Living in a reno nightmare

Well, it's started. We've ripped up all the carpet and vinyl where they are going to be replaced with tiles. Can't wait. Anyone who puts carpet under a dining room table needs their head read!!

Tiles will be so much easier to keep clean and hopefully will make the area look bigger. The GREEN carpet just became too much to bear. Everything in this house is green (previous owners choosing - not ours). Green carpet, green and cream lino, green vertical blinds (oh yes - they did once exist), green wallpaper frieze ( commonly known as interior decorating graffiti). There is also green in the kitchen splash back tiles and not forgetting the green laminate on the kitchen and laundry benches. Oh God, we are sooooo over green.

We are going neutral with everything, which seems to be the best way these days. We can accent with colour then, and anyone following us has that option as well.

It seems what started off as a simple kitchen reno has built up to a whole house reno, and hubby even had the audacity to suggest we might start in on the sewing room carpet today.

Whooaa - not today buddy..... there is much preparation to do in there first, like hiding
everything in the already over-stuffed cupboards


When we pulled the carpet up, even the underlay was GREEN.

Textile Heaven

This past Friday I spent the day at the Textile Art Festival in Brisbane. It was very inspiring to look at all the art quilts and I was blown away by the artists' imagination and creativity.
There were heaps and heaps of threads and fibres for one to drool over and to buy of course. But with some of it being very very expensive the money doesn't go far. I managed to pick up a few odds and ends to use in my little arty farty projects.

The quilts from "My Place", a travelling exhibition, were the highlight for me. Quilts from Australian, South African, and New Zealand artists showing their interpretation of 'my place' They were incredible to see and I feel fortunate to have done so.

There was also a textile art competition called "Recycle, Reuse". It is quite amazing what people can recycle. One person had made Australian wildflowers such as banksias from cane toad leather. Another had made an entire woman's suit from plastic bags. This was the overall winner and the second place was a tapestry woven with old mens business shirts with the design being an iron and the words "busyness". It took a very patient person to do this one I would say.

There was a lot to see and do and I am glad I went to the inaugural Textile Art Festival and look forward to next years. In the meantime maybe I can get creative myself.

A new crafter

Our older daughter Bec has joined the ranks. This is her first ever crochet project and she has done a fantastic job of it. You might say she is hooked (oh dear) on crochet now and has gone on and made her little baby a cardigan. It looks very cute. I am so proud of her.

This rug is now Lili's favourite snuggle rug.

Hoarding

We are about to embark on a kitchen renovation which is really freaking me out.

Confession: I am a hoarder. The new kitchen, although re-configuring the space, does not afford us any more cupboard space. In fact, it may be slightly less, so I am in trouble. It's time to bite the bullet and get rid of some 'stuff'.
I find it really, really hard to part with possessions. Don't know why, maybe it's hereditary, as my maternal grandma was a chronic hoarder.
Our daughters can have whatever they want and the rest will go to charity. (I am sounding tough but will probably weaken when the time comes).

Today I ventured into the sewing room to take stock in there. Oh dear! Hoarding has really got out of hand here. Something has got to give, and I decided to sit down with the laptop and start cataloguing and putting into boxes, some of the 'stuff'.
It's the same old story everytime I go in there to get organized. I am sidetracked by some unfinished project, get an attack of the guilts, and have to work on it.

This is one project that sidetracked me today.

It is some old blocks that were going to go into a quilt for my mother-in-law, but it never got off the ground. I decided to practice some free motion quilting on them and make them into a bath mat.

There is always tomorrow to organize. Trouble is, tomorrow never seems to come

Quilter's Picnic and Quilt Challenge

Our quilt group held the annual Queensland Quilter's picnic last Tuesday and it was a great success. We gave the proceeds of the day to a local charity and I think it raised quite a bit of money (not sure how much!) Part of the day was the judging by viewer's choice of our challenge quilts. The challenge was a 24" x 24" quilt with the theme "Autumn". Our city turned out a beautiful autumn day for the visitors.

This is the quilt I entered. It is called "Autumn Sentinels". Alas I did not win the challenge, but my very best quilting pal did, so that is okay.

Autumn Sentinels
The birds are watching the colours of their world change around them, and the leaves falling from their arboreal homes.

Techniques Used:
Crazy patchwork and reverse applique ( by hand) for depiction of trees/falling leaves.
'Freehand Quilting' (by hand) for representation of rain
Needleturn applique (by hand) for the birds.

It took quite a few hours to complete!
The birds idea came from inspiration of works done by Cynthia StCharles who recently had an article in Quilting Arts Magazine.

I received this lovely white potted chrysthanum (sp?) from my youngest daughter for mother's day. She gave me a very cute one last year and when it was spent I just stuck it in the garden. To my surprise it came back beautifully to flower this year for mother's day, so I requested another one for this mother's day.

The top flower is a protea. I just love these flowers and you can dry them and they last for ages.