Little Progress, A Tragedy and A Show

I am not even going to bother to make excuses for not blogging, it just ain't happening right now.

Little Progress

The weather has continued to be awful making the progress of the reno's painfully slow. Hopefully as the evenings become longer and the weather dries up, for surely it must do soon, we can get back into it and make some headway.

A Tragedy

My three lovely girls pictured in the previous post, have, in the words of their former owner, been "kidnapped and assassinated". On a wild and stormy night, when part of our roof got blown sideways and let in lots of rain, a sneaky fox got in and took them. I felt absolutely terrible having been entrusted with their care and couldn't believe that a fox would come into suburbia with so many dogs around, but apparently they are everywhere. Having fenced off the bottom of the yard just for the chickens it seemed a shame not to have them scratching around. So after constructing a very tall side gate and fence, completely re-inforcing the chicken coop and pinning the bottom of the wire fence with very long stakes AND adding indian bells to the fence AND installing a sensor light, we went and got three new chooks.

So meet Lilly, Ruby and Dora, (chickens just have to have names!)

They were completely of the don't touch me variety when we bought them home, but soon learnt where all the treats come from and now when I let them out for their afternoon stroll through the veggie patch, they are quiet happy to come up and try and rip the buttons off my shirt or cuddle up and read a recipe book with me while I decide what to make for dinner. Ruby is even brave enough to follow me into the kitchen, there is something behind my fridge that just fascinates her, strange bird!

So I still have a constant supply of lovely fresh eggs and three new characters to keep me entertained.

A Show

A couple of weekends ago I went up to Dungog for the annual Quiltarama. This year is was held a month earlier and put on in conjunction with Dungog Railway Centenary. It was a busy weekend with lots of people coming through the quilt show. I had made a new workshop banner this year and decorated it with kanzashi flowers and Steve made a stand for it to hang on along with the bird quilt. I had dyed up about 80 new 1/2 meters and some other fabrics and threads so my stall looked especially bright this year.

I met lots of lovely people and hope to see some of them at workshops next year. I also met some lovely ladies that organise the Stroud Quilt and Craft Interlude, which I am going to visit later in September.

I have just bought some e patterns and have an online workshop I haven't had the time to start, so have plenty of new projects lined up, now I just have to find the time to do them.

Till next time, which will be - who knows when!

A Change of View and New Boots

The view from the back deck has changed, I have adopted three very cheeky birds that deliver three beautiful brown wholesome eggs every morning.

They have the bottom of my garden to scratch around in and a pumpkin plant to hide in. They came with their lovely coop, which they continued to lay in for the first week, but have decided a quiet spot under the pumpkins and beside the compost bin is much more to their liking. It's only a little space and they are queued up in the mornings waiting their turn to lay their eggs.

 I tried to encourage them back to their nesting box, but they seem so much more content with their chosen spot, that in the end I relented and rather than have muddy eggs each morning, lined the spot with straw. They have just about cleared out the old veggie patch of weeds and are doing a wonderful job of it too. They spend hours digging looking for anything that dares move. I'm amazed at how fast they have adapted to their new surroundings and have a daily routine and their own preferred spots for a afternoon siesta or a good old dust bath.

I have become a fan of the old Ugg boots, and mine were old beyond a joke, well they have been a joke with my family for years as I have a curly toe, one they like to point skyward and puts holes in all my socks and some of my shoes, the Ugg boots did not take long to surrender to the unruly toe and for years I have walked around with a grey tufty bit sticking out of my right boot, yes I tried to patch it and only had grey sheepskin to work with. They are beyond doubt one of the comfiest things I have ever worn and live in mine during, well most of the year. This year I did admit it was time for a new pair, they have changed the design slightly with a bit of reinforcement around the toe, so who knows, these ones might withstand the toe! My old ones are well battle scarred, stained with indigo and god knows what, but they are now my chicken boots, they can stay outside and I don't have to worry about chicken poop following me in the house. The chickens just happen to love that tufty bit, I sometimes find myself with a chicken attached to it as they are determined to relieve me of it.

 The Old and the New

The holidays are nearly over, I haven't done anything like the amount of things I planed to do and for the next 5 days Steve will be home so we will be working on the house, trying to make headway in the never ending reno. No Easter holiday here, but hopefully some progress.

Chairs and Stamping

Now that our house renovations have finally started, I can look forward to them being finished and start thinking about what will go into the newly renovated house. While flicking through some junk mail the other morning, I came across this lovely chair.

While I was working on the little quilt in the previous post, I had it thrown over one of my lounge chairs, how good would a chair look upholstered in my mini quilt! Ok lots of scraps need and hours of machining, but the end result would look amazing, sitting next to my planned little wood burner. Thinking about chairs, I remembered another long, long ago project I had in mind, we have here two very old leather chairs that sat in my mother in laws hall way, they come apart and the seat wraps around them so they can be moved around. I have no idea where she got them, but they always reminded me of something that would be taken on an african safari. A quick image search for old safari chairs came up with this image, which are very much like the two chairs I have, stashed away - somewhere......

The ones I have are actually nicer than these with a bit of wood turning on the legs and a second rail that goes all around the bottom. I had always intended to renew the leather seats, backs and arms and do some fanciful leather carvings on them. They would look so good on my lovely new back deck.

Ok back to reality, I have been playing around with stamps over the past few weeks, trying out lino, rubber blocks and sticky backed foam sheets to make them from. I really wanted  a nice horse stamp of a certain breed for my next little quilt. I tried the rubber block first as it was the easiest to carve, but didn't like the result, even with a new sharp lino cutting tool, I got crumbly edges and not very neat corners, so next tried the lino. Better image, but harder to print as was getting lots of lines from the background so my horse looked like he was standing in long grass, admittedly, I haven't mounted the lino onto a wooden block yet, which does help to get a cleaner print but I wasn't happy with the original image anyway. After a few tweaks to the horse, I cut it from the foam sheets and got a lovely clean print.

 Here are the three block and yes the horse is facing the other was in the foam block, which seemed to make a huge difference to the finished print.

 Here are some experimental prints, you can see what I mean about the long grass effect. I also did another little lino but wanted all those lines so this block worked well.

 Here are a few of the blocks I have been making. the stripes and checks are really effective. I used the small check in the previous quilt.

 And here are my final two border pieces printed and ready to go. The background for this one is a piece of indigo and I'm hoping all the hand dyed fabrics will really jump out from it. I have to wait for an order of paint sticks to arrive before I can go any further with this one. School holidays are coming up soon so hopefully I will have time to get it finished.

First of Hopefully Three

I have started making some small, half meter-ish sized mixed media quilts. Why? well to try out some new stuff. I have ideas for three and here is the first.

This one sprang from the scrap box obsession I have at the moment. After cutting up all those hundreds of squares in my last post, hang on, I think I'm repeating myself here ....... Yes indeed, I have shown you this picture of my background fabric and scrap pieces last time. So on the next pic ............

I have laid out all those bits in a geometric sort of design. I tried to use the scraps just as they were, haven't done any trimming, just shortened a few longer bits and added a couple of hand dyed cotton tapes to bring it all together.

Next I wanted to experiment with a couple of lino blocks I had cut last year and some other texture plates  I have used for other things, but never printed with. I used lumiere paints mixed with a little textile medium and applied the paint with a piece of sponge.

I also wanted to try using some heavy threads through the machine, so bought some 12 cotton perle  and 30 wt Cebelia, well I think that's what it's called. It says made in France and that sounds pretty French to me so I'll go with that. The 30 wt was a little heavier than the 12 perle, I would rather have got the 40 wt, but of course didn't have it in white. As it happens the 30 runs through the machine fine and I think I now prefer it.

So I got out the dye pots and without much thought, dyed up some bobbin length skeins. Then decided I would like some lighter colours so dyed up another lots in bigger quantities this time.

After a bit of playing around with tension on the machine and working out which stitches would work and which wouldn't, I started stitching madly all over the place.

I knew at some stage I would use gold thread on this piece, so used gold as my bobbin thread for all the stitching. If the bobbin thread did show through, which it did at times, it just added to the gold anyway.

I finished off the stitching by adding some gold squares, particularly in the negative areas to bring the whole thing together.

I wasn't sure what I was going to do with this piece when it was finished but once it got to this stage it was just screaming out for some coloured tabs along the top. 

I then bagged the top with a piece of stripy Indian cotton, I know I took a picture of this but it seems to have disappeared. 

I finished the edge of with a row of heavy gold stitching.

And tied it to the backing with a few random gold diamonds 

So here it is, another awful photo I'm sorry. I set out to:-

•  use my scraps 
• try out some printing blocks 
• experiment with some hand dyed threads 
• not use any satin stitch in an appliqued piece

It's now hanging in the door way between my two work rooms where I hung it to take it's picture, think I might just leave it there for a while :)

Love your Scrap Box

With the price of fabric and dye stuff set to rise in price, I have been looking at ways to use up all the scraps of hand dyed fabrics I have accumulated. Luckily I keep a scrap box and all my odds and ends get chucked straight in there. My friend Helen made a lovely quilt using all her bits of hand dyes, so I had to give it a go. I did dye up my light background fabric which I then printed with a wood block as I am trying to keep this a completely hand dyed quilt again. Once I started cutting, I found I had enough for a second quilt so kept going till I had a pile of some 800 + squares. Here are the first lot, chained together with their light background fabric, and some binding strips already cut from the left overs of the left overs. The plastic bag contains the coloured squares for a second quilt.

You can see the finished quilt here at Main Creek you will have to go right to the bottom of the page to the quilt named Garden Lattice. This is Helens quilt, I am making mine a little larger as I had 2 meters of background fabric to use. I have to be in the right frame of mind for piecing, so leave the piles sat by the machine and go and do a half hour or so when the mood takes me, not the most productive way to work I'm sure.
After I had finished cutting all those squares, I was left with yet even more smaller pieces. I have been making some new stamps and playing around with these and wanted a project to try some more ideas out on, so after selecting a 1/2 meter piece as a background, I have started a small wall quilt which will have some stamping and lots of stitching done in heavy threads.

 More scraps on the chosen background fabric.

The Japanese are very good at using old fabrics and kimonos. There is a very interesting you tube video that talks about Boro or rags used in Japanese textiles. I think we will all be doing more recycling of our resources in the future.  Colouricious have just made a short video called Recycled Reborn. You will see the same idea of using strips of recycled fabric or rags to make a new piece of fabric here also. I have a small weaving loom out the back, so will have to give this a try with my really skinny bits of scrap. With a bit of thought nothing need go to waste :)

Back on board and stuff.

I am back, I think, can't make any promises, but after the usual Christmas chaos and a mouse infestation, I have got my room back in working order. I spent five whole days, yes FIVE getting rid of the remnants of mouse and filled 25 archive boxes with stuff to have a tidy, workable area again. I have reclaimed the book shelves that have sat covered in unread books for nearly 10 years, moved a few things around and hey presto, can even use that back room now.

The wall of boxes.

The reclaimed book shelves. I can actually use the toaster oven for my clay work there without having to dig it out from a cupboard. There is a 'to do' box there, it would be the one with the lid fighting it's way off :)

I can now actually see my dyed 1/2 meters.

And I have made a dyeing spot. Although it's limited, not like the big old rusty room I once had, it does the job. Yes I was dyeing some stuff, but that's for another post.

I am working on a couple of things at the moment, work allowing and will show you soon.

On the house front, the reno's are plodding along. The weather has been very unkind but we are getting there. While we are working on the outside of the house the inside stays much as is apart from the continual dust. We have just had to replace both the dishwasher and fridge, something we would rather have done after we had finished the kitchen, but both packed it in so had no choice, well I did try and do without the dishwasher but what a waste of time standing at the kitchen sink!! when I could be out in my tidy room doing 'stuff'.

A Colourful Weekend.

Just a few quick pictures from the weekend. Main Creek is looking stunning after all the rain we have had. The bird life both wild and domesticated are enjoying the abundance of feed and on this particular weekend, good weather. The dawn chorus must be an English phrase as there is nothing harmonious or serene about the awakening of Australian birds. They celebrate the arriving of the new day with shrieks and screams, hoots and ear piercing whistles, cackling laughter and whoops of delight, this is no gentle awakening but a get out of bed NOW.
There were lots of brightly coloured fabrics flapping in the breeze and I think the peacock thought he had to compete with all this unexpected colour, so he put on a fine display for us.

Blog Reader rather than a Blogger

I thought I had better explain why I have gone AWOL yet again.  Back in my March post you will see the statement "for when we do the big renovations, yeah like that's going to happen any time in the next decade".


 Well I have to eat my word here as the back of the house has changed from this - where I am showing my crow bar swinging friend Karen in a very technical architectural kind of way, the grand plan. Well the house wasn't exactly like that to begin with. My lovely rusty dyeing room, toilet, laundry and a vast expanse of more rusty roofing have been removed at this stage.

To this -

It's actually starting to look like a proper house !! We are doing most of the work ourselves, so every spare (dry) moment is spent adding weather boards, new windows and doors and all the other paraphernalia that goes with a big reno job. My back yard looks like a building site and my workroom is full of stuff that shouldn't be there. I am staining windows and doors rather than dyeing lovely fabrics and any painting involves a very large brush and a huge bucket of undercoat. I know more about different woods, types of windows, hanging doors and styles of weather boards than I ever wanted to know, can set and up load numerous types of nail guns and have become quiet comfortable using large electric saws and tools that I would normally approach like a dangerous wild beast capable of ripping your arms off.
So all normal activity has ceased here for an indefinite period of time. I shall have a lovely new house when it's all finished, which is already much more pleasant to live in, or out of as we spend a lot of time on the new back deck. The only downside to all this reorganisation and newness is that I have lost my work spots. I can no longer throw dye around with gay abandon and have old tables and twin tubs on hand to dye up a storm.
But as I speak, there is meters and meters of white cotton in the washing machine, (which at present resides in the garage with meter and meters of wood) being prepared for the last workshop of the year up at Main Creek. I have a weekend off :) no sawdust and noise for two whole days, just two days of blissful colour and sewing, well the ladies will be blissfully dyeing and sewing while I help them along the way but I will be a talking a language I am more familiar with and handling dye pots and fabric rather than drop saws and nail guns.
 So I have become a Blog reader rather than a Blogg - er. I still visit your blogs, drool over your creative endeavours, then slink away back to the world of chaos and dust. Of course, one day - in the hopefully not too distant future, things will return to normal and I will find new spots to dye in, my workroom will again become my own and used for it's intended purpose with the added bonus of a proper house!!

A Productive Couple of Weeks

Another long absence from my blog :( but I have actually managed to get out into my work room and accomplish something.
I have just been checking back through my posts, looking for this, thinking it was only a few months ago and it was a WHOLE YEAR!! where does the time go?
Anyway the Shall I - Shan't I has become a shall, mainly because a couple of ladies want to make this pattern at a weekend retreat next month so it HAD to be made.
I must admit, I haven't made a quilt for a long time and I really enjoyed it, so much so, I have the colours picked out for the next one, with a little help from my colour expert Jenny S.

I have called this quilt Hatley Garden, as it reminds me of  - yes - the garden we had in the first house I can remember which was at number 1 Hatley Garden.

Not a great picture but I've got nowhere to hang a quilt to photograph, especially one this big!!

 close up

I am really happy with the way it has turned out, particularly getting the colours so close to the ones in the original design. I couldn't dye that piece of blue again, must have been a random dye colour I picked up somewhere, so used a piece of batik fabric Mum sent over in her Surprise Parcel.  Now I just have to sit and write up all the direction so it can be added to the projects over at Main Creek.

I have another group coming up to Main Creek at the beginning of May. They will be dyeing on the first day, then using their fabrics to make a satchel type bag and / or a book sleeve on the second day. So using my hand dyes again I have finally got around to covering my diary and making another bag, this time noting down what I was actually doing so it can be taught at the workshop. 

I love making these book sleeves, I get to use all those functions on my machine that I usually forget about. I love the braiding foot to couch down threads and actually use some of those decorative stitches. This time I used my alphabet card and the program function to put the days of the week along the inside cover and the months of the year on the spine. This one also has some stamping and fabric weaving. The embellishment on the front is an ugly piece of lace stuff that I bought at the quilt show a few weeks ago which I have then covered in layers of paint, gel medium and garnet granules, looks so much better than the black and gold it was originally.

 Front

Back

Bit blurry but they are the days of the week.

During all this productivity I also managed to wash up another hundred meters of fabric, here is half of it.

Thankfully no dust storms to contend with, just the occasional shower. It is now all neatly piled in 8 meter lengths or rolled back onto its tubes ready to be dyed, thanks to the help of Jenny S and Kim this morning.

I have also been re-vamping the Main Creek Blog. Now that blogger has pages, I can organise the site much better and have all the brochures available to download, another time consuming job, but it's getting there. - so back to it :)