Umbrella Love...

Here's something I've taken to doing - looking up something I like on Flickr, and then making a mosaic of my favourites.....
From Laundromats to Umbrellas:




1. Evening Rain Dance, 2. puddle jumper, 3. Parasol, 4. Golden Rain, 5. The Rains Are Coming, 6. Rainman, 7. umbrella mushroom, 8. Umbrellas at Mackinaw Island, 9. Umbrella Instalation @ GPO building, 10. umbrella 1, 11. Altered Umbrella, 12. Umbrella Shop 深坑老街傘店, 13. Umbrellas, 14. Under my umbrella, 15. Umbrella Ladies, 16. Umbrella Color Explosion, 17. (-- You can stand under my Umbrella --), 18. Untitled, 19. Untitled, 20. yellow umbrella 3

Flashback Friday.

This week's Flashback Friday is about you and your pets.



I've been saving this one for Shula, who spotted Sandy the collie in the background of one of my other Flashbacks, and got rather excited that I had owned a Very Large Dog.

Sandy was wonderful. The other kids were jealous that I had a "Lassie Dog". She got mange and we had to put her down - very distressing. Being on a farm though, we always had millions of pets, and though we were devastated every time one of them died, it was part of the whole life/death cycle that is so clear to you when you live on the land.

(actually, I think this photo pretty much covers the last three themes of "What my Mum did to my hair", "Say Cheese", and "You and your pets" !!) Check the bowl cut - noice.

***********************************************

In other news, it's artichoke season!



Yum!

And I want to take this opportunity to thank everyone who commented on my last post. There was some delurking, and some visits by my favourites, and all in all I was quite excited to know that there are so many people out there popping in to see what I'm doing. Thankyou so much, all of you. If I haven't replied to your comment yet, please take this as your personal thanks, because I have a funny feeling I'm not going to get to reply to them all.

So about five minutes ago, I broke out the trusty wide brim Scottish felt hat, and threw all the names in.....



and the winner of Mini Nong is:


Bec - Bec and Call

Bec, send me an email with your address, and I'll post your new friend ASAP! Woot!

Take care friends - I'll be back after the weekend.....

100.

Today, I'm pottering around the house, noticing little things that make me happy.....

Some letterpress cards I bought on Etsy:


(they are from Pink Bathtub)

Some embroidery practice: (something I have never really tried before)



The way certain things are arranged in my kitchen:



The paper doll on the fridge with her fabulously weird hand puppet:



My favourite painting, bought from someone I studied Fine Arts with; it's about 2 metres tall, and gorgeous.....



And the fact that I have survived 100 posts without suffering shame and humiliation, that I have *met* some truly fabulous, supportive and creative people, and in the process found my creative groove again, making things I love for other people to love just as much......

Thankyou for reading, your support and comments - all of you.....even the lurkers!

So - enough with the mushy stuff.... on with the goods!

All you have to do is comment on this post, introduce yourself if you haven't already, and before I sit down to write my next post (whenever that is), I'll do a random number choosing thingo and send you a present:



It's a mini Nong! He's a little bit smaller than the ones I usually make, with a patchwork front and a linen back....and in search of a new home.....



If you win, I'll send him to you in the mail.....!

This would be a good chance to out yourself if you're lurking...come and and play!

Love to all - xxxx

shhhh......the birds can see you......

Here's something I want you to try at home:

Grab a tripod, or stand on a chair, and take a photo of your work surface, and show us all what you're working on......



Here I am sewing the binding onto the pram quilt I'm making for my sister, who's due in October.

Yes, it's pretty much always this messy.

The small suitcase is used to keep all my sewing stuff in, so I can tote it around the house. There's a pincushion there, from my tutorial, and a pile of fabric, with a new Ikea one on top. The machines sit at the short end of the table, which is a big old dining table, so I have the rest free for laying out patterns and stuff.

I like seeing where people work - so give it a go, and send me a link when you do!

next post: number 100 + a giveaway.... woot!

Laundromat Love.....

Have I told you that I have a thing for Laundromats? No matter where you go - they all seem to be the same.... the plastic chairs, the smell of hot water and soap, the random socks left behind, and the Speed Queens, all lined up in a row.....



1. Laundromat-I, 2. the Vogue of laundromats, 3. Laundromat at the End of the Universe, 4. IMG_2597small, 5. 1234, 6. Sleeping Berth, 7. Untitled, 8. laundromat, 9. Laundromat, 10. 7:10 PM, 11. laundromatinee, 12. dirty laundry, 13. Friday night at the laundromat, 14. laundromat, 15. waiting, 16. who's sit on?, 17. Dryer Sheet at Two O'Clock!, 18. Coin Laundry, Humboldt Park Chicago, 19. Lady Zebra, 20. passing time, 21. Spin Cycle., 22. triple loaders, 23. Weekly Drag, 24. lady in black

Love it.

I'm nearing my 100th post (if you include my old blog in the total).... and in the old blogging tradition, I think there will be a giveaway.....stay tuned...

Quilting on the run....

Just a quick post today - I'm still sick, and can't realy bring myself to do anything other than sit in bed listening to old episodes of This American Life, drooling over the voice of Ira Glass, and quilting away at the Cathedral windows.

However, there are a few other things in the works:



A quilt for my sister's first baby - due early in October, and as yet gender unspecified.....It will be bound in some bright green binding to boy it up a bit (just in case), and it should be about the right size to pop in the pram.

This is actually my first ever attempt at a traditional patchwork quilt - it's gone much better than I expected, though I have really faced the fact that my beautiful antique sewing machine is really not cutting it, and I have to get a new one. poo.

Another package arrived from Leslie the other day, with my special order in it:



I've been wanting some of these stamps for ages, and thought I'd never get any - trips to Japan being sadly lacking in this household, but when I saw that Leslie did custom orders, I just asked her about them on a whim, and a week later - they're mine!

I'm using them to make tape tags for the Nongs, a procedure that wasn't as straightforward as I would have liked, but sorted now, nonetheless:



And that's about it. The flashback Fridays are a bit thin on the ground around here - mainly because I have to sift through my collection of photographs and then photograph the photos, both of which takes time and energy. Time I have, energy I do not. I'll be back in full force soon enough, though....

I hope you're all snot free and feverless, wherever you are!

xxxx

Catching up...

This week I've been sick. Let's not go into details, it's just a cold, but I can't seem to shake it, and I've been feeling crap all week, and now we've got some catching up to do.....

First up: Cathedral Windows. Since I posted my Cathedral Window Quilt Tutorial, I've been getting some emails with photos from other crafty bloggers who are having a go at them, too..... The quilts are looking fantastic, and it's really satisfying seeing the products of a tutorial in real terms, made by crafty hands, in new ways and different fabrics, each one individual. So if anyone else is secretly beavering away at one of these - send me a photo! I'd love to see how you're going!

Here are the quilts-in-progress so far:

By Libby from
http://zoesquid.blogspot.com/:

By Jenn at
Jenni Freckles Crafts:

By Kimberlee at
Anemone Crafts:

I've also neglected to show a breakfast for a while, and of course, sick or not, there are always eggs in this house:



With HP sauce, of course!

And I'm going to leave you with some excitement from the postman:

There's lollies inside:



And even more goodness further in:



And the pile of luscious fabric in all its glory:



This amazing parcel of brilliance is courtesy of Leslie at A Little Goodness, the best Etsy fabric shop there is. Leslie is helpful and fabulous, and will seek out what you need with no fuss or bother, and then send it to you, in timely and cheap fashion, all ready for swooning over. And then, she'll refund your PayPal account the $2.50 she didn't need to use for the postage, instead of keeping it as an added bonus after trekking all over Japan looking for the fabric you wanted. What a sweetie.

Right, so I'm tired now, and need to have another nap.... there'll be some Thrifted Tuesday action and some flashbacks soon, I promise.....

xxxx

Nongs at Arthur's Circus...

Nat, from Arthur's Circus, has just posted about the arrival of some of my Nongs in her shop, over on her blog ....



I'm so pleased to be in the illustrious company of Aunty Cookie, whose work I love.....Thanks Nat!

If you're in Melbourne, please pop into the Arthur's Circus Opening night on the 26th of September - the shop looks great!

Flashback Friday

I've been very, very slack around here....It must be the nice weather...
So here's a Flashback Friday, on a Wednesday, as is fitting with my mood.....

This (last) weeks theme? Weddings and Sunday Best....



This is my parents' wedding car - a mini minor that went by the name of the "Rainbow Rocket". Despite this, my parents insist they weren't hippies, but it was 1969, after all....! (check out those outfits!)

The panels emblazoned with 'Dick and Glenys - Just Married', 'eyes on the road' and 'beware - honeymooners' make me wonder about the time when Mum and Dad were just kids - before myself and my two sisters came along, before they slogged their hearts out on a farm to pay our way, when they were just two young country kids making a start in the world.

In that way that you only know your parents by your relationship with them, it's hard for me to imagine that at some point they were anything else.

The Rainbow Rocket went the way of many cars..... my Mum crashed it into a tree after she lost control going around a corner. Apparently she was trying to stop a bucket of milk she had on the floor from tipping over and just ran off the road.

This kind of accident I'm sure could have only happened to a Dairy Farmer, though my Mum has manged to run into a few weird things, including a double bed, but that's another story.

I promise I'll be back again over the next couple of days, I do have things to share, if only I could get my shit together to write about them......

cheers!
xxxxx

Flickr Favourites....

Such lovely things out there in the world.....I'm feeling rather wistful.

1. felted wool pincushion, 2. felted wool, 3. Ask Purl Bee: Linen Patchwork, 4. color-0005, 5. neko-1004, 6. Mekong Delta-13, 7. My favorite drawer, 8. cunt, 9. Goodwill find, 10. legs, 11. roomkey, 12. numbers close-up, 13. suitcase finds, 14. Rainbow, 15. i'm gonna make some more pillows., 16. Midwinter Melbourne, 17. Daphne, 18. Untitled, 19. superior, 20. Untitled, 21. Untitled, 22. movement, 23. red flower facinator, 24. Selections, 25. Cathedral Windows Quilt, 26. dawawa, 27. kusudama venus, 28. Froebel's Basic Forms, 29. Twiggy girl, 30. rainy, 31. Untitled, 32. stack of Baby C's handknits, 33. drunk!, 34. Untitled, 35. babete de chita, 36. Edge iii

My Half of the Brain...

My Cathedral Window quilt tutorial has been featured over on My Half of the Brain. Thanks guys!

It's a fantastic blog, with "more tutorials than you can shake a stick at + quilts, crafts, wishes, loves, and outrages" - everything from sewing to knitting to quilting to stuffed toys.... so if you ever need a tute on how to do anything, this is the first place I'd look....

Now I know some of you are attempting this type of quilt since reading the tutorial, so I'm sending out a general invite - if you're making one, I'd love to see some photos! Just email me a couple of pictures, (that the email address up there on the top right), and I might post some of the works in progress on here.... (that is, if everyone isn't too shy!)

Otherwise, things are a little quiet here - I'm rearranging my studio *again*, being a compulsive furniture rearranger, I tend to have at least one room in the house in disarray at any one time - and as it's the craft room's turn, I can't really get any work done until I put it back together again...... more progress soon, though!
xxxxx

Ebay Update...

I've been very quiet on the Ebay front lately, but I've just listed a whole load of stuff, if anyone's interested.....



Available in My Ebay Shop here: Madwoman's Teashop

The new Nongs are also up in my Etsy shop, and my entrepreneurial spirit is now tapped out.....

I think an evening of quilting is in order.......

xxx

Presents in the Post....

Ahhh... the knock on the door from the postman today, way too early in the morning, could only have meant one thing.....

New Fabric!



This little pile of pretties arrived courtesy of the sale at Z and S Fabrics...
(the sale is still on, by the way...)

So what have we got?



From the top:

Joel Dewberry scallops in Red and Black, and in Linen,

Moda building blocks in Cream,

another Moda building blocks in Black "Pez"

Michael Miller spots in Olive,

and Amy Butler full moon polka dots in Cherry.

Lovely, lovely.

And a note to the purists? The Amy Butler cherry dot is no where near as red as it looks here, and elsewhere....it's still lovely, but it's more of a pinky red, and a little paler than you think it's going to be.....

I've also been making a few more Nongs for The Shop, which will be up for sale over the next day or so..... I've lowered the price a little because I think they may have been too pricey the first go-around, so we'll see....



There's a bit of a blue.red.linen thing going on around here, but the next lot I make will probably feature the new fabrics up there, so it's red and black from here on in!

Well, that's the goss from my side of the world - hope all is well everywhere else, too....
xxxx

Breakfast Sunday.

Breakfast Sunday...

Fresh flat bread from my local Afghan bakery, $2 for a piece about the size of my torso...
Paired with fabulous, local cold pressed olive oil, with a bit of Murray River salt crushed in....



Delicious? Yes.

Healthy? Well, probably not.



And all served with a bit of the crossword, and Miranda July on the side.

Have a good weekend, everyone...

xxx