TropicalSoup

My Creative Space...auditions

 

I finally unpacked my sewing machine this week (yay!) and of course the only appropriate celebration for such an occasion is to start a new quilt! I thought a bright and happy, light and fresh Christmas quilt might be in order - heavy dark fabrics aren't quite right for a Summer festive season...especially one that promises to be as hot as this coming one. It would also serve to lighten up the big black *hole* that our leather modular creates in the centre of our living room during the season (it's the comfiest sofa we've ever owned, and we all adore it, but man, can it be stark and overwhelming when unadorned!)

I really like this combo above, but with some solids added in the apple and lighter greens. I'm thinking maybe a string quilt, a broken bento, or something completely improv...(Even since I started writing this blog post I've been back down to the studio to add in another half a dozen fabrics...I do love a scrappy quilt - even a tightly coloured scrappy!) Yum!

Now, anyone care to hazard a guess as to which Christmas I'm aiming for a finish by?

 

I'm joining Our Creative Space this week...there are some lovely things over there!

 

How did you figure it out?

 

...I just spent 3 hours on a mini-makeover to try and make my blog -if not pretty and fresh- at least less of an eyesore! Sometimes ignorance isn't so much bliss, as it is time consuming and aggravating, ha! And whilst 2 law degrees come in handy on occasion, this is not the first time I've wished I'd thrown a bit of graphic design training in there...not least of all since it is so much closer to what makes me tick and what I'd really like to do with my one wild and precious life...much as I enjoy the law.

With the exception of a few tips and tricks I have found online, I am completely self taught, and I seem to know enough with Photoshop and webbish stuff to be able to footle around a bit, enough to use 536 steps to accomplish something that can probably be achieved in 4, enough to make a decent mess, and not quite enough to figure out how to undo it half of the time! But I'd really like to get better at it...there are even some little projects I have swirling around in the ether that I think would translate really well to this medium, but trying to figure out how to spend less than 5 days on something relatively simple is where I fall down.

So for those of you who are CS5 and CSS and blahblahblah savvy, would you be kind enough to share how you got there? Do you have any suggestions on books or blogs or other things that may help? Thank you, my lovelies!

On the bed...

One day I will corral 2 strapping lads into holding up this quilt for some proper photos (my sidekicks are willing and enthusiastic, but rather short on stature for this 2.5m x 2m monster!), but in the meantime, here's some proof that my big ass quilt *did* finally get finished, and is in fact in constant use! It's on our bed, and makes me happy every time I see it!

 

(whilst trying to sneak a few photos earlier one of my said sidekicks came in and wanted to *help*...apparently you can hardly tell he's there!)

Twister + water = genius

No really, it accounted for 45 of the funniest minutes I think I've ever witnessed. To the person who made the cosmic leap of putting sprinklers and Twister together...I owe you a beer!

Side note: these 2 monkeys had their first day of orientation for primary school today. It was a roaring success, and they can't wait to go back next week for round 2 (yay!) and are now even more eager (how is that possible?) for school to start in January (double yay!)

And I ordered their uniforms. And my eyes threatened to start leaking as these tiny creatures of mine were trying on their big kid school hats....

Knot a Love Heart

After I finished that other embroidery piece recently, I had a hankering to do a bit more stitching, so I drew a heart shape freehand on a scrap of beautifully slubby light khaki cotton/linen cloth, went nuts with the needle and thread, and this is the result: a gazillion (exact amount!) densely worked french knots stitched in shaded colour wedges through the heart. The piece is 4 inches square, and mounted simply on a 5x7 canvas frame from the dollar store (Hello my friend the industrial stapler!)

 

The colour decisions were easy - I just used the same palette from the earlier piece - I still hadn't unpacked my embroidery threads at this point, so that was all that was on offer!

There's a lot of knots in here!

...and of course, as with all things that include hearts and the merest hint of the colour pink, there's a little girl here who's convinced this is destined for her!

 

I'm entering this into the Stitched in Color embroidery challenge...which I'm a little nervous about since I've never entered a competition for any of my textile work. But it seems like fun...and I've had such a nice time looking up all the other entries, I'd feel like a stalker if I didn't contribute. Wish me luck!

 

Indiana Jones

This type of climbing frame cum play structure thingummy, always makes me think of Indiana Jones, though I'm not entirely sure why - there's nary a massive rock ball or ancient dark arts priest to be seen!

 

Cole and Imogen sure love it though...then again, any combination of climbing, height and imminent danger is always a good deal for these two! (and apparently making fake *I'm about to fall* noises to freak out your mother works too!)

 

Imagine the fun things he would have come up with, had Indy been a playground designer!

(You ponder things like this too, right?)

Desert tetris - dad's quilt, and a (kinda) collaborative effort

My dad, Don, celebrated his 60th 4 days before Cole and Imogen turned 5 (he still gives me grief that I wasn't organised enough to deliver his grandbabies on his birthday!)

To commemorate, I made him a new quilt. (I don't have any pictures of the original quilt I made for dad a decade+ ago...Dad, can I tempt you into playing photographer?)

 

Well, I've mentioned before that I'm a bit of a last-minute Lucy, right? I was really impressed with myself when I had this quilt finished - label and all! - a full month in advance of dad's birthday. (Those sounds you're hearing would be the Angels of Timeliness falling over dead from the shock)

 

Of course, me being me, I still hadn't wrapped it the morning of dad's party...which may not have been the most brilliant move in hindsight. As I grabbed it off the back of the couch to wrap (we'd just moved out of our home in Rotorua 2 days before and I'd left the quilt on the sofa in the new place to air. And because I liked looking at it!) I discovered that a certain little someone had added a series of drawn hearts right in the centre of the quilt. In felt pen. Hot pink fluoro felt pen. Cue completely inappropriate language and a bit of a *chat* with said little someone. Little toad. Even though she knows (hot pink + hearts - I'm sure you can figure out the culprit) so very well about pens only being for paper, apparently she felt the need to further embellish the quilt when she realised it was for Granddad Don. *I wanted him to know he's my giant love heart!*

 

...did I mention this was a whopping 25 minutes before we needed to leave for the party, so there was absolutely no time to even try and get the markings off and then dry the quilt...we just had to run with it.

 

So I wrapped it up and later in the day, when dad opened his present, I quietly mentioned to him about the marking and how it should wash out. I hoped. And you know those moments when you realise just how lucky you are to be related to someone? This was one - dad laughed, told me it was so fabulous, and then went over and genuinely thanked Immy for making him feel special by adding her artwork to his quilt. You should have seen her shine!*

There's a reason we all adore this guy.

 

And then a few weeks ago, I asked dad if the hearts had washed out properly after all, and he was horrified at the very suggestion he would try it - he wanted to keep them there for all to see! So now I've given him instructions on (hopefully) heat setting the marker pen, and I guess I can officially count that as my first collaborative quilt with my daughter!

 

*We had a little chat later on, her and I, about how drawing on someone else's stuff is never okay, but that if she did want to add something to a present someone else had made for a special someone, she should talk to me about it and we would definitely work out a plan. (Phew - really wanted to nip any suggestions drawing all over quilts was okay in the bud. EEK - can you imagine?!?)

A friendly reminder to finish your half quilted quilts!

See this? This is what happens when you leave safety pins in a half-quilted quilt for nearly 7 years! There was obviously a pin or 2 in my stash at the time that weren't stainless steel, bugger. Thankfully I'm okay with 6 tiny rust marks (yep, 3 pins. Grr. They were immediately consigned to purgatory aka the bin!) on this particular quilt - it *works* okay with the colouring and style...but still, it's something I'd really like to avoid from here on out!

The Cabbage Tree Quilt

I was feeling a bit glum about not having much in the way of craftiness to show you at the moment, when it occurred to me...I have a stack of quilts about the house (and folded in cupboards, piled in boxes) that I haven't ever shared - and maybe you'd like to see a few of them?

Source: travel.nationalgeographic.com via Mary Lauren on Pinterest

 

This is my Cabbage Tree Quilt - Ti Kouka. The Cordyline Australis, that most ubiquitous part of the NZ landscape, has always been a favourite plant of mine, and never fails to make me feel like a Kiwi, like New Zealand is home - a nice feeling of reassurance for a homebody who's found herself living in rather more countries than anticipated! (Let's not think too deeply about the psychology of that one, given we've just made a permanent move to Australia, ha!)

 

So, when the amazing kiwi textile artiste  Clare Smith offered a 2 day class on spiky tree quilts (way back in 2003, eek!) I was definitely in! This is the only quilt I've ever made that's along the lines of and *art* or *pictoral* quilt. 

 

I managed to get the whole top pieced during the class, including a couple of restarts like handpainting the background fabric in its entirety at the beginning of day 2! Within a week of the class, I had the quilt basted and probably 1/3 quilted. And then life intervened, as did other quilts, and on and on. This quilt ended up in a box of UFOs and WIPs that went to the Cook Islands, and to Seychelles, and back to NZ again, without a single stitch being added. Last year, I finally gave myself the proverbial kick in the pants and finished off the quilting. Good grief was that pound of flesh! (but I do love the movement it gives to the quilt) And then of course I had to let the whole thing sit and germinate for a bit before I finally adding the binding and hand stitched it down in the new year. I love how it turned out, even if my cabbage tree leaf clusters are more asterisk than foliage. Oh, and the quilt is flat, but the utter morons moving people unrolled all my finished quilts and squished them into boxes. (No folding required!!!! apparently. grr) and I'd only just located and liberated them the night before.

 

And now it's finally done, who knows - it may even get hung in this house. as the Mainland cheese guys maintain, these things take time!

Confirmation that these guys are definitely mine...

Oh yes indeedy, there is absolutely no doubting their genetic heritage!!

The kids asked if they could do some stitching, so we tried some this time with cotton fabric in hoops and proper (sharp!) needles. I drew Cole and Immy's choice of pattern onto the fabric with erasable fabric pen*, and let them have at it. Yep, we were all still in our pjs at this point.

Oh my, it was such a success...and it melted my heart to see their intense concentration and joy throughout the process, as well as the finished product. In fact, Cole burst into tears the first night when I wouldn't let him stay up past his bedtime to finish his piece!!! yep, that's me, the mean mama who cuts off the embroidery at bedtime.

We're planning on mounting the pieces tomorrow (Immy just finished hers but I haven't managed a photo of her and her piece together yet) and Cole and Imogen are so excited about having their own creations up on their wall.

And Cole's already started his second piece - this time he drew the design himself...watch out for a seriously cute jet plane (with fire bombs!) coming soon...

 *I used a special fabric marker pen this time round (that is water erasable but also fades over time), but I am also a fan of using regular old kids' washable markers, for this as well as marking quilts etc. Not only do they come in every colour (you can always find the perfect colour to mark no matter what colour fabric you're using!), but they're really cheap. Gotta love it.