Last week

Last week seemed a busy one.  All my weeks seem busy at the moment - and I don't necessarily believe this is a good thing.  I don't subscribe to the 'busyness' ideal that seems to pervade our lives.  I like to have time to be slow, to enjoy, to watch and listen.  But that doesn't seem to be happening much lately.  Maybe I have to make time.

But at least I've been busy doing things I enjoy.  Well, mostly.  Housework will never go away, no matter how busy or un-busy I am.

I've been free-motion quilting this little wall hanging.  I even got most of the binding on too (let's not talk about the hanging sleeve shall we?).

I got to spend some time at the beach watching these two little loonies.  Love that expression on her face - her big brother just landed in the hole next to her after taking a flying leap.

I took a walk while they dug and snapped this pic.  We live in a truly beautiful place.  I hope I never get too busy to notice.

I spent some time appliquéing this piece of work.  I also spent quite a few hours auditioning fabrics for sky, placement of elements, thread colours etc.  But I'm glad it's finally coming together.  Once I start sewing, I can make an ever decreasing number of changes and it becomes easier to just accept it how it is, not what it could potentially be.

The dye studio has been calling my name again and I've been dyeing some skeins of thread.  These four colours got two dyeings.  The first time around I forgot to untie the loose knots I use to keep the skeins tidy, and even though they were loose, they made a stripey look - unintentional shibori.  But over dyeing worked and I managed to get my colours very close to the original ones I had.  

We were busy celebrating a birthday too.  I'm the Mum of an 11 year old!  The cake was made with almond-meal and a little coconut flour so my Hubby, who is starch-free (no grains, legumes, root vegetables etc) could eat it.  And it was delicious!  Might have been the chocolate ganache that it was smothered in...

And then I was busy tooting my horn!  New Zealand Quilter, the only New Zealand based quilting mag available, published an interview with me!  Stoked!  

It's a great issue - also featuring my good friend Mathea Daunheimer with an article on her viewer's choice winning quilt, a write up about my local quilting club, the featured blog was the blog of another quilting friend, Leeann, and there were lots of other interesting articles and pretty pictures as per usual.  Thanks NZ Quilter, and Norma Slabbert, who wrote interesting questions for me to think about.

Next week promises to be busy too.  But I'm going to be mindful of spending a few hours not worrying about what I should be doing next, just sitting and enjoying, and feeling grateful for all I have.

What's your favourite part of making a quilt?

What's your favourite part of making a quilt?

I know lots of people don't like hand stitching binding, but I do.  There is something about each stitch taking you closer and closer to a finish.  Bindings make a huge improvement in the look of the quilt too.  Well, every step makes a huge improvement in the look of the quilt, but binding is just that final 'wow' step.  And let's say it, there is something about hand work too - repetitive, soothing, relaxing.  Another thing about hand stitching a binding is how rarely I need to unpick.  Maybe that's a silly reason to like it so much, but it's true!

I'm not a huge gizmo and gadget girl, but one thing that has made my binding process even more pleasant is using Clover wonder clips.  I won a packet (see, I doubt I would have bought them myself) and I love them.  I used to get pricked by pins if I pinned my binding down, or a sore hand from holding the binding if I didn't pin.  Now I get neither.

Note: I've no affiliation to Clover, nor Grandmother's Garden, which is the shop the link takes you too, it was just the first shop to come up when I googled Clover wonder clips New Zealand.

Maybe the other reason I like binding so much is that it means I've made all the hard design decisions.  It means that I'm either happy with how the quilt has turned out, or, if I wasn't happy, at least it will be finished and done with shortly.

What's your favourite part of making a quilt?  And then, probably more telling, what's your LEAST favourite part?!


Now, just for kicks and giggles, I was alerted by a friend that my mug shot was in the NZ Quilter magazine this month!  NZ Quilter is our first and foremost quilting magazine in New Zealand, so I was pretty stoked to see I had a little write up.

Feeling a wee bit famous

I got my issue of the New Zealand Quilter magazine (a pretty good issue this quarter too!).

And I was pretty excited to see my quilt, 'Tui at Dawn' featured on page 20!  I knew it was going to be in there as I had to send my quilt to them to be photographed, but I didn't think it was going to be a nice big picture like it is.  Shirley Dixon writes a great article about quilts with a distinct NZ flavour and I guess mine fits right in.

Now who thinks my photos are crooked?  They're not, it's just an optical illusion created by having the subject of both photographs tilted at the same article.  If I was a perfectionist I'd go retake them to get them either at alternate angles or straighten them right up.  I'm not a perfectionist, so you get to marvel at tricks of vision and perception!