WALL EMBROIDERY PICTURE - Iceland - part 2 Aurora

I am struggling whether to do the trees with embroidery stiches or should I do applique . I want it to be nice but not overwrite the aurora. I intended to do one of my favourite stay with applique and padding. This is also the place we had the most beautiful aurura which danced awfully elegantly . It was then everyone "wow!!' that we noticed the place was actually filled with quite a no. of people though we probably had not noticed each other earlier. 

 For this , I'm only doing the trees top and the hut.

 I used brown wrapping paper and the purplish netting for the foreground.

I prefer to iron the cloth before I use them. Infact, I washed all clothes before I use them.

This green looks great, deep but not to dark to show the embroidery . I used the segregated thread .

I bought a huge packet of the wadding for this project. I will use the water soluble when I stitch the wadding.

It  really pluffy. Love it. But I made a mistake. The embroidery will flattens it. Keep the sewing minimum.

.

to counter that, I added another thinner bedding for the inner portion and minimize tgecsewing. Hmm... Not bad

I think I will add more trees at the back. Probably just embroidery, no applique so they would be more interesting.
 

After struggling a few days in sudden snowfall and strong winds, finally we feel safer as the snowstorm subsided.

fassunton Camping ground

WALL EMBROIDERY PICTURE - Iceland - part 1 Aurora

After I completed my curtains, my next project is to do a embroidery picture of my travels. My First intention was to do a long single piece about 3m long. My wall is not flat, it has a portion where the column stood. And I will have difficulty hanging it. Worse still, I can't make any mistake , else everything is failed. Then I thought I could do smaller ones and quilt them, but I really don't enjoy quilting at the moment. Finally, I compromised to a smaller piece and do 3 individual pieces. I will probably embroidery most, thread painting, applique and may be some hand embroidery and I may add beads or so. As I do, I'll decide. 

First, I hunt for the base fabrics which I hope to get a thicker one. I went old people park.Then I went to Spotlight, I bought some solid colours fabric which I will use. Very basic greens, browns and blues. As I shop the next trip, I decided to get some netting too. I am a beginner so I don't have much fabric, mine mostly flower prints. I had some leftover from making mask, hope they will come to good use.

 A brown wrapper (rice paper) that caught my eyes at Diaso.

A draft on the actual size. I prefer to feel it than to imagine it. This is my First try.

The whole paintings will be in greens, blues brown and white, red n yellow goes for the sunrise only.

Now, it's digitising time. I drew, wait for a few days to observe, then change then wait. Finally I'm ready to sew!

I did a test for my project to ensure which will give the better effect I called for.

After several combination , I decided on combinding 2 netting, purple and blue ensuring they crisscross each other to get the best effect. I put tapes around because I may take 2 days or more to do and there will be a lot of applique work later. Better keep it safe in place. I had planned to paint the back ground blue and black with the fabric paint initially.

Original plan was to embroider 2 layers of the wavy stitches, but after the first layer, I think it is Good to reflect the night sky. So it is actually 3 layers, 2 layer of netting and 3rd, embroidery over it.

For the aurora, 1st layer I use the segregated green/yellow.

Then I add 2nd layer of segregated green(darker one), but I don't like the effect. I changed it to a single colour deep green. Hmmm... Much better.

 then I added 3rd n 4th layer of a brighter green to enhance the whole effect of the aurora.

These are some of the aurora photos I've taken in our Iceland trip. They aren't the most beautiful.

Firstly my photography was so so, secondly the most beautiful one in fassuton where we were wondering where it woul appeared. It suddenly danced above us and twist magically. It all happened so quickly I've no time to react, but just relax and enjoyed it. We were lucky to enjoy them for a number of days, some faintly, some really  bright, not twist and turn. There was one with a faint purplish/pink thin line but disappeared almost immediately . Nevertheless, they were lovely and too Good for words, you got to see it yourself. I'm sure for those who had the same experience like me will agree. Yours may be more interesting.

15 days Iceland - day 1 & 2 Singapore - Keflavik, Iceland

Day 1,    15/10/2019, Tuesday     Singapore - Iceland

We had intended to go Amsterdam to do some visiting and add a place to visit since we will be flying so far. After some thoughts, Iceland came into my mind. I had wanted to see the northern lights after both our kids shared their experiences. We could spent a week in Iceland and Amsterdam each. But flight connecting Amsterdam and Iceland seem not in our favour. If we fly KLM , our connecting flight to Iceland is fine but the returning is a torturing 11 hours with all the transits.  If we do a separate flight, it's too expensive. After many tries, we decided to fly Iceland, transit at Helsinki with the lowest cost available. 
We had planned to visit on end December to be able to celebrate the new year in Iceland. My  girl shared that the new year's fireworks are really beautiful. I noticed the days will be really short, we don't like to drive in the dark, especially when we know there is going to be no street lamps most of the journey. We  hope to go slow to enjoy so we decided to bring forward to October with more daylight hours. Even then, our daylight will be shorter each day. The sunrise will come later and sets earlier. Secondly, the weather will be unpredictable too. We hope we could get good weather.

Since we are only visiting Iceland, we will spent a longer time here.
(I had actually invited my sister-in-law, who told me they could go with us if we visit Europe since they are both retired there, but for some reason they could not join us, which gave us more  flexibility to play around with our schedule.)

AY0132 S’pore  -  Helsinki     T1             T2	AY0991 Helsinki – Reyjavik     T2  -     (Keflavik)
23:25    -    06:15 (15/10)      (16/10) 11hrs 50mins	0745   -   0835 16/10 1hr 30min

As I was planning our 15 days trip to Iceland, I was totally overwhelmed. I couldn’t decide which sites  will be best for us. I marked them all and tried to read more and hoped for the best. The more I read the more I wantwd to go.

First thing I learned is that the weather in Iceland  can change on a dime. Wow! four season in a day???


Next, everything is expensive. I should plan some cooking to cut cost so we could travel more . . .

Singapore Changi Airport T1

 As we took a red-eye flight from Singapore, we try to do as little and have a good rest on our arrival . Thus we could  start our trip fresh and energetic tomorrow.  .

relaxing @ Plaza premium lounge before our flight

Our flight wasn't full, I managed to sleep a few hours on a few seats. This was great for me. I just don't enjoy food on flight nowadays. bread and yogurt was good.

first glance of Iceland

First, we collected our rental car from and was pestered to purchase the extra insurance. Mr. hubby give in and we parted with 400 euro.
( and these insurance didn't even cover the tyres portion, I think it is important to include this in general. a lesson we learned )

   Then we bought the wifi which include local calls. This is also important too. You may need to call and confirmed your tour booking or call the stay. Most importantly (in our case) to call the car rental should anything happen to the car. They will asked tons of questions and at least a few call to make any progress. ( we had 3 experiences, how terrible :((  )

                                                      same post?

we have 237,800 residents in 20.89sq, km. in my town. WOW!!!!

first alert at the airport 

Stekkjarkot

Our first destination was Stekkjarkot. It is a  traditional 1800s fisherman's cottage made from turf, stone ; timber . It's free to visit!

Then, we visited the Bonus and Kronan @ Fitjar . Personally, I prefer Kronan. In Bonus, you walk into the freezer to buy the poultry and also a seperate room for vegetables and fruits. Kronan had it's poultry lay in the feezer as most supermarket does. We bought our groceries from both in our trip.

Issi fish and chips
Read about this, so here we are. it is open at 11am.

18900 kr

Bridge America-Europe
It probably seems impossible to walk from Europe to North America within a matter of seconds, but Iceland makes this unimaginable feats completely happens. The Bridge between Continents or Midlina is a 15 meter (50 ft) footbridge in the Reykjanes Peninsula spanning a gaping rift between the Eurasian and North American tectonic plates.

Bridge America-Europe

 Gunnuhver
This steamy area has an incredible sulfur vapor.
A unique characteristic of the Gunnuhver hot springs is that the groundwater here is 100% seawater, unlike other geothermal areas on the island. The colorful minerals in the ground provide vibrant hues, but danger is very real with temperatures over 300°C (570°F) so it is important to tread lightly and stick to the trails. Iceland's largest mud pool resides at Gunnuhver; it is 20 meters (65 ft) wide of violently boiling earth., especially with the winds, it seem to be roaring.

roaring 

casting group

We had wanted to visit Valahnúkamöl but there was a casting on, so the place was blocked. We could still walked to the lighthouse and have a great view if the surrounding.

 

Reykjanes Lighthouse

The view at Brimketill lava rock pool was panoramic.

The waves was gigantic but it forms a beautiful backdrop

                                           

free to use, toilet.
 

Seltun Geothermal area
 the site is dotted with bubbling pools of mud, fumaroles and hot springs. There are well-maintained wooden walkways .
it is sad some choose to ignore the sign and take their risk.

screenshots from my video

boiling

Seltun Geothermal area

After checking into our airbnb, we have a good early rest to start fresh tomorrow

 
the lamb is tender and no gamy smell

distance travelled : 124km