Tranquillity

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I just liked this, the simplicity of the colours, the contrast of the feather's delicacy and the rustic, weathered verandah floor boards.

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Quilt binding essentials

When I'm binding a quilt, some things are essential:

This Clover design is my favourite sort of thimble; this is my second one.  The first (eventually) needed replacing as the leather had stretched too much.  Binding clips (less stabby than pins), thread and a needle (I prefer crowbar-sized ones for binding, just because I do).  The lid is useful too - it corrals the thread and binding clips as I go.  I know some people don't enjoy binding, but I do - usually watching a film or TV program, or listening to an audiobook, as it's not exactly the most complex bit of a making a quilt, but it's soothingly repetitive.  And satisfying when you put in the last stitch.  Oh, and then remember you're not finished, there's the label to go....

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Operation Art

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Operation Art is a brilliant initiative, a judged exhibition/competition in which works by children are selected to hang in children's hospital wards and other public areas to brighten them up and encourage healing in a cheerful environment.  The exhibition of entries tours regional areas: I caught it at the Lewers Gallery in Penrith, where it's on till 6 September 2009.  Definitely worth seeing - I wish I could have photographed the exhibits (a CD of images is available for sale to schools etc).

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Recent travels: Surry Hills

From reading various Australian home magazines such as Home Beautiful, Real Living, and Inside Out, there were a couple of shops I'd had on my to-visit list for a while.  A couple of weeks ago I had a chance to toddle over to that part of Sydney - Surry Hills - and see them.

One was DavidMetNicole (?sp).  Often mentioned in the mags, with quirky vintage items.  Not a large shop; and to me, the prices were high.  The assistant was charming, and I enjoyed browsing, but $100 journals covered in bus destination blinds (much as I love bus destination blinds) are a bit out of my budget.  They had vintage Scrabble tiles, and vintage rubber stamps, and a bunch of interesting things to be inspired by, but I don't know that I'll be returning.  Love the aesthetic, but I think I can find a lot of similar sorts of things from other places, less expensively (they had an identical spice rack to one I'd found in an antiquey-junk shop a year or two ago for $30, marked in their shop at around $90).

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At Doug up on Bourke I mooched and browsed and mentally decorated more than one house I'd love to live in.  Industrial-commercial-rustic antiques/vintage items, and lots and lots of them - dozens of stools, tables, desks, all sorts of items, and at generally acceptable prices (according to my scale).  If I was decorating a house from scratch, this is the kind of shop I'd like to go to for furniture, rather than some shiny-new shop (well, Ikea excepted).  It's the kind of place where you enjoy observing the history of things, as well as the browsing.  They had bus destination blinds too (over $500 each - I'm so glad I picked one up for substantially less than that last year; part of my luck was that the route had historical significance for me but wasn't of much interest to others, as the places are not trendy locations - weren't then, aren't now).

Bird Textile was across the road from davidmetnicole and I invested in some of their scrap packs (which are sold by the weight of the fabric).  Lovely Australian designer original fabrics.

And then I went home, back from the inner city to its outskirts.  Some Saturday I'll plan more and do a bit of a Surry Hills trawl.  There are a lot of interesting shops there, homewares and also food shops in the Danks St area of Waterloo (I drove through that on this trip, but couldn't find parking so I drove on).  Bird Textile had a handy shop-crawl map of Surry Hills put together by local businesses; although it didn't look like they were all within walking distance of each other, and thus parking does become an issue.

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It was a good day, good to get out and about to somewhere different and see and be inspired by new things.

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Fresh fabrics from Australian designers: II: Loot

Loot from the Stitches and Craft Show 2009:

Not exactly fabric, but certainly craft inspiration: Mixtape: http://www.mixtapezine.com/

A pack of oddments and a big fat quarter (love those nests!) from Pippijoe: http://www.pippijoe.com/

A fabric piece (can you see an emerging bird theme??) from Surface Art: http://www.surfaceart.com.au/

The background fabric in this shot (which I've used in all the pictures here) is, like the scrap bundle, from Kristen Doran Design: http://www.kristendoran.com/

Another bird, and some delicious red/cream trees from Ink & Spindle: http://www.inkandspindle.com.au/

A scrap pack and several small pieces (oh my, another bird!) from Cloth: http://www.clothfabric.com/

These scrap bundles were acquired on a recent trip to Surry Hills in Sydney, where I found Bird Textile: http://www.birdtextile.com/

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Note to all these businesses: a quilter like me rather does like scrap bundles/oddment bags and so forth.  Little of a lot collections.  Since these often hand-screened fabrics are generally more expensive than commercially printed/mass-produced fabrics, I like being able to buy a variety of scrap pieces.

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There's a rather nice quilt waiting to emerge from that lot, don't you think?

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I also acquired/assembled this little collection:

...from Amitie: http://www.amitie.com.au/

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A couple of the designers said that the latest thing (owls having been done a lot) is going to be donkeys.  I'll take their word for it.  Think I'll work with the bird theme.  Hmmm.  Reminds me of the daily china around here.  And I think I remember buying some Australian designer bird-themed fabric at the Sydney Quilt Show, too.  It will be added to the mix for the quilt, methinks.

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Fresh fabrics from Australian designers: I

At the Stitches and Craft Show today I spent the most time on the third floor, where the smaller stalls were with wonderful work from craft businesses designing fabric and softies and more.  Here are some of the ones I browsed:

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Mixtape: mixtapezine.com

Madeit handmade marketplace: madeit.com.au

Sprout Design fabrics (Rebekah Chichero): sproutdesign.net.au

Pippijoe printed textiles (Caitlin Klooger): http://www.pippijoe.com/

la rara (Lara Raymond): http://www.larara.etsy.com/

Stencil Gallery: http://www.stencilgallery.com.au/

Amitie quilt fabric shop: http://www.amitie.com.au/

surface art printed textiles: http://www.surfaceart.com.au/

cloth printed textiles: http://www.clothfabric.com/

ink & spindle hand printed textiles (Lara Cameron, Bianca van Meeuwen and Tegan Rose): www.inkandspindle.com.au/shop

kristen doran design, hand printed textiles: http://www.kristendoran.com/

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For a list of all the retailers at this year's Sydney show (with links): click here.

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Stay toooooned for some pics of my loot....they sure have revitalised the Stitches and Craft Show, it had dropped off my radar, but it's now right back on as an August unmissable.  Amitie was on the second floor, as a not so small business retailer: I also browsed Just Patchwork on the ground floor - she has some fabulous jelly rolls cut from shop stock, and they're corkers (I'm going to play with an Anna Maria Horner Good Folks range one).

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I also really enjoyed the only opportunity I've had to see the recent documentary on craft in the US: Handmade Nation.

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What's happening?

Making : what feels like uphill progress; also a little time for this poor neglected (but not forgotten) blog


Cooking : no-brainer food

Drinking : diet Coke

Reading: intermittently execrable, intermittently adorable student fiction.  And then aiming to find constructive things to suggest.

Wanting: an end to unnecessary frustrations

Looking: at photos of Melbourne from last weekend.  I have this quilt idea...

Playing: not much.

Wasting: mental energy on things that won't change

Sewing: is on the agenda for the weekend

Wishing: things that won't change, would

Enjoying: the things the kids say and do

Waiting: for the latest Diana Gabaldon book, An Echo in the Bone (about a month away)

Liking: the unabridged audiobooks of Naomi Novik's Temeraire series.

Wondering: what it would be like to have a dragon like Temeraire as a companion.  The garden isn't big enough...

Loving: family and friends

Hoping: that the films I'm looking forward to seeing - Young Victoria, Julie and Julia, The Lovely Bones, The Time Traveler's Wife, etc, will live up to my expectations.

Marvelling: at the convict-sewn dress worn by Mrs King, Governor King's wife, in the early years of the colony of NSW - it's part of the Persuasion/Jane Austen clothing exhibit at the National Gallery of Victoria

Needing: peace and quiet

Smelling: the perfume I wear every day, Tea Rose by Perfumer's Workshop.  Been wearing it for many years.  Never tire of it - it catches the planty-green of roses, as well as the florals.

Wearing: the necklace and earrings I bought at the Pompeii exhibition shop at the Melbourne Museum last weekend.  They had some really lovely pieces at affordable prices

Following: up reviews of the films above from Roger Ebert and Salon

Noticing: jonquils and daffodils

Knowing: if the jonquils and daffodils are about, then strawberries will smell sweet and taste good

Thinking: too much and to little effect

Feeling: frustrated (I think you've worked that out?)

Bookmarking: more sites than I may ever have time to revisit

Opening: emails, as time permits

Giggling: not enough

 
 
Borrowed the meme from Meet Me At Mike's.
 

"In due season"

You may remember the Will.i.am music video based on a Barack Obama speech.

The Chaser created a spiffing version of their own, based on the (it has to be said) rather less inspiring rhetoric of Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd. 

Trailer: Julie and Julia

I enjoyed the book and audiobook of this one, so it's on my list (but not out in Australia until October).

Scones. Easiest recipe ever.

I think these are called 'biscuits' in America; to me, biscuits are what Americans call cookies, and these are most definitely scones (uncooked, in the picture below, but keep reading...).



There is something very simple and delicious about a scone, warm from the oven, with raspberry jam and proper whipped cream (not the spray rubbish, which has no guts at all).

I was meeting some travelling family members today, so I made a batch of scones for them to take on their way.

You may have your simple scone recipe, and I respect that.  But if you want my simple scone recipe...I'm happy to share.  Three reasons I like it: the scones taste great, it's very quick and you don't have to rub any butter into flour (which I always found to be something I didn't much enjoy) as the fat is added more cleverly.  This also means a less handled dough, and softer/lighter scones.

ROORUU'S EASIEST SCONE RECIPE EVER

Note: Australian cup measurements are used: mess around a tad with your own measures and you'll be able to get it right.  I don't have measures from other countries, so I can't do assorted versions of this.  But it's not a hard recipe to tweak.

2 cups self raising flour
pinch salt (best left in, it does add to the flavour)
1/2 cup thickened cream*
3/4 cup milk

Oven at 220degC. 

Put flour and salt in a bowl, mix, make a well.  Pour in the cream and milk, mix till it's a soft (still slightly sticky, not dry) dough.  Place the dough on a floured board, lightly flour it (and your hands) then knead very lightly, just turning the top in until the bottom is smooth and you can flip it over and pat it out. 

Line a lamington tin with baking paper and cut out about 12 scones (I like decently sized ones).  Place them touching in the tin (my theory being that they push each other up and have softer sides this way, rather than being individual bullets).  You can do the glaze thing if you want to, but I don't - wastes an egg and I prefer the floury look.

Bake for 12-20 minutes (depends on your oven).

Enjoy.

*Thickened cream contains (in descending order): cream, skim milk, sugar, halal gelatine, thickener, emulsifier, dextrose and a minimum 35% milk fat.  The last item is the key, as this is the replacement for butter in the scones.  If you don't have thickened cream around, use 35% milk fat cream, not skinny.  Mind you, I usually use skinny milk for the milk, as it's what's most often in the fridge.



Yum.

btw, if you use this recipe or put it on your blog, could you bing a link back here as your source?  My source for this recipe was a colleague, Margaret, twenty years ago.  And I'm still grateful.
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You can of course play with this.  Savoury ones, cheese, or spinach and feta?  I worked out a spinach and feta version here.  And, on checking, I've blogged this recipe before.  But what the heck.  It was part of today, it still works, and maybe you weren't reading this blog back then.  Or you just want a scone recipe now.  (I was amused to read how I wrote it then - the same but different.  Also, it wasn't illustrated).

Finally...

Finally, holidays.  My goodness, my Guinness as is the saying of an Irish aunt.  To arrive on a sunny winter's day, the neighbour's new puppy NOT yapping endlessly, one set of quilting instructions written (another one to go...), the day full of possibilities, is a Good Thing.

A while ago my digital camera went bung.  It was repaired under warranty, and now, although the other problem was fixed, it can't be connected by its lead to upload pictures.  You have to have a card reader to hand.  The intermittency of this blog over the last while is partly testament to this hurdle - another bit of equipment to find and fish out... still haven't worked out why Blogger won't let me upload pictures directly any more, so I have to detour through Flickr.  Between these two inconveniences - and a very very very busy time at work - well, hello, I'm here again at the moment. (And I just can't be bothered going through the whole warranty, gone for up to a month business to get this new glitch fixed).  Although don't assume I didn't keep up reading my Bloglines list - I did.  You've all been doing all sorts of interesting things.

It's Tuesday, of course, and it would be a lovely day to spend at the cinema on cheap tickets day.  That would, of course, be if there was anything on worth seeing.  Usually there's something, even if I do end up travelling a little bit to the larger megaplex with enough cinemas and a local demographic that leads it to assume it might want to screen something other than blockbusters for fourteen year old boys.  But no, no joy there either.  I'm looking forward to seeing Young Victoria (yes, Isabelle, it may undoubtedly be piffle, but watchable piffle I hope!), and have promised to take assorted dear and lovely kids to films coming out later this year (Where the Wild Things Are, and Twilight: New Moon - on its first weekend, that promise includes) and if Warner/Roadshow gets its act in gear and releases The Time Traveler's Wife more in line with the US release date (August) than, gods forbid, not until November....then I'll SO be there to see that... but casting my eye over the current cinema offerings, cinema will not be part of these holidays.  Unless I travel to the city in search of an arthouse.  I will see the new Harry Potter film, but assume that right now the cinemas will be crammed to bursting for that one.  So I'll wait.

On the to-read pile is a mix of lowbrow and higher brow and probably medium brow.  Assorted levels of brainpower/attention required, really.  Alicia Paulson over at Posy gets Cozy blogged about The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie and Little, Big so I have both of those on hand to try thanks to her account of them.  A nascent book group to which I've been invited has set Margaret Atwood's The Blind Assassin as its first text (I use the words 'set' and 'text' with some precision there) and luckily the local second hand book shop had a nice copy at a good price.  From my teenlit sources, the prizewinning The Graveyard Book and the megapopular City of Bones have landed on the pile too.  On Sunday, between quilting, I spent time scooting for the umpteenth happy time through The Unknown Ajax and enjoyed Georgette Heyer's wit and characters just as much as I always do.

Quilting?  There are, not unexpectedly, a few items on the to-do pile.  I've just finished a top based on Saffron Craig's Fields range - pretty pinks and yellows - and am doing some perle cotton quilting on the S quiltlet, both for Australian Patchwork & Quilting magazine.  Some mad colours are waiting for the T quiltlet and there are plenty more fabric bundles and designs waiting for my sewing attention.

Lunches with friends, spring cleaning (it's not spring, but that's irrelevant), a niece wants to spend a day sewing a bag....oh, lots to stay busy with around here, let alone ventures and adventures elsewhere.  Went into work yesterday for a few hours, and will go another day, but apart from that, o joy it's HOLIDAYS!
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blog? what blog?

0903 water dragon
Originally uploaded by rooruu

Well you might ask. I've been, in the lovely Australian expression, flat out like a lizard drinking, and when it's that busy, something goes. Haven't even been TAKING a photo a day recently, let alone blogging one.

I've been reading other people's blogs, as time permits, and it's good to keep up there, but as to the rest.... there's a break coming up in a few weeks, thanks be.

Went Out and About today. Reverse Garbage in Marrickville is always good for a look: I only invested in a backpack ($2.50, bargain!) and a bag made out of an advertising vinyl banner (cool!) but came away with ideas I want to investigate further. (Reverse Garbage recycles clean industrial waste, and there are lots of things and lots of possibilities in that tin warehouse).

The Remnant Warehouse and Quiltsmith are two inner city (Sydney) quilt shops (Alexandria and Annandale) that I don't get to very often - lots of yummy things at both of them, but I was restrained, buying much more with my eyes than with my wallet.

Most of my driving is on the outskirts of the city, where I live and where I work, so it was not my usual situation today to be crawling along a major highway into the city with traffic lights every fifty metres, or so it seems. You can have stress, I figure, or enjoy the view. King St in Newtown certainly has a different array of shops to see and people to observe (as your car remains stalled in traffic) to those on my normal rounds. So what the hey, I saw and observed and it was part of the day too. A different view of the world.

Headed back west into the sunset at day's end with a couple of finds I wouldn't have found around here, and having had a change of scene. It's not as good as a holiday, but it's not bad. And still one more day of the weekend to go, hurrah!
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The Young Victoria (trailer)

This is another film I'm looking forward to seeing - although it was released in the UK in March, its Australian release date isn't till August. 



The Young Victoria stars Emily Blunt, Rupert Friend and Paul Bettany, plus a bunch of other excellent actors.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t-l_IsIdjAg

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0962736/

Reviews: http://au.rottentomatoes.com/m/young_victoria/
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The Time Traveler's Wife - official trailer

Finally, finally, the first official trailer for the film/movie version of The Time Traveler's Wife, by Audrey Niffenegger.  Release date in the US: August.  Release date in Australia? November.  Sob.  Sniff.  I wish Village Roadshow Film Distributors would be wiser/smarter/nicer/more co-operative.  Especially since the film has been held up for a long time already.

Anyway, here's the trailer:


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YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LPfpi1XoLm0
or
Yahoo Movies: http://movies.yahoo.com/summer-movies/the-time-travelers-wife/1809937231/trailers/216/1757
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Interesting, the way they've done Henry vanishing.  It will be so good, eventually, to see the complete film..
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Village Roadshow Film Distributors, are you listening?  August would be a GREAT month to release this - winter is a good film time, why wait till spring?  Oh, and I want it released at the same time as in the US (as you do with so many films).  Because I do.  Please.  Thank you.
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PS.  There is a pic of the film's poster on this blog.
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Sydney Quilt Show winners 2009

Head on over here and see some absolutely wonderful quilts!

http://www.quiltersguildnsw.com/quiltshow/index.html

You can click on the thumbnails for larger views to enjoy.

what to do on quite a, I mean a quiet Sunday

• Breakfast. Tigger Tail bread (because the label saying it's made from "local and important" ingredients makes me chuckle) and the last of the double brie
• Download audiobooks in my ISP's bonus time (so this doesn't vacuum up the megabytes quite so much) - first up, I've succumbed to Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, because in the sample the reader did a spiffing job - and I might be able to use bits of this at work. I'm behind in downloading - the list also includes Bill Bryson (Notes from a Big Country) and Skulduggery Pleasant books 2 and 3 (because Rupert Degas' narration is beyond brilliant).
• Wonder again why authors/agents/publishers/audible.com conspire to make so many books I'd like to download 'unavailable to my geographic area'. Don't they want my custom/money? Sometimes you can get them on CD, but really truly, I don't want to mess around with CDs and boxes and postage. Just want to download them to my computer and transfer them to my iPod. And listen, and enjoy.
• Cut out the Christmas table runner (I gave up and chose entirely new fabrics that are happy to co-operate with my design ideas)
• Make the Christmas table runner
• Bind the other Christmas quilt that I sewed and quilted yesterday
• Feel pretty much unChristmassy, but then you never do in April/May, even though that's the season when you're designing magazine projects
• Listen to The Time Traveler's Wife on audiobook again while addressing the above items (William Hope and Laurel Lefkow, your work is brilliant!) and wonder why the dogs, I mean gods of film distribution think that it's OK to release The Time Traveler's Wife film/movie in August in the US and not until November in Australia - even after they've been sitting on it for months (AND Eric Bana, who plays Henry, is A Local Boy).
• Cut out and sew another quiltlet (letter S is next on my making list)
• Work out yardage/meterage for another quilt project from some deeeeelicious new Australian designed fabrics
• Finish planning Monday's presentations at the work seminar that's on
• Aim to write a 1000 word draft of an article that's due, oh, by the end of May for a work-related publication
• Write a short blurb for another work-related conference presentation that needs to be in early this week
• Feel happy that I have till mid-June before another work-related article for a publication is due
• Try not to think that there are going to be five quilt projects requiring instructions to be written
• Plan to quilt, bind and write instructions for another table runner that's due next week
• Plan to quilt, bind and label one quilt show entry quilt (due in by Wednesday) and bung some velcro on the other entry
• Breathe. Eat lunch and dinner sometime, too.
• Stop writing an entry for my recently-sparse blog and get back to the list above....

Nothing like a quiet Sunday.

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Is there?

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coming soon....

....more blog entries.  Work's been crazy-busy, and I've been working on other deadlines too.   Hope your lives have been calmer!  It felt wintry today (wintry for here) - a nip in the air, and wanting a coaty layer while heading for the car, and the heater went on at home for the first time this evening.  So it's kinda amusing to be reading northern hemisphere blogs with delighted/delightful effusions about spring and summer.  Still, after the summer we had, there are no complaints about cooler weather, no siree!
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This evening I've been trying to get a Christmas project together, and the fabrics just won't cooperate.  I haven't cut any, am still working on the design.  Fabrics are fine, I'm happy with what I have, but I just haven't yet landed on exactly how they should go together, block/layout.  I don't usually find this particularly difficult, but tonight, with a tired tired brain, I've been messing about in EQ for a couple of hours and nuffin is working.  Think I'll sleep on it.  Tomorrow is another day!
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And the weekend.  Hurrah!
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Do you know Booko?

This house contains quite a few books (cough).  Recently, some have been coming from The Book Depository (gimmick: free shipping worldwide) - it's a UK online bookshop, and with our dollar being strong against the pound, plus free shipping (most books arrive in a week), it's been pretty good.  Certainly cheaper than buying the identical books locally, sad to say.  And well packed, so they don't get bingled (unlike some Amazon orders which thumped about in their boxes and arrived the worse for wear).
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But what if you wonder if you're getting the best price, and you can't be bothered checking a whole shebang bunch of online shops for what you want?  This week I learned about Booko (http://booko.com.au/).  Bung in the title you want (or for greatest precision, the book's ISBN/International Standard Book Number) and hey presto, a whole bunch of prices from a multitude on online bookshops, INCLUDING freight costs and ALL CONVERTED to Australian dollars.
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Great little online toy, that one.  Another good one if you do want to convert currencies is the Oanda VisualFX converter.  What I like about this is that it doesn't have to load another page to show you the conversions.
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Of course if you're buying a certain number of books, or over a certain dollar value, some sites will offer free shipping too, but for a one-book comparison, Booko's handy-dandy to know about.  (I've just reread its info page: it can calculate shipping for multiple items from one supplier).
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Small domestic pleasures

• The warmth of sunshine on clothes from the washing line
• Quiet time to read the Saturday newspaper on the verandah
• The smell of baking that you know is almost ready
• A new book you've been looking forward to reading
• The corner of the sofa to curl up into to read
• Watching a quilt come together, something that was an idea and is now real
• Flannelette sheets on cold evenings
• New season Pink Lady apples, crisp and sweet and tart

What would be on your list?

Quilt: Charm and Charisma

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I've been making an intermittent series of table runners for Australian Country Threads magazine, basing them on charm square packs.  This is Charm and Charisma, from vol. 9 no. 6.  Such pretty colours, this fabric range!  Sometimes all you want to do is play with a little bit of a lot of fabrics you like, to enjoy them and make something useful from them.  Do let me know if you make your own version of this.

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I've got some more design ideas in the works - these are great for quick hand made gifts, too, and not vastly expensive.  Here's a pic of Festive Charm.

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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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