Floor hazards, a semi-sock and some thanks

Here's another shot of Frodo and Cressy doing their "we are family" thing by lying in a row on the floor. I've had 2 dogs at a time before, but unrelated ones, never 2 from the same litter. Clearly, the fact that they were together in the womb has a strong influencing factor. It never fails to amuse me how they stick together.

And talking of pairs - here's my sock. This time, I intend to knit the other one as well! This is Opal's self-striping yarn. Usually I don't much like their colour schemes, but I found this one in purple shades which is more to my liking.

And thanks to all you lovely bloggers who have wished me well! Love you all!

The New House

Moving Day is getting close, so I just had to share a photo of my new house with you.

The upstairs room with the balcony is going to be my workroom and studio and office.

Apart from knitting myself some socks and hand stitching a block stamped piece of fabric, nothing much is happening on the creative front - it's all practical stuff at present. The dyes are about to be packed into boxes for mvoing - I'm doing all the packing of these plus my fabric etc, so that I know where things are. Well, as much as that's possible anyway!

Finally....

...my house sale has been confirmed, and also my purchase of the new house in Rangiora just out of Christchurch. Click HERE for more information on the area.

While I'm sad to be leaving here, I'm looking forward to my new house which is an A-frame, and bigger than this one. On the down side, I have to have a mortgage (bummer!) so will need to work fulltime for a few years to repay this.

Keeping the theme of work on the walls here, this is a quilted and woven (as in strips of fabric) cloak I made for the Hoffman Challenge (the New Zealand version) some years ago. It is trimmed with feathers and has a cord and bead fastening.

Still holding my breath

...and being a Bad Blogger. I will have no news until late tomorrow about my house sale, and everything hinges on that. So my apologies for the silence and lack of blogging and blog reading.

Thanks to all those who have wished me well. There just seem to be so many things to think about, and my creativity is at rock bottom, what with most of my stuff being packed away.

However, another quilt still hanging at home is this New York Beauty variation, which I have never named. This was from another Donna Ward class. I decided to work outside my comfort zone of colours, and chose Japanese fabrics in browns and indigos (click on the photo for a larger view).

Much as I love the effect of this pattern, I discovered I really disliked the fussiness of paper piecing, being much more of a "random rotary-cutting gal". Consequently it took an entire year to finish this small wall hanging, which I ended up simplifying as I couldn't face all those fiddly points.

In Limbo

Currently I am in that limbo state where I've sold my house and bought another, but neither contract in yet unconditional, I have no control over what is happening, and I have to wait another week or so before I know where I am. I find this very frustrating.

I've taken most of my quilts down off the walls, but this one, Pacifica, is one of the few that remains. I made this in a class by Donna Ward at Christchurch Symposium several years ago. The top and bottom panels were Donna's designs, but I drew the "koru" style (fern frond) applique for the centre panels. These also remind me of the geysers in Rotorua where I lived for 28 years before moving to the South Island.

Keep your fingers (and toes) crossed for me that my sale and purchase go ahead as planned. In the new house, I'll have a separate room to store my dyes and fabric in, as well as a nice big room for a workroom/office/studio. It's upstairs, faces north (the good way here in NZ) has sliding doors onto a little balcony with snow-capped mountain views, and the chimney passes through the room as well, keeping it warm. Currently it's the master bedroom - but why waste all that on a room you only sleep in?

Puppy Love

Ok they're not exactly puppies any more, but they'll always be that to me.

Standard poodles are very loving dogs, and like nothing better than to drape themselves over you (and each other). This can be disconcerting for other people, even those used to dogs who have had different breeds that don't behave this way. As poodles have a coat that's more like wool rather than fur, they don't shed, and they feel lovely and soft and warm. I leave their coats to grow long over winter. When they get clipped closely in spring, their skin feels like velvet.

Manu Waiata

This quilt is called "Manu Waiata" - Maori for songbird. I made this for a competition entitled "Birds of a Feather), for which it was accepted for exhibition.

The background is raw edged woven strips, with the birds appliqued from a mix of Maori design fabric and hand dyed fabric stamped with gold. Click on the image for a closer look.

I chose the bird shape as it has an ancient feel to it, like a pterodactyl.