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Quilt finished!I am obscenely pleased with myself. It's unseemly, I know. But I feel this quilt combines the best of the plan and buy approach to quilting with the use what you have economy approach. Let me explain.
When I went to the quilting expo here in Melbourne back in January I lucked upon some bundles of Japanese print offcuts. The pieces were small - about 14cm squares - but the patterns were gorgeous and the price was exceptionally good. I couldn't pass them up, so I bought 3 bundles of 10. I wasn't really clear how I would use them at the time, so they became part of the stash.
Over time the idea of a Japanese quilt took hold, just a small lap one. I even had a recipient for the project in mind (though that's still a secret for now). I wanted something super plain and elegant, so the fabrics themselves could really shine. So I had to buy in the backing and wadding, but I found some good quality plain indigo that was really well priced and pure cotton batting.
I constructed a basic grid to get maximum value from the prints and used the same indigo in the grid as I did for both the backing and the binding. It really helps the beautiful patterns to really jump out at you. I machine quilted each sqaure using different stitches, so when you look at the back there is a really interesting grid of patterns too - straight lines, spirals, stars, waves and freehand.
I am actually pretty amazed with the result I have to say. There is still a long way to go before I am producing the kind of pieces I admire here in the blog craft community, but I am very happy with my progress. One of the things that this project has taught me is that I am totally hopeless at colour co-ordinating. In this project all the work was done for me when I bought the bundles, but in thinking about other possible uses for the prints, and new quilt projects I am prepared to face up to what I have for years suspected to be true, I just can't create colour harmony.
And not just in craft. I frequently ask Dave whether I can wear certain things together, and his answer is usually no. He'll change my shoes or scarf or something to get rid of some awful clash. And not because he's a fashion guru either (his uniform of black jeans, workboots, a T-shirt and a shirt has been entirely resistant to fashion trends for the 13 years we've been together), it's not a style thing. It's absolutely that the key to combining colours into an overall pleased effect just utterly escapes me.
So there, I've said it. I'm out of the closet. I'll craft till the cows come home, but I am beginning to accept that the colour gene just passed me by. I'll stick to my plains and monotones, and let Dave choose all the paint colours. So given my colour disability I am doubly pleased with the quilt. I can't wait till I give it to it's new owner! MaxetteSo here's Maxette - I love her! I kind of wish she wasn't part of my package going off for the April colourific swap-o-rama but I hope she'll be loved in her new home as much as she's been loved here. Amy is very sad to see her go. She's beginning to learn to ask whether new toys are for her or 'going to the shop' before she gets attached to them. I'm kind of impressed that my three year old doesn't chuck more wobblies as she sees her new friends trot out the door and out of her life.
I've bitten the bullet too and started building a proper website. Sheesh it's hard! I hope to be sending you all over there soon, but unless I can at least get the links working I'm still hiding it out in the closet. Can anyone tell me what I'm doing wrong that my HTML code doesn't know where my link ends? Use what you have on FlickrTold you I was sick for it! If you like the idea jump on over to Flickr and join the group http://www.flickr.com/groups/usewhatyouhave/ Use what I have monthYesterday's post really got me thinking. It got me thinking about how maybe Australia is a bit of a make do kind of culture, you know the bush frontier and all that. It got me thinking about the crafting of the past generations of my family, and it got me thinking about the role of craft as an alternative to buying stuff.
All day I've been thinking about how my 'make do' thing is really ingrained. But not in a bad way. In fact I am really quite proud of the way in which I can turn scraps into something useful. I'm not saying I don't buy stuff, I'm not on a soap box because buying fabric in particular and craft supplies in general is my one hedonistic consumerist obsession, but my idea of craft most definitely comes from making the things you can't afford to buy.
Whether it's baking a cake, sewing a skirt, threading a necklace or making a quilt I have inherited my drive for economy from the generations of my family who couldn't have had beautiful (or delicious) things if they couldn't make them out of what they had. When it stops being cheaper to make it than buy it, it starts to get harder to maintain my inspiration. Not completely, since robbing your average corporate chain store of an extra buck gives me great delight, but in the main I feel especially good about my craft when I think my grandma would approve. I love it if it involved recycling, reusing and not consuming more - making do with what you have.
So all day I've been thinking this and then I read simplesparrow's post on using what you have http://simplesparrow.typepad.com/simple_sparrow/2006/03/use_what_i_have.html#comment-15071361
What a fantastic idea! For the month of April I will not buy new stuff, but choose instead feed my creativity solely from the mountains of stuff I already have. So who is going to join us? How about we set up a Flickr group for the things we make using what we have? I think I'm getting stupidly excited about this...
* Update - told you I was sick for this idea! If you like the idea jump on over to Flickr and join the new group http://www.flickr.com/groups/usewhatyouhave/ Something of substanceIt's been such a long time since I wrote anything of substance here. I have excellent excuses, believe me, but still. Reading Lynn http://yarnstorm.blogs.com/knitblog/ and Liesl http://disdressed.blogspot.com/ post on quilting and Denyse Schmidt has inspired me to add my two cents.
I'll start by saying I adore the DS quilts - though my viewing has been limited to the online adventures of others since I can't even get a hold of any of her books down here in Oz. Back ordered months ago to no avail. I'm sure I'd adore her fabrics if I ever laid eyes on them, but I'm not holding my breath I ever will in my home town. Despite living in the second largest city on this continent, we are still a backwater in many crafting ways. Just this morning I spent hours trawling for a supplier for Staedler Mastercarve Artist Carving Block so I could make myself some stamps like every other online crafter does at the drop of a hat. Unless I want to pay more than twice the cost of the product to get it shipped to me then the stamp venture is just a dream. But I digress.
I have always felt kind of out of the loop when I read the posts of crafters, and quilters in particular, about fabric ranges and designers. Despite a lifetime of fabric purchasing and sewing I have never known the names of fabric designers (with the exception of the outrageous Ken Done who was the object of great nationalistic pride in the 80's for making distinctly Australian stuff). I have always shopped by visiting a range of stores and fishing through large amounts of random stock in the hopes of finding good stuff. And despite some excellent finds over the years, compared to my experiences in other countries the textile market here is limited and haphazard at best, poor qaulity and overpriced at worst.
I've never really made a quilt in the pattern, plan, shop mode. I started quilting because I couldn't stand the wasteage that came from my dressmaking. I couldn't bear to throw away the chunks of gorgeous and expensive wool suiting, the scraps from silk shirts that were too big to give up but too small for a scarf. As the years rolled on I accumulated more and more and like generations of thrifty women before me I searched for uses for them. It was something of a relief when my friends started having babies and I could find a home for a small play mat or cot quilt.
My quilting and patchworking aspirations grew in size to doona coveres and lap rugs, but they didn't get more complex - I still was stuck in the economy mindset. I used simple (SIMPLE!) geometric designs that allowed me maximum fabric value with minimum sewing. If I wanted something a bit more decorative I appliqued on something simple. The only time I ever purchase purpose specific fabric is for backing - and even then only reluctantly. I've even been known to use old fabric for batting, something I am sure a real quilter would gasp at. I bought my first ever quilt specific fabric in Thailand and I am so unfamiliar with the process from here that I am paralysed by indecision.
So it has been interesting for me to see what others do. I am in awe of the work they produce, the thought they put in and choices they make over fabrics and shapes and piecing and quilting stitches. Check out just a few on my recent favourites - http://steph.sicore.org/archives/2006/03/studio_friday_e.html#comments, http://weewonderfuls.typepad.com/wee_wonderfuls/2006/03/i_speak_for_the.html#comments, http://smallhand.blogspot.com/2006_02_01_smallhand_archive.html#113927145172827443 . I aspire to do something as wonderfully interesting and creative, but like Liesl I still see quilts as the product of other things - found and recycled fabrics, left overs and hand me downs, designs based on getting the bits you have to fit together - of the instinct to make do. So while I aspire to do more and emulate my quilting heroes I think my pragmatic spirit will always win out. I think I'm just destined to be a make do kind of crafter, feeding my stashes and tools with chance finds and thoughtful gifts and lots of reading about other people's more structured forays....perhaps this is just another facet of being a dabbler (http://peasoupoftheday.blogspot.com/2006/03/what-am-i-where-am-i.html)? Happy birthday presentI love pearls, not the regular string of with twin set thing, but more contemporary looks. Ever since I was pregnant with Amy, I have always thought of pearls as the ultimate symbol of motherhood - you get this little thing inside you that irritates and hurts, and you try to form a smoothness around it and then this magical perfect thing is born from all that friction. You know they are the only jewels to be produced by a living organism?
So I try and make jewellery with them that has some symbolic or metaphoric relation with motherhood, or parenthood. For example I have a simple necklace of two perfect shiny pearls, with a tiny unpolished seed pearl in between and when I made it I always thought of Dave and me flanking a tiny Amy, as yet unworn by life.
Sunday fundayMy sister in law Cath came over for a craft session on Sunday. Very please with Terrier Max - made from felted wool jumpers, and a new pair of multi multi coloured leggings for Amy. They sure will go with anything you care to pull out of the wardrobe. I really like crafting with someone - so much more fun than crafting alone. I think Cath's input on noses and and collar details made all the difference to the final product. I am getting very excited about our craft weekend away in May! Crafting weekend!Ok friends, looks like we may be on an organisational high and actually get this idea up and running.
The idea is a weekend away, blessedly childfree, to sew, knit, quilt, felt, crochet, bead, draw, paint or do whatever craft floats your boat. You can come and get onto the projects you've been dying for the time to start or complete, or you can come to learn from others and expand your whole crafting world. While book reading, bracing walks, food preparation or general laziness will be perfectly acceptable, the focus of the weekend will be the craft, so if you aren't into actually doing stuff you probably will find the whole thing a bit naff and think us crafters are all a bit uptight and unable to relax.
You'll need to bring whatever materials and tools you know you will need for your chosen projects. And if you are into teaching or learning you can let the other participants know. We can circulate our interests and skills before we go. For example if you really want to learn how to say do paper mache, you could email everyone and say I want to learn this, does anyone else want to teach me? You might find not only someone who wants to teach, but others who want to learn too. Or if you plan to come and do beading you might offer to teach anyone else to do the same. If there is interest in this we could organise for materials kits and the like ahead of time.
We'll also try to organise for car pooling where possible, since it's a hideous waste of resources to see all those cars driving around with all that empty space in them and some of us don't drive and because a drive is a great opportunity to get to know each other better and building our crafting community is an integral part of what the weekend will be about. We'll also work out a meal sharing kind of deal so we don't end up with 27 dessert and no real food or a whole lot of people trying to cater the whole thing for themselves.
We have a venue in mind, it's called Lochinever Farm, it's just near Castlemaine (about 2 hours drive from Melbourne). It has roaring wood fires, a country kitchen, piano, cottage garden and spacious living areas. The farm sleeps up to 10 people, and the nearby cottage sleeps up to another 4. The cost may be as little as $50 per person per night (depending on sleeping arrangements), Final costs will be available when we book the venue.
The most likely time for this great escape is sometime in May (maybe the weekend of Friday 5-Sunday 7 or Friday 19-Sunday 21?). I know that seems like a long way away, but trust me it isn't. It takes a long time to organise a whole bunch of people who have lives and all and if it goes in the diary now it should give you enough notice to make sure nothing else gets in the way.
So are you interested, do you know anyone else who might be too? Send me an email right now! Make sure you let me know which weekend is your preference so we can try and book the venue as soon as possible. Note to self - and all the other parents out thereHow important is this? Making time for painting and drawing, building rituals for including creativity in our interactions with our kids. I promise I will try and make space in our busy "hurry up, we're late!" and "I'm tired and grumpy" world to treasure the time we spend doodling. And to teach my girl that what she puts on paper is important and fun and just as worthy of 'good' art materials as the stuff mum and dad do.
How much am I loving the Whip up site? Painting in the afternoon sunI've never been much of a painter and despite enjoying the fine art of the doodle I am singularly lacking in talent in the depiction arts. Not so Amy, who is a compulsive drawer and painter. Here she is on the deck on Sunday afternoon, very proud of her work. Notice the thriving veggies in the background. I'm pretty proud of them. Oh my - what a fabric buy!I want some - the 60s-70s range, the Japanese - heck I love it all. What a wow. http://www.reprodepotfabrics.com/fabrics.html
I am writing my thesis. I promise. Just a small distractionBusting a gut to work on my thesis as time bears down, but I just had to sneak in a quick post on a most satisfying little project Dave and I worked on together. He bought two chiais for $30 covered in split green vinyl at a second hand shop and we recovered them in this great black and white cotton hatch. I am so pleased with them. The fabric came from my Thailand stash, and our only problem now is how we'll get more to cover the next chair find we have! The before photo is shot in the rain on our deck - the after under a cloudy sky (notice that ripe plum just begging to be picked!). SpeechlessYay to Kath Red - not only has she powered up the Whip up site (http://whipup.net) but today she has just filled me with joy. Check out her post on the special powers of handmade things http://whipup.net/2006/02/01/handmade-things-have-special-powers/
If you've ever crafted anything you should feel proud, and if you haven't you should feel inspired to get on the bandwagon QuiltsIt all started when we went to the cotton loom in Thailand and I fell in love with the hand woven fabric they made there. I was so overwhelmed by the choice - every colour and pattern so wonderful - that I restricted myself to remnants. In two shades of green, one lilac and one red/black cross weave that looks like plum I bought something like 8 meters. Perfect for a quilt. I was thinking something like the plain spoken quilt from the Modern Quilt Workshop that Hilary Lang had just finished http://flickr.com/photos/hillarylang/43322019/in/set-340976/.
When we got back to Melbourne I started to think about the enterprise in earnest. Then Blair Stocker http://www.typepad.com/t/trackback/4096068 started on the squares from Denyse Schmidt's 30 colourful projects and I fell in love with that too. I only have the 4 colours, and the texture is so unique how would I ever find something to back it with? Reading through the Modern Quilt Wrokshop I fell in love with the red work quilt and the love beads, and I just love the idea behind the story time quilt.
And because I couldn't get the Denyse Schmidt book I went and bought Rosemary Young's The Amish Circle Quilt. Like I didn't have enough inspiration. Wow, what a concept. A group of 11 friends write a circle letter - one where you read the letter, add your news and send it on - and with each addition they also add a quilt block depicting an aspect of their lives that week. After 11 circuits they have the most amazing story telling quilt. I so want to turn this idea into an actuality - not sure how but watch this space for a circle quilt project!
By this stage I'm starting to realise the true implications of my growing obsession - my old very basic machine primary amongst them. Does it have feed dogs that drop? What are feed dogs anyway? Can I stipple? Can I get a walker foot for my machine and how much would it cost? Is the neck of my machine big enough for a full size bed quilt? I need a rotary cutter but how do I decide which kind, how big, I need mats and templates and rulers and my head is starting to spin.
And then I come home on Friday from a wonderful child-free moment seeing memoirs of a geisha (which is really increadibly beautiful but rather shallow compared to the book. Of course...) and my wonderful Dave has spotted an item in the paper that the Australasian Quilt Association expo is on. Quilts from all over the world including some wonderful old Amish ones. How synchronous it that? Check out the photo album on the right for quilt pics. Sadly there were no photos allowed of many of the older and more dazzling quilts. (The album also has some shots from my walk to the expo - a wonderful summer day on the banks of the Yarra river - I especially love all the kids playing in the fountain)
So I've just returned with a swath of new gear, and a bunch of small Japanese remnants (why do I think more fabric can solve any creative crisis??) and a mind full of wonderful quilts. I'd also like a new very expensive sewing machine and a new room on the house to house all the fabric I would have liked to have bought. But I also have resolve. And yes - my feed dogs drop!
Watch out quilting here I come. As soon as I have finished my thesis darft that is... About 6 months too lateWhen I very first got craft blogging, the Month of Softies group were making their sock monkeys. I was in Thailand at the time so my access to socks was pretty second rate and besides I wasn't quite up to the challenge of participating quite yet. So now I've finally come to the party with my own sock monkey. 6 months too late, but there you go. It's not a patch on Lyn's from Molly Chicken (see the gallery of Month of Softies on Flickr.com), but Amy's pretty impressed. As a trivia note - did anyone else catch sight of the sock monkey owned by a young Anthony in the Sopranos? PartyWhen I offered to organise a party for Dave's 40th birthday I had this vision of the kind of things those people who appear on Oprah do. Things that match. Decorations. Themes even. Stunning, innovative party foods. Glassware for all my friends.
The thing is I don't even know why I thought like this - we are so not those kind of people. Don't get me wrong, we are entertainers of the highest order. We have people over for dinner all the time, I host my mum's group every second week, I am always cooking and baking and shovelling food into people's mouths and making cups of tea. My daughter always asks who is having dinner with us.
But we live a very casual life. Most of the people who eat here do so at a seconds notice. When I realise I have more dinner than I need I get on the phone. When I have been home alone for more than 5 hours straight I start flicking through the address book. And at this time of year a sunny day almost always throws me into BBQ mode, and a BBQ seems kind of pointless without visitors.
But if you eat at our place you usually end up chopping up things for the salad or stacking the dishwasher or stirring the risotto. I will have no qualms about asking you to stop on the way and pick up things I forgot (like milk or cream or bread). If you eat with us you eat like family, not like guests. I expect you to help yourself to drinks and food and not expect me to remember that I'm the host.
And really, our friends would have to know this about us by now, wouldn't they? No one is going to be surprised or disappointed to turn up to a party here and find we don't have tablecloths and we haven't hired glasses. Or that they will be served the same old food they might get here on any other occassion, that there are no banners hanging from the ceiling or other fabulous creative touches.
Surely our guests all know we have a small child, and that Dave is teaching and I'm trying to meet a thesis deadline and everything is going to be done on the fly in between the rest of our daily commitments. No one thinks I've got hired help or a flair for events organising or an unlimited budget.
So while the numbers are kind of scary (the idea that all 38 invited kids will turn up makes me feel a little dizzy) I just keep reminding myself that I've never undercatered for anything in my entire life and since all our friends are such nice people I am sure that if it worse comes to worst they can still have a good time drinking wine out of plastic cups whilst crammed into our little house looking out on our wonderful backyard in the rain.
So I'm not even a little bit worried and I don't feel in the slightest bit like a failure. Food, drink, friends. Do we really need anything else? Corners in my homeI can't even tell you where this thing started but all my blogging heros are doing it so I'm getting on the bandwagon. Here's the space where I sew. It's as tiny and scary as it looks - it's actually part of the closet space we have behind our bed! I have only recently got the craft supplies/fabric stash remotely under control so it looks organised, but is way too crowded and dark to really enjoy working in. To take the photos I am basically sitting on top of the computer I use for working from home...
I'm also going to respond to the wonderful Liesl and Suzy who leave comments on my posts and I'm never really sure the best way to answer a comment since my blogg doesn't always give me email addresses ...
Firstly the anniversary of blogging - to be honest I don't even recall the date I started, since I created this blogg long before it ever became an important thing. I think I posted 3 or 4 times in the first 4 months as I planned the blogg as a way to document our trip but because I am a compulsive preparer I started the blogg too early and then didn't have much to say. So it's kind of hard to feel like there is a milestone to celebrate..perhaps around the 5th of June when we arrived in Thailand and the blogg really started in earnest. But my goodness it's really so exciting to be noticed! :-) Thanks Liesl!!
Now the thesis thing. As boring as you can imagine, it's kind of my dirty little secret for my crafting self (just like my craft is a kind of scary alter-ego in my uni life). I am doing a Masters in public policy and my topic is work and family. In a previous (pre-child) life I used to be a government worker. I've done all kinds of work, but I have consistently been drawn to the public sector for all kinds of daggy reasons, like wanting to 'serve' the public.
But post baby, my work life and home life just didn't mesh. This led me to be interested in what the whole work and family deal was, how you can best respond to what seemed to me to be a fundamentally problematic thing. So the study option allowed me to temporarily escape the conflict of work while improving my skills and knowledge and hopefully help me go back top work better able to help others manage work and family. I also figured, more pragmatically, that as this is an area of growing concern for governments across the world (since more women are working and less are having babies) it was more likely to get me a job.
So that's the plan, finish the thesis in March and start a new job straight away - preferably in the governemnt or community sector doing something (anything!) related to policy, women, work, families, workplace change...or anything else for that matter.
How you learnI really want to crochet so I can make those cute Japanese crochet dolls. I even bough a book of patterns and although the instructions are really simple I just can't seem to get it happening. I also found a truely excellent online tutorial at Crochet me magazine http://www.crochetme.com/tutorial_index.html and although it all makes perfect sense and everyone keeps telling me how dead easy it is I just can't do it. I have even been tempted to buy another couple of books about crochet which also have fantastic patterns and clear picture instructions.
But the truth is I just don't learn that way. I love this online world and I get a lot from it but for me craft, like life, is all about the talking and the showing. Give me an hour with an interested person and I can learn or teach anything. (Unless it's high tech in which case I will read the manual and it will make sense - don't ask me why but in the midst of my crafters brain there is a little corner devoted entirely to the rules and rigid logic of machines and for some unknown reason I actually like hanging out there. Yep I'm the person you're going to ring if you can't make your DVD work...)
So the answer lies in finding me a crocheter who wants to sit down over a nice cup of tea and a home made snack of brown sugar shortbread or plum cake or such while I watch their hands and how they move the thread and listen while they tell me all about which yarns they like and why and what kind of hook they use or used to use and what made them change. I'd be happy to show them something from my repertoire in exchange - how to dry felt or draft patterns for sewing their clothes (although the one hour time slot may not get us far on that project) or make teddys out of old woollen jumpers or make a really authentic Thai curry or bowl of noodles.
Wouldn't that be great? Crafters on wheels. If you like this idea and live in Melbourne let me know! New felting friendsHere's some felt work I have been really enjoying - the animal jigsaw was stupidly time-consuming but so cute! And I really love the teddies - some made from felted wool jumpers and some from regular wool felt. I love the squishyness of the knitted felt. Oh and a couple more mermaids and dry felted capsules with babies inside. Yeah, I've been busy. |
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