Magic

A baby triffid raises its head. Magic.

(It's actually a cucumber.)

Printing gift wrapping paper

I came across instructions from Electric Quilt this morning, explaining how to use EQ7 to design your own gift wrapping paper. What fun! I'll be exploring this as a way to create personalised wrapping paper for special events.  Click here to learn how.

Oh, lemon tree

Regular readers of my blog will remember this: my Eureka lemon tree after I heavily pruned it last February.

I know many of you wonder how the poor thing is now, so here's a pic I took a couple of days ago.

I'm happy with the new growth on the tree. Resilient, isn't it? Next weekend's task is to pull out all the grass around the base of the tree (all the rain we've had lately has encouraged grass to take over my garden beds) and lay down a feed of chicken manure and a layer of mulch. Then I hope to have fruit next year!

Sorted

I have three projects on the go at present and it has been driving me mad trying to keep the pieces for each one separate. Today I bought these nifty (cheap - $2 each) A4-size pouches and organised my piecing. It's extraordinary how such a simple act has such a positive impact on my productivity.

Kambrachallenge 2011

This is the challenge fabric I have to work with for next year's quilt. Yuck.

Words

I think I have used all my words today writing other things and I have just about run out. Do you think we have quotas for each day?

Magazine heaven

I'm a magazine addict and always have been. I love the smell of a brand-new magazine and enjoy the feel of turning the pages to expose something I've never read before. When my faves arrive in the same week, I am in magazine heaven.

Issue 144 of Down Under Quilts is now available. I have a couple of articles in this issue. One of the most glorious quilts you will ever see is included in one of the articles - it is Kim McLean's Blue Toile quilt. I first saw it at the Australasian Quilt Convention last year and was blown away by her precision. Gorgeous.

Issue 3 of Down Under Textiles has also arrived. You can't buy this one in a newsagent but, if your local quilt shop doesn't stock it, you can buy it here. I have a couple of articles in this magazine, also. There's also an article about sun printing by Julie Haddrick that has me reaching for my fabric paints - her samples are fab!

Now even though I can't hold this magazine in my hand (it arrives by email), I forgive Fat Quarterly because issue 3 has the theme of fussy cutting - oh, bliss! It gives me great pleasure to fussy-cut motifs from fabrics and to stitch them together to create different patterns. Great patterns. You can buy your copy here.

And if that's not enough, the Winter 2010 issue of Studios is heading my way. Truly magazine heaven this week!

On a sad note, though, another of my fave magazines has ceased publication. The November issue of Notebook: magazine is the last, since News Magazines decided it wasn't making enough money. That's the harsh reality of magazine publishing - magazines can't continue on love alone. So I'm determined to enjoy the ones I have!

Spring perfume

Star jasmine (Trachelospermum jasminoides) in my garden. The fragrance is wafting into my house on gentle puffs of breeze. Divine.

Sorry

Issue 3 of Down Under Textiles magazine arrived this week. It includes an article I wrote about using painted fusible webbing in textile art. Despite the article being given a title of "Make a Sorry quilt", it is absolutely NOT about how to replicate my journal quilt.

I made Sorry in February 2008 as a personal response to the Australian Prime Minister's apology to the Stolen Generation. I have previously blogged about it here. I would sincerely hope that other textile artists have their own unique responses. Sorry is not a project.

The article is actually about painting fusible webbing and I included six samples. The photographs and captions are incorrectly numbered in the magazine. I have been informed that they have been corrected in the digital version, but I haven't seen that.

If you have a copy of the print version, here are the corrections.

Photo 1 - caption 4

Photo 2 - caption 3

Photo 3 - caption 5

Photo 4 - caption 2

Photo 5 - caption 6

Photo 6 - caption 1

Confirmed!

I'd heard a whisper some time ago that the well-known Perth shop, Calico & Ivy, was going to open a store in Sydney. Well, it's happening next month! 

I've visited the Perth store several times, starting a long time ago when it was operated by Joanna Brazier as Calico House. The business has evolved over the years and is now a hub for quilters and lovers of yarn and other crafty goodness. I can't wait to visit the Sydney version in Balmain.  Read all about it here.