Making the most of each day ...

When writing "just a minute" for Down Under Textiles, I focused for a year on what can be achieved in small amounts of time. Just how many minutes each day are opportunities to progress something - perhaps in the rise and fall of hand stitching, completing a binding, sketching, embedding knots? Making a to do list to remind me of those things I absolutely must get done .... today.
Ruling out time spent at traffic lights, using moving walkways and stairs, there are likely to be 15 minutes in every day that can be claimed in the name of art. We decided to take back a few important hours at day's end - usually spent in front of a television set. Most evenings there's now a space between end of meal and the cryptic crossword to work on something substantial. However it's those 15 minute grabs, here and there, that enable me to get the most out of each week.  They are often unplanned - the trick is to be ready to respond - oh, and to check that must-do-to-do list!

Journal covers in blue

Keeping art journals is something that brings me great joy. Sometimes it's the ideas or images that pop into thoughts ... other times it is a way of working through or exploring a concept and sometimes it provides a place to start when absolutely nothing inspirational seems to be happening. I made ten journal covers from a stash of indigo dyed and printed fabrics - getting ready for Open studios at the end of May!
You might enjoy  ten minutes with  Paulos Berensohn  who has spent more than sixty years teaching and making journals.

Capturing spring

I have been finishing off a couple of UFOs and found this 12 block log cabin still pinned ready to quilt. It is pieced from many of the indigo and rust fabrics  of 2010 - and I have been shamed into action. I went for a walk through the vegetable garden and surrounds and picked 12 leaves - from coriander and parsley to grevillea shoots and callistemon leaf. The centre of each block has now been printed and imprinted with spring. It's also proved a great opportunity to practise stitch in the ditch which I can safely report, is most accurate after the first but well before the second glass of red is finished. Some reverse stitching in progress this morning.

Back on the air ... and the SAQA Benefit Auction

After outsmarting myself with rebuilding the website - which is now in disarray but thankfully not hacked ... I have got the blog back. It was really interesting to experience such a sense of grief about losing it and wanting to hang on to the remnants (even if they weren't functioning properly or satisfactorily). I found myself willing to cut my losses just to have a connection to the "old" blog. Grief and then relief. Just like not wanting to let go of other loved ones I guess. Anyway - the blog is back.   This is a small piece (12 x 12) I'm currently working on for the SAQA benefit auction  - which happens each year to raise funds for ... SAQA. I used hand dyed indigo fabric and have stitched leaf shapes originally stamped from a lino cut block then painted with red and gold acrylic paint, stitched in copper thread and then restitched onto the Indigo background. I'd already machine quilted the background piece - trying to create a sense of slow movement across the water, then the leaves almost floating over the top of the surface. It is very much a work in progress ..... 

Ankie King @ the Queensland Quilters Quilt Show



This weekend is the Queensland Quilters' Quilt Show in Brisbane - what I wouldn't give to be there. Ankie King's exhibition of "The Lady Dyed the Blues" is worth the trip into South Brisbane just to see her Indigo dyeing techniques expressed in the form of quilts, kites and jackets. Congratulations Ankie!

Journal to quilt - progress



Sewn together at last

At last the pieces are together - which means it's back to the drawing board of sorts. This piece becomes the "blank canvas" for the next layers of the quilt and the andrenalin is flowing. In truth it's flowing because one of those long slithery brown things and I just had a conversation over in the entertainment area. Basically we agreed to go our separate ways, fast. Once my knees stop wobbling I'll go back using the "lightning never strikes twice" theory.  A bit of personal growth - I didn't scream or carry on this time. Just scooped the little dog up under my arm and headed back to the house. And another thing ... only someone who's NEVER come face to face with one of them could suggest that if ever bitten to stay calm ..... yeah right. There's not enough valium in the world at that moment . For now it's back to the studio

Journal to quilt - the indigo version

Indigo version

The decision to go "blue" was easy. After mucking around with different colourways and "literal" fabric,s the pile of Indigo from a day with Ankie was screaming to be used. I'm most grateful. The original journal drawing now looks like this and I'll start working on the individual "paddocks" and other pieces this weekend. My only complaint about being in a frenzy of creativity is that life speeds up and it feels like I'm hurtling through the living and working dimension. What has been good is to run out of time to keep going last Sunday  - and enjoy a margerita with Lorraine - because standing back and taking a breath is somethingI forget to do. The door to the studio is closed and I won't open it until tonight ..... progress will be posted over the next few days.Feedback always greatly appreciated - any comments on the balance / flow (or lack of it)? Feel free to contribute, and thanks.

The original drawing



Serviette holders from scraps

I tried this free and downloadable Quilting Arts project - napkin rings. They were so easy to make and I really enjoyed the personalising with beads and hand-stitching. Each ring is made from rectangles of main fabric, some iron on stabilise; and a smaller piece of coordinating fabric. I sewed some beads onto the overlap section ... and here they are.

Indigo journal cover

It's hot and yucky. 40 degrees on the verandah and it's just gone 3pm - the chooks are lying underneath trying to get a bit of cooler air. There is none. I'm resting my foot - it remains encased in compression stockings that don't go so well with the weather - but I'm doing exactly as I was told to do - and have been finishing some hand sewing projects. A journal cover as a 70th birthday present - to record the event with everyone who celebrated it! Not mine, of course. I made up some Christmas napkin rings - we don't use napkins, and we don't sit up at the table for formal Christmas lunch in the heat - but the rings look lovely ... I'm almost tempted to convert.The journal cover was sewn from fabrics I dyed with Ankie King and Maxine O'Toole some time ago - Indigo galore - beautiful fabrics and a wonderful time spent with Ankie. If the opportunity arises ... it truly is a few days not to be missed. Beaded and stitched with various threads, including a silk and stainless steel thread I obtained from the Fibre Festival in Brisbane earlier this year.