Quilt No 12 is done! I'm so happy with it and that's exactly what it is....a happy quilt! And I think my smallest yet. And my first quilt finish for 2014. I just realised that I only fully finished one quilt in 2013. I was busy piecing a few and completed several tops - but they remain unfinished - so that is going to change and there will be a positive flurry of finishing happening. Just watch! Last night I started hand stitching the binding on my Liberty Strips quilt. It's my symphony in blue. I can hear music as I stitch. :)
Strange I know - talking on which I have had THE most interesting dreams lately.
In the first I was in Italy, driving the Amalfi coast in a little beachy jeep thing. Admiring the colour of the ocean and totally awed by the view. It was stunning and the sun was shining and glistening and twinkling on the clear azure water. There were dolphins playing in the waves, frolicking and jumping. The beachgoers were totally spellbound by their performance, as were we. Then we drove on and I saw what I thought was the biggest dolphin EVER, only to realise to my absolute HORROR it was a great white shark eyeing off the swimmers. I could clearly see what was about to happen and was powerless to stop it. I did try. I screamed and shouted and waved, conscious that I had no Italian language skills and what was the word for shark?!!! At first people just waved back, but then realised that this crazy woman was trying to tell them something and they needed to respond a certain way. I tried humming the music from Jaws, and trying to make the shape of a fin. All this from my cliff top overlooking the beach. Slowly it caught on and they started getting out of the water, even the very hairy chested Italian closest to the shark, made it to the shore alive.
The shark was NOT happy with me, spoiling his fun and clocked me with a look that said "if you ever, ever get in the water, anywhere in the world, I will find you and ruin your fun". Although if looks could kill I'd have been a goner right there and then.
Now I've not been to that part of Italy and I'm pretty sure Great White Sharks don't inhabit those waters.
The second dream was much tamer. I had a surprise package arrive on my doorstep. I opened the door to find a kayak wrapped in airbag packaging sitting out the front of my house. I didn't have to unwrap it - I could tell from its shape. That's all I remember of that dream.
On that note, bye for now xo
I have joined up to The Year in Books. I stumbled over it via Millefeuilles.
I'm in a book club, but I'm always looking out for more books to read, and to diversify my reading. I am only too conscious of how my little world is only a micro dot in the greater world, and I yearn for knowledge of the greater world, new surroundings and to open my mind to all the different lifestyles and worlds out ''there''. I worry that in my comfortable western life, I will become too narrow in my thinking. My upbringing was conservative, middle class (I am totally blessed for this and so thankful for it - please don't think for a minute I'm disappointed by it). I lead a comfortable life is suburban Perth, a very isolated city. It's not easy to leave Perth and experience lots of varied cultures. Everywhere is a flight of several hours away and with only 4 weeks leave a year, not readily accessible, so I fuel my senses by reading. It's the only way of immersing myself in other's stories and lives in my day-to-day world.
So I'm excited to hear of lots more books, that I may not ordinarily stumble across and add to my reading list. Thank you!
Here's what I'm currently reading and enjoying.
It is perhaps particularly relevant as we read of the theories currently surrounding the missing Malaysian airline.
and here's what I've been doing in my craft world this weekend
putting the binding on my retro squares quilt. I'm nearly done. It will be my first FINISHED quilt this year. Hooray!
Hand quilting all done....I just need to do the binding.... I have to say, I absolutely love the feel and look of the hand quilting, and I think I'm a convert from machine quilted tops. Having thought myself a "topper" only of quilts - you know...love putting the top together, but my mind too full of other quilt ideas to take the time to hand quilt, so I've outsourced the quilting part, so that I can get on with the next top. Not sure I'll be treading that path any longer. I have 2 other finished quilts sitting waiting to be quilted and they will both by hand quilted - my Liberty strip quilt and my Babushka quilt. Then there's the nearly finished hand pieced hexie quilt, oops and I forgot my Jane Brocket Hammock quilt, which I will hand quilt now as well.
My stitching is very very rough, but I love it and think it suits the quilt down to the ground. I used a thick quilting thread in a red and stitched every second square. I'm pretty chuffed with myself in case you can't tell :)
Last weekend I did a little bit of painting in the ensuite
with a little bit of help....
