It still needs quilting

... and binding
... and cat-and-dawg-hair defluffing

but as of about 10 minutes ago
it IS in one piece

tada!
and I don't know whether you can actually see but the beggar is longer than my walls are high - 4" of bottom border is trailing on the carpet

which is why 'Harmony' is currently spread out on the spare bed behind a very closed door

- because I don't trust a certain elderly cat who seems to believe that anything sitting on the carpet is fair game

If you're really really lucky ...

I mean REALLY lucky
a flying visit to Melbourne [ 2 hours down, 2 hours there, 2 hours back ] to watch the make-up trial for the wedding [ hair too but I couldn't stay for that ]
might just lead to

grandbaby snuggles


Noah is 4 months old this week

I stand corrected

While it is true that there is a long and well documented history regarding the symbiotic relationship between quilters and cats,
His Royal Beariness would like to point out that animals of the feline persuasion are not the only domestic quadrupeds capable of helping their resident quilter to make better quilts.
He feels that his self apponted role as quality control oficer has been undervalued
[ seen here checking whether my points pass muster ]


... that the long and arduous hours that he has put into ensuring the wedding quilt can pass the Bear Standard have been completely overlooked


Consider yourselves told, okay ?


and you'll have to forgive the very foreshortened photo but the thing is just getting too d**n big to photograph head on without moving the furniture - which I will do when the other two borders are on and mitred, but not now

and you thought you'd seen the last of it for a while

As you can see
having successfully reclaimed the wedding quilt from MissC
I'm now down to joining the last two rows across the top

... but that won't be the end of it. Ohhhh noes!


The border fabric that I've chosen is a mottled dark blue [ I may have mentioned before that I love the Moda Marbles range for borders ] - not quite a navy, but not truly a royal blue either - and where the teal flows to the side edges of the quilt top, a scattering of checkerboard-style squares of teal and the dark blue will carry that flow out into the border. How many squares and how they'll be placed will be the next challenge.
Yes, of course a plain border of the Moda blue would work ... but this will [ probably ... hopefully ... fingers crossed ] look more fully realised.

erm ... Nadie ? Chris ?

Now I can't quite put my finger on the reason, but I suspect that there may be the odd cat hair on your quilt

what a difference a day makes

This was the situation yesterday
and
today:
the waters have receded at an incredible pace. Literally. I can't believe it.Yesterday that park bench was surrounded by water - completely marooned -with the top just clear of the 'tide'

the gardens surprisingly are largely intact

paths that were a metre under water yesterday have emerged soggy but already walkable

but
the sudden deluge was just too much for many of the stately 100+foot gums, already struggling after 15 years of severe drought.
That is just one massive tree that Nadie

is standing near [ even that bit to the extreme right of the pic that looks like it might belong to another tree - and the root ball is just to the right of the large standing tree left of frame ] and I couldn't fit it all into the picture without losing The Girl completely.

For a direct comparison, refer back to the last image in yesterday's post, The huge bole on this tree below the Macmanus Road bridge is easily recognisable in both shots.

and it's all happened before

and where was Noah ?

It seemed like such a simple concept.

To celebrate friend Robyn's 'significant' birthday [ albeit 4 weeks after the fact ] we - that is, the members of our acapella women's choir, the Chat Warblers, augmented by some of Rob's other friends and my darling daughter - would gather at the Castlemaine Botanic Gardens and several sites along the way to Robyn's house for the choral equivalent of a progressive dinner.

Even the forecast of heavy rain all weekend wasn't enough to make us call it off. We're made of sterner stuff than that !!

... and rain it did for much of yesterday, all last night and into today.

However I don't think I truly realised the extent of it,

even after Nadie rang to report that she'd be late because of near-enough-to-zero visability on the Freeway

even after she had to drive through 2 feet of water at the bottom of my street.

I mean ... sure ... the goat paddock was awash, and true, there were four very vocal caprines camped under the eaves of the house because half the floor of the goat shed washed away

and the level in my dam is the healthiest I've ever seen it

but still somehow the truth of the situation somehow escaped me until we arrived at the Gardens to discover the local news crew filming what is normally a creek about a metre across - on a good day!
Quite a few wellie-clad locals were more than a little bemused by our somewhat eclectically attired gathering harmonising enthusiastically in the rain [ or as Nadie just said, to the rain really ]We progressed in convoy to our next singing sojourn at the Macmanus Road bridge

and then we were back in the cars and off to our final destination for a lavish afternoon tea-with-more-singing.

Despite the intermittent showers, we had a brilliant time ... certainly one of the more memorable birthdays I've ever helped celebrate

... although if we get much more of the forecast rain, don't be suprised if you see me out gathering up two of every kind.




and, if you're local, you might just see us on the WIN [ channel 9 ] news on monday night !

Doing my bit to support the locals

At the Wool & Sheep Show 2 or 3 years ago, I happened upon a colourful stall where the lovely Peter was selling his 'made in Bendigo' name jigsaws.

As luck would have it, just as I strolled over, someone was getting Peter to hand down a 'Riley' [ which as y'all know is my eldest grandson ] and when I asked was there another, it transpired that no, this was the last one, but he could do me one on order.

The other prospective customer immediately offered to let me have it [ as she lived quite close to them ] and the little bloke scored it as a 'just cos' pressie.

Fast forward to this year 's Sheep Show

When I asked #1 son whether something similar would be acceptable for the new little one, his answer was ... "Why on earth wouldn't it be ? It's Riley's favourite thing "
Well, okay... nice to know
Anyway
there wasn't a Noah, so one was ordered, and I consoled myself with a super cute little sheep puzzle
and no, it's not for the boys
it's mine !
and yesterday I collected the puzzle that Peter had made


as you can see they're bright and well made and sturdy


and if you'd like to check out the rest of the range it's here

my sheepie is at the top of the farm animals page but now I'm coveting that goat further down.
Maybe P could make me one to match the colours of Ms Sheepie !

and he posts worldwide peoples

First day of Spring* Frogpond moment **

This is what it looks like when

... you realise that you missed doing a pair of yarnovers about three inches back
and now once you've seen it, you can't make yourself unsee.
Just call me Kermit

*Here in OZ we calculate the change of seasons from the first of the month, rather than the relevent equinox or solstice, so Happy First Day of Spring [ or Autumn as the case may be ]

MY first day of Spring was spent:

gardening in the rain followed by
working on Nadie & Chris' quilt followed by
hot chocolate with David in town
and now we're about to head out the door for Choir.
The rest of the evening will - I predict - involve reknitting what I frogged and some reading-in-front-of-fire-with companion-animals

** ripit ripit ripit

There are no fairies round here

... but if ever there are, I can provide them with plenty of suitably diminutive seating

so what are they ?

fabulous fungi ?

t'riffic toadies ?

marvelous mushies ?

magic mushrooms ?

or maybe

freaky fungus ?
I'm assuming they're not edible
I mean, would YOU care to be the guinea pig? Nu-uh!
so we'll go with a provisional appelation of toadstool for the time being

and if, for some reason, you have a deep and abiding interest in fungi, the photo set is here

if you like tiny treasures

this week the Quilting Gallery's mini quilt show is ... appropriately enough ... miniatures
I didn't enter one of mine
instead I submitted one that Nadie made about 10 years ago ... I think it was actually her first ever quilted effort. Unfortunately the photo I have of it doesn't really show the detail properly as a thumbnail so here it is a bit bigger

... and that whole thing is about 5 inches square.

Daffodil Day 2010

for Marc
for my Mum
Brother-in-law Jim
Auntie Judy
Uncle Bill

and for the survivors:

Ma-in-Law
Auntie Billee
and Jeanette

who sat with me at the IGA for the last 2 hours taking donations and selling Daffodil Day merchandise for the Australian Cancer Council

and with positive healing thoughts directed towards a newly-diagnosed quilting friend who will be undergoing surgery very soon

Blacker than Midnight

I will be the first to admit that the recent reportage has been more than a little quilt-centric
so just to prove that there has been a bit of sticks-and-string action as well
I give you [ drum roll ]
the Blacker Than Midnight Brangian



I've been getting such a lot of wear from my lovely grape-y wine-y black trimmed Brangian that I decided to make a second while the pattern was still fresh in my brain.

I thought that I really needed a nice plain black go-with-anything shawl ... although after spending copious amounts of time pulling [ mostly white ] cat and dog hairs - and a few that may have been goat - out of it, maybe not such a bright notion.

Seeing I used the same yarn and needles, the specs are exactly the same as the last one, except that I didn't need to dye the yarn, which is stock standard BWM Luxury in Black from the back room at the Mill.

started August 6 and finished today [ currently blocking on Nadie's bed, well away from any and all animals with white in their coats ]

woo-hoo!

I'm ecstatic for two reasons.
Firstly I got another wonderful care package from Caity - four more issues of Machine Quilting Unlimited, a really interesting mag that I'd never seen before Caity sent me one a while back.
So a huge thankyou to my friend for her generous spirit. I'm not at all sure what I've done to deserve it, but thankyou.but I did say I had two reasons to be excited, right ? Well, I opened the top mag on the pile and was flicking through when I found THIS

...this quilt Circles Of Life was made by my very very dear friend [ for more than 25 years ] Linda French of Centerville, Ohio
and if it looks familiar, well, yes, I DID show it to you once before when it picked up Best of Show in the American Quilters Society show in Tennessee last year
and she's done it again

This spread was in honour of her Best of Show at the Machine Quilters Expo earlier this year
and now I have to ask you all to keep your fingers crossed for the next little while because this special quilt is on its way to Houston ! [ which, for you non-quilters, is the biggest most prestigous quilt show in the world ... and to even be juried in is just a huge huge deal ]

Am I proud of my friend ? you betcha!
Am I surprised ? Not in the slightest


edited to add:
I found a wonderful article about Linda here [ and yes, I still have that quilt she made for 'Susan' in 1985 ]

and another article [ covering much the same ground ] here

no W.O.M.B.A.T.S. allowed **

Now children, are we all sitting comfortably ? good!
because your Aunt Catsmum is going to tell you a story, and as all such tales should, it begins with

Once Upon A Time

back when Microsoft was little more than a gleam in Bill Gates' eye, I read a magazine article about an Alaskan quilter Judy Hopkins and her idea for mystery quilt classes.

I was teaching maybe six or eight - or more - quilt classes a week, and this idea of creating a class project where only the teacher knew the end product ... well ... I just loved that whole concept.
YesI know
I'm a control freak
so what's new?
anyway:
I began working on some suitable designs:
they needed to have enough steps to keep up interest, no one step should drag on too long [ so no designs that needed 364 right angled triangles all made in one hit ] should not telegraph the result too early, and needed to be finishable within a set class timeframe - usually 12 hours spread over 2 days or nights.
I naively imagined that I could probably come up with about 6
In the end, the tally was more like 30

and so for quite a few years I taught these Mystery Quilt classes about 8 - 10 times a year
It was great fun
Of course, eventually the 'regulars' who did every class were churning out quilt tops faster than they could finish them, AND with the growth of the internet, suddenly there were vast numbers of mystery quilt designs readily available online.

So with these two factors, it seemed like a good time for the MQ Days to evolve into UFO [ unfinished objects ] Days ... and so they did
for several more years
and then I moved up here and they sort of petered out

Until yesterday

so what's changed?
well
for one thing
my darling daughter has decided to finally bow to the inevitable, and embrace her destiny - or FATE - as a quilter.
So we decided [ well, she suggested and I agreed ] that we needed to reinstate some form of regular get-together, involving quilting of course ... but also knitting, spinning, crochet, embroidery, beading or what-ever-takes-the-fancy.

to be known henceforth and forever as WIP Days [ Works In Progress ]and, if nothing else, I figured it'd give Nadie and I yet another mother-daughter bonding activity

and so it came to pass that the word was spread and yesterday morning the cars began to arrive from all points of the compass
platters of food appeared in my kitchen
and wonderful projects were unveiled ... knitting, patchwork, applique, and beading all had their moment in the sun
many cups of tea were made and enjoyedgood food
good friends
good conversation
a modicum of actual productivity
Sheepie was reunited with a long lost sibling


and Nadie was initiated into the mysterious sisterhood of Textile Mavens


and of course we're going to do it all again next month

** WOMBAT = waste of money, brains and time

flower quilts online

you don't have to vote for my quilt but if you'd care to look

what I've been reading

January:
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - JKR
The Lost Symbol - Dan Brown ( disappointing )
Loving Richard Feynman - Penny Tangey ( Young adult - okay except the weak ending )
From Dead to Worse - Charlaine Harris
Living Dead In Dallas - CH
Green Mill Murder - KG
Blood and Circuses - KG
Ruddy Gore - Kerry Greenwood
Urn Burial - KG
Raisins and Almonds - KG book 10
Death Before Wicket - KG
Away With the Fairies - KG
Murder In Montmartre - KG
Queen of the Flowers - KG
Murder In The Dark - KG
The Persian Pickle Club - Sandra Dallas
Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency - Douglas Adams
The Long Dark Teatime of the Soul - DA
Cocaine Blues - KG
Forbidden Fruit - KG book 20
Dead Until Dark - CH
Club Dead - CH
Skin Trade - Laurell K Hamilton
Seventh Son - Orson Scott Card
Red Prophet - OSC
Prentice Alvin: OSC
Alvin Journeyman - OSC
Heartfire - OSC

February
Crystal City - Orson Scott Card
The Fire Rose - Mercedes Lackey book 30
Dead to The World - Charlaine Harris
Dead As A Doornail - CH
Definitely Dead - CH
Dead and Gone - CH
Phoenix and Ashes - ML
The Wizard of London - ML
Swallowing Darkness - LKH
Shakespeare’s Landlord - CH
All Together dead - CH
Shakespeare’s Champion - CH book 40 I probably need to rethink my goal for the year LOL
Shakespeare’s Christmas - CH
Shakespeare’s Trollop - CH
Shakespeare’s Counselor - CH

March
Inkspell - Cornelia Funke
InkHeart - Cornelia Funke
The Beach Street Knitting Society and Yarn Club - Gil McNeil
The Lover’s Knot - Clare O’Donaghue ( had trouble finishing this one … too contrived )

April
Handfasted - Catherine Helen Spence
A Knight Of The Word - Terry Brooks
Running With the Demon - TB book 50 OFFICIAL GOAL REACHED
The Patient’s Eyes - David Pirie
The Night Calls - DP
The Dark Water - DP

May
Jane Bites Back
Jane Austen Ruined My Life ( didn’t finish )
Turn Coat - Jim Butcher
Dirt Music - Tim Winton ( IRL bookclub )

June/July
The Science of Discworld 1
Last Continent - TP ( reread)
The Jerilderie Letter - Ned Kelly ( IRL bookclub ) book 60
The Magicians - Lev Grossman
The Sweetness At The Bottom Of The Pie - Alan Bradley

August
The Childrens Bach - Helen Garner ( IRL bookclub )
Jingo - Terry Pratchett ( reread )
Grave Surprise - Charlaine Harris
An Ice Cold Grave - CH
Grave Secret - CH

who dat girl ?

a 'slightly' smaller me in 1993/4, and though you can't see most of it, my hair is in a french braid down the back*by '98 the poundage is higher and the hair is shorter - and I'm letting the natural wave ...umm...wavethese days the poundage is higher again and the hair - straightish - couldn't be much shorter without resorting to a razor

Is there an inverse correlation between weight and hair mass I wonder ? Does that mean, if I grow my hair out again, I'll lose weight ?


* I still have that silk bargello vest tucked away. Not that anyone would wear it now [ except as fancy dress ] but I loved the colours and put such a lot of work into it that I can't bear the thought of tossing it out. Oh, just look at those shoulders! Can we say early 90s ?

Comfortable ?

The elephant in the room

Gaaargh!
I thought I had it sorted ... until I saw yesterday's photo as it appeared on the blog, and then something just jumped right off the screen.

It kinda makes me wonder whether I was walking around with my eyes closed for the last however many weeks.

What am I carrying on about?

To save you going back and looking again
I'll make it easy:
here's the offending section
[ albeit fuzzy and slightly out of focus from being cropped so much ]

Yes, I'm talking about that dark purple splodge in between the bars of the shrine. Now somebody tell me how I missed THAT ?
Anyway, here's today's iteration which is [ fingers crossed and touching wood ]

the last
absolutely the last
final
full stop
never again
cross my heart and hope to die