Quilt #3 - Flea Market Fancy

Here is quilt top number 3 - I used a fat quarter pack I bought eons ago in the Flea Market Fancy range of which I am a great fan. The pattern is from Material Obsession Book 1

which is inspiring. I'm backing it in the flea market fancy decor weight range fabric...yummm...which I just need to get around to. Yes the UFO pile towers over the FO pile...it's wonderful having so many options.. On another note I don't think my photos do their subjects justice, so many blogs have such beautiful images....not mine ...yet?!

New Start

Today I begin a new job. I posted 11 months ago of my job loss. It has been an interesting time for me. I have explored a few different lines of employment - the steadiest was cashier at a local fruit/veg/continental supermarket. It offered great flexibility with hours which I really appreciated after years of 9-5 and I've loved my customers - they're with you for a minute and then gone! Only return when they need something else. Any problems I simply rang my bell and passed them over whilst I kept the line moving! Joy after years and years of troubleshooting for troublesome clients. The compromise for a role like this one though is cash flow - nothing like what I'm used to earning, and mind numbing repetitive work (again another plus after years of mental exhaustion). New year, new beginings I started looking for a new role to add to my list of life experiences and the universe has not let me down. Perfect school friendly hours 4 days a week back in the promotional products trade that I lived in for 9 years. I'm exciting to be doing something with new people, improving the cash flow and (hopefully) becoming a valued team member in a new environment. Interestingly I found my experience of last year had hurt me more than I'd admitted, but a new beginning like this one may be the healing experience I need. But then no expectations and an open mind is the best way to approach my new role. Wish me luck....

Black and white crazy nine patch

Ages ago I was inspired to make a black and white quilt, so I started collecting the fabrics. I decided to make it in a crazy nine patch with the centre fabric having one contrasting colour - aqua. It is going to be an incredibly busy quilt me thinks. The visual effect reminds me of Bridget Riley's work - a lot of it makes your eyes go funny! It's so fun putting it together (isn't every quilt, that's why I'm addicted!)

And on another note - today I wished I lived in London again...why - look at this upcoming exhibition at the V&A http://www.vam.ac.uk/collections/textiles/quilts-1700-2010/.

Wavy Crochet Love

I've been absent from blogland during the renovation, but now I have a working camera (yeehaa) and a designated creative space (yeehaa, yeehaa) with working computer ( 3 x yeehaa) there is no stopping me. It is so so thrilling to walk up the stairs to MY PLACE. It is a truly beautiful area (photos to come). I'm transported to a wonderful, wonderful place every time I arrive. Whilst absent from blogging I haven't been absent from creative bits and pieces. Here is my latest crochet project. I'm just finishing the edges. It's a totally random colourway, I just let the yarn jump in where it wanted to. It was mega fun to make, snippets of joy time every moment I have spent on it - a wonderful distraction from the horrors of renovating. I've nearly used up all the bits on the random frill around the edge - which means a trip to my LYS for more stash building..can you feel me skipping?!

Quilt #2

This is my second ever quilt top. I was inspired by our recycled brick feature fence/wall so I used Amy Butler's free Brick Path Quilt pattern from her website. I have gone for a bolder, wilder look using Kaffe Fassett and Philip Jacobs fabric which I love, love love. I feel so so happy everytime I look at this quilt top. I'm wandering through a beautiful, inspiring garden every time I look at it. I have a cottage in the garden which will be used to house visitors when the renovation is complete and I think this will find a home there looking out at my garden. I'm having it professionally quilted, even though I am practising my free motion quilting - I'm not confident enough yet to embark on a quilt top. The backing is an Anna Maria Horner fabric, - binding not yet decided. I'm finishing it more traditionally than Amy's pattern outlines as I want the soft pouffy feel when I wrap myself in it.

Inspiration from blogs

I find other blogs truly inspiring - it is wonderful to see other people's creativeness. It is food for my soul. I love the photos, the visual feast blogs provide me. Some bloggers seem so prolific, I can't imagine how they fit it all in, when my own time for indulging my creativeness seems so limited but it fills me with hope that there will come a time in my life where I can devote more time to the things that make my heart sing. This morning I came across comfort stitching and her girl on a swing quilt. Looking at it takes me straight to a childhood memory of playing on swings - I love swings - the wooshing, the reaching for the sky looking up to the blue blue sky and treetops, swinging feels so free. Such a good feeling - I can hold that feeling with me all day and one day I might make my own girl on a swing quilt.

Renovation hardship

Have I mentioned that I'm renovating and have been for 5 years? Mmm probably at some point, but then in blog land I've perhaps subconsciously put it out of my mind. It has not been fun or exciting as I thought it would be and well we won't mention the time frame will we...5 years!! With probably another 5 to go. I am no longer sane, I don't know what it's like to live in a proper house with an internal kitchen and bathroom - we have the ablution block like you would in a caravan park outside the house, and I now dream of moving to a fully completed flat that you lock and leave...sod the house - i resent it and the it's become the barrier to a lifestyle of any sorts. Trouble is to do that the house has to be finished...so it's a vicious circle I'm trapped in - can you feel my dilemma, my pain? Most of the work needs to be carried out by my carpenter partner, but there are lots of things I can do so I'm busy making lists to motivate me. Top of my lists are all the fabriccy, soft furnishing bits because that's where my true love and passion lies...so for fun I'm focussing on 3 lots of window coverings that can now be done. Cafe curtains for the kitchen window...even though there's no kitchen...it will feel so much more welcome when it does arrive!! Soft door curtains for french doors to our bedroom, even though there are no handles and they don't close properly and a curtain for the bedroom window, which needs to be replaced. it's the old adage for me ...focus on the positives...at least I have doors and windows to decorate?!! And I will need to spend time in fabric shops...mmm come to think of it...what renovation hardship?

Cliches to live by

Well, never a dull moment is there? Or is it a "first time for everything" or "what doesn't kill us makes us stronger" or "where one door closes another opens"...all these sayings have run through my mind recently when my services were terminated by my employer due to the fact that I wasn't economically viable. I'd been in the position a total of 5 months after leaving a job of 9 years plus. Great timing ... right when the GFC (Global Financial Crisis - is it really?) hit. I can sure pick it!! Forty +, fired and fat...mmm sounds like a book title! Oh wait it is! Must read it or do I need to? I might write my own and add free and fabulous to the title. "A blessing in disguise". Absolutely! I would never have made such a momentous decision to throw in the towel when I have financial commitments that I do... school fees for 2 teenagers, mortgage, renovation, car payments. Too scary. But guess what? 3 months later, I'm still going!Yes my life is different, yes there is seriously less money coming in, yes I am happier.

I was determined to view this as the opportunity of a lifetime. I've been on the bones of my arse before (post divorce, flea of a self employed ex...you can imagine) and I've survived, so I know I can do it. I pledged to myself that this was the opportunity to follow dreams and live my life honouring my true core values - gone was the "when the girls finish school". (Aside - they LOVE having me around more.) Never again would I work for morally bankrupt people. I mean do you really want to hear about the $3000 handbag purchased for his wife and be told that this decision was extremely difficult but it was the difference between him losing everything? Yes there is anger in that statement, but there is also humour. I found a card in a shop that simply had "schmuck" written on the front. Did I laugh? You betcha...and no I didn't send it. Unfortunately, I have to admit the schmuck did me the biggest favour. Ain't that the way. I mean I'd love to have him kneecapped, and not just for my sake - for everyone that he has treated in this abysmal fashion. It's hard to fathom there hasn't been a class action against the man. Anyways now I'm getting sidetracked.

What am I doing now? Working in retail at a fruit and veg market and a fabric shop! AND making my bags for a market stall I'm having at perthupmarket.com.au. Doing a course in textile design, cooking and reading more and being more available for my beautiful girls.

A dear friend once said to me "do what you love and the money will follow" so I'm putting that theory to the test. I don't doubt that I'm resourceful, but in an age of consumerism, perhaps I've become too reliant on easy consumer fixes, so I'm putting my resourcefulness to the test and refining that skill again. I think of my maternal grandmother, who lived through war time England - she would be proud!

I've added a slide show titled tea cups (I collect demi tasse cups) ....don't you love "gran"?!

My Jackie O Range

Okay, I've figured away 'round my dysfunctional camera - use the office one! This is what I've called my Jackie O bag. I've made about 6 of them (green, red and black not shown). Each one has its own button that I hand pick to suit the bag's personality. I've recorded the pattern for this one too so that I can remake them again and again and again. The pink one was the first. The button was a "find" in a vintage shop it Sydney. No more to be found - should have bought 2 of them! The bag sold at its first stall! I get so excited just thinking about other colours and trims. The red bag has a sparkly diamante belt buckle for a little bit of added bling!

Favourite Bag

I love this bag. There was no pattern. I just picked a colour from my stash and cast on and went 'round and 'round changing the colours at random until I thought "right that's it" and cast off. I sold it before it was even finished as I took it as a UFO to work on whilst I ran the stall one day.

Me thinks I might make a few more. I've been without a camera for months now so getting photos of all projects has been an involved process so I haven't bothered most of the time. Luckily I had the foresight to borrow one to photograph this bag. I love the colours - I love just looking at the colours. Is it just me or do they sing?