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.

Easter Serenity

Easter rain curtailed our activities somewhat and we ended up having a very quiet, serene Easter with our family. Easter Saturday we trekked out of town to visit my Dad and give him an outing. Where else would you go on a sombre drizzling day than a trip to a country cemetery.
We were chasing some family history. Our ancestors have been in this district since the late 1800's and the land was foreign and harsh to them. They hailed from Argylshire, Scotland and found themselves in a hot and rugged environment.
My great, great grandparents, Duncan and Martha McIntyre (nee Crombie) had eleven children of whom only 4 survived to adulthood.
One of these children, Dugald, was only 6 years old when he died, and it was on a December day in 1877. One can only assume it was one of our very hot December days, as poor little Dugald died of sunstroke. His grave has just been discovered at a place called Lagoon Creek where a huge coal mining venture is taking place. A representative of the consortium was seeking our permission to move the remains to the Jondaryan cemetery where his parents are buried. We do not have a lot of information about the other children Duncan and Martha buried, but believe most were in very early infancy.
We tramped around the cemetery in the misty rain and black mud and found the graves of our ancestors. We took photos to pass onto the coal mining company to give them an indication as to where Dugald is to be moved to. Adjacent to the graveyards was a beautiful little church. Made from wooden slabs with cute little arch windows down both sides and a simple effective stained glass window behind the elaborately carved altar,
My Dad really enjoyed this 'different' kind of outing and it was also good for some of the younger family members to learn a little of their heritage.

A Painful week

Not much of anything goin' on around here the past week.
Sparing you the boring details, I have had a 'flare up' of a pre-existing condition and it is not good. I don't cope at all well with being unwell. Tasks have to be done in little bits, so sewing and quilting have had to take a bit of a back seat while I struggle to do the basic chores. Anywho, I am sure it will pass soon, and a warning to all quilters and sewers, take it easy on yourselves. Do not, I repeat, do not sit and sew for too long in one session and give yourselves regular breaks. Seems I will never learn this!

In the evenings, I have been just sitting in short spurts and doing little tasks that always seem to get pushed to the side, like cleaning out ones sewing basket, cleaning out ones handbag, sorting out recipes (and chucking out recipes) etc. etc.

Hopefully after some treatment next week, I'll be back on track and able to continue work on my challenge quilt for quilt group. It is coming along well, and will be a constant reminder to not overdo things ever, ever again....... do you think??

Soon to get my home back

Well, the pre-fab buiding is in it's place and over Easter Hubby and I will set it up as his new office. It was a bit scary when it was swinging over the house on the crane, so I got out of the house and took some photos.
Yippee, I have the guest room back, and the formal dining room back. We don't use the formal dining room - it's just for show-LOL - but it looks very ugly at the moment with building plans all over the table and hanging off every bit of furniture.

Guess who loves loves loves her bath time?







Here she is talking to her rubber ducky. Awww, she is so cute !