Bee Tired

In the middle of those lovely gum blossoms are bees.

I'm feeling busy as a bee myself at present - working fulltime is a complete change for me. I'm hating being away from natural light.

However, there are good things. The kids are coping fine, DH is pulling his weight in the household tasks (I expected he would, but you know, I haven't worked outside the home in 7 years now.... he's somewhat out of practise), and I'm getting the opportunity to knit at least three rows a day on my shawl.

I'm also absolutely dropping with fatigue, but I'm hoping that's just this cold-like virus I'm incubating. I'll be back...

Bloggers Quilt Festival

The third Bloggers Quilt Festival is underway, thanks to the lovely Amy.

I made this quilt last year for the third annual EB Doll Quilt Swap for Mands. I was very pleased with it's visual impact, and the subtle detailing that becomes apparent when close up.

As I wrote at the time,

My first plan was to make a ploughed field by strip piecing the red fabrics, thicker for up close, and thinner strips for further away to give a sense of perspective. I then freehand cut curves in both to represent slight hills, and pieced with my new curved piecing foot(which worked just like it did in the demonstrations.)

The ploughing effect didn't really work (I think the quilt would have had to be bigger to show this properly.)

Next I attached the sky and started appliqueing. The black lines are meant to represent a barbed wire fence, with the silhouette of a blue wren perched upon it.

I hand quilted the entire quilt quite heavily, with variegated perle 8 threads, and loved the effect their shimmer gave.

I did have grand plans to make a series of quilt similar in inspiration and execution, but somehow these got put on the back burner in the busyness of the festive season.

Maybe this year...

Thanks for visiting, and make sure you visit the other quilts in the festival.

Beginnings

of a new blanket of love.

Celebration of Wool

The Old Bus Depot Markets have themes for their market days, and yesterday was the Celebration of Wool. It was very festive, and the colours of the wool were just beautiful.

However, being restrained by the thought that I should only buy what I can knit, and by the thought of sharing my purchases with my husband, I came out with very little.

A lovely pair of wrist warmers. I think it was last year (but may have been the year before, gee you'd think I would've blogged it...)) that I bought some wrist warmers for the children, from the same stall. They've been great, so I bought some for me this time.

A great skein of Fibre Webs sock wool, and a sack bag from Buttontree Lane.

Lovely!

My creative space

My, Thursday comes around quickly.

Today, I'm knitting in a sunny spot on the couch. My Shetland Triangle (ravelry link) has been sadly neglected, for no obvious reason. It's fun to knit, the Wollmeise is lovely to knit with, and I want to wear it now the weather is wintery. All reasons for it to have made the leap onto the priority list.

At present, it still fits nicely in my Patronus sunny boy bag, made by Michelle. (Patronus, since I can't look at it without thinking of the mission Snape sends his patronus on.)

More creative spaces here, as always.

Sunny Sunday

Sunday was also Mothers Day. We spent the day in Cowra, with my parents-in-law. Unfortunately my sister-in-law was ill, so she and her family couldn't join us.

It was a big drive, a lot through heavy fog, but a lovely day when we got there.

The main reason for the trip was to visit the Japanese Gardens, which were truly lovely.

The main reason for the trip was to visit the Japanese Gardens, which were truly lovely.

We also visited the site of the Cowra POW camp, site of the infamous Cowra Breakout, which is now a peaceful paddock. Plenty of room for imagination. And kangaroos. Which made it perfect for a visit with my children - I really don't want them knowing the realities of war and desperate men quite yet.

Wordless weekend