Colourful Friday - Leaves

Robyn from Daisy Quilts has set us the pleasurable task of finding leaves for  Colourful Friday.  I am spoilt for choice in my leafy neighbourhood, so here are a few offerings .

At the end of my street a creative neighbour has a rockery full of succulents and cacti. I spotted this lovely group of leaves on my morning walk, just as the sun hit the plants.

A lovely leafy bouquet.

 This plant is from my garden, but I must confess that I don't know what it is called.  I just love the deep pink colour of the leaves.

...and finally something from my sewing machine.  I was making a Cicada brooch for the Being Creative Project and thought I would make some leaves at the same time.  They are made with 2 layers of fine net and machine embroidery.

Being Creative - July Topic "Summer"

I have recently joined the Being Creative Project , by Julia Crosslands,  where the topic for July is "Summer".  As we are in the midst of a wet winter here in Eastern Australia it felt a bit difficult to imagine summer.  I took inspiration from Julia's emails and brainstormed on the sights and sounds of summer.  Images of Mangoes, Icecream, shimmering heat waves on the beach and the sounds of Cicadas, Mosquitoes and ceiling fans came to mind. Cicadas are noisy insects that hatch out during summer, they are so loud sometimes that it is impossible to hear the TV!

Earlier this year I made a quilt for my sister in law in ice cream shades  and today I made a cicada brooch starting with the wings using tulle and  free motion machine embroidery

 I then made a body from lining fabric

and beaded the body and head

Making the most of a wet Sunday afternoon

It was too rainy to tackle the garden today, so I just had the perfect excuse to do some sewing!  I had made a quilt last  year to brighten up our spare room.  It was inspired by Kaffe Fasset's use of colour and I called it the Technicolour Dream Quilt

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After rummaging through my scrap stash I found some leftover strips from the quilt and decided to make a cushion without buying anything extra.  

 

and here it is.... a simple but very bright cushion!

 

Our cheeky cat Coco had to see what all the fuss was about.

My first Colour Friday contribution

Here is my first Colourful Friday contribution.  I hope I have done all the linking properly. I set about my neighbourhood looking for Triangles, thinking it would be very difficult to find anything triangular other than roofs, however I was nicely surprised with my discoveries below

Our local Foreshore Markets are full of local produce and crafts. 

I see this house nearly everyday on my walks and had almost forgotten it was a triangle!

Norfolk Pine Trees in the evening light.

My daughter spotted this grass growing in a triangle on one of local beaches.

and last but not least, as promised to my daughter, a photo of her on the beach with her triangle shadow above her head. 

Colourful Fridays

I am having a lovely time this week, discovering and photographing triangles (with my daughter's keen assistance) for my first post to Colourful Fridays.  Fingers crossed I am able to post my photos and link them properly!

Still getting the hang of blogging

I am still navigating my way around the blog world, trying to figure out how to get things to work on my blog and enjoying the satisfaction of learning something new.