Picking up speed again

My short break from quilting has become a slightly longer break than I thought.

To be fair, I’ve been at work the last couple of days, which is not fun just now, and prevents me from diving joyfully into sewing the minute I get home. I have only small progresses to report.

I have unpicked my 4 ties, and there is indeed quite a lot of fabric once it’s all opened out and pressed flat again. But as they’re cut on the bias, they need to be carefully handled. I haven’t decided their eventual fate yet, but every so often I go and look at them and arrange them into different shapes and think about it. Something will present itself from my subconscious.

I tried to make a start on Happiness, by sewing the short white pieces to the side of each square. But I was tired and irritable and kept getting myself tangled up in things, so rather than stuff something up, I put it aside again for a day when I have calm and the freedom to devote a couple of hours to the job. Happiness is supposed to make me happy, not grumpy!

The best progress of all has been on Mystery Woolly Thing. My crochet action is becoming quite fast, and Thing is growing nicely. I think I’m about halfway through, but it’s evolving by itself, I’m just along for the ride! Take a look:

Thing. That lilac band is what I’m currently working on. Yes, those are my toes…

I was inspired by photographs of the rock formations around Petra, in Jordan. The rock is weathered and smoothed by the passage of time, wind and water. The colours range from palest cream, through gold, ochre, brown and rust, with occasional bands of lilac and almost purple. This link to my Pinterest Landscapes board shows exactly what I mean: Petra rocks. The guy who took the photos is a genius at capturing the colours…

Tomorrow I have a fairly busy day of preparation for our trip south. We’ll be two days on the road, two days there, and two days on the road back. Thing will be coming with me as my car work, since the Car Quilt is a bit in-betweenish, and I don’t want to cart it around for fear of mucking it up. It’s not going to be a trip for fun, but for business, and while I’ll be taking my camera in case of anything lovely to photograph, I may not be posting much. I’m feeling the withdrawal symptoms already 😦

Right, I have to go and hold forth in the kitchen.  More tomorrow.

The Tree of Life 19: There are waves now

I have spent most of the day hand quilting.

It’s time to stop, I’m getting tired, my fingers are stiff and sore and I’m beginning to draw blood with monotonous regularity.  But I have finished the ripply lines for the sea in the lower half of the quilt.  I’m pleased with how it looks.  Tomorrow, I will do the sky. And then, then, my friends, I’ll be done.  All that will be left is the binding, putting in a hanging channel on the back, and labelling it.  There will be major gloating and whoopeeing.  I will take a nice photo of it hanging on the line (assuming the weather obliges, which seems likely), stick it in my archive, maybe stick it on my spanking new Pinterest quilts board, and then breathe a sigh of relief.

Meanwhile, some detail shots to whet your appetite.  It’s been a toss-up about whether to include these, as they do rather expose the defects in my work. On the other hand, if I can’t be candid with my blogging community, there’s no hope! I mean, is any of you seriously going to send round the stitch police?

Birds detail

Flower detail

Fish detail 1

Fish 2 detail

While I was out briefly this afternoon on a rather fruitless errand, I passed our local op shop (known to non Aussies as a thrift or charity shop). I scored a nice pink basket handbag, but I also found these rather smashing ties.  They are just begging to be picked apart and turned into something handsome: a cushion, maybe?  I like how they are already slightly patchworky in appearance, which is essentially what caught my eye.

Ties

And now, some of you have been having a look at my new Pinterest boards.  For those who wanted a look but haven’t been able to find me, and were offered options along the lines of Pasta, Corgis, Holidays, Sneakers and other bizarreness, here’s the link:   http://www.pinterest.com/katechiconi. I’m not altogether clear why my user name, which is the usual talltalesfromchiconia, won’t produce anything in a search, but there you are.

And while I watch TV tonight, I’m going to add a few more inches to the Woolly Thing, which may itself be ready for an unveiling in a month or two!

Right, off to make the Husband, who’s had a bad day, something delicious and unhealthy for his supper.