Given up!

I have spent be trying to post a comment on another blog, but have given up!! Sorry Amo and Edwina....aaaaaaaaaaaaargh!

Stuff!

I've been doing some more knitting and sewing and finishing off the first module of Creative Quilting!

So two hot waterbottle covers and a big white shirt later...Turkey here we come!

I have a technical problem too: I can't put any comments on other blogs! Don't know what I have done...any suggestions in the bloggersphere????

Knit wit!!

It's getting cold, so what's a girl(!) to do, but...knit! A new scarf and hand warmers, coming up!

Both patterns are from Thr3fold (thanks, Catherine!) and were easy. I made the hand warmers a bit longer, to cover my wrists and keep them a bit warmer. The twirly, whirly scarf is pretty cool!

Over the weekend...

It was a rather busy weekend! I made the Purl Soho Vege Patch quilt for our wall in the hall. It's the first time I've done machine applique, but it worked out ok and given it is machine quilted, went together pretty quickly (as opposed to the French provincial style quilt that I am still hand quilting 12 months later...thank goodness for the new Ottlite!).

I'ts nice to have a change from the small Baltimore wall quilt that has graced the wall for the last 8 or 9 years and Baldrick would be very proud of the turnips!

Hello, again!

Been away from the bloggersphere for quite a while...no proper excuse, other than there's been other stuff to do!

What's been happening? I've had a 'special' birthday; been to the Australasian Quilt Convention and took Linda Steele's Scottish Reel class> Her quilts are quite magnificent, As you can see:

Also, the Creative Quilting course is continuing, slowly (very!, but surely:

I'm still on the drawing/colour/painting module, but getting towards the end.

Thankfully, given this week's wintry weather, I've been able to keep warm with my hand quilting!

Wet!!

Woke up to a very wet morning...the garden is soaked after it rained all night!

A perfect day for my birthday present, but more of that later in the week! I'll just have to hope for more rain, to christen them.

Crafty Day

As usual it never rains, but it pours!

Spent this morning working on my Friday Night Fix book:

I do not know why the images are the way they are, but I'm unable to fix it...quirks of technology, I guess...one upside down and the other portrait, instead of landscape.  There is a silver sugar spoon in there and a photo of it as well, with inks and pastels.
Then is was onto dyeing some silk organza and threads, for the trial run of a project that has been in my head for about 18 months:

Still in the bags at this stage, will wash out later.
And then onto photos for Creative Quilting...not good as usual! The feather was impossible, so I have substituted a blue ginger jar. Now all I have to do is the real work of swatches and paint!

Gardening

A big gardening weekend!
Yesterday, I harvested about 3 or 4 kg of potatoes (kipfler, nicolas and purple) and a good crop of red onions. Pulled out the tomato plants and spread the contents of the compost bins out onto two beds...zoo poo, did for the third!

Today, it was repotting the rhodedendron, with extra drainage holes and crocks at the bottom to improve drainage; planting garlic, shallots and lettuces, and sowing some broccoli, cauliflower and 5 colour silverbeet.

Frustrated that I can't seem to my head around any textile or C&G work at the moment...lots of procrastination going on...

I guess that why...

I guess that's why they call it the blues:

Here are the blue's samples and they've all be sent off, which is a relief!

Puppy School and Cricket

I spent the morning at puppy school, with Kenzie. She was so excited to meeting other puppies and couldn't understand why they didn't want to 'play', as in wrestle, like Angus, our lovable Cocker Spaniel. Given that most of the other puppies hadn't seen another dog since leaving their litter, Kenzie was a bit too OTT!

The afternoon was spent watching Broadmeadows 3rd XI, playing their semi final in the sub-district cricket. Tom only made a couple of runs, but the light was very bad and the storm blew in, about five minutes after he went out. Still, a bit disappointing for him and a wet walk home for me!

More Watercolours...

Here are the latest watercolours (therapy!)...this time yellow:

This last picture is the official Creative Quilting sample page:

I think that they are pretty close to the swatches. The deeper yellow is a little to close to the Windsor Lemon, so I've bought a Cadmium Deep Yellow to have play with.

Tomorrow, I will have the blues...

Watercolour!

Lovely day! Queen Vic Market, this morning, then book buying with Dianne for the school library at The Little Bookroom, in Carlton. It's lovely to go shopping, especially with other peoples' (or in this case, school's) money!

After that, off to the art shop to get some more watercolours. Using Janinka's beautiful samples as inspiration, I began to systematically (as much as you can with watercolour!) mix the colour, with the following results:

I was able to match the colour swatches from the above samples, for the colour RED:

It's not too bad...tomorrow, bring on BLUEs and YELLOWs!!

ACO!

Went to the Australian Chamber Orchestra concert, yesterday, with the lecture by Alex Ross. The lecture was great, ranging from early Spanish music to Led Zepplin and the legendary ( though I know this is heresy, awful) Bob Dylan.

Fiona Campbell's singing was sublime and Richard Tognetti's(?) playing magical.
A lovely Sunday afternoon!

Truffles!

Here are my new pages for the Friday Night Fix:

Do I now have to buy a truffle????

Embroidery hoops

Just a question...

Can anyone tell me the type of embroidery hoop used by Jan Beaney & Jean Littlejohn in their DVD 'In Action'?

Thanks! :D

Absences...

Been away from the bloggersphere for quite a while...

First, here is Kenzie, the cutest and naughtiest Cairn Terrier puppy in the whole world:

Who would think that a draught stopper could be so useful? We start puppy school next week, though if I had to write her report now it would read 'excellent social skills, though needs to show more respect towards other peoples' and dog's (poooooor Angus!) personal space and limbs!'

On the creative side I've been taking part in Linda and Laura Kemshall's Friday Night Fix. Here are the results after week three:

Linda is right, there is no excuse to do it, as each bit only takes a few minutes and then you go back to it. I do like the red oil pastel with dark green!

Also been dying scarves...this is the one I've been wearing today:

All this play, of course, is to distract myself from the colour mixing (shades and tints) part of Creative Quiltmaking! Very, very scary!!! I will just have to gird my loins this weekend, and get on with it...

Pockets!

Entered Dale's (The Thread Studio) competition on Facebook for a pack of Victory rayon threads and shock of shocks...I won! I'm on a bit of a roll, because I won a raffle prior to Christmas and now, this...up until the raffle, I had never won anything, so this is a bit of a surprise. Thanks, Dale!!!

I have a plan for the threads. I want to use them to make a pocket for Dale's challenge 'Pick a Pocket'. The ideas are fermenting and it does mean I have to go to the NGV and see the Lace exhibition. Poor me, I don't know how I'll cope!

The main issue, however, will be employing a bit of Nike philosophy and 'just do it', rather than think, plan, imagine and what might have been!

The quest of a bit of creativity each day is the aim...

Puppy Stuff!

Went with Allison to buy 'stuff' for the new pup: new bowl, a tiny red collar, ball on a rope, and Kong for her to chew!

Finally, got back to quilting the big quilt that has been sitting here for too long! I just had to let go the 'it has to be perfect'...it will be as perfect as it is and that is that. It was just a great sense of relief to begin stitching it again, a few stitches at a time.

Read Anna Goldsworthy's book, Piano Lessons and would highly recommend it! It made me want to dig out my very old copy of JS Bach's Minuet from Anna Magdalena's notebook, but couldn't find it...so headed to Allans and bought a copy, with Beethoven's Fur Elise, easy version. I was never allowed to learn it when I was a kid, so now is as good a time as any. It will be on the electronic keyboard, but the piano sound is fine and I feel a little bit inspired!

New family member!

Let me introduce our newest member of the family...we have only just met and she will come and live with us in a few weeks!

Like Portia, who I miss dreadfully, she is a Cairn Terrier and seems to like a bit of adventure. We haven't named her yet, though there is a short list, and soon she will romping around the backyard with Angus, trying to chew his floppy Cocker Spaniel ears!

Dates!

I just realised that my dates were wrong for the posts...didn't seem to occur to me that they would be on US time and not Melbourne, Australia time!

More drawing for the Creative Quilting course: this time, lines. Pen is definitely easier! I like the top drawing of the cat, fossil and shoe.

Happy New Year!

Just wishing everyone a happy New Year!

The view of the fireworks in Melbourne, was very impressive from home...and the ones a couple of houses down, even more so!

Today spent cleaning out the pantry, which was a job that desperately needed doing! I swapped the food processor, blender, and rice cooker to the drawer under the microwave and put the stuff from the draw (super huge casserole, stockpot) in the cupboard, under the crockery. Hopefully, it will make me use the processor and blender more than I do, 'cos they were just so darn awkward to get out!

I am still deciding whether to take part in the Sketchbook Challenge or if the Creative Quilting course is enough...