Monday 30 March 2015

No Rush



This is what life looks like for us these days. Mop handles, paintings and guitars lean together against walls, toast crumbs, muddy gumboots, piles of folded laundry balance precariously on every surface and stacked quilts in various states of completion sit patiently waiting for me to stitch and bind. It is never ending activity, noise and clutter and I couldn't feel more at home.

When we moved into our first house as a family, I was 8 months pregnant and we didn't have very many possessions. This made me nervous so I hoarded, collected and gathered everything and anything just to make home feel like a nest. Lately I have had the opposite feeling, like I have to simplify and get rid of stuff. It's good to drop box after box at the op shop and feel lighter. It's addictive even. But I'm taking my time. I realise that there is no rush to have my house in any particular order, there are more important things to do like have a family meal, play lego with Casper, paint, make a quilt, walk the dogs, plant seeds, take photos, play music with Steve or go to the park.

I'm happy to have this ever changing home life that makes me feel grounded by being a part of it. I am typing this amongst the chaos of our kitchen, which has too many cast iron pots, not enough butter knives and some really wrinkly limes in the fruit bowl. I will get it all clean eventually today, but first I think I'll start a quilt top and take myself out for a coffee.



Sunday 29 March 2015

Patchwork Trifle





No matter what I do, I always seem to be drawn to sweet, candied colours. It might have something to do with me being a lolly-headed sweet tooth. I do try to cut back on these sorts of colours/food, but they always sneak back in to my stash/secret candy drawer. Which is why, when I have scraps that look delicious together, I have to make patchwork trifle!

Playing with scraps is my favourite thing to do at the moment and I have come up with some really surprising colour combinations and compositions. I'm going to play with some olive green, slate blue and hot pink tomorrow. This afternoon I was playing with improvised curve patchwork which I will have to post on here, maybe even a tutorial!? Who knows, I could be a full-blown blogging addict again by the end of the week!

  










Photos from the top; some pillows I made last week, you can see more here and here. A quilt that I had in the grad show at RMIT, you can check out the whole install here.


Saturday 7 March 2015

Hiatus


I really haven't used this space in a while, which has happened a few times over the past 8 years. I never feel like I need to apologise for being a bad blogger, cause this is my blog and I will use it when I want for whatever reason I want! 

I will gently ease myself back into the ritual of it because I feel like I need this place again. I need to document my life and the process in which I create again, which is something I have been doing on a micro scale over at instagram and tumblr, but it's not the same as this comfortable old blog that is like a favourite piece of clothing in that it has been worn to pieces, mended and stretched countless times. I like writing in any way I feel, not editing it and sending it out into the world with one click, a self-published imperfect piece of word-vomit.