Scatterdays begins with an S...

.. and that's appropriate because I just scraped in!

My first Scatterday is Medical and it's that most useful of gadgets, a sphygmometer, or more correctly, a sphygmomanometer. Sphygmo, from the Greek sphugmos, pulse, and manometer, a pressure gauge, from the Greek manos, thin and metron, measure. So you won't be surprised to know it's a device for measuring blood pressure! (Medical types have literal minds, it seems.)I'm relieved to tell you that the stress of Christmas hasn't caused my blood pressure to soar, or anything serious like that! I don't quite know why we own one of these things, but we do.

My second Scatterday is a beverage, Sabra. This is my favourite liqueur of all, and possibly even surpasses my love of schnapps (none of your fancy flavoured rubbish, the real deal!). I don't have a bottle of schnapps in my cupboard at present (sounds like a reason to buy one!) but I do have this bottle of Sabra. It's an Israeli liqueur, which tastes like alcoholic Jaffas. (For those not lucky enough to live in Oz, Jaffas are round orange-coated chocolate sweets. They are delicious but they are also famous for being rolled down the aisles in picture theatres when I was but a young thing, making a significant clatter. It was always a hard decision whether to eat or roll.) This is quite an elderly bottle of Sabra, and I'm not sure you can even buy it in Australia these days, certainly not in mainstream grog shops.

Then, we have Christmas. Now it would have been so easy to photograph one of the several seasonal Santas that have stirred from their annual sleep, but instead I've selected a Star. This star has graced my Christmas tree since 1981, and was bought from an early precursor of the Oxfam shop, somewhere down in the inner city. It was constructed in India and the miserable smidgen I paid bought someone something, way back when. If you look closely, you can see one of the Santas below it (he's banging his own drum, I think) and over to the left, a snowman, who for some reason is carrying a shiny parcel. He dates from 1984, from a set that included a downhill-skiing Santa, some soldiers and a sitting-down snowman. Sadly, they are somewhere out of shot, but certainly present. David the chief tree dresser insists that every decoration must be included. Since I buy at least one each year, this number is not inconsiderable. One day, the tree will fall to dust beneath their weight.

Finally, as an extra, I bring you Stones, given to me by my god-daughter several years ago. And with them, I wish everyone a very happy Christmas, and a peaceful, safe and satisfying New Year!

Scatterdays D

Sorry, no actual photos this week, it's been that kind of week.

Had I taken photos, they would have been:
Sewing: My trusty darning foot on my sewing machine, and the difficult darts on the stretch cotton sateen pants I'm making, from my tried and true pattern, that did not want to describe my diameter but rather develop it to new dimensions. Dastardly darts! They have been disciplined into doing their duty now.
Vehicles: The dump truck and digger that the helicopter pilot I showed earlier drives when he's not detailed to fly helicopters. I think this toy set might develop into a theme like Pennie's Babushkas!
Touchy Feely: Well obviously, something I like the touch and feel of is David, but to keep this clean and family-oriented, I decided to photograph dirt. Yes, dirt, specifically the very lovely rich clean smelling dirt of my veggie patch, which is rewarding me by producing beans and tomatoes and silverbeet and beans and basil and baby squash and... did I mention the beans? Should anyone desire a few beans for dinner, by all means descend upon my garden to your delight and delectation. It's fast reaching the point when anyone foolish enough to visit me is obliged to leave with a bag of beans. You have been warned.

I also planned to photograph my collection of Dupioni silks. I have metres and metres of maroon Dupioni and magenta Dupioni,and a deep purple and a bright watermelon (this one a find at St Vinnies' op shop), a cerise one and a turquoise shot with purple, a bright blue shot with purple and a dusky pink and a silvery grey-brown. Yep, I love this fabric and whenever I see it at a good price (like half price, or in the case of Vinnies, 2.2m for $6!), I just have to buy it. I expect someone will have to drape them over my coffin in due course, but until then, I love it and occasionally make myself something from it, when I want to feel really special. OK, maybe if I get a minute one day, I'll photograph them for you anyway - they really are delicious!

So this week, you get to exercise your imaginations! On to next week!

Scatterday begins with a K

I'm early this week, because tomorrow I'll be partying with the Sydney SCQuilters. This week's Scatterdays photos begin with a K and are In My Neighbourhood, Dangerous Things and Blue Things.

In my neighbourhood, there is a kindergarten, of course. (I'm sure I'm not the only one to have one of those!) But it's right across the street from the shopping centre, where you will find our lovely pharmacist, Kim. We also have a Kent St, along with streets called Dorset, Somerset, Essex, Suffolk, Norfolk, Cambridge, Oxford - bit of a pattern here, do you think? But I didn't get over there to take a photo.

My dangerous things are Knives (and I bet I'm not the only one to think of that too!)since I put the kibosh on kern (an Irish footsoldier) and a kestrel (hunting bird dangerous to smaller birds) and our collection of weapons doesn't include a knobkerrie. Though I think there's a kris about here somewhere. I included the Staysharp knife because a policeman friend of mine told me, back in the seventies when they became popular, that they were the Number 1 implement in domestic stabbings. There's dangerous for you!

My blue thing is my knitting bag. I made it in the fourth grade, so I was probably about 10 years old. Back in the dark ages, we girls were taught sewing while the boys did woodwork, and I remember being very envious of them! See my beautiful embroidery? I think it was probably unpicked a dozen times - Mrs Muller was a perfectionist! But by gee, her lessons have stayed with me these many years.

Scatterdays

I'm late, I'm late, for a very important date.....
Sorry, it's been one of those weeks and yesterday was just one long party. I was busy being the ATASDA librarian (and enjoying the marvellous Christmas Party food)and last night was our neighbours' significant wedding anniversary. My life is just onelong party... So belatedly, here is my Letter M Scatterday, with the categories of Weapons, Textures and Hobby.

My weapon was easy - it's the Mace. On our travels around the Pacific, we collected a club or mace from each country, and here they are displayed. It includes maces and clubs from Samoa, American Samoa, Fiji, New Caledonia, New Zealand and Australia. One of the Samoan ones was made by David from a traditional design, while we were in Samoa, so I guess it counts as a hobby too.

I thought my Texture was going to be easy too, as I took photos of some marvellous mud patterns at Emmdale Roadhouse (even the name is slightly M-ish) on the way out to Broken Hill two years ago. But the photos have mysteriously vanished. So instead I have Minerals, very appropriate for the child of a mining town! I photographed them in the Mining Museum in Broken Hill.

Hobby was also easy, since I'm married to a man with so many of them! Here we have some of his Models. The first is a Ferrari, an early one of his models of which he is inordinately proud, shown mirrored in its cabinet. The second is a working steam engine model - one of the two we own. The other one was made from scratch by David's grandfather - this one is a kit model, which was a present from Ben to David for a significant birthday.

So, all in all, it's taken me more time to type this message than it did to assemble the photos. Just as well, really, as I'm running so late! OK off to see this week's Scatterday.

Election results

Great happiness in this household today! Not only has the Howard government been definitively voted out of office, but it looks as if enough people here in Bennelong have finally decided against John Howard as their local member. There has been a 5% swing against him, towards Labor. Postal votes are still to be counted, of course, so it's too soon to dance about that.

It would be very satisfying if he went down in history, not as the noble successor to Robert Menzies that he imagines himself (Menzies would turn in his grave), but by joining Bruce as the second Prime Minister ever to lose his seat.

Scatterday T

This week has been touched by the letter T, and the categories clothing, purple and hot things.
This week is in honour of Tribes, those long relationships with a group or family. For clothing, we have the assistance of the delightful Tahlia, granddaughter of my friend Fran, modelling her school uniform of T-shirt and Tartan skirt. She also offered to model her Togs, as she was off to a swimming lesson.

To demonstrate purpleness (and clothing), I was going to model the purple Top I made last year with my newly-finished Trousers. But I'm Too idle to Transfer into Them for the photograph, so instead, There's the quintessential purple Tree of Sydney, the jacaranda. They Triumph with purple Tracery all around my local area at This Time of The year and, along with the start of the cricket season and the deafening Trills of cicadas, are a clear sign that summer has Truly arrived.

Finally, Tahlia's grandma, Fran, provided a delightful afternoon Tea for her friends, from *her* grandmother's very hot Teapot. Talk about continuity!

Scatterday H

Happy Scatterday! Today's letter is H and the categories were Human, Toys and Soft.

Here we have some of my favourite humans, a happy Jeremy playing hobblijig with his grandpa. It hardly seems any time at all since we were playing hobblijig with his father! There is a family rhyme that goes:
Mummy's horse goes jig jig jig (jiggle child a little)
Daddy's horse goes trot trot trot (jiggle child violently)
But old farmer Hobblijog's horse goes.... (expectant pause)
Hobblijig! (Allow child to fall between your legs, holding firmly despite shrieks of laughter)
Child says "Again!"
I'm told this is a translation of a German version of the rhyme, which makes sense since David's forebears were German.

A toy helicopter inhabits our toybox, along with many friends who drive tractors, mend the roads,and put on circus shows for the many children. Today, the pilot is taking a holiday from his truck-driving duties because he wears a hardhat and has such a lovely handlebar moustache, in honour of Movember. (If you know anyone growing a Mo for Movemeber, to raise money for and increase awareness of men's health issues, sponsor them!)

I was stumped for soft things until I realised I am surrounded by soft hand-made goodies. So here we have hand knits, hand embroidery (Kas made me the beautiful cushion) and a reminder to hang onto Hope.

Scatterday O

Oh, what a week it's been! My scatterdays have been scattered this week but despite being out all week, I managed to drag together this oddment.

I bring you an ordinary and rather obvious breakfast in the form of oatmeal. I'm sure I won't be the only oatmeal eater!

For little things, I'm delighted to have the opportunity to open up my collection of owls. Here's one that reminds me of ormulu, but probably isn't. I also have an orchestra of owls and an overview of owlish ostentation.

The world is shiny in many ways (I could have brought you a shiny owl too). Here we have some of my shiniest orange organza. And a man dear to my heart contributed his very shiny occiput.

"Shiny", in the words of my daughter means "wonderful,marvellous". So I bring you Kas and Jon, together at last.

Highly shiny!

Like Honey from the Rock

After two months of no free-motion embroidery, I finally risked a little stitching on Honey today. My hand was a little sore afterwards, so clearly I'll have to work on this fairly gently. The progress I've made is probably invisible, as it was more medium values that hopefully will give the impression of rough rock textures. I'm working from darks to lights, so I'm quite encouraged to have reached values that might be considered light.

A couple of people commented on Honey in ways that made me realise they didn't understand what I was doing. There aren't any appliqued shapes, just a collage of rock images, which are being created in stitch on a printed background. Here's a detail of the lower left corner. You can see the area that hasn't been stitched yet (it's a very light section)but the rest of the shapes are created by blending machine stitching, mostly free-motion straight stitch but some areas have free-motion zigzag stitching. This is why it's been so time-consuming! Every section has to be stitched in multiple colours.

Scatterdays Letter A, round things, vegetables and Things you like the smell of

Another Scatterday already!

Today's Scatterday is brought to you by the Letter A:

I love vegetables but artichokes are awful and aubergines barely acceptable. The article I adore is asparagus. Lightly steamed, with a dab of butter - bliss! Here is my asparagus in all its glory, in various states of appreciation and... utterly absent! Yum.

In the round, I bring you those blessings of the modern world, analgesics, including the useful aspirin, and for those who prefer to keep the doctor away, apples.

Lovely smelly things include my roses, which are just finishing their annual, or sometimes biannual, appearance. This rose was in my garden when we arrived in 1984. I was told by a rose fancier that it's called "Abraham Lincoln", though my books say that the red rose like this is actually called Mr Lincoln and I don't think this is it anyway. But today I'm believing the rose fancier. The scent is one of those dark rich rose scents that fill the house from one bloom.

Next week: The letter is O and the categories are Breakfast, Shiny and Little Things.

Talking about pointy things..

...here's a little smidgen of a secret thing I'm working on. It's for a challenge and I'll show more when it's been revealed next year. This is just the beginning of much larger piece. It's quilte a simple construction - vliesofixed shapes on a background and stitching over the top.

Scatterday J, pointy things, restaurant and sport

Oh dear, a sad haul for this week! I decided at the start that the things I photographed would be on my daily round, not something I made a special trip for. There are no restaurants beginning with J, or Japanese resturants, anywhere I went this week, and while I had brilliant ideas about sport, no javelin throwers, ju-jitsuists, judoers or long jumpers presented themselves locally, despite diligent searching. The space in a croquet hoop is called a jaw, but the croquet players were washed out this week, and the local sportspersons have hung up their football jerseys for the season. C'est la vie.

I should have known it would be like this because I found my pointy thing almost immediately last Saturday. Here it is:

These are jenny calipers, also known as hermaphrodite calipers. They're used to scribe a line parallel to the edge of something, so the hook end goes around the edge and the pointy end does the scribing. "There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio..."

A bit of dressmaking

I've been busy doing little bits of this and that, but not making huge progress on anything. But I have cracked the pants fitting problem, at least until I gain or lose weight. I seem to have been living in jeans, because I couldn't find ready-made pants that fitted well and were in fabrics I liked . This is what the first pair looks like:

It's a lousy photo, and I should really have been wearing shoes. I had great plans to have David take a better photo but that deoesn't seem to be happening, so this one will have to do.These pants were made from mid blue drill as a toile, and have a back zipper. I'm not mad keen on back zippers, so the next pair, almost finished in black drill, has a standard fly front and jeans-style pockets. They're a bit looser because I forgot that I had allowed slightly-larger-than-usual seam allowances for fitting. But they are still wearable, which is good since I have no intention of taking them apart! I have about half a dozen different pants fabrics waiting their turn now.

Scatterdays Letter P: red, sweet, metal

There's an overwhelming red tinge to my photos this week. So many P things on my travels were red..

First, I'm very partial to piquant red peppers, don't they look appetising? We always buy Pontiac potatoes, too. And lest anyone postulate improper premises from the preponderance of provender among my photos, here's a picture of a perennial plant called a pink, (which, confusingly, is red) in a pot which, with its pink and purple pals, will be planted in my personal plot presently. And who could survive without the postbox, which is both red and metal? Certainly not the person who pushed past as I photographed it, to post her very pressing piece of postage. Another metal, but not red, is David's Prius, of which he is very proud.

Oh, there's those peppers again, because of course they are sweet peppers, but in case someone perpends whether I'm paltering, there's also some plum jam which, curiously, is also red, and another plant from my garden called a polygala. OK, I know its flowers are purple, but its common name is Sweet Pea Bush.

Whew, this is becoming hard work!

Scatterdays

My friends Michelle and Pennie talked me into doing Scatterdays, an idea dreamed up by Michelle and Dy to encourage us to take more photos and blog about it. Each week we have one letter, 3 categories and have to find and photograph something from each category that starts with that letter. Why? Just for the fun of it! This week's letter was F and the categories were Cold Things, Signs and The Elements.

OK, I found heaps of signs I liked. Mr Fong and the entire Asia Pacific region seem to have joined together to sell Fresh Food in Eastwood shopping centre, and I couldn't resist the ubiquitous Fire signs (how often do you actually notice them in public places? Let's hope we never need to know where they are!) I am always amused by these Floodway signs in the middle of the same shopping centre (just outside the library). Guess why this is a Flood-prone area? Because, in my mother-in-law's childhood in Eastwood, this used to be a LAKE! People went boating on it. Now it's an oval and a shopping centre but nobody thought to tell the water. (I guess this could count as an aspect of The Elements too?) And Francis the Fresh Fish Man has been coming, in various guises, to my local shopping centre since before 1984, when we moved into this area. (I think we're on Francis IV.)If you look carefully you can even see a portion of Francis' anatomy that I won't name.

I had fabulous ideas about cold Food but, just to be on the safe side, I photographed the very tidy Freezer of my Fridge, with Frozen Peas and other Frozen Food. But then I thought of those great staples of Australian entertaining, Feta cheese and French Onion dip. And I am Fond of Feta and David's Favourite dip is French Onion. (OK, maybe Fish ones, but he got French Onion...)

I foundered upon The Elements. In the final absence of the photos of the Hawkesbury River in flood, which are clearly among those photos *not* carefully put into photo albums, I fell back upon this photo of fractonimbus clouds from Lord Howe Island. I should make you look it up, but I'll be kind. Fractonimbus clouds are raggedy, broken-up, wispy clouds formed by wind or air currents underneath a layer of nimbus (rain-bearing) clouds. You can see them on the lower part of the nearest cloud. So now you know.

P, you say? And Red, Sweet Things and Metal. Hmm. How obscure can I make this without driving myself nuts?

A new project... well, an old one

I've started working on another project. "Another?" I hear you say. "Does she ever actually finish anything?" Well yes, sometimes I do, but this is actually progressing a long term project.

Back in the nineties, I started making 12in blocks for a quilt for myself. At that stage I was making lots of quilts for other people, including ones for a local charity called The Shack, but I don't think I'd made one just for me. I bought a whole lot of several fabrics that I really liked, in colours that I knew David would also like. I made a couple of sample blocks - one called Memory and one called Best of All. All up, I made about a dozen blocks before it got set aside.

In March 2000, I decided that what this quilt needed was some needleturn applique. I worked out a design, based on some traditional motifs, some quilts I saw in magazines and inspired by the Jacobean Applique book. Here's what the applique looks like:

It's 20 1/2in finished.
It was a bit crumpled from being stored so I just gave it a cursory swipe with the iron for photography purposes (as one does).

The Best of All blocks looks like this:

and the one Memory block I'd made looked like this:

I decided it's a bit dark so I've changed the centre colour to apricot:

That looks better! (Sorry, it's a night time photo)

So now I'm hand piecing the rest of these blocks.
This is what the quilt will look like when it's finished(the blank areas will have applique, yet to be designed):

I'm actually working on this quilt now because, in March 2000, David expressed the intention of building us a bed. It would have chip carving decoration and deep drawers underneath to store quilts, and the deal was I would make the quilt to go on it. Yes, you're right; although he works almost as slowly as I do, he finished the bed early this year and he's very properly asking "where's our quilt?" It may take me a little time....

Journal quilts

Isn't it interesting to revisit where you were a few years ago? You look at your work and see different things you could have done, that would make it a better piece. Well, that's what happens to me anyway! But most of my pieces are here with me, so there isn't a sense of novelty to revisit them.

I made this little journal quilt in 2004 but it has been visiting my daughter, on its way to its new owner. But I realised I hadn't put a hanging sleeve on it, so it came home again a couple of weeks ago. I still like it and find it fun, though I might do some bits differently if I were making it today.

It's called Hell in a Handbasket in honour of Kas's friend Helen, who will eventually own it, once I put that hanging sleeve on it. I've found the rest of the backing fabric so that's a start, anyway!

Arts of Islam

Mags asked me to share a couple of my sketchbook pages and I finally got around to scanning them. They aren't anything special as far as artwork goes - I was more interested in getting down the ideas and relationships. I knew I'd be buying the catalogue, but I'm sure I'm not the only one to have been caught out by catalogues that bear little resemblance to the artefacts you just studied! This one was brilliant, full of beautiful clear photos of the exhibition pieces, but obviously, the detail of the motifs is hard to puzzle out if you haven't made sketches.

As you can see, these are mostly simple motifs, from various media, that I thought would be interesting repeated in stitch or stamped or appliqued on textile work.

And these are more of the same. Several of these are from woodwork, rather than painted pieces. I felt I had way too short a time at the exhibition - there was so much to see! But there's plenty of ideas here and among my other sketches, for me to explore.

Time flies...

....and especially blog time. I haven't blogged much lately because I haven't made any small art, and I haven't finished anything big to share. I stupidly overdid the detailed machine stitching in July and August, and injured the tendons in my hand, so I haven't been able to do any machine embroidery or machine quilting this month. Rather annoying, as I have Ben and Lee's quilt ready to sandwich for quilting, and also the Cross and Crown one from the 2007 Kambra Challenge. I don't like to pin quilts unless I'm ready to quilt them. And a lot of my other projects require intensive stitching.

I have still been busy though. I can hand piece, so I've been continuing on with a long term project that's been my hand project for most of this year. It's a signature quilt from the Southern Cross Quilters list. For several years, the list ran a monthly signature swap, in which members made a 6 1/2in signature block and an accompanying square of a specific colour. These sigs are from 1999-2000, and were accompanied by a yellow fabric square. I decided to set those aside and use a more interesting scrap setting. I might add that I also have SCQuilters sig swaps from 2001 (blue and yellow squares) and 2002 (various colours), not to mention two sets of Christmas sigs, ICQ SCQ sigs from when we used to chat live, sigs from the spin-off Year Quilt list and a top made from the original blue sig squares, from 1998 and earlier. I could be making SCQuilter signature quilts for a very long time! Isn't it good to know I will never run out of things to do? Here's what the current top looks like:

Sorry about the foreshortening, my design wall isn't big enough and it's been too windy outside for photography. I'm really enjoying hand-piecing this top, and I don't really mind how long it takes me to finish it.

I've also been working, very slowly, on a quilt for my sister-in-law. I've made just one block, so this is likely to take me some time too!

It's going to be very pretty, isn't it? It's progressing slowly because I need to concentrate to do needleturn applique, and I need good light, so it only gets done by daylight. I make lots more progress on things I can do in front of the TV at night.

I've also fitted some pants, and have the first pair almost finished, and the second pair cut out. I've made more quilt blocks for the secret swap - only two more months to make before we swap them in early December. My veggie patch has bean seedlings and tomatoes and squash and lettuce and silverbeet and parsley, and some potatoes.Growing my own vegetables is one of the great pleasures of life, exceeded only by the pleasure of eating food you've grown yourself. I really missed doing this last year!

Art Gallery

Back last weekend, when the Art Gallery was available to the people of Sydney, David and I went to see the Arts of Islam exhibition. It was truly stunning. Beautifully painted Korans and other books, luscious textiles and carpets, delicate glass, beaten and spun and inlaid metalwork... it was just a feast for the eyes. I filled several pages on my sketchbook with motifs and patterns for my textile work.

I don't want to wax lyrical for too long about it, so I'll just mention some things that really intrigued me. Korans which, although works of art, were clearly also working books, marked with the hands of users over hundreds of years, and sometimes annotated by different hands in the margins. And the one with such large print, it had to be delivered to the palace in a wheelbarrow! The intricate woven textiles, with extra weft threads making complex patterns. These incredible daggers with jewelled handles and scabbards. The excerpts from a pilgrim's manual, a sort of Baedeker or Lonely Planet Guide for the 17th century pilgrim, including street maps of the towns and detailed illustrations of what the pilgim might find there. One page showed "Other Sights to see" - things in the Mecca area that weren't part of the hajj but might be of interest to the discerning pilgrim. And "the book of postal routes and kingdoms" dating from around 700AD, showing rivers, mountains, towns and, most important, the routes the messengers should take to deliver the mail. Just amazing, all of it.

We also had a look at a much smaller exhibition of Chinese jade. These pieces dated from Palaeolithic to modern times. It's easy to forget that when the Egyptians were still figuring out how to put one stone on another, the Chinese already had a complex culture. The pieces really illustrated the history of jade work in China - how they learnt to work the stone, and how to produce a rich red colour by heating the jade - first as a piece and then later selectively, so small areas of the designs were highlighted. And the development of jade inlay. The works were just so intricate! The crowning glory was the Jade Throne and lacquer and jade screens of the Emperor. I imagine it would be pretty hard to remain unimpressed when you were brought before the Emperor as he sat on this throne with this incredible jade all around him!

We also looked at the scupture work of a man called Mackennal, whom I'd never heard of, but he's famous, being the first Australian admitted to the Royal Academy and the first to be knighted. He produced the equestrian statue of Edward VI and many works for George V, including coins, medals and postage stamps. Plus lots of portraiture and works based on mythological themes. He was on the cusp of the huge changes in art at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century, so his themes are classical but the works have the detail and drama of the pre-Raphaelites. They were very interesting works. However, I think we were not quite serious enough, because we are Doctor Who fans. The most recent episode featured aliens that masqueraded as statues to attack people, and the trick to outwit them was not to blink. David and I saw his life-sized statue of Circe, a famous work but she has her hands held out in a rather menacing way. We both said simultaneously, "Don't blink!" and cracked up. Some other sculture lovers glared at us, clearly thinking we were not treating the great man's work with due seriousness, so we had to slink away into another room !

And the visitors have arrived...

Sydney is in "lockdown" (as the media keep telling us in excited tones), in honour of APEC meetings being held over this weekend. This means that Sydney's citizens, those of us who actually live here in this beautiful city, are being encouraged to go away, lest our activities impinge upon these few world leaders and their entourages of literally hundreds of people. The Art Gallery is closed over the weekend, but that's understandable as most of the roads allowing access to it are closed too. The Opera House and Darling Harbour are closed to all but our special visitors, and nobody better think about going to Bondi for a swim, because apparently someone is having lunch there and it's closed too. Bad luck if you are a tourist visiting Sydney - many ferries and all the Jetcats are cancelled and you have little chance of seeing any sights, as they are closed off and obscured by a lovely concrete and metal fence, designed to safeguard these important visitors. Ain't democracy great?

Just how effective this fence is has been amply demonstrated. Yesterday evening, two blokes wandered off the street into the Intercontinental Hotel, where George Bush is staying. They had a drink in the bar and then ate dinner in the restaurant. As they were leaving, they were approached by security, demanding to see their security clearances (which they obviously didn't have). They were hastily hustled out across the road and told to go away. Well, they were going anyway, weren't they? They'd had their dinner. I bet someone got a tongue lashing for that one! Meanwhile, this afternoon, the comedy team from The Chaser's War on Everything apparently drove up to the hotel in a motorcade, and got within metres of the building before someone twigged that they were not, in fact, a Canadian delegation. They were last seen "being interviewed by police", who were not amused. But gee, a lot of the rest of us were!

The only good part of this is that we get a public holiday tomorrow, which we're using to help Karen move house, in Wollongong, which, being all of an hour away from the action, doesn't get the public holiday.

The lull after the storm

I've just finished a period of frenetic activity and gee, it's so nice to do nothing for a bit! Well, nothing with a deadline, anyway. My design wall is empty - well, as close to empty as it ever gets!

You can see Mistrise is still being considered (I had some new ideas about where to take that, just this week), and it's partly obscuring a woven piece with added applique that is being contemplated upon before more action happens. The flock of butterflies is still flying south, though sometimes they move to other places on the wall. Some have been made into brooches for myself (they live on a gorgeous evening bag made for me by Rhonda a few years ago) and friends. And the quilt block designed for me by my clever daughter Kas is still on display.

You can also see a piece I made in August 2005, as part of my personal Journal Quilts project. It was for a challenge with friends called "I Get the News I Need on the Weather Report". Each of us chose a month of the year to represent in journal quilt format. Mine was August in Sydney, which is often wet. It's based on a photo of mine of leaves in a puddle, overlaid by a map of the coastline of Sydney. It's rather dark so it's not a really successful piece but fun to do. Here's a better view of it:

It needs overpainting to give a value difference between land and sea, to emphasise the coastline aspect a little more. One day when I have the paints out..

Almost hidden is an anti-Iraq war piece I started in 2004 on the theme of Purple Prose, which required a combination of text and a purple fabric, for my quilt group. The rhetoric about the war was very purple at the time, so it seemed appropriate! So far it looks like this...

It's based on many news images on Arab woman with their children and the woman's pose is based on a photo I saw of Palestinian refugees just after World War II. Some things don't seem to change. It still needs to have its painted background, which I envisage as a wall, in some disrepair, perhaps with bullet marks or other damage, against which the mother is leaning so wearily. And of course, the detail will be added with stitch, my favourite activity! It will be quite small, 23cm x 30cm (9in x 12in), including a border, which will incorporate purple and probably black, and probably the text. The words I want to use are a quote from Sir Horace Walpole in 1772, "It was easier to conquer the East than to know what to do with it." This pithy remark seems to sum up most attempts by western powers to influence Middle Eastern and Far Eastern politics, and yet it's a lesson they have signally failed to learn in the subsequent 235 years. Don't get excited though, it may still be some time before this piece rises to the top of the pile!

I'm also thinking idly about May Gibbs because ATASDA has been asked by the May Gibbs Foundation to mount one of a rolling series of exhibitions called "Inspired by May", in honour of the sesquicentenary of May Gibbs' birth. It's a little tricky because her artwork is still under copyright. I'm reading her biography and learning about her passion for the Australian bush, at a time when children's books in Australia were generally derived from English sources and images. I have an idea of what I want to do, and it will be small, as the display space is not large. But I'm not sure I will go ahead with it, as it's so nice not to have a deadline!

I wonder how long my wall will stay empty like this?

Happy happy....

Dianne on Like Minded Artist asked us "What's your definition of a perfect day?"
My answer was "Warm and sunny, so I can go out in the garden early.
David home, working in his workshop and calling me to look at what he is making. Then back into my workroom for a few hours of contented pottering with no deadlines.
A visit from another textile artist for an hour or so.
Then back out into the garden in the late afternoon.
Lazy dinner with friends at an Italian or Moroccan or French restaurant, or the local Thai."
I didn't quite achieve all that lately, but I have had some really great days! Yesterday, in particular, was very like my perfect day. New medication is making me a considerably happier camper, and I have been really storming along, in the garden and in the workroom. My veggie patch is almost cleared after a year's disuse due to the water restrictions. I left it a little late in the day to photograph it, sorry!


The quilt for my son Ben and daughter-in-law Lee is to top stage. I'd like to pretend I just whipped this up this week, but to be truthful, it's taken me six years to get it this far! It is a very big quilt! Doesn't it look good on the bed David made for us?

And here is a little teaser of the fabric book pages for the Like Minded Artist swap, which are all almost finished. We had to make 14 pages for the swap, on a flower theme. They are due to be posted on Friday.

Nice Matters Award

I was really touched to receive this from Carol last week. It's a new friendship award started by Bella Enchanted. This award is for those bloggers who are nice people, good blogging friends and those who inspire warm friendships and inspiration. Also for those who are a positive influence on our blogging world.

I have to choose another seven people. I always find that hard because a lot of the really nice blog people I know have already been tagged, like Dianne Tonniece and Mags. Now I see why people often say "all those generous textile artists out there"!

I'd especially like to tag
Erica at Creative Dabbling

Nic at nicquiltz because her work always blows me away

Janine at magic happens

Lisa at Inspirations

Speaking of Lisa, she's having an exhibition in Sydney soon:


Her work is just fabulous (and award-winning!) so it's really worth going to have a look, if you are in Sydney.

Holes, full of secrets

Signs of spring - the jonquils are flowering
Isn't it annoying when you fall into a hole? I have done that this week. Not just creatively, but in every area of my life, things seem to be on hold. Waiting to start new meds, waiting for spring, waiting for the Assistant Gardener to have time to help clear the overgrown veggie patch, waiting for the garden supplies to come so I can do plant those tiny seeds and watch the miracle of life begin. One nice bit of waiting has been starting to plan our Europe trip next year. We have a rough outline of where we will be and when, and now we can start to flesh it out with what we will see and do.

Creatively, there's been a bit of waiting too. I've been working on quilt blocks, for later sharing. My quilt group is making friendship blocks this year - one for each person each month. No drama, there are only four of us in this group! But the blocks won't be revealed until our Christmas lunch in December, so I can't show them here. I'm also working on a couple of other secret projects, including the book pages for Like Minded Artists - my life is really full of secrets just now! So you'll just have to imagine me working busily at all these things I can't share just yet.

Oh, one bit of waiting has come to an end! The bread is calling me from the oven... mmm delicious!

What flower am I?

I am a Canna What Flower Are You?

"You stand up for what you believe in, even if it gets in the way of what other people think. You are proud of yourself and your accomplishments and you enjoy letting people know that."

I'm not sure this is me, really!

Quiet weekend

I haven't achieved very much in the workroom this weekend. Next Tuesday is David's birthday so we went out for lunch with his mum on Saturday to celebrate, and then on to Fagan Park, a big public park at Galston. I took lots of photos of interesting textures and shapes for future reference.

I have made a little progress on the scarf, which I'm told by Erica I should be calling a wrap or a shawl. It's 28in wide so I guess it's more than a scarf. Slowly, slowly....

I've also been painting. I wanted to try stitching, then painting, as I usually do things the other way around. I am playing around with images of Marguerite daisies for a swap. I tried a double and a single, free-motion stitched and then painted. This what they look like:
The single one and...
...the double one

They are rather uneven because I drew the shape with the machine needle. As an experiment, they were fairly successful and I learnt a lot, though the ones for the swap will look a little different. I also painted the background fabric for the swap pages, and a few other pieces that might or might not get used for the same swap.

Challenge quilts

OK, here are some others of the 2007 challenge group, posted with permission.
Maggie's "I wish I had a dog" quilt:

Lyn's quilt:

Robbie's quilt:

Kathryn's quilt:

Pennie's quilt:

Aren't they a clever bunch?

Pennie is currently setting up a blog for the past challenges, which you can visit at http://kambrachallenge.blogspot.com/ She's up to about 2004 now!

Those challenge pieces

So many people asked me about the challenge pieces that some of the members of the challenge have kindly allowed me to share their work here. Not all of them have blogs themselves and access to our photo files is limited to group members. Hopefully one day soon the group will have its own blog.

Most people in the group were less than thrilled with the fabrics chosen this year, and it was a real struggle for some to make anything at all!
Brenda's block, which she has promised to turn into a quilt by next year

Donna's stunning jacket....

And the back!

Michelle's amazing woven pieces, beautifully framed

Stephanie's vest....

...and the back.

Loz's trip around the world, with a clever map print on the back.


Stay tuned for more tomorrow!