Category Archives: Dyeing

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I was unaware of this wonderful artist until recently Hannah Hinchman – Journal Writing guide. Thanks to Serena Fenton at Layers of Meaning for the link.

Given how much I have enjoyed blogging, which is the only form of journalling I have ever stuck at for more than 3 days… I have been toying with the idea of starting up a paper journal. Will it distract me from my blog and art or will it enhance my artistic experience? Only one way to find out!!

I have linked to Ros Stendahl before but I thought another link was warranted given the hours of enjoyment (absorbtion) her journals have given me :-). A real inspiration.

No quilting has started on the dredger quilt. I’m letting it sit for too long and it is going cold on me. I’m going to start stitching tonight even it it is just stitching down the trusses. Hopefully that will settle my nerves. Continue reading →

Have you heard of National Novel Writing Month? Starting 1 November (today) and ending 30 November you write a novel or 50,000 words of a novel (which ever comes first)

I’ve calculated that if I write 2500 words for 20 days of this month I would have 50,000 words.

Now, Carol, and anyone else who has a burning desire to write a novel, but thinks you need to take a year off work and live in Tuscany to really write: I want you to think seriously about trying this. If you do it, I’ll do it.

I’m gonna start tonight in case you decide to accept this dare… just so I have a head start.

As the idea is to write the novel without too much agony over quality, I’m going to discard all pretensions of being capable of writing like AS Byatt and settle into a zippy little genre romance… I know my shit in this sphere.

I DO NOT wish this to interfere with my artistic ambitions, so I’m going to ignore the tv this month and use that extra time to write. See, I have it all worked out 🙂

We had today off for the Melbourne Cup. It was a very hot day and tomorrow will be even hotter. Too much champagne has been imbibed, but its traditional. Isn’t it?

Makaybe Diva won the race for the third time, which is a record. I’m not into horse racing at all, but since they give us a public holiday, I figure I have to take a bit of interest. Continue reading →

The workshop I took at Geelong was called Books on the Edge – That Ain’t a Book! by Marianne Little and Gail Stife.

We actually did do traditional book binding as well, coptic and celtic etc. But my main interest was to explore materials and tools I’d never used before:

I just took some photos of my work, they aren’t the best, but I hope you get the idea :-):

The family peeking over the book is my sister and her family, must have been taken about 3 years ago, as her baby is now a 4yo handful! Continue reading →

We dropped into Chadstone yesterday, I nearly bought a set of crockery, but really, we should spend our money on getting some chairs for our dining table…. I hate being rational.

I then ummed and ahhhhed over the purchase of a new mobile phone. Didn’t get one in the end.

Ventured into Borders. Mmmmm Knitting. I couldn’t resist:

I took A gathering of Lace into work and sneaked peeks at it all day :-0 It’s a lovely book, I’d have to commit to a major spinning and knitting extravaganza, so maybe I’ll put it off ’til later in the year as I’d like to attempt a jumper (sweater) first.
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This is from Liz’s blog, Dreaming Spirals…

1. Grab the nearest book.
2. Open the book to page 123.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the text of the sentence in your journal along with these instructions.
5. Don’t search around and look for the coolest book you can find. Do what’s actually next to you

“Using a skewer, secure the opening so that the cumquats remain within the chicken.” From the recipe for Spiced Cumquat Chicken from Zest by Michelle Cranston, publised by Marie Claire. I didn’t count the ingredients when choosing the fifth sentence. This is a recipe I am unlikely to make since I don’t have access to cumquats 🙁 I wonder what I could substitute.
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On the weekend I finished reading The Flower Seeker, A Painter’s Travels by Judy Cuppaidge. It was a lovely book, both a visual treat AND interesting in the written content.

The book shows the author’s beautiful botanical paintings accompanied by interesting snippets and often amusing experiences of actually getting to the plant so she could document it. It’s a book I will happily leaf through for years to come.

I did a bit of research about the author on the net before I wrote this blog entry and I found that she has lost most of her eyesight due to macular degeneration and can no longer paint.

This is the front cover of the book to give you an idea of her work:

The Austalian (newspaper) has an article online about Judy Cuppaidge and her daughter Virginia who is also an artist. It’s worth a read especially since the description of the book is better written than mine.

I finished making Sophie’s bag tonight. I’m glad I decided to redo the handle. I’m happy with it now.

I also JUST remembered that the Straight and Narrow Challenge is due today. So I sent in my entry 🙂

Oh yeah, I’m entering two of my traditional quilts into the local quilt show. I’ve never shown anything in public before (apart from having a photo of one of my quilts published in Down Under Quilts) and I’m not looking forward to attaching a hanging sleeve. But it should be fun to see my quilts next to others from around the area. Continue reading →