Ripples

We are finally having some hot weather after a wet and cold start to summer. 43C in the city tomorrow! Too hot for me but lovely on the beach early this morning.
I am making a wagga using suiting samples, an old pillow case cover, a woollen dressing gown and old curtains for the backing. I have used an old op shop flannelette sheet for the batting and now have to work out how to quilt it. Most waggas were stitched together very roughly or tied. Somehow the quilt seems to relate to the ripples on the beach this morning.

And just because she's the apple of my eye and makes me laugh - my granddaughter taking a photo of me taking a photo of her!!

'bits and bobs'

Here is my little 12 x 9 quilt for our challenge group. The theme this time was 'My Collection'. It was hard to decide what to interpret, I have a few collections! This is a small selection from my button box stitched onto a collection of my 'shot' cottons. Some of the buttons have been handed down from my mother and grandmother.

No camera!

I dropped my camera on a rocky path at Uluru and cracked the screen. I could still take photos using the viewfinder but couldn't see anything on the screen. After a bit of research I decided it was cheaper to get the screen fixed than to buy a new camera. (Both options expensive!)  So, no camera for a couple of weeks. I miss it already! These are a couple of photos from our little holiday. Beautiful ghost gums in the courtyard of the hotel and a lizard seen on one of our walks. He was about 12 inches long. He's disguised quite well on the leaf litter.

An '0' birthday!

It's been a while since I posted but I've been away again. A significant birthday prompted a trip to Uluru (Ayers Rock), somewhere I've always wanted to go. It certainly lived up to all my expectations! Awesome, inspiring and quite surreal!  Nearby Kata Tjuta (the Olgas) was equally fascinating. We did two big walks, one around the base of Uluru and one though Kata Tjuta. It has been raining up there recently so it was green, with lots of wildflowers. The resort we stayed in was like an oasis in the desert - beautiful and so relaxing!

So, not a lot of stitching has been done lately!!

A dog's life!

Lot's of dogs having their walks on the beach this morning. One lady had five!
I made a quilt several years ago called "It's a Dog's Life!"  There were nine blocks, each with a dog in a different chair. Here are a couple.  All machine applique and machine piecing. All around the border I had sayings such as - 'his bark is worse than his bite',' let sleeping dogs lie', 'love me, love my dog', 'beware of the dog', 'dog eat dog', etc, etc.  It was so much fun picking the fabrics for the dogs and the chairs.
(I must have taken these photos with my old camera. Or else I didn't know how to use the close up mode!)

Birds!

 

We think this handsome fellow and his little lady friend have a nest in a bush near our birdbaths. The first year we were here we never saw any blue wrens, the following years they would pass through once or twice a day. This year this couple are constantly around and keep flitting in and out of the bush. I have looked but can't see a nest - I'm sure it's very well disguised. Now I am constantly on the lookout for next door's cats!  As much as I like cats I wish there was a law that required people to keep cats on their own property!  When I spoke to the owner she was sure her cats never hunted wildlife!  Yeah, right!!
And just so there is a bit of stitching on this blog here are two little stitched pieces I did last year just for fun. They are about 16cm square and the tree in the second one was inspired by a drawing from the lovely Cathy of onepinkgoose and used with her permission of course!  I really enjoyed stitching these. I've used stranded cottons and some lovely variegated crochet cotton dyed by a friend, on a dark brown background.

Back again!

Oh my! it's been nearly two weeks since I last posted. Where has the time gone?  Had a fabulous time in Geelong with a great tutor, wonderful company, good food, fun shops and lots of inspiration! We stitched pictures from photographs, I have lots of new ideas!  Home to lots of washing, catching up on chores and weeding, but at last some lovely spring weather.  It was beautiful at the beach this morning.  The seagulls were enjoying the sun too!

Packing

I will be taking a break from the computer for a week. Off to Geelong Fibre Forum to do a workshop called 'Stitched in Memory' with Michele Eastwood, whose work I have long admired. I have spent the last couple of days getting my supplies together and trying to work out what I will need and what I can leave at home. I'm sure there will be things I won't use and things I wished I'd taken!  I also have a quilt hanging in the wool quilt exhibition which is on at the Wool Museum in Geelong from now till January.

Twelve!

Here is my little quilt (12" x 9") depicting the theme 'Twelve'.  When I was thinking about what to do I kept coming back to a 'dozen', hence the eggs!  I think the chook looks suitably horrified at the thought of twelve babies to look after!! As I said in a previous post I quilted the background before doing the applique - much easier!  I am looking forward to hearing what our next theme will be.

Port Vincent

Last time we stayed in this lovely little fishing town (April) we had the most amazing sunset one night.
Of course the pelicans are always around looking for a feed.
And a while ago I made a little quilt (12'' square) to celebrate some lovely holidays here with friends, sun, sand, feasts of blue swimmer crabs and good wine!!

Short holiday

I'm away on a short holiday at the moment.  Brought the little Japanese silk triangles to work on while the man catches fish for dinner!

Something finished!

Started this little (6" x 6") stitched picture some time ago and today I finished it. It's stitched on a piece of yellow antique Japanese silk using cotton and silk threads and then backed with a piece of stiff wadding covered in calico. I made a little loop with ribbon and a button. The binding is a piece of cotton that had all the right colours in it! I really enjoyed doing the seed stitching in the background - so meditative. The baby isn't anyone I know - just a photo out of a magazine!

To the rescue...

Walking on the beach this morning I found a freshwater yabbie! He was not looking at all well. The wetlands have overflowed into the sea after all the rain we've had and he'd obviously been swept out to sea. I decided to put him back where he belonged so I picked him up very carefully and carried him back to fresh water. He revived immediately and I think he was very appreciative of my efforts. Luckily there was no one on the beach this morning to witness this!!  They might have thought I was a bit weird!  (Isn't he beautiful! Click on photo to enlarge.)

Sunny and warm!

A beautiful walk this morning in the glorious sunshine. An interesting rock on the beach, and a look at the wetlands which are overflowing into the sea. It really feels like spring. I have also finished stitching my leaf beasts. Not sure how to finish them off now. They will go up on my design wall for the time being while I get on with some other projects.

Feathering the nest.

The Blue Wren is in the garden every day with his lady friend, showing off his courting colours!  So today I took a bundle of thread ends (too short to use for stitching) and spread them around in some bushes. Nice to think they may make a cosy lining for a nest.

Some signs?

After a very long, cold, wet winter there were some signs of Spring this morning!  (Along with a garden full of weeds!)  Click on photos to enlarge.

Also, my sun now has a face, albeit a very strange one, and is sending rays of warmth to my leaf beasts.

Noisy visitors!

Not much stitching happening at the moment. Some sunny weather so lots of weeding and a visit from about 50 Yellow-Tailed Black-Cockatoos!  Very destructive and very noisy but beautiful.  They are eating the new pine cones.  Click on pictures to see better.

Stitching

Have started quilting my beast family to a backing. The backing is the reverse side of a large sun print of some leaves done by a (deceased) friend of mine many years ago, so it's nice to use this and think of her as I stitch. It means the piece is reversible!
It took a long time but I've managed to post THREE photos at once and get them all in the centre!  Will I be able to remember how I did it??!! 

A challenge!

A group of twelve friends (including me!) from Australia and New Zealand have decided to set ourselves a challenge. Very similar to the Twelve by 12 challenge but ours will be 12" x 9" in size. Every two months we will produce a small quilt with a theme chosen in turn by each of us. Our first theme is 'TWELVE', due at the end of September.   I decided to try something I haven't done before - quilt the background before adding the applique!  Much easier than trying to go round it!  I will show you the finished quilt soon. Hopefully I will be able to show you some of the others too. I really enjoyed thinking about 'twelve'.

Grey!

 

Another wet, windy, overcast and GREY day!  So a picture of a beautiful banksia in my backyard to brighten everything up.  The honeyeaters love them.  Come on Spring!!

Japanese silk

I've been working on a silk quilt for a few years. Hand pieced over paper using antique Japanese silks. The triangles are one and half inches on the straight sides. It will probably take me another few years to finish it! A very slow cloth! But that's OK, I enjoy picking it up between other projects. Most of the silks came from Wafu Works, a lovely shop in Tasmania. I notice Jan has started a blog  http://wafuworks.blogspot.com/

Froth and bubbles

There were soapsuds at the beach this morning after a wet and windy night!