This is the fourth fruit for my book. The passionfruit flower I based on a design by Lesley Turpin Delport in Just Stitch; the fruit I made up. It is slightly different in design to the fig and pomegranate so it will be interesting to see how (if) I will incorporate them all into a cohesive whole. Stitches used: long and short stitch, needle woven picots, buttonhole appliqué, whipped backstitch, coral stitch, detached chain, fishbone stitch, chain stitch, whipped chain stitch drizzle stitch, couching, French knot, ribbon stitch, buttonhole stitch covering plastic ring. Threads used: cotton perle, cotton floss, organdie ribbon, silk ribbon, feather yarn, quilter’s cotton, stitched on osnaberg.

Fruit we grow…..sort of

My plan, such as it is, is to dedicate each page to a different type of fruit: pomegranate, fig, passionfruit, berries, citrus and grapes. I was going to focus of fruit we grow, but most of the fruit we grow (or have planted and waiting to bear fruit) are fairly boring to embroider (apples, feijoas, peaches etc – not enough scope). I like fruit with seeds, so I can use my ever expanding collection of beads. So ….we don’t actually grow passionfruit, but our neighbours do, and it hangs over our fence, and we don’t grow grapes, but I think grapes are such a good subject that I can’t resist. I’ve expanded on the lemon to include all citrus, so I can incorporate more colours in the page – and we grow limes, mandarins and oranges as well as lemons. We don’t grow many berries, but we do have a mulberry tree and strawberries. I will be including blueberries on the berries page, because I planted three (expensive) low chill blueberries bushes, and harvested one (rather tasteless) berry before they all died. So I figure that can count!

How I (don’t) plan my project

This project has captured my imagination. I still don’t have a clear idea of what the finished book will be like, but as I work on each embroidery the idea for the finished product gets clearer. I have not tried to plan and draw and write much about this project, I’ve just worked from my head. I will jot down a note (eg: I scrawled ‘tree of life – front cover’ on the side of the tracing paper the other day) if I think I will forget it but it’s not very organised. I have found that if I plan a project too much – do lots of drawing, colouring in, writing and colour swatches etc, I tend to lose my enthusiasm for the project as a quilt or embroidery. It is as if I have used up the idea on paper, and then I feel I have no real need to express it further with thread.

Stitchin fingers stitch along

I am supposed to be doing the stitch along at stitchin fingers, but I am too enthralled with this project to bother…but then I thought I could say these are for the stitch along. Trouble is I’m just using my old favourites in the old way (sshhhh…..don’t tell Beaney and Littlejohn will you. Grin.) and I’d actually wanted to learn new stuff in the stitch along. I think I am just going to plod away at this project until it is finished, even though the new embellisher is languishing and I have a heap of other ideas.

A Moo by any other name…

Moo’s real name is Cait (Caitlin really). But we started calling her Missy Moo soon after she was born, and it got shortened to Moo and now she doesn’t answer to anything else, much to my mother’s disgust. Matt and I could not agree on a name for her; we had no trouble with the first two (well we agreed eventually) but the third boys name (I assumed Moo was going to be a boy), and any girls name saw us at an impasse. I wanted to call the third boy Daniel, but Matt said Dan Hall sounds like a bush rangers name. If the third child was a girl I wanted to call her Molly Grace (or a list of other names none of which Matt would consider). Matt wanted to call her Caitlin, even though I don’t like the name, and refused to budge. Eventually when I was in labour, I stupidly agreed that if it was a girl Matt could choose the name. Afterwards I thought Moo was only a step away from Molly and we could change her name later, but Matt is still intractable. Needless to say I never think of her as Cait, and when people (like my mother) insist on calling her Cait we all look around stupidly wondering who they are talking about. And she looks like a Molly to me, even now.

Just a quick note to let you know I have a new page called links to textile blogs (top of my sidebar). This lists (hopefully) all the blogs I subscribe to in Google reader. So I have deleted my textile blog roll. Please let me know if the links don’t work, or if I have left you off the list. I did a manual cut and paste, and fixed at least three omissions as I was going, so I fear that others may have disappeared too!

Speaking (writing) of Google reader I realised yesterday that Google reader is not capturing feeds from all the blogs I subscribe to. I am not sure how widespread the problem is, but one blog I read which I thought had been rather quiet has not been updated in Google reader for about one month. So if you haven’t heard from me in a while …that may be why.

Tomorrow – embroidery pictures I promise.

Part two: camping

The second part of our holiday was camping overnight on our newly purchased block of land at Urbenville in northern NSW. We have bought 15 acres, with a dam. We went camping for two days with a dumpy level to work out the lay of the land, and plan a building pad for a shed, and eventually a house.

After whining about the accommodation at SeaWorld I realised we had come down in the world just a tad. This was our toilet (pre-use of course):

Jimmy and Tom erecting the tents, and checking out the locals:

We had a lovely time, despite the toilet (Moo was horrified at the idea), and the fact that dinner was verging on inedible - the potatoes ended up carbonised, the roast lamb was ok, once the burnt bits were chopped off. Thank goodness for tinned peas!

Dinner before we destroyed it.

I think the kids probably enjoyed SeaWorld a *touch* more than working for two days, but they did enjoy mucking around with the fire and toasting marshmallows. Matt and I had a glass of red wine (or two) in front of the fire after the kids finally went to sleep, and he reckoned it was worth every cent just to be able to sit outside and actually see the Milky Way. We woke up to a glorious cold foggy morning, and decided our first purchase for the shed is a King size bed.

Back to more embroidery soon, and a meme from Tenar that I got while I was away.

Part One : The Unexpected Holiday.

The boys were going to SeaWorld with my aunt and uncle for the start of the school holidays. Unfortunately, at the last minute they were unable to come, so transferred the accommodation to us, so we could take them, and Moo as well of course. SeaWorld is one of three or four theme park tourist attractions at the oxymoronically named Surfers Paradise. In my opinion SeaWorld is probably the pick of the bunch, as they have a large range of aquariums and displays (polar bears, sharks, dolphins etc), and are involved in marine conservation (their saving grace), as well as having their fair share of the ubiquitous rides, overpriced junk food, trashy souvenirs and so forth.

Sleeping arrangements

We went to the Gold Coast for two nights (approx 1 hours drive south of Brisbane). The accommodation was at the SeaWorld resort, and it was ok. Not great, but ok. I was horrified at the price of the rooms – I didn’t think they were value for money, but as we usually camp I wasn’t going to complain – but I can’t imagine my aunt and uncle would have been thrilled either. It is a family resort, however the rooms are only available with double beds, rather than a double and single (twin) beds, which I think makes sleeping arrangements with children, particularly older ones, difficult. This meant the boys shared, and Moo slept on the floor on a mattress. The boys were happy to share - all the better to enjoy their fart and giggle festival. And Moo was happy on the floor, where she indulged in her Tourettes Syndrome –esque tuneless singing herself to sleep. (Random bursts of confused toddler song medleys just when we thought she was finally asleep).

Rolled in glitter

Surfers Paradise is horrid. The beach is nice, if you like long stretches of white sand and rolling surf, as long as you don’t mind being in the shadow of high-rise buildings by 3 pm. Personally I prefer more interesting beaches - rocky headlands, tidal pools, and things to look at other than overly tanned leathery skinned women with ridiculous boob jobs. I have never been to Las Vegas, so this is all supposition on my part, but Surfers Paradise seems model itself on Las Vegas, without quite hitting the mark. It styles itself as the ‘glitter strip’ with its casino, neon lights, bars and nightclubs. But really it is just tacky and a bit lame. It is a bit like going to a theatre or nightclub during the day. What seems glamorous and opulent at night with the lights dim and a few drinks under your belt -looks threadbare and worn in the cold hard light of day. I heard a variation of the old saying ‘you can’t polish a turd’ the other day: ‘You can’t polish a turd, but you can roll it in glitter’. I think that sums up Surfers Paradise.

Haemorrhaging money

We had a nice day at SeaWorld. The cashier had to wrestle the credit card off Matt when he realised it was going to cost almost $300 for us to walk through the gates. This price included admission to all the rides and attractions, except for the ones it didn’t include….. oh…..and the three major attractions that were closed for maintenance, of course. I know maintenance has to be done – but in school holidays, even if it is winter? Actually the price included everything except for the really exciting things like behind the scenes tours, swimming with the dolphins etc.

First stop – Sesame Street Beach – a show featuring all your favourite SS characters and a bunch of rides suitable for the under 5’s. Moo was overcome with excitement, and the boys secretly enjoyed the kiddy rides, even though they wouldn’t admit it, but they enjoyed the other rides more. The aquariums were the highlight of the place. Lots of sharks, tropical fish, stingrays etc . The polar bear display would have been good, except the bears were more inclined to lay in the sun motionless rather than cavorting in the water like they do in the advertisements. I would have suggested that the bears were animatronics – except if they were fakes I’m sure they would be programmed to move more.

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

There seemed to be a preponderance of fat spoiled whining children wandering around SeaWorld with their overindulgent parents. Very ‘Charlie and the Chocolate factory’. We were having our picnic lunch (too cheap to buy fast food) while these two snotty nosed obnoxious brats either stared slack jawed at us, or wrestled each other within a foot of our food, all the while blithely ignoring their parents saying ‘ stop that darling, and I’ll buy you an ice cream’. They didn’t stop, and yet they still got an ice cream. If any of our kids did that (and I don’t think they’d dare) you’d probably still see a red hand print on their bum (yeah yeah – smacking is wrong and evil - I know), and they wouldn’t be eating ice cream for a month.

A day to remember?

Everyone enjoyed themselves, the kids for obvious reasons, and us because we enjoyed watching the kids enjoy it. However I am not sure that the type of manufactured fun that theme parks provide is really the stuff of which dreams are made. I wonder what, if anything, the kids will remember about SeaWorld in a few years. Probably not much, except for the fact that we went, and are too cheap to repeat the experience! At least the boys get to write an interesting ‘what I did in the holidays’ essay when they get back to school. More interesting than ‘helped our mad hippy parents in the veggie garden’ like they usually do!

We are off today for an unexpected, but not unwelcome, family holiday.

Stitch magazine is my new favourite embroidery magazine. I got a subscription for Christmas …a little gift for me, from me. (I also got a subscription to Quilting Arts, my new favourite quilting magazine). Volume 50 of Stitch featured, among other interesting projects, some fairy slippers by Annette Emms. I had to make some for myself. As per usual I didn’t read the instructions properly, and I changed a few things (like the pattern), and my results don’t show as much polish as perhaps they could. Grin. I also discovered that Annette has a blog of her own – Fairy shoes and other things, so if you want to see some lovely and well crafted versions of these fairy shoes, do have a look.

I am treating these fairy slippers as a learning experience; I decided to embellish the fabric with some Angelina, which Jane sent me. I structured my colour scheme specifically to use some of the Stef Francis threads (the lazy daisy flowers) Karen sent me, but of course, the colours of my background fabric swamped the colour of the threads. It was a case of too much too soon. Working with a colour scheme I am not sure of (i.e. not brown and green) experimenting with new stuff (Angelina fibres), and learning new techniques (e.g. following instructions J ).

I couldn’t get a good photo. These are small, about as long as my index finger, and more glitzy and glamorous than I am used to. I am trying to get over my ambivalence of embellishment. I love it when other people do it, but when I do it I just can’t pull it off. The fabric is felt, cotton and Angelina machine embroidered together. My machine embroidery stitches were toe catchers and hence the fuzzy edges, when I cut out the shoe shapes. The green and silver ‘cord’ is whipped chain stitch, trying to get away from unrelenting pink. I don’t like the pink sequins, but Moo did. She likes the shoes and so she now owns them. I am planning to make a nicer pair for myself one day.

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My friend Cheryl sent me Colin. Apparently it was a struggle to get him in the envelope,(and away from his wife no doubt), but he arrived on my doorstep in pretty good shape as you can see:

But alas….by the time i had finished with him - he was looking a bit hot and bothered:

This is a shot of him from the BBC’s production of Pride and Prejudice - just in case you have been living under a rock, or (shock, horror) not a fan of Jane Austen and/or Colin Firth. Seriously - the BBC production of Pride and Prejudice is one of the best….. And I’m not just saying that because I get to ogle CF in a wet white shirt (well it is because of this….a bit).

Misunderstood Disclaimer for Mrs Firth: He didn’t really turn up in the mail – I was joking. And now I am 40, I’m so old J I wouldn’t remember what do if he did turn up. I’d probably offer him a cup of tea, a chocolate digestive and a nice chat.

Ps:
School holidays start today for two weeks. Forecast: cool weather, bored/annoying children, little stitching, irregular blogging.

My fibre book of fruit (I must think of a catchier title – this sounds like a self help manual for someone with bowel problems) is going to have lots of different things on each page, surrounding the main motif (the fig, pomegranate and lemon, and yet to be embroidered whatever’s). My planning technique is off the cuff – no notes, journals, plans for me…I just bumble along and hope it will all work out in the end. So I don’t really know what the finished book is going to look like, or even what a finished page is going to look like. But I have been working on elements.

For the pomegranate page I have made a pomegranate stencil and line drawing using shiva paintstiks. I have also made a stamp. This is how I did it:

First trace (or even draw..if you can) your image. Again the image is from 4000 Flower and Plant Motifs by Graham Leslie McCallum (this is currently the most used book in my collection). I used a soft cut carving block (if you are making small stamps you can also use an eraser). Transfer the drawing to the softcut. I do this by colouring the back side of drawing and re-drawing with a stylus. Dont forget to reverse image if you need to. Then use lino cutting tools to carve your stamp. Make sure you don’t cut towards your hand. I have omitted photos of partially severed finger. Grin. I do a couple of stamps with the stamp as I am going to make sure enough of the background is cut away. Hooray: A wonky pomegranate.

The finished stamp: a wonky pomegranate:

Ps: thanks to all those who either decided to embarrass themselves by saying the cowboy quilts were nice, or managed to get around that by saying other positive things about them. For those who couldn’t see the mistakes – there is a reason there were no close up shots of the quilts – so you couldn’t see where I snipped the backing (once on each quilt) when I was trimming the batting, for example.

I have finally finished the two giant plaid Ohio star quilts for the boys (fronts and backs shown). Please don’t embarrass yourself, or me, by saying how nice they are. I am showing you simply to prove that I do achieve some of the goals I set myself. And I do actually make quilts rather than just fiddling around embroidering and talking about quilts.

These quilts are 96 inches by 72 inches (give or take an inch in some places, thanks to wonky binding techniques); each star block is 24 inches. I made them extra large for a single bed so they cover all my sloppy bed making techniques (and the trundle beds and mess under the bed). I used a variety of new, second hand, gifted and found fabric. They are utility quilts in the truest sense – made to be used, certainly not art in any way, shape or form. Machine pieced, machine quilted in the ditch, scrappy backs. Lots of chopped off points and crooked seams. I did not plan the colours or placement. Originally each quilt was going to have a variety of the purple/green and red blocks, but when it came to constructing the quilts I realised I had made 12 of each, and they looked better separated, rather than my original scrappier idea. The backs used up all the leftovers from the front of the quilts, plus a lot of ½ metre and fat quarter cuts I had no plans for. This is a good stash buster and cheaper than buying more fabric for backing - plus I really like the backs – almost as much as the fronts (no chopped off points at least. Grin).

Even though these are scrappy (even a bit scrappy without the ’s’!), quickly made, and inexpertly finished, I am inordinately, and inexplicitly, fond of them. I think maybe it’s because I didn’t fret about them. Tom thinks they look like cowboy quilts, and that’s good enough for me.

Yee hah!

Gift

The lovely Cheryl has sent me the most wonderful gift. A packet of 9 or so hand painted batik fairies that are so sweet. I am planning to make something for Moo with them – a little wall hanging perhaps. I was going to hide them from her, otherwise she’ll nag me about them, but she has just seen me typing this and has spotted the photo. The other part of the gift is a fabulous collection of blue threads. Cheryl, in her wisdom, realised I would have lots of earth tones and sent me things she didn’t think I’d have. And she was correct. Although, some of these thread brands I haven’t even seen before – so they would have been new to me regardless on the colour. And that was the most exciting part – threads of all different types – cashmere wool, sparkly threads, linen, cotton, wool, silk, a really interesting ribbony type thread from needle necessities – I’ve got it all baby. Can you guess I’m thrilled, because I’m gushy?

Fig

The large 100 year old Moreton bag fig in the backyard in fruiting. These fruit are edible, but not eatable – that is, they won’t kill you if you eat them, but you’d have to be desperately hungry to bother. However the fruit bats and birds adore them. We are bombarded with bird song during the day and bat song at night. The kids enjoy going bat spotting at night with the torch. The last photo is the view of our yard from the park next door. The shed nestled under the tree is a three car bay shed, just to give you an idea of scale.