I acquired two of these chairs from Ikea at the beginning of summer, and they've been invaluable, inside and out.
At certain times of day I can also enjoy the fall of light through the weave of the cane.
Friday, March 31, 2006
Thursday, March 30, 2006
Chickadee
Pieces for the quilt I've been working on, cut, some sewn, some ready to sew. The 'start' fabric for this was the one top right, a delicately coloured rural landscape. I wanted to use the striking black/cream check as well.
Can't show the finished quilt, as it's going to be published in a magazine later this year.
Can't show the finished quilt, as it's going to be published in a magazine later this year.
Mouse hunt
There's a mouse in the kitchen. I've set one fancy-pants trap and two old fashioned ones - more than once...
Current tally:
Mouse: 3 escapes, 1 broken trap, the muted sound of high-pitched tittering
Me: nil
Maybe I will buy some peanut butter - they're supposed to like that. Although they like dried fruit too, and it's not succeeding. Fancy-pants trap being completely ignored.
Current tally:
Mouse: 3 escapes, 1 broken trap, the muted sound of high-pitched tittering
Me: nil
Maybe I will buy some peanut butter - they're supposed to like that. Although they like dried fruit too, and it's not succeeding. Fancy-pants trap being completely ignored.
Wednesday, March 29, 2006
Strange and wonderful
So although what I was actually tracking down was a recipe for Red Velvet Cake (why did the US go all "sticks of butter" and "all purpose flour" somewhere in their domestic history? - always have to translate the recipes into recognisable weights and mixes!), what I ended up finding - to my disbelief - was a recipe for the Cake I Will Never Make (Not Even For Halloween).
Kitty Litter Cake
I kid you not.
The world of US cuisine holds some amazing surprises.
PS I don't eat Vegemite, so don't even go there!
Kitty Litter Cake
I kid you not.
The world of US cuisine holds some amazing surprises.
PS I don't eat Vegemite, so don't even go there!
Loot
Amy Butler, Brackman & Thompson - goddesses of fabric design! It's always a good day when a parcel arrives from the Fat Quarter Shop.
This is the second range, the fall palette, of Charm, by Amy Butler for Free Spirit. I bought the fat quarters because I didn't feel comfortable with them*.
My first reaction to Charm was oh. Um. Gee I liked Ginger Bliss... And then I was given some of the first range, and found in using it how usable it is, that the scale and style of the designs works far better than I'd guessed with other fabrics. I've seen quilts using Charm mostly sticking only to that range, or to Amy Butler fabrics. But it's more versatile than that.
*So I now own bits of it all, and am challenging myself to integrate it with other fabrics.
It can get too easy to over-analyse fabrics, and yet my favourite thing is to see how wonderfully antique scrappy quilts are assembled from a melange of mismatches that somehow, usually, gloriously work together. Bah humbug to matchy-matchy!
The small-c charm squares are from a new range, Spencer Museum by Barbara Brackman and Terry Clothier Thompson for Moda. It looked kinda nice, and charm squares are a good way to have a leetle of a lot (which Moda's marketing has discovered in the last year or two). And thus my quilts can include a whole lot of different fabrics without buying fat quarters or meterage/yardage.
This is the second range, the fall palette, of Charm, by Amy Butler for Free Spirit. I bought the fat quarters because I didn't feel comfortable with them*.
My first reaction to Charm was oh. Um. Gee I liked Ginger Bliss... And then I was given some of the first range, and found in using it how usable it is, that the scale and style of the designs works far better than I'd guessed with other fabrics. I've seen quilts using Charm mostly sticking only to that range, or to Amy Butler fabrics. But it's more versatile than that.
*So I now own bits of it all, and am challenging myself to integrate it with other fabrics.
It can get too easy to over-analyse fabrics, and yet my favourite thing is to see how wonderfully antique scrappy quilts are assembled from a melange of mismatches that somehow, usually, gloriously work together. Bah humbug to matchy-matchy!
The small-c charm squares are from a new range, Spencer Museum by Barbara Brackman and Terry Clothier Thompson for Moda. It looked kinda nice, and charm squares are a good way to have a leetle of a lot (which Moda's marketing has discovered in the last year or two). And thus my quilts can include a whole lot of different fabrics without buying fat quarters or meterage/yardage.
Tuesday, March 28, 2006
Monday, March 27, 2006
Sunday, March 26, 2006
Maple leaves
It's officially autumn, and the evenings are getting cooler, but nobody's told the maple tree yet.
Saturday, March 25, 2006
Two leaves
The photo you take when your digital camera is with you all the time and so you can act on what you notice.
Friday, March 24, 2006
Optimism
All that promise on a supermarket wall. I can't help wondering why some are labelled 'organic' - aren't plants organic anyway?
Colour, repetition - it always appeals to me.
Colour, repetition - it always appeals to me.
Thursday, March 23, 2006
Union Jack
Melbourne has been hosting the Commonwealth Games. The Australian TV coverage has been disappointingly jingoistic, but individual achievements, at times, inspiring. Listening to ABC radio was fine, but at times you want to see...
Wednesday, March 22, 2006
Ethnic beads
Lucked into some necklaces and bracelets at a shop's moving sale today at prices which let me buy three instead of one. Wonderful colours!
Tuesday, March 21, 2006
Monday, March 20, 2006
Yellow quilt fabric
Fabric I'm using in my current project. I've been playing with free-motion quilting ideas (thus the doodles) because this is what the quilt seems to need.
Just love this mad yellow fabric, though! It's from HiFashion, and the quilt also includes fabric from Alexander Henry , one of my favourite design houses. Their stuff is mad, quirky, wonderfully imaginative.
Just love this mad yellow fabric, though! It's from HiFashion, and the quilt also includes fabric from Alexander Henry , one of my favourite design houses. Their stuff is mad, quirky, wonderfully imaginative.
Sunday, March 19, 2006
Shirt quilts
Old found shirts recycled into quilts as part of a challenge I organised. Mine is the one at top right. It was great fun, and each of the quilts is fabulously original. They were borrowed for another quilt show showing this weekend. Such friendly, usable quilts they are.
Old shed
Perched in the middle of a paddock - not sure why the door would be so high, or if that paddock was its original home. But I liked the patina of the boards, for themselves and against the fresh green of the grass.
Saturday, March 18, 2006
Scrapbooking
Spent a happy day working on a calendar using family photos. It's a delightful way to spend a Saturday with friends. And I always love the chance to play with colour.
I used to be rather rude about scrapbooking, particularly when all I had seen was pretty much cardstock and cutesy-poo stickers and wall to wall 'are my kids/pets cute or what?' pages. And then I went to a scrapbooking store and found printed papers for me to sigh over like I sigh over fabric. I still quilt far more than I scrapbook, but it's fun to play with. They also have a bunch of scrapbooking supplies which can be redeployed into quilting.
I don't use cardstock or stickers much. One of my friends commented, "You scrapbook like you're quilting". Looking at this picture, I see tone-on-tone, stripes, spots, patterns, variety in scale. Yup, I scrapbook like I'm quilting!
Friday, March 17, 2006
Thursday, March 16, 2006
Utilities and Drains
Inspired by seeing the urban photo-mosaics of others, beauty in the details I usually don't see. As a quilter, repetition is always going to call to my heart.
Yellow banksia
A street tree, most of the banksias dead and shrivelled, but then a single glorious yellow one. Another example of camera and blog making me notice and record my surroundings.
Wednesday, March 15, 2006
Red landscape
An unexpected reflection. Leaving work, no photo taken yet to use for Tuesday's image, and then the combination of actively looking and carrying a digital camera everywhere gave me this red horizon.
It's turning into a red week - odd how some weeks have a colour theme: blue, green, red.
It's turning into a red week - odd how some weeks have a colour theme: blue, green, red.
Tuesday, March 14, 2006
Sunday, March 12, 2006
Clothesline
So what happens if some of the washing line goes PING! and the outer line breaks?
You discover how to go about buying new line, installing it, and remembering Girl Guide knots so you can use a clove hitch (the rabbit comes out of the hole....).
And then the weekend washing can proceed.
It is a Hills Hoist clothesline (great Australian invention) and it's amusing that the necessary equipment ended up being so patriotically coloured.
You discover how to go about buying new line, installing it, and remembering Girl Guide knots so you can use a clove hitch (the rabbit comes out of the hole....).
And then the weekend washing can proceed.
It is a Hills Hoist clothesline (great Australian invention) and it's amusing that the necessary equipment ended up being so patriotically coloured.
Friday, March 10, 2006
Turnips
More veg from yesterday's excursion. But aren't these beautiful? I didn't buy turnips, but I bought a bunch of fresh basil and its fragrance is wonderful in the house. I've frozen the leaves to have something of that fragrance and flavour when the season is over.
Thursday, March 09, 2006
Prickly pear fruit
At the fruit shop today there were several fruits I'd never seen before - prickly pear for one. The colours were beautiful, subtle.
A very helpful fellow customer explained that you pick them up with tongs. To prepare, swish in a bucket of water (to allow the prickles to bang against each other and thus be neutralised, I think). Then, wearing rubber gloves, slit once and peel. They taste somewhat like a mango, she said.
There were so many gorgeous colours in the fruit shop. I have a set of photos in my Flickr photostream if you want to see more. Click on the Flickr icon on the right to go there or click here to go directly to the fruit & veg set.
A very helpful fellow customer explained that you pick them up with tongs. To prepare, swish in a bucket of water (to allow the prickles to bang against each other and thus be neutralised, I think). Then, wearing rubber gloves, slit once and peel. They taste somewhat like a mango, she said.
There were so many gorgeous colours in the fruit shop. I have a set of photos in my Flickr photostream if you want to see more. Click on the Flickr icon on the right to go there or click here to go directly to the fruit & veg set.
Vintage quilt detail
This Ocean Waves quilt has seen some hard life. It's beautiful, with tiny triangles, and amazing to see.
Saw a double feature on Wednesday, Brokeback Mountain and Walk the Line - both excellent. As to 'quilts in the movies', there was a wagga-style utility quilt Jack Twist's childhood bedroom in Brokeback, and the dirt poor home of Johnny Cash's childhood featured some quilts. (It's an amusing game, to spot quilts in the movies).
I've been reading the book of stories that includes Brokeback Mountain and admiring Annie Proulx' prose all over again. Here is the way that story ends:
There was some open space between what he knew and what he tried to believe, but nothing could be done about it, and if you can't fix it you've got to stand it.
Wonderful prose.
Tuesday, March 07, 2006
Hyperventilation
All I needed was black interfacing. I saw these and my fabric tart's heart went pitter-pat! They're GAWjus! I bought some, planning to return for more, and almost left the shop before remembering that what I needed was black interfacing...oops! - had to go back for it.
Southern Cross
As on the Australian flag. How big was the Oz contingent at the Ozcars?! Dion Beebe winning for cinematography, while plenty were presenters - Nicole Kidman, Naomi Watts, Russell Crowe, Eric Bana.
Hippo Birdy
Not my birthday, but a friend's. Diplomat Cake (a rum-soaked sponge with stiff cream icing) and on the side, Honey Joys.
Friday, March 03, 2006
Thursday, March 02, 2006
Unexpected chocs
An unexpected thank-you box of choccies and two favourite magazines - perfect for an afternoon time-out. Luxury!
Wednesday, March 01, 2006
Leaves, looking up
One gift of a digital camera is freedom of the screen view, taking the camera away from a viewfinder fixed to your eye and face. Another is the freedom to play without the commitment of consumables for every shot.
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