Playday update

So, I got out my stuff and started playing - first up, the gelatine plate. The instructions said, use a disposable foil pan, but I didn't have one the right size, so I used a glass dish.  Only trouble is, getting the damn thing out!  I ended up with a crack, but that is okay, as Rayna says they always crack eventually anyway, and it just adds more texture, so if it is okay with Rayna, its okay with me.

I printed with some gum leaves - and, oh look, just like Rayna, I got some stray threads in there - its okay, it just adds to the texture!

The gelatine plate does feel lovely and squiggy under your hands - I put it in the fridge so will haul it out again and play some more today. 

Play" was  definitely the theme of the day - I haven't had access to my stuff for  so long that I forgot what I had.  These foam letters were from a kids craft store - cheap as chips, and fun - I think I got them with a

view to craft projects with the grandchildren in the future, but decided to give them a go myself.

I also had a play with some lovely Indian wood blocks I got a while back from the equally lovely Fiona Wright. 

I am lucky to have a great space for playing with messy stuff like paints and dyes.  As a late amendment to the house plans, we decided to add a laundry tub to the garage, which is quite spacious.  I also kept my old, upright clunker of a washing machine for rinsing out dyed fabrics.  I have a flash new front loader in my laundry, but I knew I didn't want to be dyeing anywhere inside the house as it is inherently messy and no matter how careful I am, I get splodges and splashes - and anyway, being careful all the time is at odds with the notion of just 'playing'.  So, I can splodge away to my heart's content out here.

I

I wasted a lot of time yesterday looking for my black textile ink, which I knew I had some of - right at the end of the day, I found not one, but two tubs of it, so I can get back to playing today with some of the things I didn't get to yesterday.  All I need now is someone to play with!!

Which reminds me - Gay, when I switched email addresses, not all my address book copied over, so I don't have your address, nor can I access your old emails anymore,so pls email me!

And finally, some more photos from around town taken on my bike ride yesterday.

The inner workings of said bridge - it does in fact open, although very infrequently.

Photos of progress

Finally got around to photographing my piecing progress.  I got the whole top together from all those half square triangles - it will have to go into the pile awaiting quilting.  I am not sure if I mentioned before, but our downstairs isn't really finished, as they ran out of floor tiles - big drama, red faces, much embarassed foot shuffling - the next shipment is supposed to be arriving this week, so hopefully it will get finished soon - until then, I can't set up my quilting frame.  I do have about six tops waiting to be quilted now - am quite looking forward to getting to them.

And yes, the picture is a bit wonky - I am still figuring out the best place to hang a quilt around here to photograph.  This was hung from an extendable line we put up on the beach side of the house, where it is always a bit breezy, so getting it to hang perfectly straight was a challenge.  I have since had a fold down washing line installed at the side of the house, which is where I hung the next top.  My builder will be pleased - he keopt grumbling that having laundry strung out at the back of the house (which is the side that faces to road and the beach) made it look like a gypsy encampment.  Yes, well,  the laundry had to dry somewhere!  The new fold down line is in a discreet, but sunny spot on the north side,where no-one but us can see the unmentionables flapping in the breeze.

When I finished the above top I opened another box and found some pink and green blocks which, I think, were left over from a couple of baby quilts I did for friends a while back.  So I pulled them out and added various width strips around the blocks to make them BIG - then cut them into fours and reassembled.  It still needs borders.  I really must brush up on my Photoshop skills and figure out how to fix these photos.  I'll add that to my 'to do' list.

I have also been accumulating a satisfying pile of string blocks,well on their way to becoming a top.

I have had my fill of piecing for now - what I am really keen to do is get out my paints and mark making tools and have a play at printing, stamping otherwise making my mark on some of my hand dyed fabric .  That will be today's play activity.  In preparation, I set a large tray of gelatine so I could do some gelatine plate printing, which I have been dying to try since getting Rayna's book ages ago, but what with moving and everything being packed away, living in the apartment etc, I just haven't had the chance to do - so, today is playday!!

I have been going for a bike ride every afternoon and really noticing things around town.  I took the camera yesterday - here are a few of the things that caught my eye.

Settling in

Karl went fishing the other day and came back in no time with three salmon.  We gave the red flesh to the dogs - who love fish - and turned the white flesh into fishcakes with chilli sauce for us.  OK, but I wouldn't go out of my way to have it again.

I have finally been able to just sew, which I have sorely missed over the past five months of being between houses.  When I unpacked,  I found all sorts of boxes of projects in various stages of unfinished-ness.  I could never start something and see it through to the finish, without starting other things in between, so I have something of a collection of  'works in progress'.  Rather than do a stocktake of all the UFOs and depress myself with a list, I just took the first box I opened, and went from there.  It happened to contain a whole pile of half square triangles in greens and florals.  I remember deciding to use them up when Margaret Rolfe's book came out.  It must have been sitting there for at least 7 or more years.  I distinctly remember that the green squares were cut from a pack of 7 inch charm squares - I did wonder why I had all these three and a half inch half square triangles, as they make up to 2 and 5/8th inch finished squares!  Anyway, I sat and sewed them all together and now I have a quilt top which has one  border on, and the outer border is cut, just waiting to be attached.

I also have a big pile of very annoying  little offcuts from trimming off the pointy bits - I won't be doing any more quilts like this - way too tedious!  I have a huge  bag of strips, so will do something based on strips next.  Although in between, couldn't resist doing up some string blocks.  I do love scrap quilts, of all types, and have wanted to do some string quilts for a while.  I have had this book on my library shelves for a while, and recently acquired Gwen Marston's book on string quilts.  So I have been happily accumulating a pile in between doing other things - very satisfying.

Karl has made off with the camera so I will post some photos tomorrow.

At last!!

We have moved in to our lovely new home - at last!  Here is a photo of sunrise on our first morning.

Last post I showed you the cupboards I had built downstairs - well, here they are, starting to fill up.

These are the cupboards in my sewing room - for now, I have just unpacked and put stuff in to get rid of the packing boxes.  I will go through and have a further tidy up at my leisure.  The main thing is, we are here, at last!  Can't wait to get back to some creating

Hurry up and wait

The deck is now on - but no guard railing yet, so we didn't venture too close to the edge.  The view is spectacular.

A girl can never have enough storage.  I had these shelves and cupboards built in downstairs against the back wall - space that otherwise wouldn't be used for anything.  All my books will go here, plus any overflow from my sewing space - overflow??

Between out two last visits to the coast, they had a huge rain event that resulted in the shire being declared a natural disaster area - pretty ironic in a place where severe water restrictions are in place!  Roads, bridges and lots of other infrastructure was damaged when they got more than all of 2009's rainfall in two or three days.  The good news is that our house stayed dry -so the builder obviously got the drainage right!  Although others, on low lying ground weren't so lucky.  A huge amount of forest debris and litter was washed down the rivers and creeks into the sea, which is closed to swimming because of the health hazards.  The normally pristine waters are murky and tea-stained from all the eucalypt debris.  The usually clear, clean beaches look quite dirty and scruffy. 

It will eventually all settle down and go back too being clean and tidy - I guess its just mother nature at work, reforming and reshaping the landscape.  There is still beautiful texture to be found on my beach walks.

The title of my post refers to the frustration of waiting, when the house is so close to being finished!  The closer it gets the harder it is to wait.  There is a lot of concreting, path laying and driveway forming work to be down outside in the next two weeks - hopefully there won't be anymore 'rain events' for a while!

Texture and shape

Isn't this a great image? Karl took this a few visits ago when we found this thing, which I have forgotten what it is - sea anenome?? - on the beach.  Doesn't it just inspire embroidery ideas? There are lots of treasures on the beach with the most wonderful texture.  I love the roundy protuberences on this oyster shell, and look at that subtle colouration.

This abalone shell has even more interesting textures, and love those colours! (click for close ups)

Scrumbling along

My little bundle of pink and green scrumbles is growing - it is about the only creative thing I can do in the apartment, and it travels well, so I get lots done when we go down to the coast.  Speaking of which.......we went on the weekend to deliver our front door and have the builder install it. 

Ta da...............

Here it is.  Of course it will look better when the handle is on, the surrounds are painted and properly finished, but it is looking good already.  I don't really understand the process, but this is an ordinary (albeit large) front door made out of some sort of composite wood - with glass inserts - that has been treated, so now the surface is copper and the greeny bits are real patination.  Cool, huh!

The surround will be painted the same purpley colour that features on the other side of the house (see picture in last post).  This will then set up a triadic colour scheme, similar to the one I used in this piece.  I am looking forward to seeing this finished, as I think it will look pretty impressive! 

The next big thing to be done is adding the deck on the beach side.  I haven't given a lot of thought to HOW things are built, but apparently, building a curved deck is tricky - you need a template.  So, the sub floor had to be fabricated somewhere else, then it will be flatpacked and installed at our place.  So, where to construct it? - on the floor of our builders own house which is under construction.  He is building a huge house perched on the side of a hill with a spectacular view out to Gulaga (shown crowned in mist), across Wagonga Inlet, and the bridge into Narooma, and around to the coast, out to Montague Island and beyond.  Pretty impressive!

Anyway, Joe, the amazing carpenter has knocked up the sub frame and it will all be dismantled, flat packed and shipped a couple of kilometres down the road to be installed at our place - neat, huh?

I do like some of the idiosyncratic things I see around the place - I spied this little set up last time we were down but didn't have the camera with me - so when I say it was still there this time, couldn't resist stopping for a shot.  You can click on the image for a close up, but this is a large cactus (with a strange lean) on offer for $30.00 (a steal!), and a smaller, round one.  Not sure if the pot on the end post is also for sale, or is part of the garden decorations.  What amuses me is a) this was there two weeks ago and still hasn't sold, and b) it is just sitting out there and anyone who really wanted it could just help themselves.  Think about it - if no-one even wants to steal it, they are hardly likely to pay $30 for it, are they???

Went for a walk on the surf beach at Narooma and saw this sign on the rocks (click for bigger) - it wasn't there last time. 

There was a lot of rain the day we arrived - nearly three and a half inches, which was pretty impressive.  So we took the short drive down to Whittakers Creek, just outside Dalmeny to get a photo of it with some water actually in it.  I took photos of this place many, many years ago, when we first visited the area.  I have always had a hankering to do a textile piece capturing this scene.  I even started once or twice, but couldn't capture it in a way that I was happy with.  When we move in and I have all my 'stuff', I think I will give it another go.  I think I need to abstract it to get it to work - will have to work on my tendency to be too literal and just focus on the essence of the place.

There is lots of inspiration around - wonderful colours and textures everywhere.  This shot was taken at the other end of the surf beach from the sign.  The orange bits seem to be some sort of minerals in the rocks, while the greeny gold bits look like some sort of plant growth - a fungus perhaps?