Who influences you?

 A little while ago I was lying in bed the night before a magazine interview trying to guess the questions and plan my answers.

It was a magazine I have a lot of respect for so I wanted to make sure I knew what I was talking about and sounded a bit interesting, a lot thought out.

But, as almost always happens, the later it got, the harder the imagined questions got, the more rambly my answers got, the more worried I got, the less I made sense, the less chance I had of getting to sleep, the more pointless this middle of the night exercise became.

But I kept asking, and answering, and stressing. For hours.

And for some reason one of the questions that kept popping up in my imaginary interview was: Who and what are your main influences?

Sounds simple right? But over the course of that over-night interview I discovered that I don't have main influences. I don't have one place, or person, or style to turn to to turn me on. Did that make me shallow?

And the more I thought about that fact, the more worried I became. 

My influences come from everywhere: a quote in a book I'm reading, a song we listened to on the radio on the way to school, the way Pepper's teacher tied her scarf, something that we did when we were kids, a link on Pip's blog, the colour pallet in a shop window, the recipe I hear someone describing to someone else at the fruit shop, a picture of a garden layout on pinterest, the angle or exposure of a photograph, what needs to be picked or planted or preserved in the garden, the colourful balls of cottons in the corner, the pattern in the bits of honeycomb scraped off the roof of a bee hive yesterday, a skirt with cute pockets I saw and a pile of pretty vintage fabric I thrifted, a washy painting Indi did and the water colour pencils she left lying around, this season's stunning shiburi dyeing and all my stained whites, an instagram picture of a mini quilt and mine half made, the new and varied patterns I am learning while knitting my way through Nicki Trench's 201 Knitting Blocks, Projects Ideas, a salad recipe I saw somewhere and my rumbling tummy….

My influences seem to know no bounds and are ever changing. Often changing.

And as the sun came up I finally became comfortable with my answer.

But of course the question was never asked.

So now I'm asking you.
Can you name your influences?
Do you have people, places, times or  quotes that guide you? That you turn to? That fill you up and help make you you?
Or are yours ever changing like mine? Like the weather? Like the days of the year? Like the patterns the wind makes as it blows its way over the long grass in my parents' paddock?

I wonder.

xx

the book quilt

If writing my book was all crocheted up into the squares of the book blanket, then these few weeks before the release time is definitely stitched into the book quilt.

Each email received and sent, each room tidied and cobweb brushed away, each photo taken, each interview question answered, each time and date diarised, each little piece of nervousness and over-emotion, each big piece of excitment buliding, each ohmygoodness ohmygoodness I wrote a book!

Each time I cut out a bunting flag to advertise the book, I also cut out a tiny 9mm by 9mm square of the same fabric.

As I sewed and pressed the flags, I sewed the little squares into long strips.

And as I stamped the bunting, I took breaks and sewed the strips into a quilt.

There was never any plan beyond the current stage. There still isn't.

Sometime over the next little while when I am meant to be doing something else, hopefully I'll sort through my stuff and find an old blanket. Then I'll pin the little sqaures to the blanket and to a bigger piece of fabric. And then sometime after that I'll stitch it all together. Together.

It's not all that big so I don't know what will become of it or where it will go.

But I do know that this time just before the release has surprised me with its mixture of jumbled up emotions. It feels big and sometimes overwhelming to see my name printed in red on the cover and the photos that I took and words that I wrote inside. It feels like an acomplishment and through the nerves I am also really proud.

I also feel really lucky to be a crafter. For the therapy of the cut and the stitch and for this quilt that holds the stories of this time. It's such a blessing really.

Happy weekend my friends.
I do hope yours is wonderful.

xx

Creatively speaking...

I am carrying this basket of yarny rainbows where ever I go.

I am hooking grannies.

I am trying to be good and sew in the ends as I go.
But not always succeeding.

I am playing with our farmers' market stall. 

Think mixy-matchy table-cloths and rushed single layer unhemmed bunting.

I am playing around with my second quilt.
A mini, yellow, quarter version of Kate's pattern.
I think it might become a cushion cover.

We are shopping for paint to paint the whole house white.
Except the girls' bed rooms which they want blue.
I still would love a yellow kitchen but the farmer boy wont budge.

I am celebrating op shop treasures by draping them over everything that stands still for long enough.

One dollar for these two rolls of old lace! Can you believe!

And I am trying to style a few lovely corners of my home to make me feel better about the vast majority which looks like a bomb has gone off in it. Ahhhh school holidays. Love em.

What about you?
What have you been up to creatively?

Bye! x

Quilt.

The worst thing happened to me this morning. I'm talking nightmare material here. In fact I think what happened is the grown up version of that kiddie bad dream about going to school nudie.

My hairdresser sent me home because I have lice!!!!!

Can you believe??

And here I was thinking I was on top of those nasty little critters. Ahhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!

And not only is this terrible for the obvious embarrassing, dirty Berty reasons, but I also am desperate for a haircut. Six months of beachy, road trippy behaviour has not been kind to these tresses. And now I have to wait until next Wednesday for an appointment.

After I was politely informed of the disgusting parasites I positively fled to my car, soggy, just washed hair and all. I sat there for a while and contemplated my day. It was surely only heading downhill from there.

But then I remembered my year of happiness and decided not to give in. I tried some retail therapy in a few oppys - fail. I tried shopping for a new sundress - fail. I came home and tried to act happy at family lunch time - getting warmer. And then I decided that the only thing that would save this day would be to sew. More specifically, to finish my quilt.

So I did.

I ignored the load in the washing machine, I ignored the lunch dishes, I ignored half of the cries of muuuuuuummmmmm!!!!! I ignored my half decluttered wardrobe and all of the other jobs on my mental list. And I sewed. In fact I quilted.

I quilted lines. I made some binding. I bound the quilt (please don't look too closely at the corners). And then we took down the pot-holders and popped it on the wall.

And now I feel OK. My hair is a mess but I'm OK.

Time will tell if I'll be brave enough to keep my hair appointment on Wednesday though. I think I might need a change of hair dressers.

Is your hair itchy after reading this? Mine is. I hope my farmer boy likes the idea of lice combing my hair tonight. Pretty romantic huh!

So has anything embarrasing happened to you lately? Anything? Please help me feel better.

bye.
xx

Quilt top!

One week after we arrived back home I decided I couldn't ignore the neatly packaged up, freshly serviced, sewing machine near the front door any longer.

One week after we arrived back home I was folding some fabric in my sewing room when I was struck by a sudden and very powerful urge to make a quilt.

I think at this stage in time I should tell you that I have never before made a quilt. I have possibly even made a little joke once or twice at the expense of my cutting up fabric and sewing it back together friends (sorry). I had always thought I might be irritated at the fussiness of quilting. That the exactness might not suit my personality. That quarter inch seams and self healing mats might belong to a culture I would never be a part of.

But like I said, the urge struck and who was I to ignore it.

So I gathered up some vintage sheets.
I measured them and cut some strips.
Then I dealt with an incident with Miss Pepper and the rotary cutter and some blood (lesson learned).
And I pinned and sewed the bits of fabric back together.
And then I cut them up again.

And then I got up on a chair and off the chair and on the chair and off the chair to fiddle with the design.

And then I sewed it all together and pressed the seams.

And ta-da!!! A quilt top!!

The wonderful and incredibly beginner friendly pattern is Kate's. I think the hardest part of the entire process was trying to take a picture without the wind blowing it up and around.

I'm a bit excited. And I can hardly wait until midday tomorrow when Merrilyn's shop opens and I can buy some wadding stuff.

Eeeeeeeeeeeep.

In the meantime, as I wait, I'm rummaging through my scraps drawer and googling beginner quilt patterns and dreaming about my next project. I think I'm hooked.

Merry, merry.

xx

On knitting.

Two nights ago I was searching the internet for crochet garment patterns when I decided it was time to learn how to knit.

Don't get me wrong, I adore crochet but I have this urge to make some everyday jumpers and cardigans for my girls and I and the crochet patterns available just seem bulky and dated.

So yesterday morning we went to the op shop for some knitting needles. There was a whole jar full of them but most of them didn't have pairs, a whole lot of them were those double ended needles and then the rest were too fine for a beginner like me. I bought the thickest needle that had a pair and the quilt above that has been named 'the quilt Mum lies and knits on while the girls are on their scooters at the skate park quilt.'

I started by knitting a beanie but got impatient with the fact that it was taking so long to get anywhere and that I can already crochet beanies. Then I found a pattern for a cross over top and started on the largest size. Because of the size of the needles I'm still not sure if it will fit Miss Pepper or an eight week old baby friend of ours.

I like the rhythm of knitting.

I like the variety of patterns available.

I like saying '...at the end of this row.'

I like how neat and uniform knitting stitches look.

I like learning a new craft.

I like that knitting is making me think.

I like the range of gorgeous knitting patterns there are out there.

I don't like how much stuff you need for knitting; end stopper thingies, row counters, circular needles, stitch holders, cable needles, needles with pairs...

I don't like how last night I found a hole in my knitting and it took me hours to undo it, put all the stitches back on the needles and then knit it all up again.

I don't like how many stitches there are to deal with at once. With crochet it is really only one stitch at a time, if you drop it, its easy to find it again.

I don't like how mysterious it all seems to a beginner. A bit overwhelming really.

I don't like how slow I am at it.

In the time that its taken to knit half a garment, I've trawled many knitting sites bookmarking patterns as I go. I feel a bit excited about the possibilities.

I hope you are enjoying whatever it is you are making at the moment.

The Sun Quilt dress.

In the early 90's, some of my sisters and I used to occasionally work for our grandfather's shirt company making the swatch booklets of all the fabrics.

Every day on our way to lunch, we would pass this gorgeous children's wear shop. The owners of the shop sat at the back and made the clothes that were sold in the front. They were the coolest, most fun and unique children's clothes I have ever seen. They looked like they used lots of vintage fabrics and they looked like they would be such fun to wear.

At the time I dreamed more about how much fun it would be to work in that shop and sew those great clothes than I did about dressing a kid in them. I didn't think to buy any of those gorgeous clothes because having kids felt like a long way off for me then and I probably assumed they would still be there, sewing and selling those great clothes when I needed them.

But they aren't.

I have googled them over the years but haven't been able to find anything.

This quilted, reversible dress is my ode to Sun Clothing.

I think it is the type of dress those girls would have made.

When I showed it to my Mum, she told me it was the type of dress we wore when we were little.

The other day I went to the fabric shop intending to buy some wadding stuff to quilt a dress with, but when I saw this parka/sleeping bag looking fabric, I couldn't resist.

It was a shortcut but it also made me feel strangely happy and reminiscent of childhood days.

I sewed it to this fabric which I found at the Daylesford Sunday market a few months back.

I cheat quilted it by sewing along the white pre-quilted lines on the blue side.

Then I bound it all in brown.

I love the fact that she is dressed for this freezing cold day but isn't weighed down with a hundred layers.

I think the Sun girls would have liked it too.