Narelle Grieve: celebrating a quilter's life

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Although it was sad to know she had died, it was great to see Narelle Grieve's many achievements as a quilter honoured in the Sydney Morning Herald.  She was enormously and generously influential in Australian quilting.  Click on the link to read the full obituary.

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The scrapbooking cupboard project: 4

Now where was I? Painting cream/taffy window frames.  Well, that's done, and the red roof too, and there was just the little matter of window furnishings...
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Which was sorted with the dinky cordless screwdriver, cuphooks, fine dowel and some Denyse Schmidt fabric from her County Fair line.  New handles replaced old (old nasty, not nice vintage).

Et voila!

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It's quite tall, isn't it?  I'm of average height, and thisi is me looking up to take the photo.

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There's plenty of storage...

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...as you can see.  Enough for the scrapbooking gear, I hope!

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OK, here's the full view:

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Isn't that fun?  And useful?  This is the back of the house - the house's front door/entrance is on the other side, but this is the side with the big opening doors, so for my cupboardish purposes it is the 'front'.

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A couple of construction notes.  I was able to find tiny hinges for the door that had broken hinges - found them at the hardware barn (I'm sure that's cheaper than sourcing them from a miniatures supplier).  On the bottom of the house, I put two thick strips of self-adhesive heavy-duty felt, so it will sit well and not scratch the top of the record cabinet.

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It's now in the house and about to get put to use!

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Garden progress: perseverance

The garden bed after clearing.

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The garden bed after planting.

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Now in a couple of months....

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As I spent time on the dollhouse/scrapbooking cupboard (painting the record cupboard in particular was awkward, with those narrow slots) and weeding/clearing this garden bed, in which boston fern baubles seem to be endless, I was thinking about perseverance.  There were points at which I could happily have given up, and sometimes did (temporarily).  Points at which I was grimly continuing, without much joy at all.  And that's process, isn't it?  Perseverance, persistence.  Which we learn from all sorts of places and experiences.  I know kids who just don't have 'it' - if something isn't instant, they abandon it.  And miss out on the satisfaction of a job, with which one persisted, being complete.  The lesson of a garden, too is patience - I hope in a couple of months to be picking parsley whenever I want it, eating cherry tomatoes and seeing a riot of colourful flowers.  For now, it's potential and progress, and patience.  I do not doubt that there will be more boston fern to weed out... (since it is a plant of patience, persistence and perseverance!)

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Gardening like a quilter

I used to garden, before I became as absorbed in quilting as I have been for a number of years - I gardened in each place I've lived.  The garden here, what was gardenable of it, got, after an initial flurry, some native shrubs, grevilleas and so forth, and pretty much did its own thing.  My palette, my way of playing with colour and design, was fabric.
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There's a circular-ish bed in the front garden which I've cleared out these holidays - overgrown shrubs cut down, bags filled with weeds and trimmings, trips to the tip.  The scrapbooking cupboard project has been suspended these last two days in favour of seizing the opportunity (but here's a glimpse of the next stage...).
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  Sometimes it's been tedious, weed after weed - fishbone fern baubles seem to be endless, every time you turn the soil there's another one, or six, to remove.  It's certainly been good exercise, bending and stretching and levering out stumps and so on.
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After all the clearing, it was time to plant.  I had some agapanthus which had been a tad overwhelmed by everything else, so those got put together in a group.  I hope they will flower this summer, blue and round and nodding in the breeze, like there's a cheerful conversation going on, only you can't quite hear it.

I've created native gardens, with grevilleas and other Australian native plants.  I really have.  But the garden of my heart is a cottage garden, the profusion of colour, the mad wonderful mix of flowers and vegetables and whatever you like, no rules broken because there are none to break.  So I toddled around a couple of nurseries and let my eyes and heart have their way.  Parsley, because I like having that to pick from the garden, and the price for a bought bunch is ridiculous (I think it was $1.50 or $2 last time I bought some).  Cherry tomatoes, for their prolific fruiting and the burst of sunlight and flavour on the tongue.  Daisies, in white and in pink.  Lavenders.  More herbs - rosemary, and thyme and sage, to complete the rhyme; basil, for its summer fragrance and taste, and as companion planting for the tomatoes.  Pink geraniums - one with a pointed petal, another with a wonderfully splotched look.  Dianthus, for their wonderful scent.  White petunias and white salvia, for calm and their ghostly grace in evening light.  Compact dahlias, for their gaudy fifties look, hot bright colours for the height of summer.  I did see a punnet or two of pansies, but they're past their time, for this year at least.

I had what we thought an discussion, and what others thought was bickering, the other night at dinner with friends.  He said, the garden bed out the front of a house should be a showcase.  I said, no, I'm planting it cottage style.  He said, but that's wrong, you do the messy stuff in the back garden.  I pointed out that the back garden is a shallow depth of soil over rock - not promising for gardening.  This front bed has decent soil, decent sun and lots of potential.  OK, I said, going on the offensive, what exactly SHOULD I be planting there?  At which point he got vague, and mentioned potted colour.  Really? I said, thinking, costabunch planting of what anybody's got... And then it was time for rack of lamb and roast vegetables and for dessert, raspberries and posh vanilla icecream, and the conversation moved on to other things.
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But as I chose plants today, I realised that I was gardening like a quilter - assembling my palette, choosing not necessarily based on a specific plan, but a general idea - cottage-style - and a general principle - choose things you like.  I have four shades of pink, and at least one clashes with the others.  Am I bovvered? Nope.  There are perennials and annuals, flowers and vegetables, herbs and so it goes.  I believe it will all go together, because I've chosen them and nature is forgiving - maybe plants are even more forgiving than fabric.  A certain amount of my quilting is instinct rather than logic, and I did the same here.  Going with the heart, trusting that it will work out as I create it - quilt, or garden.
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I had forgotten the mindless state you can get into, gardening.  Just thinking about what might go where.  Wondering how it will be, in a couple of months, to taste veges grown on my land - it's years since I grew any veges.  The young boys next door, whose soccer ball didn't hit my head despite their best efforts, came to retrieve it from time to time when it cleared the fence, and commented that this was looking better (very observant, for boys, although the change is quite dramatic).  An optimistic kookaburra flew down to land quite close to me, to see if my efforts had unearthed any promising worms or other foodstuff - they're such confident birds, with a cheerful, jaunty air. 
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Having a slight hose-connection issue I can solve tomorrow, I filled the watering can several times to put over the planting I got done before the light faded.  The boys headed indoors for their supper.  The kookaburra found some of his, and flew off in search of more, or a roost for the night.  I looked at the parsley seedlings, and the sturdy beginnings of the tomato plants, and the tiny tender leaves of basil, and the deep pink daisy bush, and the lavender hybrid with flying petals - the soil damp around them, the darkness gathering them in, the promise of more to plant tomorrow morning, when a hot shower will have eased the stiffness in my shoulders.  It's good to have my hands in the dirt again, and to be again attuned to the timescale of growing plants.
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Just don't tell my mother.  She's a Notable Gardener and will be far too pleased that I appear to have learned the error of my ways and returned to the fold of Gardens and Wisdom.  She gardens like a gardener.  I garden like a quilter.  And there's nothing wrong with either approach.
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The scrapbooking cupboard project: 3

Am I prepared to admit that I toddled off to the hardware store AGAIN?  Not sure.  Keep reading....
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Well, you knew I had the main paint already: Ta-daaaah, Dulux Young Leaf:

and a paintbrush that wishes it was elsewhere.  It's not an expensive one, and I'm not treating it all that well, what with wriggling it about in confined spaces and into many corners.

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Why this colour?  Dunno.  Just felt like it.  I'd pondered pale dirty yellows, and not-too-sweet-pale pinks, and blues various, all reasonable options for a dollhouse, but when push came to shove in the hardware barn, this green was the one.

And it looks just dandy - see?

Fresh and cheerful and it's working for me.  I am not painting different colours in the different rooms of the dollhouse cupboard.  It's a cupboard, not about to be furnished as a house (given that there are a couple of other furnished/partly furnished dollhouses already in this house).  So the whole lot is now green:

inside and out.  This is after the first coat of paint.  Once the second coat is dry, I'll paint the roof and window frames.  It was madly windy today, so I'm sure they'll be dry tomorrow.  (Possibly with a little dust, but phooey to that).

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And here's the record cupboard after its first coat:

Did I tell you the utter charm of the fact that the lower two sets of shelves are designed to easily accommodate LP records, so are around 14in high and deep?  And scrapbooking paper is sold in 12in squares?  Utterly charmingly amazingly perfect for my porpoises purposes.  Woohoo!  The top shelves - maybe smaller to accommodate 45s - will fit folders of smaller papers etc.

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OK, I went to the hardware store again.  I needed handles for both cupboards, OK?  And, all right, I was thinking about window treatments (with eleven windows to consider).  So I got some itty-bitty cuphooks and the thinnest dowel they sell.  Pondered fabric for curtains (you know, I think there might just be some fabric around here somewhere - who'da'thunk??????!!!!!) and tonight I've got a little bit of sewing planned.  Easiest curtains I'll have ever made... (I decided to go with curtains rather than the acetate 'glass' option).

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I am not going to add up the investment in these cupboards, I think.  It might be scary.  Still, it's going to be a decent size piece - each of the cupboards is about a metre in height (over 3 feet).  If tomorrow goes as planned, they'll be finished and ready to use.  (Except perhaps for window boxes, as suggested by TSS in a comment yesterday - I'm thinking about that).

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If they'd done this on a homes and gardens show as a project, it would have taken ten minutes, tops.  They're much cleverer than me!  Or possibly have more minions to hand.

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I also hope I will be able to plant some parsley tomorrow.  Ah, holidays...

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The scrapbooking cupboard project: 2

My good intentions regarding hand sanding (rather than investing in a detail sander) fell by the wayside today.  I didn't show you the inside of the dollhouse cupboard, did I?

There be felt 'carpet', glued down.  I got out the scraper, and drizzled some methylated spirits on the felt, with the thought that it might loosen up the glue and enable me to scrape off the felt.  It worked to an extent, but only to an extent. 

I thought about citrus-based glue removers (the potion option) and sanding (the mechanical option).  Sanding won.  I went back to the hardware store (isn't it great that you can be wearing your grotty painting clothes and you fit right in at the hardware barn?!) and for $35 bought a detail sander with a three year replacement guarantee (hint if you're buying an inexpensive detail sander: check how much the triangular sandpaper bits cost.  For this one, it's $10 for ten; for another inexpensive sander, it's $7.50 for five.  That would add up over time...).  I know I'll use it again, so it was a worthwhile investment. Rather a lot of noise later...

and you can see the difference.  While plugging away at this (not a job completed in five minutes), I thought about what I might have done:

...by the time you add up the sealing undercoat, paint, sander, bits and bobs, plus the original cost of both cupboards, I'm shading into the price of one of these white melamine flatpack cupboards.  Easy, functional, would serve the purpose of storage...but not as much fun.  And I'll be able to look at my combo scrapbook cupboard when it's done, and have a different sense of achievement to wrangling an allen key and white melamine.  My cupboard will be more beautiful, and maybe more lasting, and repurposes instead of using new stuff (well, apart from all the stuff I bought!) and will be, perhaps unique.  At the very least, quirky and unusual.

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I finally got the sanding done (and it needed both the sander and the hand-blocks).  I couldn't get all the felt off, but did the best I could and figured it's not a competition, anyway.  But it sure takes time to prepare before you start wrangling paint.  I took off the handles from both cupboards, too - there's an odd bit of damage near the record cupboard's handle, a bit of unexplainable gouging.  I figure it's just part of the rustic charm of it all - not worth fiddling about with Spakfilla.  The woodgrain floor on the right (?Contact plastic) peeled up without much bother, and without a glue residue either (hurrah!). Some work with an old toothbrush and (new) sugarsoap helped clean out dirty corners and windowframes.

I wondered about original colours: I suspect it was white or cream on the outside, pale green inside and this mustard or green on the floors.  I don't know how long ago it might have been made in a handyman's workshop.  1950s? 1960s?  The people from whom I bought it couldn't tell me anything of its history.

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Finally, in the afternoon, after a morning of sanding and scraping, I got to open a can of paint - well, one coat sealer undercoat.  First, the record cupboard:

and I will not tell you how fiddly it was to paint those narrow slots.  I think I'll need a short-handled paintbrush to get into a couple of the corners when I'm topcoating.  I tipped it over onto the cupboard back to get into each slot properly, then tipped it back upright for the door/sides/top.  Then the dollhouse, which was actually easier to paint, even with the fiddly bits:

It's an improvement on where they started, isn't it? 

It's a good beginning.  More to do tomorrow.  It's nice to see progress, and think about how they'll look when they're done.  I'll need to get hold of dollhouse sized hinges to attach one of the doors, which has come off; and will need to think about whether I'll put curtains on the dollhouse windows, to keep out dust (and if I do, how I'll attach them - or should I use interesting acetate from a scrapbooking shop instead?  Decisions, decisions).  (And I haven't shown you the paint colours yet either, have I?  Tomorrow....).

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The scrapbooking cupboard project: 1

A long time ago when the world was young and you could still buy second-hand furniture at the Salvos op shop in Bowral (alas, no more, and it was an industrial unit and FULL of promise...) I went hunting for a cupboard for my scrapbooking gear.
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As I said, an industrial unit - a warehouse with narrow aisles some rather dimly lit, and you needed to look in EVERY aisle, for who knows where you might find the right thing? I wasn't quite sure what the right cupboard for scrapbooking might look like. I wanted to store paper, of course - 12" squares of paper being a scrapbooking basic. Also, I already had a cupboard for bits and pieces, such as stamps and punches and scissors and so on. Here's what that one looks like:
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This one was an eBay find, from a fairly local seller, so I was able to pick it up AND it fitted in the car.  I never planned this as a dollhouse, but always saw it as quirky storage.  My guess is that it's a home made dollhouse, possibly from a commercial pattern/plans.  The windows are rather nicely detailed, aren't they?  Let's not talk about the lilac, though...  So what I wanted now was a second cupboard to be a base for this one, and more storage, preferably for paper.

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Principle of op-shopping/vintage furniture shopping: know kinda what you want it to do, but don't assume you'll know what it looks like.  Size-wise, I wanted something this dollhouse/cupboard could sit on, and the space I have in mind is only a little wider (between a door and a built-in) so a standard bureau/chest of drawers was likely too wide for the space.  And this one needed to fit in the car too, so it could come home (delivery was not an option).

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Up and down the aisles, looking, looking.  A couple of quite old pot/bedside cupboards had potential - and price tags a bit higher than I was hoping for.  Looking, looking... and then, at the end of an aisle, tucked away up the back, this:

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I'm quite prepared to admit it's not the most beautiful thing you've ever seen.  Horrible handle (of course that can be changed).  Not very interesting timber.  BUT... look at its dimensions.  Very good, in relation to the lilac dollhouse.  Do you recognise this sort of cupboard?  I don't remember seeing one before, although I'm old enough that they would likely have been in houses in my yoof.  Take a gander inside, though...

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It's a cupboard intended for the storage of LPs and other vinyl records.  Whoopee!  Paper storage, anyone?  I'm guessing it dates from the 1950s/1960s (if you know more than my limited knowledge, please do leave a comment!).

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And so they have both sat waiting to be Renovated and Installed, and I finally got round to getting the gear I needed today at the hardware store.  I plan to paint both, to unify them.  Not sure how much going to town I'll do on the dollhouse - different colour for the roof? window frames?  Hmmmm....  But for now, painting, inside and out.

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It's never that simple, is it?  Having invested under $100 in total for the above two cupboards, my toddling around the hardware store paint section was not a cheap venture.  I got a couple of those spongy sanding blocks, because the last ones I had are looking Sad and Well-Used.  I was tempted by a cheap sander (how are power tools under $30 unless Chinese people are making them for nothing at all?) but stayed with the hand-powered spongy sanding blocks.   One coat sealer will seal the timber (not good to have paper against unfinished timber) and also deal with whatever the lilac paint may be (?acrylic?enamel?).  While I got four litres of that (it's likely to come in handy for other projects), I chose two litres of paint and hope it will be enough for both cupboards.  I did get a sample pot of a different colour of paint for the roof...a couple more minor bits and pieces and well, that's well over another $100.

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But I know, when I'm done, I'll have had the enjoyment of giving both these pieces a new life; they'll be fun to use as well as practical; and a new $200 cupboard from a pine shop or some such just wouldn't be the same at all at all (as one of my Irish aunts would say).  It will also be good to have the scrapbooking stuff corralled, organised and findable in one place.

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So tomorrow, it's out with the daggy painting clothes.  We've been having some rain every day this last week, so I'm not sure how long it will take each coat to dry if it's showery again.

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I'll let you know how it goes.

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PS.  I do some scrapbooking on the side - mostly for presents.  My quilting paraphernalia, as you might expect, doesn't have a hope in Hades of fitting into two cupboards....!

Starting holidays

• go to an art exhibition and then out to dinner with friends
• sleep for the best part of two days (and almost two nights) - yup, I was rather tired.
• eat lunch with more friends
• finish some quilt projects
• plan some more quilt projects
• listen to the excellent audio version of Georgette Heyer's The Grand Sophy and immensely enjoy the wit with which it was written and is interpreted by whatsisface (can't remember his name right now)
• download An Echo in the Bone by Diana Gabaldon (it's on Audible! Yay!).  Well, begin to download, it's in several parts and totals the thick end of fifty hours....
• eat another lunch with different friends
• think about the spring cleaning scheduled for these holidays
• read the Sydney Morning Herald on sunny mornings (it's only the afternoons when it's been overcast and we've had thunderstorms)
• plan a film/dinner outing with yet more friends
• enjoy being on holidays.  For sure.

Back in October...(and in the pink)

Yes, you're right.  Work has been busy.  It's good to be on hols for a couple of weeks.

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Here's one of my October projects: sell 50 pink ribbon day silicon bracelets.

Well, that's the number I've ordered from the Pink Ribbon Day site.  I know too many people who've had breast cancer - some survivors, some gone.  Haven't tried doing this before, although I always buy a pink breast cancer silicon bracelet when I see one, so I'll see how I go.  Why don't you try?  You can order as few as ten - surely you could sell ten?

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