Hot water bottle

0605 hot water bottle
Originally uploaded by rooruu.

I've been snivelling and shivery with a cold, so a hot water bottle is a good friend. It's one of those comforting winter things, the friendliness of flannelette sheets and your toes finding the hot water bottle's warmth.

Shoes

0605 shoes
Originally uploaded by rooruu.

I love the way you can find interesting shoes like these ones nowadays. The influence of overseas brands and styles, perhaps, like Camper Twins and others.

Jacket

0605 jacket
Originally uploaded by rooruu.

This winter's fashion is full of military influenced jackets, so I succumbed to one, possibly influenced by the lovely buttons.

Last year's jacket was a tweedy one in pinks/browns. I wore it to work, and got at least two comments about it being nice, "and they were so popular last year...". Yeah, well, it'll be around for a few years more, as will this one. Does anybody just buy jackets for one season and no more? Not this little black duck.

Ordinary buttons

0605 ordinary buttons
Originally uploaded by rooruu.

These are from an op shop button jar - mostly from the last twenty or so years, I'd say, and snipped from clothes. I've been working on a project using them, and it's come up rather nicely. Proving the point that repetition and patterning of even ordinary things can produce results that please the eye.

Buttons are just fascinating and engaging, particularly second-hand/vintage ones.

Hunters Hill quilt show

Favourites from the Hunters Hill quilt show (still on till 4.30pm on Sunday 28 May at the Hunters Hill Town Hall, Sydney, Oz.)

The green/purple/orange fourpatch is by Kathy Doughty of Material Obsession.

The subtle ninepatch is "Softly Softly", available from Material Obsession.

The cashmere rectangles are "City Windows" by Sarah Fielke of Material Obsession.

The blue/green vines quilt is my favourite of the show, and don't I wish I'd taken a photo of the label? Or obtained a catalogue? It's no. 67...

The New York Beauty is a delightful use of colour.

These are my favourite quilts from the show, which had lots of other lovely ones too. More photos here. Quite a lot of perle cotton quilting, some beautiful uses of Japanese fabrics and a wonderful range in styles, with more quilts for sale than usually seen at a local quilt show.

Fiery maple

0605 fiery maple
Originally uploaded by rooruu.

After holding out through autumn so far, the Japanese maple is on the fiery turn.

Monochrome

0605 monochrome
Originally uploaded by rooruu.

We could do with the rain, but this sky decided to remain merely ominous. The white gum against the sky made a monochrome composition. Hooray for zoom lenses...

Gee's Bend challenge quilt

gee's bend challenge quilt
Originally uploaded by rooruu.

Some friends and I are going to use this quilt, Roman Stripes by Willie "Ma Willie" Abrams of Gee's Bend as the inspiration for a two-month challenge.

A colleague came back from a US holiday and told me all about the quilts she'd just seen in Atlanta. She's not even a quilter, and she's seen the exhibition I've been dreaming of seeing for years!!!!! One day, someday, I'm going to see the quilts of Gee's Bend...

Years ago I saw Lit from Within, an exhibition of Pennsylvania Amish quilts, in Melbourne. However often I'd seen them in books, nothing prepared me for the impact of seeing them in the gallery. They had such resonance, such power. I'm sure the Gee's Bend ones will be the same.

Book: Buried Treasure

0605 book
Originally uploaded by rooruu.

Another "I liked the first book" book.

Colour: travels through the paintbox, was a delight, for all I learned about the sources of colours and dyes. Colour and pattern are the main reasons I love quilting, and it was a book tailor-made to my interests.

This one's about jewels and looks just as promising.

Book: Dolce e Salata

0605 book
Originally uploaded by rooruu.

0605 book
Originally uploaded by rooruu. A thousand days in Venice, by Marlena di Blasi, was an excellent holiday book last summer, with her exuberant style and energy. Loved it enough to buy this without reading anything but the blurb. It follows her story - having moved to Venice to marry a Venetian, they then move to Tuscany, which is the narrative in this book.

A boy and his dog

0605 a boy and his dog
Originally uploaded by rooruu.

What more can I add?

Two clouds

0605 two clouds
Originally uploaded by rooruu.

Fascinating to see how the contours of the hills behind lit one cloud and cast the other in shadow. It was a beautiful sunset.

Desk accessories & Bun-O-Vision's latest triumph

0605 desk accessories
Originally uploaded by rooruu.

The kids like the mad stripey paperclips, but it's always the green jelly babies (or jelly beans) that are orphans.

It's a family failing, stationery. A wonderful aunt used to take us to stationery stores, when we were little, and mad stripey paperclips can still make me happy. It's good having something quirky amid the serious stuff.

Speaking of which, if you haven't caught the gems of the 30-second bunnies theatre library, my current Bun-O-Vision favourite is Brokeback Mountain (in 30 seconds, as enacted by bunnies). It's a hoot!

Afternoon sky

0605 afternoon sky
Originally uploaded by rooruu.

Sometimes, all you have to do is look up to find something worth catching. This sky looks almost painterly.

Foggy road

0605 foggy road
Originally uploaded by rooruu.

On the way to work, this patch of pampas grass is silvered in morning sunlight. Even though it was foggy, there was enough light to outline them (it's been cloudy for the last few days, so finally today I was able to stop and catch the photo). On the way home, they look entirely undistinguished.

Vintage ninepatch revisited

0605 vintage ninepatch
Originally uploaded by rooruu.

The vintage ninepatch quilt from a while ago is now clean, repaired and ready for a longer life. Some of the squares and fabrics were shattered and needed replacing, and the wadding and backing were unusable. But it was a fascinating exercise.

Tidying up autumn

Tidying up autumn
Originally uploaded by rooruu.

Plenty more to do, but rugged up against chilly winds, they enjoyed filling up the cart and wheeling the leaves to the compost.

My mother's hands

My mother's hands
Originally uploaded by rooruu.

I should have taken more, or realised that I hadn't got the focus quite right.

Photographic concerns aside, this seemed like such a wonderfully apt subject for Mother's Day.

Red door

Red door
Originally uploaded by rooruu.

Aren't the colours wonderful?

Parallel lines

Parallel lines
Originally uploaded by rooruu.

Natural parallel lines and man-made parallel lines.

Might be a quilt in this too.