Sl,owly Getting There

Dreamaway Tree- For Sale $120 US ( approx 12 inches x 16 inches) SOLD

One more Teapot and Rosewater Jug done. I am making slow progress as I am also working on the Lutradur Book - which should be ready very soon.

I have decided to sell the tree piece - it measures 12 inches by 16 inches ( A3 size) is hand painted and printed onto lutradur and machine stitched. It is for sale for $120 US inclusive of postage.

My studio is so warm that it is hard to remember how cold it was the day before yesterday. It is very tempting to just sit in front of the fire and dream away. Speaking of dreaming- Creative Art Safaris and I are dreaming of a Syrian Textile trip April 2010 with another Morroccan textile trip in early May 2010. Check out the website for a dreamed of intinerary and also the philosophy of the comapany which belongs to my friend Fiona Wright and her partner. ( for any Brits- Fiona will be teaching at Festival of Quilts in birmingham in August). If you are at all interested come dream with us and be inspired and let your imagination take flight!

Wood Heater!!!

The woodheater I had on order got installed today.I am beside myself with excitement- such a simple thing, such a difference to my working space, such an empowering thing.

The box of threads are the threads I am using fo rmy travellers blanket, but now I have a warm work space I am anticipating a lot more work. I have to - there are a lot of miles to go before Munich!

Teapot and Rosewater Jug

Teapot and Rosewater Jug 7.5 inches x 8.5 inches For Sale $60 US inclusive of postage.

I was going to sell the occasional one of these as I need to get together a collection of them for my exhibition and i have done way too little sewing this last month, but I also need to earn my living. There has been so much going on on the house front, shed front and my family ( what i had hoped would happen ,won't, my middle daughter refuses to come home, refuses to say why arghhhh, my other two children are quite upset by all this as you can no doubt imagine, as well as myself) that I thought slowly getting back into something familiar would be the best way to go. However i got a bit too familiar and trimmed too much off this teapot and rosewater jug and so it's rectangular and not square as intended, so it's for sale.

I am having a wood heater installed into my shed- no studio! It's been so cold it's been too cold to sit and sew in there for any length of time- and certainly long sessions at the sewing machien are not possible. Hopefully it will arrive Monday- I can see myself sitting and hand sewing in front of the woodfire at night in the next weeks trying to finish the Travellers blanket and Palms of Palmyra.

Finally Some Sewing Done

Teapot and Rosewater Jug- for sale $60 US SOLD
I will blog longer tomorrow as we are a out the door to take eldest daughter to dancing practice for a formal. But finally some sewing done!

I am Still Here- Truly

Progress has been slow- life intervened in the most unexpected way. My middle daughter has decided that she wants to come home for awhile. So it has meant moving everything at break neck speed so she can have her sleeping space back ( just as well the shed is done!) and picking up gear and readjusting things to fit around. I have been a bit frantic at getting no work done on first the lutradur book and second my exhibition stuff- but had to set up onecontemplative space in the chaos- so this is my Syrian "research" corner. Am feeling a bit calmer now and feel ready to tackle the world again.

Went for a walk today which was pleasant despite the bad weather. So hopefully I shall be working again tomorrow!

My Place- A teeny weeny Glimpse

Here is a little tantalsing glimpse of the My Place quilts- a travelling exhibition I am co-curating with Anne Scott from New Zeland Quilters and Jeanette Botha from South Africa. There will be a website built when I have all the photos to hand and I will let you know that information when it happens. Meanwhile all I cn say is that the quilts , which measure 50 cm square are wonderful- lots of interesting interpretations of the theme- ranging from the personal to the landscape.

Thank you to all those who wished me wellin my new space.I have been strangely lethargic in getting my stuff into my studio- it's like all the stress of the last months has brought me to an almost screaming halt- Yes I have moved some things, but to move from a corner of a teenagers room into 54 square metres of space is like a bit scary and I want to think carefully how I set it up. My father and partner have given me their jarrah outdoor setting- lovely big table to work on but I had to go help my father pack it onto the trailer as he is not so young and strong any more, and as he lives about an hour away that took up some of the day, plus they have given me a bed- so I have set up my sleeping corner in the studio as well. I can break out my Syrian cushions! I will be able to burn incense without anyone complaining, I might even put in a pot plant or two!
I do hope to get to the sewing machine tomorrow!

Studio At Last!

The studio is all set to inhabit! I did the last coat of painting today and the clean- up of the floor ( we had walked in a lot of mud whilst working as the rain barely stoppd all week). I will move in Tuesday as I have to go to Melbourne tomorrow. So no new work to show but I hope to sew up a storm in the next five weeks before i go to Europe.

The photo is the view from the back of my block. The yellow flowers are Cootamundra wattle- considerd tobe a bit of a weed- but very cheerful on a winters day nonetheless. I have been sewing on my travellers blanket but it takes an awful lot of hand stitching!

The Reason for the Silence

The shed is almost lined!!!! It should be finished this weekend (fingers crossed)- and maybe I will be working in there next week. I do hope so because I am starting to get panic attacks about my exhibition. Not much done this week- school holidays here, school formal dress time ( oh where did I leave those dress making skills???)- I have ben taxi service, painter you name it - but not artist!

Sunday Rambling

My Travellers' Blanket would not be complete without a pomegranate somewhere! Have not done as much stitching as i had intended this weekend .However other things happened., Like a solution for my shed lining so I can move in there. I have had the insulation batts for awhile but wasn't sure what i would do about the actual lining until a neightbour said why don't you use plywood. I thought this was going to be out of my league cost wise for the time being ( as I still have to organise my hire car in Europe as well as my travel insurance), but we went the the hardware store on Saturday morning and we bought the plywood to line the shed and the screws to attach it. It gets delivered tomorrow ( it wasn't going to fit in my Nissan Micra!). All things going well we ( the girls and my eldest daughters' boyfriend and I ) should be able to get it up this week and painted ready for a shed warming next weekend- it will be such a relief to have somewhere to work! I never thought moving into a shed would be so exciting! However first we had to debug the shed and unspiderweb it as much as possible ( The Otways has lots and lots of spiders)

Then the weather was sunny today so after doing a little stitching my daughter and I decided to get stuck in and start pruning the fruit trees as they weren't pruned last year( we have a lots of fruit trees so there is a lot of work pruning them all) We got about 8 trees done. We have cut them all to a much more manageable height for fruit picking and already there is much more space!

Will I Finish it?

I had a bit of a shock today. My mother who never rings on her mobile phone, rang to say she and her partner had had an accident on their annual trek up north to warmer climes for the winter months. Fortunately they were not injured but very badly shaken and lucky nothing had happened to them, but their caravan was a write off- so they have had to abandon their trip.Thank goodness they weren't injured .

I have been looking at this Roman motif from Palmyra- i was intending it for a smaller piece for my exhibition but I am not sure I like it well enough- I am not sure there is sufficient contrast- though in the darker areas of the image more stitching will go in. My Travelllers Blanket makes slow progress- I almost feel guilty sitting and hand sewing on it- but it is a part of the story I am trying to tell and connects some areas of what i want to exhibit. Plus it's growing on me as it grows in size- I have to do 72 of those little embroidered squares ( 72 seems to be my destiny number - given my book is also 72 ways) and then hand quilt he whole thing. it will measure about 1 metre by 1 metre 20 or so.

I would have moved things into the shed had it stopped drizzling- we are being subjected to an Antarctic blast the like of which we haven't had for awhile, and being Gellibrand, drizzle capital of Australia ( or nearly so) it's been clammy cold, the type of cold that seeps into your bones and imagination.

Travellers' Blanket Growing

My youngest daughter and i went and had a bit of R&R for a few days at a friends house which was a much needed break. I decided to leave my sewing machine at home and simply work on the travellers blanket.We wathed the BBC seried of Pride and Prejudice several times!When I got home my slab had been sealed - hoorah. Now i have to work out how I am going to line it. Can't afford to pay a workman to do it at the moment, so it might have to stay as is for the time being. I do have the insulation material but not the plasterboard to cover it.

Kate who left a message re 175,000th visit- you need to email me, if you go to my profile you will find a button to email me.

Then I have been busy doing other things- like selecting My Place. It is always exciting to put together an exhibition, and one of the selected artists has offered to build a simple website so we can share the exhibition more widely and hopefully also find more exhibition space. So Once I have the all clear from South Africa I will be posting more information about that.
Now i have some serious work to get on with!

And my quilt View From My Studio will be coming back to me when i collect it at Ste Marie aux Mines in France. It won the Husqvarna Viking prize in the Concours :A Garden Passionately. It is for sale if any one is interested for $1500 US inclusive of shipping. It measures 1 metre square.