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.

Deck the Halls...

Christmas Cheer...

and plenty of it. We had our "White Christmas" party and opening at the Project Gallery last night and I'm feeling slightly the worse for it this morning. A bit like this photo, a little blurry. This is another of my Christmas Postcard samples - as you can maybe see, I try to avoid too much cutesiness or traditional colourways - bright & simple but classic works for me.

We're braving the shopping precincts to finish off the last of the Christmas shopping - I'll be glad when it's done and we can relax. More postcard pics to come - watch this space.

Getting some Christmas Spirit...

Intermittent blogger here, sorry for being tardy once again but life has been a teensy bit insane so some things just have to slide. I thought I'd post this Christmassy meme (thanks to Deb) to try and get some festiveness happening...

1. In your opinion, what does Christmas smell like?
Honey-glazed ham baking on Christmas eve, cinnamon and spice - Mum's here baking Christmas cakes and puddings today - yum!!

2. Do you leave cookies out for Santa?
Yes, we usually do leave out a snack for Santa, sometimes a beer and always a carrot for the Reindeer.

3. What Christmas song would you prefer to never hear again?
"Felice Navidad" - it is the worst earworm ever. Just typing the name has the awful thing going round and round in my head. My favourite is probably Bruce Springsteen's version of "Santa Claus is Coming to Town".

4. What does your tree topper look like?
Our family favourite is a little Garfield wearing a Santa hat - I've had it since the first Christmas after I left home. I also have a little tabletop tree in the family room which has a funky orange & lime green star on top.

5. Do you plan a special breakfast for Christmas morning?
We'll be having brunch with Rob's family this year - I'm baking raspberry friands (my specialty & sooooo quick & easy).

6. Is a Bûche de Noël a great holiday dessert, or the greatest holiday dessert?

According to wikipedia, this translates to Yule Log - sounds nice, but not something I've ever made.

7. Do you festoon your Christmas packages with ribbons and bows and glittery furbelows, are they plain, or are they (shudder) in gift bags?
Mostly just wrapped with Christmas paper - I used to get really fancy with bows etc, but there are too many these days.

Pictured above is one of my Christmas Postcard Samples - I'll try to post some of the others over the next few days (but I won't make any promises). Five more sleeps...

Scatterday M

Apologies for this late Scatterday blog entry - I was stuck on one of the categories, Textures. I had lots of work to do so I just kept on with it in the hope that inspiration would come to me, and then looked down at my work and thought AHA!! McTavishing is one of my favourite quilted textures - I use it more often with matching thread which takes away the linear quality and leaves just lovely texture. But you can all see it much better in the funky bright thread!



Next we have Weapons. The Space Marine you see below is brandishing a Multi Melta Weapon - looks pretty fearsome, doesn't he? For those of you not familiar, a Melta weapon is a devastating short-ranged heat-ray.

Which brings us to the final M category - Hobby. Here I present my son Adam's hobby - Modelling. Over recent months he has spent many hours and I hate to think how much money building and painting these tiny figurines and their tanks, spaceships, and various other equipment. He spends some time most weekends at the games workshop, where they have battles and competitions to see whose army will be victorious. There are lots of rulebooks to go with the various games too. I don't really get it, but there are lots of worse things a 15yo could be spending his hard-earned cash on, so I'm happily supportive (being somewhat familiar with obsessive hobbies myself).

Next week's letter is K and the categories will be blue things, dangerous things and in my neighbourhood.

Journal Covers

These pictures show the front and back of a lovely journal cover made by my friend Michelle Steele during my recent class in Brisbane. She made it for her lovely friend Carolyn, who is returning to the UK later this month. There are subtle (or maybe not so subtle) reminders of their time working together, in the clever quilting designs.

The Holidays are here...

At last my busy school year is over and I only have three more workshops to teach before I can have a bit of a break from those too. The end-of-year assessment process was a little bit stressful (but really only as stressful as I chose to make it). I have somewhat high expectations of myself, and will not allow myself to put forward work that is less than the best I can do. Perfectionism reigns. I will not know my results for a few weeks, but at least I am satisfied with my own efforts (my closer friends will have some idea of how significant a thing that is for me to state). Progress has been made this year, on many fronts.

Now that assessment is over, it is time to review, to clear the decks, to decide what to keep and what to cull. More importantly, it is time to clean out the studio (and the rest of the house, where bits and pieces have escaped the confines of the workroom and are at large) and make room for new work.

I spent quite some time on the weekend putting up the best work on my Etsy store - not only will this assist with storage issues, but if some work sells it will supplement next year's fees. Although I am pleased to have a bit of a break, I am very excited about what comes next. The picture above is a linocut "Pretty Beach" which is available for sale if you are interested.