Cabin fever

We are adjusting to being in a one bedroom apartment in town while waiting for our coast house to be finished. It is a bit cramped, although during the week, we just get up, go to work, come home, go to bed, get up again, etc. Weekends are a bit more of a drag -no garden, no sewing room - no room, period! So last weekend I grabbed the chance of a last minute sign up to a fabric painting class that Helen Godden was giving here in Canberra. Good fun. This piece looks like it could do with a good iron - but in fact, the fabric is perfectly smooth.

The scrunchy effect is achieved with the paint. The paints we used are finely milled acrylics from Genesis Creations . They don't change the hand of the fabric like the thicker acrylic paints, and are easy to use. This piece was sort of tie dyed to give the flower effects. I think this one will be good to do some machine stitching on to bring out the 'flower' centres and highlight the petals.

The next one was fun to do - some judicious manipulation of the wet fabric - I can see this technique has potential for creating cosmos type pieces- er, cosmos as in the universe, not those yellow flowers!

And the usual salt techniques work great.

The final piece was painted onto good old unwashed cheap as chips, calico. This will be good for practicing some machine quilting.

My husband was quite impressed when I showed him what I had done, commenting, how did you do that, you can't paint for nuts?? (!). Well, that just goes to show what a good teacher Helen is - and I must make the disclaimer that the flower in the last piece was traced off a drawing of hers - and all I had to do was colour within the lines - Karl is quite right, I can't draw for nuts!!

So that filled up Sunday.

Saturdays are spent for the most part at my daughter's place where I take my washing as we don't have a washing machine in the apartment. It means I get to spend some time each week with the little fellow who is quite a delight.

Drool and all! (click for closeup). Definite signs of being a redhead- those Irish genes on his mother's side are exerting themselves.

As for the coast house - well, it is coming along. The external cladding is finished and this scaffolding should be coming down any day now.

The 20,000 litre water tank looks like a spaceship has landed. Rather inconveniently, it has been placed (by a large crane, apparently) exactly on the spot where it needs to be dug in - but the builder seems unfazed, assuring us that they'll just roll it out of the way when it comes time to dig the hole. Hope it doesn't roll down the hill and take a number of tourists out before coming to rest on the beach!

This is the view from the street side. Those blue bits will be rendered and painted.

While we were down last we decided to recover our pelican from the gallery. The Christmas/summer holiday season is fast approaching and the town gets very busy - we didn't want to risk them selling our pelican to someone else (again!). So we walked in and said, we have come to collect our pelican, and the guy (not the one who sold it to me), said, okay, let me help you carry it to the car (it is very heavy). And off we went - no ID, no receipt, no request to prove that we are the rightful owners! They obviously do things differently in the country.

He is keeping us company in the apartment for now.

Making progress

We had an extra long weekend away down at the coast to check on progress of the house and just relax. Unfortunately, it rained most of the time, and was unseasonably cold - bloody freezing in fact. I felt sorry for all the campers - it is school holidays and there were lots of family groups - imagine being stuck inside a tent for days on end with restless children and nothing but rain, rain, rain - and very cold rain at that. Ugh, doesn't bear thinking about. I did get quite a bit of handsewing done on my octagon blocks, so all was not lost.

They have started cladding the house, although if we keep getting rain this month, as forecast, that will slow progress down. Our hopes of being in by Christmas were (gently) dashed by the builder - we might just squeak it, but we'd rather wait and move in with absolutely everything finished so we can just kick back and enjoy, not spend the first month rushing around finishing landscaping etc.

Sometime back I spied this fellow in a local gallery. He is the work of a local(ish) artist from Bermagui, Murray Ambler. I just love him. We always see pelicans on our walks and rides around the inlet. They hang around where the fishermen come in to clean their catch as they know they will get the fish carcasses. Here is the real thing doing an amazing balancing act.

We watched him glide in gracefully and make a perfect landing on this light. They are very big birds - our sculpture is life size and very heavy, given that it is made of recycled junk yard metal. I do rather like him though - we just have to decide where he is going to go exactly - in the meantime, the gallery is babysitting him for us. Although that caused a few problems as the weekend I bought him, the fact that he was sold didn't filter through to some of the other gallery staff and they promptly sold him to someone else. Fortunately, the artist kindly agreed to make another one for me, even though he is apparently 'over' doing pelicans and has moved on to other things.

We did have a couple of days - or parts of a couple of days when it stopped raining and the sun peeked out, although it was still cold. Here is Mt Dromadery - called Gulaga by the local aborigines - guarding Wagonga inlet - a pristine body of crystal clear water where oysters are grown.

This is looking north along the beaches of Kianga and Dalmeny. Can't wait until we are living there fulltime - can you blame me?!!

A picture of innocence

The grandbaby was baptised on Sunday - here he is being held by godmother, Auntie Clare, with proud parents (and godfather) looking on.

He is wearing the family christening robe knitted by my mother - very fine, lacey wool. Jus as well, as Canberra (and much of the rest of SE Australia) was bloody freezing! Some spring weather.

His mum and aunties wore it before him - he is he first of the next generation.

The continuation of a family tradition.

That's a good thing.

Making more progress

Another visit to the coast this weekend to check on progress. The roof is on and the windows are in, so it is starting to look more like a real house. We can get a good sense of the proportions now too - its very different looking at something as a drawing then seeing it in 3-D - that type of spatial thinking has never been my strong point. The first shot is from the street side, and the second is from the beach side.

Lengthy discussions with electrician and plumber on power points, switches, siting of the shower heads and the mechanics of wall hung toilets. I was quite exhausted at the end of the day!

Karl couldn't resist setting up his telescope to check out the view - saw lots of humpbacks frolicking off on the horizon - the juveniles are still very far out, still a few weeks before the mums and calves start migrating close in to shore - then you can easily see them, and what a delight they are.

Just after we got home I got a call from daughter number 2 to look after Lincoln for an hour or so while she and Dad went to the gym, so I took the opportunity to take a snap - now three months old, and being baptised next weekend - should look angelic in the family heirloom christening gown.

I managed a little stitching on my octagon quilt blocks - must find out what the name of that pattern is.

Lots of progress

No posts for ages because we have been computer-less at home and it has been hectic getting the house ready for sale. It went on the market last week and sold straight away - yipee!!

We went down to the coast to check on the new house in mid August - couldn't upload pictures before. Here is the view from our bedroom (click for larger picture).

We couldn't resist setting up a couple of folding chairs and checking out the view from the living area. Since then the roof has gone on and the windows are in. We are going back down next weekend so will have more photos then.

Selling our existing house has been a big relief - we are exhausted with the effort of getting it ready,but well worth it. Now we will be sort of camping out while we are between houses, living in a one bedroom apartment in town during the week and going down to the coast at weekends. I managed to squirrel away a hand work project, which I thought I had inadvertently packed, but it turned up today, so I plan on doing some hand pieceing on a quilt I started earlier this year.

Going, but not gone!

I had some enthusiastic ladies turn up bright and early on Saturday and they happily relieved me of $1200 worth of stuff - so a $120 donation went off to breast cancer research this morning.
Still a lot left though, so I have put an ad in the local paper for a general garage sale (all the house stuff) plus my craft stuff for next Saturday. Hopefully that will clear out the rest.

It is quite cathartic getting rid of stuff. Several people held up treasures on Saturday and said, how can you bear to let this go? Well, it - whatever it is - has been hanging around a long time and I don't seem to have used it, so doubtless, won't miss it! And it is good to know that surplus 'stuff' is going to a good home where it will be properly appreciated, rather than just stuffed in a cupboard.

My next door neighbour's daughter came by with her pocket money and agonised for ages over which buttons to buy - I had no idea she collected buttons - and she had no idea I had such a treasure trove!

The house is slowly emptying - including the eviction of mother (and father) and child on Saturday to their own home. One more big push on Saturday and the house will be clear for the painter to come through and paint from top to bottom.

We tossed up for sometime about whether to replace the carpets and in the end decided not. We will just get them cleaned. I felt vindicated in that decision when my neighbour told me that the house on the other side of theirs went to market recently having been recarpted by the owners beforehand - the first thing the new owners did was rip it all up and put their own choice of carpet down. What a waste! Same thing with curtains. We got some new ones made for a couple of the rooms that really needed them. The curtain people said they often go back to houses where they have recently put up new curtains before it was sold, and the new owners get rid of them and choose something else. Where do all those new carpets/curtains end up? Landfill?? It is quite depressing really.
On a not depressing note, house prices seem to be really recovering well - a house in our suburb just went for a lot more than I thought it would, and it isn't nearly as nice as ours!

Sale of the Century - Everything must go!

Okay, the time has come - everything has to go! Click on any picture for a closer look

EVERYTHING you can see in these photos, with the exception of the two bookcases and the tables is for sale. All the artwork on the walls, all the books/magazines on the bookcases, everything.

I have two antique (Depression era) quilts, one fairly worn, the other in better condition, except for the binding which is worn.

An almost complete set of Quilting Arts magazines - starting from issue 5 (I did used to have from Issue 1, but heaven knows where they went!), up to latest issue, all $5 each. First 14 issues of CPS, same price.

Tons of books, very reasonably priced - on embroidery, patchwork, quilting, paper arts, collage, design, etc etc. Some lovely big coffee table books on quilts.

Fat quarters, beads, charms, buttons and doo-dads for crazy patchwork, embellishing. Embellisher packs of wool, silk tops, silk hankies and other felty stuff.

Kits, patterns, doll making supplies (particularly hair).

LOTS of dressmaking fabric in 2.5 - 5m lengths, all $2 a metre.

Tons of gorgeous moire taffeta in lovely colours for silk ribbon embroidery, crazy patchwork, making cushions, etc.

Folk art decorations, framed artwork including cross stitch and embroideries. Lots of frames and mats to frame your own work.
American Girl doll and five outfits). Patchwork teddy and other decorator items made from old quilts.

Christmas ornaments. Bundles of stuff - fine Italian men's suiting, wool, demin, tulle, glitzy stuff, patchwork bundles in themes - Debbie Mumm, kitchen/household themed, sea/fish/boats, blokey stuff, with tools etc.

Okay - you get the idea. All this stuff has to get sold, it is NOT coming to the coast with me.

Sale is on Saturday, 1 August, from 8.00 am to 1.00 pm, at 12 Gleadow Street EVATT.