What I'm doing tomorrow...

This is my sample for the class I'm teaching tomorrow at Pretty Parcels in Berry. It is part 2 of an ongoing series of contemporary techniques classes. This month they'll learn some basic free-piecing as well as the wavy fused binding and some free-motion quilting.

The samples are A4 sized to fit in a display folder with the accompanying notes. My aim is to build up a toolbox of techniques for people ready to try something different.

I'm having lots of fun with the class prep and teaching.

5 things

I gotted tagged by Red Shoe Ramblings (one of my new fave blogs) so here're my lists.

5 things in my fridge:
1. Homemade lime butter made by my lovely Mum.
2. Ginger marmalade.
3. Asian sauces/ingredients for stir-fry.
4. Low-fat dairy products (for the ongoing battle of the bulge).
5. Chateaux le cardboard.

5 things in my wardrobe:
1. Too many clothes that don't fit me at the moment.
2. Several pairs of jeans.
3. Business suits I don't wear since I quit my old job.
4. Lots of bright/colourful/glitzy scarves.
5. Not enough underwear (since my new puppy has a thing for underwear and eats a few pairs each week).

5 things in my car:
1. Two umbrellas (just in case).
2. Sunglasses belonging to every member of my family.
3. A Springsteen CD in the player.
4. A Sydney streetmap.
5. A set of acrylic paints belonging to my daughter.

5 things in my handbag:
1. My diary and two journal/sketchbooks.
2. Three pens.
3. My digital camera.
4. Bag of "Snakes Alive" lollies.
5. A fq of lime green hand-dyed fabric.

5 things in my desk:
1. Several sketchbooks/visual diaries in a variety of sizes.
2. Paints/crayons/pencils/paintbrushes.
3. A small wooden puzzle box brought back from Japan by a friend years ago,
4. Collage ephemera/images that might come in handy "one day".
5. Frida Kahlo/Georgia O'Keefe books.

Not quite sure how this works, but if you're reading this Lisa, Maggie, Jenny, Kate, Caity - you're tagged.

Sorry to stay away...

but things have been a bit chaotic around here. Besides the general backlog of work that my poor clients are so patiently waiting for, deadlines have been adding to the pressure. The quilt I'm working on is just not happening to plan, so I've been struggling with it. Trouble with committing to quilt shows before the work is complete is that sometimes things stall, but I can't just stop and let it come in it's own time, and forcing it can make things worse.
Anyhow, this afternoon I've been painting some Lutradur. I had paint left over (too expensive to waste) so I painted a couple of bits of cotton as well to use it up.
After I'd finished, I really liked the look of the paper I was using underneath to mop up the excess - an unexpected side product that I'm sure will come in handy. 

A Capital Weekend

This past weekend was spent in Canberra at the annual SCQ Retreat. I taught a class there on Machine Trapunto techniques, and managed to fit in my fair share of fun times too. The venue was great, particularly the quadrangle which was populated by wild ducks who slept with their beaks tucked under their wings & their feet in the water. It was nice to see some autumn colour - we don't really have a proper change of seasons here in Wollongong. This week's plan is to get stuck in to all the work waiting in the studio! 

Precious snippets

Can anyone tell me what I can do with these precious offcuts? They are the extra inches I trimmed off the edges of my latest quilt to bring it down to the required size for the competition requirements. And they are just too delicious to consign to the bin.

Ideas, anybody???? 

This week's highlights

One of my aims when I decided to blog was to have some sort of record or journal of all the cool things I see in my day to day. So, I plan to take pics as often as I can and post a collage of my highlights of each week.

These are of some of the good stuff this week... 

Weekend by the Water

Isn't this a pretty scene? DH & I took the kids to have fish & chips by the harbour over the weekend. Although it was a bit breezy, the weather was perfect and we couldn't help but marvel over this gorgeous place that we live in. Wollongong harbour is no more than an 8 minute drive from my home unless there is extraordinary traffic - practically on our doorstep.
We are very lucky to have access to the coast and all it has to offer. There were lots of tourists, obviously from farther afield than us, ecstatic to be visiting such a gorgeous area. It can be good to glimpse something that we take for granted through fresh eyes.

While we were sitting by the water enjoying an icecream, we happened to see this daredevil out on the breakwater doing amazing stunt-jumps into the water on his bike. We sat & watched for ages as he did somersaults & high-kicks way up in the air, landing in the chilly harbour where his friend would jump in to help drag the bike out. He had attached some foam flotation aids to the crossbar to stop it sinking, but it still took the two of them to haul it back up the wall each time. Even the pelican enjoyed the impromptu show!
 

Why am I here (and other trivialities)...

I've been thinking about this blogging caper, and why I decided to do it, and also why I hesitated for quite a while before jumping in. Here's some of what I came up with...

The idea of journalling holds such an appeal for me - I love to read biographies, autobiographies and have done for years... they hold a glimpse into another persons life, other people's lives are SOOOOOO much more interesting than mine!! Blogs are simply an updated, more immediate version of the same thing. And I LOVE to check out my friend's blogs. As well as the blogs of people I have never met (and probably will never meet), but still think of as friends.

So, I thought, if those interesting people are willing to share their interesting lives with me then perhaps I should reciprocate (although I'm nowhere near as interesting as any of them) - it only seems fair, and I do see some nice stuff on occasion.

Here's the trouble - I've been programmed to be modest, self-effacing and say "Aw, shucks, 'tweren't nuthin" whenever a compliment is offered. I find praise a particularly uncomfortable thing to accept, and have been known to blush and squirm considerably when compliments are forthcoming. And I'm so boring - surely nobody could be interested in my mundane life? Surely, if I had a blog and offered up tidbits of my life for public consumption, any viewer so unfortunate as to stumble on my blog would think me boastful, full of myself, an unbearable show-off.

But I don't think any of those things about the people whose blogs I look at on a daily basis. I just admire their work and am grateful that they decided to share. So maybe nobody would think badly of me if I share my stuff - I know I have to get over this problem I have with accepting positive opinions of what I do. So here I am!!

The picture I have posted is of my most recent traditional quilt - I don't make many of them these days, but my friend Cheryl asked me to design something for the Luminosity range of fabric she had just got in to her new shop and this is what I came up with. I've also taught it as a class, and will have another one coming up later in the year.

Oops - here are #3 #4 & #5

Sorry about that - missed a few of the photos first time...