A bit more of this....

Here is the first of my hand dyed socks. This one fits me perfectly. You can see that I added in another colour on the foot as I didn't think the single ball of wool would be enough.

Also I am making my son's girlfriend one of my hats. The colour is a bit hard to see but it's a lovely violet purple. This one will have cables.

Thanks to all of you who have commented lately on my quilts - I really appreciate your feedback.

Reverberations

This is the sample for the one quilting class I am teaching at Symposium. It's an original design, a wallhanging featuring hand-dyed (what else?) and marbled fabric, with "exploded" applique shapes.

My sample quilt is called "Cosmic Refraction" and is quilted with heavy metallic thread. I made this some years ago, before I was confident about free motion quilting, so the quilting is all done with straight and slightly curved lines.

All the pieces in this quilt are rectangles - don't ask me why I made them that way! Most are only slightly rectangular. Because there's too much margin for error when teaching it as a design, I've resized the pieces to be mainly squares.
This is one of my favourite wallhangings, and hangs in my living room.

Together at last

Sorry about the skewed photo, I find it really hard to photograph these so they look square (well, rectangular).

Despite all my problems with tension, I have finished the quilting on my diptych, apart from a couple of minor adjustments that I'll make where an appliqued piece is not sitting down enough ("Sit! Stay!"). Generally, I'm pleased with the results. I'm also very pleased I'm not exhibiting a bed quilt - it's taken me several days on and off to complete these two - the larger one is only 27" by 23", and the smaller one 29" by 18". That one, incidentally, is sized according to the Golden Ratio - the aesthetically pleasing proportion that abounds in nature and the human form, as well as being widely used in art and architecture.

Now to bind them, and then onto the next task.

!@#$%^&* and quilt du jour

I finished the first Otago quilt using my Janome 6500P, as the Pfaff tension problem is one I've had before and will require repairing.

The Janome and I were going just fine until last evening, when I started having tension problems with it (of a different kind). I have done most of the second Otago quilt (click on the photo for more detail - some of the quilting designs are the same as the first, but others are different). My shells in the blue section are not coming out how I want, and I've already wasted time this morning frogging.

I think I shall change the thread, and quilt the top section, and see if that will work ok. I've already changed the needle, so it's not that. When I sew on my sample, it comes out fine so I'm not sure quite what the problem is.

Quilt Du Jour

Here is the first of the pair of quilts that I'll be taking with me to the National Quilting Symposium (held every 2 years) in just over a fortnight. These will be hung in the Tutor's Exhibition. I'm very excited and nervous about teaching there, as this is THE big event in the quilting calendar in New Zealand, and I know that some of the quilters in my classes are coming from Australia, the UK and USA.

My Pfaff has suddenly developed a tension problem, with only the "sky" part of the quilt left to do. I might leave it for today, as the later in the day that I sew, the more mistakes I make, being a morning person.

The quilts represent the landscape of Otago, the region I now live in. The fabrics in this one are painted, as opposed to dyed, and the appliqued animals are all found here - seals, penguins, lizards and gulls. Each part of the landscape is quilted with a different design.

Click on the photo for a larger version which will show the quilting detail.

Eat my Blogs

No, that's not an instruction. it's what Blogegr has been doing to the last couple of posts I've attempted to put on here.

Summer is finally making an appearance. Here's a glimpse of my front garden, a wee oasis surrounded by a sea of ugly concrete.

And here's what my back yard looks like on a sunny Oamaru day.


I have indeed made inroads into my free motion quilting, as promised, and will post the final results in the next day or so.

Warning - High Fiber Content

The purple wool has indeed dyed up beautifully - here it is, dry and reskeined.

Today I may actually do some quilting.

The Year of the Ankle is over!

Don't worry, I'm not about to assign the years of my life to various body parts. But the Saga of the Broken Ankle, which started last January, coloured the events of 2006. I found myself going down different paths from the ones I'd anticipated. I wish I could say that
it's all been wonderful, but it hasn't. There have been some really good parts and some totally crappy ones, with lots of so-so bits inbetween. But that's Life, isn't it?

And despite the crappy bits (which are still happening), I am able to be thankful for my lovely children, who have grown into adults whom I really like, and would like even if they weren't related to me; my family who are always there to help when I need it; and the continuing kindness and support of my friends, most of whom don't live anywhere near me as I kept moving away. I'm also grateful for my blogging community, whom I haven't met in person, but I feel like I know you all anyway. Keep commenting! I love it.

I have dubbed 2007 "The Year of the Wool", as this will be my big focus. To start as I mean to go on, I've dyed some wool/mohair blend that I bought at the Op Shop. It was a pale grey to start with, and is now four shades of purple with gold highlights.

To-Dos and Not-To-Dos for 2007

This year, I thought I'd make things really easy for myself with my new year's resolutions. I'm going to make them SO simple to keep! I actually can't remember what my resolutions were for 2006, so I'm unable to reflect on how well I've achieved them. This year, however, I'm recording them right here on Blogger for the world to see.

1. Avoid gratuitous sex. This will be very easy, as ALL sex seems to be avoiding me, including the gratuitous kind. No difficulty in keeping this baby.

2. Cut back on alcohol consumption. No worries with this one. I only buy alcohol every couple of years, and most of that goes in the Christmas baking.

3. Stop buying books on Amazon. Ok, this is a tough one. My Evil Twin has been playing fast and loose with my credit card, and I think I have 4 shipments of books on their way to me at present (that's 8 books in total). However, I anticipate being financially stretched this year, as I am most likely going to give up my day job and revert to be a Starving Artist.

4. Which leads me to....Lose weight. Hah! I will probably only be able to afford to eat twice a day, so I should be able to drop a kilo or two. Or 10, which would be more helpful.

5. Exercise more. Again, I'll be too poor to afford petrol so I'll have to walk into town instead of driving.

There! That won't be too difficult, will it?

And for the totally unrelated photo, here's a lovely Rhodohypoxis in flower to brighten up the day of those shivering under winter snow.

I wanted to write a snappy title but my brain deserted me

Here's me with my daughter Sophie and son Cass. Today
was beautiful, the best weather we've had in the week since the kids have been here, but also the day they're leaving. It's a 3 hour drive each way to Christchurch airport.

The second photo is Sophie, Cass and Erlo, who is Sophie's partner. After Sophie graduates with her law degree at the end of 2007, she and Erlo plan to live in the UK for a couple of years, and Sophie will get admitted to the Bar over there.

WAAAAHHHHHH!!!!!!! My baby will be on the other side of the world! Of course, she wants me to go visit her while they're there, which will force me to do my OE (Overseas Experience) as I have been NOWHERE. Well, except as a wee baby which doesn't count. I don't like flying.

So all my blogger readers who live in the UK and Europe -I might be coming visiting in 2008! And of course, if any of you are coming to New Zealand, you're welcome to come stay with me - my guest room is always ready.

Merry Christmas everyone

I hope all my blog readers have a safe and pleasant Christmas season. For those of other religions and/or nationalities, I hope your enjoy whatever festivities you have.

Here's the table set for breakfast this morning, before we had the croissants with ham and cheese. I might add that this is actually a working table, and seldom used for eating off , but with 4 of us here, we need to use it. The other table in the living room has sewing machines on it. Ah, the pleasures of living alone and only having yourself to please!

Blogger has decided to upgrade me, so this is my first post with New Blogger.

Do you have the alcohol gene? Because I never got one.

One of my Christmas cakes. I wanted a fairly modest Christmas, but with the kids in charge, we have excessive amounts of food plus they all drink quite a bit of beer, so there's a lot of that too. Sigh. I appear to be the only person I know who doesn't have the alcohol gene. I can be perfectly silly without a drink.
For the creative content - I made these 2 chemo caps whil at the lyttelton Quilt Show last month. Sophie thought she'd like one (not that she has lost her hair)...
...so I'm making this chestnut brown one for her. Very plain.
And I'm still working on The Virgin Socks. 

"Tis the Season.....

....to dress your animals up in silly hats. Cressy is very patient.
And the Christmas tree lights look like they're swirling across the room. Just the slow exposure as I took the photo. The house is too small for the tree to go on the floor, so it's on the sewing table. 

If you don't look at the weeds, the garden is looking wonderful

It's only been a year since I planted most things in my very-neglected garden. This bit by the garden shed was (and still is) a herb garden - you can just see some parsly on the right, plus berry plants on the left. However, I'm doing combination gardening these days - planting flowers and vegetables together where it suits me to do so. I just liked the look of this little rose (climber Bantry Bay, won't always be little) and the delphinium.

The family and I arrived home after midnight so the kids are still all asleep. The weather is pretty cool for this time of year - in fact, it was predicted that there was more likelihood of a white Christmas in Canterbury (where I picked the kids up from the plane) than in London or Japan, due to the unseasonably warm winter in the Northern hemisphere and the rotten cold start to our summer. Oh well, can't control the weather so no sense in stressing! 

Preserved for posterity

Feast your jaded almost-Christmas eyes on these scenes, as they may never be repeated. Hard to believe, but these are "after" shots. My second bedroom is also my stock room. And store room. And spare bedroom. Usually anyone who needs to overflow from the guest room only stays with me for one night. But this time it's different. My daughter Sophie and her partner Erlo and my son Cass will be coming down on Wednesday for 8 days. Hooray! Last Christmas I was all alone. For the first time in my life, I had no family around me at Christmas. I hadn't long moved here and I was still busy getting organised, so I really didn't mind though it felt strange, as usually other family members came to us at Christmas. But that was before I was so far away.
The usual complete mess in the stock room had to be sorted. Be thankful there are no "before" shots - you can see how much stuff is crammed into this room! This is a small house, originally a 4 room stone cottage, and it's over 100 years old. Cass will be sleeping here, and while boys (ok, he's 25 but still a boy to me) don't care too much about their surroundings (Cass slept for a while as a teenager in a converted woodshed at the back of the carport, because it was nice and dark and he could sleep in), the room was long overdue for a clean and sort. All the junk I've sorted out is going into the skip I'm having delivered tomorrow (a big metal bin for rubbish, for those unfamiliar with the term, that's dropped off by a truck and collected when you've filled it - this one holds 7.5 cubic metres of waste, and I have it for 10 days) and Cass has offered to help fill it with garden waste and the like, which I have a lot of on the property. I've also been ruthless in my bedroom, and the living room too. 

Christmas cactus - and a question

My Christmas cactus is looking great. This plant has travelled around with me from Rotorua in the North Island to Lyttelton and now to Oamaru. It lives outside all year round through frosts and snow (Lyttelton had occasional snow, but none here - rats!).

I am still wrestling with my sock - I knitted right up to the end of turning the heel, then decided that it was too large so I frogged it right back to the ribbing and reduced the number of stitches.

I'm also wrestling with plans for my business for 2007. I know what I want to do, but I'm frustrated by lack of capital (nothing new there) and also how to actually achieve what I want to do. I'm trying to find a source of yarn, but can't get woollen mills to respond to my enquiries.
I have contacted one mill 4 times now, by phone AND email, over the past 5 weeks, and had just 1 email in return. No apologies for the delay in responding either. I told them I wanted to buy so they knew I wasn't just tyre-kicking - how do these people do business?

I always reply within 24 hours to my prospective customers this is by no means common when I'm trying to get an answer from another business. This leads me to my question -if you email a business for information on their products or services, how quickly do you expect a response? 

And this is the sun....

....rising in a very easterly position at this time of year, over Cape Wanbrow, the scene of the Great Broken Ankle Adventure 11 months ago. 

Morning Moon Over Oamaru

This was taken at 5.30am (yes, I'm a lark, and at this time of year, I sleep with all the curtains and blinds open). It's hard to capture the moon looking as good as it does in real life, and this is half a moon.

To answer Ali's question from the last post, yes, I've moved on. Hugely. I am wrestling with moving creatively in a whole new direction. 

What I used to do

Back in the Olden Days (ie the middle of last year), I made this row-by-row quilt as part of a group project with the Lyttelton Quilters. My blocks are the appliqued teacups. I don't make anything like this anymore, so this is of historical interest now. 

No patience

Walking before I run is a fairly unusual concept for me. I normally jump in boots and all, with much confidence about my own ability. However, I've realised that knitting plain socks first might be a good idea, before racing into complex fair Isle ones. So here's my new sock just being born on probably the right sized needles.

I know that most of my readers are in the northern hemisphere, while here in New Zealand we always have Christmas in summer. My childhood memories are of taking a picnic to the beach and playing in the sun at Christmas. While the weather isn't always kind (the best weather is in February/March these days, it seems), I've never experienced a white Christmas - but we still send each other Chrissy cards covered with snow and showing blazing fires with stockings hanging beside them. Crazy, eh? I'll post some shots of our Christmas weather when the day arrives, just to warm up the northern readers. 

Getting smaller

Thanks to all of those bloggers who left comments about the Round Robin fabric. Perhaps I was being too hard on myself - like artists never do THAT.

I've decided to frog the Fair Isle sock and redo it. I have a problem with overabundant size when knitting socks, which is probably why I've never managed to knit a whole pair. Of course, it might have something to do with never checking the gauge, but I blame my tiny supply of DPNs and the fact that I always decide to knit something at a time when shops are closed. I've actually bought some smaller ones so now that I've mastered the intricacies of turning the heel, I'm going to redo the sock. Fair Isle is tricky to knit (that's why I started with it! beginners don't need to do EASY stuff!) to get the size right as there's little stretch in it.

Maybe I could force myself to do a more straighforward pair FIRST?

Comments, puh-leese!

I've talked before about the international Round Robin I'm doing. This fabric was dyed by the first person, then the second person put a resist over it and painted it with black in the cracks. I have stamped it with metallic paints using a sun stamp, then hand-painted green squiggles and black arches and some more black shading. Now it looks to me like a floral print with frigging daisies on it, which is NOT what I intended. (Actually I had no intentions at all, I just go with the flow when I have a paintbrush in my hand. )

The big question is : have I improved it? Does it look like an interesting piece of complex cloth? (OK, that's 2 questions). Or like something you'd get at the Bargain Bin at the local quilt shop? (OK, OK, that's 3!!!).