a stitch in time

Why am I bothering...

2012-01-03T22:04:00.000+13:00

Why am I bothering to learn te reo Māori?

An English immigrant to New Zealand asked me this question. Married to an African-American, she's no racist - unlike some others who have asked me the same question.

I only gave her the political, no-doubt-naive part of my answer, which is:

Aotearoa/New Zealand is in a unique position for race relations. It's far from perfect, but in general Māori (the brown people) & Pakeha (the pink people) get on pretty much OK. You don't need to study a lot of history to realise that things could have gone a lot worse. Most other nations with a multiracial history have a far more bloody record - and can expect more of the same. However, you don't have to study the health, education and economic indicators deeply to realise that Māori are not as well off as Pakeha. This is a shared challenge, an issue for all of us. All of us want it better, even if we don't agree on the way to achieve it.

So, we have a rocky start, quite a lot of forbearance, some problems, and a lot of willingness for things to go well. I truly believe that we have a chance to be a place where different kinds of people really can live in harmony. Not by pretending we are all the same, but by understanding, admiring and relishing those differences. Language, and the cultural understanding that goes along with it, seems like a key part of this. I want to be a real part of building that future. Happily I have an interest in language, and received an invitation to a supportive opportunity to learn.

Then there's the spiritual answer.

Te Reo Māori is the language of the soul of this land. All the beautiful special places were first named in te reo. Mimiwhangata. Aoraki. Rakiura. Waitaki. Walk among puriri, kauri, totara in the company of piwakawaka, hihi, riroriro. Even the palest Pakeha has some idea what a taonga is.

The words have been coming to me all my life, one by one. Given, shared by the native speakers. It feels like the time for me to become an adult and learn to put them together, to speak my heart in the language of my home

Ngā mihinui

The Quilts of Abundance

2011-12-31T20:36:00.001+13:00

Late in 2010, my friend Veronicah was the recipient of 17 - count 'em 17 - banana boxes of mixed fabrics from a deceased estate. After much sorting and appropriate donation, she made up a box each for some quilting buddies. Sharing the love!

I'm a lucky possessor of one of these Boxes of Abundance. It holds a fairly random mixture of approximately shirt-weight cottonish fabrics from (I think) the middle 1980's. Not exactly what I would normally choose to work with.

My - self-imposed - challenge is using it to make quilts for my big patchwork group's community quilt donation programme. This has been far more enjoyable than expected.

Free fabric is much easier to cut!
Funny combinations work when they have to
I'm not doing it alone - all the other people who have passed this fabric along are sharing in the eventual gift

I'll document these quilts on their own page. What is your challenge?

Pharmaceutical Comforter

2011-12-29T13:36:00.001+13:00

It all started at St Joseph's Primary School. Back then "fundraising" was known as "collecting for the Missions". What we collected was tinfoil. I doubt any of my class knew what the Missions were doing, or how our tinfoil would help, but we religiously collected each bottletop (remember them!).

Fastforward at least 30 years to me looking at my foil medication packets. No way can I treat them like rubbish. They represent the best strategy yet in managing my disordered mind... and they're tinfoil! And look, they're layered, with air in the middle. In a grid format. Kinda like a quilt really. So, the inevitable quilt project begins

This one has to be functional, of course. Blister packs are a bit stiff and scratchy to make a quilt that is nice to sleep under. After a few samples I decide on a simple half-square triangle block embellished with a packet.

It's very boring in the middle phase of making and embellishing all the blocks. Now that is done I'm enjoying playing with different layouts. Here's my favourite so far

More about the making of Pharmaceutical Comforter

Could be the Last Baby Quilt

2011-11-15T22:45:00.000+13:00

Max arrived recently. His big sister has one of my quilts, so he gets one too. I make them fairly quickly out of whatever is at hand, and take particular pleasure in giving them a complementary pieced backing made from my stash of flannel samples. Max's is a triumph of the scrap ethic, made completely from the left-overs from another quilter's project.

I've said it before: this is my last baby quilt.

Why? there are bound to be more babies, some with a family precedent of a quilt from Auntie Sarah, and all needing quilts. I have more than enough fabric, and get a lot of pleasure out of being able to bring a special gift.

I have to stop, because snuggling in behind that fuzzy feel-good factor they are thieves.

The baby quilts steal my most precious, scarce resources: time, willpower, focus. I do good work on them, but not my best work. I offer that work up to the least critical audience imaginable. I romanticise the beauty of the motherhood I don't participate in. I choose to make a pretty baby quilt rather than struggle with the challenge of creating the weird wonderful unique images that rarely get past the sketchbook.

I make the baby quilts as cuddle rugs to comfort my own fear of inadequacy, of failure, of success. Knowing this, how can I make another?

Full and empty

2011-10-25T17:20:00.000+13:00

Wow, I got full on vacation. Eyes and ears, mind and heart wide open to everything around me. And there was so much! Museums, galleries, concerts, classes, conversations, scenery, activity, shoe-shopping... Enough already!

I even came back about 8kg heavier, and no, this was not my shoes.

So despite my ambitious plans to stitch every minute, exercise every day, blog every week, I've actually "done" very little. Because I have been TOO FULL. Too full to chase an idea & catch it, too full to flex myself around it and figure out what it is, too full to tip-toe up to it and invite it to dance.

Instead, I've been emptying.

My do-list: caught up on baby-quilts & birthdy quilt blocks for my group and a bunch of other small, no-brainer activities
My stash: gave away almost everything I took to the US (more room for shoes!), using up fabrics more generously in shared projects, working from the stash rather than the shop
My ideas: reviewed the outstanding projects/ideas list and realised that I've outgrown many of them. I don't need to make them now, just because they were a great idea at the time. Just because it's in my sketchbook (thanks Kathryn) does not mean I am committed to making them.
My heart: took a good hard look at some grief I carry around, and made some more steps toward valuing that pain that is no one's fault and nothing will change

Current state? Light, empty, free... and ready to commit to the first large and serious project since Floating Cubes. This new work has a working title of "Pharmaceutical Comforter" and you will be hearing quite a bit more about it

Blogging every day of June?

2011-07-10T21:51:00.000+12:00

well, not so much. Life got so interesting to experience there was little time to write.

There was, in no particular order:

singing in Carnegie Hall,

shopping in SoHo - 5 pairs of shoes & nearly 3 specs frames,

art at the Guggenheim, with a side-order of deepening friendship, an opportunity to share timethat real life at home would never allow,

antiquitity and fearsome modernity at the Met, with another friendly bonus,

dancing to the blues till the small hours of the morning,

joining a party and having a fun little flirtation,

a glimpse of what's the big deal of mirrored buildings

...and all this before I got to the really serious bit. It will be weeks before it's all caught up. Patience, grasshoppers

Enough already!

2011-06-03T17:31:00.000+12:00

Today I experienced a couple of strong contrasts, both rather poignant, and one not very flattering to me.

I visited Ellis Island. Unlike most of the "lower socio-economic status" immigrants who were processed here, I was free to move through the buildings and grounds as I pleased, and to depart on whichever ferry I chose. These are different times, my status vis-a-vis the state is different. I feel lucky to be here and now.

The other difference is that most of the immigrants were very poor, right on the borderline of acceptance in the test of ability to support themselves. Whereas I walked up Broadway, and bought four more pairs of utterly frivolous shoes. Since then my greatest worry has been how I'll fit this abundance of personal wealth into my luggage. Still feeling lucky, but it has a taint. Say what you like about supporting the economy, sometimes nothing but the word greed will do.

How'd ya like them apples?

2011-06-02T16:32:00.003+12:00

...better this time round.

Last time I came to New York I hated it. All in the mind! This time I started with contacts, a plan and a focus event. Of which, more later. Because if I'm to manage to blog every day of June, I'm not squandering topics.

New York is warm if not hot and more than a little sticky. Store air conditioning is welcome. They make the electricity cost back! The temperature is at that magic point that is warm enough to have people relaxed and summery, but not so hot that they are irritable. Even waiting in the 52nd St subway station for a train that never came, the crowd of people sweated calmly, struck up conversations, passed on the message that the Green line would be closed. I even heard strangers offering alternate directions. Everywhere I go, I hear the language of courtesy "Please" "Thankyou" "Excuse me" The rude New Yorker may be endangered, if not extinct.

8.5 metres to the finish line

2011-01-07T23:21:00.000+13:00

It. Is. Done.

'Floating cubes' is all quilted. I would not have believed it possible to quilt a queensize in under 4 days, but I have! Not only is the quilting finished, but it looks very good.

I just had to dash out to Quilters Dream my favourite quilt shop - Hi Elizabeth! - to show 'n' tell, and also to get the velcro specified in the exhibition entry requirements.

Since then I've added the hanging sleeve, trying a new idea for blind-hemming its lower edge, and machine-stitched the binding all around. The blind-hemming idea worked very well, and has saved 2 metres of hand-stitching. It's a technique best kept for quilts with a fairly busy background, but that's most of my work.

All that remains is handstitching the final binding edge - about 8.5 metres. Tomorrow's task!

on reaching the home straight unexpectedly

2011-01-06T23:07:00.000+13:00

Today it seems quite likely that I will complete the 'cubes' quilt within the exhibition submission deadline. I would not have believed this 4 days ago, but when I stopped this evening, I was well ahead of project schedule. Providing I can overcome the threadsnap issue in the morning, and I will, quilting should be done by midafternoon. That leaves just enough time for binding and hanging sleeve. It's been a mighty effort, and 3 things have made it possible:

1. great skills. Setting modesty aside, I have good technical competence, and don't waste any time fumbling.

2. quilting-friendly environment. The best husband in the world has made all the dinners and a heap of other good actions.

3. A champion! My dear friend Veronicah gave the gifts of time and belief.

Three quarters

2011-01-05T22:49:00.000+13:00

A very quick update on progress completing my two Symposium exhibition entry quilts.

'Flag' is almost done, with three quarters of the binding handstitched down. The more I look at it, the more I like it. It may be my favourite ever. It's certainly the foundation piece for a series in the flag format. The final title is still to come, the perfect phrase uniting the ideas of fertility and absence may arrive in a dream.

'Cubes' is also at a 'three-quarters' milestone- that's how much of the background quilting is done. This is radiating straight lines, I am very pleased with how it looks. There a still an unknown number of cube motifs to quilt...but at least te design for them is figured out. The title came to me during this morning's walk 'Comsentience at Waypoint42' a reference to my recent birthday, and an homage to one of my favourite science fiction writers, Frank Herbert.

and now, for a complete change of pace. Overdrive!

2011-01-04T22:51:00.000+13:00

Suddenly realised the deadline for entries in the Queenstown quilt Symposium is January 14th. Since I'm going back to work on the 10th, that's the real deadline. The entry needs photographs, which require natural lighting, which means the photo session will have to be on Sunday 9th.

One entry is complete, another is at the stage of handstitching the binding. No worries. The 3rd is 'Floating Cubes'. It's a very generous queensize. A dear friend's help and encouragement gained me a whole day, and quilting is well under way. But it's still a big job for 5 days. Good thing I love it! So

there might not be any more posts until those entry forms are in the post

Passion vs. maintenance

2011-01-02T23:13:00.000+13:00

The word for today was 'maintenance' in the sense of all the things I do, or might do, that are *not* my passion. For example: singing the music of JS Bach is one of my passions, whereas vacuuming the house is not. Stitching an original art quilt? Passion. Cooking dinner, not. And yet, some maintenance must be done. Either I do it myself, or charm/coerce/pay someone else to do it on my behalf. Or decide it need not be done at all.

Yesterday I wrote about the need to make my original art quilts - a passion - my first priority. This is still true. But I wonder how much of my time should be given over to maintenance. How much maintenance did Picasso and O'Keeffe do? Going-to-work is maintenance. So is exercise. Maybe an answer is to do the maintenance with great passion too.

There are heaps of great quilts in my sketchbook...

2011-01-01T23:04:00.000+13:00

....but for all of them to come into material existence before the entropy death of the universe, some things must change. Some of these changes are relatively easy, or at least, relatively obvious. Skills acquisition is one major area. For example, several of the ideas really want custom-dyed fabric. I'm not yet confident enough of my abilities in this area, but I also doubt that what the quilt wants is out there waiting for me to buy.

Another significant change needed is to STOP some kinds of quilting. There are works I make purely because I can do so comfortably, or because I already have the fabric, or because I'm copying someone I want to be like. These aren't bad reasons in themselves, but it dilutes the 'real' works.

Lastly, and most difficult, to make my own original work the first priority use of my time. Picasso did that. Georgia O'Keeffe did it too. I don't see myself as possessing talent on their level, but until I make that change, I'm not making the best of the talents I do have.

Letting go, holding on, going on - the 7th blog of Christmas

2010-12-31T23:20:00.000+13:00

2010 has been a bittersweet mixture.

Some truly awful times come to mind, although I'm pleased that they don't stay there for long. Sadly, in learning to let those things go from my thoughts and memories, I've often lost sight of some very good things. In the new year, i hope to learn to hold on to the good bits.

So many potential great experiences await in the next 52 weeks. Some are known already. 2011 is the year I will sing in Carnegie Hall! There are some amazing quilts lurking in my sketchbook. I know I will make some of them, in some form. Other experiencess wait to be invented, and some will sneak up and surprise us.

Stepping up, stepping out, going on

In love with a fictional character - 6th blog of Christmas

2010-12-30T22:29:00.000+13:00

How i adore and long for this mystery person... Who perceives and admires me, who values my struggle, who cherishes my gifts and accepts my flaws.

Sometimes I'm sad because this person isn't a part of my life. Other times I rejoice that they are all around and within me.

At the very moment that I mourn something lacking, I can choose to see with different eyes, and discover that the missing element was there all along.

the 5th blog of Christmas - my not-so-wicked step-grandmother

2010-12-30T00:14:00.000+13:00

My mother married a man with 6 siblings. Their mother turned 80 today. It's been a long happy day full of food, drink, laughter, short heartfelt speeches, long rambling conversations. It was a wonderful gift to suddenly become part of a large and close extra family.

To cap it all off, tomorrow we put aside our party clothes and go fishing!

Barefoot...

2010-12-29T00:15:00.000+13:00

The 4th blog of Xmas is also day 4 of 17 days of shoelessness, my annual summer holiday practice.

I love shoes. My darling often refers to me as 'Imelda', especially when I have commandeered a greater share of the wardrobe. Most days, my outfit is selected from the foot up. So it seems strange to choose to be shoeless.

Barefoot is about change of style, lack of style, complete relaxation, being natural. It's also about slowing down - the automatic way to help winter-tender feet cope with the textured world. At the same time, I'm resetting my mind to a greater degree of tranquillity.

By the time i wear shoes again, my holiday time will have toughened my soles, and desensitised my soul.

3rd blog of Christmas - hurrying towards peace

2010-12-27T23:22:00.000+13:00

Today we drove North for 5 hours to reach my Mum's home on Doubtless Bay. It's beautiful here and of course I have already got salt in my hair, and sand under my toenails.

It's incredible how fast the holiday effect kicks in - energy to do stuff I couldn't usually be bothered with, combined with peacefulness and patience that seems effortless.

2nd blog of Christmas - honoring Bethli

2010-12-26T22:31:00.000+13:00

Yesterday, Christmas Day, Bethli passed away after a long and hard-fought illness.

I did not know her well, but what I did know, personally and professionally, was admirable. She was a person of great energy, intelligence and integrity.

Bethli did not live enough years to express her whole potential, but all the time she had, she made the most of - learning, travelling, working and playing.

I'm grateful to have known her.

1st blog of Christmas

2010-12-25T22:25:00.000+13:00

This Christmas is a scrap quilt.

The background changed several times, and each part of the day brought together partial family groups.

All unified by the common threads of courtesy, generosity and love.

Scrap quilts are always the warmest.

Floating cubes comes together...at last

2010-11-15T18:07:00.000+13:00

Floating Cubes has had a long slow development.

The cube-top fabric came first - bought at a quilt show in Sydney, perhaps 2006. I knew I would use it for some variation of Stack'n'Whack but I didn't want to just make blocks & a border with it.

Then, I read Quilts of Illusion (again) and saw a most amazing variation of the classic Tumbling Blocks pattern. Immediately I knew I would use the interesting blocks from the special print as the "top" of cubes. I made dozens of these, and enjoyed the process of selecting complementary colours from the scraps stash.

Later came the idea to have a "macro-cube" background for all my little cubes to float above.

I'm still playing with the arrangement of the small cubes, but I'm thinking this current arrangement with a large-to-small layout gives a sense of distance that is very pleasing.

There are more photos of the build of this quilt in this Picasa Gallery and at the foot of this page for a while

Next questions - how to attach the little cubes to the ground, and what sort of quilting?

Advice where you least expect it

2010-10-15T17:25:00.000+13:00

Today I talked with an art dealer. About making a living from art.

He was very generous with his advice, and set me the following homework:

Have my work professionally photographed
Document each work's title, size, media
Write my biography in 2-3 paragraphs
Make a website to show off my work & myself
Produce a printed booklet of a selection of my work to give to dealers
Email him when all this is done and he'll critique my efforts

He called this the transition from "crafty" to "fine art", and discussed how this change in level of finish would help me to engage with serious art dealers - and that this was the way to meet the kind of market that could make my work generate an income.

I guess it all comes down to how seriously I take myself and my work, and how much I want to let those finished works out into the world to find a home with someone else.

Quilting to fix my mind _ _ _

2010-09-30T18:31:00.001+13:00

I've just noticed a fascinating trend in my quilting.

Over the last three months, i've spent much more time quilting than piecing - many works have been getting to that happy state known as 'finished'

In almost every case, the design qualities of the quilting have been a visual representation of what i *needed* to rebalance my emotional or mental state. When i've been low or sad, my quilting has been bouyant and vigorous. When I've been agitated, the lines have been smooth and simple. When i've been irrational, they have been a calm
reinforcement of the top design.

While making the design decisions, i only thought about what each quilt needed to complete it. I think i've been subconsciously choosing *which* project to work on depending on what kind of work will help my mental state. This really is art as therapy, and is a very happy discovery.

Key lesson: it's probably a very good idea to have a variety of projects to work on at any time, so I'm free to select the one that is what i need at the time

another finish ... with no photo

2010-06-04T21:55:00.001+12:00

Finn's African scene quilt is finnished and gifted. I hear his big
sister has taken possession of it already. That sounds like success
to me! Living in hope that my colleague, his Papa, will bring me a
photo of him enjoying it.

When is your wardrobe like a quilt?

2010-04-23T17:42:00.001+12:00

i've just had a fabulously successful clothes shopping expedition. The
key difference was treating my body like a quilt composition. All the
same concepts of balance, repetition, scale, proportion and colour
added up to a fun time putting together wonderful outfits.
Surprisingly friendly to the bank balance too!

There might be more posts...

2010-04-23T13:55:00.001+12:00

... From stitchsarah on the move. It's the equivalent of hand-piecing, maybe.

....and again!

2010-04-23T13:34:00.000+12:00

There's a new baby - Finn McCoy Jordan, born last night. A quilt is needed!

Just when I'm getting on with a bunch of serious art quilts large & small. Still, there's always time for a baby.

Thank heaven for little people...

2010-03-08T18:22:00.000+13:00

Even though I keep saying "No more baby quilts", they are my great saving and keep me going through periods of thin inspiration and scarce time.

Every baby needs a quilt... they're my favourite way to celebrate others going where I dare not follow. A baby quilt is an opportunity to make something smallish, light-hearted, useful and still original.

So... here's my latest, for Ryan. His dad is an astronomy buff.

It even has back art! fuzzy flannel, so it won't slip off the cot

Fidelity issues

2009-10-02T18:04:00.000+13:00

Dear quilts, I have been unfaithful. And not just once.

Confession is good for the soul so here is just how bad it is: A weekly rehearsal date with choir, monthly Crafternoon (beads!), monthly Albany Beauties, nightly music practice (well, sometimes), occasional baking and other cooking, sometime housework... and going to work 5 days a week. Sometimes I even go to a play or gallery opening.

This is not a small fidelity issue. It's a great big glaring discrepancy between what I think I love best and what I actually do with my time.

All of these other things are either enjoyable or necessary - some are even both. But they all take time, and attention away from the BEST thing.

So I'm going home right now to line up a bit of quilt stuff for the weekend. Maybe I'll even cut or stitch something

back into the Zone.. maybe

2009-07-18T12:10:00.000+12:00

nothing much happened after the velvet skirt... except I wore it very happily.

I've missed several "sewing dates" and felt generally uninspired, until I picked up a little pack of reverse-applique elements for the Absence/Fertility work I designed at Symposium. Just the easy re-start I needed. They're done, and I'm ready to make 6 more, and then assemble the whole work.

Also basted the Whirling Squares quilt and will begin to quilt it this weekend.

And, most exciting of all, I've started the "Pharmaceutical Comforters" using felt and pill cards. That concept has been a long time in the baking.

It's all about giving it time, and not giving up on it :-)

What to do when you're burned out...

2009-05-16T15:08:00.000+12:00

...Chill out! Don't push it - there's no hurry. We're doing this because we want to, remember? It's not a Production Environment where some pre-specified level of performance is mandatory.

And when it's been long enough, back-to-basics is a great plan: stroke some fabric, do a little mending, go look at art. Give yourself some easy points on the board.

Today I'm making a bias-cut skirt out of silk velvet. This fabric has been waiting patiently in the stash for maybe 5 years. It's my simplest and perhaps most successful pattern, enhanced this time with an invisible zip in the side seam. Love those things! It's going great, and I know that tomorrow, as well as having a great addition to my winter wardrobe, I'm going to be back in the Zone, and ready to make something more original.

When I'm not blogging... I'm quilting!

2009-05-01T17:44:00.000+12:00

It's been a strange few weeks. Firstly the Wellington Quilt Symposium, where I took two really enjoyable classes: kite making with Robert Van Weers - so much fun!, and "Inspired by..." with Cheryl Comfort. This was perhaps the best class I have ever taken for stretching and increasing my ability to understand what excites me about an artwork, and then bringing that specific excitement into my own work. My sketchbook is full of ideas for new works, and I have begun three, including some hand-quilting.

Came home from Wellington to the opportunity to participate in a "local artists" show at Muriwai... I'm too late to be included in any of the marvellous publicity they have made, but hopefully they will find space to show something of mine.

So I have scrambled to have anything to show... and ended up finishing 8 small works. Much more than I expected, and there was a lot of stitching on the train. I've learned that it's great to have some work of my own on hand to seize an opportunity!

more 3D piecing - Migrating Flamingos

2009-02-27T16:52:00.000+13:00

After the success of the 3D bow ties it has been great to start off another 3D piecing project - flying geese. This is my favourite traditional patchwork pattern. I love it that the stacked triangles also turn up in Persian carpets as "travelling birds" and symbolise good news.

However I have not loved it enough to sew all those bias seams. The 3D pattern is so easy & I love the texture that the folds provide.

I had a stash of funny pinks, and also loads of "sky"fabrics... so the flamingos are about to migrate... watch this space

the longest-term project makes a milestone

2009-01-31T12:00:00.000+13:00

I've been making 3D bow-tie blocks since early 2006. Shayne taught me the block. I thought, I never do hand-piecing, but these are cute, maybe by machine. Then a lot of travel opportunities came along.... The hand-piecing kit has travelled with me to Sydney, Canberra, Thredbo, Los Angeles, Denver, San Francisco, Washington DC, New York, Gore, Ngatea, Whakatane and Mangonui. And just to and from work! Hours of travel have been rescued from boredom, and I've talked with, demonstrated and shared the project with many friends and strangers.

About 540 blocks later, it was time to stop making blocks and start making a quilt. Arranging blocks is one of my most favourite things. A week's solitary retreat to Henny Penny's house was the perfect opportunity.

Bush walks , swimming and composing a quilt, could there be a better holiday? By the end of the week the trusty Featherweight had stitched all the vertical seams, linking the blocks into 6 strips 4x22 blocks wide. Back at home I'm slowly finishing the horizontal piecing to bring it all together. I've got an idea for a pieced backing, and for the quilting design. NOT by hand

Now I need a new hand-piecing project!

The empress's old clothes

2009-01-17T13:45:00.000+13:00

Between losing some weight and deciding that "baggier isn't better" lots of my earlier garments just weren't wearable. What to do?

Answer: re-fashioning... taking the favourites and cutting them down to size. What have I learned through this exercise?

It can be worth spending $45/meter on printed tulle. At the time I couldn't believe I paid so much for jungle print mesh. At least 10 years later the fabric retains its original colour and texture - the refashioned top literally looks like new.
My colour taste has changed a lot - now I'm brighter and more confident in combination
I've learned a lot! my construction techniques and fabric handling skills are streets ahead of where they were 10 years ago
It's still easier to do old things than new ones...sigh...

the emperor's new ....

2008-12-05T21:39:00.000+13:00

I just went clothes shopping. For once it was so successful I thought about putting my sewing machine up on TradeMe. Thanks Anneli! It is nice to have a good ready-to-wear experience.

Unfortunately my greed for variety is larger than my wallet so that will have to power the scissors to the stash and the foot-pedal to the floor. No matter how good the shopping is, to this long-time seamstress it seems like too easy a win.

Making it myself is always that bit more effort, that bit more stress of will it all work, the risk of cutting.

When I'm in the zone it all comes together easily. A few month's break is enough to lose that sewing fitness - last week's garden-party suit nearly failed through the dozy decision to cut knit on the bias. What was I thinking? Just enough fabric to cut a second skirt on the straight and recycle the first failed skirt into a jacket. Patchwork came to my rescue there.

Somehow I think the garden-party suit will be in my wardrobe longer than the 3 new off-the peg shirts. Nothing like a challenge!

Are we piecing?

2008-09-02T18:24:00.001+12:00

Does this writing piece us together, or am I making a wholecloth?

As a comment on this post, leave one memory that you and I had together. It doesn't matter if you know me a little or a lot, anything you remember! And if we've never met in real life, leave me a comment of your favorite post I wrote and why it was your favorite.

Next, re-post these instructions on your blog and see how many people leave a memory about you. If you leave a memory about me, I'll assume you're playing the game and I'll come to your blog and leave one about you.

Blog-tag, KFB!

Taking up the needle again

2008-08-27T18:40:00.000+12:00

The 4 quilts were finished on time. I was pleased to have the opportunity to photograph them - I like to work LARGE and it's rare for me to see my finished work spread out

After all the rush to finish I couldn't look at quilting for weeks. My lovely sister-in-law faithfully sent me our joint project ahead of schedule... and it waited over a month to even be layered and basted. Talk about "give away your contingency" because I couldn't face going back to that pressure. Funny how we set ourselves up to repeat problems time after time.

Now I've finally started it and it's going OK. It's going to be a very pretty, classic quilt and after the great unveiling I may even post a picture.

But some days I despair of finding my own vision and voice... there is always something conventional or at least pre-planned that I could work on and know how it was going to turn out. Once again setting myself up to repeat my earlier experience of not stretching out to the most original work I can do.

Repetition must be the theme for this month - because there are some really good repeats along with making the same old mistakes. I picked up my hand weights and blew off a year's dust. Who dusts anyway. Then I took off all but the smallest disc... and I've used them every weekday since. What an amazing difference it has made to the start of each work day - to force the bloodflow and count. I've even re-started making a simple list at work each day. Another amazing difference to what happens, a simple reminder of what my earlier, smarter self decided was the most worthwhile thing to do for the day. Like getting a time capsule from myself.

So I can learn, even if it is the same things over and over again. We are what we do - I was thinking of Aristotle "We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence then is not an act but a habit." but look what I found http://www.wearewhatwedo.org/ Cute!

far too busy stitching to write

2008-06-16T12:25:00.000+12:00

there's nothing like a deadline to get things finished! Highway 16 Quilters have our biennial exhibition this weekend. Come along to the Kumeu Community Center between 10am & 4 pm on 21st or 22nd June.

With any luck there will be 4 quilts by me on display. If I can complete the 15 metres of handstitching binding in the next 3 days...

Last weekend would be the most boring for a long time - a whole king-size quilted between 8pm Friday and 4pm Sunday. I love to machine quilt, but that was a bit concentrated even for me. The best part was that all my problems with needle-breakage and thread snapping seem to be over - so that was all stitch-time!

See you at the show!

...and redo

2008-03-11T17:21:00.000+13:00

I just discovered how easily a blog can be deleted (not mine!) and that there is no backup. this would fill me with horror in my professional life, but here, it's like cutting the fabric - there is no turning back. You can piece it back together from scraps, iron-on mender if you're lucky, but the seams will always show.

Sarah

Rip out and re-do

2008-03-07T19:34:00.000+13:00

Happy new year!
Far too busy stitching to write... the strawberry sundae suit, perfected pants, a custom-fit top for HennyPenny.... and so much more. The fabric shopping is still staying ahead of the making, I've made good use of the sale at my current favourite store, New Lynn Fabric Barn

Night before last I completed the quilting of my group's annual raffle quilt, now just need to find a volunteer/victim to bind it. I'm standing down as group president, I hope that will give me a new lease of life for quilting projects rather than running meetings.

Maybe some photos next time, Kathryn :-)

One more stitch

2007-12-24T12:43:00.000+13:00

One post does not a blog make! How do you people out there find time for this with all the other writing we do?

Quilting is sadly neglected in the pre-holiday season... so no progress on the Jaffa - and no photo either. One finish to celebrate: I will be taking a quilt "Nicole's Stars" back to my lovely mother-in-law Colleen on Christmas Day - we pieced it together, I've quilted it, and it will go to her granddaughter/my great-niece Nicole

Yesterday I decided to make a new outfit to wear on Christmas Day - strawberry sundae linen yum! but at 9.30 last night - after a shopping expedition, sleeve re-design and resolving a fitting crisis - there were still 2 seams and a hem to go.... looks like it will be a birthday outfit instead. Just as well there are a lot more fabulous outfits already made :-)

More in the new year, after all what else are holidays for....

2007-12-17T16:36:00.001+13:00

tailor's knot and lockstsitch

2007-12-17T16:28:00.000+13:00

...for a sturdy beginning to the seam that won't slip under later stress.

I'm a late starter in the programme and the first thing that I have learned is that a blog is not a very convenient way to to see older information... you need to be going along with it. Or there is a search tool somewhere that I haven't found yet...

Finding the early stages of the programme has been tedious and time-consuming. To use this as a serious business communication tool I'm going to have to learn a lot more about how it is structured.

So maybe for now I'll stick with celebrating finally starting th quilting of my latest work: Jaffa. Pictures to follow