Things that are Good

Cupcakes…

made with a willing helper.

Neatly bound edges on recently finished quilts.

Pretty selvedges on brand new fabrics.

Crystal clear eyeballs after four days of a bloodshot eye.

Oh, Can’t You See?

Press Play – then read

Oh, can’t you see? There’s a bird on me.

Oh, woe is me! There’s a bird on me.

Stop your chirpin’ and quack, quack, quack.

Come on birdie, get off my back.

New quilt.

Sometimes I rediscover odd things in the back of my mind that offer fabulous inspiration…

I Mocked the Fates

I should have known better…

In my last post I was silly enough to remind you of Pip’s accident prone nature. I chuckled as I read it, in an exasperated kind of way.

I should have remembered that it is my life.

I should have remembered that there are further ways that Pip can require medical attention.

I should have remembered to just keep my mouth shut.

Yesterday on school organised work experience he was asked to drill into concrete in a windy place and not provided with safety glasses.

The late night GP says that he can’t see any damage, just extreme irritation. He said it would settle over night. It didn’t.

Today it remains irritated, weepy and sore.

sigh…

Playing Favourites

Alice recently wrote a post to prepare for her blogging anniversary. She nominated her favourite post amongst the almost one thousand that she has written.

She also posed the question to all bloggers asking them to identify their own favourite post.

She told me that her favourite post on Peppermint Patcher blog is this one. This was a great weekend, and to those outside Australia it must have a touch of the exotic.

I don’t know if I have favourites, but there are two posts which cause me to immediately identify with a feeling/ emotion which I often read to myself.

This first is this one – the feeling is utter, overwhelming excitement expressed through something ridiculously trite which made us unbelievably happy.

The second is this one – the feeling is exasperation to the point of hilarity in a “this can’t be happening to me, I don’t live in a Monty Python sketch!” kind of way.

I’m so glad that I take the time to record my life. Our history books are filled with the lives of very important people. People who we are supposed to consider significant. I’m certain that there were people living very interesting, very challenging, very insignificant lives alongside those people who were equally as engaging. I hope that blogging captures that for this generation. I hope that blogging creates a history of the everyday that speaks for itself.

Blog on, people!

Simple Grace

My mum has been on holidays. While she was away she decided to buy a quilting magazine to read.

When she read the contents page she was surprised to see what was on page 16.

This is a republication of a quilt I made for Quilters Companion in 2006.

I love the way the leaves at the base of each tulip form a circle when they meet.

It goes without saying that my mother showed it to every person she met on her holiday…

A Quilted Garden

A client recently bought me an enormous hand-dyed piece of fabric and asked me to create a quilted garden for her.

I popped in some variegated thread..

then let my mind imagine and hands follow.

It was a pure joy…

from first stitch until last.

Funky Quilting

Today is a happy day.

I have met my other demands and managed to find some time to start quilting Funky Flowers.

The quilting is always my favourite part of making a quilt.

It’s making me love this quilt just a little more.

He Will Fly

How my son looks:

How my son sees himself:

That’s a healthy self-esteem…

Meh…

Just a couple of days ago I was having a think. I suddenly found myself with the perfect design concept for the new fabric that I bought. I drew up my plan and was ready to go.

First I found that I had less fabric than I needed. I modified my design to be smaller.

Next I found that I had less green than I needed. I modified my design to be browner.

Suddenly I found that the finished quilt was not the one I wanted at all…

This is not where I had wanted my frogs, fish and dragonflies to live.

The whole thing makes me feel… meh.

What will I do now?

My options are to unpick and salvage fabric OR buy more fabric and start again.

Is there a lesson to be learnt? Should I be a little less impulsive when an idea strikes. Should I try to develop the idea and plan better before I cut into fabric? Perhaps I should, but that’s not likely to happen. My impusivity success rate is pretty good. Most times I’m happy with what I make on a whim. Besides which, I need a few failures to remind me to be happy when I do manage to make a quilt that pleases me.

This quilt is now destined to be part of the backing for the quilt I originally wanted to make.

I hope the package of new fabric in the mail doesn’t take too long to get here…

You knew I wasn’t going to unpick, didn’t you?

In Good Company

Have you seen the current issue of Quilters Companion magazine? If you have it you can turn to the very last page to find this…

Do you see my name there? Right beside Kellie’s name. I’m pretty happy to stand beside her in a “Next Issue” box…

Last  night I joined lots of lovely quilters at Pompom Rouge for a sewing all-nighter. Those girls were going to stitch until 1am! I wussed out at 9:30pm, but even before I left some gorgeous quilts had been created. I bet those girls rocked on well into the night. I hope they all were able to sleep in this morning.

Today I am going to the inagural meeting of the Townsville Australia Modern Quilt Guild. I’m very excited to once again be in good company as we establish our guild.

I wish you could come along too. There’ll be yummy afternoon tea…