Travels

I don't know where to start with photos from our European adventure.  Every moment was precious... so many sights, smells, tastes to just soak up.  London was absolutely amazing - the weather was a freak Indian summer with glorious sunshine and blue skies. Flower baskets still hanging everyone and crowds gathering outside pubs and cafes of an evening.  It was magnificent.  Its parks were stunning with so many flowers still out and deckchairs to sit in, with squirrels scurrying around. Everyday was jam packed and still we didn't begin to scratch the surface of all London has to offer. These taxis were calling to me and my girls - in fact they were screaming stay, stay, stay!

The food everywhere was delicious... I think we sampled every gelato shop we passed in Italy - at the very least we went in to admire and drool over the display and check on all the flavours on offer so we didn't miss any.  The job became too big and we missed heaps. Georgia and I voted the best to be seaside in Messina, Sicily.  It was to die for and being our last Italian stop, we went back for seconds!

I've long had a love affair with donkeys - since my first visit to Greece when I was 14.  I just love their faces and for some reason they just make me laugh.  Their nature can be so contrary!  I had an hilarious riding experience on them in Eqypt, riding out to the Valley of the Kings.  My donkey completely went at its own pace, there was absolutely no controlling it... it ambled exactly when it wanted to and galloped at precisely the moment it wanted to, so I was never with the group - I was either way out in front or way way out the back. I laughed 'til I cried.  Another time I woke up in a paddock in Crete with one licking my toe.  All my encounters have been interesting and never dull. So imagine my thrill and squeals when we came across several around Mallorca!  All the memories came flooding back.

It's all in the details as the expression goes... the lamps on the streets, the cobblestones, the shutters, doorways, the bollards!! Everywhere oozes charm and history and layers of time.  It was sheer heaven.  I'll be back with more as I re-live my holiday through the 1000's of photos.

Inspiration for my latest quilt

Isn't this fabric divine? Well me thinks so! So much so I think it needs its very own quilt based around it... a tribute to yet another divine fabric design.   I've begun with a fat quarter square in the middle and started stripping around it.. and here are the first 4 rounds...and I'm in heaven...

loving it, getting right into it - it's looking so luscious!

The perfect Kitchen Aid Accessory

Tonight when I was out and about running some errands with my girls...I or rather we found the PERFECT accessory for my kitchen aid....

the heel or the wedge....

summer or winter...

aren't they just to die for....

all I need now is the perfect apron, a bit of red lippy and you have one domestic goddess - ha I wish!!

Blue and Brown

Make the world go round and round ....and up and down.   Another finished top. Backing and wadding are set to go.  It's another big one.  This one was a free downloadable pattern from designer Valori Wells "Olive Rose" http://www.valoriwells.com/downloads.php. Sorry peeps photo is bad as per usuarl....

When All Else Fails Bake A Cake...

And this is what I use...my ice blue kitchen aid.  It stands proudly on the kitchen bench, knowing it holds a special place in my heart and a key to de-stressing me.  It can sense when I need to don the apron, gather ingredients and fill the house with divine aromas.  It catches my eye and winks and just says..."Suse you know you need me", or "I'll help" or "come on let's have some fun" or "that cup of tea just needs something extra"...  Its instinct is amazing, truly spooky even.  Sometimes it knows the baking just isn't enough - it's a really good rolling on floor belly laugh that's required and it does things like take me through the motions of baking.. to present the biggest fail of a baking episode .....like when we thought a light and lemony angel cake was just the ticket and out of the oven came this beautiful smelling round cake that twisted and covorted and deflated in front of me to look like a dry and wheezened old coconut ring biscuit.  The transformation was jaw dropping!  I disguised "it" as best I could with the icing making it look like an oversized donut! All the time just laughing my tush off.  My 2 baking buddies June and Donna also laughed and laughed at it.  Perfect is just overrated.  Yes there is sheer joy in eating and sharing a delicious cake, but there can be pure happiness is mistakes too.

Quilt Reveal - Floral Parade - My Version

So how to photograph this large quilt...engage 2 teenagers to drop it over the mezzanine balustrade whilst mother climbs on kitchen bench to be at right height and angle to get it in, dodging cat that wants a piece of the action...result?...poor...but you get the idea.  I'm really happy with the quilt top...not the photo of said quilt top, but the quilt top itself.  I used the fabric range "Nouveau" by Sentimental Studios for Moda.  I've had it in my stash for a little while. The pattern, as mentioned previously, is Kaffe Fassett's Floral Parade.  I first read the pattern and counted the number of fabrics - about 20 and thought OMG imagine going out and buying the fabric to make that quilt...not in my budget, but I've got away with less because I've used one colour only for the "framing".  Now to decide about the backing - 7.5 metres...calico perhaps?

Bags for Sale...?



Stripey Uni Tote with shoulder straps and large wooden button

 


To Market To Market Large Stripey Bag

 


Miss Grey Mist lined with Liberty Tana Lawn, with wooden flower button.

 


 Here are a few bags from my collection, left over from my days of market stalls.  I'm taking them to a local shop http://www.foxesoffancy.com/ to show the girls to see if they might like to stock them for me.  I popped into the shop the other day - I just came across it whilst out for a jaunt with my crafty friend for coffee and fabric ooooh-ggling.  A wonderful shop supporting locals artists and craftspeople. 

Anyhoo, I have a crate full of bags and thought it might be the time to part with them, I'd better record them photographically first. Just in case I ever get orders....




Miss Ochre Purple

 

Back in the Saddle

Yee Haa!  Giddy Up!.....I lurve this fabric honey.  I have me a few peeces of it that I'm a gonna turn into just the sweeetest lil ol quilt that a gal just hankers to curl up unda and have me some wild amazing dream rides... Oh sugar, juz watch this space...I'll be bringing ya''ll some progress posts - and I don't mean the fence kind- so ya''ll come back now ya hear.......

Happiness is ....

a pussy cat sleeping on a quilt.....

Stitched with Love

I used to wear this dress...as a young girl. It's a backless summer halterneck that mum made for me. My sister had one similar - that was typical.  We are only 17 months apart and 2 girls, so 2 of everything was made - mine was always blue and Helen's was pink.  I grew up declaring I hated pink, pink was for girls and I wasn't a typical girl.  Funny when I look back because now I'm so happy being a girl, but I didn't wear pink until I was an adult.  No siree no way.  Now I love it...but I digress.  I love this dress, the red apple pocket.  It's on a small mannequin in my studio mezzanine space so I see it every day.  Thank you to my mother and her mother Gan, for all my handmade clothes..(except the jeans Gan - didn't love them!!) I loved wearing this dress - perfect for the hot queensland summers I grew up in.  I look at the dress and it evokes my carefree days, barefoot and playing cubbies and games all the time - we were always outside.  I became a typical teenager and longed for store bought clothes like everyone else.  I've long since snapped out of that and realised how lucky I was for all my beautiful clothes, some of them made to my precise wishes. And the legacy of my clever craftful mother and grandmother is my love and appreciation of handmade.  I know everything I wore was stitched with love.  I was wearing love all the time.  How blessed was i?