Christmas Sewing in November!!

This has got to be a first for me, I'm never an organised person, but this year have entered a swap and a competition both at the Quilting Gallery.

Firstly the swap is for christmas inchies, I've made a couple of these a while ago, actually a long time ago but thought it would be fun to enter a christmas swap. Here are my finished inchies.

                   

I have put my little christmas wall hanging in the Holiday Traditions Quilt Contest, this is the first time I have ever put anything like this in a competition, don't know what came over me LOL. This is decided by public votes, so if you have a minute and would like to vote for me, that would be lovely :)

Here are the links for both the swap and competition. If you haven't been to the Quilting Gallery site before, you may be there a while, lots of good stuff to see.

Able Mable the Painting Table came out after her long winter rest, I used one of the textures pieces I made on Saturday in my inchies. If your wondering who on earth Able Mable is, go back and read this.
As you can see I've also been doing a bit of clearing up in the back yard.

It was good to get out the modelling paste and paint and have a play. Here are the little pieces I ended up with after spending a pleasant hour or so with paintbrush and lots of coffee, I do love weekends when I can enjoy at least 3 leisurely cups in the morning.

Lastly today here are a couple of pictures of a doll I was working on for the Dungog Quilt Show, also done in Christmas Colours, she will be my new christmas ornament for this year, I try and make something for the house each year. She was much admired at the show, which was great and I have a class all signed up for next year which is terrific. She is a wall hanging doll and I have made moulds for her hands and face so that she can be made in a weekend.

I wonder if by mid December I'm still feeling so organised and on top of the whole Christmas thing - very unlikely :)

Stashing Up in the Wind

I have finally got around to doing some dyeing for myself :) After watching all the beautiful colours appear in this years workshops, I have been itching to stock up my own stash of fabrics. I have bought some new colours this year too and have been dying to try them. Monday dawned sunny and only a little breezy, so I rang Helen to change our dyeing day as this looked like the only decent day we would get before the winds returned.

The first day I tried a new blue and an old red in this two colour gradation, lovely combinations but still no real purples.

The some purples using two old colours and some new greens, which work very nicely together. I left these in the pots over night as I thought I might continue dyeing the next day.

Just as the weather man predicted, about 9.30, after I had set myself up for another day of mixing and rinsing, the wind came back with a vengeance, but with the roof vibrating and things flapping and banging, I kept going, only ducking back into the house when I thought I might be in mortal danger.

The previous day Helen had dyed up a 21 colour wheel and got some lovely results. I haven't dyed up one of these for a long time and thought it would be a good idea to try out some of the new colours. I then remembered I hadn't dyed up any threads for a long time either, so a hunt out in the back room also found some muslin, scrim / cheesecloth and a nice cotton bamboo thread I had bought ages ago and forgotten all about. All these went into my 21 yogurt pots along with my 1/2 meters. What I really like about this particular colour wheel is that it gives you some tertiary colours too. Here you can see my three primaries, secondaries and tertiaries.

And here with the extra bits of muslin and scrim.

Here's the whole lot with the threads. Amazing to think all that came out of 21 yogurt pots.

Here's a close up of the bamboo, cotton thread, the colours are more vibrant than shown here, I'm a hopeless photographer!!

Wednesday morning and the wind was still howling, but I wanted to try some multi coloured pieces using black and two primaries and in the new colour ways to go with those above.

Here is just a piece from each fabric, I love ironing these up as each one is so unique and contains little pictures, some tell a whole story :)

So three days of dyeing and my stash is well and truly re-stocked along with some other fabrics and threads. I have work right up until christmas and the school holidays are often too hot to dye so this was my last chance to get some good dyeing days in, the wind was a bit of a pain in the rear, but great for drying, took at least 4 minutes!!

Before and After and a Bit of Wind

The school holidays are flying by and I haven't done a thing on my very long TO DO  list.

I took some photo's of my workspace a few days ago to try and shame myself into tidying up. What with the quilt show, workshops and work, it had become a dumping ground, nothing unusual there, just a bigger dump than usual. I started on Wednesday morning, then went out for a very long and relaxing lunch, and of course, couldn't face it again when I got home -  but this morning finally got it finished. I even dragged the vacum cleaner out there so I could see my hideously ugly green carpet in all it's glory.  Here are some before and after pictures, it never look tidy and the back - back room is storage more than anything as the lighting is none existent so impossible to work in. One day I'll have a nice organised space with lots of posh storage and not a mishmash of old bits I've acquired from here there and everywhere. I bet everyone dreams of their ideal studio, workspace - one day - maybe :)

The weather has been absolutely horrible all holidays, I was supposed to have a day dyeing with one of the ladies that couldn't make our last weekend, but, not a chance, when it's not pouring with rain, it's blowing an absolute gale. Here is a pic looking out of the dinning room window yesterday, I really thought I might loose some serious roofing, but only a few bits of the sun room disappeared.

It was so cold too, more like winter, so I decided to put on the oven and have a good baking session. Here's some biscuits, in last years christmas tin and some cheese and fresh basil scrolls and some rather brown tea cakes, I knew I should have kept the oven at 180 and not 200 as the book said, always go with your gut :)

Earlier in the week I made my first lemon meringue pie from scratch. In the uk they have these nifty little packets that are so easy, but never seen them here. Must admit it was rather delicious. I also harvested all the spinach out of the garden and made some cannelloni with half and froze the other half. I also made Steve's favourite cabbage pie with one from the garden, my brother calls it windy pie, but still wants the recipe, maybe for a bit of revenge LOL.

That's all for now, think I'll go and have a coffee and a biscuit.

A Colourful Weekend.

We had a wonderful weekend up at Main Creek, although the weather continued to be a bit difficult as the wind blew all weekend, as you can see it kicked up another nice dust storm and drove us inside to dye.

With dust masks in place, everyone got their dye stocks mixed up ready to begin.

Then we had a break for morning tea. You will notice that I never get any pictures of the fabulous food Marion makes as I am too busy stuffing my face, next time I promise.  After indulging in scones,  vanilla slice and biscuits, all lovingly hand made, the dye pots come out and all that white fabric is transformed into a myriad of colour.

Here's the white fabric being ripped ready for the dye pots.

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OK I did get a quick picture of the table set for lunch, but as soon as the food arrived, the camera was forgotten.

After lunch, the rinsing began, we found a relatively sheltered spot and set up the rinsing table. Even the buckets and gloves added to the brightness of the weekend.

And then the fabrics were hung to dry, which took all of about 4 minutes. Amazingly, none came loose to disappear over the paddock, although a few buckets and pots did make an escape and had to be run down.

A few found a nice sunny spot and enjoyed an afternoon champagne,

just to keep the energy levels up you understand.

Day two, and although the wind continued to blow, the dust had gone, leaving a beautiful sunny day.

On the second day, the stamps and shibori poles etc. come out and the fun continues making multi coloured fabrics and over dyeing some of the previous days. As you can see, you can never have enough pots and jugs and general paraphernalia when dyeing.

Here we are at the end of the weekend, very well fed, and with that weary but contented feeling that a lot has been achieved for all your hard work. You can see the piles of fabric stacked ready to take home for their final washing and then to be made into unique and treasured quilts, bags and goodness knows what else.

Getting Ready

I have been busily getting ready for a weekend of dyeing up at Main Creek. Here is a picture of 100 meters of crispy white cotton that will be transformed into a virtual rainbow over the weekend. Little did I know that the elements would be against me when I started washing all this in preparation, first rain, then gale force winds, I know what your thinking - winds good for drying right - but not 10 meter lengths that just get them selves into knots and wrap around anything slightly grubby, and to be honest I think I would have been hunting the neighbourhood for them. This was followed by a once in a life time dust storm, yes just what you want on pure white cotton, red dust! So my house has been drapped like a shroud all week trying to get it dry and folded, what a relief, it is finally done.

We were listening to the news this morning, wake up alarm :( about a terrible dust storm in Sydney and when I opened my eyes enough to have a squint at the window, this was the eerie sight that greeted us.

The rest of the day remained pretty much like this, which did very strange things to the street lights ect, making them look either green or blueish. This isn't uncommon in outback Australia, but apparently is a first for both Sydney and Newcastle. Made for a very strange day.

I will take plenty of photo's over the weekend and show you the results of a colour filled workshop. Lets hope the weather is kind to us.

Dungog Quilt Show

I have just spent a lovely weekend up at the Dungog Quilt Show, meeting up with some now familiar faces and meeting lots of new ones. It's nice to know that people are coming back to stock up on their hand dyed fabrics and threads. It was a beautiful, sunny weekend with lots to see and do in Dungog, with a travelling quilt exhibition and art show in town too. It was also good to meet with the winner of last years raffle prize, a $200 voucher for a weekend retreat, she will be attending the new Doll making workshop next March which I am really looking forward too.

Here are a couple of pictures of my very bright stall.

Main Creek is looking absolutely beautiful, with all the usual spring happening, Marions wisteria is stunning and full of blue bees which I had never seen before. The chickens have outdone themselves this year and there are little fluff balls all over the place. Unfortunately I didn't have the chance to take any photo's, but lucky ol me will be back up there in two weeks time for a dyeing workshop and hopefully it will be just as lovely and I will make sure I take some pictures. I have also got to remember to take appropriate clothing for cow pooh collecting for my garden. I did come home with two bags of premium chook pooh in the back of the ute, ready for the veggie patch.

I don't think my gourd seeds are going to germinate, I have put some on wet paper towel in a plastic bag to form a mini greenhouse, but they show no sign of doing anything, I think they are just too old, luckily I can buy some new seeds locally if these don't work.

Back from Beyond

Well I am back from a wonderful trip, refreshed, rejuvenated and more importantly back out in my studio, with a hundred and one ideas flowing through my brain which will hopefully soon to come to fruition.

I am starting here where I left off last time, back in the garden. Today is the first day of spring, so gardening is going to take up some of my time over the next few weeks. I have made a spot for my big black tub and planted the gourd seeds that I saved from that beautifully shaped gourd I used for Pandora, in the hope that the seeds will produce the same beautifully shaped gourds. Very boring picture I know, but I'm hoping that by the end of the summer I will be able to show you garden shed covered in amazingly "beautiful gourds". Fingers crossed.

My spinach and cabbages done there thing while we were away, we've had some delicious spinach inspired dinners already with plenty more to come, how much spinach can a person eat before they get sick of it? I think I'm about to find out LOL, and I have finally got some good stuff into the other end of the garden ready for my summer veg, which I hope to get this weekend.

While we were out trying to find Organoil for our outdoor furniture, I came across a lovely little shop selling "collectables". Everything was half price and I couldn't resist this old shopping basket, a steal at $14 I think. I'm imaging this full of my home grown veggies, ideal for collecting dinner in. It's sitting on my nice new table, as now the weather is warming up, on those mornings when I don't have to rush off to work, I can sit with my morning coffee and toast and watch everything grow.

That's it for now, holiday pics to follow but my alarms gone off and I have two heads and two sets of hands in the oven. If they work out as I'm hoping, I might actually get to post pictures of what this blog was originally about - textile stuff - but variety is the spice of life:)

The Domestic Demon Has Struck

Apologies for my bad blogging, or lack thereof, but I have not had anything to blog about. My Creative Muse has taken an extended holiday and I have been bitten by the Domestic Demon.

After recovering from another bout of "bad back" after my gardening exploits, I had a rush of cleaning madness and to my horror found a small deceased furry thing in my kitchen. This lead to another long winded discussion about kitchen units and how eight years was a long time to have odd cupboards with no doors. A trip to the dreaded Bunnings saw us armed with boxes of flat packed kitchen units and doors. One weekend saw the replacement of one half on the kitchen, and then to my amazement Steve actually suggested that we keep going and get rid of the totally useless pantry I had and put in more deep draws and wall cupboards and a new bench top. Here is a picture of my much improved kitchen. Ok I still have gyprock walls and no cornice and the cupboards still need their handles, but I do have DOORS!! This is a huge improvement so you can only imagine what it was like before.

Knowing that we are going on holiday, I haven't gone mad planting in the veggie garden but have put in a few cabbages, spinach and shallots. They are all going along nicely and I am making a barrier around them with my coffee grinds to keep the slugs and snails away, rather than use bait.

I am currently doing a three week block at school teaching Art and Photography, which has made me spend some time experimenting with photoshop. Here is something I made from my gourd photo while teaching myself some of the functions that I needed to show the students. The possibilities are endless with this program and such fun, when it does what you want LOL.

We are driving up to Darwin next week for some fishing and relaxing, so this will be my last post until we get back. Hopefully my muse will return with me and that demon can stay up North as I have so much to catch up on.

Day 3 and a Compromise

As you may have guessed, our building work did not continue on Friday, I had a call on Thursday evening to go into work. Had I known how bad my back was going to be when I got up on Friday morning I probably would have declined, by the end of the first period I could hardly move and spent the rest of the day sloshing around the school with a hot water bottle stuffed up the back of my jacket. I just about managed to drive myself home to collapse on the lounge with my own hot water bottle and wonder how I could have such a short memory and not remember that only a short time ago I had spent weeks incapacitated with my stuffed up back. My poor attempt at regular back exercises and the walks I have been doing must have had some benefit as although it is extremely sore, I can still actually move, albeit slowly.

Steve had come to realise I was going to have my veggie garden, even if it meant doing myself some damage on the way, so rather than have to cook and look after me for weeks again, went and bought some new sleepers, cement and bolts and finished it off his way.

I stood in the garden in my very attractive pink PJ's and Ugg boots fetching small tools and offering my opinion when it obviously wasn't wanted. If I tried to lift something or do anything slightly strenuous, I got "the look" so made lots of cups of tea and tried to keep my mouth shut.

Here is the first new sleeper going on with the 2 foot long bolts, well maybe not THAT long and showing the obligatory bit of builders bum crack in the process.

One compromise I did have to make was loosing my new long pole as it was needed to attach the other end of the sleepers. Aesthetically it does look better with long poles just along the back but I had envisaged sweet peas growing up between those two poles.

So here is my finished veggie garden :) Not quiet as satisfying as if Karen and I had done it all ourselves but it does look good. The soil is shocking and needs lots of compost and things added to it, but as you can see, there is plenty of room to add more. I have bought some staples so I can have strings between the poles to grow beans and peas when spring arrives. At the moment I have a couple of variety's of cabbage, some spinach and shallots to go in. Time has become a factor to get this all done as I start a three week block at school next Monday that takes up to the school holidays and Steve had just booked 3 maybe 4 weeks holiday so we will be heading up North with the boat and loosing ourselves in the quiet contemplation of fishing for a while. By the time we come back, it will be close to spring planting time then I can get lots of new veggies into my new garden.

Here is a before and after pic, it's amazing what a bit of hard graft and bloody minded-ness can achieve.

Women's Business

Well I foolishly told Steve about my days work in the garden and we immediately got into the same argument about it being a waste of time and it wouldn't work and it would all fall down. Luckily it is dark by the time he comes home from work and he hasn't bothered to go and have a look at my feeble efforts before he goes off to work in the mornings, so today as soon as 7.30 am had come and gone and I knew I'd have no work and have the day to myself, I got Steve out the door then rang my friend Karen. After asking that loaded question "what are you up to today" and getting the hoped for response of "nothing really" put to her the idea of spending a day digging holes and pouring quick set cement and sweetened the whole thing with a promised trip to Bunnings, she was hooked :)

We spent a good hour or so wandering in circles in Bunnings as they have moved EVERYTHING and hidden the things we were looking for. Finally we had the car loaded up with poles, cement, brackets, screws, nails, a big planter, grow your own mushrooms and a few veggie plants. We surveyed our work area and formed a plan of action then had a bit of a sit in the sun with a good cup of coffee.

First came hole digging which proved to be a real task as the soil here isn't really soil at all after the first 5 - 6 inches, it's bright red thick clay, you can literally see a line where the top soil ends and the clay begins. Another hazard were tree roots as the holes were right next to an old stump. Now being girls we dug the easier of the two holes first, the one away from the wall, slightly in the wrong place but that was easily rectified. You can see the 6ft plus crow bar we are using smash our way through tree roots and clay. I must admit Karen did most of the crow bar swinging, but she seemed to be enjoying it :)

Then we started on the second hole and realised our mistake when I nearly fell down the first one, but we're smart cookies and won't make the same mistake again. This hole was almost impossible to dig out as it was more tree root than anything else, but we persevered and got a hole deep enough for the pole and a goodly amount of cement. A good belting with a sledge hammer helped drive it that bit deeper and we were confident we had done enough, so in went the cement then we left it to set while we had a late and much needed lunch.
The cement in the back hole wasn't setting real fast as there was a bit too much water in there, so we used the brackets and screws to start attaching the second lot of front logs. This was were I thought my original plan might have a flaw and wasn't sure if I could get them attached securely enough, but the brackets worked a treat and their as strong as they need to be, no stronger than necessary, capable of holding together a veggie garden without having to endure earthquakes and other natural disasters as required by your average (or not) engineer.

By 3 we had the first two front logs on but decided the cement would need to be left over night before we started driving in the nails to hold the ends on so we called it a day. I've sat my veggie plants on top of the earth pile so they are in situ. Hopefully the phone won't ring tomorrow and we can spend another day and get it finished. Tonight I have got to try and get some straps out of Steve's 4WD without him knowing as I'm not going through the whole it won't work speech again until I've proved him wrong - so we can buy a few more logs for the front as a couple are a bit dodgy
So end of day two and I am confident it will all work, sorry bad pic but late afternoon shadows. Having bought two lovely new poles, I am going to keep them long and have something hanging from them, not sure what yet, but I'm sure I'll find just the right thing. During all this hard work, I even managed to knock up a batch of Chelsea buns, with the help of the bread maker of course, which we had with a cuppa after lunch. Karen always works better if fed at regular intervals:) You can bet your bottom dollar that the phone will ring tomorow as I would love to get this finished before the weekend and Steve will see it in daylight, how good will it be if it's all done and standing with my cabbages all planted out. Ok better go and get out of these muddy jeans before my days exploits are exposed to the doubting one.