Quilt: Secondhand Rose

So Australian Patchwork and Quilting magazine decided to do a Recycled-theme issue, and asked me to design a larger quilt as well as the Kalgoorlie quiltlet.  OK, I thought, shirt quilt coming up, I always enjoy making shirt quilts and I won't have to go out to buy anything, I know that....
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And then the editor said, oh, we already have a shirt quilt, it would be good to have something done with only a couple of fabrics.
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Now that's a harder call, with recycled fabrics.  I thought for a bit, then remembered a tablecloth I'd bought with Recycled Threads in mind, when I was writing and designing that for Australian Country Threads magazine.  I found it, and looked at it, and thought.  Washed it, for starters.  Began harvesting the largest pieces I could from it, since it had frayed sections.  I then bought some pink cotton gingham in two different scales, and started a jigsaw game. 
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It resulted in Secondhand Rose, in the current issue of APQ, vol. 17. no. 11.  You may not have a tablecloth the same size, but I hope it's an inspiration for what is possible.  I had it commercially quilted by Kim Bradley, who is a brilliant machine quilter with so many designs to choose from (not all machine quilters have so many)...this quilt, I thought, needed that extra surface texture, given the areas of white space and gingham.  Hasn't one old tablecloth, with frayed and shabby bits, come up nicely?
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Quiltlet: K is for Kalgoorlie

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There wouldn't be many quilters without the odd doyley or ten stashed away somewhere, with plans to use them sometime, somehow... Australian Patchwork and Quilting vol. 17 no. 11 (the current issue) has a focus on recycled quilts, so I turned to the doyley stash here for inspiration.  The cottage doyley was charming, the bluebirds sweet and I had a length of linen ready to hand.  The linen came from an art supply shop - worth trying if you're after linen, as it was a LOT less expensive than fabric shop linen.  (This is where I found it, but I bought it from a (physical) shop, so I'm not sure if this is exactly the same.  But it's the correct retailer, so you can email them and enquire).  I added some simple embroidery inspired by the fancywork, and stash doyleys became something I could put on display to enjoy.

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Alexander McCall Smith interview on ABC TV

Geraldine Doogue interviews Alexander McCall Smith on this week's Compass program - this Sunday night coming on ABC1, repeated 1 May on ABC2.  TV guide details here, Compass program website here.
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Since I've read so many of his books this year, I will be interested to hear him speak.
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Also this week on the ABC is the doco about Tim Minchin, Rock and Roll Nerd.  Dang, but he's a clever man with words and music, and his Required grand piano.  Program info here.  Thursday night.

Today, it feels like the season turning.  Warm in the sun in the middle of the day, but cool at beginning and end, and you start to think about winter clothes, and the heater, and hot water bottles and flannelette, and pea and ham soup, and other things which were impossible and unthinkable in January's scorchers.  A curious thing: however well it's dusted, the living room heater always has crevices of dust that whiff up its first firing.
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Quiltlet: I is for Innamincka

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This quiltlet is the result of spotting an irresistible charm square pack at Post Office Patchwork in Glenbrook NSW.  One charm pack, then add your own red centre fabric/wadding/backing/binding, and you have a lovely vintage-look little quilt.  If you buy one from POP, be sure to tell Rhonda it's for Innamincka, and she'll include the four extra charm squares you need (free) - I just needed a tad more than the pack held.  The pattern was in Australian Patchwork & Quilting magazine vol. 17 no. 9.  I wanted to do one of the quiltlets as a log cabin, and these reproduction fabrics suited it so well.  Rhonda takes her shop to the Sydney Quilt Show each year, too, and will have these charm packs there.

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Diana Gabaldon Australian tour 2009

According to her website, Diana Gabaldon's UK publishers are planning an Australian and New Zealand tour in November 2009.  The seventh book in her Cross Stitch/Outlander series about Jamie and Claire Fraser is due out in late September this year: it's called An Echo in the Bone.
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If you don't know this series of historical/time travel/damn-good-read fiction books, you have a treat in store.  Read more here.  I've lost count of the number of pals I've added to the Gabaldon fan base (only two have said it didn't work for them, but most zoom through the whole series with great enjoyment).  The UNABRIDGED audiobooks are great, too (don't bother with the abridged ones, you'll miss too much).
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Springwood Quilt Show

After a day spent in and out of the car, two more projects are now with the magazine editors - the Q quiltlet to Australian Patchwork and Quilting, and a medallion/frame quilt, Song of the Country, with Australian Country Threads.  They'll be on the news-stands in four or five months.  And I forgot to take proper macro-esque obscure-detail photos of either to blog here so you could have a glimpse.  So here is a little bit of each, grainy but the best I can do:
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And then, stopping at a couple of op shops (not finding a lot, but it's always nice to have enough time to stop for a squizz) I headed up to Springwood to see the Springwood Community Quilt Show.

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Which is absolutely worth visiting (it's on this weekend, Saturday 11am - 5pm, Sunday 10am - 4pm) for two reasons: a great array of quilts, and a great array of shops and stalls.  There are all sorts of quilts, from intricate to simple, repro through oriental through pretties through brights.  Lots of inspiration, with contributions from quilters living in the Blue Mountains and beyond.

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The Springwood High School auditorium in which the show is held is a very high ceilinged polygon shape, so there can be quilts high on the walls too - it's spacious in the aisles of quilts, and well/evenly lit, so you can examine the quilts without peering.  All around the outside are stalls from local shops in the Blue Mountains and Hawkesbury - it's as good as a quilt shop crawl, gives you a great snapshot of shops to go and see in greater detail, but here you can see them all (in abbreviated form) and only have to park your car once.  There are some local designers/teachers with stalls selling their patterns/fabrics too.

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This general view of some of the hall was taken with permission from the show convenor, who was standing right next to me.

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If you're a quilter who can get to this show, do.  I didn't take refreshments, but the coffee and the hot chocolate smelled very fine indeed - there is a quilt show cafe with teas and lunch available.  Admission is $5 and the school is on Grose Road in Faulconbridge - turn right off the Great Western Highway just past the Faulconbridge shops, at the traffic lights with a sign to Norman Lindsay's house.

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Waterspring: a story of two quilts

Last year, a friend with a particular form of cancer needed a special form of radiation therapy - the one where you get to swallow a radioactive tablet offered to you at the end of tongs by thoroughly garbed medical staff, and then you are in an isolation ward for several days until it's safe for you to mix with people again.  Not the easiest experience.  So a bunch of us decided to make her a quilt - she could take it with her to the hospital isolation ward, and it would be there for her afterwards while she recovered at home.  She's a keen canoeist, so blues and greens seemed like the best colours.  The sewing experience of the group varied (from very to hardly any), so something simple was called for. Our colleague, who is thankfully well now, knew nothing about it, and loved it (you can see her reaction here.) 

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The thing was, I'd bought the fabric on special (to be economical), and so needed to buy the minimum cut, and had leftovers; I'd also bought more of the border/sashing fabric.  Add to the mix a nevvy who had plaintively pointed out, on more than one occasion, that he was Too Big Now for the quilt he'd had since being a baby.  See, Aunty Ruth? he said, his feet sticking way out beyond the bottom of the farmyard quilt.  O-kay.  So I made another Waterspring quilt, and this one went into the magazine and then onto the nevvy - it's big enough to keep him warm and happy for the long haul.  Here's Waterspring, as published in Australian Patchwork & Quilting vol. 17 no. 10 - not photographed with either original, as they're both long since wrapping up lovely people to tell them they're loved and appreciated.  Which quilts do rather well.

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A bookshop rant

Myer department store in Sydney (the city store) has a book department.  It looks like this:

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The sign on the left indicates why I was prepared to travel up four escalators to take a look today.

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I shouldn't have bothered.  Firstly, because of the stock.  If I had wanted a cookbook, or a war book, or a sport book, or the latest in publisher-pushed popular fiction, maybe there would have been something for me.  But no, and so no.  Take a look at that black and white sign.  Does it give you any clues as to their expected target market for their book dept?  (Hint: the reading glasses). 

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And they have soft chairs and chairs at tables, in case you want to browse.

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Fat chance.

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Behind the camera, the adjacent dept (with incredible logic on the part of the shop-layout-planners) is a section they call The Basement (it's on Level 4, HELLO GUYS, THAT'S A TAD DOPEY!), which sells, as far as I could tell, funky modern T shirts and associated garb to young fellows.  Who apparently need the lure of music to pull their wallets out of their pockets.  Not any music, but (I can't spell dufduf/ douf-douf) techno.  Driving, insistent beats, thudding away throughout the floor.

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So very relaxing for the middle aged reading-glasses wearing book customer.  I feel deeply sorry for the book department staff.  There was no way God made little green apples I was even vaguely tempted to sit in one of the comfortable lounges there to browse, since I didn't have noise-cancelling earphones with me. (Probably because I don't own any).

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You will be pleased to know, dear reader, that since a Myer Feedback form could not be found, I went in search of a manager.  I had to put some effort into this, and eventually found one, two floors down.  He was very polite, as was I.  I advised him that few book customers, a very different demographic to dufduf Tshirt wearing young chaps, were unlikely to be charmed by the experience of being trapped in a techno-fan's iPod while browsing the books, as was the current situation.  Oh, he said, he'd check the speakers.  Why, I asked (not unreasonably, I thought) was this conjunction of departments deemed to be smart marketing?  Oh, he said, well, they are on the same floor, that's the way things are.  Ah well, I thought: somebody in Myer can choose to put them on the same floor, and madden book customers with loud music.  Customers, however, also have a choice: not to bother going anywhere near the Myer city store book department.  Even if they have got 40% off every book, for one day only.

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I would, of course, be so pleased to know that my efforts at feedback will be of use to Myer.  Snort.

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So then I went off to my more favourite city bookshop venues: Borders and Kinokuniya.

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Aaaah.  No techno music of any kind.  And a vastly superior choice (Kinokuniya had even sold out of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, according to a sign near the door.  Who'd'a thunk??).

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The Borders in Skygarden is closing on 15 May as the building is being redeveloped.  I browsed happily, and picked up a few bargains on the 75% off table, including some for me, some for presents and some for work. 

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Laden (I admit nothing) I then headed off to Kinokuniya.  And browsed some more, equally happily.

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I may have had other things planned for a day in the city, but at this point the books were, um, not at all burdensome, of course, but not getting any lighter... so I figured that I hadn't planned at all well, and didn't really care either.

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It was way too early for the evening commuters, so I easily got a seat on the train (and one for the bags of books) and had a hassle-free trip home, reading.

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Quiltlet: J is for Joadja + Australian quilt fabric designers

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Last year at the Sydney Quilt Show, I saw Saffron Craig's fabrics, and especially liked this red bird (I've got a bird thing happening at the moment - bird china I've blogged about before, and some other bird homewares have found their way into the house).  So I bought some (served with great style and care by her little daughter, who was helping on their stand at the time) and it became part of this quiltlet.  Joadja was in Australian Patchwork & Quilting magazine vol. 17 no. 10.  Saffron blogged about it here, and if you follow the links from there you can see and buy her gorgeous fabrics (always good to promote an Australian designer!).  She still has stock of the red birds - and a couple of other colourways too, last time I checked.

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For each quiltlet, I also write a one-page article about something related to/inspired by making that quiltlet.  For Joadja, I wrote about Australian fabric designers (many doing short run/hand made fabrics).  The magazine didn't have room for all the links to designers and retailers stocking their designs, so here they are for you to follow and enjoy.

• Kelani and the Kelani blog 
• Quilt Fabric Delights http://www.quiltfabricdelights.com.au/  
• Belsize Square http://www.belsizesquare.com.au/store/  
• Sarah London http://sarah-london.blogspot.com/  
• Saffron Craig http://saffroncraig.com/  
• Prints Charming http://printscharming.com.au/  
• Shannon Lamden (Aunty Cookie) http://www.auntycookie.com/  
• Sprout Design http://www.sproutdesign.net.au/  
• Ink and Spindle http://www.inkandspindle.com.au/

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Of course there is always the online marketplace Etsy, which you can search by country, too.

• Etsy http://www.etsy.com/
• Etsy – Australian shops (not just fabric) http://www.etsy.com/shop_local.php?place=australia  

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Please let me know any other Australian fabric designers I should add to the list - drop me a note in the comments.

The wisdom of crowds and the vocabulary of emotion

If you haven't yet seen Susan Boyle singing I dreamed a dream from Les Mis on the TV show Britain's Got Talent, then here's the YouTube URL that shows the lot, from glimpses beforehand to her reaction afterwards:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9lp0IWv8QZY
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You can't embed it (it's the one from the TV show producers, I think that's why).
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And you'll be one of tens of millions to have seen this.
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What I find interesting is, having seen this, to read analyses of what it means, or might mean, maybe as an example of the wisdom of crowds as enabled by technology (Paul Sheehan writes in the Sydney Morning Herald here, linking this to Kevin Rudd and the Australian economy). 
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Helen Elliot in The Age takes another tack here, seeing in the viral spread of this through YouTube and Twitter an example of the vocabulary of emotion.  She links Susan's story to Cinderella archetypes, and wonders just what the future may hold for this (wait for the cliches) Scottish middle-aged unemployed church choir singing spinster who lives alone with her cat. 
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Sam De Brito in the SMH canvasses various responses, including the idea that to be respected, you need to fit some accepted idea of beauty.
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At over 100 million views of Susan Boyle online videos (mostly the original BGT appearance), she's apparently within 15 million of being the most-watched online video EVER, according to a company that tracks such things (as also reported in the SMH).
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One YouTube video of contestants on this program had me falling off my chair, because it was silly and hilarious and the father and son were obviously having a GREAT time: Stavros Flatley.  (Greek-Irish dancing, they said).  Enjoy.
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Quiltlet: H is for Humpty Doo + Colour Me Happy

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Yes, Humpty Doo is a real Australian place name.  It's in the Northern Territory.  This one was in Australian Patchwork & Quilting vol. 17 no. 8.  Sometimes for these quiltlets I start with new fabrics, bought specially to explore an idea.  This one came about from the scraps left over from another project, a large quilt, Colour Me Happy, that was in the same issue of APQ.  It looks like this:

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So you can see how one begat the other.  The scraps weren't large, particularly the coloured fabric ones, but I had fun playing with them and making them into something, rather than just tossing them out.  There's a lot you can do with scraps...both my entries in this year's Sydney Quilt Show (on in June at Darling Harbour) are the result of using scraps, and were a lot of fun to make.

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Colour Me Happy actually started with that great black and white floral; it's an Alexander Henry fabric - they do some great, different, quirky fabrics and luckily there's a local shop that stocks such things.

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Lunch with friends

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Lunch with friends yesterday, at a favourite cafe.  It's hard to beat their pumpkin, feta and pesto frittata with salad, and dressings\ + chutney on the side.  Yum.  Let alone when you add good company and conversation to the mix.  And you've thought ahead and reserved the best table in the place, so you can just arrive, order, sit and enjoy it all.

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Quiltlet: G is for Gundagai

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It's past time I caught up with recording my quiltlet series for Australian Patchwork & Quilting magazine, so here's G is for Gundagai.  I used the Clover heart-shaped yoyo/Suffolk Puff gadget (without which...).  This was in APQ vol. 17 no. 7, out a little while ago (current issue is 17/11) - actually, Februaryish, now I remember, because the hearts seemed apt for Valentine's Day.

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Why Gundagai?  I'm naming all these quiltlets after Australian place names, usually ones derived from Australian Aboriginal languages; in the magazine, I add some brief information about each place name.  Quilting is full (understandably so) of American place names - Ohio and Pennsylvania and so forth - so I figured I'd be a bit local and add some other place names to the mix.  Besides, the Aboriginal words in particular have a rhythm and individuality that's hard to beat.  GUN-da-GUY - just rolls off the tongue.

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Quilt in progress

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I finished this quilt over Easter, and it's off in the hands of the Australian Patchwork and Quilting editors, for publication in vol. 18 no. 4 in four or five months' time.  I used a bunch of scrap fabrics from other quilts in it - that green dotty fabric was always a favourite, so it's nice to have a bit included.   Looking at the quilt, though, I found to be a snapshot of a whole lot of quilts, and I could remember where many of the fabrics had been first used.  It's one of the nice things about scrap quilts that do use up your scraps, they also become visual memories; and if some of the other quilts have been given away and don't live with you any more, a reminder of each game you played with fabric, and what you made, and the pleasure of giving.

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Mind you, I also make scrap quilts with charm packs, and they're fun too, the chance to include a little of a lot of ranges I like, without having to buy lots of fabric.  Charm packs exert a lethal influence on me...I've designed a number of projects with them, and while the current Australian Country Threads has another of my charm pack table runners in it, I'm now playing with yet another... Dang, those charm packs come with free hypnotic side effects!

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Pride and Prejudice and Zombies

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Yes, really.  The full title is:

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies: The Classic Regency Romance, Now with Ultraviolent Zombie Mayhem!

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And I can't decide if I want to read it and will laugh like a drain, or whether I'll be utterly repelled, horrified and appalled.

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Image source, from which you can also order it with free delivery worldwide.  Always attractive, if you're not in an Amazon-free-delivery country.

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What about you?  Tempted? Appalled?

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Quilt in progress (P)

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Just a glimpse of the P quiltlet that will be in Australian Patchwork and Quilting vol. 18 no. 4 on sale in about five months' time.  Yes, it really does take five months from a project going to the magazine's editors to it being published - which is why, sometimes, fabrics are harder to find.  It takes that time to edit instructions, take photographs, design the magazine, organise printing, check colour proofs and so on and so forth.  None of it dawdling time, either.  So while you can see K for Kalgoorlie in the latest Australian Patchwork and Quilting, vol. 17 no. 11,  P is with the editors and going through the same process to come to you in time.

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I chuckled at the chartreuse in this one - I've been on a chartreuse kick this year, it's a GREAT colour in quilts.  But I chuckled again when I went past this sign today.

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It's OK, this is Australia, we drive on the left and the driver's on the right of the car, I was a passenger ... Every time I go past this sign I think, hmmm, those could be interesting quilt colours.  I actually visited DFO (Discount Factory Outlets) for the first time recently and didn't find it an especially exciting experience, or one I had much enthusiasm for repeating.  What I WAS fascinated to discover, in the sunless/artificially lit depths of the covered carpark, was that this interesting colour scheme is not the original, but a very faded version of same.  The original ones didn't do anything for me.

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And now, in this quiltlet, I've played with at least one of the colour combinations.  You never can tell where inspiration will find you.

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Windflowers

The Easter long weekend involved reading, sleeping, time with family, some craft-and-assorted-stuff markets, afternoon naps, sewing/quilting, and the admiring of some Japanese windflowers.  My dear mama likes the white ones best.  I think I agree.  Having nearly caught up on sleep, I might even have a brain with which to consider the matter.

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Easter eggs

0904 Easter eggs
Originally uploaded by rooruu

Aren't they pretty? I made some cupcakes for work last Thursday, and topped them with these. All the cupcakes were eaten.... And now pretty little eggs like this will vanish until next year.
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Kiva: meet Georgette Anayadri

Apart from sharing the name of one of my favourite novelists (Georgette Heyer), I wish I could buy from this Georgette, not just lend her money through Kiva - look at those lustworthy fabrics!

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What better to do to mark Easter than share what you have and help others?  This is what Kiva says about Georgette Anyadri, an entrepreneur in Togo:

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Ms. Georgette ANAYADRI works in the business of selling pagnes (colorful West African cloth). She has been in this business since 2006 in Nukafu. The grand marketplace of Lomé is where she acquires her supplies. She wants to expand her inventory, which is why she’s requesting her first loan from WAGES. This loan will enable her to buy bolts of high quality pagnes. She is married to a gentleman who is a taxi driver. With the revenues she earns from her commerce, she helps her husband with day-to-day household expenses.

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This is my eleventh loan through Kiva - now, some of the money I lend comes from repayments made on earlier loans; it's great to have it serving again to help someone make themselves a better, more secure life.  Mostly, I've looked for people involved in textiles, sewing, craftworking, as this relates to my own interests.  My lender page is here.

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Kiva has gift certificates, too, if you want to give this great opportunity to someone else.  Right now there are LOTS of loan possibilities on the site, so do take a look.

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Happy Easter!

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Where the wild things are (the film)

I have to wait till December for this to be released in Australia, but I'm looking forward to it - love the book and the film version, from this trailer, looks to be wondrous in its own way.
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Source URL:
http://www.trailerspy.com/trailer/3117/Where-the-Wild-Things-Are-Trailer-HD

Daisy, daisy

0903 daisy, daisy
Originally uploaded by rooruu

Easter holidays.

Time to stop, and see the daisies. The house smells of hot cross buns, spice and fruit (I tried one of the choc-chip ones promoted by a bakery chain, but they ain't got nuffin compared to the real proper sort; one supermarket sells hot cross buns labelled 'fruitless', at which I holler, YES!). Hot chocolate is a good accompaniment, though.

The weather is mellowing into autumn. Daylight saving is over, so the mornings are light again and the evenings draw into darkness sooner, and it feels right. Time to switch over clothes, find the flannel jarmies and add a quilt or two to the bed. Invested in new pillows, and it's amazing what a difference it makes - the old ones had flattened out a lot.

Work has been so hectic, it's good to have some time to regroup and re-energise. The quilting pile is full of possibilities, the reading pile ditto, and I want to go through my books again and cull, so some of the newer acquisitions can be shelved. Hmmmm. Does that sound like a peaceful, restful holiday? Or am I just replacing busy with busy?

I hope your Easter break is proving peaceful.
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