do I want to know why there are feathers in the dryer? We’re not talking a few feathers from the cushion cover here, we’re talking a handful of wing primaries and more. I am in fact a little scared to fold the washing in the basket … what if there’s a denuded ex-bird in amongst it? That’s been through the washer AND dryer? Then again, what if there isn’t – where the bloody hell did all those feathers come from? Could my darling daughter have stuffed a handful of feathers acquired from who-knows-where into a pocket? Wouldn’t I have noticed while I was loading the machine? Mind you, I would HOPE to have noticed an entire ex-bird too, but that doesn’t stop me being frightened of the laundry basket …
pirates. Pirate ships. Treasure chests. Skulls & crossbones. Connie got some new fabric in the other week which looks a little like scales and a little like cartoony waves, and I was waving it around talking about how great it would be for a piratey sea and Connie challenged me to make a quilt. And a pattern from it, more to the point, because apparently people grumble that we only do girl quilts. So, piratey ahoy … treasure maps, desert islands, parrots, gold doubloons, planks and sharks and so on. Somehow though I have to get the divine George Harrison out of my head in order to make a wee quilty for innocent boyos …
aw crap, now I’ve derailed myself again. I can never help watching a few more videos and listening to a few more songs, and then I get terribly wistfully sad because he was so loverly and he’s gone. PMT anyone? With a dash of perimenopausal.
El with Mumble, originally Marmalade, aka Mumblenads, aka You Bloody Idiot Of A Cat, aka Brown Cat. Brown Cat because it’s only logical according to El, since the black one’s name is Black Cat. Posted because it amused me that Jer & June had a Black Cat and Brown Cat of their own. BC is usually hiding, so I don’t have any photos handy of her – total weeniecat; she didn’t purr or even meow audibly until she was at least 10 (she’s 16 now, & Mumble’s ~14).
I’ve been thinking a lot about fairy tales lately, in part inspired by falling for two apple fabrics on ebay a while back (Snow White, of course). As usual, the subject of the original inspiration is the one I’m having the most trouble manifesting anything for, but the other night I was suddenly struck with an idea about Rapunzel. I was staying at mum’s and my sketchbook was out in the car, so I grabbed a sheet of paper off the printer & scribbled some half-asleep ideas down. Am I the only one struck by inspiration juuuuuuuust as you’re nodding off? Struck hard sometimes, and always when I’m super tired or it’s so chilly that getting out of bed pretty much sucks, so I lie there unable to sleep and trying to fix it in my head knowing full well it won’t stick properly unless I write/sketch it down, and kick myself for moving the bloody sketchbook that is supposed to be there for times just like these …
Sketch on cruddy printer paper, stage left. Bonus dryad idea, because I have some sort of Thing about dryads. See the massively craptastic barely-there sketch with scribbly notes at bottom left? That’s the sort of shite I get when I see whether my hands know something my head doesn’t about Snow White – the answer is “no”, at this stage, apparently, so I just have to stick with keywords and the roughest of rough concepts (apples, deer heart, the huntsman, and of course I inevitably think about Neil Gaiman’s marvellously inverted “Snow, Glass, Apples”). Onyroad.
Giving up on being able to get any of the fleeting images in my head to gel, I had another look at the other sketches. Disturbed by the vague resemblance to a guy I used to know, I scrawled “why does Rapunzel look like Roger in a frock?” just before I fell asleep … I wonder if there’s some subconscious thing going on there? Too funny.
this meme’s kind of interesting … done, want to do, doubt it
1880s reproduction fabric 1930s or feedsack fabric 3D folded flowers Afro American improvisational style quilt american piecing by hand {not my brand of insane, I’m afraid} american piecing by machine {I’m assuming this means regular old patchworking} Amish style quilt Anjii’s Angles baby quilt {if BH ever breeds, or I live long enough to be still around if/when Pookinator does} bag baltimore applique Cathedral Windows celtic applique/bias work christmas themed (quilt, wallhanging, stocking, etc) colourwash {well, sort of, in my own way, on El’s I-spy} cotton fabrics {almost always} crazy patchwork {I even enjoyed it – I even EMBROIDERED. By HAND. And most amazing of all, it didn’t utterly suck} curved piecing by hand curved piecing by machine {only played, but I have plans!} embellished with embroidery, beads, etc english paper piecing by hand {again, soooo not my defect} exhibited a quilt overseas foundation piecing full sized bed quilt had an original design published hand applique (needle turned) hand applique tacked edges {I’m not even sure what that means …} hand applique with fusible/blanket stitch {ick} hand dyed fabric (yours or someone else’s) hand quilting I spy {just the one, which is also the colourwashy one} item for an animal japanese design kaleidoscope or mandala (not stack and whack) {maybe} landscape quilt log cabin machine applique machine embroidered machine quilting made a prize winning quilt made a quilt on commission {did I mention I’ve got a commission? Woot!} McTavishing {maybe … and maybe similar quilting counts as McTavishing even if you figured it out yourself?} medallion quilt miniature nine patch non traditional quilt participated in a group challenge patchwork or quilted clothing pillow quillow quilt as you go quilted commercially with a longarm machine raffle quilt (all or part) reverse applique (hand or machine) round robin {I nearly forgot I did a CQ needlecase RR once} row by row sampler quilt {honestly, samplers make me itch, and I include Baltimores in that. I often appreciate the individual blocks, but I just can’t handle the “random stuff floating in whitespace” thang} sashiko scrap quilt {I use scraps, but I’m assuming this means pieced “scrappY quilts”} seminole {maybe} silk fabrics sold a quilt other than a commission piece {postcards count, right? heh} stack and slash stack and whack stained glass quilt (any method) stencilled quilt strip or string piecing taught quilting at any level tea cosy traditional quilt {maybe … all depends how you define “traditional”, I guess} trapunto whole cloth woollen fabrics written a quilt book
and then there’s Tanya’s “evil twin” version … I have to admit to being prone to the birdsnesty bobbin-tangles of doom, but other than that my main crime is the first on the list – forever jumping in the deep end & learning/figuring out/fudging as I go. Sometimes the clueless end is only because I decide I MUST do something RIGHT NOW and I can’t really ring mum or Judy to ask what the approved/usual methods are at 2am. Not if I ever want them to speak to me again.
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.
El with Mumble, originally Marmalade, aka Mumblenads, aka You Bloody Idiot Of A Cat, aka Brown Cat. Brown Cat because it’s only logical according to El, since the black one’s name is Black Cat. Posted because it amused me that Jer & June had a 
I’ve been thinking a lot about fairy tales lately, in part inspired by falling for two apple fabrics on ebay a while back (Snow White, of course). As usual, the subject of the original inspiration is the one I’m having the most trouble manifesting anything for, but the other night I was suddenly struck with an idea about Rapunzel. I was staying at mum’s and my sketchbook was out in the car, so I grabbed a sheet of paper off the printer & scribbled some half-asleep ideas down. Am I the only one struck by inspiration juuuuuuuust as you’re nodding off? Struck hard sometimes, and always when I’m super tired or it’s so chilly that getting out of bed pretty much sucks, so I lie there unable to sleep and trying to fix it in my head knowing full well it won’t stick properly unless I write/sketch it down, and kick myself for moving the bloody sketchbook that is supposed to be there for times just like these … 
CHITCHAT