Needlework

Check out my new needlework book. Effie does the most wonderful designs. I can't wait to get cloth and threads and start a project.

Harvest is approaching

Moorambilla

I had the nicest weekend this weekend past. I got to visit with my folks and see a small part of their local music festival "Moorambilla".

Its a great weekend where people from all over the region gather locally to try out music workshops and hear the local regional choirs and bands.

My Dad plays in a couple of bands - the Great Wester Plains Big Band and the BJ's Dance Band. The city folk seem to love the dance band. Apparantly its not something they come across in the big smoke.

The Big Band was the main feature at the Caberet on the Saturday evening so Mum and I went hear Dad play 1st Tenor Sax. The picture shows the band - they have a couple of cool singers and you can see just a small portion of the crowd dancing to Shake Your Tail Feather.


They held the Caberet in an old picture theatre which is currently privately owned and slowly being renovated.

One of the more novel acts of the evening was Heidi Hoo the Cowgirl Hoola Hoop act. Not only was she very clever but she was hilarious as well.




This girl can keep a hoola hoop spinning on the brim of her hat!!!!!!!

The Vege Quilt

Do you ever have those days when your hands are itching to do some patchwork but the brain just isnt up to taking on a project of measuring and cutting and sewing little bits back together.

I had one of those on Saturday. It was wet. DH had gone to town for some convoluted reason that was really just code for "I'm going visiting at the mates place" and I was home alone. Too wet to go outside, too wet to do the washing, and amazingly the housework was already done as we had been expecting visitors for which it was too wet for them to arrive.

So what was I to do. Hmmmmmmmmmmm. The first time in 7 months that I had the opportunity to pull out the sewing machine and I was just too dang tired for the wherewithall to take on/return to a serious project.

Dont you love the feeling it gives you to renew your relationship with your stash. Almost as good as the high you get when you find a simple, quick, no thought project just sitting in your cupboard awaiting your time.

..................and wallah you have the vege quilt top. The easy peasy no thought flannel squares all sown together in the day.



Not spectacular but it will be snuggly for the winter.

A Wet Return

It is raining. 10mls this morning and still raining. Definitely a timely and welcomed event in this part of the world.

Welcomed not just for the countryside but because it means that for the first time since my last post I get time at home alone to please myself with sewing and visiting my blogger friends.

I am looking forward to finding out what you have been up to these past few months.

Cheers for now

Nothing like dropping off the face of the earth

Helloooooooooooo,

Long time no chat!!!!!!!!

I cant believe it was June when I last posted and here it is the end of October already. Soooooo many things that should have been done between now and then, but, oh well, they will happen soon enough.

It really is wonderful to touch base once again with you all. Such excitment here. My husband received a bilateral lung transplant on 1st September and we have been in Sydney all this time for his recuperation.

The Doctors allowed him a few days at home (just a 7 hour drive) last week and it was great. If only to sleep in our own bed again.

Needless to say DH is doing quite nicely and has another month if routine weekly clinic visits before being allowed out on his own for a month at a time.

We cant wait to get back to normalcy.

It is amazing to see him so well.

As far as the patchwork is concerned not much is getting done. That's not to say it wasnt all brought down to the city for occupation, but alas, other things have got in the way. (Like lunches at Bondi Beach, lunches at Coogee Beach, a day at Manly, a trip to Cronulla.....the New Zealand Natural Ice Cream Shop, the Movenpick Ice Cream Shop....lol)

Cheers for today

Home Town Quilt Show

Travelled over to the folks this long weekend. (Monday is a public holiday to celebrate the Queen's Birthday for anyone who is not in Aust).

It was nice to catch up with Mum and Dad and nice to meet up with some of my hometown local friends that patchwork. They had their annual Quilt Show - held at the local library which is an excellent location. lots of bookcases to hang quilts on. I always enjoy the quilting over there. The quilters in that area seem to have the knack of making quite spectacular quilts out of very simple patterns.

Anyway, despite the wet weather I believe it was a successful event. Most enjoyable.

A Finished Article Woohooo

Advice for a Babys quilt

Hi Ladies, I need some advice.........

A most joyful occasion is about to occur in the life of one of my friends. She will become a Grandmother sometime in November.

To celebrate the occasion I would dearly love to make something for the first born grandchild and what comes to mind is an embroidered blanket. You know the type Wool with wool applique and wool embroidery backed with a pretty cotton fabric.

However, in this day and age wool is not necessarily the most practical though I expect it would be a lovely keepsake.

So my question is - should I make something practical therefore washable, for example a patchwork cot quilt or should I make the woollen keepsake?

Hardangar

Last weekend was great fun.

The local embroidery group arranged for a travelling tutor and we spent to hilarious days learning a little bit about hardanger embroidery. (I think this particular type of Hardangar is called something else starting with "M" but cant remember what its suppose to be) anyway.......

here are a couple of pics. It will eventually be a needlebook and still needs to have its edge beaded but I am rather pleased with the result and wanted to give you all a look.

Look what came to visit last night

The local mopoke (frog mouthed owl) called by last night, Im guessing to grab his share of the mice that are running around at the moment.

So close!!!!!! I stepped out my back door to see what the dogs were barking at and look what I found. Cant believe he was only 20ft from my back door.

Its Been Ages.........

Cant believe it has been so long since visiting here. Christmas has passed. Time has flown. So much has happened. Life has been way too busy.

But...................I do have something to show you.........................the finished product.........the journal cover for A Woman's Look project. Hope you like it.

A Woman's Look..............

Wow, Vicki has really raised the bar this year when she took on the job of running the 2009 challenge for my embroidery group.


We were gobsmacked as she handed out visual art books for journals and proceeded to tell us that we would be endeavouring to create an original piece of embroidered artwork based on the theme " A Woman's Look".


There we sat, speechless and in awe as we discovered that we would be creating a textile book of at least 5 pages plus a cover using the elements and principles of design. (line, shape, colour, size, pattern, value/tone, movement - balance, gradation, contrast, repetition, harmony, domiance, unity and rhythm)


Holy toledo.............talk about overwhelmed!!!!!!!...I'm only a beginner!!!!!!!................


We have before us a list of challenge stages to which we endeavour to have completed by December 2009.

A Journal Cover

Page 1 -Line

Page 2 - Texture

Page 3 - Shape

Page 4 - Colour

Page 5 - Self Portrait

Textile Book Cover

There I sat dumbstruck as we received our kits - a blank journal and a dress form silhouette printed on fabric.......our first task -


to make a journal cover using the dress form silhouette......to start collecting ideas for the textile book and to start experimenting with possible backgrounds.







..............................and now that my mind has stopped screaming help me, I think the project is really going to be kinda fun. This is the start -

A scrap of black velvet, black and white striped cotton, black homespun, white ribbon and black ricrac. As you can see there will be just a touch of red when the flower on the dress form is embroidered with satin stitch.

(hmmmm thinking I might call the textile book - "Iam woman see me raw" - a line courtesy of the Kath & Kim TV comedy show)

Pressies from embroidery

Mums Quilt

This is the quilt Im making for my mother. It has been in the pipeline for at least 18months now and I am really quite excited to have all the blocks finished and laid out. The border is blue and will be about 10inches wide. We are still wondering if it might need a thin border first say in red just to frame the pieced section, but will consider that when the blocks are sown together.

Mum has blinds in her bedroom the same colour as the blues in the quilt so this will look very nice I think.

One More

The local embroidery guild has been studying individual stitches as a part of their yearly challenge which is to make an Artists Trading Card to swap with each of the members of the group. I have one more swap to go and thought it might be fun to do a sampler of some of the stitches studied this year using a few of the wonderful threads acquired in June at the Quilt and Craft Fair in Sydney. I hope my swap partner likes it.

Looking Out

Me and PeggySue, surveying the landscape from the front verandah after yesterdays soaking rain. .........hmmmmmmmmmmmm perhaps I should have mowed the lawn before it rained.....
oh well, sewing was much more fun

A Finisher or a Journier?

Are you a finisher or a journey quilter? Do you have the need to get a project finished, not because of a deadline, but because you have this inner voice whispering "finish, finish, finish? Or are you someone that enjoys the journey to the end of a quilt.



It seems that quilters come in two types. There are those who are driven to finish what they start without a break from that project. I call these quilters "Finishers". They worry over projects unfinished, often not starting another until the first is completed. They are unable to focus on other activities until the first is completed, stress when things go wrong and finish with a huge sense of euphoria.

The other type I call the Journiers. For Journiers quilting is about the process, the end will come eventually and how long it takes to get there is of little consequence. They move fluidly from one project to another, doing a little here and a bit there. They have many works in progress and like it that way. They will conform to a deadline if the need arises but feel no pressure to complete a project that has no specific use by date. For Journiers the joy of quilting is in the time taken to enjoy the fabric, the colours, the ideas, the company, the new technique - no stress attached.

Of course the sense of euphoria when a project is completed must be, I think, the same for all quilters.

I am a Journier. What type are you?

A WIP completed. A Monogrammed Cushion.

The project started as a 1 hour workshop at the Sydney Craft and Quilt Fair this June.

A-Z Series

Does anyone look at the Inspirations Magazine.

A wonderful publication that comes out quarterly. It covers mostly embroidery projects with some lovely articles about works from all over the world. The projects can be sourced from Country Bumpkin in South Australia. They have an online business where you can sign up for newsletters and the like.

Anyway, Country Bumpkin are currently having a sale on their A - Z Series books , buy 5 at once and get them at a reduced price..................how can you resist!!!!!!!!



My purchases showed up in the mail this week.

With just one more ATC due next week, guess where the inspiration will be coming from