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She Came in Like a Wrecking Ball…..

2020 saw it’s fair share of challenges, something we thought we would and could handle, and for the most part Australia was no different. We began with a great deal of our country suffering crippling drought and monster wildfires which devastated homes and wildlife habitats, including the wildlife themselves. From there we had been exposed to the Pandemic – taking hold of the population by fear, and losing some of our most vulnerable members of our society. Tragedy followed, and so far 2021 hasn’t been much different. While some places are still in drought, we also had some massive floods and now a large rural disaster is unfolding in the shape of a mouse plague. Life here, whilst hard, breeds tough, resilient and tenacious people.

Aussies pick themselves up, dust off the dirt, put our big girl undies on, and deal with whatever life throws our way, so when others are finding it tough, we always get stuck in and help out, give as much of ourselves as we can, even if it’s our very last resources.

As Covid-19 ravages the world over, wiping the earth with an insidiousness, Aussies stopped. We lost a lot of jobs, but faith in ourselves and our abilities grew as we paused. We worked to help keep ourselves and others the world over safer.

While my job was considered “essential”, I remained working as well as making masks for my fellow workmates, and a beautiful nurse friend of mine in the USA, where they were only allowed ONE paper mask per week! To fight off a pandemic, only having access to LIMITED PPE to help keep THEM safe, was just absolutely plain LUDICROUS! Whilst my country paused, theirs continued to forge ahead, not worrying about the devastating loss it would encounter along the way. So, I got stuck in here, and belted out 55 masks in a weekend and posted those off to my friend for herself and her work mates – and then followed again with another 26. By this time, she was set, and so was her family and all her co-workers. Then Imade them for myself and my family and all those I held dear, and then for MY work colleagues and their families. A few of us at work were making them.

With all these masks, came a ton of tiny scraps. So.. what to do with those? Well, into a ziplock bag they went because most were approx 2” wide. Scrappy for sure, but what do you do with those?

On my stash busting mission, I decided to use an old register receipt roll I was given, and began sewing all those little scraps to it – making one V E R Y long strip. I cut 1 metre strips of paper and then sewed all the scraps together. After almost emptying the bag of scraps, I then cut another strip of white to add to the cross section edge of my paper strip, leaving the paper intact so as to keep the fabric from stretching out of place. Now comes the fun bit. 🙂

Paper piano keys sewn to white homespun strips, paper removed afterward.

Once the strip was joined, I began pulling out the papers. Laying this flat on my cutting board, I took my 60° ruler and began cutting wedge shaped pieces. I was going to create a hexagon of colour with either a white centre, or with a small coloured hexagon, and a lot of white surrounding it.

Measuring wedge shapes with a 60° ruler.
Wedge shapes cut from assembled strips of white and coloured piano key paper strips.

Having the pieces cut, I continued until I had enough for my quilt top. I then began to assemble the “wedge” pieces to make half a hexie shape. These later on, will be put together with some single white wedge shaped pieces of fabric.

One fun thing I had to keep in my mind a LOT when I began sewing was to be very careful NOT to stretch the fabric. Being cut on a bias made that naughty stretch entirely possible, even though I didn’t want it to happen. However, I managed it quite well – so far so good. 🙂

Half Hexie with coloured outside
Half Hexie with white outside, and small coloured inner hexagon.

Sewing these together in a strip with a white triangle, made for the easiest assemblage of the pieces. And so, I repeated this and added my borders and voila.. a finished quilt top. I love this top so much, and have called it “Group Hugs in Isolation”. It was a reminder of all those people that I have helped to keep safe, some I knew, others I didn’t.

Strip piecing.
Strip pieces joined.

The charity of helping others is what we should strive for in our daily doings and beings. It’s a “pay it forward” opportunity, or a feel good moment. Like carrying someone’s groceries to their car when they’re struggling or checking on elderly neighbours. All the things you can help with during a pandemic that make life tolerable. That small amount of human touch to one another without actually coming into close contact. Sending messages and pictures of love and hope to another who is far away, or just smiling at someone walking towards you. Gifting without rewards, donating to charities that help others and getting the vaccination against Covid to protect yourself AND your communities.

Almost finished, just needs borders.


So, 2020 AND 2021 came in like a wrecking ball, but we don’t have to allow it to destroy our sense of belonging or closeness. We just have to be mindful, thoughtful, and build our relationships on totally new levels.

~ Rails.

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HOT as HELL

For the last few days the west coast of the US has been suffering through a blistering heat wave. It is predicted to last at least 10 days. I dashed to the coast and boondocked for a few days and was quite blissfully delirious to wake up chilled and shivering!

Cool as Heaven

Alas, I had a few appointments so had to come back and deal.

I’m “between” projects right now. Have done a zillion hexies for a commissioned quilt, but it’s stalled out pending working out the actual design. And my Paper Lantern’s is too big to work on comfortably anywhere right now. If I’m able to escape to the coast again, i’m seriously considering bringing it along anyways. There’s only 1.5 corners to complete and then insert. Then I’ll have to decide how to finish it!! I’ve got a few all cotton sheets that might well work as the backing. The thought of putting ANY batting in it at the moment is enough to make me faint.

Raelene convinced me (took about 2 seconds, after I convinced her) to get a Ghastlie’s panel, and, currently, scouting out a way to make it into a quilt is about all I’m up to for now! It’s got the most adorable grouchy bat as a square and it reminds me of my oldest grandbaby when she was just a wee little beastie and would furrow her brow and look suspicious.

little grouchy bat is from the Alexander Henry Ghastlies line...

So if anyone has any suggestions for an adorably ghastlie quilt, lemme know!

Raelene, send me some of your cold weather, please!

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2021: Life goes on

The New year has started off rough. Life has kept me otherwise busy, anxious and pre-occupied. To cope, I’ve been working on an EPP quilt. Small pieces, handcut templates, basting. All mind-less, repetitive activities I’ve used to cope with anxiety. At this point I don’t even want to know how many kites and hexies and half-hexies I’ve made!

April 2021: Life has not returned to ‘normal’. I’ve just had to adjust, adapt, and continue on.
My family has lost an important member, and every day I think of something I want to pass on, a gardening joke, a weather comparison, a smell that reminds me of another time and place. Sometimes I send the jokes or thoughts or weather to someone else. Sometimes I just lament that there’s a void. As mentioned, life continues. Life goes on.

So, on to the Aussie quilt again…

A classic romantic swag

This is by far mom’s favourite block. It’s in memory of my parent’s wedding anniversary.

Burgundy is my mom’s colour. So of course finding a floral, heart shaped pattern with a background of burgundy was perfect for this block! I quilted it very simply, following the lines of the heart and the swags.

My parents were married in February, shortly after Valentines Day, in the middle of a bad snowstorm. Because my dad was in the military on short leave, they couldn’t just reschedule it.

As she tells it, my parents, my aunt and my grandparents were about the only ones able to show up. But they were married for 45 years, so an inauspicious start wasn’t much of a hindrance. They went on to have eight (8!) of us children!! I was by far the favourite, of course (hey, its my blog, TJ)!!!

(Sidenote: I wore this same dress for my wedding twenty-five odd years later)

The reason my mom and younger brother came to Australia, was my oldest daughter getting married to her sweetheart. Everything else was icing on the wedding cake, so to speak.

There’s a certain similarity to both of their wedding flowers in these blocks, sweet pink rose clusters. It appealed to my sense of life’s circularity. To match it a bit more, I used a heart template roughly the size of the heart quilting on my mom’s block. It’s a looser, not as traditional styling as her block which was suitable for a much younger, modern bride while still holding that bit of bridal tradition.

Remember I told you to look forward to the picture of my brother modelling? Here it is. Somewhat ironic that he was attempting to model the veil without any hair on his shiny head! Also, he’s never married. Always a bridesmaid and all that…..

When I first arrived in Australia, I remember seeing the most intricate wrought iron balconies and fences and gates. Someone told me that it was called “lacework” and that description has always seemed appropriate. It shows up in cities all over Australia. This fabric has the delicate scrollwork (though not the symmetry!) of iron lacework.

When silver threads are sewn into,
The quilt of life, inspired by you,
The memories of all you’ve done
The love you’ve shared, can’t be undone.
~ Raelene



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I still call Australia home…

The continuing story of the quilt that was born in Australia

My brother and mom made a lot of stops on their way to Adelaide. They flew into Sydney for my daughters wedding, stayed for a week or so in Western Sydney and then came down to Adelaide with me where I was living at the time. Of course they hit the highlights, the tourist places that everyone visits when they come to Australia. Even I did when I first arrived! I was lucky enough to find fabric that made perfect patches…

The four corners of the apocolypse quilt- hehe, sorry it IS 2020, but these four corners were placed on the quilt nearly 10 years ago – are of iconic Australian places and animals. This patch is the Sydney Harbour Bridge and is recognisable as the ocean-side entry to Sydney.

Sydney Opera House is not only outstanding architecture in Australia, but is listed as a World Heritage site, alongside the Taj Mahal, the Great Wall of China and the ancient Pyramids of Egypt. I remember visiting once and looking down the side of the Opera House into the ocean and seeing SO many jellyfish – huge groupings, I discovered are called blooms!

The Kookaburra (aka the laughing jackass). The completed block has a small black button with red legs, to symbolise the Redback spider, star of ‘There’s a redback on my toilet seat‘ song! During our Christmas dinner that year, I pulled out the laptop and found as many classic Aussie songs as I could. They found it funny until I pointed out my inside/outside toilet (I lived in an amazing old house) was a great place for spiders! One of the sounds I miss most is hearing Kookaburra’s in the morning.

One of my funniest memories of kangaroos wasn’t on this particular trip, it was before my mom came over. I had been a citizen for about 15 years, and while not an uncommon sight, they weren’t normally seen day-to-day. However, there was a park down the road from where I lived and after I had just denied in a call to my mom that we have kangaroos roaming the streets like deer, guess what I happened to see on a walk down my street? Yes, indeed!

My mom was tickled to see this Kangaroo, even if it was in a zoo. How often do you get to pet the cuter half of the Australian Coat of Arms?? And to give you some more classic Aussie songs, click on the link to listen to Rolf and the Beatles do “Tie me Kangaroo Down” – if you’ve never heard it, you’re welcome for the earworm! (The original version.)

Keeping to the theme of Australian animals, this block is a brolga (a type of crane) in a billabong. This was eventually quilted with both spirals (a recurring theme in my quilts since it’s often symbolic of change, evolution, wisdom and infinity) and short straight stitches resembling rain from clouds. Mom initially thought the birds were emu’s, as her zoo visit included an ‘attack’ by an emu for a treat in her hand. Emu’s have very small brains and tend to think buttons, hair, and anything held in the hand is food and they want it. That can be frightening, their beaks are big and the feet are bigger and both look like weapons close-up!

Kangaroo Island, off the coast of South Australia, is a fascinating place. They have an isolated population of what is widely considered the last genetically pure strain of Italian Ligurian bees. We had dishes of honey ice cream (too sweet for me!), honey sticks and I got myself a hexagon of sweet smelling bees wax to wax threads for hand quilting – used in this quilt, actually! Memories are not just what your mind remembers, but also what your sense of smell remembers. If you want to learn more about the Island, and the bee population particularly, you’ll find one source here. I promise, no earworms! Just the pleasurable buzz of learning new things!

This block brings back fun memories. What can be more Australian than a Koala? Well, there’s the Australian drop-bear, read a history of this elusive critter from the Australian Museum. Beware, elusive as they are, they’re scarier than the Tasmanian Devil, even!

Featherdale Zoo has a strict policy against ordinary mortals cuddling their Koala’s. My brother was standing next to the open enclosure after the educational talk. The big female in the enclosure dropped down from the tree onto the hip-high fence around the trees and climbed directly into my brother’s arms and gave him a cuddle! The Zoo attendant rushed over and told him cuddles were not allowed, and my poor brother had to sputter that he hadn’t actively taken her up. We tease him about his animal attraction and possibly the grey in his beard, and his rounded stomach made her think he was a koala. He really didn’t agree, but what do brother’s know, right?

Later, we rented a cabin on Kangaroo Island, and while we saw plenty of wallaby’s, we were THRILLED one late afternoon to see a large male climb down a gum tree and galumph across the golden fields to another tree. Even after 18 years or so, that was the closest I’d ever come to a wild Koala, and certainly a first for my mom. Not my brother, though, since this was after his cuddle-up.

Skates, or stingrays. upside down, they look like they have sweet faces!

My brother really wanted to do a scuba dive when he was in Adelaide. There was a well known dive site not far off-shore where an old ship had been deliberately sunk. Lucky for him, I knew someone who had a scuba suit and tanks he could borrow, so he could join a dive group. While I’m not entirely sure he saw any stingrays or skates, I admit i just loved the pattern and just had to include it in memory of that dive.

There’s going to be at least one or two more in this series of posts. It’s been great fun going back and looking at the blocks and my mom making them. My brother will show up in photo’s next post doing some fashion modeling for us! Stay tuned, it’s worth it…

Love and blessings for the New Year, may 2021 be easier than 2020.
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A Long Time Ago, In A Far Away Place….

My last blog post was about a new quilt I made for my young granddaughter. One of the quilts I also finished this year was a quilt I helped my Mom with about 9-10 years ago. This blog is similar to the previous blog about the Unicorn Quilt/Family Ties. There’s a LOT of meaning in these blocks I’m about to show you. However, there are 24 quilt pictures and a few extra, so I may break this into a few blog posts.

She’d never made a quilt before, so I taught her most of what she knows.

My mother and TJ, my younger brother, had come to Australia (her first and last visit) for my eldest daughter’s wedding. She stayed three months, and we did quite a few side trips to places like Featherdale zoo, the Blue Mountains, Kangaroo Island, several vineyards including a fascinating visit to a bio-dynamic vineyard where we bought the most delicious late harvest white wine. I don’t usually drink, but we did go through several bottles of that wine while they were visiting!

Cheese classes have been on my mom’s wish list for years. I did a quick search, just a few weeks before Christmas, to see if I could find any classes going on in the area. Amazingly, there was a place up in Hahndorf, Udder Delights, that had just had a cancellation of two students. I explained that my mom was from the US and had always wanted to take classes, and they were kind enough to offer me the two spots – normally you have to book ahead by as much as a year, we were told!

Cheese-making block (cheese in the middle, cave around that and olive groves surrounding the area as the third border)

The cheeses are made below the Udder Delights cheese shop , in their cellar. To this day, my mom still has the instructions, the rennet, the forms – everything you need to make your own cheese. We took home some Feta we had made that day as well. And of course, we learned whey can be used in everything from breadmaking, soups, and as a fertiliser in the garden. I’ve done all those things since then. The hills of Hahndorf have a lot of vineyards and olive oil groves, and we showed that in the olive leaf inner green border. The cave is represented by the darker leaf border and the cheese as the innermost block. We didn’t make it cheddar coloured, as feta and ricotta are creamy white.

We also took a dolphin cruise. Now, my brother is a first responder, and it seems EVERYWHERE he goes, he meets other firemen and first responders. This cruise was no different, and he talked up a storm with the guy, and gave him one of the first responder patches he carried with him everywhere in Australia.

the notion of dolphins, if not actual ones

We FINALLY saw some dolphins cruising along the boat just before the finish, and we were thoroughly delighted. Since my mom grew up in the Great Lakes region in the midwest, she hadn’t had much chance to see dolphins prior to her trip. While paisley isn’t technically a dolphin, they do look like them from above, right?!

Looks like truffles, cobblestones and sheep’s wool!

Being choc-o-holics, of course we went to the Haigh’s Chocolate shop in Adelaide, and bought their famous truffles. We also saw some cobbled streets and did the Adelaide tourist thing – including the farmers market. It had been a very long time since my mother had been to anything resembling a European Farmer’s Market, and this was as much fun for her as it was for myself and my brother. I adore Farmer’s Markets, the more diverse the better!

These are the Aboriginal fabrics that showcase some of the artwork and imagery of Australian Aboriginals in our travels. We were lucky to see a young man playing on a didgereedoo at an art gallery we visited. These blocks remind us of the Elders and Tribal lands that we stood on.

Mom bought small boomerangs painted with Aboriginal designs, and these reminded me of boomerangs – properly thrown – and their whirling paths back to the start.

This is the only block mom dislikes on the entire quilt. Witchity grubs! Of course, the dot painting style is familiar to many who have seen Aboriginal art. The witchity grub, is a protein rich food source for outback wanderers as well. I fully admit, it gives me a childish giggle whenever I see it and it’s one of my favourite blocks.


I’m already working on the next post for this, and at the end of all of them, will show the quilt in its entirety. With some luck, I should have the next installment up before Christmas. Hoping you’re enjoying the start of this series and that it gives you food for thought. Just not grub related food, as mom would most assuredly agree with!

this artwork courtesy of Raelene

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Ebb and Flow

The past few weeks, have been completely crazy. With the lead up to Christmas being generally chaotic in retail, my personal life has been equally filled with pressing engagements – Christmas shopping, projects to finish, and a surprise family visit.

My brother, in between mining jobs, went traveling. He works, then travels, then comes home and works again. Only this time, he got caught overseas, and couldn’t find his way home due to locked borders, and no flights and an invisible foe! This foe, (aka Covid~19) has turned the whole world upon its head, and made life crazy for a lot of people. For us in Australia, it has been testing, but nowhere near as hard as some others have had it. (My sincere condolences for those of you who have lost loved ones, my strength to all of you, to keep carrying on in spite of the virus). But, returning to my brother, he was stuck landlocked, in a small country between Vietnam and Thailand. Laos was to become his new home for 7 months.

Prior to his journey, I gave him a few of my creations to photograph in different places around Australia, not knowing he was going to jump on a jet, and head OS! But off he went – flung through the air in a tin can! The first I knew he was overseas, is when he sent me a pic of the two Faeries I sent on adventures!

Fern
Jasper

After 7 months abroad, he came home, Faeries in tow, and I met up with him again this week, gladdened by his being home, and being safe.

We toured the local National Park and had a walk along the beaches and rocks, and it gave me another idea, as often creative people get inspirations from the environment around them.

With a rostered day off, I decided to get making a Christmas card photograph, and began by crafting a tiny driftwood Christmas tree. Inspiration from the waves, I added a few tiny seashells I had, as decorations on my little tree. All set, I grabbed my big camera, my Faerie Mermaid, and the tiny tree. Donning my Akubra Hat (Aussie brand of fine pelt iconic hats) I made my way to the beach!

I hopped out of the car to note it was rather windy, and I stood assessing the beach, and all its occupants, and the place I wanted to photograph – out of the wind – was occupied by several families. Opting for the windier unoccupied end of the beach, I watched the waves come up the sand and where they finished, and where the best place to set up my scene for my photograph happened to be. Decisions made, I made my way onto the beach, as a gust of wind flipped my hat off my head, which tumbled its way along the sand, flipping this way and that, as I giggled madly chasing it.

A thought occurred to me, that it might just be too windy, but being the persistent type, I grabbed the hat, stuffed it under my arm, and began setting up my scenery. Poking wires down into the sand to anchor my lightweight props, my scene set, I laid out a towel to prevent the sand from entering my camera. Here is where the fun began, the setting of a perfect scene, the photographs that would eventually become my cards for friends and family. I was in my element..

I lay down on my stomach, set up the shot and set the macro lens to automatic. As it focused on the Mermaid, I was just about to complete the shot, when the camera refocused.. this time, on the approaching wave! Yes, I had a split second to raise the camera and my body up, just in time to get drenched by the incoming wave! Floundering about like a sea lion in the ocean, I saved that camera from the Ebb of the Ocean! Mother Nature was trying to tell me with the prior flipping of my hat, that today was probably NOT a good day for playing with her!

Looking about, I noticed my Mermaid had returned unceremoniously to the waves, and my tree had completely disappeared! I couldn’t find it anywhere! The towel I was lying on was a balled up mess of sand and fabric, and I was becoming more a part of the beach with every movement, collecting sand like jewels both all over my clothes and within them. I was beginning to feel like a bad sandpaper commercial, with the abrasive grit between my skin and my clothes!

Bedecked in silicon glitter, I pulled myself up, checked the camera over to make sure it survived, and began looking in the returning waves for my Mermaid. Plucking her sand covered body from the water, I gave her a quick rinse. BUGGER! Her hair saturated, her soft skin drenched and dark, I flicked her about to rid her of the sand and almost called defeat. Picking up the drowned rag I found a tiny darkened Xmas tree, missing a few ‘decorations’ that the ocean claimed back, I thought.. no.. I shall not give up!

Resetting my scene a little further towards the plant matter and not the wet stuff, I started all over again. I was already drenched and covered in sand, I again lay face down and repositioned the camera and cracked off a few photographs. Watching carefully, making sure I was indeed, out of reach of the Oceans cold, watery fingertips.

As I sit here and giggle about it now, as I did on the day, wondering if anyone had witnessed the spectacle of the beached sea lion floundering about in the persistent waves, it brings me to think about the year that was 2020. The hardships, the unseen foes, the enduring spirit we all have inside us, and the golden glittery opportunities we all have, if only we choose to see them. The humility we feel at something more powerful than ourselves.. LIFE! The ever present force that keeps us moving forward, in the face of great adversity. The positivity, creativity, and above all, LOVE! The love we share with ourselves, others, and for the memories, the places we go, and the world around us. No matter where you all are, if you read to the end of this paragraph or not, I wish for you all, to find peace, happiness, and love at the close of a difficult and tumultuous year. ‘ Merry’ Christmas to you all! ~ Rails.

Merry Mermaid

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THE STORIES THAT QUILTS TELL

(AKA: Why do i cut up old fabric with family stories attached for grandchildren who will never meet those families?)

Long ago and far away, in distant lands, there were once neighbours – friends of my mom who lived up the street from us. I remember, she and several other friends gathered in this neighbours basement, around an old-fashioned quilt frame, and had a quilting bee . I remember this every time I watch “How to Make an American Quilt“. Vague memories surface of laying underneath the quilt and being fascinated when light from the windows made the underneath look like a stained glass window. Whether I actually laid under the quilt or not, I think that’s when my interest in quilts started. It took many years, three different countries and a dissolving marriage before that interest turned to actually starting to learn about quilting.

I’ve asked my mom about that quilt since then. She said that after that day, she remembers the neighbour asking my mom’s opinion about her mother’s quilting stitches. They weren’t as tight, as small and as straight as they used to be in her hey-day, and she thought maybe she should take them out and do them better. My Mom remembers that she suggested no, that the neighbour would always remember her mother making those stitches, when her mother was no longer be around, that it might provide some comfort to know that her mom’s hands had made those stitches, perfect or not.

My mom has a few quilts of uncertain provenance. She has a lovely butterfly quilt, blanket stitched with black thread, that is unraveling in places. The fabrics look a bit 1930’s or 40’s. She thinks her grandmother had it, but doesn’t think anyone in the family actually quilted, so it might have been bought or a gift. Regardless, it’s now family heritage, and when I one day mend it, I will use threads and fabrics that have been in my family and used in quilts I’ve made.

When quilting these days, especially for family members, I deliberately include a lot of symbolism. Some in the block patterns I use, some in the fabrics I use, and some are in the actual quilting.

front of unicorns

My youngest granddaughter lives in Australia, while I currently live in the US. I made her older sister at least 2 quilts both before and after she was born, though I left before the younger one was even a twinkle in her parents’ eyes. So when I found out she adored unicorns (‘corns she called them), I immediately went and found material with unicorns, and pink and purple sparkly colours to match. I chose a pattern called “Family Ties” by its designer, Quiltin’ Jenny.

Though this young granddaughter and I don’t know each other well, yet, she is my family and always will be! When the top was done and it was layered, I quilted stars, and a wild-form paisley that matches the unicorn tails. She and her sister are my stars and moon, my loves, and paisley’s are symbolic of new life, new seeds – an embryonic form of the great woman she will grow up to be.

Bright and sprakly corny ‘corns

There are also parallel quilted lines in the long areas of the pattern. She, her parents and myself are all parallel, and at times interlaced, generations.

back of unicorns

The back of the quilt reminds me of bright bloomy fireworks – grandbabies are so worthy of celebration and fireworks!

sister’s bees!

Normally, I would put material from a previous quilt, into the next or next several quilts. I can’t use any of the material from her sister’s quilts, as I don’t have it anymore, but there are bees on one of those quilts, so I can include some bee material (or an embroidered bee) on the label to connect them.

I have yet to put a label on the Unicorn quilt, so I will find a matching material to include on this one. Luckily I have a LOT of purple to chose from that was used in my recently finished “Starry Starry Night” quilt (to be featured in another post). In my mind and my creativity, it shows the continuity in life; how one generation or project continues on in the next generation or project. It has become a “thing” with my quilts this year. Possibly because 2020 has shown me how you can have someone in your life, thinking they’ll always be there, and then one day, when you don’t expect it, they’re gone. But those lives have and will continue to have ripples in lives they may never know.

There are more quilts that I either finished or started this year, but that’s for another post!

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It’s beginning to look a lot like CHRISTMAS!

You either love it or loathe it. Some people go all out in joyous celebration and others focus inwardly on the year that was, and on family and faith. For me, it usually is a time of increased stress, wanting to please everyone and having a difficult time not getting disappointed. I never felt at ease with Christmas as an adult, until I was a single parent, and while I am no longer single, I find myself once again with feelings of dread as the holiday season approaches. Will I miss someone? Will I not have enough time between working to finish the projects for the day, and then – there’s the dreaded spending of approximately 6 hours traveling to various family gatherings. Leaving home as most people are sitting down to open gifts and eating breakfast, and not returning again until well after the sun has set. By then, most people are settling in for the evening and relaxing, but for me it’s a full 1.5 hour journey back home, unpacking the car, and meandering inside to greet the dog, and feed her and make sure she’s all sorted before falling into bed and then using Boxing Day (ed: for non-europeans/British, Boxing day is the day after Christmas) to recover. THEN it’s back to work the following day! It’s definitely stressful, and I’m sure I wouldn’t be alone in the shared stress of the day. However, the pre-holiday crafting is the fun part for me.

My son recently visited his grandparents and came home with a boot full of loot! Treasure that us crafty people appreciate the most! Things that my Mum, in the winter years of her life, no longer wanted, and passed them along to me. Part of this heart warming treasure, were some Nancy Halvorsen’s Art to Heart books.

As I perused the pages, flipped through instructions, and devoured the beautiful photographs, my little mind went for a stroll by itself and came up with what else I could do with one of her designs. I wanted to showcase my hand dyed fabrics! A little spark ignited to a bush fire of epic proportions within my mind. I was GOING to make a small Christmas wall hanging! Never have I done something like it before, so – here we go!

Choosing the Snowman from Nancy Halvorsen’s ‘The Night Before Christmas’ book, I set about constructing him onto Teflon type cooking paper, so I could line him up perfectly, before adding him to the backing fabric. Once this was done, I put him in place and ironed him down, and stitched him on by hand. Small stitches in blending colours using embroidery cottons was the way to go. There really is something soothing about stabbing fabric over and over, and making something of beauty at the end.

After completion of the snowman, I freehand drew a whimsical tree, made it into a pattern and then set about dyeing the fabric needed. I wanted the rolling, soft shapes that I can achieve with ice, and so I went to work, using various shades of greens, and made sure I left a few places without colour, to create the negative spaces, which became my ‘snow’ on my tree.

Once again, I used my Teflon baking paper, assembled the pattern pieces cut from my fabric and made the tree, offering the compositional piece movement, as we know that snowmen don’t move… not while you look at them anyway. ;). Having hand stitched this down, it came time to sandwich it together. I used the outline of my tree and the snowman to cut the shapes out of batting, and used spray adhesive to attach them to the reverse side, allowing it to line up inside the stitching on the back, then cut a larger piece of batting and spray basted the whole front to this and applied to the back fabric. My piece was ready to quilt!

I basted the outside edges together to prevent the sides from separating, and then simply stitched using machine, around both the tree, and the snowman. Having the extra batting behind both images made them ‘pop’ up from the fabric, giving them a little bit of life and movement. I criss-crossed along the bottom of the quilt with wavy lines and created the ‘ground’, and then came the idea to create swirling snow. I have never, in my 50+ years of life, seen snow fall!!! So I began by using a blue water soluble marker, drew lines of slow long scrolls. Julie was very encouraging that I COULD hand quilt, as it’s something I’ve never done before, and well, quite frankly was terrified of! But.. grabbing the cotton reel by the short and curlies, I got to threading that tiny needle, watched a YouTube tutorial, and began! Quite frankly.. after I had finished them all, I was HOOKED! (I even added another swirl just because!) And then I was finished! Binding completed, I then stood back and looked at what needed to be done.

Life is not complete without some form of Bling! And there is no better bling than Swarovski! I love it, and so for every curling swirl, I added a bead for the snowflake. Glass beads for the berries of the holly, and a wooden snowflake with Swarovski for the top of the tree, but it definitely still didn’t look ‘grounded’. I had a bit of loosely woven craft silk, so I pulled and shredded this, and lay a small piece of tulle across it, and laid it on the ground beneath the snowman and the tree.

So now he’s done and I will have to find another project to work on. Luckily I never run out of ideas. However, it would help if I could just shut the gate on my wondering mind for a moment, while I pinned one down! What holiday projects are you working on? Are you running out of time? It’s beginning to look a lot like…. Christmas!

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Dyeing is a Slow Process

“Morning has spoken…”

It’s 6:00am, and the birds outside are singing in a new day. Clouds from the drizzly day of yesterday are clearing, allowing slivers of the sun to peek through. Although Aussie seasons are mild here on the east coast, it’s still cool in the morning The chilly winds, they never stop me from dreaming of ice – lots of it – not snow, as it doesn’t snow this close to the coastline, but ICE! Big chunks like you’d float in a glass in the heat of summer.

Most of my life I have dabbled in art, having received my very first set of oil paints from my grandparents as a very young girl. I love nature, and in another life, am a fully qualified florist. I have a natural ability to ‘wing it’ and come out with great ideas and compositions. So when I look at nature, I see that there are no two colours the same. Mother Nature, with all her fury, also gently surprises us at every turn with colour combinations fit to burst the soul with delight and the heart with joy! With gay abandon she paints the air, the sea, and the lands with all the spectrum of light refracted and then blows us away with hues, tints, tones, shapes and textures. From a subtle leaf blowing in the breeze, jittering at the end of a knobby branch, to the delicate capillaries within the petals of your favourite flowers. Nature really is a miraculous source of inspiration.

Disclosure, I am relatively new to the quilting world, but my Mother and my dear friend Julie introduced me to this craft, and have encouraged me to expand my creativity and get on board. Knowing the amount of fabric I have collected over the years, I seem to have accepted the challenge of ‘Those with the most fabrics upon death, wins!’ I’m trying.. really I am! But I’ve always been horrified at the idea of cutting into beautiful fabric for making quilts, and yet, never had the same aversion when I made clothes from equally lovely fabric for my children and myself, and now, my granddaughter.

So, as I stumbled through the idea of paying large sums for a small piece of fabric, I have discovered that ice and dyes are another art form that allows me to create. It keeps my artistic side happy, and allows fellow quilters access to unique, one of a kind pieces that they can cut up… and I won’t have to apply scissors to beauty (*editor: yes she will, I’m going to challenge her with a purchased panel and her one-of-a-kind fabrics)!

Ice atop a piece of damp fabric, and delicately sprinkled with dyes, makes for a wonderfully serendipitous outcome but it can also go horribly wrong when colours you hope will look sensational together, in fact, split into their base compositions, mingle together and look downright awful. But, these fabrics also have a place, and nothing really is bin-worthy. It just requires a fresh set of eyes and an art quilt instead!

Ice, Ice Baby!

Some of the fabric pieces I have created have been just for fun and experimentation, and others have been a deliberate manipulation of colours, blending and fracturing the pigments using the ice dye method. I have seen first hand that dyeing with snow and larger chunks of ice, makes no real noticeable difference in the end product. What Variations occur, comes down to type of fabrics, and the actual dyes themselves. But either way, I’m in love with the journey my Mum and beloved friend Julie, have led me down. I like this garden path, and I think I would like to stay here on it, treading softly over the cracks of chartreuse weeds poking up in between, and the edges of sweet peas, daffodils, and bluebells.. and of sweet William of my grandmothers day. Dyeing of fabrics lends to wonderful shapes, textures, and hues, tints and tones! All the things Mother Nature is showing us, every day. And if the result isn’t what I like.. I can over dye, or paint, or apply textures, or cut it into shapes for a part of an art quilt. So.. dyeing is not final.. it’s just the very beginning!
~ Rails

* (editor of this piece is Julie)

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2020: Off The Rails!

Case in point. a few days ago I had written a wonderful blog post. I’m not familiar with the blogger yet, and went to find a method of changing text colors. Tried to go back to post and it had disappeared. The days have been very angsty since then. My inner child reappearing, and pitching a fit.

I’ve always thought myself a phlegmatic, relatively peaceable, calm-in-a-crisis person. 2020 had made me face the fact that I’ve been fooling myself for a number of years.

However, every hour, every day, every month, every year we can have a do-over. I’m not sure anyone wants a 2020 do-over though. Just that it would be over and done with so we can start again next year.

Let me introduce myself and my co-conspirator in this venture. Rails has been my dearest friend for a LONG time. I’m afraid to calculate how long. Her son was in nappies and bottle when I first met her. He’s now taller than both of us, has a deep voice and facial hair. Our daughters were friends in school, they’re now married and we both have grandchildren.

I’m older than her, but she’s often wiser than me. I’ve traveled significantly more than she has, but we both have wide world-views. She doesn’t get podcasts, I adore them and my favourite way of sewing is with a podcast in the background. When I figure out how, I will be listing links to those I like best.

Rails is far more creative than I am in real life, but I’ve got a very vivid imagination and amazing google-fu (though I use DuckDuckGo, never Google!) which is a good substitute for hands on creativity. Links to her exquisite hand-dyed fabrics will soon be provided, and will probably feature in their own post!

We both love bright colors, though oddly enough I often find myself dressed in dark and plain block colours. Rails likes orange, I’ve long since forgiven her for that flaw.

We both love our children, and wildly adore our grandchildren (all girls).

We both love quilting, colour, patterns, egging each other on in evolving ideas. We will eventually post some of those ideas in the form of quilt patterns. Rails is enthusiastically dyeing fabric not only for these patterns but because it brings her enormous joy to see what happens when she mixes this with that, ties this way and twists that way and finally hangs it out and we both cheer at the beauty that she produces.

Though we are currently separated by a bazillion miles, give or take a few hundred thousand, Rails and I support each other through thick and thin. We dream of someday retiring to Tasmania with a little quilting/tea shop business. Wisteria , quail and timtams are part of my plan, Rails will have to pipe up with her own.

Plans for the future? Rails is going to be putting her fabrics up for sale soon. She’s been experimenting and taking notes. Fat quarters, fat quarter bundles, mandala panels, and Shibori panels are on the current short list. We’re still working on quilt patterns. Some of those will feature the panels and hand dye’s as examples of how her lovely fabric can be utilised. And FUN, after this year, we girls, JUST WANT TO HAVE FUN!

Signing off,

Julie

postscript: I am bilingual with Australian and American slang. If you are not and are confused with the occasional comment, noun or spelling, feel free to ask! My mother often says she feels she has to come behind me with a translation dictionary, when I visit her and talk to her friends.

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Chocolate… Gimme!

The Top 20 Reasons Chocolate is Better than Sex

1. First of all, you can actually get chocolate.
2. With chocolate, “if you really love me, you’ll swallow”
finaly, finally makes some sense.
3. Chocolate can keep on satisfying you — even after
it’s gone all soft.
4. You can legally enjoy chocolate while driving.
5. Chocolate can be as dark and hard — and last as long —
as you want it to.
6. You and a friend can have chocolate on your kitchen
table right in front of your own Mother.
7. You like to nibble the nuts? Chocolate ain’t complaining.
8. Two or more consenting adults of any gender and ethnicity
can have chocolate together right there in Church without
raising a single eyebrow.
9. Chocolate isn’t scared off by the idea of commitment. It just
wants you to be happy.
10. You can have chocolate at work, right there on your desk in
front of all your co-workers, without causing even a
whiff of scandal.
11. You can walk right up to any stranger on the street and ask
for chocolate without getting arrested for solicitation.
12. Chocolate doesn’t leave annoying hairs between your teeth.
13. There’s absolutely no need to fake it, not with chocolate.
14. Chocolate won’t get you pregnant and then leave you for
another dessert.
15. You can have chocolate no matter time of the month it is —
and at any hour, too.
16. Everywhere you go, it’s really easy to find incredible chocolate.
17. You can have as much chocolate as you can handle and as
many different kinds.
18. You’re never too young —or too old— to have some chocolate.
19. If you wake up in the middle of the night and have a whole
bunch of steamy hot chocolate, you won’t wake the neighbors.
20. Size… it really doesn’t matter with chocolate.

Oh, hi Mommy… um… so… uh… funny thing… it turns out… I really like chocolate after all !
Um… isn’t that great? Uh… Mommy?