dried "Love in a Mist"

seed pods for this vignette.

The blue eggs came from my dear friend Terri!

As we are approaching Winter where I live I

thought these browns and greys of

our Winter tones downunder

would be appropriate for this display

in our home this time of year.

The egg on the left was turned from a native Banksia pod,

the centre from timber and the one on the

right is a seed pod from a Spruce tree.

 and I picked up the dried Protea flower from our garden

which is a perfect addition to my Easter eggs

sitting on this vintage metal scoop.

The vintage wooden and rubber stamps were

a purchase from Liz's Etsy Shop

(La Croix Rosion)

a while back.

Liz has such a gorgeous shop filled with many vintage French

religious items, linen, jewellery, metal ware, laces
 and braids etc. that you

are going to find it hard to resist!

Over the Easter break I may probably continue to

work on a new piece that I've just started
with some of these new and
 vintage doilies and laces

and it will certainly be taking some

hours to complete along with some other chores
around the property here like collecting

kindling and firewood in readiness
for some natural warm 
home comfort over the coming months!

Have a wonderful Easter break - stay safe

and happy and well!

♥♥♥

Thanks to all my wonderful followers for

your beautiful comments

and to my 

new followers also!

Much love, Suzy

Friendship Lacebook of Collages and Tags

Do you often wonder how to display or store or keep

those beautiful swaps, gifts or creations

from friends?

This might be one solution you could consider!!!

♥♥♥

Some time back I showed this cover of my
Friendship Book of Collages and Tags
which I was compiling.

I'm pleased to say that I have finally completed it

with a few extra pages that I can add at some

later stage.

The soldered charm was created by Marie (Lost Bird Studio)

especially for this purpose! 

It consists of a number of collages which (in some cases)

I have embellished further to combine with some of

my own pages

to add some pockets to hold

a collection of tags which I have received

over the past 12-18 months from

various loved blogging friends.

Below is the fat looking spine of the many pages

(20, in fact, counting the covers).

This shows the back cover.

I thought this would make a wonderful keepsake
of creative works from dear blogging friends
that I could treasure from my years
of companionship with
so many special
friends.

The collages and tags came as either swaps or gifts!

The first page on the right from Shane (Roses Lace and Brocante)

 I coupled with one of my own which contains a couple of tags

from Shane.

The next two came from Judy (Judith Ann's Blog).

They could have been used as prayer flags

but I chose to add them here in my Friendship Book.

The collage on the left with illuminated letter "S"

was created by Socrates (Altered Meditations blog) from the Medieval Lace Book Group

which I belonged to and the tag in the pocket opposite

was from Karen (Alaska Blue Moose blog) who

was also a member of the same group.

This double page spread contains another of my pockets

holding beautiful tags from Liz (Lululiz in Lalaland)

and Sharon (Livewire Jewelry) along side

another beautiful collage from Judy embellished

with more lace. 

The collage on the left hand side also from Socrates

sits in a silk backed and netted lace pocket

and the pocket opposite I created from some upcycled satin

and lace lingerie

It holds tags from Lynne (Adorn - Lynne's Bows and Bells)

Dorthe (Den Lillelade) and

Shane (Roses Lace and Brocante)

Another sweet tag from Dorthe and vintage lacecollage

 from Judy

with this pocket created by yours truly!

and these final pages were created by both Shane - (RHS)

with pocket by me on LHS!

So many pages with so many memories to cherish 
these dear friends and the artistry they represent.
I couldn't think of a more honorable way
to remember them all in the one
place - in a lace book of memories. 

The tags below are amongst some I still have to
create more pockets for but wanted to share
them with you so you too
could appreciate
the amazing
talent and creativity of some of my blogging friends.!

The idea of the Friendship Book could be an option

to incorporate any number of works such as this,

e.g. greeting cards etc.

Let me know if you have created something similar!!!

I am so very grateful to all of the friends I have met

in blogland and would really love to

acknowledge that in part by this post today.

Anyway my friends I hope you have enjoyed this 

very long post.

Take care and see you again soon!

Love and hugs,

Suzy