At last we have pictures...

One of the japanes text blocks is done... well almost - it needs it's English transation but that'll come later.

I was going to do back-stitch around the word but was worried what it might look like on the back so went with a running stitch just outside the outline. Turns out the backs not that flash anyway, but it's not that visible either so no matter!

I wanted to use sashiko thread but could only find navy in the shop I went to last week. Instead I've used crochet cotton or perle cotton and it works nicely. The translation will be embroidery cotton as the perle is too thick.

I really like the effect I've achieved (unintentionally!)... It has the appearance of reverse applique but it is a single piece.

One down, six more to go!

I tried to sit down at the machine to put the binding bits together last night but it was not going to happen. On Monday morning, before going to work I hurt my back. It was the most simplest of things - sitting in the chair at my desk and I used my feet to pull the chair closer and O-U-C-H!!!!!! I did go to work (despite Bryan's best efforts to get me to stay home) and even had coffee with Jeana on the way home, (it was OK during the day) but it's still sore so sitting at the sewing machine was not the best of plans.... It's on the mend now, so hopefully some progress will be made over the weekend.

In other news - the house stuff - we have decided to build a house and have put a deposit on a block of land!

Mum asked if we felt like "wealthy land owners"? The answer is not yet... We're more likely to feel poor than anything else - especially when the loan repayments start!!

We've also chosen the house that we want to build and are in the process of selecting bricks and gutter colours (how exciting?!). The taps, tiles and toilet are next on the list LOL!! I will be setting up a separate blog (over the next few days) for the house progress so as not to clog this one up with non-textile related stuff.

First stitches for 2 weeks...

Has it really been that long?!!!

I got started on the binding of Sue's Japanese Quilt on Sunday evening (after another weekend of house-stuff that I promise to reveal soon). I've trimmed the excess and squared it us (as best I can) and cut the strips ready to be joined for the binding.

I also made a start on the hand-stitching on the blocks where I didn't do any machine quilting - the japanese word blocks. So far I've just done a running stitch around the outside and will stitch around the the black letter as well. Finally I will hand embroider the English meaning of the word on each block.

A Correction...

My littlest-big brother, who is probably the biggest-little brother when you're talking heights (confused yet?) disputed my comment in yesterday's post. As Lac pointed out, I'm only about 1/2 a foot shorter than them (oops... I exaggerated!... I'm not that short and they're not that tall...) and that he's happy to be my 'little' brother.

Here's a pic of Lac quite some years ago...
This picture actually has all 5 of us in it... Mum on the left, Dad upside-down beside her, Lac in the middle, me upside-down beside him and Zac on the far right. ...and Dad took the photo somehow....

I've been tagged!....

Jeana from Unbecoming Lily tagged me (some time ago - sorry) with the six random things meme and so here they are, six random things about me:

1. When I was in grade 5 I fell out of a tree and landed myself in hospital for several weeks with a torn kidney. I was a climber and we spent lots of time climbing the huge tree in our backyard, but one day I got a bit too game and ventured out onto a branch that was dead and fell onto Dad's neatly stacked woodpile.
2. I love peanut butter and honey on toast. I discovered it at Uni and almost lived on it for 12 months during my first year of Uni whilst living on campus. We would line up at the dining hall and be the first to get in so that we could get our meal and then grab a box of bread, a tub peanut butter and a tub of honey. We'd attempt the meal and if it wasn't something that we enjoyed, we head off to the toaster and make our 'alternative meal'.
3. my fingers are double jointed
4. I have two little brothers that are both almost 2 feet taller than me - they think that that gives them the right to be called 'big' brothers HAH!!
5. My middle name is Rae - I used to hate it when I was a kid because I constantly had to explain that "no it's not a boys name, it's spelt R-A-E the GIRLS WAY!!". Now I like it.
6. I am a real sweet tooth and love my desserts.

I don't like tagging anyone so if you'd like to do this meme, just post a comment here with a link to your blog.

Itching to be stitching!!

The fabric arrived from Kimono House on Friday and is it just as I ordered! Actually it's better, as there's a bit of texture to it which I like (Sue and I chose some of the fabrics in the quilt because of their texture) and there is a slight sheen to it, or the illusion anyway, without being 'silky' or 'slippery'.

It's been sitting on the desk teasing me since then and so far I haven't had the time to do anything with it - too busy browsing through houses, talking to salespeople, crunching numbers and deliberating about what is the right thing to do! I'm thinking tonight that I deserve a break from it all to get sewing again.

I can believe how much I feel the need to sew. It was just less than a week ago that I was last at the machine or did anything creative and I'm getting withdrawals! Funny thing is, that it was only about 2 months ago that I had no inspiration to do anything and for the past 12 months I have only done the odd sporadic stint of stiching or creativity and even then I usually walked away disheartened and unenthused. Creating and sewing almost daily certainly drives me to want more!

Out house hunting...

I'm out house hunting - no time to post. More later....

Sue's Japanese Quilt - binding...

I decided that the fabric that I'd originally bought for the binding of Sue's quilt wasn't quite what I had pictured and so I sent an email to Kimono House in Melbourne (They have the most amazing location in the really old but interesting central city building that is like a rabbit warren) asking if they had any black(ish) fabrics with dragonflies. Leanne promptly sent a reply saying that she only had one fabric that fit my description and attached a photo...



PERFECT!! This is great! It features the little dragonflies that are similar to some of the other fabrics but the fabric is different to any that I have used. It also has the black and red which is the theme of the quilt (and I hadn't thought to ask for red dragonflies). I think that the random patterning will also create an interesting binding.

I rang yesterday and ordered this fabric, which was also interesting because Leanne is now overseas in Japan on a purchasing trip and I had to describe the fabric to the lady who answered the phone who then went to the shelves, found what she thought I was looking for and described it back to me. How do I know that I'm getting the right fabric? I don't but I'm pretty sure because all I said I was looking for was a fabric that had a black base with dragonflies - I left out the colours of the dragonflies. When the lady described it back to me, she mentioned the colour and so I knew it was right. Leanne had also told me that this was the only fabric that matched my description so I'm pretty sure that it'll be right. If not, it doesn't matter because the colours and the nature will be what I was looking for.

Now I just have to wait by the mailbox for it to arrive (I love you Australia Post - sending good vibes their way so that all goes well and the fabric arrives quickly!).

You will all be glad when this quilt is done and I can move onto something different I'll bet!!

The postie brought goodies today!!

My parcel from Magikquilter arrived today (I won a giveaway on her blog recently)

Whilst I am thankful that our friendly postie took the effort to get off his bike and tuck the package in behind the screen door, I still can't help laughing at the usual antics of Australia Post!

Magikquilter carefully packed the goodies into a Postpak Padded Bag which quotes...

"Padded bags feature an extremely strong and light-weight bubble lining. Ideal for packing items which require some protection from impact"

So much for the "extremely strong lining" and "protection" from impact - note the torn packet right under their promise!! Luckily this bag only contained soft fabrics and wools and not something fragile that might have required "protection from impact"!

Magikquilter has sent a lovely pack of goodies - lots of yummy greens in various sizes, some wools and some thrifted jewellery.

But my favourites are these oriental fabrics in a lovely sage green colour...

and this bag of little covered buttons in creams and whites

Now what to do with it all?...

BTW - my hand is recovering and the feeling has returned but still a little tingley. Thanks for your caring comments!

Ahhhhh!!!! (Breathing a really BIG sigh of relief!!!)

The machine quilting on Sue's Japanese Quilt is...

D-O-N-E ! ! ! !

After 2 hours of solid stitching this evening I finally got there. My audio book finished 5 minutes later so I'd say it was good timing!

My right hand is still numb an hour later - I'm hoping that the feeling will return soon!!

I can't celebrate yet though, there's still the binding and the hand-stitching to go (did I mention that I had plans for hand-stitching...) and some serious d-fluffing is in order too!!

The plan is to hand stitch around these Japanese letters and to embroider their English meaning on the panel. There's no machine stitching on these panels - there's about 9 of these and they're about 6" x 4" (I'm guessing here - too lazy to go and get tape measure).

The goal is to get this beauty (monster!) done by Christmas - there's still a bit of time left...

You are all too kind!!

I was so surprised today to come home and find 8 comments waiting for me to read!! That's never happened - 8 comments in one day.

Thank you all for your words of support. (except that nasty one from my lovely brother laughing at me for my losses - Thanks Lac!!)

I PROMISE to add more to My Etsy Shop soon. Ideas have been running through my head since I listed the quilt last night. I'm not giving anything away so stay tuned...

Today I launch my Etsy shop!!!

Apparently I joined Etsy in March 2006 but it wasn't until a couple of weeks ago that I actually spent some time browsing through. I think I've always avoided it for fear that I'd find too much wonderful stuff that I would need (not need, just really, really want!!)

Today though, I converted to an Etsy seller and listed my first item. Please check out my shop
here. There's only one item there at the moment, but I'm going to work on more.

This is my first item...

Scattered Leaves

Appliqued and quilted wall hanging

Hand-dyed cottons and pane velvet.

43.5" x 12.25"(115.5cm x 31cm)

Close up...

You win some... and you loose some...

Oh well... it seems that this was not to be our year.

WARNING - RACE POLITICS FOLLOW!!! (Ford fans may want to skip over this post)

We had a sh*tty start whereby we went from first to last without even crossing the start line. Add to that we were penalised another 10 seconds due to an apparent 'false start' (of which they were already penalised by being at the back of the field). The boys did a great job and got up to 11th at one point but the attraction of a concrete wall was too great and so we spent the last 60 laps or so with so much sticky tape applied to the front of the car it looked like a bunch of preschoolers had been let loose on it.

All was not lost, I moved teams (see how loyal and devoted I am!) and started yelling for my favourite Holden driving Kiwi, Greg Murphy (Yes I yelled at the TV) No, I'm not that bad... I have a short-list of favourite drivers that goes something like this:

• Mark Scaiffe - Scaiffey
• Garth Tander - Garf
• Greg Murphy - Murph
• and I like to keep an eye on the Kelly boys, Rick and Todd.

So, with my main boys down, I just moved on to my second fave. And Murph came through with the goods, coming in second - which I firmly believe should have been first because Lowndes (who won) wasn't penalised for a bingle with Murph early on in the race that caused a bent steering column in Murph's car. Given that numerous other penalties were issued for similar or lesser offences, it's surprising that this event went un-noticed. So in my eyes, if you took 10 seconds off Lowndes time, then Murph would have come in a clear winner.

I didn't get any sewing done. I was set up with my embroidery, and did attempt to work on it (twice) but I couldn't concentrate and was too focussed on the events on the track.

And Sue's quilt is still a work in progress. I am on the home stretch and will work on it throughout the week.

It's back to our usual textiley non rev-head programming tomorrow.

A hot date with the telly today!!

Today - yes all day - I have a hot date with the television. The "race that stops the nation" Bathurst 1000 is on today (well all weekend actualy but the big race is today). From 10am to 5pm we're set to watch.

We are fully prepared - we have snacks, we have beer, and I have hand-sewing (although there's no guarantee that I'll get much done as there's racing to watch).

And who am I barracking for???

GO SCAIFFEY and TANDER!!!!!!!!! My boys got pole position too so it's a great start for the race!!

Introducing Uggles

Uggles is yet another project from the "On-the-go" list that is now complete.

Uggles is a miniature bear that fits snuggly into the palm of my hand.

He had a difficult time during his creation with a slight decapitation incident (oops!) where his head fell off aftern I'd attached all of his limbs and stuffed and sewn up his body.

I obviously hadn't tied off around the t-pin that make up his joints so now his head is stitched firmly on, however it is no-longer jointed. But I don't mind - his cute little face is very forgiving (ignore that little gap in his nose - I've fixed that - I didn't really see it until I looked at the photos)

A word about quilting

As you might recall, a few weeks ago I made a comment about not liking the quilting phase, hence why I had several projects completed to that point.

I would now like to say that I am converting. I have actually begun to to enjoy quilting Sue's Japanese quilt. I think that this is for a couple of reasons...

1. I've managed to relax - this is aided by the use of audio books which give me something to concentrate on as well as something to keep me stitching (I loose interest without them). Somehow
2. I've worked out a 'good' speed that gives nice even stitches
3. I've worked out that I don't need to rush - I used to get panicked by the speed of the machine and feel that I needed to move quickly but this always ended in rough, jaggered looking stitches. I think that this is where the audio books come in because I can concentrate on the story and just keep my hands moving.
4. I've discovered that a rubber glove gives me grip and therefore more control. With the rubber glove, I can keep my hand flat but have complete control over the fabric and the direction allowing smooth lines.
5. I need to get back into the 'rythym' each time I go back to it. The time that it takes to get my rythm back depends on how long since I was last working on it. After a day I've usually still got it, but after a week or more, it takes me longer to pick up again.
6. Most importantly - I CAN do it and i can do it WELL! This is by far the most important factor because as long as I feel that I am doing well, I'm inclined to keep going. If I don't like what I'm doing, it's very easy to stop and hide it in the bottom of the cupboard.

And the news on Sue's Japanese Quilt?... Had I not run out of cotton I would have been finished with the quilting yesterday, but I did and so I'm off now to make the run for the finish line. If all goes well today, I should be all set to hand-stitch the binding on during tomorrow's Bathurst race.

Water Soluble Vilene

Soluble vilene would have to be one of my most use textile products. The one I use is called Mac-Rinse from Embroidery Source. (I have no affiliation - I just like the product and wanted to share my secret)

Embroidery Source has a factory outlet in Fairfield (205 Fulham RdFairfield, Victoria, 3078 Australia) where they sell "Commercial Quality Embroidery Products At Warehouse Prices ". I discovered this place when I was studying textiles and what a find!! They have machine embroidery threads in every colour (more than you'll find in Spotlight or Lincraft or most other sewing shops) and on bigger rolls. As they say, they are commercial quality and therefore most of what they sell are the bigger spools, but these are still workable on your regular sewing machine.

But I digress. I started out using Solvy which is a plasticy film that dissolves in warm water. I used this to do the sunflowers and wheat stalks in these two pieces.

Solvy is fairly flimsy however and when used as I did (stretched in an embroidery hoop) it had a tendancy to stretch and tear.



Water soluble vilene on the other hand it like working with fabric. It's much stronger and doesn't stretch or tear (unless you're trying to tear it). It handles heavy machine stitching and because it is fabric-like and white, you can draw your design directly onto it and the lines disappear when you dissolve it (as long as your lines are too dark).

I stitched this leaf using water soluble vilene. I use 2 layers because I don't have a backing fabric and I think that it's more stable for heavy stitching.

You can see how the vilene looks soft, just like fabric.

And now with the vilene washed out.

I didn't wash the vilene out completely because the residual acts as a fabric stiffener. I just wash it enough so that there aren't any white 'gluey' patches left.

The back...

In stitches...

I have no progress to show, and no useless trivia of note and so I thought I'd share some hand embroidery that I did early last year.

The point was to explore various stitches and used an excercise from Jan Beaney and Jean Littlejohns book Stitch Magic where you randomly select a stitch and a format and an arrangement to help you to explore hand stitching.

These are all 3" x 3"

Herringbone stitch - irregular - square (although not very square)

Buttonhole stitch - irregular - square

Detatched chain - regular - haphazard

Eyelet stitch - regular - square

Cretan stitch - irregular - vertical

I really enjoyed these little explorations and will have to try do some more sometime soon.

BTW - The supervisor thanks you for you lovely compliments - she thought she deserved extra treats for being so special!!

Aussie TV trivia

Did you know that Australian day-time television (free-to air that is) offers viewer 2 solid hours of cooking shows each weekday afternoon with another 30 minutes earlier?... I'm a sucker for a cooking show and when I'm at Mum and Dads where they have Pay-TV (and I have control of the remote) I sit on the Lifestyle channel most of the day. But I've discovered that you can now get an (over)dose of cooking shows without paying for TV - who'd have thought?

No I don't sit through them all, but I do manage to arrange some of my lunch time to coincide with at least one of them most days (shhhhh!!)

You didn't really need to know that - and that's why it's called trivia...

"The Supervisor" is a textile fiend!

"The Supervisor" a.k.a Tyler, our 7 month old Weimaraner pup. I call her that because when she keeps such a close eye on me at all times.

The Supervisor at 8 weeks - when we first got her

When she's outside she regularly come to check on me by running up to the window, briefly putting her (massive) paws on the window sill, checks that I'm still here and OK, pushes off and continues running. If she's not too sure that all is well, she'll stand back and watch for a while - she's just tall enough to see over the window sill without jumping up, depending on where I am in the room.

"are you still in there?... good! I'll off then... but don't go away 'cause I'll be back!"

On the occassions when I let her into the workroom I bring her bed in and that's where she stays - usually - it's either there or sitting at my feet waiting for pats!!. But usually she sleeps on her bed, or at least I think that she's asleep, until I get up or leave the room in which case she's up and at attention, on my heels ready to follow me wherever it is I'm going - don't want to miss out on anything...

"are we off somewhere?... where are we going?... is there food where we're going?... what about something to chase?... doesn't matter, I'm coming along anyway!!"

So "The Supervisor" seems to have developed an interest in textiles! At the moment she seems very taken by the wool that I bought to finish Bryan's slippers and keeps stealing a ball of it and running away to her bed like she does with all of her 'trophies' (I thought I'd put them out of her reach but she still finds them!). Some things she gives up easily but she really clamps her jaw around a ball of wool. Now I do intend to felt the slippers when I've knitted them, but I'm not sure how it'll work if the wool is felted before I knit them.

Running off with trophy held high (Bryan's thongs are also a much prized trophy and are starting to look a little worse for wear)

Other things she's taken a shine to is....

• anything from the fibre box - silk hankies, mohair, wool tops and silk tops
• threads - she finds threads dangling from the table and starts chewing (sometimes they're still attached to a roll) and threads on the floor she manages to gather up and tries to eat!
• bits of fabric left within her reach - I found her chewing (or was it sucking) on a piece of calico that I'd used to iron the cross stitch with.

Basically she's not too pciky - anything of value to me, is worth a go - probably because she gets attention when I try to remove it from her jaw...

The moral of this story?... keep the workroom clean or don't allow "The Supervisor" in (oooh she won't be happy with either of those options!)

And just for a siz comparison on the left is The Supervisor at 8 weeks and on the right at 6 months (and there's still growing to be done).

BTW There's heaps more pictures of "The Supervisor" over here at Flickr.

Yesterday...

Yesterday... I got about 80% of the quilting done on Sue's Japanese Quilt. I have sore shoulders and a sore neck but it's a fair effort I think.

Yesterday... I put up the design wall so that I can display some pieces of work and get inspired. It's one of those big sticky sheets of ??... ummm... well it's kinda like a thin sheet of quilt wadding that's sticky on both sides - one side sticks to the wall and the other you stick up quilt bits and other stuff and it just stays... well mostly. I've already had a few kamakaze pieces leap off the wall onto the worktable - perhaps they're just telling me it's time I worked on them...

Yesterday... I joined Blogtoberfest. This is the brainchild of Big Cat of Big Cat's Emporium who thought it would be fun to celebrate the month of October with festivities and blogorific fun! I think it has grown well beyond what Big Cat imagined but there are some great blogs listed there - you should check them out.

Yesterday... I cooked a yummy dinner - Lamb backstrap fillo parcels. Sorry, it was too yum to take the time to photograph it. I discovered the recipe (actually I combined two recipes) a few weeks ago and have made it several times since. The original idea was to try some new recipes, but it seems that each time I make this pact with myself I find a recipe that I like and just keep going back to it. Oh well, I did find (or make up) a good one :)

Yesteday... I discovered that Bryan didn't know what I meant by "deadly treadly"... I was mortified that a fellow Aussie didn't know this 'ockerism' (Aussie slang). I'd told Bryan that "I was going to jump onto my deadly treadly and duck down to the shops", to which he replied... "huh?". A deadly treadly, for the uninitiated is, the term of endearment I use when referring to my bicycle. I could have said that "I'm going to ride my bicycle down to the shops" but what's the fun in that? It got me thinking about all of the other 'okerisms' (Aussie slang) and 'Lanham-isms' (Lanham family slang) that I use frequently but that's a post for another day.

Finished...

As promised, the lovely lady from SJ Designs Beads sent me a little bag of beads rather than making me purchase a whole packet, all for the cost of the postage only. There were more than enough beads in it too! She also sent a catologue and I notice now, that the postage cost was more than double what I paid - now that's service!

Armed with my little bag of beads, it only took me about half an hour and the cross was complete! It's called Tapestry Dreams by Serendipity Designs and is stitched on 32-count linen. I picked this one because the sample I saw hanging up was in linen and then had to search the stall to find a kit with linen (all the rest were Aida).

I had to include a photo that showed the beads... Can you even see them down there?...

That's one more project to strike off the "On-the-go" list.... Today I'm back to working on Sue's Japanese Quilt. I'm hoping to get the quilting finished (don't hold me to that - there's still a lot to do!) so that I can put the binding on during the week (I still haven't decided on that yet).

Follow-up: Magikquilter asked of yesterday's "Why textiles?" post, "Do I do my art full-time?" Unfortunately I have a regular job to support my 'habit'. I work with a training company running their administration area and I do enjoy it (it's a small business with people who I like working with), but if I had a choice I'd give up work for full-time art anyday. I just know that I'd never be able to support myself if I did, and I'd have to get the 'motivation thing ' and the 'finishing thing' sorted too.

Magikquilter also asked if I still do the embroidery and cloth dolls. The answer is sometimes. I still have an interest in the cloth dolls but working with my own designs than other peoples (even though I really do love some of the patterns out there), but it's not a priority and so those thoughts are staying on the backburner for now. It's a similar story for the embroidery, I still enjoy it, but now I avoid working from kits and patterns and am working on some ideas there too.

PS. All of these recent posts are a bit misleading as to what sort of work I'm interested in now, but it does show where I've come from. I'll have to get some new work up on the blog soon though...

Why Textile Arts? - Part 3: Uni and Beyond...

Whilst at Uni my house mate and I both took up Cross-stitch. Needless to say we weren't much interested in Wednesday night dances or Friday night drinking sessions. We'd save our $$ by compromising on our grocery shopping (making do with 2-minute noodles instead of proper meals) in order to make a trip to Toowoomba to buy a cross-stitch pattern each. The cross stitch that I'm finishing now is one that I bought after Uni at a craft fair that I went to T with.


My next textile-related passion would have to be the cloth dolls. I became interested in cloth dolls during my first “real full-time job” after Uni. I was living on my own in a new town without too much to do in my spare time (still not a big one for going out – even though there wasn't much of a night life in Blackwater). I think that I discovered dolls through a magazine – it was either Bears, Dolls and Collectables, or a special Cloth Doll edition of the same magazine. I started out by saying that I just wanted to do one to try it. That doll is now hanging on the wall at Mum's place, along with several others that followed, so no I didn't stop at one. From the simple doll that I started with, I then went on to sculpted faces, wired armature and separate fingers.




I think that by this stage I new that sewing and crafts were definitely my 'thing'. Spotlight and the local quilt shop were my favourite 'hang-outs' as was the craft section of the newpaper shop (still is, but now I just browse and dn't buy – not so much anyway!). During one job I had I worked at two different locations and had to travel and stay away for two to three days each. I would take my sewing machine and the latest doll with me to work on in the evenings at the motel I was staying at – now that's dedication.

At one stage whilst I was working for Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service, I was relocated and stayed at a friends house at the beach for about 4 weeks whilst I found a place to live (all of my possessions were in storage). I needed to have something to do after work so I was working on an embroidery kit that I bought. This embroidery was raised embroidery and involved needle-lacing. This was where my love of stumpwork and raised embroidery started. During that same time I found a book called Hand Embroidered Country Scenes, by Sue Newhouse. Inspired by this book I created these two pieces...

This one is hanging in Mum's house (yes she has lots of my work)

And this one I gave to my friends as a thank-you for letting me stay.

This is the start of my real love of textiles and making threads and fabric do things that people wouldn't normally think possible. Over the next 12 months I continued with the cloth dolls and dabbled in embroidery. I joined a group at the local quilt shop where we'd sit and work on our own projects. As I was reading an issue of Textile Fibre Forum I saw an ad for Box Hill Tafe's Studio Stitch course and I decided that I really loved what I did with textiles and embroidery and wanted to take it further.


This was a big leap of faith for me. I took 12 months leave from my job, uprooted myself from the house that I'd established for myself and drove down to Melbourne with what I could fit into the car to attend a course on textiles and stitch. At the time I left Mackay, where I was living at the time, I had no place to stay and no idea what I was in for. I still to this day don't know how I had the guts to make such a decision. I still don't know how Mum stood back and let me do it. But I'm so glad that I did!


I have been in Victoria for almost 7 years now. I completed the Studio Stitch course in 2004, have participated in 3 exhibitions and have found the man that I'm going to marry (an added bonus). It's more than I could have wished for when I packed the car 7 years ago half expecting that I would be back on Mum's doorstep in 12 months time.

What happens next is anybody's guess but textiles are a part of my life and I will continue to explore and play!!!

Butterfly quilt

Time to showcase another work in progress from the "On-the-go" list. This time we have the Butterlfy quilt. This was started sometime in 2002 (I think) before I came to Melbourne and when "pretty" and "country" were my thing.

This quilt has 12 butterflies surrounded by pinwheels. I've blanket stitched around just over half of the butterflies and have about 10 from approximately 100 pinwheels finished - although I have lots in various stages of development. This quilt will definitely take some time to complete, but I do intend to. As long as I keep the pieces 'handy' I find that I can make occasional progress.

Piles of fabric all cut and ready to go...

On another note, I've discovered that I can include pictures in my "On-the-go" list and so will gradually be adding thumbnails of each project - more as a reminder to myself of what's left to do.