six and a half stitches

NOT ALWAYS BLACK AND WHITE

I thought it was perhaps time people saw me make some stuff in colour - ie, something other than grey, black, or white, or red. I feel sometimes those colours dominate the blog. OK, admittedly there is red in the background, but it's a vibrant red, and there's a tonne of orange in there too. I love making piles. I have lots of piles of combinations in my workspace. Some are real projects, some just inspiration piles of colours which I like the combination of, or textures which work, and the possibility of a future project. I cleaned up the desk the other day to take photos of the space for the book later in the year, and ended up making more piles, and creating cleaner spaces in which to photograph piles.

So are these real, or possibility? Both are real projects. Both basket bags. The one in the foreground is for someone who doesn't know they're getting one, the one in the background is for Abby who I'm swapping with for some tags. Umm, Abby, hope you like it....it's ready to go once it's filled.

I think I just reverted back to grey white red and black, didn't I?

SIMPLE MONOCHROMATIC COLOURS

A sudden burst of energy has seen much craft merriment around here. I've trawled through my boxes to see what I could pull together for backtack3 and have a really divine selection of whites with a hint of something minty fresh in there. But of course I'm only going to show some teaser shots, and nothing which will give the ultimate display away...Now I just need to start sewing all the little pieces up into something.

And finally a little box of wonderfulness is going to be headed across the ocean to Cari who is almost ready to pop (I say almost, I'm sure she feels like she still has ages and ages to go!). I organised another cyber baby shower for her, and technically this will be spoiling the surprise, but I'll hold off showing the finished photos, just for now.

THE QUICK BROWN FOX

via Craftapalooza ::

Handwriting meme. Write a pangram on a piece of paper, sign your first name, take a photo of it and load it onto your blog, or upload into the flickr pool. I love seeing people's handwriting - such a personal insight into who you are. I always write with a thin black pen. The thinner the nib, the better. Occasionally I might write with red pen. I usually sign my name with a thick black pen. I love the fact the two thicknesses contrast on the paper and create balance and depth.

Now let's see yours!

TRYING NOT TO SLEEP THE ENTIRE WEEKEND

It seems I struck a cord with pretty much most of you about Heathen Quilters. I am actually very intimidated by the Quilt Police, but that is in part because I do believe there are other ways of doing things that achieve the same outcome and I'm aware of my lack of training in such matters. As one commenter put it, a quilt is batting sandwiched between 2 pieces of fabric and held together with stitches. How that is achieved is up to the individual. I like the way I quilt, I like what I quilt, and I like the end results. So I'm going to keep going like that. I suspect that an awful lot of you will be joining me :) Watch out though, because Heathen Quilters Part 2 and 3 are just around the corner....I have so enjoyed reading all your comments, laughing out loud at some of them and replying to a few of them because they were so spot on. I do intend to take the quilt back to the shop where I bought the original fabric, because I know their reaction will be great. I have also found out that the people who hand screen printed the fabric now have a shop as well (god save me from that one, I already have about $200 worth of material lined up) and would like to take the quilt in to them to show too. My justification is that I'd like to make Max a pair of pyjamas and need fabric to match.....

I had intended doing arty shots of obscure balls of wool and cute tags, but this seemed far more relevant to my weekend than that.

1. New shoes for Max, box to be converted into postage box shortly.
2. Bag with wool flowing over
3. Blackboard with scribbles
4. This is a rocket ship. It might look like boxes, but it is a rocket ship.
5. The beautiful sewing/knitting bag Di made for me last year which carries all my current knitting in it.
6. Wool choices to add to the Petit 6.5st quilt about to be started. This will be the longest run up to a quilt being started ever. I've been tagging each wool selection with what I'll do with it. Sometimes I can be anal about these things.
7. The white paper bag full of all the materials that will be used for the new quilt. For some reason I like my material selections for each project to be in either neat piles, or wrapped in white paper bags. Not brown bags, but white bags. Like the ones they give you at Patchwork On Central. Only that one fell apart, so these are in a newer bag from Yoshi Jones.
8. Left over postcards from Nikki's postcard swap being cut up as tags for the wool. If you're part of her swap, the cards from me are going out in the mail next week when the post office re-opens.
9. Pen, ruler and hole punch for the tags, and for sketching ideas.
10. Moleskin journal (thanks Cari) which is my pattern journal. All my sewing patterns get written up in here. It's my book proposal journal as well, where I keep all the information related to patterns I will need for either of the two books I'm doing (one still hoping I'll do). Currently I'm turning the sketch idea for the quilt (Option 1 from a few weeks ago if anyone is interested) into a valid pattern and noting approximate dimensions of everything - more so I can start knitting the wool components of it with some certainty.
11. Scissors and fine cotton thread, for the tagging. It was a major operation. With many pieces of equipment. I did it very neatly. Jesus I got anal didn't I?
12. Trashy gossip magazine which I read every week on the train and in my lunch hour. This one is a new find - Famous. Pure trash and they often don't quite get the story right compared to other trashy magazines - yes I do compare - but I'm enjoying the newness of it.
13. Max's froggy bag which he takes to daycare. There's a toy stuffed frog which hangs from it too, that the cats have devoured and punctured so it looks a little mangled.

My weekend so far has been about relaxing and enjoying some time alone while Max and his dad go down to see his parents. I am so tired, I'm just sleeping. And apparently tagging the crap out of my wool collection.

THE HEATHEN QUILTER, PART 1

Quilting is a strange world. It’s a world of secret code, meticulous attention to detail, exactness in execution, and steely determination to follow the path of righteousness amongst it’s technically correct members. It helps if you’re over 55, and wear appliquéd sweatshirt tops.

Or so my generalized view of quilters is. I see them at the craft fairs pushing and shoving to be first in queue for the slightly garish prints, and I see the look of distaste in their eyes when I walk into a quilting shop. They never quite understand my choices of material, or why I put the colours and patterns together that I do. I had ‘the look’ (kind of like, Jesus Christ save this woman and bring me the wooden stake she’s doing what with the quilt??) at a quilt shop in

Canberra

last year when I bought Max’s quilt in to buy backing fabric. They’d have done it very differently, oh my! would they have done it differently.

I think, perhaps, many people would ask why I did some of the things I did on this quilt. Well. My answer is, because I haven’t a clue what I’m doing and I make it up as I go, and as long as it looks good and stays together, it’s a success. I don’t really care – to care would make me a quilter, and I’m not sure that tag sits easily with me. I’d have to start wearing appliqué sweatshirts for one, and I’m not sure I can do that. How I knot or tie or stitch is irrelevant really. Yet, I feel I have to hide some of the major faults with this quilt from you. Or publicly out them.

The pieces are all wrong. There are sections I love and work gloriously well. And there are sections which I have trouble accepting. The balance is wrong, the colours not right in the mix, the widths of the banding not quite right. I’ve worried about it the whole way through. But interestingly, despite this, the finished product with edging and backing looks ok. On Max’s bed, it looks more than OK. It looks fantastic.

I hand stitched the entire quilted part. And I didn’t knot (finish/start? See I don’t even know the technical terms) properly, so the circles on the back will never be seen, which is a damn pity because they’re one of my favourite views of the quilt. They show the intense work and purity of the simple forms really well, something which gets lost a little unless you’re close up on the front. For this reason I had to put another back on, which is not quilted. It looks great, but the circle stitching would have been better….

And Max’s reaction? Is it ready to jump on now mummy? Yes Max, definitely ready to jump on! More photos over at flickr.

PRINTING

I had a day of Gocco printing which I've been wanting to have for a long time. First up more fabric labels printed on natural twill tape. Then an image I've been playing around with, taken from a photograph of strong shadows in the garden. It's printed in silver ink, and I have grand plans for what they will eventually become - if you're part of Nikki's postcard swap, you'll see the final version!

ORANGINA WITH A BENDY STRAW PLEASE

one of Max's paintings::orange bowl drying on the drainer::another Max art::goldfish swimming in murky water::fireworks on the tv::indian hat made by Max with red and orange feathers::satchel bag I use of the weekends::book bindings on the shelf.

An orange day.

BACKTACK REVEALED

You keen? You ready? You wanna know what's going on?

Welcome to BT3 - our third run of the very popular Backtack series. We think we've come up with something which will really get people to think and create within some tight parameters. By restricting what you can do and use we hope to get some amazing interpretations from some very creative and clever people (umm, that's you guys by the way).

This time we'd like to to make a softie.
But not any softie.
The softie can be any pattern, but we've found three we'd like you to consider using first. Mainly because they're cool patterns, but also because we think they'll work with what we want you to do with the softie. Hillary Lang at Wee Wonderful's has very kindly agreed for us to use her two free patterns for the wee bunny and the pointy kitty. Don't go downloading the patterns from Hillary's site, we'll email them to you with your matchup, we don't want to go using Hillary's bandwidth! This is extremely generous of her, and we know her patterns will be fantastic for this. If you use her patterns we would appreciate you respecting her rights as an artist, her ideas, and her patterns and do not alter them. Second, we have a pattern we will make available only to those who sign up, again for copyright issues. We will tell you it's a very cute bunny pattern, very sweet and quite easy.

The softie has certain restrictions though. You could sense some catches coming couldn't you?! This is where we get tough. These are all non-negotiable, so read this carefully, because we want you to make the softies in a specific way.

1. They must be made from black and/or white materials. How much of either you use is up to you. It can be plain, or patterned. It can be knitted, felted, plastic whatever your imagination comes up with. We want you to get creative here, and think outside the box.

2. 1 additional colour - and one only - may be used, but it cannot comprise more than 20% of the final piece.
3. The softie cannot be any higher than 20cm
4. You must attach 5 buttons of your choice, in locations also of your choice, to the softie.
5. You must include on your softie somewhere the first initial of the person you are sending this to. So if you are sending to Sarah, you must have a letter 'S' somewhere on the softie. Again, use your imagination.

Clear? Good. Out of sameness comes diversity, and just as every snowflake is different yet the same, we hope to get many different, but same, softies. This isn't to everyone's tastes, so if it's not sitting well with you, please don't sign up.

If the concept grabs you, and we hope it will, we'd love you to sign up. But first you'll need some important information about dates and stuff. The following are set in concrete and we will be strict about them.

Sign ups: Start 9.00am Australian EST on April 11th. That means you need to work out your time zones, time differences and date differences. That time and date should allow everyone a chance to sign up. Do not attempt to sign up before hand. We will delete all emails attemtping to pre-sign.

On the 11th April we will post that sign ups are open on the backtack blog only. In that post will be a new email dress specifically for signing up. We will only take sign ups from that email address, so take a careful note of it. The address will not be made public prior to that date. Sign ups are limited to 100 people - we cannot cope with more than that number. If you believe you had pre-signed during a small window of opportunity to do so last year, you will have received an email from us already asking if you still wish to be involved. Those numbers will not be included in the 100 places available. If you have not received an email from us, you need to sign up as instructed above.

Matchups: Will be made and sent out to reach you by 18th April. Be ready to play…

Playtime: Because we begin play 20th April with a finish date of June 10th. You must ensure your finished goods arrive with their person by June 10th.

If you can't make those dates, will be travelling, or moving house, or you know you have some life issues coming up, we'd like to ask that you carefully consider whether being part of this is a good idea for you. We take it that you signing up is your commitment to this, us and your partner. You are part of a chain, and it is upsetting and rude to not deliver on that commitment. Similarly we expect you treat everyone involved with respect, compassion and manners - email regularly, let us know if there's a problem as soon as it happens, email to let your person know their parcel has been sent, and email a thankyou when you have received yours. Small amounts of kindness go a long way.

As in previous backtack's we require you to have a blog - don't have one? Start one now! We expect you to post regularly, show us what you're doing, and post what you sent and received. We also require a maximum of 2 photos of finished product be sent to us for inclusion in the flickr album. More details on that later though.

We hope you'll get excited about this, and look forward to seeing you all play!

IT SEEMS THE POSTS ARE GETTING LONGER...

A sudden rush of energy to the hands. Does wonders for clearing things off your to do list and making way for new projects.

The little baby wrap top is finished. Same simple pattern as many before - the kimono wrap top from Erika Knight's book Simple Knits for Cherished Babies. Always looks great on newborns, without a doubt, and the simplicity and quickness of making it means you can't get too upset if bub grows out of it quickly. The yarn is Martas Yarn, and 3 little timber buttons finish it off. Left over yarn will go towards the babies quilt as well.

I took everyone's comments on board from my post last week about the quilt and appreciated all your input into quilt selection. While I had originally had my heart set on the log cabin idea, the quilt in sketch No. 1 has really been getting me interested, and I think given the final choice of materials, will work the best with the strength of colours and patterns. Di did indeed come through with a fabulous selection of materials to add to the group, and some which will become other things.

I now also have sifted through boxes and pulled out a range of coordinating wools that I can sew into sections with different textures to add to the whole affect. My fingers are indeed itchy. But somewhere along the line yesterday I got the Mother Guilts. Max's quilt is teasing me from under the table where it has lain for a couple of months untouched (note: probably not the best place to leave it because the cats have slept in it...). A few quiet-ish hours this weekend and I sped through a chunk of what little remains on the hand quilting. I have 17 circles and bubbles left - 2/3 of those are small ones, and I figure if I work hard this week through the evenings, I can get the hand quilting part finished ready for the backing and edging. I'm going to feel terrible if I haven't at least got Max's quilt pretty much finished before cutting out the new quilt. We're not quite ready to deal with sibling jealousy just yet.

Nicole's Rocky Road recipe. Brilliant.

And homemade calzone which isn't from any recipe, except for the dough which is Jamie Oliver's basic bread recipe. Inside: Ricotta and spinach with fresh tomatoes from my mother in laws garden, a sprinkle of salt, pepper and cinnamon, and some lemon rind, all topped with fresh basil and tomato sauce, ingredients again from the garden. Damn nice. especially with Rocky Road as a starter, and a dessert, and with tea later.

And finally, thankyou all so much for such wonderful supportive comments about doing a book. I've done a lot of thinking about it over the last few months, and I'm pretty keen to do it. Given what else I manage to do in my life, a book will fit in, and it's an opportunity I'm not prepared to turn down since it's been offered :: so here's hoping the publisher really decides it's viable. Fingers crossed.