By sion, on November 24th, 2009%
even in the appalling heat of late … I just don’t seem tohave a lot to show for it! Some gifts, so you won’t be seeing those for a while, some random stuff, some xmas stuff, and other than that it’s been experiments (some failed, many worked – so far – but are stage 1 of 3 or something) and doing some mini postcard workshops and the quilters newsletters and working on the website and so on. I made some gorgeous silk fusion and not-silk fusion (hemp, paperbark, pima cotton, soy silk, wool, etc) to be used for some small works, but I don’t have pics of any of it yet (not sure there’s much point … silk fusion doesn’t look nearly as awesome in pics as it does in real life, and you’ve all seen it before). I’ve done quite a bit of hand stitching – nothing spectacular, but certainly enjoyable.
I was totally head down bum up getting work finished for the upcoming exhibition, until Judypaint rang me to say “um, er, um, I’m an idiot, I booked the gallery for NEXT year not this” … I was so very glad I hadn’t gone ahead and ordered the roll of batting and other stuff I’d procrastinated on that day! lol So now I get a whole year to finish what I started and also do some work that I had wanted to include but knew wouldn’t get done by deadline. Yesterday I dyed two of at least 4 pieces of fabric for a series that’s been percolating for quite a while and finally got sketched and annotated recently; am hanging out to get started on those. I also got stuck into the official website, which is painful given that I’ve forgotten more than I remember about php and so on … then I had to stop that to concentrate on the newsletter and dyeing orders and a workshop, so I didn’t get very far on my modifications :p Have I mentioned before how bad I am at juggling? Bad. I am not the kind of woman people point to as proof of that theory about women and multitasking. I am a bury-myself-in-it girl, which is not at all possible with kids and dogs and phones and so on, and the older I get the less able I am to get back on track. I’ve been thinking about talking to the doc about my meds, see if there’s any chance trying something different might de-fog my brain. I did used to be sort of smart and even quick-witted at times, believe it or not!
Here are a few glimpses of the WIP in the workroom …
By sion, on June 1st, 2009%
now I just need to figure out how to quilt it …
and these guys at least have a watery home, even if I haven’t decided what’s happening next:
By sion, on April 15th, 2009%
 my baby girl turned six yesterday. She woke me up over the moon with excitement, opened presents, had breakfast, opened more presents, I finished the skirt I’d drafted wrong ~6 months ago so she could wear it to lunch, where she got more presents. We went shopping and socialising after lunch, then home for a few more gifts from her dad, dinner, and a few hours of playing with her new books. Very cool day, all in all.
By sion, on February 22nd, 2009%
how awesome would it be if I was one of those people who can get three quilts, two totes and a four-course dinner all done in the same day?
Unfortunately I’m utterly not that person; I’m the sort of person who redid the same blanketyblank load of smelly flood-soaked linens for the 3rd time hoping that it is indeed the charm, also washed the girlchild’s school uniforms and hoped the stinky linens haven’t contaminated the machine (it appears not, but I guess we’ll see if she starts emanating basement funk when she gets all hot & sweaty), sighed a lot while accomplishing very little in the way of kitchen-tidying, made one one-pot dish serve two meals, tidied the workroom so Mum & Laurel have room to play tomorrow, and wasted time on facebook. Oh, and got another zebra done.
here they are together on the background block. Probable background block. Maybe. Did I mention this is all seat of the pants? It’s all seat of the pants. That block may go back to being vertical, but if it stays horizontal, does anyone have an opinion as to the posing of the equines (are zebras equines? Surely they are. Whatever, I can’t be bothered googling)
 
 
or do they just look bad on the spotty background and I should save that for something less eyemangling like monkeys?
By sion, on February 17th, 2009%
making surprisingly fast progress on the underlying structure. Who knew you could wing it when piecing?
chucked a strip on either side of one of the wonko slices.
made a few blocks for possible inclusion:
   
playing with layout ideas ..
By sion, on February 3rd, 2009%
n because I haven’t written the list yet so I don’t know how many there are.
#1 is my baby girl, all Big and off to her first day of kindy today.
Everybody survived, too. She even got a sticker, which says “Good Work!” and which she was pretty chuffed about.
#2 is the arrival (FINALLY) of the new adapter for my laptop, so no more struggling with the constantly-crashing dinosaur of a desktop.
#3 is the concurrent arrival of my groovy new toy.
  
Is it not cool? Or maybe HAWT? I didn’t even know the handle swivelled when I ordered it. ~$25 at dealsdirect if you want one.
#4 is that the plumber FINALLY came today to look at the hot water system. Cactus (no shit!). Needs replacing (glad it’s not my money). Too late to do it today (bum!). Since I’ve been restricted to pommy washes since I discovered it peeing water all over the laundry, in the middle of a freakin heatwave, I wasn’t exactly overjoyed. I can (and did, several times) wash my hair in cold water, but I suspect that immersing my entire lardy self under an icy shower might result in an ungainly demise, especially when it’s about a billion degrees in the shade. He reckoned there was enough hot water left in it (even though it’s been turned off at the fusebox for 2 days!) to get me a shower if I turned the tap back on temporarily & just dealt with the laundry being flooded. Fine by me, so that’s what I did. I would have gone to mum’s to grab a shower over the weekend, but I was told the plumber would be rocking up when he was finished the job he was doing Sat morning – major wires-crossedness there – so I had to stick around. Getting hotter and sweatier and more revolting. So, I’m clean, I boiled water again for the girl’s bath, and the plumber’s bringing a new hot water system around at 8am tomorrow. The 8am part isn’t so groovy, but he’s cool enough that I can probably handle pretending to be human before coffee.
#5 is the hangers I’ve been meaning to photograph & post about since I bought them just before xmas.
I’m not sure what they’re supposed to be for, but logic suggests it’s some form of textile hanging. I think they’re from Nepal, or maybe India; I got them from the same woman I bought the nifty bamboo hangers yonks ago. Whatever they’re intended for, you know they’re going to be used for quilts … I told her she should load up on them next time she goes over, & show them to the girls in at Connie’s. Did I mention that they were under $10 each?
There. 5 cool things (8 really, if you count the hangers separately!). Life isn’t all bad.
By sion, on October 23rd, 2007%
 last week I went off to teach a workshop for the Long Flat Quilters, leaving my girl with her Nana. She’d only ever been away from me for one night before, so it was a bit nervewracking for all concerned, but by all accounts she was marvellously well-behaved and uncharacteristically biddable. I suspect the fact that Jungle Book was released (and, of course, purchased by doting grands) during my absence rather tempered any missing mama she might have begun to feel.
 The ladies were great, and my hosts were really lovely. I was a bit nervous re staying in some random stranger’s house in the middle of nowhere, but they were just terrific.
The days were a bit hectic & I somehow managed to end up with only a couple of photos of student work – and since I was having trouble with mum’s camera, even the ones I got are less than perfect. Others were taking pics, so I’ll have to beg copies.
I did get quite a few shots of the countryside, though, mostly taken at lunch on the last day & on our way out; I’m uploading them to flickr as I get them processed. The rust-dyer’s paradise in the front paddock, the river at various spots, the property I stayed on and the one which hosted my poor city car, hills and trees and wildflowers and so on. Here’s a wee sampling:
By sion, on August 10th, 2007%
I have a new student in my Monday classes, and – jumping right in the deep end – she’s decided she wants to do a peacock. We made a pattern from a photo and I got her started on some eyes. We had a bit of an issue with the colours; we were very sure there was no orange/red (as per our very old source photo), but we couldn’t quite remember what colour that section should be. Turns out after more research that we were right when we were looking at bronzey-goldy-coppery sort of colours, but we just didn’t trust our memories. In any case, I set her homework of tracing off all her eye sections onto vliesofix and doing some practise feathers to see how they’ll look with details stitched.
 Today, since I actually had a day at home by myself with nothing I’m supposed to do for someone else and only housework on my Really Should list, I decided to make a sample myself. Postcard-sized, because, well, just because. I overworked it I think, and I should have had either a feather or a photo to refer to instead of relying on memory, but the idea definitely works. There’s a little series of photos, if you want to follow the process along:
      
By sion, on August 7th, 2007%
So … anyone interested in coming along to a residential workshop? I’ve got the use of my sister’s sea change home up at Repton (near Coffs Harbour) for a couple of months while they’re traipsing around the Americas, and she suggested we could use the space to run some workshops. Residential optional, actually; just throwing it in to sweeten the pot for faraway peeps. The accommodations available range from a proper bed in an ensuite room > sleeper sofa > large daybed-type couches > assorted (good, newish) mattresses on the floor, so it would have to be first in best slept.
I’ll have some photos of the space to share soon, but meantime here’s a few datapoints about the place:
- 2 bathrooms
- new gas heater
- massive “great room” with 2 walls of glass/windows
- perched on a hill – verandah (with outdoor gas heater) off the great room overlooks the river & farmland & if you hold your mouth right you might even see the sea
- two invisible cats in residence (mentioned only in case of allergies – I seriously doubt anyone will set eyes on them)
- massive covered carport out front (great for dye/paint workshops)
- little shops a few doors up & over the road
- yuppie industrial kitchen, gas BBQ, or takeaway <15 mins away
- assorted home theatre appurtenances
- broadband
Workshops under consideration are the pictorial applique (usually 2 X 3 days, but we could probably do one long one if enough people prefer), fabric dyeing and fabric painting.
Time frame would be anywhere from Aug 17 through to end of September, so if you think you might be interested leave a comment on the blog, email, or ring me to discuss timing etc.
By sion, on July 25th, 2007%
these are the sort of fabrics I buy for use in the pictorial applique. I use my hand-dyes etc for leaves etc in the foreground, obviously, but some of these are great fussycut in backgrounds or as elements for building your own flora. The grasses in particular are very useful, as are various stone/pebble prints. There’s one more image of wood/stone etc textures to come. If you’re trying to choose fabric to bring along to a landscape & critters workshop, use these pics as a guideline – you won’t want anything too stylised, and you’ll want to try and have all fabrics with a similar style for one project. For eg, some of my commercial prints have a drawn outline and/or look a little like botanical drawings, some are more painterly & have obvious brushstrokes while still looking acceptably realistic, some are almost photographic. I wouldn’t mix all those together in the same piece, as a rule, or not without thinking about what sort of pen & threadwork I can do to make them play nice.
     
By sion, on July 9th, 2007%
I had some ladies up from Newcastle way this weekend, for a 3-day workshop. First one, so it was a bit nerve-wracking for me, but they seemed to enjoy themselves and claimed to have gotten a lot out of it. I think we all would have liked another day or so though – I get such a kick out of seeing people “get it” and start working independently and watching them get all excited when it works (Lorraine was bouncing around so much it cracked me up).  Mum managed to get some great background pieces dyed for them while we were working, despite burning herself really badly about a week ago, by using Dad as like “go go gadget arms” heh – scrunch here, pleat there, let me pour the dyes, ok squeeze there, rinse that, etc. One of the pieces she did (pictured above) is a wild technicolour bushfire, and since none of the girls pounced on it, it came home with me (shuddup!). How cute is this wee iron Lorraine brought in? I got a Clover mini iron a while back, but if I’d seen these first it’d have been a tossup …
I did manage to get a few photos just before they rushed out the door to drive home:
Anne:
  
Lorraine:
   
Judy:
  
they done good, doncha think?
By sion, on July 3rd, 2007%
Virginia’s wallhanging, completed.
 to the left, after stretching (photo taken by the framer). Below, framed (scuse reflections etc; this is why we wanted a good photo taken after stretching but before framing):
I’m surprised by how much I like it behind glass – I wasn’t really for the idea to be honest, since in theory it quells the very textileness of it, but in reality it looks great. Adds dimension even. It does give me a slight itch that it can’t possibly be touched/folded/draped/etc now, but I’m not as agin’ it as I wuz. The frame colour was an excellent choice, coaxes out all the subtle reds > violets.
By sion, on May 20th, 2007%
 not sure why. I got a bit swamped with prep for the show (another crop of dyepainteds to the left) & then I was exhausted & then we did it again for the zone get-together, and meanwhile I was trying to figure out the class calendar, and both Small Person and I had awful tonsilitis, and generally blah! Between being crook and feeling like I was going to smother in the mountains of STUFF all over my house, I’ve been a bit down I guess. The show & zone gtg were great though; I met lots of lovely people including a few online listmates & got to see some great quilts. At the quilt exhibition I found out that Sandra won 1st prize at the Wauchope Show (not the quilt show, the show show) with the wallhanging she did in my classes; I was tickled pink. I’ve got several weekend workshops pencilled in, Robyn from Port asked if I’d consider teaching at her shop, quite a few people asked for info on the classes at Connie’s, and an embarrassing amount of sunshine was blown up my skirt (I was wearing one, and all. AND proper human shoes!).
 Also at Wauchope, I bumped into Lesley, who had Asha’s WIP in her bag & wanted more fabric. I do like the stitching detail she’s doing – I wasn’t sure where she was going when she first laid out those strips, but it looks great.
I feel much better today. Mum & Dad came over, which meant I had to tidy the kitchen & dining area properly, so for an hour or so there was actually one neat, uncrowded spot in the house. Then Dad helped me move El’s new cupboards into her room, which meant moving a lot of other crud around, so the table was cluttered up again for a bit (clear again now, yay. Man, I get so sick of every available surface being dotted with junk … but guess who the culprit is? Someone about my size … if I hate it so much, why do I bloody do it?? lol). Anyway, so her room actually looks cute now, and I can finish the bedroom/playroom transition finally. I also finally got some shelves into one of the workroom cupboards the other day, which meant I could put away some of the stuff that’s been spread all over the floor in boxes and bags. Tonight I went through two boxes and two HUGE bags of fabric+, and from it got two slightly less huge bags of clothing + sheets + fabric to give to the salvos, a large bag of fabric to offer Margaret for the kids’ charity quilts she makes, and a mediumish bag of stuff I actually rooly trooly want to keep because I will actually USE it. I feel quite proud of meself. I did the same in my wardrobe the other day, and got rid of two huge bags of clothes I just do not, cannot, will not wear. You can actually see the floor in my wardrobe, and the hanging rod is no longer in imminent danger of collapse. I can give stuff away and not feel guilty, woohoo! Yeah anyway. So you can see the floor in the workroom too, now, and I’ve cleared off several surfaces, and it’s getting there. It’s such a relief to finally make some visible headway in The Great Rearrange of 2007 – suddenly inspirations are pinging around all over again, after a month or so stuck in the doldrums.
By sion, on April 23rd, 2007%
 when I woke up this morning – courtesy of a) a backache and b) one of my sister’s cats pretending to be a sodding great hairy spider tickling my arm – I decided to get up until I was a bit more relaxed, which is how I came to see this feller shortly after dawn. He was considerably bigger than most of the rabbits I’ve seen, but that may only be because most of the rabbits I see were likely to have been kits too ignorant to escape the cats/cars/whatever. OTOH, he didn’t look big enough to be one of the hares I see around occasionally, and his ears are set differently I think (you can tell I’m real up on my lagomorphs, eh? heh).
He kept standing up on his hind legs and peering around like a meerkat, and when he vamoosed into a bush which I suspect hides a burrow entrance, he actually flashed a little white bobby tail like in the storybooks. It was kinda cute, in a paranoid verminish sort of way.
 check these out … we had a wonderfully successful day the other day; obviously the temperature & humidity were perfect, the water was good, everything was fresh, and the gods were smiling. The dense patterning on mum’s delicious gelato-ish colours is really delicate, absolutely gorgeous.
My signature “Australiana” multicolours worked beautifully too.
I really have a hard time letting go of these sort of pieces, which is why these ones are mine!
 I’d nab these ones too, but my mudda yells at me …
now these are happy accidents … I was originally going for some muddy mottley streaky stuff suitable for tree trunks, but the red was very grabby & disinclined to merge so I’ll have to try for those tomorrow. What I DID get though was two lovely landscapes … the photos don’t do them justice, they’re truly atmospheric. I’m pretty sure these will both end up as wholecloth pieces.
 
and here’s my favourite on-purpose dyepainted piece from the other day:
I have no idea what I’ll do with it, but I do so love it.
By sion, on April 2nd, 2007%
Mum & I spent the afternoon experimenting with shaving foam, shaving gel, glue resist and so on. Much fun had, and some amusingly ugly (u-ug-leeeeeee) fabric produced as well as a few pieces of rather nice skies/landscapes.
Over –> thataways –> is a gel glue resist dye painting for use as a base for the SCQuilters retreat self-portrait challenge, because in typical fashion I have left it too late to do anything jawdroppingly exciting by deadline.
One of these light years I will actually grok that there are only about four weeks in the average month, and that each one of those weeks pretty consistently has only seven days …
 At this stage I’m not teaching again til sometime in May, unless someone makes a last-minute-but-doable request for an away workshop. Virginia & Noreen are well into their threadpainting and already planning their next pieces, which is pretty cool.
< -- Here's Virginia's work at the end of class Saturday.
and in case anyone was wondering what I was up to with TOTGA, he’s been taken off his background again and for the time being I’ve got him on the grey felt design board while I fiddle with all the midground bits & bobs:
By sion, on March 26th, 2007%
I’m tired, gimme a break :)
dad’s heart despazzified itself at stupid o’clock Friday morning when he was woken by his back going “out” courtesy of dodgy hospital beds & too long in bed anyway. Home & quite happy the next evening, although he did discover a couple of oopers we’d made when installing the DSL sis gave him for an early birthday present. Mind you, this is dad, so something entertaining to tease me about for the next few weeks and a network printer issue that took us all night (and I do mean ALL night) last night to fix is a kind of double bonus.
 Other than ballsing up something on one of dad’s boxes, I’ve had a pretty good weekend. I ordered a buttload of fabric for painting & dyeing on Friday, and got some stuff sorted out about classes & away workshops, made some progress on the TOTGA piece (no new photos yet), got the wireless networking up & running on the BIL’s “spare” mac (one of those funny-looking sci-fi/spaceagey ones with the flatscreen) so mum can play online while my daughter watches DVDs on mum’s emac. That warrants a damn medal I tellya, macs are WEIRD and do things all funny. Note pic of daughter “watching Cars on nana’s ‘mote tomputah” at left …
Um, also helped dad figure out some other weird networky stuff, and scored a bookcase for $10 and a 3-tiered wire rack for free, and Saturday’s class was pretty enjoyable & included a pizza lunch. Oh, AND I stumbled upon the missing poesy, so I can waver between squirming and liking the gooshy stuff I used to write about TOTGA.
ANYWAY. Pics from Saturday:
 Noreen … stitching started down in the mud. Tree at side removed to do so, and I rather like the composition this way.
 Virginia … we spent most of the day working on her background. She’d done quite a bit of homework making leaves and flowers and so on. She’s got to make a branch for the kookaburra to sit on and a few more morning glory leaves and I reckon she’ll be ready to do a bit of colouring & start stitching.
By sion, on March 17th, 2007%
my dad’s back in the horsetipple with a wonky heart rhythm again. We’re going to go stay with mum a few days, so I probably won’t be around much til midweek. Dopey twit waited for mum to get home from shopping, because he didn’t want her to panic if he rang to say he needed to go to hospital … mum’s like so, how panicked do you think I’d have been if I came home to find you …[superstitiously unspoken]???
heh he’s just rung me to say a friend’s mother is dropping some books to my place to take in to him please because he’s bored out of his skull. Can’t be that crook, eh?
In any case, her highness & I will go stay with ma for a few days after we go see dad, so no more from me til next week sometime. These’ll have to hold you over for a bit:
Jill’s castle (ignore big yellow balloon in corner):
Virginia did a monitor for homework:
& we were playing with a frillneck today:
and last but by no means least, Noreen’s mangrove swamp:
By sion, on March 15th, 2007%
one of my students found some fabric she wants in an old DUQ yearbook, so I’m just bunging this pic up so I can ask the supplier (Logan’s Fabrics) if they still have any.
 I added the numbers – we’re after fabrics #5, #6, and #8.
I’m still wanting some of that Sampou fabric with stars & wavy bits too, if anyone can help with that …
By sion, on February 23rd, 2007%
I bought these the other day. Very delicious pink, as pinks go, and I like the swirly ribbony bidness … no idea what I’m going to do with them. Especially the cutesy sewing notionsy one.
These I picked up today, after classes. I have no idea what they’re for either, but my brain went all buzzy with unidentifiable ideas pinging around in there. Abstracty graphical stuff is not really my style (reeeeeeeeally? Do tell!) but there’s obviously something fermenting away in there …
this though, I have no excuse for. I mean. It’s kitties. I don’t know, some twee little moppet in the corner of my soul just wanted them. The little vignettes kind of remind me of old-fashioned scraps – you know, the ones that came on a big sheet with just little tabs holding all the pictures together. You’d cut the little tabs off ever so carefully and do Big Serious Concentration things with your tongue while carefully painting Clag on the back then stick them into scrapbooks made of something akin to butcher’s paper. REAL scrapbooking! heh – none of this namby lignin-free, acid-free, archival malarky …
ANYWAY.
Isn’t this gorgeous? One of the ladies in Judy’s class was making a bedquilt with it and it stopped me in my tracks oohing and aahing several weeks running. She was going to figure out where she bought it (online somewhere) but instead gave me a HUGE offcut – like 40cm x 2.5m! – and told me to just take what I want. She even made a special trip in to Connie’s to give it to me, isn’t she sweet? I’m not sure what I want it FOR yet, is the problem … I have been trying to figure out if it needs to form part of the edge on the purple faerie tree, but I’m a bit swamped with other stuff so it’s just roiling away on the back burner for the time being.
Started teaching again today. I think a bunch of people got their dates mixed up – including one woman who actually paid a deposit lol – because I was expecting at least 6 (plus Jill, who should be doing “advanced” on Saturdays but works) and only got 2 (plus Jill). We got a fair bit done, although they seemed to lose their momentum towards the end of the day – the heat really takes it out of you, and there’s a surprising amount of mental exercise involved in working they way I do. One of the new ladies thinks she wants to do teddies or something for her big piece, which might be interesting if I can successfully steer her away from the stylised “here’s an applique teddy!” look. No reason the techniques can’t apply to interior landscapes, right? I did have a bit of a jolt when she said she wanted to do teddies, but it could be an interesting challenge.
Onyroad, so meanwhile, Jill is working on her castle. It’s looking pretty damn good IMO:
By sion, on February 3rd, 2007%
Not many photos this time; the core group have decided to just keep coming along until they’re finished and/or sick of it (two say they’re planning to come all year heh). Jocelyn did get her background mostly done on Friday though, and we laid the critters out roughly in position to take a pic:
I’m still working on my tree; bit the bullet & started stitching. Both sewing machines (mum’s new 6600P and the old 8000) are being bastards at the moment, but I’m persisting. Meanwhile, I’m off to mum’s for the night – I may do a bit more sewing this evening (or I may just NAP), but we’ll be making jewellery all day tomorrow.
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CHITCHAT