The last two weeks have been a blur for Meredith and me. Our Mum had a fall, and is in hospital with complications. I have been here in South Australia for two weeks, trying to shield Meredith from the brunt of dealing with Mum during the worst of the post-surgical stuff. I will go home in a week and Mereth will be left as the only family available, so I don't want her to get burned out at the start of the whole thing. Basically we just need to make sure that Mum is comfortable and as mobile as possible and then deal with life one day at a time.

The picture is a corner of the hospital where Mum is. It's a beautiful old building, 2 years younger than she is, and I love the honey coloured stone and the wide verandahs.

It's the middle of winter here, but in the tropics where I live we were still wearing T-shirts. I'm f.f.f.freezing here! But I'm enjoying it too, because I like everything that goes with the cold weather; knitting in front of the fire, toasting things above the coals, walking the streets at sunset and seeing the trees light up in the setting sun. I love homemade soup and bread at night, and the kitchen warm from the stove.

Mereth's house is very cold, being stone, and the rooms are so huge that they don't warm up easily. We've been living in the sunroom, round the woodstove, and it's been very pleasant, except for the squabbles over who's turn it is to run out and make coffee! I have finished another pair of socks, and now I'm knitting a shawl which is demanding all my attention so I don't make a mistake with the 400-odd stitches. But I'm glad that I have something to keep me busy.

There has been no time for sewing, or sitting in the sewing room, which is a bit sad. Still, I'm just glad that we are able to be together. The locals can't quite believe there are two of us. I need to get a T-shirt printed saying 'I'm The Other One'. So many people see me and launch into detailed conversation, while I try to butt in and explain that I actually don't know them from a bar of soap. It can be a bit difficult. And we don't look all that much alike, we just have the same shape and the same features and people assume I must be Mereth.

The rellies have been coming to visit Mum, and we must look an odd sight all together. Everyone is around 5' tall, and roundish, and grey-haired. All of us would fit right into Hobbiton without attracting a second look. Two of my aunts who married into the family were around the 5'10" mark when younger, which injected a bit of much needed height into the cousins, but now they have shrunk down too. The earth must have a strong pull on us.

Just for the record, Mereth and I had 12 uncles and 10 aunts. (We just had an argument over that, because I'd missed out one of the aunties and had to amend the count.) We can't name our cousins without a family tree to count them all up. It is intruiging to be part of such a large family, but complicated too, especially when some of the uncles aren't talking to the others. Arguments about rabbit traps, firewood and fishing nets can occupy them for years....

Read more...

Oww!! What a weekend!

The skip is full, and I think I need to get it emptied and brought back so we can fill it again. There is about 10 times more stuff to go, and I have created an almighty mess. It looks quite hopeless now, but I know from past experience that if I just keep working through all the piles then order will be restored.

It's sad to realise that we're never going to get round to making all the furniture we plannned, re-upholstering all those chairs and settees, repairing the vintage furniture we collected. Some pieces I'll keep, but most of it is being donated to people who will do something with it. And we'll go on to other things.

No sewing has been attempted, as my hands are full of splinters and aching from hauling around several tons of wood. But Mereth's comment on her blog about our handpiecing prompts me to post this example of our backstitched seams. I just can't make running stitch look as nice, or feel as secure, so I'm not about to change now. People always look at my seams and say flatly "You machine pieced this". Then I show them the reverse of the seam, which looks like stem stich and they have to admit that I did hand piece it after all.

It's funny to listen to comments when I'm vending at shows, and hear people tell their friends "Oh that's all done on the machine", when I know it isn't. Or "Of course it's all done on one of those longarm machines", when most of my quilts are sewn on my Janome. Once, when selling my Mini Album, an original pattern with the original quilt as a sample, a woman complimented me in a condescending way because I had matched the materials so exactly to the photo in the pattern. It took several attempts to actually convince her that it was the actual quilt. And that I designed it. Nowadays I wouldn't even bother arguing the point......

My poor little quilt met a sticky end, in a bag stolen from an airport shuttle on the way to a show. I hope it ended up in good hands, and not discarded in a dumpster once the thieves realised the hugely heavy bag contained only the setup for a quilting booth.....

Read more...

An interesting weekend is planned, with the delivery of an enormous industrial skip and the intention of clearing up Don's wood stash. He doesn't complain about my material stash, because he has the equivalent in wood and wood-products downstairs. And I love the possibilities of what it will all become, so I don't usually mind the wood mountain. However, we need to tidy it up so that potential buyers of this house won't blanche in horror at the sight of it. I'll let you know how it goes.....

I've been cramming a bit of sewing into odd spaces of time, with the result that I now have a finished Wheel of Fortune top, which somehow grew too big for the quilt hanger I wanted to display it on. I will have to find a larger quilt hanger or use it as a bed quilt. That just gives me permission to make another quilt that will actaully fit on the present quilt hanger.

I did use the Parisian Essence on the borders, and I'm glad I did, even thought the overall change was subtle. The navy fabric had a tiny white design on it, which is probably why I hadn't used it in 15 years; the white was jarring. But it toned down beautifully, and I'm really happy with how it looks.

I also sewed all the strips leftover from my red and green quilt into pairs, and cut them into slices to make into these blocks. Don't know where they are going yet, but I have 4 baskets of scraps cut into units, which is a good feeling.


Remember the four blocks of the pink and yellow and green Many Trips Around The World that I was making before I left for America in April. Opened a pizza box that used to store strips, and found.... 26 more blocks! Where did they come from? Either I am losing my short term memory or there really are quilt fairies.

It's not as bright as the flash makes it look, but it is still going to be a strongly coloured quilt, unless I make a lot of sober blocks to tone it down. But I quite like it the way it is. I am making it for our bed, so I will make another 15 or so blocks and see what I think then,

I'm putting off the moment when I have to count the number of quilts already in this house. Once I know that figure I may give up any idea of making yet more. But that's unlikely to last.....

Read more...

I was a little intruiged by my bottle of Parisian Essence, and wondered what was actually in it to make a dye. The label comfortingly says 'Warning! May stain fabric." Well good, I want it to stain, but just how long would it last? The label says it contains food colouring 105, and not much else, so I looked it up on the net. FC105 is Fast Yellow AB. That's even more comforting; it shouldn't wash out in a hurry.

Interesting; what is the difference between a stain and a dye? I guess a stain is more transparent than a dye, maybe it doesn't have the same masking properties. Who knows. I can colour my fabrics with this stuff, drink it without harm, or make a mess all down the front of my shirt; it's got so many uses.

I think tea-dyeing gives a greyish tone, which is why I haven't used it a lot. I prefer the yellow tones of FC105.

These are photos of sculptures from the Chicago Art Museum. They are part of a display of architectural details from buildings that have been demolished. These were by Lora Marx, and she made them for a night club that was redecorated in 1937; thank heavens someone thought to save these. If I could have anything from that museum it would be these two faces. They are so strong and timeless.

I immediately thought of novelist Ayn Rand when I saw these; they say something about the era she wrote about, her high ideals about art and principles.

Read more...

These are the Wheel of Fortune templates that I am working with.
They are by John Flynn, and he has a range of other patterns too. I love acrylic templates, I have quite a collection of them, and I enjoy having them all, even if some have never been used. I have plans for them someday.

I can see myself using the pieced ring from this pattern in lots of other patterns too, so it will be useful long after I have got sick of this particular block. I think a sampler of different circular blocks would keep me occupied for quite a while. And I like the idea of being able to use up all those strange scraps of my strip piecing projects.

The hazards of never throwing anything away are beginning to emerge, as I hunt into the deepest cupboards and open every last little box and tin. I have collected tins and storage containers for 35 years or more, and have been stowing little projects or supplies in them for the same amount of time. My goodness, the pitiful scraps and unsorted rubbish that are coming to light is amazing. As I snort and toss it in the bin the pile of empty tins and baskets and plastic containers grows ever larger. I have loads of storage now, because I've got rid of the junk at last.

I have tangles of embroidery floss 40 years old and welded into a solid knot; hardly likely to come in useful. I have thriftshop wool felted together in it's packet because it's more than 50 years old, faded and a bit moth-eaten too. I have scraps of once-white muslin, none larger than a 1.5" triangle. Used papers from a hexagon project finished 24 years ago. The contents of at least 9 sewing baskets that I bought from second-hand stores, mainly rusted needles and pins snarled up in frayed ribbon and unwound reels of thread. Did no-one explain to me in my youth the function of a Rubbish Bin????

There are treasures as well, and it's nice to be reacquainted with them. I collected embroidery for a while, anything that depicted a house. I think I want to make a Log Cabin quilt with the embroideries as the centres. That idea will have to grow a little before I start to do something with it, but it's nice to have this lot waiting.

Every year I take a two week virtual holiday while Wimbledon is on. I sit up late at night, sewing or knitting, watching the world's tennis players slog it out. I don't play, having been forced to when I was young and I hated it; in fact I blame my current wrist problems on those wretched games. But I love watching tennis. Everyone else goes off to bed and leaves me to it. I drink hot mocha, and sleep on the couch and enjoy myself mightily. And get a lot of sewing done.

Two hand piecing projects are at the top of my list of things to do this year. The Tumbling Blocks I started in 1998, to take with me on a family Christmas holiday. I've thought this was finished several times, and then decided to make it bigger, but it now fits our queen-size bed, and that's quite big enough. It needs a few pieces around the edges and it's done.

The Inner City I cut out at the same time as the Tumbling Blocks, and it is intended to be a wall-hanging to match. It keeps getting larger too, and I was shocked to realise when I spread it out that it is finished bar the border. So nothing is stopping me from getting this little

baby into the pile of finished tops, except for the lack of the perfect border fabric. I think I will go shopping for a reproduction border stripe fabric this afternoon.

Read more...

There has been no sewing taking place here for more than a week. There has been mindless knitting of socks late at night, but no sewing.

I have been packing away books, magazines and extraneous things that we don't use, trying to get the house presentable enough to put it on the market. I have shifted every stick of furniture we posess, washed every corner of every floor, washed windows and curtains, polished and scrubbed and sorted till I wonder why on earth all this stuff is even necessary. I can feel a minimalist bout coming on, but I know it will pass. I love my junk, but there is far too much of it.

I am trying to be methodical, making inventories of each box of books and numbering the boxes, and I have every intention of making a spreadsheet so that I can find what I want in future. I'm always full of good intentions, but I haven't run out of enthusiasm yet, so I may just be able to see it through this time. I've always wanted to have an inventory of my books, so I'm enjoying the whole process.

I'm also trying to sort out the hand-piecing projects that I'm discovering in various spots around the house. I'm gathering them all together, and then I'll have a serious think about which ones I want to finish as I originally planned, which ones should be finished as they stand and which ones I should pitch entirely. I do love to start things and never get back to them.

I'm also finding lots of non-quilting projects, and I have to make decisions about those as well. I have a huge trunk full of rug-making supplies, for hooked rugs and braided rugs and crocheted rugs and latch-hook rugs. I have enough stuff to carpet the back yard as well as the house. I threw out a heap of old material that was destined for a braided rug; having made four in the past I know that I won't have time in the forseeable future to tackle another one. It's a good feeling to discard things sometimes.

I have done another 4" of a latch-hook rug that has been in progress for two years. I have really weak fingers and wrists, and the repetitive motions and the strength needed to make the knots just ruin my hands after a week or so. This can go back in the trunk until my hands have recovered.

I found an ancient needlework picture, that needs a few night's stitching to complete. This was in a McCalls Needlework magazine I bought in 1975, and I've always loved it. As you can see by the date, I was close to finishing it 13 years ago, and ran out of the cream background wool. Last year I finally tracked down a match, and this year I'm determined to finish it and get it framed. My daughter always loved watching me stitch the roses, and once I came back from making a cup of coffee to find some very odd stitches in place. She was chagrined to realise that it wasn't as easy as it looked! I pulled out her erratic stitches and helped her do some proper ones, but she really wasn't that interested. She loves beading, but not any sort of sewing.

I found heaps of pieced scraps in the sewing room, and cut out as many of the point templates for the Wheel of Fortune as I could. It was a great way to use up some really strange scraps, and the hard work of piecing the bits together had already been done. As you can see by the inch markings on the mat, this template is quite tiny, so you can cut pieces out the smallest scraps. I'm thinking of making a block using the pieced ring of the Wheel of Fortune, and substituting different centres. I haven't got sick of piecing them yet.....

When I was dividing up the material to share with Meredith I had a struggle with three pieces that I loved, and (shame on me) didn't want to split with her. Lo and behold, when I was looking on her blog at the picture of material she'd bought, there were the three fabrics! She'd already bought them for herself, and I could keep all of mine. In total there were eight fabrics that we both bought; do we have the same taste or what!

And her parcel came to 11kilos, or 22 pounds of fabric and books and wool. It will be just like Christmas; I'm thinking of the Christmas barrel in The Long Winter.....(Laura Ingalls Wilder)

Read more...

I don't think I have what it takes to be a good blogger. I miss too many opportunities for blogworthy photos, and I'm not dedicated enough to record things when they happen. Nearly 6 weeks in America, and there are three posts? Must try harder next time..... I'm buying myself wireless internet before I go anywhere else, so there will be no excuses next time.

I do have several hundred photos to edit, so I'll post some over the next few weeks, as I get to them. I'm still trying to catch up with business and family stuff, plus doing a little bit of sewing in odd moments to preserve my sanilty. Don't know if that's being very effective though.

It's good to be back, even if the cats ran away in terror when they saw me come in the door; it took a day for them to stop peering through doorways at me as if I were an intruder, and an unwelcome one at that. But all is forgiven now. I've seen the photos and heard the stories of Rhys' 18th birthday party, and it's a good thing I wasn't here. I would have ruined it entirely by being sensible.

I've divvied up the purchases and there is a parcel for Meredith waiting to be sent; you can see why there are always people wanting to be our long-lost triplet. I was remarkably restrained; I was allowed 64 kilos of luggage, and I only had 60. That's 132 pounds of stuff I lugged from the International Terminal at Brisbane to the Domestic Terminal. Whew. I was glad to get that lot home.

I have been wanting to do some round blocks for a while, so I bought several sets of acrylic templates from John Flynn. I tried out the Wheel of Fortune set, using my 2 1/2 " strips. The tiny triangles are cut from pre-pieced strips, so it goes togethere really quickly. The cutting is fiddly, but so much quicker than any other method, and I love the finished block.

I made 6, liked the effect but hated the pink setting material. If I'd been sensible I would have stopped then and replaced the pink fabric, but some madness made me think it would grow on me. It didn't, and then I had 16 blocks to deal with.I should know by now that I have to listen to that annoying little voice that tells me to stop what I'm doing before it's too late.

While I was at the various shows I found myself drawn to the antiques booths and the really dark and dirty looking antique quilts, with strong colours and vibrant contrasts. That's what I'd been wanting in these blocks, and they were just too perky and bright. So I threw caution to the winds, and dyed the blocks with something called Parisian Essence. It's a food colouring, but has the happy side-effect of staining fabric a deep browny-yellow. It looks like Dirt-Of-The-Ages in a bottle, and I really like the way the blocks look now. I've picked out the border fabrics, and the top should be in one piece this weekend. And I'm still not sick of piecing the blocks, so I think I'll pick out good fabrics for another variation....

I have acrylic templates for Wheel of Mystery, and Inproved NinePatch blocks, so I will have to grab some scraps and make sample blocks of those too. The Wheel of Mystery will be a great scrap quilt; the sample quilts at the John Flynn booth were batik, and they looked fabulous too.




Those antique quilts were divine. I loved this one with the pumpkin coloured sashing. These were at Cindy's Antique Quilts, and she had some utterly fantastic quilts. I could have spent a lot of money there, if I had lost my senses entirely. As it ws, I succumbed to one that was machine quilted, and will fit nicely into a collection that my friend and I are building, showing early machine quilting. Well, that's how I justified it anyway.....

Read more...

This is an old post, but better late than never....

Today we leave for a big show, the Machine Quilters Showcase at Overland Park in Kansas City. We will take two days to drive there, so that we won’t be so tired when we set up the booth on Tuesday. There will be quite a few Aussie quilters there, and I’m looking forward to meeting up with them and hearing familiar accents. I’m a bit homesick after three weeks away.

We went garage-saling yesterday, and saw two quilt tops. This Dresden Plate in silks and wools would have been nice once, but it was just a bit too damaged for me to buy. But it was fun to look at anyway.

The lilacs are out, and looking absolutely glorious. There are several different colours too, and together with the flowering crabapples they make a wonderful display against the blue skies. It was a beautiful spring day today, we sat out on the back lawn knitting and sewing and watching the two dogs gambol about on the grass. It was very pleasant.

I’m sorry to have missed everyone at Paducah, it was just bad timing. I had a chance to see the Red and Green Applique Quilts display at the AQS Museum in Anita Shackleford’s company, and I wasn’t going to turn that down. She is a lovely, gracious person, and it was so special to hear the history of her quilts and how she acquired them. The quilts were wonderful, made me want to come home and start hand-quilting straight away.

This photo is some very tired quilters at Paducah on the last day. The walls are lined with people sitting and resting their tired feet while they wait for friends. But it's a good tired!


And this is a license plate from a car at Paducah; wonder if it was a gift from a DH.....


I’ve been playing with a top of the range Viking machine, which is very nice to use, and it’s great to be able to quilt something, even if it is only samples for the booth. I’m suffering machine withdrawal, and quilting withdrawal, and internet withdrawal. I need to spend a day just catching up.

I’ve been to a couple of quilt shops, and bought more fabric. I will have a lot of stash to bust when I get home, but I don’t really feel guilty. There are so many ranges of fabric that we just don’t see in Australia, so I have to buy them when I see them. I will feel guilty when I have to lug it all home, but I’ll deal with that when the time comes! Until then, I’m having fun.

Read more...

I have been busy since I landed here in Chicago, and today is the first time in two weeks that I am able to sit down and draw breath! I flew to New Hampshire the day after I arrived, did the MQX show, then straight on to Paducah. Talk about overload......

We flew out of La Guardia to Manchester in a prop plane, and the photos I took of the city lights are neat; the plane vibrated so much that all the lights blurred into gold and bronze trails. Perfect idea for embroidery.....

I must have been jet-lagged, because I don't remember anything much about the show, except that I talked to loads of people and saw some really nice quilts. It would have been nice to see a bit of the countryside, but all I've seen so far is hotels, airports and highways.

I love Paducah, I can understand why some people go back every year. There is so much energy and enthusiasm everywhere, and the quilts get ever more incredible. I can't post any photos of them, but they were fantastic.

Caryl Bryer Fallert has a new studio and shop in Lowertown, which is well worth a visit. I bought her new book on transferring photos to fabric. I thought I could experiment in my spare time....

We hit the Finkel building early on and bought up big on the $5 books. There are enough ideas in this lot to keep me busy for years.

Let's just say that I visited Hancocks and did my duty as a fabriholic; I refused to get a shopping cart this time, figuring that I would buy less, but I managed to balance an awful lot of fabric in my arms and stagger to the checkout. I haven't looked at it since, so it will be fun to sit down later on and go through it piece by piece.

I bought acid dyes so I can dye some wool, and acrylic templates for curved seam blocks, plus a special foot to make it easier. I can't wait to get home and start sewing. In the meantime I have templates for hand piecing, and I will cut out a little project before we leave on the next trip to Overland Park, Kansas City.

Blogger is being ridiculous and refusing to load photos, so I will add them later on, hopefully tomorrow. I am going away now to admire my fabric!

Read more...

3 Hours at the Hairdresser??? What's with that???

I guess something had to be done about the hair, but I wish it wasn't so boring at the Hair Salon. And those lights; I'm sure they use a special bulb that makes you look old, overweight and desperate. Surely I don't look like that all the time!!! I think a bit of flattering mood lighting would do a lot towards luring me back there. The hairdressers could wear those miners lamps so they could see what they are doing.

At one of the open houses we went to on our search for a new house there was an ancient stove in the kitchen. I quipped to Don that I would have to sell it on Ebay if we bought the house, and the Real Estate agent gushed "Oh it's so refreshing to hear a woman your age mention Ebay!" As if I was a doddering 80-yo. And she wasn't young herself!

Then the hairdresser took great pains to help me up out of the chair; I must look like I'm on my last legs. Must work harder at the gym....

We leave in 8 hours, but I think I'm as well prepared as possible. Tickets, money, passport... Whatever I don't have I can buy.

I will be at
MQX, Manchester, New Hampshire
Paducah, Kentucky
MQS, Kansas City
Spring Market, Minneapolis

Stop by the Golden Threads booth and say hello...

Read more...

The days are racing past, and I'm just not keeping up! But I am making progress; the appointment with the accountant went off fine, no major drama, so now it's just a matter of packing everything I could possibly require for 5 weeks on the road.

I went and bought warm clothes yesterday, which was sort of fun. Today I have to do shoes and hair. I wish wigs were in fashion and I could forget about my hair entirely. I have one cut a year, usually before a big show, and the hairdresser sighs and looks tragic as she contemplates my sorry locks. Trust me, if it had ever once looked nice I would take better care of it. And I've saved about $5000 by neglecting it. More money for fabric....

Sharon asked when I was in Kansas City. I was at the Spring Market in 2002, in the Convention Centre. I thought the city centre was really deserted for a major city, but that suited hicks like us. I liked KC, especially a barbecue place called Fiorelli's. John and I were in heaven; we shared a plate of just the burnt bits and it was divine. Must...go....back...

And the Arabia Steamboat Museum was utterly fantastic, I'll be paying another visit there.

I'm really looking forward to the antique quilt vendors at Paducah, they have such lovely old quilts, and often vintage fabric as well. I will be keeping an eye out for Maverick quilts to share. Some vendors don't allow photos, which is a pity. I couldn 't afford even one of these quilts, so it was nice to have a photo to remember them.

This Sunburst quilt was part of a display at the 2002 Spring Market, and it was stunning in person. I love the way the colours seem to pulse outward. I've wanted to make one of these for decades, but I cna't decide whether I would do it by hand or machine. It would seem like hard work by machine; maybe this pattern is best left to leisurely hand piecing.

Read more...

I just went and checked the weather in Chicago; 31 degrees at 1am. I am so definitely taking my wool coat on this trip. I packed light last time and froze solid.

Seeing there's no sewing going on here I've been trying to find old photos that may be of interest. There's this one, of a wall in Kansas City, down by the river. John and I were wandering, and found ourselves in a very isolated spot. It was probably perfectly safe, but you know how it is when you suddenly realise that no-one knows where you are, and the only groups of people around are staring at you as if they can't believe their luck..... Well we got out of there quick smart, only stopping long enough to take a few interesting photos. Wouldn't this make a great crazy quilt?

The next photo is of a headstone in a tiny graveyard outside Camden, in country New South Wales. It's one of the oldest graveyards in Australia, and they certainly had a talented stonemason at work. The carving was fantastic, but what fascinates me the most is the obvious symbolism of the elements of the designs. There must have been a book available, because I've seen these same elements in headstones the length and breadth of Australia.

The small flowers outside the circle are forget-me-nots, the hand points to heaven, the three-lobed leaves represent the Holy Trinity. I don't know what the rose growing from the finger means, maybe eternal life? Other headstones feature oak and apple trees intertwined, which are a symbol of marriage, and passionflowers which are a representation of Christianity. I could spend days documenting these fantastic works of art. The circle has lettering that reads "Nothing in my hand I bring, simply to the Cross I cling." Which is part of an old Hymn.

The last photo is of an abandoned building in Port Adelaide, South Australia. It's an amazing mix of textures and angles. The original brickwork was quite decorative, but then it's been added onto with bits of tin and wire, and what looks like an old stone boundary wall incorprated into the building itself. This would be a great place to photograph on a dark and stormy night, but it's not a 'nice' area at all.

I think I like both cemetaries and abandoned urban landscapes because they are both monuments to man's endevours. The people who built this huge building and laboured here could never have imagined that it would end up a useless shell. I think this is slated for redevelopment, which means they will paint it in 'Federation' colours and put dress shops and coffee bars in there, and all that atmosphere will vanish. Bit sad really.

Read more...

I had a little holiday today, and took my camera for a drive around town. I've been meaning to photograph the sheds in the railway workshop for years, and decided to finally do it. I love dilapidated buildings, and the last thing I wanted was to find that these old sheds had been spruced up with a coat of paint, or worse still, torn down before I photographed them.

They have a fascinating structure, built as adjoining sheds around a central courtyard. Each of the sheds is slightly wedge shaped, so the perimeter of the building has the appearance of a curve. I couldn't get close enough to take the photos I wanted, as they are strictly off-limits to the public; I wish there was some way to get round government red tape and get inside there.

I love corrugated iron; it's iconically Australian, and weathers into the most delicious red rust colours. These rooflines make great angles and lines, there may be a quilt idea in there someday.

I also went to a local rose garden and took about 50 photos of the roses. So I have a folder full of dilapidated industrial buildings and breath-taking flowers. Worlds apart.

I take the weirdest tourist photos. My family has given up asking to see my holiday snaps. I tend to concentrate on industrial landscapes, especially chimney stacks, and the backs of buildings; tree bark, stones, photos where leaves fill the whole frame, barbed wire, oil drums. On one trip I came home with photos of the lace curtains in a truck stop, the backyard of a pub and someone's laundry. (There was a beautiful marcella quilt in the laundromat waiting to be washed, and the owner let me take pictures of the patterns.)

The photo that made the biggest impression was one I took in a KFC in Iowa. We don't eat things like that in Australia. The people we were with actually ordered the Gizzard Dinner, and John was brave and tried it. We never speak of it; it was too traumatic. (I have a photo of the dinner, but it's not something to spring on people unawares...)

And to make it quilty, this is on my design wall; four Many Trips Around The World blocks. I won't have time to do much more on it before I leave, but I like the colours. I'll be able to work on it in....June!

Read more...

It's been a stormy weekend here, alternating between pelting rain and hot sun. It's strange weather indeed. I've been stuck in the office working, no sewing achieved , but I did load the strip set instructions onto my website. I have yet to finish the instructions for putting the blocks together in the various settings, but it's a start.

Daughter Seonaid has been home for the weekend, and it was lovely to see her. She even managed to squeeze into my old jumper, but it was way too small for her. She's nice and thin, lucky girl.

I'm only 5' tall, and I dearly wanted my children to be taller than me. Don is 6'5", so there's not much chance the kids would be shorter than me. Seonaid is 5'6", and Rhys is 6' at the last count and still growing. At least I have someone to reach things down from high shelves.

Our Mum turned 84 today, so we rang her and had a long chat. That's not a bad innings for anyone, and she is still healthy and feisty and determined to keep doing things her way. Good one Mum!

The quilt picture today is a quilt that Mereth pieced years ago and gave to me to quilt. I love the colours in this quilt, and the block is a favourite too. I like collaborating on quilts, it's a lot of fun.

Time to toddle off and watch Lore'n'Order SVU. If it weren't for those shows I wouldn't watch any TV at all, except for House. We recently watched the Blackadder series again, and it's impossible to equate that Hugh Lawrie with House. Some weird sort of alchemy went on there....

Read more...

It's only two weeks till I leave for America, and I had better start getting prepared. I might be getting excited soon...

I have to get our taxes done before I leave, so I'm slaving away at that. It's not much fun at all, but there may be time for a little sewing this weekend. Every year I vow and declare that I will be a good little vegemite and keep my bookwork up to date, and then I get hopelessly behind. Maybe this year will be the year I finally get organised.

I shall endevour to get the instructions for my set of scrap quilts up on the net this weekend, I have the photos edited and everything. This is another quilt made from those blocks, and I like the 3D effect. Just imagine this without the green and apricot accent colours. They were a dull lot of scraps on their own. I think my Stashbuster allowable purchases should be expanded to include another B word- Brighteners.

I've been working away at streamlining the possessions, and that has been quite satisfying as some sort of order is restored. This is the fourth time in a year that I have combed through my stuff, and each time I find things that I can bear to part with. Soon I will have a normal amount of junk, instead of a scary mountain of junk.

The extra space upstairs means that my treadmill has found a home in the TV room, instead of taking up most of the floorspace in my sewing room. It's luxurious to be able to move around and open cupboards without climbing over gym equipment. And I can lay the bigger tops out on the floor now, which really helps.

I adore the treadmill by the way; I got it first week of January, and plod away for an hour each day, while reading the book du jour. I ordinarily can't justify reading, as there is always something else to do, so it's great being able to combine reading and exercise. Watching TV or DVDs just doesn't do it for me. Between the gym and the treadmill I'm actually getting fitter at last. Long way to go yet, but it's a start.

I finished my 25yo fair isle jumper last night, now I just need to find a 10yo child who can fit into it. I remembered that I abandoned it when I discovered that I had knit the last band of pattern out of sequence and it needed to be unpulled; that took all of 5 minutes, then another four hours to knit the rest of the sleeve, the cuff and the neckband. Honestly, how pathetic is that? It's been unfinished all this time for the want of 4 hours of work. Hmm, I think there's a lesson in that for all of us

Read more...

I sewed most of today, and it was so relaxing. I finished another top from those scrap strips I did last year, I only have one more set of blocks to make, plus some more scrap strips to make up. I like the quilts, but I'm tired of working with the fabrics. I need to make something pretty and co-ordinated I think.

This top is huge, and I like the optical effects of all the triangles. I even have all the photos ready to put on the website, so I will have to be diligent and do that very soon.... It's like having a school project to finish up!

I'm looking for a car for my darling daughter; it should be more fun than it is, I'm sure. I get sick of traipsing from one car yard to the next and never finidng the right car. But I will perservere. Her requirements are simple; it must be purple and cute. I'm the one who thinks it should be reliable and low-mileage and good value.

They were throwing out the roses for half price when we went shopping on Saturday, so I treated myself to two bunches. They're looking lovely, I just wish I could have another rose garden, but it's not worth the work if we're going to move. I couldn't bear to leave it all behind. I'll have to be happy with my store-bought ones.

I seem to have run out of time tonight, and blogger is being annoyingly slow. Someone should write the quintessential novel of the century and call it Waiting For Blogger....

Read more...

I was a knitter long before I was a quilter, but living in the tropics for 20 years means that I don't have much use for warm clothing. Just lately though, I've been knitting as a way of winding down at the end of the night. It's even better than patchwork . I can obsess and worry and fuzz-buzz even when I'm sewing. But if I'm trying to follow a lace pattern then there's no room for anything else in my tiny brain, and I'm forced to relax. I've finished a shawl and several pairs of socks, and there are plans for many more projects.

I had a huge clean-out about 5 years ago, and ruthlessly threw out nearly all my knitting stash and half-finished projects. (Dusts hands off grimly.) So imagine my surprise when I opened a trunk today, and found a lot of the things that I was convinced I had binned. How can this be??? Maybe I'm not as ruthless as I think I am. Maybe I just lie to myself all the time....

One of my favourite UFOs is this Fair Isle jumper, that I knitted one winter when I lived in Victor Harbour with Mereth. We were working on her husband's property, raising beef calves and looking after the lambs. It was a time of early mornings spent walking the lambing paddocks, checking that the ewes were alright, helping those in trouble and taking home the orphan lambs. It was bitterly cold; there is nothing between Victor and the South Pole except ocean, and the winds were like ice. One night we all camped out in a haybale shelter, so that we could ambush a family of foxes that were attacking the lambs. Oh the things you do when you're young! My bones hurt just thinking about it now.

I spun various fleeces on a borrowed wheel, and knitted windproof jumpers and hats from the raw wool. Mereth knitted cobweb lace shawls; one extreme to the other. And I knitted this jumper, happily working through the complexities, learning to knit with a strand of wool in each hand, and how to knit backwards so that I didn't have to turn the work at the end of the row.

Why on earth didn't I finish it?? There are three bands of pattern left to knit on one sleeve, and I packed it away. 25 years later I still love it, so I'm going to finish it. There's one night of knitting left to do. It will never fit anyone; I must have been the size of a child when I started it. But I'll never throw it away, so I may as well have it completed.

I have to respect the person I was when I was 22. Nothing daunted me. I would have serious doubts about my ability to knit something like this now, but back then I was fearless. And that was a good thing.

Read more...

Today I had to drive to Yeppoon again to deliver some things to the quilt shop. Afterwards I drove to a lookout point called Wreck Point, to see how Cyclone Larry, 1000km to the north, was affecting the sea.

Wow!! The wind was enormous, I couldn't hold the camera steady long enough to get a decent picture. All the grass on the cliff was streaming in the wind, it looked amazing, as if it was all rushing uphill at me. But it didn't come out in the photos, it looked like a green lawn and showed nothing of the violence of the moment. And this was just a stiff breeze compared to the cyclone. The porcupine-ish thing in the photo is a little palm tree, trying to hang on to it's leaves in the blast.

The sea is normally blue and acquamarine, but today it was a leaden grey with lots of silt and sand and vegetable matter. The surfers were out, braving the wild wind and the waves; that sort of thing doesn't appeal to this little black duck. But I do love cliffs in bad weather; I come over all Heathecliff-y and Jamaica-Inn-ish.....

No quilting today; I had to share my office/sewing room with two men who proceeded to pull my printer to pieces and take up every inch of available space while they fixed it. I now have a working printer and a wrecked room again. Sigh.

Less than 4 weeks till I leave for America, and it's very bad planning of Bonnie's to be leaving the country just when I get there. We will have to consult with each other next time. I'm not really planning anything to do on the trip except to smile, be nice to people and show up in the right place at the right time. The way I feel now, that will be a major achievement all on it's own. I need a day off!

Read more...