Monthly Archive

…but only for a couple of weeks. I tell you, I’m not THAT easy to get rid of! I’m going “to the coast” for the school holidays (that’s code for SHOPPING. sssh!) We are even planning a few days in Cairns and Port Douglas. I haven’t been there for twenty years and the kids haven’t been there at all. Peter is fantasising about crossing some river in the 4 WD, but he won’t be doing that with two squealing girls in the vehicle. We said we would rather swim across. Until we remembered the prehistoric reptilian inhabitants.
While I’m away I suppose you will poke through my cupboards. Just be aware that I know EXACTLY what’s in there and I WILL NOTICE if anything’s missing.

You may be asking yourself, “What is that Craftster-button-thing in Kirsty’s links? Why has she put that there? GOSH, isn’t she CLEVER being ABLE to put that thing there! Why, I had NO IDEA she is so Technically Gifted!”
At least, I hope you are saying those things because succeeding in putting that button on my links list has made me feel VERY smart-ass and hip. Down with my Bad Self, even.
That link, my friends, is to Crafster, which is where all the cool kids hang out. Sometimes they even let me play. We show each other all the neat craft stuff we make (is this starting to sound a tad lame?) and talk about knitting and sewing and (OK, this IS sounding lame, isn’t it? Because I can stop right now. No? OK) other cool, neato, craft-type stuff we do on Saturday nights when all the other kids are at clubs and stuff.
Actually, I’m not going to try to defend my crafty nerdness any more. If you are curious enough to see what clever crafters tout la monde are up to, click on the link. It even works

And while you are checking out my new links, visit with The Mater. She is Mother of Jen of Breed ‘em and Weep and she is SO funny, she makes me do that snorty thing with my nose. On the days that I don’t do that I’m wiping my nose on my sleeve because she also writes with extraordinary poignancy. Clever clogs.

Alright, I can’t wait for Wednesday, I’m doing “B” now. I’ve been thinking about B words ever since I did A words. I can’t stop thinking about B words. B might just be the best letter.

Ahem, B words I love:

Bill: The single best Dad in the Universe. Inspiration, Mentor, Friend, Daddy.
Bare feet: New Zealanders always have barefeet. We were like the original hobbits. Peter Jackson didn’t have barefeet the whole time he was making Lord of the Rings because he was in a Hobbit Zone or anything like that, he’s just a Kiwi.
oh, and our feet are big, so we don’t like shoes. They pinch.
Babies: ooooooooh I just adore babies. They are DELICIOUS (in a non-cannibal-type way).
Brothers Coen: all of their movies are hilarious and clever and Fargo has some of the most amazing lines ever written, superbly delivered by the extraordinary Frances McDormand, “…and it’s a beautiful day.” But I digress…
(did you notice how I cleverly slipped “Brothers Coen” into the “B’s” when it should probably be in the “C’s”? heh heh)
Bracelets: hmm, other jewellery, too, but I like bracelets best.
Buttons : Red ones. And those really old clear ones.
Being By myself : anti-social
Birds and butterflies: it’s less about aesthetics and more about my desire to fly. I dream about it all the time. I think it’s genetic. When my sister was two, she told Mum that she wanted to fly. So she put out arms like wings, Mum held her around the tummy and ran down the long hallway of our house. Half way down, the baby yells, “That’s it! Let go! Let go!” And twenty eight years later we still laugh.
Bed: Hedonist by nature. Pete took a photo of me asleep one morning (I think it was still morning) and called it, “Kirsten in her Natural Habitat.”
Books: couldn’t live without them if I tried.
Blossoms, blooms, bouquets: an equally essential part of life.
Blessings: everpresent in all our lives, sometimes we overlook them.
Beauty: ditto ditto oh so ditto!!
Billie Holiday: how can a voice be enough to make me cry? So beautiful.
Bags: Want to know something hilarious? I make SOOOO many bags of all kinds, and when I go out I just shove my purse and keys in my pocket.
BOGGLE : I’m good at playing Boggle. One of my few sporting talents.
Boxes: don’t they just seem full of promise? full of potential? well, who knows WHAT they could be full of??
Blue china plates: wonder if it’s that old “Blue Plate Special” thing?
Beach combing: You never know if today will be the day that a pirate’s chest washes up on the beach.
Bulldogs and Boxers: We had a boxer called Jackson. He was very special and very loving. If I ever get another dog it will either be a bulldog or a poodle. Maybe both. I kind of like the contrast
Barrier Reef: snorkelling on the Barrier Reef was one of the highlights of my life (and this is coming from a barely adequate swimmer who has nightmares about drowning!). It’s one of those things that I wish everyone could have the opportunity to do. No film or photo could ever prepare you for just how stunning and other-worldly it is.
Bubbles: perfect, transient.
Belonging: that contented feeling you get when you’re in a place where you don’t have to try. Like when I’m with Peter. We just Are. Together.

B words I like to say aloud:
bingle, boom, Botswana, bicuspid,burgeoning

Ever since I wrote the home page for my website and said that my quilts are intended for adults, I’ve designed nothing but kids stuff. How embarassing. Well, not really, but I am beginning to feel like a fraud. My head is currently stuffed full of ideas and every single one of them is for a cot quilt or a nappy bag or a toy… I wonder if it also has something to with joining the Artful Quilters Web Ring?? I can’t think of a single grown-up or artistic thing to do! Have I told you that sometimes I work in a bank? (VERY grown-up!) A couple of weeks ago, a customer looked at my Licorice Allsorts bracelet and asked, “Did your kids make you that?” I felt VERY overheated, all of a sudden, and mumbled, “no, I did.” She laughed. I got hotter.
Here is this weeks Work in Progress. It was inspired by my sign-up for a swap of 1 1/2″ squares. When I calculated how many of those little suckers it was going to take to make a decent sized quilt, I decided (Rather cleverly, I thought. I was wrong.) to make applique blocks that would fill HALF the space, thereby reducing the number of teeny, tiny, itty, bitty squares by half. They have probably taken twice as long to make as piecing the little squares!
But, they have been very inspiring and now I’m planning an Alien Quilt. Yay!

Meet Little Noah. He is six inches high. Little Noah’s wardrobe has been one of my daughter’s pet projects for a while now. Because he is so little, this can be a bit of a challenge! I help with the tricky bits
My Little Flower has created many superb things. She is very good at drawing and loves making all sorts of beautiful paper things from origami to lovely books.
We especially like Noah’s rapper outfit and his wet weather gear!

*blowing kisses* to Little Miss Meshell , who makes all kinds of gorgeous things too and probably has the most beautiful eyes on the planet.

I didn’t ever think I’d be one to get into memes and such like but I just love the Wordplay game that everyone seems to be in on right now (thanks to Laume) . I love words, so every time I read a list on a blog it starts me thinking about my own. Watch out, bandwagon, here I come…
A is For…
A……A : THREE of my favourite women in the whole world have names that begin with an A and end with an A - my mother, my daughter and Amanda, who has been my friend since we were five years old.
Applique : one of my more frequent activities! Most of my quilts are appliqued. I love it because it’s just like collaging with fabric instead of paper.
Art : has always been important to me, but about ten years ago I realised just how important it was and started making more of an effort to include art experiences in my life daily. I make my own and I try to surround myself with other peoples art, too. My definition of art is a very broad and inclusive one.
Air conditioning : wouldn’t have been on my list two years ago but was a condition that I imposed on moving to North Queensland. I LOVE IT!
Animals : love them, as long as they live with someone else and I can visit! I’m at that point in my life where my children are becoming independent and the last thing I need is another baby even if it’s a furry one (and, no God, that is not a test).We’ve had cats, a dog, rabbits, birds, fish and a rat. I loved the dog and rat the best(oh and a couple of the cats but they can be pretty snooty).
Answers : I hate not knowing. When I was a kid, I would eavesdrop and comment on Mum and Dads discussions. Dad would call me “Noddys Friend” (who for the un-Enid Blytonned of you, was called Big Ears)
Attics : never had one, always wanted one. Houses in New Zealand rarely have attics, but when I was a kid it seemed that all the best action in movies and books happened … IN THE ATTIC!!! I so badly wanted to be scared witless by SOMETHING IN THE ATTIC!!! or find some extraordinary treasure IN THE ATTIC that was worth millions of dollars and had been left there a hundred years ago by an old resident who was now a ghost. OOOOOOOOh goose bumps!
Acceleration : I LOVE going fast. I LOVE roller coasters. But I figured out that what I really love is the acceleration. The faster and more powerful the better. Gimme G’s baby!
Acid green : one of my favourite colours. Also known as frog pond green.
Alone time : essential for my sanity!
Amelie, American Beauty and Alien : three different movies but love them all. What’s not to love?
Amazons : I always dreamed of being six feet tall. Don’t know why, just did. I stopped at five eight, but my feet didn’t hear the “Enough! Stop!”

Other A - words that I love the sound of : aeroflot, akimbo, Alabama and Adirondack.
This was actually quite hard to do. I think I’m more of a “B” girl…

“Conversation about the weather is the last refuge of the unimaginative.” Well, I Don’t Care, Oscar Wilde, you A-grade smart alec. I am FREEZING cold. This house, which is so easy to keep cool in summer, is not designed for the blast of Antarctic cold that has made its way to the Tropic of Capricorn. I know it’s not as bad here as it is in New Zealand right now (did you see that snow on TV?) but it’s pretty chilly, y’know! Nevermind, next week is school holidays, so we’ll be back on the coast where it’s ten degrees warmer than here.
(Oscar, I’m sorry. You know I love you. You were right, it IS a boring post. Take me back!)

Thought you might like to see the wedding dress I made for my sis about four years ago. She pretty much knew what she wanted and we nutted it out together over a day or two. It’s easy to make anything look good on her - she’s gorgeous! The train fabric is awesome; two layers of organza with feathers caught between the layers. The rest is silk.

I’ve been laughing at something that I suddenly seem to read everywhere - SABLE, “Stash Accumulated Beyond Life Expectancy”. Knitters suffer from it and quilters probably invented it! I know, because I’ve worked in quilt shops. Oh the stories I could tell! The women who store their stashes in their car boots (trunks, y’all) so that their husbands don’t know how much they have. Fabric purchases split over two or three credit cards. The woman who bought squillions of dollars worth of fabric from me one day and then said, “Gosh, how will I get home? My car’s nearly out of fuel and I’ve just spent all my grocery money!”
These days I am very hard to please when it comes to fabric . It takes a pretty spectacular piece of cloth to make me reach for my Visa. I try to kid myself that I have great self-control but it’s really just that I’ve gotten fussier. And I know how much I already have at home. My stash is large but manageable. I know what I’ve got and I only buy colours that I don’t already have or yardage as I need it (see my halo?).
Every now and then, however, the scrap situation reaches crisis point. Most quilters I know can’t bear to throw away scraps of fabric. You either Never Know When You’ll Need A 2″ Square of Orange Elephants Blowing Bubbles on a Gray Background or You Just Can’t Bear to Say Goodbye to the Very Last Shred of the Most Beautiful Floral Hoffman Ever Printed in the Good Old Days When They Made Those Incredible Florals Do You Remember Them Why Don’t They Make Fabric Like That Now?
So now is the time to make scrap quilts. I like ‘em fast, I like ‘em easy and for some reason that I can’t figure out I like ‘em traditional. The only traditional quilts I really make. I found these Jewel Box blocks in a box last night. I made them about three and a half years ago and for some reason never sewed them together. Today is the day.PS If you haven’t already seen print and pattern, go have a look - fabulous!

Last night Pete was washing the dishes and I was about to make Afghans (yummy chocolate cookies) when I dropped the mixmaster bowl. Well. Halle-doodah-luia. It was UNBELIEVABLE. The thing exploded. I mean E X P L O D E D !!!! The kitchen was wall to wall glass fragments. And none of them was bigger than a fingernail. Some of the shards were so fine they were like fibreglass fibres.
So, we’re standing there, no part of the floor is without glass and we both have bare feet. The tops of my feet were covered in little crumbs of glass…
so, I partially lifted my foot to wipe it off…
yes, dumb! I know that now!
So now I have tiny cuts on my foot and I can’t put it fully back down on the floor because THERE’S GLASS EVERYWHERE!
We called out to the kids. “HELP! HELP!”
We must’ve raised ‘em right - they actually came running!
“Bring the vacum cleaner!” we cried.
And they did, and we vacumed, and here we are today with no injuries and a plate full of Afghans.

Because everybody needs somebody, I made her a teddy.

We’re back. Not a croc in sight. Didn’t even hear any ticking. But we were on the beach at low tide. That way you can see ‘em coming. Not paranoid, just sensible.
I love going to Townsville. It’s so relaxing. I love lying in my bed and looking out into the palm trees. I love that even over night it doesn’t get below 16 deg. I love the fantastic corner store that has yummy things for sale, like baguettes that they make themselves and sweet chilli jam (Yes, I know I said it was too hot. This is poetic license, OK?) and tunisian spices and even a jar of goose fat, although I’m not sure why I would want that.
The only work I did all weekend was to make the hair on these dollies. These are for a new pattern. The pattern includes a very simple rag doll pattern, clothes that are easy for a young child to put on and off and the little bag for carrying it all. I also plan to do a nap-sized quilt with applique blocks similar to the bag. It’s kind of an “afternoon at grandmas” set. Inspired by these dolls and a comment by one of you mummy bloggers (sorry, can’t remember who) that your little one was mad about carrying toys around in a bag.

I just found the coolest floor I’ve ever seen. I would so love to have this in my house. It is now my dream floor.

You guys are probably as sick of this quilt as I am, but some of you (oh, loyal, loving friends!) have asked to see the whole thing. So kids were conscripted (”brutally” says Boy) to hold it up while I begged the camera batteries to last long enough for one more shot.

I have prepared a brief, but pithy, artists statement to accompany the quilt on its Japanese voyage. Ahem, ahem…

“The landscape of Outback Australia is one of great contrast and surprising subtlety. The sky is clear blue and so huge that it can be almost overwhelming. The land is rocky, crisp and orange and, as I stand upon it, I feel its age. Beneath me are layers of time - centuries, lives, moments. Occasionally, I catch a glimpse of what came before…”

“What Came before” is a memorial, in a way, to our friend DrMary Wade. Mary was a gifted paleontologist. She was interested in many areas of paleontologyy and was an internationally respected expert in more than one field. This quilt will be part of an exhibition of fossils that a colleague of Mary’s is taking to Japan.

We are off for a long weekend at the coast. I am looking forward to walking on the beach. Although I shall be keeping a weather-eye out for company. Last night on the news they reported that two crocodiles have taken up residence in the water hazard on the Townsville Golf Club’s course! This is no more than 1000m from where I walk on the beach. YIKES!!