4Ever Blue

Ikebana lessons are back! playing with ideas for a future project using metal vases, Osaka leaves, Sunflowers and unconventional material.

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Winter arrangement at home. Dry branches and leaves collected during my walk with Layla this afternoon, complimented by fading anthurium flower and leaves. Hand-made nageire container in dark bottle green.

SogetsuIkebanaQLDInc

The Directors and Members of Sogetsu Ikebana Queensland Inc. have pleasure in announcing their annual exhibition of Ikebana - the elegant art of Japanese flower arranging.

When - Saturday 31 August and Sunday 01 September, 2024 from 10AM to 4PM daily

Where - Brisbane Botanic Gardens, Mt Coot-tha Auditorium, Mt Coot-tha Road, Toowong, Brisbane

The exhibition will be opened by Consul-General of Japan, Mr Junji Gomakubo, on Saturday 31 August at 10.15AM

- Admission $5.00
- Free Ikebana demonstrations 10.30AM and 1.00PM daily
- Guided tours of the exhibition 11.30AM and 2.30PM daily
- Hands-on workshops at 2PM daily ($10.00)
- Refreshments available for purchase
- Ikebana containers and related materials available for purchase
from 11.30AM

For more information please contact The Secretary on: [email protected]

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Feeling the Brisbane winter blues.... 💙 Another glorious and sunny day here in Queensland to hang out the washing and for some puppy sun baking 😂 A delightful batch of indigo goodness, within this bundle of 5 block prints from

Home Ikebana featuring my new yellow Shigaraki ware vase again with beautiful yellow Wattle (national flower of Australia) also know as Mimosa, partially in full bloom giving off a lovely scent. One material only, colour of the vase.. 🌕

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Billy Buttons! golden-yellow globes on long wiry stems, also known as Drumsticks 🌕

Easily grown from seed, these beauties also make great long lasting cut flowers, which I love using in my Ikebana arrangements.

This Billy Button design was hand-painted by Natalie Ryan in watercolour, with coloured pencil details and made into beautiful premium cotton linen tea towels, printed in Melbourne by meander designs .

Using various embroidery stitches, such as straight stitch, back stitch, chain stitch, loops and french knots, I tried to enhance the print by adding another dimension to the fabric, my version of “painting with thread”.

Sewn into a zipper pouch with matching woollen fluffy pompom zipper pull.

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4Ever Blue - The name is a combination of a measurement of time and my love of indigo blue and its fading characteristics, which makes it so unique and great to work with.

I love working with natural fibres, such as up-cycled Jeans, vintage silk, cotton and linen, leather and some designer fabrics that have caught my eye and work well together, often embellished with slow stitched embroidery.

This is one of my first and by far, largest piece of Boro I have created, incorporating some of the above mentioned fabrics and lovingly Sashiko stitched over a looong period of time using just an off white coloured cotton thread.

For a long time I did not know what to do with this piece but yesterday it all came together. I added denim belt loops and some other denim embellishments and turned it into a wall hanging, now taking pride of place on my main Studio wall. 💙👖

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From fab to fabulous or how to create a designer cardigan…. 😜

1. replace ordinary blackish plastic buttons with vintage silver buttons - been in my collection for the past thirty years (skiing trip to Austria..) just waiting for their moment to shine

2. add a bit of hand-stitching/embroidery in silver lame yarn (Daruma from ) in strategic places

3. combine with a Boro & Sashiko hanging pouch/pocket to pop that orange 🍊

Arctic breezes have finally hit our mild Brisbane winter, just in time to snuggle up in my new lambswool cardi from

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A few photos from yesterday's Boro and Sashiko workshop held at my Studio in Sumner Park. Four lovely ladies attended, two of them chose to make zipper pouches, one made a drawstring bag (Komebukuro) and one a cushion cover.

They first chose a background linen colour for their project, followed by patches in assorted colours and fabrics (curated packs available too) which we then co-ordinated with embroidery threads to begin their Sashiko stitching journey.

See for yourself what lovely colour combinations they came up with, cant wait to see the final results when they have finished their slow stitching in a few weeks time!!

Next workshop at my Studio is on Saturday, Aug 17, bookings available through link in my profile 🪡 😀



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A short version of the by using a striped blueish-grey cotton linen blend fabric.

As this fabric was part of some off-cuts I had received from , I only had enough of it for the front panels. The back is made from lightweight Japanese rope dyed denim which matches the front fabric both in colour and weight. Since I love selvage edges, I showed them off at the centre back and added a boro patch of the front fabric by hand, using a straight sashiko stitch.

I also hand-stitched the button holes with the same embroidery thread and chose three mismatched vintage buttons from my collection. The lining is a fabric I bought in Hong Kong many years ago and gives the vest a bit of a nostalgic look I think.

Its such a pleasure and a fun challenge being able to give these offcuts another life instead of them possibly ending up in landfill. Thank you Masayo for giving me this opportunity!

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New container in my collection... 🌝 yellow Shigaraki ware vase from Japanese Ikebana Vases, fondly nick-named Dragon Egg 🌕. Interesting shape, with what feels like a pinched lip, a bit of a challenge to arrange in, but who doesn't like a challenge... 😂

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Life is peachy…. 🍑 finally finished this summer project in a gorgeous soft double cotton gauze!! Besides the side seams this is all hand sewn, I used a slightly thicker, variegated cotton thread (Fruitti by Wonderfil) for a decorative effect.

A simple one size shirt with a square neckline and side splits which could be fully hand-stitched if you don't own a sewing machine. And as a bonus it is almost zero waste! What little is left can easily be used as a pocket, or saved for mending your favourite garment.

Being one size, the body width is determined by the width of the fabric. There are no pattern pieces. The length can be modified to your liking. Pattern by with an option to add a simple sleeve to your .

For an extra pop of colour, I have added one of my hand embroidered rectangular Boro brooches, made from up cycled Kimono fabric.

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Another great catch up with the lovely Vivienne River Patisserie. I thought I was over posting food pictures, but when it looks that great and tastes even better, I just could not help myself!! After all, we do eat with our eyes 😋

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My arrangement from our workshop yesterday with , using dried leaves and a hot glue gun to create a sculpture, then incorporating fresh materials and arranging outside the container.

I used a combination of dried leaves which I then "floated" on a tree branch, viewed from below and featuring space outside the container.

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How to turn an iconic white Bonds T-shirt into a designer T-shirt…. using lightweight cotton spandex fabric offcuts, featuring an original print in Japanese ink (used on the Suriko Top, this is the white version).

I cut the fabric into various size circles and appliquéd them onto the T-Shirt by hand, using a simple blanket/buttonhole stitch in various fluorescent thread colours.

I wonder what I will be doing with the blue cut-offs…. 🤔 stay tuned for the next repurposed fabric project.

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Decorative patchwork pouches, giving you that extra pocket you didn’t know you needed…!

Made from another repurposed lightweight cotton spandex fabric featuring an original print in Japanese ink (used on the Suriko Top, this is the black version). These satchels can also be worn crossbody and feature straight stitch hand-embroidery with beading or fringing, using my favourite Daruma Lame metallic threads in matching colours.

Its such a pleasure being able to give these offcuts another life instead of them possibly ending up in landfill. Thank you Masayo for giving me this opportunity!

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and as we are coming to the end of yet another week, I am also slowly coming to the end of this particular fabric, a gorgeous slightly crinkly/crepe medium-weight linen/cotton blend fabric in a colour called Mocha 🤎 I received as a wad of fabric offcuts from a while ago.

I am happy to advise that I only have a few scraps of this one left now, which is great for this Boro style project, where I have deconstructed the fabric to reconstruct the original gingham pattern on a larger scale, held down with lots of straight stitch Sashiko in matching tones of varying thickness embroidery cotton. What a long sentence…🤭

Now there is just bits and pieces left for my workshop students to play with, I think…

Stay tuned for the next repurposed fabric projects to hit my socials 😜

Its such a pleasure being able to give these offcuts another life instead of them possibly ending up in landfill. Thank you Masayo for giving me this opportunity!

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Home Ikebana - remnants from previous arrangements showing off the beautiful blue Delphiniums I got gifted. Tsubo style arrangement using direct fixing.

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The Fifty Principles of Sogetsu

Essence of Creativity - 50. Cultivate an eye for appreciation and a hand for creation. A sense of balance is essential. This can be achieved only through constant practice.

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Practise what you preach….. (or maybe ‘teach’ in my case 🤭)

Its been a while since I have actually made and finished!! a Boro (Japanese patchwork) cushion cover to go onto my Etsy Store.

Shades of purpley-blue with orange and red on oatmeal and flax coloured linen with a zipper on the back for easy insertion for a filler cushion.

The fabric patches I have used are remnants of a beautiful fabric I bought in Japan in 2018 whilst on a textile tour, having made a dress and a drawstring bag from it so far. Sewn onto four different shades of beige linen strips to form a 40cm cushion cover and embroidered with a simple Sashiko straight stitch in matching/contrasting threads.

Learn to make your a cushion cover in one of my Boro/Sashiko workshops.

Choose patches and embroidery threads from a wide variety of colours and textures to create a truely unique masterpiece of your own!!

Next available cushion cover workshop is on Jun 15, 2024 from 9AM to 1PM at my Studio in Sumner Park, Brisbane. (2 seats left only)

Challenge using unconventional material, cardboard packaging material from Ikea, combined with flowering wild grass and leafs from my garden.

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This is the largest project I made from this gorgeous slightly crinkly/crepe medium-weight linen/cotton blend fabric in a colour called Mocha 🤎 I received as a wad of fabric offcuts from a while ago.

I had to stitch strips of it together first along the selvedge edges, creating a cut little fringe, to achieve the necessary leg width. The pattern is the by , pull-on style with an elasticised waist and stitched-down side pockets. The special design feature is a lower leg panel that tapers inwards at the hem and is finished with a stitched down hem facing.

I am happy to advise that I only have a few scraps of this one left now, great for some Boro projects though.. 😜

Stay tuned, there is more to come..!

Its such a pleasure being able to give these offcuts another life instead of them possibly ending up in landfill. Thank you Masayo for giving me this opportunity!

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Carindale Library Makerspace - for adults: Block print your own tote bag

Today I taught my third “Block print your own tote bag” workshops at Carindale Library at their Makerspace for adults. It certainly looked like the participants enjoyed themselves using my ready made stamps and had fun learning different techniques and mixing their own shades of acrylic paint colours.

The participants printed on paper first, moved onto making their own gift wrap and matching greeting card, then practiced on a piece of calico before stamping onto the tote bag.

These free workshops are an initiative of the Brisbane City Council and can be found under: “What’s on in Brisbane” 😊

“Learn the basics of block printing in this workshop with Nicole Dorner-Scales from 4EverBlue Creations. You will experiment with different shapes and transfer techniques, from paint rollers to sponges and brushes, to create a personalised tote bag. Nicole will also demonstrate how you can carve your own rubber blocks for printing at home. All materials supplied. No previous experience required.”

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Book 5, Floor Arrangement - in our teachers lovely house, bringing the outside in, using a tall vase featuring dried and sculpted Cat's claw vine, Bromeliad leafs and berries.

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Looking forward to running this workshop next Sunday at the Carindale Library, Makerspace for Adults 😃

Makerspace for adults: Block print your own tote bag Learn the basics of block printing in this workshop with Nicole Dorner-Scales from 4EverBlue Creations. You will experiment with different shapes and transfer techniques, from paint rollers to sponges and brushes, to create a personalised tote bag. Nicole will also demonstrate how you can carve your...

No prize for guessing where this morning's Boro and Sashiko cushion cover workshop was held .... 😜 🏆

Eight lovely ladies attended. They first chose their background linen colours followed by pre-made fabric packs in assorted colours (some even brought some extra fabric from their stash) which we then co-ordinated with embroidery threads for them to begin their Sashiko stitching journey.

See for yourself what lovely colour combinations they came up with, cant wait to see the final results when they have finished their slow stitching in a few weeks time!!

Thank you Leesa Sewing Adventures for having me again 🪡 😀

Whilst I have been busy with putting together kits for my various workshops, I have also been working on my quest of turning gorgeous fabric offcuts from into various useful items.. 🥰

2nd one made from this lovely slightly crinkly/crepe medium-weight linen/cotton blend in a colour called Mocha 🤎🤎🤎 is my signature square modern Japanese style drawstring bag or komebukuro. I ended up joining two pieces of offcuts to create a wider piece of fabric to work with. Since my pattern matching didn't turn out too great, I ended up covering the joint with some lovely vintage silk kimono patches, secured with a bit of Sashiko embroidery and nobody would know any better hadn't I pointed it out... 🤭

Stay tuned, there is a more to come..!

Its such a pleasure being able to give these offcuts another life instead of them possibly ending up in landfill. Thank you Masayo for giving me this opportunity!

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Continuing our journey in book 5, arranging without a Kenzan, Golden Rain Tree seed pots, fern leaf.

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