Touchstones Classes

I've been too busy to blog in the past couple of weeks, gearing up for the new year of classes which are about to begin. For any of you who may be interested, Touchstones will be my first class to kick off at The Quilters Garden in Albion Park this Saturday and then at Patchwork Plus Miranda next Saturday. This will be a great fun class learning my style of improvisational strip piecing and colour blending. The quilt is made from 20 fat quarters plus a half metre of feature fabric (we will also learn how to print your own feature panels if you can't find just the right thing in the shops).

Quilter at Work

I put in a 12hr+ day at the quilting machine today, so I'm feeling tired but virtuous. It's good to get through some of the work that's waiting in the studio - each finished quilt makes me feel lighter. I've been making lists of all the projects I want to tackle this year, and I have a sneaking suspicion that 2008 is already accounted for - how can that be? We're only three days in...

Summer Roses

Late this afternoon I noticed that my rose bushes were heavy with gorgeously imperfect full-blown blooms, so I grabbed the secateurs and cut some to bring inside (something I rarely think to do). I tried to capture them with watercolours this evening.

I did not make any New Year's resolutions - they seem to be an exercise in setting oneself up for failure, and I don't need to do that to myself. However, I did set out to begin the year in the manner I intend to continue - along with all my usual hard work and creative and family commitments, I am making time to draw every day (even if it's only a few minutes).

Happy New Year!!

I hope you all had a happy and safe New Year's Eve - I did, though the new year has welcomed me with a yucky cold/flu today which I could do without.

Today is also our little dog Ruby's birthday - at the mature age of two you would think she may have started to lose her "puppyness" but no, she's as mad (and cute) as ever. I decided to do a little sketch of her in honour of the occasion (also because I haven't allowed myself much time for drawing lately and I don't want to get too rusty). She was posing nicely on the rug, but as soon as I sat down with my pencil, Ruby insisted on curling up on my lap so I had to draw her from that odd position. All those fluffy curls were a bit of a challenge, and it's not easy to draw a white dog, but I think it turned out OK.