Peppermint Patcher

Post 99 will be my last one ever

2007-06-04T18:58:00.000+09:30

on this blog. Please come and find me at MY NEW BLOG.

There'll be cake and balloons, games and giveaways, lollies and chocolates.

Well, I'll have all of the other things...but there will be a giveaway.

Opinions sought

2007-06-02T11:18:00.000+09:30

The beautiful Flo and I have been hand-dying our own quilting fabric. It is good fun, we do it for the pure pleasure of creating colour with our own hands. It is not particularly cheap though. We need to create an income from this process in order to sustain it. If we want to dye more fabric - and we do - then we need to get some money from the stuff we have already dyed.

We had go at selling our fabrics at a market last year, but it was not at all successful. We decided that we would need to create quilts with our fabrics in order to make any sales. Being the smart people that we are, we have realised that our best bet for sales was to make something for children. Here is our first (almost) completed creation.

You can see that I haven't put the binding on it yet. The quilts are about 1m (40in) by 1.1m (44in). The background is a whole piece and then our original drawings (this one is Flo's) have been raw edge appliqued onto it. I have then quilted it quite heavily and added detail to the applique shapes. We have used a brushed cotton or flannel on the back to make it snuggly for a little one.

I have quilted ferns in the background because it seems appropriate for dinosaurs.

So this is what I would like to know, dear readers. How much should we charge for these? We are thinking to charge $85 - $95 Australian. This is our logic:

1. We are selling them at a craft market, we think that $100 is a psychological barrier at that venue. They may be worth that, but if no one buys them then it is pointless.
2. We will cover our purchase costs, but not really pay ourselves much for our time. That is the bane of the craft sales world. You are making one off items, you can't really pay yourself for that until you have a designer name.
3. Selling them (we have made 18) at that price will give us enough funds to buy PLENTY of materials to make more.
4. We enjoy making them and are happy for this to be a self-sustaining cycle - sell them to make more - rather than an earth-shattering business to put us onto the rich list.
5. We want each one that we make to be unique. We don't want to take orders to re-make these ones. We want to design quilts that match the fabrics we dye because we love the serendipitous nature of hand-dying fabric. This is pure fun for us and we would like it to remain so.

Given all of that information, would you buy one of these for your son, daughter, granddaughter or grandson. Would you think that paying $85 to $95 would be a reasonable price for a hand-crafted original item purchased at a craft market. Please give me your honest feedback. (See that email address up there? Use it if you feel you have a lot to say.)

Oh and by the way, if you see one that you love, but can't come to the craft market in Townsville at the end of July...make me an offer!

Streeeetch

2007-05-28T11:22:00.000+09:30

Today we pulled out some winter clothes so that my son could wear them to the movies. Twelve months ago we were turning a cuff on his jeans because they were too long for him. Look at them now...

I guess we'll be going shopping this week. The problem is that he is so skinny that even these very short jeans are too big around the waist - he cannot jump without holding tightly to his waistband.

I hope that he slows down soon or that three-quarter length denims suddenly become this season's must-have item.

A teaser - look over to your left and you will see that this is my 97th post. Pretty good! You will want to be here for my 100th post. I have some exciting stuff planned.

Farewell

2007-05-25T20:03:00.000+09:30

One of the first things that I bought with my own hard earned cash was a sewing machine. A little Janome that cost me around $350 in 1984. At the time I was at uni and my car was worth less. I clothed myself for many a year with that machine.

Five years later I was married and living in Brisbane while my Pete was at uni. I was teaching, so I had an income. We had no debt and no children. I went to the Brisbane Ekka with my mum and on an impulse I upgraded to the top of the line Janome. Instead of spending $20 for the day on show bags, I spent $1700 on a sewing machine. My Pete was a little surprised when I came home to tell him.

The machine was computerised and did lots of fancy stitches. I had just begun quilting, so I played with all of its features.

I just loved it. So much so that when I bought a new machine about nine years ago I couldn't trade it. Instead I gave it to my mum. She loved it as much as I did. She has made clothes and quilts and bags and curtains with it.

Today my mum and I met to make a quilt for my cousin's wedding. We turned on the sewing machine and it didn't work. This message appeared on it screen...

I rang the lady at the local Janome shop and she gave us very bad news. This means that the board has gone and it cannot be repaired or replaced. The machine is no more, it is an ex-machine.

Good bye faithful machine, we have stitched many, many kilometres together.

Four....Forty...

2007-05-24T20:47:00.000+09:30

Jen tagged me to answer a four quiz. I feel a little exposed doing this because I am essentially a very boring person. This doesn't really bother me, it rather delights me to be so. I am the sort of person who will order the same meal at a restaurant each time that I visit. If it was good last time, then it must be good this time. I don't need to get something different because maybe it won't be good. I eat the same food for lunch each day - a ham and lettuce sandwich when I'm working, and the same thing for afternoon tea - a small box of sultanas, dried pineapple and dried pawpaw. I liked it yesterday, so I'll surely enjoy today and again tomorrow. If it isn't broken then don't mess around with it!

So I have to say four different things each time, hey...are you sure that one won't do...it's my favourite one....I've always loved it...OK here goes

1. Four favourite jobs - OK I've failed already. I haven't had four different jobs that I could call favourites. I have been a primary school teacher for a long time. I studied for it, I earned it, I never have felt the need to let it go. I am a quilter. I started my own business as a machine quilter. I enjoy this, but it can be a bit lonely, though I do love to see a quilt when it is finished. I teach quilting to ladies at the local quilt store. I enjoy this and have quite a few regulars that I look forward to seeing each week.

2. Four of my favourite local places - my house, specifically my studio. This is my space and I love to create in here. The Strand, just beautiful. It made the whole world of difference to this town. The walking path around the Ross River. A fantastically restful place to exercise. Balgal Beach, it used to be unknown, but it is starting to be quite popular.

3. Four of my favourite foods - sushi (especially tofu and satay chicken (lunch every Tuesday)). Turkey, cranberry, lettuce and avocado sandwiches on multi-grain bread. Lean pork chops with roasted pumpkin and onion. Duck, once I had a duck salad at a local restaurant that was damn fine! (Sussanah will mock my bland selection, but I could eat this menu each day and be the happiest girl alive)

4. Four international places I have been or would like to visit - I went to the US on 21st of September 2001. We had tickets to stand at the top of the twin towers and would have been there one month to the day that they fell. It was a very stressful trip for a person who is as anxious as I am. I did love Washington DC because of the Smithsonians. I loved Hawaii because the sun was warm and that always picks up my spirits. I loved Rotarua in New Zealand. It was so different to every thing that I know and was so fascinating. I was there without my Pete though and I would like to take him back there. Of course next year I intend to go to Paris, if only to get time to be with my girl. But I have wanted to go there for so long, I want to stand at the Eiffel Tower and be in the presence of a Renoir, Van Gough and Da Vinci.

I tried and tried to think of a song about four to go with this. I already used Four Winds a few posts ago, damn! So I went with a song about forty. (Stomper be brave and look at it! It is a little bit naughty.) I'm sure that everyone will be able to tell me fabulous 'four' songs and I will kick myself for not thinking hard enough.

Road Trip

2007-05-21T20:22:00.000+09:30

I have been on away for a long weekend with my sister and her two children. We went to Yeppoon to visit my grandmother for her 86th birthday. It is an eight hour drive from here to Yeppoon. We had a one year old and a five year old in the back seat, so I am certain that you can appreciate that the trip had some difficult moments! Thankfully they were brief and both of the children were remarkably patient.

Grandma didn't know that we were coming to see her, so she was thrilled!

She had been waiting to meet my nephew. My sister adopted him last year and he has our much loved grandfather's name. Needless to say he was the star of the weekend. He was charming to all he met and left a lasting impression.

That face is pure cheekiness!

We were able to spend about an hour each day on the beach.

Digging,

jumping waves,

searching rock pools and

finding hermit crabs.

It was a lovely weekend, but as always, it is good to be home.

A song from our road trip.

Matilda Station and Self Congratulaions

2007-05-15T19:57:00.000+09:30

I have just finished quilting a Matilda Station quilt for a client. I was quite excited to get the opportunity to quit this quilt. I haven't done a large applique quilt since I got my new machine. I found it a breeze to stitch around the animal shapes with accuracy, although it was time consuming to do so many stops and starts. I filled the backgrounds with lots of curly shapes because it had a quirkiness to it.

Curly wool around the sheep.

Little bugs flying amongst the chickens

Cows amongst the flowers

A few posts ago I mentioned that I had sent a quilt away to the Down Under Quilts calendar challenge. I am pleased to say that my quilt was selected to be included in the 2008 calendar. I received a letter yesterday congratulating me and giving me the good news. I had begun to think that I had missed out this year because they had 54 entries.

Once again, life is good.

Don't you love it?

2007-05-14T10:40:00.000+09:30

I hope that everyone had a wonderful mothers' day with their families. I found this on my pillow:

Apparently my son had been in at 6am to whisper to my Pete," Where is the wrapping paper?"

Without even opening his eyes my Pete waved a hand and said to look in the cupboard. Isn't is beautifully wrapped! I love it. He also made me bacon on toast with a barbeque sauce letter M to mean mother - so touching. He's very sensitive, my boy.

I was looking at my two the other day and was struck by how very similar they are in profile. Their colouring is different and my daughter has more delicate features (a kind way of saying that my son's nose and ears look bigger). They are a picture of concentration as they try to recapture the space port from the Empire, or some such vital thing.

I'll leave you with a feel good song for all of us who know we are crazy. Listen to the words - they touch home.

Tagged by a virus

2007-05-11T17:15:00.000+09:30

Last night I was supposed to go and see Eskimo Joe with my brother-in-law. He is my partner in live music - he appreciates it as I do. Note I said 'supposed'. I had to cancel because of a stupid, miserable virus - sore throat, sore head, cranky attitude. Not at all right for listening to a band. He tells me it was great - he went with his brother instead of me. Never mind - I feel much better now.

Sussanah has tagged me to say six to eight random things about myself. I am wondering whether this is an altered version of the weirdness meme that I did once before. In the game of whispers this meme has come back to me re-invented.

SO...six to eight things

1. I have lots of Peters/ Petas in my life. My husband, his father (and so on down his lineage for five generations), my sister, my cousin and a close friend all have the name Peter. This is the reason that I always refer to my husband as MY PETE. I do this when I write and in conversation. Our son is not called Peter.

2. I am nine days older than my Pete, but he was born sixteen days late. Isn't that disgusting - he caused his mohter to be pregnant for nine and a half months.

3. I love music. At high school I played the flute and really enjoyed it. I am always humming, singing, listening to something. I hate easy-listening music stations on the radio. It is mediocrity.

4. I hate mediocrity. I am cynical. The populist view is popular because people just believe it without thinking. The most important skill that I hope my children have is the ability to reflect and question.

5. I don't watch the news. It is full of populist crap. I hope that someone will ring me to let me know if something important is happening - like a cyclone.

6. I do not understand sport. Who cares who can jump highest, swim fastest, throw furthest, roll around the floor the prettiest etc, etc. Really, who cares?

7. I am a procrastinator. I know that whatever I do will not be good enough so I control my fear of failure by not starting. My impaired logic is that by not beginning failure is inevitable, but I controlled that failure. If I begin and fail, then I really know that I am not good enough. It took me years to work this out about myself. Acknowledging a problem is part way to solving it, but I know that I am blogging right now because I am supposed to be quilting.

Tracey, aged three. Probably supposed to be drawing and creating collage, but procrastinating by dressing up.

Anonymous

2007-05-09T11:35:00.000+09:30

Can you tell it's me? No photoshopping has taken place - look at the beautiful colour of the sky against my pale, pale skin.

Generally I wear a strand of wooden beads around my right ankle - perhaps you can see a faint tan line there. I lost them. Just last week they fell off and I have no idea where they have gone. Certain people in my extended family referred to them disparagingly as hippy beads. It makes me love them all the more. I bought them at the least hippy place on Earth. Everyone else was on a scary ride and I wandered alone carrying all the bags and found them. They have been on my leg for six years. I have started to look for a replacement strand, but it won't be easy to find something just right.

Why did I take this photo whilst executing a neat yoga position in the middle of the backyard with my dogs kissing my face? I included it in a teeny, tiny book - just 4cm by 5cm. The theme of the book is anonymous. I included two other foot photos and emblazened them with anonymous words that women use to describe themselves - mother, sister daughter. The book came to me via H&B, I took too far long to complete my part (sorry) and it is now on it's way to Stomper Girl to make her own anonymous contribution.

Reasons...

2007-05-04T09:07:00.000+09:30

My daughter will have a wonderful exchange.

I was blogging away so well...until we got the news that my daughter is leaving us for France next year. I guess I should deal with the issues that this raises for me. One of the reasons that this is hard is that she reads my blog - both of my children read it. That is OK, I don't mind, but as a parent I try to hide my frailties. I don't want my children to have all of my faults, even to know about some of them. I don't pretend to be perfect, but I would hate for my fears and insecurities to be passed on. They don't always need to know how my mind works! I am trying to establish a secure environment for them - one where they can be children without cares and I will worry about the bad stuff for them. This may be a huge parenting mistake on my behalf - maybe in doing this I have restricted their emotional freedom. I don't think that I have - they laugh easily and show passion. I just want to shield them, I want them to be oblivious to my conflicts and turmoils so that they will only feel the joy and see the positives.

SO...while my mind is only just beginning to think about the reality of 2008 and the enormous impact that I will feel on my daughter's departure, I want to tell you, from time to time, the reasons that she was selected. These are the reasons that she should go. These are the reasons that this is the right thing to happen. These are the things on which my mind should focus.

REASON ONE - INDEPENDENCE

My girl was born completely self-sufficient. She has never been needy, she has always been very good company for herself. This is not to say that she is a loner - far from it, she has a wide social group and some very close friends. She enjoys having people over at our place and visiting others. She has just never really needed others to make decisions for her. This photo was taken when she was three. We were on holidays in Cairns with my sister and her husband. Ashleigh has taken herself off to read while we are unpacking and organising things. She probably sat here for a good half hour, just enjoying the Bananas in Pyjamas book. She had no doubt memorised the story by then.

During this year she spent a lot of time with Sussanah. Sussanah was looking after her a couple of days each week while I worked. Sussanah was a uni student, but was also working at the student union. Ashleigh spent a lot of time at the student union offices. Once, in the days before mobile phones, Sussanah had a car problem and was late to pick her up. I was worried that I would be late for work and had no idea where Sussanah was or how long I would have to wait. Ashleigh said, "You just go Mum. I'll be fine to wait for Sussanah." I actually looked down at my three year old girl and for a nano-second thought that she would be fine. She has always had such a sensible, centred attitude. I am certain that she would have just calmly read a book while she waited. I didn't leave her - I would never have done it, but I knew, at that point, that she was more that capable of looking after herself and not frightened of the prospect of doing so.

I know that she will look after herself in France. She will remain centred, she will astound others with her ability to resolve issues alone. She will find ways to entertain herself if she has to. She will be able to find and negotiate medical help, financial issues and practical day to day life.

She will be fine!

Off topic now - a song I'm loving ( and I usually hate the violin).

HELLO

2007-04-25T20:22:00.000+09:30

Hello.....hello.

Sorry about the echo caused by my prolonged absence. It has been a VERY busy week. I worked for four days at the Townsville Craft Show. I presented a workshop each day about quilting with your domestic machine (workshop 2, 2pm if you're looking for it). It was a wonderful four days of chatting and socialising with like-minded souls from all around the place. Take a look at Sussanah's blog if you want to see me in action as a tutor. I spoke to over one hundred very keen and interested ladies over the four days. I handed out lots of business cards and hopefully picked up some new business.

Once the craft show had finished I swung into action to complete a quilt for the Down Under Quilts calendar competition. I had to stay up until 2am two days in a row to finish it. It annoys me that I do this. I started the quilt months ago and had the deadline in my head the whole time. I really didn't have that much left to do to complete it, but I just dithered about and wound up having to do some LATE nights to finish it, kicking myself the whole time. Do you know how many ads there are for mobile phone sex after 11:30pm? It is sad, sad, sad.

I can't show you photos of the quilt that I sent away (thank goodness for express post), but the very day that I posted it, the quilt which I entered last year returned home to me. This quilt was a winning entry, it is featured in this year's calendar. It is a well travelled little quilt, having been to Japan twice for exhibition. It returned to me along with a Japanese quilting magazine. Luckily there was a post-it note in the magazine, drawing my attention to this photo

See that quilt just at the end of the pen nib, right behind that lady's head? That is my quilt on show in Japan. Am I internationally published now? Hell, yeah. But without the post-it I would never have found it! Well, maybe with a magnifying glass.

In exciting news.... Today was the first meeting of the cool quilters club. The cool quilters are the beautiful Flo (get a blog so I can link to you!), the multi-talented Kirsty and me. Why are we so cool? Because we think so. We enjoyed conversation that was at times intellectual, other times ridiculous, we were silent at times as we worked and we were very creative and supportive. We had the radio on and listened to very cool music while we worked on our quilting projects. We share similar views of the world. It is so nice to meet such clever people with a similar, accepting views and opinions about art and life. There have been times in my life when I have felt very lonely in a large group of people because I cannot find any one with a mindset like mine. Not today. Thanks ladies.

It was very difficult for me to choose a song to commemorate our first meeting. but after careful consideration I choose this one. I hope that you approve!

A New Blogger

2007-04-18T21:29:00.000+09:30

My sister Sussanah is an amazing woman. She is loving and kind to all around her. She has such generosity that she will literally give away all of her own belongings, and several things that belong to me, to complete strangers. She makes me laugh constantly with her quick wit and astounding vocabulary . She has a razor sharp tongue that could reduce you to tears, but she would never do that. She has an amazing ability to sum up a situation in just a few short words when others have been wondering and unable to work it out. She is a fabulous aunt to my children, she will drive across town to get them anything that they desire, just because they want it.

She is married to a lovingly neurotic man, who knows that danger lurks around every corner, and together they are raising two children. Their children show a lust for life and an ability to find humour everywhere that they have inherited from their mother. She has an intelligence that is astounding, she actually knows what is going on in the whole world at any one time - I'm certain of it! She can offer you her opinion on everything, because we know she has one. She reads without fatigue and in such a variety of subjects that she is a fabulous conversationalist.

Saying all of those wonderful things has made me somewhat nauseous. so I will temper them with some warnings:

1 - don't ever lend her a book, and if you ever stay in a motel in Cairns, ask them if they found my daughter's first run copy of The Prisoner of Azkaban left behind circa 2005.

2 - don't let her borrow a DVD on your video shop card, I'm still paying off the Gilmore Girls fine.

3 - don't expect that you will be able to find a spot for your feet if you sit in the passenger seat of her car, by the time you have pushed all the diet coke bottles to the side you will have reached your destination

You may have noticed that for sometime my sister, Sussanah, has been attempting to hijack my blog. (and those of her friends) She has been making song requests and leaving insults disguised as comments.

She has finally succumbed to the peer pressure around her and started her own blog. Go there, I know you'll find her a wonderful blogger. Maybe if we visit and leave comments for her she will be able to sustain her attention for longer than ten minutes!

FOR OUR FRENCH LOVING GIRL.

NEWSFLASH

2007-04-17T17:13:00.000+09:30

NEWSFLASH

Today this beautiful girl received her acceptance letter.

She will be spending 2008 on exchange in France.

We are a little overwhelmed right now. When we have finished laughing and crying we'll tell you what we are feeling.

I am just so proud that she was accepted. I know how remarkable she is. Now I know that others see it too.

Hair of Red

2007-04-16T15:18:00.000+09:30

Last night my Pete dyed my hair for me.

I used to get it done at the hair dressers, but it was costing over $150, then they would want to see me again six weeks later. When I thought about it, that works out to be $25 per week!!! I was spending that amount on petrol each week and thought it was expensive. So I decided that I would just buy the supermarket hair dyes that are about $15-$20 and let my Pete dye it for me.

My Pete is very particular and very focussed on details. When we painted our house he used an artists' brush to finish all the edges. He is an absolute perfectionist and thinks nothing of spending seven hours on one wall. He may not be speedy, but I know the job will be finished to exacting standards. I knew that he would not do a dodgy dying job on my hair. When I go to have a hair cut the hairdresser always comments on the great job that he has done.

Part of the fun of having him do my hair has always been the side show that he puts on. The particular brand of dye that I buy supplies a pair of gloves. These gloves are too small for my Pete's man-hands. He always has a rant about them. It is hilarious.

"Who has hands this small? These gloves are made for pre-pubescent girls! How am I supposed to put these on? F@#*!" (That last comment is the point where his giant thumb tears through the plastic glove.)

Of course I offer him my sympathies, I need my hair dyed after all, but inside I am chuckling to myself. It is one of the primary reasons that I ask him to dye my hair.

Yesterday we opened the box of dye and discovered that a new type of plastic glove has been packaged. A large plastic glove. One that fits a man-hand.

"Well. Look at this. A glove that finally fits. Isn't that great, now I won't tear through it."

Quite frankly I was disappointed - a nice hair job, but no show.

A fabulous song about hair dying.

Times are a-changing

2007-04-12T20:44:00.000+09:30

Today I bought these:

for her:

Well...my daughter is not five any more, but it is hard not to think of her like this at these life-changing moments. When I look at her sitting in the car she looks tiny.

Can she actually see over the steering wheel? Can she actually reach the pedals? Just barely! She is only starting the car for me to drive here. She has told me that it won't be possible for me to teach her to drive because when I get into 'teacher mode' I annoy her. I know that this is the point where our personalities are similar and, therefore, clash. If my Pete tries to tell me how I should do something I will immediatley ignore him and try to work it out for myself. He may be right in the end, but I will come to that conclusion alone, thank you very much! I wasn't offended that my daughter said this to me. Far from it. I was impressed that she could be so self-aware as to know that this was a trigger for conflict. I'm also happy to avoid the responsibility for teaching her to drive!

My beautiful, articulate son seems to have completely lost his ability to talk. He sounds like he only has half a tongue. What could have afflicted him so? He has become obsessed with Weebl and Bob. It is pretty funny and it suits his off-beat humour. All day today he has asked me questions which allowed him to respond to my answers with "make sure you are". (but say that like you have half a tongue) He has always laughed so easily. He finds delight and humour in all situations. He reminds our whole family of why it is a joy to be alive. This photo was taken by my sister six years ago. It is one of my favourite photos of my son and his cousin.

Finally I have been listening to this song quite a bit in the last few days while I have been quilting. It is a song that makes me very happy. It must do good things to me, because I am VERY happy with this client quilt that I finished with my brand new machine.

LIFE IS GOOD.

Poor Ken

2007-04-09T09:24:00.000+09:30

When my daughter was young my mother-in-law made a bridal gown for her barbie doll. She thought it was beautiful.

"Who is she marrying?" I asked her.

"Ken," she replied. "As soon as I find his head."

A metaphor for life, don't you think?

*****************************************

When our son was born we thought we were so tricky. We had one child of each gender - it felt like hitting the jackpot! My daughter was almost four when her brother arrived. The long time between them was not all by choice, sometimes nature makes these decisions for you. It was good for me to have one child who was independent before I had another.

As time has gone on I have at times been a little sad about having a long gap and different genders. My children love each other, but have often existed within their own worlds - separated by maturity and gender. They each have their own circle of friends.

Recently I have started noticing them having conversations about life, quoting movie passages to each other, remembering funny experiences and laughing together. I like it. My daughter can still be bossy toward my son, but he just mocks. My son can still be gross to my daughter, but she is usually able to ignore.

Yesterday I could hear them chatting. Intrigued by the smell of toasting hair I went looking for them. Could these be my children? Have I entered a parallel universe?

I'm fairly certain that this was her idea to straighten his hair, but he willingly went along with it. He has to bend right down for her to reach. By this time next year he will be looking at the top of her head. The relationship will have to be renegotiated then!

He patiently allowed her to play Ken dolls until it got to the hair spray.

She sprayed once, he yelled, "That smells like crap! I'm out of here."

She spent the next ten minutes chasing him through the house. Balance was restored in the universe.

My Quest

2007-04-08T09:27:00.000+09:30

My quest for a decent photo of the elusive Ulysses butterfly that lives in my backyard continues. Today I took this

Pretty damn fine photo! But I stood still for SO long to take it that my arms hurt form the wieght of the camera and I may have some sunburn! Steve Parish, I am in awe of you!

North Queensland in my own backyard

2007-04-06T15:13:00.000+09:30

Today I have spent many hours watching a Ulysses Butterfly dance across my backyard. I took about 100 photos and managed to actually capture it eight times. They fly like are drunk a in wild erratic way. We decided that it might be a strategy to avoid being lunch for a hungry bird.

Prepare to be amazed at the quality of my photography....

Do you see that flash of brilliant blue???

Try again.

A little fuzzy, but you must see that!

Here is my Pete's barramundi. He started with six, but they are carnivorous and happy to be cannibals too. Now he has one. It is about 25cm long (9inches). They are delicious, but there are strict bag and size limits. I doubt that this one will ever be lunch. It is much too loved for that.

Two icons of NQ found in my backyard. What do you have in your backyard which is typical of your area of the world?

Tsunami???

2007-04-02T08:53:00.000+09:30

Right now we are under a tsunami warning! This is the first time that I have ever heard such a thing. We live away from the water and on high ground, so I am not in the least concerned. The media are alert and prepared for a disaster, but as likely as not it will amount to very little. Well, I certainly hope it will amount to very little.

I have finished the music quilt which will be raffled by the high school to make money for the senior music tour. Certain rude people in my family like to call it 'band camp' a la American Pie, but be assured, this is music tour - entirely different!

Generally I photograph my quilts inside against a wall with full flash and holding my camera. After doing some reading I took this photo outside with a tripod in natural light. I don't think the result is any better! I'll go back to taking them inside the house.

Real Women

2007-03-30T17:12:00.000+09:30

Nutmeg tagged me for the Real Women....meme.

These are my responses...

Real women...are proud to be called sister.

This photo of my sisters and I was taken in Melbourne in 1977. I am on the left, I was eleven, Sussanah is in the middle, she was four and Peta is on the right, she was seven. These girls rock my world. We live about 3km apart and raise our children in a collective fashion. Each of our children has called all of us Mum at some point. None of us has left Townsville because we know we would miss each other and our children unbearably. We can be honest with each other (sometimes brutally so). We can turn to each other and say "What will I do now?" and expect a supportive answer in reply. We can allow each other to be in a bad mood without taking any offence. I love these girls!

Real women....proudly raise nerdy sons. Last night a program called cuttlefish, the brainy bunch was advertised. My son declared, "Cool. Can I watch that?"

I love that he has a sense of wonder at the world and is always investigating something. School has not managed to beat this out of him. He watched the show with concentration (and a dislocated looking arm).

Real women....listen to loud, and often inappropriate, music. I love music where people are angry at the 'system' and question the status quo. This one says

Why don't the presidents fight the war
Why do they always send the poor.

That sounds like a fundamental truth to me! I love people who use their artistic talents to make a point, to stand for something. I have an inner hippy and an inner punk! This song is heavy and it does contain bad language. You have been warned.

Real women....apologise to their children.

In the last post my daughter left me a comment. I reacted to her being in my space and made a flippant comment in response. She said, "But I said something nice to you.", in that hurt teenage fashion. I went back and re-read it and it was genuine and heartfelt mixed with just a dash of sass and sarcasm. (This girl will go a looooong way in this world!) I have known her for her whole life, but our adult to adult relationship is still just new and sometimes I stuff it up. In order to ~~suck up~~ offer my humble apologies I will leave you with her favourite song. We hear this song at least fifteen times each night. I suggest that you play it on repeat to get the full effect!
Click here to listen and enjoy (beacuse I can't get the damn thing to embed!)

Kirsty, I tag you to tell us what real women do.

A Pretender

2007-03-28T21:22:00.000+09:30

In the very depths of my mind I often feel like I am a pretender. I feel that one day someone will say to me 'You are really crappy at that.' Then I will have to confess that I have been pretending all along. I very rarely allow myself to feel successful and worthy.

Maybe this is due to my own personality - I am somewhat of a perfectionist and I am well aware of my own inability to be perfect. Maybe this is due to a childhood where my efforts were never quite good enough. I'm not sure of the origin of these thoughts. Nor do I believe that they are necessary, but they some times exist. I don't even believe that external affirmation is needed to make me feel any different. My own mind causes these thoughts.

I have been feeling a little overwhelmed. The verbal attack which I endured recently left me a little shaky. Changes are afoot in my family as my son has begun his teenage years and my daughter finishes high school. I think a lot about these things and at times they are difficult to rationalise.

I wasn't going to post tonight at all. That was until I saw Nutmeg's post in which she nominates me for a Thinking Blogger Award. I feel honoured by that. I know that what I write here is well-considered before I press the publish button and I am glad that others are able to see that.

Thanks Nutmeg, you just made my day!

A voice behind me just said, "If that's what you think then you're a dork!" Oh yeah, have kids people, they'll bring you back to earth with a thud every time!

No Respect

2007-03-24T18:52:00.000+09:30

I was interested to read Stomper's recent post about real parents.

I am a pretty free and flowing parent. I don't even think that I parent any more. My children are 16 and 12 and they never make a decision that disappoints me. Please don't assume that my children are perfect...lots of hard work was done when they were younger. Now they are just cruisy, easy-going, well-mannered young people.

I have always been a big believer that personality is innate. You are born with a personality. Your environment can influence you, but essentially you react to it in the way that your personality programs you. I have not fought against my children's personalities. They are very different human beings and I have allowed them the space they needed to be themselves (in a socially acceptable way!)

My children talk to me fairly easily. Our family is very open about our lives and no topic is taboo in our family. We are not easily offended by topic or language. I like that. I am very grateful to have this relationship with my children.

This week my daughter came to me to discuss a car accident that was reported in our city. An 18yo driver had lost control of a vehicle and killed his 16yo passenger. This is a media focus around Australia at the moment and is quite close to home for us. I reminded her that she always had a choice about getting into a car. She only had to call on us or one of my sisters and we would pick her up any where, any time if she was uncomfortable.

"Never get into a car with someone you think is a dickhead!" I said to her.

She gave me a knowing smile and nod and with big, innocent eyes said, "Hmm. Last time I travel with you then."

Fancy ME having a smart-mouthed child!

No Respect!

Quilting and Jogging

2007-03-20T15:14:00.000+09:30

See that? It is my brand new quilting machine fitting beautifully into the space that had been created for it in the studio. Notice the large dent in the side, right above the last 'M' in millennium. It took quite a knock during transit. Thankfully the damage is only cosmetic and a replacement top cover will be sent to me. It did give me quite a fright as I was unpacking it though! It is beautiful to use...I am in love with it!

The quilt pinned on the frame is one that I have made to donate to the music program at my daughter's school. They will raffle it to raise money for a music tour that they are taking later in the year. It has a large violin appliqued onto it. I'll post a photo of it when it is finished.

Sometimes I wonder if I am jogging through my life. (Not that I could actually jog...or would really want to) Today is a jogging day. I have to pick up my daughter from school at 1pm, she finishes early for study. We go and have sushi together for lunch. I enjoy spending time with her like this, especially as I know that the time she has to spend with me is almost over.

I pick up my son at 3pm from school. I cook dinner at 3:30pm because I have to take my son to guitar at 4:30.

My daughter often likes to go to the public library during the 30mins of the guitar lesson, otherwise I just sit in the car and read. Half an hour is not long enough to drop off and come back again. I come home in time to get changed and go for a walk around the river with my Pete. This is often my favourite part of the day. We just walk and talk, bliss. We walk for an hour, come home to eat our dinner. By now it is 8pm and I feel like I did absolutely nothing all day!! Nothing, but jog from place to place!

Reflections on Aggression

2007-03-16T19:56:00.000+09:30

This week I was verbally abused by someone in my work place (not a fellow-worker). There was a trivial, piddling matter last week which she felt that I had not resolved the way that she would have resolved it. She held onto her anger for six days, then approached me. She had no desire to engage in a discussion and resolve the trivial matter, she only wanted to attack me. She left me with no room to speak at all. She attacked my character, my professionalism and my ability to make decisions. She finished by telling me that she would take the matter over my head to my administration team. This was when I finally got to speak. All I said was "That sounds like the best thing to do. Go to the admin team, go there now." When she left I was shaking; my hands, my legs, my confidence were all shaking.

I work in a very supportive environment. She was just as abrupt when she got to the admin team. They were incredulous when they saw her reaction to such a minor issue. As a result of her behaviour she has been sent a warning letter. If there is another event she will be banned from our grounds. If she breaches this we have the right to involve the police.

All of that is academic. It is straight forward and an easy procedure to follow. This does not begin to describe the way I am feeling. I do not understand aggressive behaviour, and in truth I have no motivation to begin to understand it. I find it unpredictable, without logic, as such I cannot plan for what may happen next. I cannot prepare myself for how this person may repsond to any situation. My solution would be to put myself into a place where I would simply not cross paths with her ever again, but this is not an option. I will have to deal with her for the rest of this year. Today I was going to the shop and I found myself worrying that I may see her there and wondering how I would deal with that. I know that with the benefit of time this will disappear, but right now I just don't want to deal with it.

Maybe Silverchair said it best:
No more maybes
Your baby's got rabies
Sitting on a ball
In the middle of the Andes
Yeah, I'm a freak of nature
Yeah, I'm a freak...... What ever that means!

For the Uninitiated

2007-03-15T13:05:00.000+09:30

THIS is a quilting machine.

This is the one that I own now. This will be my small one when my new one arrives. The sewing machine sits on a frame, which has tracks which go left to right, and on a carriage, which has tracks which go forward and backward. This means that it can move smoothly in all planes by pulling the machine across the quilt as it sews. This frame is four metres long to allow me to quilt even the biggest quilt by pinning it to the rollers that you can see. The actual sewing machine, which is to the right of the photo, is only a sixteen inch throat, meaning that I can quilt the width of the quilt by about fourteen inches at a time. This one attaches to the computer, so I can program a pattern and it will stitch it out using vectors.

My new machine has a 26 inch throat, but only a 3.6m frame. It has stitch regulation (the feature that I was desperate to get), which means that when I move the machine across the fabric it will do ten stiches for every inch of movement. The motor is activated by movement, so if I move slowly it stitches slowly. I will use it to do custom work by hand.

Does that make sense to everyone? Now you can see why I needed a big space to fit it!

My Studio

2007-03-13T07:56:00.000+09:30

Ten years ago my Pete and I built the house in which we live. At the time the plan included a two car garage. Since we were already paying for floor and roof, we opted to make this a room and extend the roof forward to make an open car-port for our cars.

This room has been through several incarnations. It was initially called the toy room. In true socialist manner I hate the notion that one child might 'own' a toy and not let the other enjoy it. In the toy room all toys were available to all children. At times large lego cities were established that couldn't be broken, but that was ok, we could just close the door.

For a while my sister, Peta, and her husband lived in this room with their bed, tv and fridge, as they waited for their new house to be built. It was quite a happy arrangement. It didn't cause us any stress because they were able to have their own space, and they cooked the dinner half the time.

The room then became a bit of a teenagers' retreat. It housed computer, tv, stereo, playstation etc. When the children had friends to visit we could again close the door. All the toys that we couldn't throw out were moved into the spare bedroom.

NOW the room is my studio. We have just pulled apart and re-arranged the room in preparation for the arrival of my new quilting machine. It should be here in the next few days.

Against this wall are some old school library shelves which my Pete made into this fabulous unit of shelves.

The opposite wall has the computers, tv,stereo, playstation and my fabric cupboard. See that drawing board in the middle of the room? I have been trying to get rid of that for years, but my Pete is quite sentimental about it. (Wish he could be sentimental about things small enough to fit into a shoe box!) Architects don't even use drawing boards any more, but he spent MANY hours late into the night while we were at university sitting there and drawing. The little table is my working table for when I am quilting.

This is my desk. It was an old bank desk which my Pete has restored for me. It weighs a tonne! Opposite my desk is all the space that my children have left in this room - a couch and a play station.

This open space is awaiting the arrival of my new quilting machine. I don't know if it will fit. My Pete has counted out tiles and he thinks it's big enough. If it isn't then the drawing board, couch and playstation will be finding new homes!!!

I spend many hours in this room with the airconditioner on and the radio blaring. Where do you spend many hours?

Just blinked once and...

2007-03-10T15:49:00.000+09:30

she grew up.

This year my daughter is in her final year of school. By this time next year she will have launched herself into the world.

Like all well adjusted, studious, hard-working students in their final year her thoughts are firmly focussed on...

the end of year formal.

She is already considering what she should wear. Some people are already deciding who should be their partner, but she hasn't told me that she is worrying about that. (She hasn't told me.) My daughter is a beautiful girl - petite in a way that I never was, olive toned in a way that I could never be, confident in a way that took me many years to learn. She is probably what I would have yearned to be in those years before I decided that I was pretty happy just being me.

Today she and my sister went frock shopping, well browsing actually. Just to see what is out there, she what suits her and what she might like. Of course they took the camera. Look at these results

This colour and fabric look just beautiful, but she was worried that she might have to spend a lot of time making adjustments to maintain her dignity - either that or invest in some heavy-duty skin-friendly double-sided tape.

This one was her favourite design. It was comfortable and showed her off nicely, but the colour is not quite right for her. It only costs $995.00. (CHOKE) I doubt very much that my car would fetch that much on the open market! I don't know why she would want a dress for that price when I can find treasures like this online for less than $500.00. Surely the gold wonderwoman look is fashionable!!

It is going to be a long year!

PS My children are regular readers of my blog. They laugh and mock me mercilessly. Their heads grow bigger with each nice comment that you make about them. They think that they are inside my head and can work out how I think. Like a good and balanced parent, from time to time I need to cause them embarrassment. It is my responsiblity as a parent of teenage children.

Grand Final Winners

2007-03-05T14:09:00.000+09:30

On Saturday my son's team played in the junior futsal (indoor soccer) grand final. The teams were very evenly matched. They went goal for goal and both goalies managed to stop lots of attempts. At times the play was very tense.

The game was drawn at full-time and went into extra time before a member of my son's team kicked the final golden goal. They were awarded bronze medals for being the top of the table and gold medals for winning the grand final. Here is a very sweaty victor. (Be glad that you didn't have to drive home in the car with him!)

I have shown very little quilting content lately. This is not because I have been neglecting sewing or showing the results. I have been doing some secret stuff. One is a magazine comission which will be published in July and the other is a competition piece. I am experimenting with quilting my backgrounds before I add applique.

I am pleased with this quilting and haven't quite decided if pre-quilting is something I will continuw to pursue. It has its pros and cons in the final result. I like that I have unbroken lines like topography lines across the fabric. I have used hand-dyed fabrics on a black background, which gives a dynamic result, but I'll show you after I have entered it into the competition. I am also quilting with metallic thread. I love the glitz that it gives, but I hate having to deal with metallic threads, they do not behave!

I am still eagerly awaiting my new quilting machine and have pulled apart and re-ogranised my studio in anticipation of its arrival.

This week's song is by special request for my sister Sussanah, who really should get her own blog! Nutmeg recently had a quote from Tom Hodgkinson's How To Be Free on her blog which was commenting the inability to find happiness through consumerism. This song has a similar theme. It is questioning the hollow nature of the consumer society. I love a song with a political statement or one with lyrics that read like poetry. I especially love these lines:

I wanna be better than oxygen

So you can breathe when you're drowning and weak in the knees

I wanna speak louder than Ritalin

For all the children who think that they've got a disease

I wanna be cooler than t.v.

For all the kids that are wondering what they are going to be

We can be stronger than bombs

If you're singing along and you know that you really believe

We can be richer than industry

As long as we know that there's things that we don't really need

We can speak louder than ignorance

Cause we speak in silence every time our eyes meet

Last time I left you a song Nutmeg commented that the singer looked too young and made her feel old. Sorry this is a young guy too, but his words are wise beyond his years. Hope you enjoy it.

Something weird is happening with blogger formatting. On my screen there are spaces between paragraphs that don't appear here. Sorry if it's hard to read.

A Lesson for Everyone

2007-03-03T09:07:00.000+09:30

I truly do love children. Especially in those early years of schooling, when they are curious, talkative creatures with a lust for life. I can talk with children for the longest time. I love to understand what they are thinking, how they view the world. I am very patient and would hate to make a child feel embarrassed or humiliate them in any way. I know how fragile ego can be and how essential ego is to level-headed adults.

This is a conversation I had this week with my niece who is in her first year of formal schooling. She is five.

I couldn't eat my sandwich at lunch time today, Tracey.

Really? Why not?

It was too soggy.

How did it get soggy?

It had water on it.

How did it get water on it?

Someone accidentally flicked their yoghurt onto it, so I washed it under that tap.

Well, that would make it soggy.

Yes.

I think there's a lesson in that for all of us!!

For Kerry

2007-03-03T07:21:00.000+09:30

I have had an email from Kerry asking if I have any patterns for quilts which could be made for a young girl. I don't have a website Kerry, but I have posted three of my designs here. Each is available as a pattern for $15.40AUD plus $1.00 postage. Let me know if any of them appeal to you.

Fairy Dance

Rosy Hearts

Hazy Daisy

Please, please, please

2007-03-02T07:34:00.001+09:30

Can you see it now???

CHECK IT OUT!

2007-03-01T21:21:00.000+09:30

WOOOT WOO!

I have a header (sing that line)

I have a header.

Thanks Brenda. I started with your information and added a bit and now...

I have a header!

Can you see it? Aunty Evil says she can't. Please say you can. It looks beautiful on my computer.

Coins, keys, consciousness...and a summer song

2007-02-26T14:00:00.000+09:30

Sorry that I could not maintain my alliteration.

Coins and Keys:

Yesterday I went to the aeroport to pick up my parents who had been to Sydney for a week. I went upstairs to wait for the plane which meant that I had to go through the security point. I removed my bangles and my shoes and put my bag on the x-ray belt then went through the metal detector. GOOD. When I got to the other side my bag was being held. I was told that I had a lot of keys and coins in my bag. I had to remove my keys..."That is a lot of keys!" I was told. I had to show my open my purse and show my coins..."That is a lot of coins!"

I consider myself an intelligent person, but I have no propensity to be an evil genius. Try as I may I cannot understand how keys and coins might pose a danger or why they were remarkable enough to make my bag worthy of inspection. How very paranoid we have become!

Consciousness:

On Friday I took my son to have a blood test. Nothing of concern. He last had one done when he was seven and threw a bit of a panic tantrum about it. I reassured him that he would not do that at the age of 12, he would just sit still. He was very nervous about the blood test, but he did stay very still and allow the nurse to do her job.

He didn't watch the test being done...he looked away.

He offered this commentary, "That kind of hurt, but I can hardly feel it now.

I am kind of aware of it.

It is a little uncomfortable.

I am passing out now."

I looked up to see all the colour drain from his face, sweat break out on his brow, then he slumped into the chair. He has a complexion like mine, so pale that he is almost iridescent

but he got a whole lot paler than this! Poor darling had to lay down for half an hour before he could stand up and walk from the room. He was very quiet for the rest of the day and it took the longest time for his fingers to warm, they were like icicles.

As we were leaving the nurse informed us that she hadn't managed to get enough blood and we would have to come back again on Monday!!! Today he laid down right from the start and stayed conscious for the entire time. I took him to school but they rang me to say they were concerned because he was pale. He looks OK now and will certainly be going to school tomorrow!

A Summer Song:

I have become such a nerd that I have taken to going to youtube to find film clips for songs that I like. (I only just discovered that you can do this) I might just include a link to a song that I like from time to time. This one is Ben Kweller Sundress. Just beautiful. Hope you enjoy it.

Still no header

2007-02-22T20:38:00.000+09:30

It seems that I have the best and brightest working with me here to add a header. Brenda, Blue Moon Girl and Stomper Girl have each offered me the benefits of their wisdom, but blogger is still winning! I think that BMG was on the right track by working in that top area of HTML, but .... Maybe I should just begin each post with an image of my header and you can all pretend that it is at the top of the page. It must be possible, so I will perservere. (That means bug people who know more stuff than I do.) I might invite my suitably nerdy brother-in-law over on the weekend to see if he can resolve it for me.

This week I shared an afternoon tea and a quilting show and tell with Kirsty. I always feel inspired when I see the work of another quilter and Kirsty's work is just lovely. It reminds me why I love creating. It is amazing that no matter how often people create they can always come up with something new and beautiful. There are so many combinations of colours and elements, shapes and lines, form and function that we never seem to repeat ourselves. There is no finite point when all the art that is possible has been created. When I finish one piece I am already considering how I would do it differently and hatching ideas for my next piece. I love the richness that it brings to my life.

On another note today I saw this word written ideation. Apparently at school we are supposed to ideate our units of work. It means write down our ideas. Is that real? Or are they just making it up to make us feel dumber than we already feel when jargon is bandied about?

Why Blogger Is...

2007-02-20T08:36:00.000+09:30

frustrating and amazing.

Part one: Frustrating

Look above here. Do you see a header? NO! I spent an hour last night following Brenda's tutorial for adding a banner. I found the URL, I removed the HTML and replaced it with the URL, but when I previewed instead of seeing my beautiful image, I saw a box with the URL typed into it.

Now, I specifically bred my children to be smarter than I am so that I could become one of those adults who can't do 'stuff'. Then they could do 'stuff' for me. In this endeavour, however, they both proved to be useless! What good are complex maths equations and scientific knowledge when you can't help your mum to improve her blog!?

Please if any of you are cleverer than I am, offer me your wisdom.

Part two: Amazing - you may need a tissue now

I wrote recently about my sister's friend who lost her three year old daughter, Ava. My sister's friend Sheye is a blogger. Her blog and photography touched many people and linked her with like-minded people around the world.

As a tribute to Ava my sister released pink balloons in a local park with a group of friends and family.

On the same day pink balloons were released all over the world by people who had never met Ava, but were deeply touched by her story. You can see photos of this amazing event here. What a beautiful network blogging creates.

This will be my new header.

2007-02-19T19:43:00.000+09:30

My tantrum has subsided now. Upgrading blogger may be a great thing eventually, but because I didn't choose it I reserve the right to be petty and sulky about changing for some time yet.

My sister has finished making this fantastic header for me. I am a little plump fairy with blanket stitched newspaper wings. I just love it. I am now going to attempt to use my magic wand to place my header at the top of my blog. Wish me luck!

DO I LOOK HAPPY????

2007-02-18T17:06:00.000+09:30

Welcome to my new **** blog. (Please insert any curse word that you deem appropriate or inappropriate.)

I have been trying to post for days, but every time I log in blogger insists that I upgrade. WELL...I don't want to!!! I have stamped, pouted, ranted, whinged, sworn and ignored, but blogger has won. I have upgraded. Let it be known, however, that this was done under duress!

If you are still using old blogger, watch out! Maybe your days are numbered too.

2007-02-12T20:33:00.000+09:30

Thanks for your support in my issue with my son's teacher. I rang the school today and spoke to her. She says that it was only a 5 minute detention. I said that did not make the humiliation any less...then I got teary...and said that he was quite anxious beginning high school. He was a very well bahaved boy and he needed a supportive environment and not a punitive one. She was very understanding. She said she will look out for him in class and make sure that he felt secure in her class.

I really didn't mean to get teary. I meant to be steady and determined, but when it comes to my kids...I can't hold it together sometimes. It means that she will at least know who my son is, that she has connected him to some one who cares, that she knows that he is anxious. I guess every child in her class may feel the same...but I have drawn attention to mine.

On the weekend Flo and I dyed some more fabrics. Check out this rainbow of results...

I just love the whole hand dying process. I could do it happily every day! We were trying to achieve lots of brights this time. We are hoping to make some baby quilts to sell at a market in July. We want to get started now, so that we will have plenty of stock by then.

AND>>> today I placed an order for a gammill optimum plus quilting machine!!! I am very excited about this. Those of you who are quilters will appreciate my thrill. The only downside is that it takes 8-10 weeks to ship from the US. I'm not good at waiting...I want it....now...

I can see clearly now

2007-02-09T21:25:00.000+09:30

Look at that magnificent sight. Blue sky and sunshine, for the first time in weeks. It warms me to my core and permeates my being. It makes me happy and positive.

It also means that I can catch up on the big pile of washing that I didn't do while it was raining!

Our cyclone watch came and went, as these things are wont to do. We were glad for the rain and glad when it stopped.

A new motor is being shipped from the US for my sewing machine. I have also resolved that I will buy another, bigger sewing machine. I'm excited about it.

My mum has had her first laser surgery and the procedure was more minor than she initially thought, her second will be done in three weeks. Three weeks after that she should be able to travel.

Our family appears to be restored to health and my car air conditioner should be repaired on Tuesday.

I still have no explanation for the death of a beautiful little girl, but each day the family will grow stronger. Thanks for your kind words for the family. Tomorrow my sister will release pink helium balloons in the local park in a small ceremony.

On another note...
My son started high school last week. He is a beautiful boy. He is quiet in a crowd, he will walk away from people who are being silly and he has never had a bad behaviour report in his whole school life. I have never seen him be nasty or vindictive. Today a teacher gave him a detention. WHY? Because during a keyboard skills lesson he went back and made a correction to his typing.

He has very good keyboarding skills. A lot of the children in his class do not. He said the teacher was going slowly and he had finished, so he went back and corrected a mistake that he could see. He was told to report to her at lunch time to explain his actions. Is that reasonable? What will happen if some one does something really serious? It sounds like something from a Charles Dickens novel.

I think that some teachers are very tough on kids in the first weeks just to make a statement. This appears especially true for boys in the early years of high school. I hate that philosophy. It is asking them to respect through fear. Needless to say My Pete and I are going to the school on Monday to make ourselves known. I don't know that it will make any difference but I will feel better for it.

Our son is a very clever boy, but he doesn't always 'fit' school. That is OK, I know that he will do well in life because he is genuine and personable and passionate. I don't believe that school defines you as a person. I know that the person I was at school does not represent me now, so I know that our son has lots of time to grow. I don't expect him to be perfect, but I do expect teachers to be reasonable in their dealings with him!

How quickly it all turns

2007-02-06T10:24:00.000+09:30

to crap.

Yesterday I had to pick my son up from school sick.
Yesterday the air conditioning in my car stopped working.
Yesterday my sewing machine stopped working and will likely need a new motor.
Yesterday a cyclone watch was declared.
Yesterday my mother was told that she needs surgery to relieve the pressure in her eyes. She has had to cancel her caravanning trip which has been months in planning.

Yesterday the three year old daughter of my sister's friend died as a result of an accident. An accident for which no one is to blame, but which will cause everyone to blame themselves. It is too horrible to comprehend.

Today I have a deep need to clean - reorganise, discard, scrub, dust and vacuum - to try to regain some control and find some order in a world that is spiralling.

Resilience - detail 1

Resilience - detail 2

Water, for lots of reasons

2007-02-05T11:39:00.000+09:30

Thanks for your comments, I am feeling much better now. I'm still a bit croaky, but that's all.

Our area of the world has made the national news due to the amount of rain that we have had. Over the past week we must have had 600mm (24 inches). It has rained for days without stopping. I know that a lot of places are desperate for rain and we shouldn't be ungrateful, but...that's enough now.

I recently showed you pictures of the walking path that we use around the river. Yesterday I went to take some photos from the same area:

Our peaceful blue river with just a trickle over the spillway has become an angry brown torrent of water. It was so loud as the water crashed across the weir that we could hear it as soon as we got out of the car.

Areas that are actually the treed banks now look like this:

And the pathway just disappears:

That guy is actually fishing from the walking path. Water generally drains away very quickly in Townsville, so at no point did we flood, but this area of the river is below the weir and usually has little more than a puddle in it. I think that the fishing guys are a little ambitious. Surely a fish would have a safe place to hide when the water like this. Barramundi season opened this month and people have been known to catch them in this area. Maybe they took something delicious home for tea.

Continuing with a water theme...yesterday my nephew was baptised. Today is his first birthday. My sister adopted this little fellow from Taiwan last year. He is just lovely. He fits into our family so well. He was very quick to bond with my sister and his older sister adores him. He wasn't terribly impressed with the ceremony, as you can probably see. It was all over quickly and he gave the minister foul looks for the rest of the morning.

He did enjoy his birthday cake though.

Miserable, the day of pyjama

2007-02-03T18:19:00.000+09:30

Today I have worn my pyjamas all day. Well two pairs, actually. I had a shower and found more pyjamas. I have a lousy virus...a scratchy throat and a croaky voice. I knew I was going to lay down all day, so why get dressed! My sister called in and I told her it was a pyjama party.

My very clever sister is making me a fantastic header for my blogger. It is only a draft, and it is missing some essential components (my head), but it's so exciting that I am giving you a preview.

Isn't that cool!! She is very clever with photoshop. She uses brushes and cut outs that she downloads from digital scrapbooking sites. She calls this look pink princess grunge. That sounds just like me. Hopefully I will be able to work out how to add it to my site and you will see it in a few days.

She also made me the picture that I am using for the cover of my Block of the Month pattern. Today I finished typing it up. I am really proud of it. It has fabulous styling, lots of diagrams to go with all of the instructions and a cutting and packaging guide for the stores. It is called Sails by the Sea and is suitably masculine - not many quilts out there for our boys.

Now I'm going back to bed. It is still raining and I'm dressed to spend my time reading...perfect.

SOGGY

2007-01-31T21:53:00.000+09:30

I am obsessed with checking the weather map. My house is literally in the middle of this image. It has been raining without stop for three days, with lots more in the week before that. Our main dam which was at just 20% capacity three weeks ago is about to overflow. My shoes are all soggy, our dogs are all muddy. the washing is piling up and everything smells musty. Weather predictions for the rest of the week are ....rain and perhaps the first cyclone of the season.

All Alone Again

2007-01-29T08:07:00.000+09:30

The beds are empty before 11am.

The playstation lays dormant.

WHY?

Because today I sent these gorgeous creatures back to school.

My son started high school today and my daughter begins her final year of high school. It is a really exciting time in both of their lives and a big time of transition for our family.

My son had his long hair cut off on the weekend. It broke my heart! He thought it was better for the start of high school. I hope he gets there and sees others with long hair and lets it grow back! He has his ultra cool sunnies on top of his head.

My daughter is a school leader and is going to assist the year 8 transition to high school programme. She is wearing her new contacts and has already broken her ultra cool sunnies in the bottom of her hand bag. She generally spends half an hour straightening her hair before she leaves, but is finally starting to embrace her bounce.

I hope that we all have a good year - not too stressful for any of us.

Am I weird???

2007-01-26T14:55:00.000+09:30

Thanks to everyone for their kind comments on our anniversary. I took my Pete to lunch (I surprised him by picking him up from work unannounced and didn't return him for two hours...slow eaters). My Pete bought me a box of 'have a heart' ice blocks. This is a tradition that began with our first anniversary when we had no money at all. He stopped at the corner store as he walked home from the bus stop and bought me a have a heart. It made me cry at the time, so he continues to buy them for me.

Di has tagged me to say six things about myself that are weird. I am a little quirky, but never weird!

First thing: I hate silence. I always have the radio on. I love to sing loudly and I seem to use a lot of my brain space to remember the words to thousands of songs. I listen to JJJ and love alternative music.
Second thing: I hate to be categorised or pigeon holed. This makes me somewhat contrary. If every one is choosing blue, I will choose red in order to avoid being predictable. I think that I have an inner punk who loves anarchy and an inner hippy who just wants everyone to accept each other for who they are.
Third thing: I never drink hot liquids or alcohol and all of my water has to be boiled before I drink it. I don't understand hot drinks, it just makes me feel hot on the inside and that is not pleasant. I don't drink alcohol because I have a sarcastic, somewhat caustic, tone with about a three second delay. This means that I can actually stop myself from saying the worst of what I am thinking...this fails when alcohol is involved. Not pretty. I have boiled my water since becoming very sick with giardia some years ago, it is now just habit.
Fourth thing: I do not have a very good vestibular system. This means that I have vomited on all popular forms of transport at least once and I do not enjoy rides at the show or roller coasters. Once I became so sick while driving across a corrugated dirt road that I got out of the car and told my Pete that I would walk the rest of the way, it was about 40km. He followed me in the car for about an hour before he talked me into allowing him to drive me. He drove very carefully.
Fifth thing: I fidget and move a lot. This is probably connected to the fourth point. My body is just seeking feedback about where it is. My father was constantly cross with me for wiggling my leg under the dinner table when I was young. I don't even realise that I am moving, it just happens and he is an impatient and cranky bugger.
Sixth thing: I don't like to eat foods that are red. I don't like tomato, beetroot, capsicum or chilly. I don't eat the red snakes or jelly beans and I don't like red cordial. I won't eat tomato sauce. BUT that is not weird at all!

Hmm. I feel very exposed now that I have told you my oddities. It is now my job to tag others, but I won't do that to six people. If you would like to expose your own weirdness, please do. Let me know that I can feel weird amongst others. Stomper, you are tagged though. I am reciprocating your tag to me.

I'll leave you with a photo of new growth on the lillypilly bushes. The flowers are ordinary, but the new leaves are the most glorious hot pink colour.

It was twenty years ago today

2007-01-24T08:35:00.000+09:30

Look at these babies. Today My Pete and I have been married for twenty years. That is astounding!! It was 36 degrees on the day that we married, can you see how hot we look! My flowers were wilted and we were sweating profusely. Never get married in January in Townsville.

We were only just 20 when we got married. We were both still at university. My Pete was beginning his third year of architecture studies and I was finished my Bachelor of Arts and beginning my Post-Grad Teaching. It wasn't so easy financially for the first few years, but we didn't really notice at the time.

Would I do it again? Absolutely, best decision we ever made. It all works out in the end.

AND my beautful 80's gown and veil haven't aged too much have they? Don't we still love ruching, puffy sleeves, cocktail hats and asymmetry (Notice that the flowers only hang from one side of my veil.) No perm there either, people, that's a natural curl!

Birthdays, frustration and lots more rain

2007-01-23T20:46:00.000+09:30

Today is my niece's second birthday. I always find that a second birthday is much more exciting than a first. By two they really understand what is going on. She knew we needed to sing, she knew she needed cake, she knew she needed candles. It's amazing how much they really do know after a very short time! Here she is blowing out her candles.

I am the eldest of three sisters. We each have two children, one of each gender, who are aged four years apart. Isn't that neat and tidy. I am a very good aunty to my nieces and nephews, just as my sisters were to my children. Our families revolve around the children. I spend a lot of time with all of them, they are frequently here making a mess in my house and my children probably spend just as much time at their houses. My children are older than my sisters'. I am always so impressed with how genuinely patient and caring my children are toward their cousins.

I have done very little sewing because my machine is skipping stitches and causing a lot of frustration (and a considerable amount of cursing). I am using a thread that I would not usually use and I don't think my machine is coping with it well. I had to resort to ironing clothes today because I can't sew. We are about to tackle the problem for the third time because I have client quilts waiting. I am beginning to feel the pressure!! (and I don't want to iron any more)

In the past few days we have had over 150mm of rain (6 inches). It has been beautiful. My Pete and I try to walk for an hour each afternoon around the river - generally we manage 3 to 5 afternoons each week. This is our pathway.

We park near this footbridge, cross it then walk along the river, across the main bridge and back to the carpark. It takes about an hour, at a brisk pace. This place is an absolute credit to our council. It has a wide pathway which is about fifteen kilometres long down each side of the river. Hundreds of people walk part of it each day. Along the way are sign posts telling you how many steps that you have taken as a part of the 10 000 steps per day health campaign. Here, at the footbridge, is a weir. Last week the water level was one metre below the spillway. Today for the first time in many months we saw this...

It's just a trickle, but it's very welcome.

Rain and Quilts

2007-01-21T09:47:00.000+09:30

Last night the first monsoonal rains arrived. It can just rain heavily for days in a row, but I think I can see a little sunlight just now.

We have two dogs, Thomas and Percy, who were named by our son when he was still in his train phase. They are both working dogs and keep each other busy in the yard playing tag. Percy is a little bit nervy. He likes to know where he fits within the pack. He rounds up anyone who goes into our yard. He pushes at your leg until you walk in the direction that he has chosen. He longs for a flock of sheep. When it rains he believes that it is his duty to ensure that the drips from the pot plants do not hit the ground.

He stands in complete concentration for hours watching the drips form then as they fall...

he quickly laps them up. When the drips stop forming he knocks the pot with his snout to start them off again. He will be exhausted by tonight because he will do this all day today. Does he need therapy?

I have been working on my resilience quilt. I have added some quilting and flowers.

The quilting is intersecting lines that look similar to the flower stalks. They represent the way that people's paths cross in life. I had initially thought that there would be flower buds and flowers, but decided to make it just flower buds. Sometimes being resilient does not mean that you are blooming - just coping. The flower buds hold the promise of more, but not just yet. The lines on the flowers could be hearts breaking or the flowers emerging. It is for the viewer to decide. That would indicate a state of mind within the viewer.

It is not yet a finished quilt. There is more stitching to be added, the stalks and the flowers need detail added. I was feeling happy with it. That is, until someone said to me that it could be modified to make an Easter project because the flowers look like eggs. I will have to make them less 'egg-like' as I add detail!!

Finally, here is another quilt that my daughter has made. She is showing a real flair for combining patterned fabrics. This is a skill that I do not have. I look for fillers to support the patterns. I think I will buy her some Kaffe Fassett fabrics. I'm sure that she could do something really interesting with them.

Ground Hog Day

2007-01-20T08:56:00.000+09:30

Today my Pete and I had the conversation that we have on the 20th of January each year.

"Is our anniversary on the 21st or the 24th?"

"Which do you think, darling?"

Ummm....twenty-.....one?"

"No."

"Four, twenty-four. It's on the 24th."

"That's right, baby. You got it."

Guess which role I play in this conversation.

I have been selected

2007-01-18T14:19:00.000+09:30

by Stomper Girl to complete a meme. This is the first meme I have completed. I have kind of avoided them, thinking that surely I have more interesting things to say than answer some questions. In truth it is probably that I am worried that I don't have any interesting answers! SO please read on, I apologise if I bore you.

1. Do you like the look and the contents of your blog?

The look: It's OK, but that is all. It's very green. Green is not my favourite colour, but it seemed appropriate for peppermint. I chose that name because my business is called Peppermint Patch Quilts. I like the alliteration and the smell and taste of peppermint. I need to add a banner and my links on the side. I am a bit in limbo because I haven't upgraded to beta. I need a day to sit and work on it.
The contents: This started purely as a site for me to discuss quilts and promote myself as a quilter. Initially I was only talking about quilt related topics and visiting other quilt related blogs. I think that the blog is evolving to be much broader than that now. I am allowing it to show a lot more of my life. I guess that is because I have a lot that I think about, a lot that I read about, a lot that I worry about and a lot that I wonder about. As I visit other blogs I have realised that there are lots of us thinking, reading, worrying and wondering. I enjoy that. So do I like the contents? Yes, their mine, they reflect me and I'm pretty happy with me.

2. Does your family know about your blog?

Yes. I spend enough time here for them to wonder what is going on! My daughter tried to read over my shoulder as I wrote the other day (she is not well raised!) and I felt a little self conscious about it and asked her to leave. She turned on the other computer, put my name into a search engine and opened my blog within ten seconds. Curse that school learning.

3. Can you tell your friends about your blog?

Yes. Do I need to keep it a secret?

4. Do you just read the blogs of those who comment on your blog?

I blog surf from one blog to another without knowing the path I follow. It might be through a blog ring or through comments on my blog or the blogs of another. Someitmes I read a bit, sometimes a lot, sometimes I just look at the pictures.

5. Does your blog positively affect your mind?

Adults only do something which is not compulsory if there is a positive outcome for them, so I guess it must have a positive effect. This year I have been a little lonely because I left a busy workplace to start a home based business. Home-alone based business. I have enjoyed blogging because it has become a social group for me, a chance to converse with other adults.

6. What does the number of visitors to your blog mean?

I don't really look at the statistics, but I do love to receive a comment. I felt a little exposed at first by commenting on other blogs, like I was pushing into a conversation. Now I comment to those I find interesting and hope that they will comment to me too.

7. Do you imagine what other bloggers look like?

Not really, I haven't thought about that at all. But Stomper likes to know what others look like, so here I am. I recently had my hair cut to shoulder length - just imagine that.

8. Do you think blogging has any real benefit?

It makes me feel like I have a social group in my lonely old house. My husband appreciates that, because if I'm lonely I ring him at work. I am interested in people's thoughts. I know that the luxury of composing on blogger really gives you a chance to consider how you want to express yourselves. I take a long time to draft exactly what I want to say and I'm sure that you do too. I love to see what people are quilting and making.

9. Do you think that the blogosphere is a stand alone community separated from the real world?

No because I'm pretty certain that only real people are writing blogs.

10. Do some political blogs scare you? Do you avoid them?

I know where the buttons are to navigate away from topics that don't interest me, not scared just not interested.

11. Do you think that criticizing your blog is useful?

Criticizing my own blog or someone else offering criticism? It's me, I am my own worst critic, I'm not too worried what others have to say.

12. Have you ever thought what would happen to your blog in case you died?

It's not mentioned in my will, but I guess it would just live on by itself unless someone deleted it.

13. Which blogger had the greatest impression on you?

I don't know. I like lots of blogs for lots of different reasons and when I sort out my blog you might find yourself with a link on the side and know that you make an impression on me.

14. Which blogger do you think is the most similar to you?

Again. I don't know. I talk about topics that are universal;life, kids etc. I guess that makes lots of blogs similar to mine.

15. Name a song you want to listen to.

This question is out of context here, does it reveal something about me that I don't realise? I'm not sure how to put a youtube box in here like Stomper did, so I just have a link.
My song is My Chemical Romance, Welcome to the Black Parade. Quite anthemic, sing it loud and proud. I love these lines:
Do or die, You'll never make me, because the world, Will never take my heart. Though you try, You'll never break me, We Wanna Know We want to play this part. Won't explain, Or say I'm sorry, I'm unashamed, I'm gonna show my scar. Give a cheer, For all the broken, Listen here, Because it's who we are. I'm just a man, I'm not a hero Just a boy Who had to sing this song Im just a man, I'm not a hero, I. Don't. Care.

My kids love it when I sing loud and proud and...I. DON'T.CARE.

How was that Stomper Girl.. Was I interesting?

Enormous

2007-01-13T17:40:00.000+09:30

This giant shoe

belongs on these enormous (and very flat) feet.

Today my Pete took our son shopping for shoes for the new school year. These size 9 and a half monsters are the result of their expedition. He now officially has the biggest feet in our house, bigger than both of his parents. HE IS TWELVE!! He is not even a fully-fledged teenager.

This year our son has grown more than ten centimetres (4 inches) in height. He has suffered with very sore tendons in his legs due to his rapid growth. The shoes that he bought today are two sizes bigger than those that he bought this time last year. His hands are longer than mine, but not yet as big as his dad's.

He still weighs around 38 kilograms, so he looks like a bean. His ribs and spine show through his shirts. This is not through lack of eating! He is just growing too fast for his calorie intake. We assume that he will slow down and fill out eventually. No wonder teenagers become sedentary and want to sleep all the time. His growth rate right now is almost that of an infant. There were a couple of occasions last year when I was called to pick him up from school due to illness. When I got him home he just slept. He needed time to catch up with his own body.

My sister says that he reminds her of Shaggy from the Scooby-Doo gang. He has long hair, he is gangly, he lopes along and is a bit of a dag. Thankfully he is a little bit brighter than poor old Shaggy, who never seems to get it.

Two's Company

2007-01-11T21:13:00.000+09:30

It is hot! It has not been below 28 degrees C in over 48 hours, there is no breeze and the humidity makes the air thick. We are surviving in the air conditioning.

Tonight we are childless. Our daughter has gone to the first 17th birthday party for the year. All of her friends will have the licences soon, that will bring us to a new era of parenting - does the joy/worry never end? Then she will stay the night at her friend's house. Our son has gone to a movie and sleepover for his friend's 13th birthday. We won't see either of them until some time tomorrow.

Childless and it's hot...? We're not cooking! So my Pete and I headed to the Strand. This is a really lovely promenade along the ocean front in Townsville. It is always breezy and cool, as the air comes staight off the water. There is no surf in Townsville, barely even waves. The waves break at the Great Barrier Reef because the water becomes suddenly shallow. Inside the reef the ocean can look like a lake or the wind can whip up a swell, but you won't see rolling waves like in the southern areas unless there is a severe storm.

We went to an open air bar which is literally on the water front, just a rock wall between your table and the ocean. We ordered tappas platters and drinks and enjoyed the cool ocean air.

Afterward we sat on the grass and ate icecream (mine is obviously the peppermint) and watched two curlews chasing insects in the lights of the pathway. These birds are quite shy. They mate for life and stay together within a defined territory. They usually run along the ground, although they are capable of flight.

As we walked back to the car my Pete asked, "Was this a date?"

I guess it was.

Was that me a little while ago bemoaning the impending departure of my children?

(NOTE: This is the first time that I have had to take my camera with me when I went out - does that make me a blogger? And that is orange paint on my hand. Oh, and I guess my children can stay a little while longer.)

Big Picture

2007-01-09T17:31:00.000+09:30

I tend to be a wholistic thinker. I think in terms of the big picture rather than in details. If you and I were to go shopping together and I lost you, I would be able to see you in my mind, but have no idea of what you were wearing that day.

When, on new years day, I heard that a 17 year old boy was killed by two 15 year old boys in a country town in Australia I thought in terms of the big picture. It is believed that race was a contributing factor in this crime. I thought about public policy and how it can be used to promote tolerance or lead to intolerance. I thought about our knowledge of the development of the frontal lobe of the brain - it is our censor, it considers consequences of actions and has been shown to not be fully developed until after the age of 20. I thought about this town as representative of Australian attitudes to 'multi-culturalism'. I thought about the loss of a children - victim and perpetrator, friends and family. I thought about education and its role in the acceptance of difference.

But then I saw the name of the young boy. I realised that I know him. His mother is a close friend of my mother. My mother has been planning a holiday to visit them for this year. I have known his family since before he was born. He was just one year older than my daughter. The picture became much smaller.

Now I am thinking about resilience. How does the human spirit get up and go on. I am an empathetic person - I find it easy to put myself into another's shoes and consider how they are feeling. I can't allow myself to do that in this case, it is just too sad and too close.

For some time I have been planning a quilt about flowers that grow from the desert. I intended it to be a comment on the resilience of the earth and nature. All my quilts hold memories of what I was doing or thinking about at the time. When I look at them I can be transported to a time or place quite quickly. This one is now all about resilience. The human ability to continue, to maintain optimism and find strength. We are amazing creatures.

It is obviously not finished, still more work to go. I hope that I don't have to make another quilt that embodies these feelings.

Are you kidding me?

2007-01-06T17:27:00.000+09:30

Yesterday in Townsville a lady accidentally drove her car into the Ross Creek. All was OK. Today we bought the local paper. (We do this just once a month so that we can "tut-tut" the real estate prices.) The incident was reported as below.

"Police said while investigations were continuing, it was believed the vehicle had been parked in the carpark and the woman had hit the accelerator rather than the reverse peddle when she tried to leave."

Well, I think the investigative journalists at the Townsville Bulletin have cracked the case. It was the "reverse peddle"!

What the ..... is a reverse "peddle"? It must have been a fancy car. I have to use the reverse gear in my car because it only came with three "peddles". I guess you had to pay extra for a fourth reverse PEDAL! Good grief, who writes or edits this paper! No one old enough to actually have a licence.

**** **** **** ****
My daughter absolutley blitz her interview for exchange. She was confident, articulate and intelligent in her answers. She didn't look to us for assistance once. She spoke about world politics, her own feelings toward exchange and acceptance of the belief of others. The only question that she struggled to answer was to discuss a difficult decision that she has had to make. She looked across the table and said "My life had been blissful, the hardest decision I have ever had to make is which subjects I should study." What a fabulous childhood she is having!

As the interviewer left confided to me that she felt certain that my daughter would be very successful in the next stages of the process. She had no doubt that she would be the perfect candidate for exchange.

In April my daughter will attend a live-in camp with other applicants. She is really looking forwards to the camp.

And finally some quilting content.

I enjoyed a lovely day sewing with Flo. We are making use of the fabrics that we have dyed. Flo is making a beautiful piece with fused fish - lots of details on her fish. I was piecing using improvised methods to make a background for some appliqued flowers. I used colours which were all very similar and really quite bland. My husband thinks it has a bit of an outback look to it.

This week I have to get back to work on client quilts. I have enjoyed a break for Christmas, but it is time to earn money again!

Manly Fish

2007-01-03T08:24:00.000+09:30

Not as in the place Manly, but as in not girly fish.

Yesterday I made this for my husband to take to work and hang on his noticeboard near his desk.

I had some fish left over from my current project and I wanted to experiment with some quilting. Through the day we spoke on the phone and I told him that I was making something for him to take to work.
"That sounds lovely", he said. "Is it something...manly?"
Now this surprised me. I wouldn't have expected my lovely, gentle, softly-spoken guy to say that. At home he wouldn't have worried, but he obviously has an image to uphold at his mostly male office. A manly image.

If I had had the time I would have whipped up something with purple and pink bunnies surrounded by lovehearts and roses. Instead I just did this...

Now he has to explain to everyone why those fish come from Sydney.

Part Two: CONFLICTED

Today some people are coming to our house to do a preliminary interview of our daughter. She wants to go overseas on exchange next year. My sister listed to me all the reasons why she will be selected: independence, confidence, intelligence, involvement, leadership. These things are all true and I agree that she is a wonderful candidate and would represent her country proudly. She would learn and grow and develop, she will become an adult. These are all great things.

BUT...when I offer my support for her, I am giving tacit approval for her to leave our house. It won't be the same house again. There will be three, one missing. A good mother supports the dreams of her children (that's me). A bad mother sends her children away (that's also me). I raised her to be her own person, this is what should be, but I don't want to stand up and help her out the door.

A New Year

2007-01-01T19:34:00.000+09:30

Well, welcome to 2007! There was a time in my life when each new year was a shock, but now time seems to be going so quickly that I am noticing the decades more!

Last night we enjoyed over an hour of heavy tropical rain. We were just about to head off to see the fireworks when it started, a quick check of the weather radar was enough to make us stay home. (Obviously the spirit of adventure does not dwell in this house!) Today there are still a few puddles around.

Today everything is fresh and clean, and humid and hot!

I spent ages today trying to take a photo of a big, beautiful Ulysses Butterfly as it flew through our yard. Unfortunately they fly quickly and rather eratically and I am not that good a photographer. We planted lots of Euodia trees in our yard. These trees attract the butterflies and are the host plant for the caterpillars. They are in flower at the moment and, as you can see the blossom also attracts the lorikeets.

The beginning of a new year is traditionally a time to make resolutions. I don't like to do this, it just provides with me with ways to be a failure! Instead I prefer to look back at the year that has past and reflect on it, learn from it and consider how I might proceed into the new year.

2006...I really loved 2006! I took a year away from my teaching job and stayed home to be a quilter. This was a risk for me, a scary risk which caused a few mini-meltdowns early in the piece. These are the things that I learnt about myself
* I can succeed as a quilter - my ideas and my skills are good enough
* I need a deadline to kick me along sometimes - the freedom of time at home does not always make me more productive
* I like company - a year alone always sounded so appealing, but I am pretty boring company! Thank you blogging for becoming a surrogate social group
* I adore my husband - he has done everything he possibly could to make this year possible for me. He pins up my quilts, he follows me around cleaning up the messes that I leave behind, he ferries children, cooks food and hangs out washing (he doesn't like ironing or toilet cleaning though) Oh, and he will talk to me on the phone three or four times in a day when I am craving human company.
* I am messy - it comes with creativity
* I have raised completely independent children - these guys are amazing
* I can just say thank you when someone offers me kind words about my work - I am in the habit of immediately pointing out all the faults or problems with my work when someone compliments my work. I am consciously stopping this habit

My childhood conditioning says that I am never quite good enough. Why is it that even though I am many years beyond my childhood this can colour my every thought. This year I have shown myself that I can succeed. Now I just need to believe in myself enough to allow myself to continue like this - not get scared and run away.

Sorry...that was deep. I guess it is the time of the year for personal reflection. I hope that when you look at your year you will like the person you see. I am pretty damn happy with where I am right now. I would be happy anywhere so long as I had my Pete with me!!

One fish, two fish, Purple fish, blue fish

2006-12-31T16:45:00.000+09:30

Well kind of green actually, but that didn't rhyme!

These fish are on the same quilt as the purple ones. These are the positive shapes cut from the fabric around the purple fish. I hadn't actually planned to use them on this quilt, but they seemed to fit. I had to go and buy more shimmery paint for these! I also bought beads, but they won't be added until after quilting. (Once I added them first, then found that they got in the way of the quilting foot - lesson learnt!)

For Christmas my daughter bought me an electric rice cooker and a beautiful sushi recipe book. This is a very thoughtful gift. I love sushi, she really put herself into my place when considering a gift for me. I love this girl!! She is turning into a wonderful adult.

SO here is my first sushi...

I am having tofu and avocado with my sushi. My daughter made hers with bacon. Mmmm bacon, that well known Japanese ingredient. We have been making some every day. Delicious!

Hope everyone has a happy new year!

2006-12-31T16:44:00.000+09:30

Something Fishy

2006-12-29T08:20:00.000+09:30

Yesterday was a day spent drawing, cutting, fusing, painting and stitching. Just fabulous! Here is a sneak peek.

The fish are reverse appliqued, then the body is painted with shimmer paint. I have only applied it lightly as I didn't want to create a strong colour difference, just to add some shine. The white dots are shimmer paint too. They break up the strong purple.

Usually I would add the stitching details as a part of the quilting. This time I stitched over the fish first so that they won't flatten when they are quilted.

I think that today I will head for the bead shop. These fish need beads! Don't you think so?

Rain

2006-12-28T08:58:00.000+09:30

Yesterday it rained, but only in our suburb. When we went driving all other roads were completely dry. Very odd.

Can you tell that I got a new camera for Christmas. Isn't this a quality photo? The leaves of the swamp bloodwood are so oily that the water just beads there. This has to be one of my all time favourite trees. They are beautiful in flower, and they have beautifully shaped leaves.

I finally put my hands onto fabric yesterday. It has only been a week since I did some sewing, but in the life of an obsessive that is a long time. These are some hand-dyed pieces.

It's not much to look at yet, but it's a start.

Christmas Frenzy

2006-12-27T08:14:00.000+09:30

Our Christmas frenzy has ended.

We spent an entire day baking.

I made shortbread. We have a Scottish heritage, so this is a Christmas essential. The recipe is a family one which was told to me by my great-aunt. It can only be told and not written down. She also said that to do it properly I had to do it all by hand. What! Cream butter and sugar without an electric beater? I do not follow this rule, however quaint it may be.

My daughter made pavlova and we made vanilla cakes in Christmas tree molds and iced them with green icing. By the end of the day sugar was oozing from my very pores.

Christmas Day was calm, but we didn't stay still for long. Breakfast here, lunch with my husband's family, dinner at my sister's. Yesterday was the first chance my children had to really look at their gifts.

I spent the entire day yesterday reading a book, from start to finish. It was a blissful way to spend my time. You can imagine the state of my house today! Oh well, mess always waits for us. We'll get to it!

I hope that everyone had a restful and peaceful few days. Thanks goodness it only happens once each year!

World Premiere!

2006-12-23T18:07:00.000+09:30

This afternoon was the premiere of the movie that my son made this week with his cousins (aged six, five, one and ten months). The premiere was held at the Christmas afternoon tea and attended by all members of my family and all of the movie's stars. The script, about a princess who would not wash and a dragon who squirted water instead of breathing fire, was written by my son. All members of the audience enjoyed the lively wit and the performances of the young stars.

This project has kept my son busy all week; writing, filming and editing. The script involved the princess seeking advice from a mage. The mage provided her with some water defending hounds (our dogs will chase water), a water repelling shield on a stick (an umbrella) and a magic water coat (a raincoat). Each of these had its own problems. Finally the mage gave her a magical bar of soap and she had a shower. The final part of the movie was a blooper reel....absolutely hilarious! This was much better than any Christmas gift that we could buy. Do you think that this is how Baz Luhrman started?

A backyard script conference. Note the costumes - just fabric held together with a safety pin.

2006-12-20T15:07:00.000+09:30

I have been noticing that neat little chew marks are appearing on the edges of the ginger leaves near the front door. As I walked past this week I noticed these little guys sitting on the leaf.

I am wondering whether they are responsible for the damage. I thought it brave of them to show themselves as our garden is full of birds. These look like they would make a tasty morsel. Unfortunatley they grow into these monsters. Enormous brown, prickly grasshoppers. I stopped to photograph when they were little, but when they're grown up I'll just be running away!

A Valuable, if embarrassing, Service

2006-12-18T18:42:00.000+09:30

Yesterday my husband and I went on a five hour shopping frenzy. We completed all of our Christmas shopping in one go. This does not make us procrastinators. It makes us efficient! We have only had to listen to those carols over the PA system once. We only had to face the holiday carpark once. We only had to listen to that one screaming child and their very angry parents once.

We were three hours into our consuming when my mobile phone rang. A call from the bank. They had noticed an unusual amount of activity on our credit card and wanted to confirm that it was us spending recklessly, that our cards had not been stolen.

This is a good service. It would be greatly appreciated, if indeed our cards had been stolen. BUT...I just felt naughty! I imagined a large red light flashing, with a sounding alarm, alerting the bank to our over-indulgent behaviour. I thought that we should immediately stop spending and go home. We perservered though, and finished our shopping.

It is all wrapped and under the tree - I love having teenage children who find wrapping to be fun.

All work is done!

2006-12-18T18:27:00.000+09:30

I have finished all of the client quilts which I had to complete before Christmas. This frees me to do a few of my own things in a rush before Monday!

I decided that my feathers were client ready and completed a beautiful, enormous quilt with free-form feathers and McTavishing. I was really delighted by her reaction when she saw the completed quilt.

I bought these two reference book recently to assist me.

I have to confess, however, that I haven't read them. All that I have done is look at the pictures. I am beginning to be concerned that my brain is becoming cottage cheese. I have always been a visual learner. I get a better understanding by looking at a picture, diagram or an actual finished object. This year I have done nothing but quilt all year. I think that I may have surrendered completely to my right brain and given up reading instructions altogether. It should be interesting when I return to the classroom next year for two days a week!

Sharing

2006-12-13T13:08:00.000+09:30

My daughter's quilt is moving along nicely. She has been working hard to finish the piecing.

Won't it be a delight to have another quilter in the house. We can share quilting conversation, design ideas, fabrics and materials, books and magazines (once I'm finished reading them).

BUT>>>

Do I have to share my scissors??

Three times I have wondered how I could have been so neglectful as to misplace my thread snipping scissors only to discover that they weren't lost but stolen!

Growing up and Moving on

2006-12-12T09:16:00.000+09:30

Last night was my son's graduation from primary school. This ritual is a fairly new phenomenon in Australia, there was a time when you just went to the covered area for assembly and were wished well five minutes before you left for the summer holidays. This was an elaborate production where every child was presented with a graduation certificate and photos of all of their class members, bands played, choirs sang, invited guests were admired. Awards were presented in various categories. My son was nominated for four awards in academic categories. He won none. His teacher said to me that he deserved one, but just doesn't work hard enough. Sounds like every report card that I ever got, and that his father ever got. It wasn't very responsible of us to breed! Any way, lucky my son is charming and pretty...he'll get by in this life without working himself into a stupor!

Yesterday I finished a little quilt as a gift for his teacher (see I work hard enough now, finsihed with three days to spare). I started it earlier this year in a workshop with Marlene King. The leaf spikes of the grass tree have been stitched with upholstery thread. It was done in a bobbin work style.

Caitlin has a photo of a real grass tree on her blog today if you want to have a look.

I Need a Design Wall!

2006-12-11T07:14:00.000+09:30

Look what was on my kitchen table when I woke up this morning.

My daughter has decided to make a quilt. This is the amazing result of her efforts so far. Nine-patches and a feature square of Hello Kitty fabric.

All of this has been done without any input from me. In fact just the opposite - she is a contrary little thing. If I were to be too enthusiastic about her work she would stop. She's a bit like a wild creature in that way - don't let her smell your fear! Any way the last time I saw this quilt she was only using four fabrics in the nine-patches and they were arranged in a typical dark and light arrangement with five patches of one colour and four of the other. Since then she has raided my stash cupboard and rearranged her design into a wonderful scrappy quilt! We have had no discussion about colour, values or design; this has been a purely intuitve process for her....I love that! We can all do that when we don't over think our designs.

I'm not sure where I am going to sew today now. I don't want to move her quilt. Maybe I could squeeze in at the other end of the table???

On another note, yesterday I met with Kirsty. It was supposed to be brunch, but it became lunch as well. It was nice to meet as strangers, enjoy conversation which was alternatley very intellectual and terribly low-brow, and walk away feeling that I had met with a very similar spirit to mine.

The world is a wonderful place!

Kim's Quilt

2006-12-09T19:02:00.000+09:30

Last week I was shocked to learn that a friend had been diagnosed with cancer. She is just one year older than I am and her children are a similar age to our children. So, naturally, when faced with a sad situation, I made a quilt for her. It had to be bold and bright and give off lots of positive energy. It had to be a size that she could take to hospital with her if she feels the need. It had to show that we care.

Here is the result...

Inititally I stitched the horizontal bands of colour together. The colour combination was inspired by the bold Amy Butler fabric. My colour selection drew a few odd looks. The horizontal bands did not look particularly good by themselves! It drew comments of 'that's.....nice'. The whole composition did not come together until I slashed the stripes and added the vertical green strips and appliqued fern fronds.

I quilted it with feathers and swirly shapes. I take any opportunity to practice freehand feathers. They seem to be coming along well. I must be feeling more confident than I realised beacause the thread that I chose contrasted with the fabrics and is quite visible. This fact only dawned on me five minutes into quilting, but by then I was committed to my choice.

I hope that this gift will provide the love and warmth that my friend need to heal. I hope that the colours and design brighten her days. I hope that her spirit and the wonders of medical science work together to restore her health. And I hope that Australia's recent decision to allow stem cell research to continue will contribute to a world free of disease!

Oh Christmas Tree...

2006-12-07T18:11:00.000+09:30

Look at my Christmas tree!

It has been beautifully decorated by the very clever Kirsty. Not only is Kirsty obviously talented, but she is very efficient! This arrived in my mail today...I only gave her my address yesterday!

Thanks for your kindness Kirsty. My daughter and I made a dash to the scrapbooking shop this afternoon, so something beautiful will be in your hands soon.

Today my daughter did her first quilting. She is making a cushion and wanted to applique a flower onto it. She did her first ever sewing with feed dogs down to raw edge applique. I love that she went straight into that and did a very good job too! Sometimes when I am tutoring people in free motion work they are terrified and nervous. But no one had ever told her that this was difficult, so she had no fear. It's amazing what a difference your mindset will make!

Phew...

2006-11-30T12:56:00.000+09:30

I have finally just finished quilting the quilt that would never end. No photos to post because my husband took my camera to work today.

Tomorrow is the day that registrations open for Be creative by the Sea. I went this year and really enjoyed working with Wendy Scott and Caroline Sharkey. I also enjoyed the evening show and tell sessions. I was hoping to go again in 2007, but a couple of things have made me change my mind.
A press release was made last week by Reed Events that they would be bringing a new craft show to Townsville in April. The same weekend as Be creative. I am quite excited that a new craft show is coming, given the sad and sorry one that we had this year. I will need to work at the show, maybe take some workshops. But also I don't want to miss it. If it is not well supported it may not continue.

The second thing that happened is that Gloria Loughman has been booked to come to Townsville to take a workshop at the shop where I am a tutor. I was particularly hoping to work with her at Be creative. I would prefer to work with her here in Townsville and support our local shop.

SO...now I am hoping to go to Quilt Indulgence in Mittagong in September instead!

I'll leave you with a photo of the back of the quilt which is currently in the Quilters Companion magazine. I quite like it from the back. The quilting left its own design. it almost looks like a whole cloth from the back!

Quilting

2006-11-28T07:23:00.000+09:30

I am quilting a very contemporary quilt for a client at the moment. As with all the quilts I seem to be doing at the moment, it is enormous! She has done a fabulous job on the quilt top. This lady has very definite ideas about what she likes in quilting and a very identifiable style. All of this is amazing considering she made her very first quilt just six months ago. I am really enjoying playing on this quilt.

Pineapple Progress

2006-11-27T07:07:00.000+09:30

My pineapple quilt is in progress and moving along quite nicely. The small pointy blocks have been improvised cut and pieced - no templates or measuring. I have another pineapple square and eight more small blocks to add to the bottom, but I stopped here to unpick. I must have turned a block when piecing and I don't like that the two blue points are touching each other in the middle. Never mind!

No More Bragging

2006-11-24T09:58:00.000+09:30

Sorry about the last two big headed posts. A bit more humble today!

I felt a little like I had neglected my homework so I have been working on my pointy pineapple blocks. It was quite difficult to bring myself to cut out beautiful hand dyed pieces. I had been admiring them as whole works of art and was concerned that cutting them would reduce their impact. But I think they look pretty good cut too!

I used freezer paper with these blocks. I ironed it onto the fabric then stitched around it rather than marking a template onto fabric. I find this to be quick and easy, but if you know an easier way please tell me. First I pieced the two arcs - lots of pins here.

Then I used the freezer paper as a foundation to paper piece both pointy sections. The freezer paper sticks one piece down, so it won't move when you add the next piece.

Here is the completed block once all three sections are stitched together.

The freezer paper gives a nice accurate result. I will add a few other blocks and some applique. More photos to come.

It just gets better...

2006-11-23T13:50:00.000+09:30

Check out the cover of the new Quilters Companion magazine.

That is my quilt!! I knew that it would be published in this issue, but I didn't know that it would be on the cover. What a thrill! I haven't actually seen the magazine yet, only on the website. I hope to have one soon. You can bet that my mother will be carrying it around in her handbag and showing it to complete strangers in the street.

I feel on top of the world right now. I took a big risk this year. I took a year away from a teaching position to 'have a go' at being a quilter. I was certain that I would bankrupt us, be responsible for all sorts of bad luck etc etc. But from this side of the year it life feels quite wonderful. Maybe fortune does favour the brave.

Makes me Proud

2006-11-21T11:23:00.000+09:30

This year I had a quilt selected for inclusion in the Down Under Quilts 2007 Calendar. (I am Miss June).

The publishers of the magazine also organised for the quilts to be exhibited at International Quilt Week in Yokohama. Yesterday I received an e-mail from Erica Spinks, editor of the magazine asking permission to also exhibit the quilts at International Quilt Week Osaka March 15-17 2007.

How very exciting! It will be a well travelled quilt by the time I see it again!

Geometry

2006-11-16T07:13:00.000+09:30

I have drawn up some pointy blocks onto freezer paper for my pineapple quilt. I used my husband's compass set that you can see. He has had it since he was doing graphics in year nine. He is an architect now, so it is very precious to him. Mind you, he hasn't used it for a VERY long time because everything is done with computers now.

I wish that I could tell you that I used a mathematical formula to work out this block. I did wonder how long the circle arcs were in order to segment the pointy shapes evenly. Something to do with pi multiplied by the radius???. But then my head hurt so I just used a guess and check method. I don't really care if it is mathematically correct, it looks how I wanted it to look. If I learn something out of this then the next one will look better.

I have traced four of these blocks onto freezer paper (using pencil, not nikko as in the picture). These will be for paper piecing. Hope to have them done soon.

Push Pineapple, Shake the Tree

2006-11-12T16:37:00.000+09:30

This is a really quick sample piece that I put together to show our hand-dyed fabrics. It took all of ten minutes to conceive the idea, draw the picture, trace, cut and fuse...but I really like it. Maybe it's because it makes me think about my grandparents. They retired to Yeppoon in the late 70's. Yeppoon is on the central Queensland coast, where there were lots of pineapple farms. Of course now it is highly sought after coastal property and the farms are being pushed out.

I am going to make a larger version of this piece with some spike pieced blocks to echo the spiky pineapple tops. Naturally there were no 'just perfect' colours in the whole 65 metres that we dyed, but I am happy with this choice of colours:

The one on the right is much bluer in real life. I have added some pink to make it feel tropical and bring the other colours out. Will post photos as I go along.

Sorry about the title too, a reference to bad 80's pop.

November Stall at Craft Market

2006-11-06T10:14:00.000+09:30

Yesterday Flo and I launched our hand-dyed fabrics at a local craft market. It was not the resounding success we were hoping for! We sold only enough pieces to cover our stall - which we thought looked pretty good!

Doesn't that look like the sort of stall that you would want to visit? It seems that most people were looking for ready made items - we had none. The stall next to us made a killing selling pink, glittery items (ghastly) to parents who could not say no to their daughters. Smart lady selling that stuff. You can see a peek of her stall here.

So now the fabrics are neatly piled up on the shelf at my house while I gaze admiringly upon them.

Maybe I ought to put them onto the internet?... Maybe Flo and I should use them! We think they are beautiful.

Quilting

2006-11-03T10:07:00.000+09:30

I am pretty happy with my machine quilting at the moment. I have progressed in my free motion to the point where I am forming feathers and swirly shapes as background fillers. This is a client quilt which is soft and pretty and looks great with these romantic swirls. The rose buds that you can see are a Quilters Niche design stitched out with the computer.

Work in Progress and Helpful Husbands

2006-11-03T09:58:00.000+09:30

I recently bought the blue and green fabrics in the new Nancy Halvorsen range, Angels Among Us. I love these colours. I have made 4 inch half square triangles, using the fabrics randomly, and cut 4 inch squares. This random layout that you see here took me about two hours to arrange. It reminds me of under the sea. The diagonal lines are the light penetrating the water. My husband listened to this, nodded and asked "So why is the sunlight coming from two different directions?"

So the blocks are still laying on the floor while I ponder whether I will change the diagonals to run in the same direction or just take 'artistic liscence'.

One Joy

2006-10-31T09:25:00.000+09:30

This is the quilt that I entered into the Down Under Quilts 100 competition. The theme was, of course, one hundred. I thought long and hard about what one hundred meant to me, but...nothing. So eventually I went to a quotations website and typed hundred as my search word. I found a Chinese proverb which said, One joy will shatter one hundred sorrows. Isn't that fantastic! It made me think about how a hug from a tiny person in your life makes all you worries melt.

I used one hundred four inch squares to represent the sorrows. They are black in a range of textural fabrics - suede, organza, tafetta, silk, satin and polyester. The enormous flower represents one joy and the dimensional butterflies - organza on netting - are spreading the joy.

Yesterday the quilt arrived home. It wasn't a winner in the competition. Tomorrow is my mother-in-law's birthday. She genuinely admired this quilt when I was making it. The timing of its arrival means that this will be a birthday gift for her! Saves me facing the shopping centres!

Craft Show

2006-10-28T16:30:00.000+09:30

This week from Thursday through to Sunday is our craft show. It is supposed to serve as the craft show for the whole region - North Queensland, but this year it is disappointing. I am sorry to say that it has not been well organised or advertised. Lots of ladies didn't even know it was on until just days ago. That is not enough time for ladies in remote centres to organise a trip to Townsville. It is very small - about half the size of previous years. I hope that it won't be the last craft show in our area. There is already talk of a break away group organising their own show. I guess time will tell.

I am running one workshop and one demonstration each day. My workshop is making a postcard using christmas images printed onto fabric with lots of lace and button embellishments. It is a nice marriage between fibre arts and scrapbooking, as we are making a fabric collage. Below is a photo of my ladies working hard today.

Don't you love that moment in a workshop when everyone is so immersed in their creativity that a silence descends on the group! Look at the focus on all of these faces. This is really my whole workshop room. It was supposed to hold twenty people! I wouldn't like to be squeezed in there with nineteen others!

My demonstration each day has been of quilt as you go techniques. I have been making up a 'mock quilt' with tiny blocks and a border each day. I use it to demonstrate free machine quilting. Each day I have had a full house - about thirty ladies. I have received lots of positive feedback, which makes it all worthwhile!

Our Beautiful Fabric

2006-10-26T08:36:00.000+09:30

A few weeks ago Flo and I began to experiment with hand dying fabric. The very next day I recieved a phone call inviting me to hold a table at our local Christmas market. This must be fate, so naturally I agreed, and with just five weeks to get ready we found ourselves very busy.

This week we have dyed sixty-five metre pieces of fabric.My husband and daughter have cooked all meals, my mum has helped out with ironing our fabrics, and everything else has had to wait. Mind you, I still managed to machine quilt two client quilts. It's really just housework that has to wait!

Here are two of our pieces which I love. Is it wrong to hope that no one will buy them?

Probably should have pressed the creases out of the second one...sorry.

Red Pleated Dress...

2006-10-26T08:30:00.000+09:30

For Jan.

Here is a close up of the dress that interested you. It is my sister's favourite too. She wants to take this image to a dress maker and have one made to wear on special occasions!!

Sixteen...sigh

2006-10-20T09:26:00.000+09:30

Last week my daughter (my eldest child) turned sixteen. I am really not sure where all that time went, nor am I sure that I could really be old enough to have a sixteen year old child! She went to leadership camp just a few days after her birthday and while she was gone I made her this quilt.

This is a Jan Mullen pattern called dressez. Thanks Jan and Sally for the kit that you sent. I was really pleased with the red 'hightlights' to the dressez. I am sure that I owned some of these dresses during the 1980s. I know that I made myself a red with black polka dot number for a wedding around 1988. Beautiful!

Name in Print

2006-10-18T09:24:00.000+09:30

Isn't it nice to see your own name being acknowledged in a quilting publication. This is only the coming next issue section of Quilters Companion - not even the actual article! It still warms my heart, although I'm sure that I am the only one who noticed (after looking and searching!)

It seems odd to have my work descibed as traditional - I know that I hover around all quilt styles without specialising in any particular genre. I don't think of myself as traditional. Although in this project I was experimenting with shapes that gave a traditional result. I am looking forward to the magazine when it is published in November.

Elements - Kyoto

2006-10-14T11:06:00.000+09:30

This is my entry to the local quilt competition which has the theme of ELEMENTS. It is called Kyoto as a political comment about energy. The red squares along the left hand side have a Japanese script printed on them. This is a lovely coincidence. I just liked the contrast of the red against the other colours. When I showed it to my quilting friend Jenny she asked "Did you choose the red fabric as a comment about the Kyoto protocol?" This is an issue which is close to her heart. Her daughter is actively involved in raising awareness around global warming issues. It sounded good to me, I was trying to make a comment about elements and energy from elements. So the quilt is now called Kyoto.

I really enjoyed making this quilt. I was quite impulsive in my processes. I just cut the shapes that I wanted from fabric already attached to fusible web, without any drawing, just visualising and cutting. I am sure that I will use this process a lot more for my own art quilts. No patterns! This photo has been taken prior to the quilting, which is quite heavy. I will take another photo when it is hanging at the exhibition.

Dying with Flo

2006-10-14T11:00:00.000+09:30

Last weekend my friend Flo and I had a lovely time experimenting with hand dyes. We were pretty happy with our fabrics and have ordered more fabric.

I had initially envisioned us working in a very controlled manner, creating our colour combinations and recording them diligently. This lasted for about an hour, then we became completely impulsive and threw colours together. Naturally our impulsive work was much better than our controlled stuff. Who can be controlled and creative at the same time? NOT US!

Witches' Workshop

2006-10-14T10:49:00.000+09:30

Tonight we are having a make it til midnight quilting session at the patchwork shop. My brief was to create a project in black and orange. Mine is not too witchy. It is however simple enough to be completed during our ten hour stitching frenzy (with plenty of breaks for eating, drinking, talking etc...).

You might recognise that the same fabrics were used in the postcards that I made. I quite liked this colour selection of analogous colours. I finally read a book about art and colour theory in quilting! All those colour choices that I had been making instinctively apparently do have some theory behind them. Fancy that!

Where to go with this?

2006-09-28T21:15:00.000+09:30

This is a quilt that I have started. I think that it is for a local challenge with the theme of elements, but I'm not too sure where I am going with it. I like it...I guess, but it is not very interesting to me just now. My husband was glowing in his respnse to it, which is very unusual. Generally his comments are in the form of constructive criticism; lots of suggestions for improvements. Maybe the fact that he seemed so accepting of this work is the reason that I am not so trusting of it. Now that's reverse psychology!!!

I am thinking to quilt this in big circles and shading. Maybe I'll add some more applique after the quilting. It needs some other colours, it's a bit too monochromatic.

On another note I have been pondering the notion of the textile artist. When does one stop being a quilter and become a textile artist? Generally I refer to myself as a quilter. I design quilts, they are original designs with influence drawn form all that I see around me. (Even though I said original I know that there is nothing new under the sun) I create because I like to and I usually like what I create. I was drawn to consider all of this when someone referred to me as a 'crafter'. I found that a little offensive to my sense of art, but it seemed pretentious to say 'no, no I am an artist'. Maybe I'm nothing but completely self indulgent to my own desire to create! Whatever it is, whatever label is attached: I'm having fun.

Family Joy

2006-09-24T16:34:00.000+09:30

Tomorrow my sister, her husband and their daughter fly to Taiwan to pick up their new son. Joseph has been in an orphanage since his birth in February. Our family has been waiting for many months for court processes to finalise to allow Joseph to come to Australia. We are looking forward to meeting him next week when they return home.

I have made some postcards for my sister to take with her as tokens of thanks for various people. I kept them very simple as I needed to be culturally sensitive. I am interested in further exploring the negativ space flower which is on top of this pile. It might feature in another quilt somewhere.

Border of the Month

2006-09-20T16:52:00.000+09:30

I had to finish my quilting fast today so that I could get to my Border of the Month pattern for Sails by the Sea.

I spent far too long on photoshop trying to get my page set up just right. It was worth it though. I think it looks pretty darn good! Each page has a blue sea like section at the bottom, with an overlaid ship's wheel and fish. These were cut out from the photo...very time consuming. I am adding little pieces of interesting, but probably useless information, to each page of the pattern.

Now that I have the page layout and month one completed it shouldn't take me too long to finish the rest of the pattern...should it?

Jan's House

2006-09-15T10:31:00.000+09:30

This little quilt is the result of a workshop with Jan Mullen of Stargazey Quilts. We were so lucky to have her visit our shop in Townsville. Fortunatley her style doesn't require exact measurments because I was terribly ill with the flu both days that I worked with her! These two blocks were the ones that Jan cut as a demonstration and I stitched for her. I randomly added bits and borders in a 'log cabin' style to finish this quilt at 19 inches by 20 inches. I still need to hand stitch the binding in place.

The ladies who attended the workshop were very keen to continue working in this style, so this weekend, with Jan's permission, I am teaching the first gathering of the Jan Mullen club the Christmas Treez block. Should be fun!

First Challenge Results

2006-09-03T22:11:00.000+09:30

This week the challenge that I set for myself was to represent a fossil. After lots of thinking...the most time consuming part of the creative process...I decided to represent an ammonite. I like their spiral structure. They were once plentiful in the oceans and many fossils in various sizes have been found.

My first point of call was the internet to find a suitable photograph.

This one here is the one that I chose. I like the detail that it shows. I can follow the shape with my eyes. When I printed it out I forgot to change the orientation of the paper and only ended up with two-thirds of the image. I wasn't disappointed though, I found that I rather liked the partial image and decided to use that in my quilt.

Ammonite 11inches by 16 inches Ammonite - detail

I selected some beautiful hand-dyed fabric for my quilt. I bought it earlier in the year, but it is inspiring me to consider dying my own fabrics. I free hand cut a curved shape into both fabrics and then pieced them together. The quilting lines were used to 'draw' the ammonite shape in a brown thread. These were done free hand, without marking the fabric first, but using the picture as inspiration. The lines quilted into the brown background represent the cuts and gouges made by the paleontologist as they work to release the fossil from the rock.

Overall I am pretty happy with this quilt. I don't think that I am finsihed with ammonites just yet though. I would like to represent an ammonite in a more abstract way using applique. Maybe that should be my next challenge!

Delightful Distractions

2006-09-03T22:05:00.000+09:30

This week I have been a little slow to complete my own challenge. The reason for my delay is the quilt that you see above. It looks small and delicate, but in truth this quilt was an absolute monster. It was over 3.5 metres long and was 2.7 metres wide. It was made by a dear lady who had redecorated her entire bedroom in hot pink and crinoline ladies in prepatation for the quilt. It took many hours to mctavish and left me with well developed arm muscles!! All worth the effort. My client was delighted with the result. She will have it bound and on the bed by now.

Delicate and Dramatic

2006-08-28T09:43:00.000+09:30

This week I have worked on some quilts which could not be more different! This one was a Halloween inspired quilt. I have quilted orange bats on a black background...very dramatic.

The second one was a cream rosebud surrounded by McTavishing...very delicate! I will never be bored with this variety of quilts!

This year has marked a dramatic change in my life. I have gone from a full-time job surrounded by other intelligent women, to starting my own home based quilting business. At times the silence has been deafening. I enjoy the quilting that I am doing. I love to be immersed in creativity and textiles and I am creating a viable business around myself. I have recently been exploring the blogs of other creative, intelligent women and have decided to write my own blog as a means to converse with these people.

To that end, I have decided to set myself a regular quilting challenge. My quilt responses need only be at an A3 size, that is 30cm by 42cm or 12 inches by 16 inches. This size is able to be achieved in a relatively short amount of time, but it is big enough to let me explore techniques and materials. If any one should happen upon my blog and like to participate in my quilt challenges I would love to see your finished pieces (or UFO).

OK... First challenge. There have been quite a few dinosaur shows on TV in the last few weeks which have been catching the attention of the younger members of my family. So my first challenge is to represent a fossil.

Thinking already and off to sew!

2006-08-26T21:50:00.000+09:30

This is my first post. A bit of an experiment to see what happens. If this works there will be more!