A tale (tail?) of comets that did and did not amount to (Mc)Naught

Somewhere, I have a red T-shirt, with some weird picture and the words "I saw the planet Earth" written on it ... I bought it cheap, sometime back in the 80's, a while after Halley's comet was supposed to be an amazing sight in the sky ... but turned out to be a real fizzer - I never saw it ... nor did anyone else unless they were lucky, or had a telescope and knew where to point it ... so I was just a little skeptical when I started reading, a few weeks ago, about how this comet (Comet McNaught) was visible in the Northern Hemisphere and was going to become visible here, downunder ...
I dutifully checked out when and where to see it, and the first night it was supposed to possibly be visible - I totally forgot (but I don't think anyone else could see it anyway) ... then we had about 5 nights where the relevant bit of sky was either cloudy or full of smoke haze (probably from the bushfires down in Victoria) ... then finally tonight (well - techically "last night" seeing it is now after Midnight again) it was fairly clear ... so, at the predicted time - just on sunset, DH (Dear Husband) and I went outside to look ... and we looked and we looked ... and the sun set and the sky got darker and darker ... and we looked a bit more ... then DH got bored and came in here to fiddle with some star watching program on the computer to see where that said the comet was ... then finally, as the sky got even darker, I spotted it! ... in fact once I had found it, and it got even darker - it was a bit hard to miss!
... Unfortunately it was easier to see it, than it was to get a good photo of it ... but I did get this sort of OK one:


the tail looked even bigger later on, when the sky was even darker, but the darker sky meant my photos were not that great ... and I probably could have got a better one shortly after I took this, but DH stole the tripod! ... then when he finished with it, I decided to go walking with the dog and the camera/tripod, to try and get a photo with hills on the horizon instead of someone's roof. Unfortunately when I got to the first bit of high ground, the steet lights were too bright, and by the time I got to the further away bit of high ground, the head of the comet had totally vanished into the smoke haze/clouds that were right on the horizon and the tail didn't look very bright either.
Oh well I didn't get any really great photos, but at least I saw it! ... it has taken me 44 years to get to see something quite like that.
It is a pity I didn't get a few better photos - just before the comet became visible, I spotted the very thin crescent of the moon, just below Venus ... so seeing Venus, a tiny thing slice of the moon and then a comet, all together in the same bit of the sky, was rather a pretty sight ...
Hopefully there will be a clear sky again tomorrow ... and this time I might go find that hill a bit sooner, and, if DH isn't using it with his camera, I will use the tripod and a longer exposure a bit sooner (it was only when it got dark that I thought to go inside and find the tripod)
DH didn't get any decent photos either, even though he now has a digital SLR camera (second hand on e-bay ;-) trying to take photos of a comet, in a hurry, in the dark, is not the best time to try and work out how to use all the fancy settings/etc on a new camera ...

A few mintues after I took my "sort of OK" photo, with the flash turned off and using the tripod, DD (Dear Daughter) stood on the ladder (we had the ladder beside the house so we could see the horizon over the ugly tall roof on one of the houses behind ours, but when the comet bacame visible it was still high enough in the sky to see it while standing in the back yard) and she took a photo of the comet with my camera ... it was even visible with some camera shake, and someone's outside light on (I am glad they didn't put that on until AFTER I had taken my photo - the glare would have been right between the comet and where we could see it from down in the back yard) ... in fact I kind of like DD's photo ... the wierd reflections from the light in the lens make it look like the aliens are beaming in to the neighbours back yard or something ...



"Beam me up Scotty" ... I want to go and explore the universe!

Fiddling with felt

... because it felt good at the time?

actually it did - there is something strangely satisfying about sitting and stitching whatever comes to mind/falls out of the needle onto a bit of fabric/felt/etc ...

Tuesday afternoon I had a couple more ideas for things to do with blanket stitch and herringbone stitch (the first 2 week's stitches for the TAST challenge) so I dug out a bit of white felt and some black thread (I was tempted to do it the other way but decided that one black background to try and take good photos of is enough ;-) ... and this is what I came up with that evening:



The star thingy at the top is 2 circles of blanket stitch, with some detatched chain being worked around that (more about that in a later post - that is the stitch we are doing this week).

I also did this weird thingy in blanket stitch:



I am not sure what it is - it just "fell out of the needle" ... but I quite like it.
Also I did the funny pointy herringbone thingy at the bottom right.

But neither of those were what I had the ideas for - the first 2 things I stitched on the block were a blanket stitch fish skeleton (a blanket stitch herring bone?! ;-) and the tail of what is going to be a herringbone snake.

Here is a close up of the fish:



I made the photo lighter so that the stitching shows up better (all these photos should come up as clickable links too - so you can click on them and see the full size picture if you want a closer look at anything ;-)
The fish is done with 2 rows of blanket stitch back to back ... and his mouth and tail are - yes - more detatched chain (you know me - why just do one thing at a time if I can do several things at once? :-)

Here is the snake's tail:



again - I made the photo lighter so the stitching shows up better.
This is worked in herringbone stitch, and in just one row, not 2 rows over the top of each other (which would look almost the same) - instead of bringing the needle up next to where it went in, I came up one "cross" further along, leaving a gap that is then filled in whith the next stitch on that side ... if that makes any sense.
I worked this bit of stitching free hand with no lines marked (and I started in about the middle, worked to the tail and then went back to where I had started off and worked back in the other direction) ... then I realised that I was going to have to plan where the snake was going to be so that it fitted in around the other stuff on the block, and so I can leave a gap where the head end of the snake crosses over the tail end - so I stitched the blue dotted line to use as a guide.
(that is not visible on this detailed photo but it is on the first photo, and on the next one ;-)

hmmmm - that little bit of detatched chain poking into the bottom right hand corner of the photo has given me an idea - one of those would make a really good tounge for the snake too!

Tonight last night (it is after midnight so anything before then is technically yesterday, but I am thinking of it as "tonight" because I have not been to bed yet) I added some more bits while watching something on TV:



There is now another blanket stitch circle thingy next to the other one (inside what is going to be the loop of the snake, when I finish the snake) and a herringbone star ... that is a bit wonky on one side (the side I started on - with some stitches, such as blanket and herringbone, I tend to have to fiddle to get them right when I first start ... probably because I don't do them every day, and I probably never work the stitch the same way twice in a row either;-)
I also did an "ear" of grain using this weeks stitch (detatched chain) but I will post more about that later (sometime in the next few days).

... and, while I was putting those photos onto the computer, I just had another idea and did this:



not the top bit (that is the upside down top of the ear of grain) - the blanket stitch bit at the bottom of the photo - ?half of a worm? ... or it could be a grub/caterpillar/whatever ... I could use the idea for any of those things, and maybe also for a body for an insect too (like a bee or moth or something else with a segmented body). I will probably finish this and make it a worm, or maybe turn it into a centipede or millipede? - I left it half done for 2 reasons - 1: I had done enough to take a photo of and I want to finish doing this and go to bed before it starts to get light! and 2: by leaving it half done so there is a bit where only one side is done, it shows how I have worked the 2 rows of blanket stitch facing each other (as opposed to the fish, where they are back to back).

That last photo is a bit blurry too (the other one I took was even worse) ... I have noticed that close up photos don't work too well in bad light (the flash washes out the whole photo, or if you don't use the flash the shutter speed is a bit too slow)

Anyway ... the clock on the bottom of the computer screen is just about to tick over to 4am ... oops ... I wasn't going to stay up quite this late ... sigh ...

(it's a good thing I am still on holidays from work ;-)

goodnight

Wilting Pumpkins

In the middle of the day, when it gets hot and sunny, the pumkin leaves wilt - and while they wait for it to get cooler again, they stand there looking like a forrest of abandoned umbrellas ...

Herringbone and Buttonhole

I finally got around to doing Week 1 and 2 of the "Take a Stitch Tuesday" challenge (see http://inaminuteago.com/blog/index.php/archives/2007/01/02/take-a-stitch-tuesday-week-1/ and http://inaminuteago.com/blog/index.php/archives/2007/01/09/take-a-stitch-tuesday-week-2/ )

Week 1 is Herringbone stitch.
I looked at Sharon's whole pile of interesting examples, and noticed that one of them kind of looked like chicken wire/cyclone fence wire ... and an idea started to form in my mind ... why not do some chicken wire on my block/whatever (the idea came a day or 5 before I actually decided what I was going to do these stitches on ;-)
... then I got to thinking about how I already have some bits set aside to make my Decmember Journal quilt (from last year - I still have December and August to make and November to finish the last little bit of) and some of those bits are a couple of odd shaped bits that were cut from ... wait for it ... chicken wire! ... funny how some things kind of pop up out of nowhere and then the same thing pops up again a few days later and/or somewhere else - like an idea wants to make sure it comes out one way or another ... so I got to wondering if, for my bit of herringbone stitch, I might be able to do a peice of chicken wire/fence that had been cut - like I have broken out from wherever I don't want to be ... or something weird like that ...

anyway ... this is what I ended up with:



... someone tell me WHY I chose to do this challenge, which I intend to take and post photos of, using SHINY BLACK fabric? ... especially when I already know, from prior experience (with trying to phtograph other shiny black quilty things, like my Janurary journal quilt last year!) that shiny black fabric quilts/etc are something that is VERY hard to take a decent photo of!
I took several photos (both last night and today) of this stitch, ditto with the other one, and ... maybe shiny thread also wasn't a good idea for something I want to photograph - I ended up with several out of focus pictures (but that is usual ... even the newer digital cameras still have a bit of trouble with black/shiny/close up/badly lit stuff) and a few where the flash is shining off the thread so much that I can't see the stitching at all ... and this one - I played with the colours/etc (with photo editing software) of a few of the pictures, but I ended up leaving this one the colour it was because when I thought about it - I realised that the fabric probably WAS this colour at the time - I took this photo outside, in a hurry (the TV show I wanted to watch was about to start ;-) just before sunset this evening ... so I think that golden glow was probably really there ...
The stitching was done in some shiny silvery stuff that likes to shred itself as I sew (grrrr) ... the herringbone was worked in horizontal rows ... I started at the bottom of the photo ... and worked the rows back and forth in 2 directions (so I had to turn the work upside down for every other row).

Week 2 is Buttonhole stitch:
There is one variation of buttonhole stitch that I came up with a year or 3 ago, and have done on a few things now, it is nothing fancy and the same thing has probably been done by other people before anyway, but I hadn't seen the exact same thing when I came up with it ... I was sewing pretty seams onto some crazy block or another and trying to decide what to do that wasn't just boring buttonhole/blanket stitch with the "ends" all the same size and this idea kind of "fell out of my needle" ... I think I did 2 or 3 stitches of different heights and then realised I could make it look like the markings on a ruler ... I think I did a couple variations on that block - I had to have one in cm and one in inches ;-)
Anyway, even though I also had another idea I wanted to fiddle with, I decided that I would do a seam of buttonhole ruler markings on the block as well - so here it is:



yes - mostly out of focus (the other 5 photos I took were worse), and I had to fiddle to get the colours right (the black looked brown in the photo) ... but you should be able to see what I did - this one looks like a ruler that has 1/4" graduations ... except the "inches" are NOT an inch long on the block (they are closer to 1cm ;-) ... I don't intend to use it to actually measure anything, I just wanted it to look a bit like the markings on a ruler ...

The other idea I had was to do a circle of buttonhole so it sort of looks like a star, and this is what I ended up with:

The dots at the ends of the stitches are French Knots - they were part of my original idea - I like using knots or tiny beads at the ends of things like this. I did the first circle of buttonhole stitch (the larger circle with the shorter "spokes"/ends/whatever u call them) and the French knots on the ends, and I decided it looked a bit bare with the stitches so far apart (they were sort of closer in my mind but that didn't happen when I actually stitched it) so I did what I often do - came up with an even better idea to "fix" something that didn't work as intended - and added the second circle of buttonhole stitches (and the knots on the ends of them) and I liked what I ended up with ... but - me being me - I just HAD to add the blue knot in the middle ... but I think that makes it even better ... kind of gives it a middle ... and makes it sort of look like an eye ...

I have also been uploading a pile of other photos onto this computer while typing this (the same lot I was putting on the other computer while typing the stuff I posted here on Saturday ;-) and while I was doing that, and this, I have also been having a bit of a poke around in some other photos ... I found this one:

... actually it is part of a bigger one I found, but I cut out the relevant bit to put here - it was a crazy block I made for Mum, and this bit has a sort of ruler thingy (except the stitches are only 2 different heights so I guess that one is a cm one marked every 5mm? ;-) and some of the sort of herringbone I usually do ...

- actually there are 2 variations of herringbone I have done on various crazy blocks/quilts/etc - I often do this basic one and sometimes I get a bit more fancy and do the one where you do stitches over where the bits cross over ... I think I do most of my "getting fancy" by using different threads or fancy yarns, or adding weird beads/motifs/etc, rather than doing complicated stitches ... mostly I kind of do what comes to mind when I look in my stash to find threads/yarns/beads/etc that go on whatever it is I am working on ... and I use the fluffy/etc yarns and stuff because I like them ... but I often do some sort of stitching experiment on whatever it is that I am making ...

Oh Ok ... if you insist (I guess I was planning to put a photo of this in here sometime anyway) - here is the whole block:

The "experiment" on this block was a couple of swirly "S" shaped thingys done with beads- one spiralling in to a sequin (the one just above and to the right of the blue butterfly motif) ... actually the block next to it was also an experiment - it is coloured wool that was trimmed off the end of a felted scarf someone was making, sewn down with some matching thread. Beside that is a spider on a web - I try to do one of those on all the crazy quilts/blocks I make, then next to that is the other swirly beaded thingy I was talking about - seed beads spiralling in to a sequin, but this time I threaded some matching thread (2 strands of pearle 8 I think?) through the beads after I had sewn them on.

Now I really should stop raving on, and also not do any more rummaging around in my photos, and go to bed - if I go now, I might just have time to get to sleep before DH has to get UP to get ready for work ... if you have not already guessed - yes - I am still on holidays ;-)

oh - btw - all these photos should (provided this works like it usually does) also be clickable links to the full sized versions, if you want a "closer" look at some of them.

goodnight ...

"Take a Stitch Tuesdays" ... my yearquilt?

Hmmm ... I have more UFOs (UnFinished Objects) than all the episodes of "The X-Files" ... but here I am starting something else ... as usual ...
So what is my excuse this time? - well ... this person - http://inaminuteago.com/blog/index.php - has challenged everyone/anyone to "Take a Stitch Tuesday" ... every week this year she is going to post something about a stitch/etc (an embroidery stitch or whatever that one would use on things like crazy quilt blocks or samplers etc) and those who want to join in then go and have a play with that stitch and see what they come up with ... so of course I said I would join in ...

This is what I said in the comment I left on her blog -

I am not sure WHEN I will fit this in, but I can't resist a challenge ;-)
so - I will try and do each week's stitch ... eventually.
I will try and do all the weekly stitches/whatever but they might not all get done during the week they are supposed to be for (knowing me, I will probably post my pictures of them a few at a time every few weeks) but I will try not to get too far behind - it will be a good excuse to post something to my blog a bit more often than I have been doing :-)
Now all I have to do is actually FIND something to stitch with and something to stitch ON ... at the moment I am in the middle of a huge sort out of my sewing room (and the rest of the house and the garage too!) I know where my threads/etc are but I don't have a crazy quilting project on the go that I could use for this, and didn't have plans to start one right now ... but I can stitch on something now and work out what to do with it later, so I am sure some interesting fabric will turn up amongst the mess, and tell me to stitch on it ...

Of course I was still deciding what to do when the first Tuesday (Herringbone stitch) came and went, and when the second Tuesday (Buttonhole stitch) came, I still had not made anything to stitch on (although I did have half an idea what I was going to do) ...
When I thought of what to do, I also decided to make it double as my "yearquilt" - I am on a yahoogroup for people doing yearquilts ... most people do things like choose a design/quilt block/etc and then choose a bit of fabric to represent each day and use those bits of fabric to make the blocks/quilt (some people do a block for each week or month, others do rows of rectangles/etc and others do a hexagon/etc for each day and join them all up into a quilt ... of course the year I got around to doing one (turned out to be an interesting year to do it - 2003 - with the Canberra bushfires and all sorts of stuff happening), I did something totally different and chose a little triangular scrap of fabric for each day, with the idea of laying them all out in a wiggly line across a background and sewing them down with lines of quilting, and calling it "365 Daze" ... I chose a fabric for each day, and wrote in my diary about those that had anything significant to write about (there were a few boring days/weeks where all I did was go to work and not much else, so I chose some nice scraps I had got from various people/places for those) ... but they are all still pinned to a bit of styrofoam ready and waiting for me to actually make the quilt ... I might do that one year ... I want to do it now but I am still in the middle of sorting out my sewing room and the garage (yes - the same sort out I was blogging about at this time last year! - I never did get it finished!)
er ... where was I? LOL
Oh yes - the thing I am going to do my weekly Tuesday stitch on - I had the idea of making 6 crazy blocks and either doing 2 months of stitches on each one, or stitching on whatever one each week's stitch would work best on, and then making them into a quilt ... but when I had the first block 3/4 done last night, I decided that more than 2 months would fit on a block, and I had thought of something else to use the block for - I noticed that if I "just add a bit more to this side and finish that bit" it would be the right size to fit on the lid of a box I had lying around ... so here it is, lying on the open box:



... also in the box are the threads that I will probably use to do the stitching with ... the box just happens to be handy to use to put the block and threads and other sewing bits in while I work on it, and when it is finished, I will probably use the box for other small sewing projects. The block will go on the top of the lid, and I might line the inside with fabric and do some more stitching on that, depending just what sorts of stitches get posted and if I run out of room on the top ... although if it gets a bit crowded with stitches/etc after a few months I will probably make it a 6 month quilt and then do the stitches on something else for the other half of the year ...

Now that I have done all the typing I guess I had better put the photo in ... which I can't do until I actually put it ON the computer ... (I only just took the photo a few minutes ago, while I was writing this stuff - I am at the computer in my sewing room and the block/box/etc are on the sewing desk beside me ;-)
Actually, putting the photos from the camera onto this computer was what I came in here to do - I took more than 50 photos of the sunset this evening! (I took a heap of the dog and cat etc too - I think I took about 100 pictures in about half an hour or so ;-)... but I decided to post to my blog while I was here ... so of course I ended up starting this first ... LOL

ok ... photos are on the computer ... hmmm ... the silvery grey bit in the middle of the block does not stand out quite that much in real life ... and yes it is a weird mix of all sorts of odd black (and dark grey) fabric ... hopefully it will look good with silver and "jewel coloured" stitching on it (Jewel colours is what a lot of quilters call those nice bright shiny pinks, purples, blues, greens etc that look so good on/with either a black or white background)

I thought about putting a dog photo (or maybe even the video I took of the dog ingoring the cat having a dust bath right in front of him on the back lawn) here too ... but, apart from a Christmas card, I have not posted anything to Spot since about June, so I might put it/them on there ... so I suppose I had better go do that now ...

Goodnight ;-)

The kitchen smells like vinegar and sheep!

... the vinegar smell has been in the air for an hour or 3 ... the sheepy smell has not quite been there so long.

oh ... I guess you are wondering WHY the kitchen smells like vinegar and sheep?

well ...

it started here - http://happyspider6.blogspot.com/2006/06/tutorial-dyeing-self-striping-yarn.html
- I fell over the blog that this is on (http://happyspider6.blogspot.com/) a couple of days ago, while taking a break from sorting out my sewing/etc room.

for a while I resisted the temptation to dig out some yarn/etc and have a play ... but then this evening I was sorting out a box of yarn/etc and I found this small bundle of boring pale yellow 4 ply crochet cotton ... so I decided to have a play. My excuse was that I had half a bottle of vinegar in the laundry (I have been using it when I had been "undying" fabric ... which is kind of like dying, except you start with black/strong coloured fabric and take some of the dye out by putting bleach on it, then vinegar, then rinse it ;-) ... and I already had some food colouring - not a huge range of colours - dd seems to have used up all the colours except some green, blue and "egg yellow" ... oh - and some black, which I only bought recently, but I decided not to bother with that at the moment.

so ... I dug out the vinegar and food dye, and a bowl/etc, and wound the little bit of cotton into a long skein thingy, and also dug out a weird synthetic kids t-shirt thingy (I have a whole bag of them - the whole lot only cost me about a dollar at an op shop!) and I also found a ?linnen thingy that looks like a lace-edged hanky but it is a bit stiff to blow a nose on so it must be a place mat thingy or one of those things that you use the same way one uses a crochet doily (put it on a shelf, often under something else, to look "pretty").

Of course none of those 3 items were actually made of WOOL ... which is what the instructions on the blog said to use ... but since when have I been the sort of person who follows instructions?!

The colours looked really pretty when I put the items in the microwave.

They still looked really pretty when I took them out ...

... methinks I should have taken photos BEFORE I rinsed the things!



yep ... the blue sort of stayed in the synthetic shirt (the green and yellow didn't even do that) ... but I think it would wash out if I actually put it in with a load of washing (which is what one eventually has to do if anyone actually wears the shirt ;-) ... the yarn ended up almost the same as it started out ... and some colour stayed in the ?linen thingy ...

I guess this means that food dye is one of those things that works best in wool ...

(I suppose I could get all technical and waffle on about how some dyes only work with animal protien, such as wool, mohair, silk, etc, and others only work with plant matter, such as cotton, and some only work with various synthetic fibres ... and some actually work with more than one thing ... but those who want to know more about that can go search google or find a book on it or whatever ... but it was rather interesting to notice that there is one strange looking spot on that bit of linnen (or whatever it is) where the dye seemed to "stick" really well to what I can only guess must be a stain that came from something animal ... )

so ... "if at first you don't succeed, try again"?

well - while the other stuff was soaking/cooling/etc I continued with my sorting out, and ...
Yes - I found a ball of boring not quite white WOOL ...

The wool was cooling down after it's first "zap" in the microwave when I started writing this - and hot wet wool, which this was, tends to smell like ... sheep ... LOL

This time I took a photo before doing the rinsing ...



(drats ... I should have put a fork in that bowl before I took the photo! ;-)

now ... fingers crossed ... time to go rinse it.

btw ... lucky for me, I LIKE the smell of wet sheep!
(probably because it brings back childhood memories of growing up on/near farms :-)

*Andrea goes and rinses her wool*

Wow - it actually worked!



... what? you think someone like ME would actually do things the "correct" way and wind it and tie it into a skein first?! ... nah ... why bother - I didn't want it to be perfectly "self striping" or whatever ... I was planning to crochet a beanie or a bag or something with it and have the colours sort of end up wherever they happen to appear ...

I think it may even be colourfast (the owner of that blog knits socks with it so I think she would have noticed if it wasn't - even here in Canberra we DO wash our socks once in a while! ... )

If it isn't colourfast (I might have done things wrong ;-) and I crochet a beanie and wear it in the rain it could be rather interesting seeing me with green dribblies running down my face!

hmmm ... getting a bit technical again here ... "colourfast" isn't just "washfast" ... dyes also need to be "lightfast" if you don't want them to fade too quickly ... I wonder how badly food dye fades in sunlight? ... if I wear it on a sunny day, will my beanie (or whatever) be 3 shades lighter at the end of the day than it was when I put it on in the morning?! LOL

Anyway ... I am living up to my blog title again ... it is almost 3am and I really do need to go get some sleep.

but ... I won't post this quite yet - I have not put the photos in ... I will probably add those in the morning - at the moment they are still on the memory card in the camera ... except for the last one, which I have not even taken yet!

*Andrea goes zzzzzzzzzzzz for a while ... *

... good morning ... er ... afternoon ;-)

(actually it was morning when I got up, but I did a few other things before I came in here to do this)

photos are (hopefully) uploading as I type ... once they are there and I put them in the right place I will hit the "publish post" button and all one or 2 of you who actually read this blog will get to see this.

I was going to take another photo this morning when the yarn was dry, but it isn't dry yet ... it has actually been damp and rainy ... which is a good thing, because we sure need the rain!

anyway ... photos are now in here ... and this is probably going to be the last thing I put on here this year ... (well - there IS only a few hours of this year left ;-) ... so ...

Happy New Year!

Andrea

Season's Greetings

Is it that time of year already?!

Where HAS the year gone?!

May the joy and peace of Christmas be with you now and throughout the New Year ...



Yes - I have been messing around making silly "Cards" out of my photos - this one is a small gum tree beside the footpath near here.


Of course I couldn't stop at one ...



This was a beetle that I found as I was walking out the door from work last week ... it stayed around long enough for me to take a couple of quick photos then it flew away.


One for the "city folk" ?



I took this photo during the TASDA exhibition at the CSIRO Discovery Centre this year (it is a gum tree, and it's shadow, outside the building).


This is the one I e-mailed to friends/family ...



Yes - it is our dog, Diesel.


Guess what this one is?



- it is actually a lettuce (I think) plant in the vegetable garden at the resteraunt we had our work Christmas dinner at! (there were all sorts of lettuce and broccoli etc plants and they were starting to "go to seed" ... I took some photos because the colours/textures were interesting, then when I was putting the photos onto the computer today, I noticed that some of them look like little trees ;)

Anyway,
I hope you all have/had a Merry Christmas ... or a Happy whatever else you celebrate, or not, instead ...
Love,
Andrea
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

er ... more later ... eventually

Eventually I will get around to putting up some photos of some stuff I have made/finished recently ... like a few more of those journal quilts, the things I entered in the Canberra Quilters Exhibition and the TASDA exhibition, etc ... I have taken photos of some of those things, but they are still on the memory card ... sometime in the next week or 5 I intend to take photos of the rest of the stuff (and/or take better photos of some things I don't have good photos of) and then stick them on the computer so I can put some of them on here and write about them ... I was originally planning to have that done by about now ... but I have not got there yet ... oops ...

In the meantime ... I did find one photo of the plastic bag crochet outfit I wore in the fashion parade at last year's TASDA exhibition ...



... it is made from cut up garbage bags and supermarket bags and some other clear plastic bags that came from work (I think they came with safety glasses and/or some other science equipment packaged in them) ... the bag, hat and shoes are crocheted from the cut up plastic bags (with dangly bits of the clear plastic left hanging out for decoration) and the skirt is strips of plastic bags with a waistband crocheted out of cut up supermarket bags and the skirt is lined with a black garbage bag so people don't have to see my hairy legs and/or my undies!

That is one of the things I probably should take a better photo of ... I think I took this photo just before I dashed off to deliver it for the exhibition and I just kind of threw the stuff on the bed, took a photo, then gathered the stuff back up and dashed out of the door with it ... which is one better than this year - this year I didn't even take a photo ... but plenty of other people took photos of me wearing it in the fashion parade before it went out on display anywhere that it could go missing ... and it didn't go missing - most people are still honest enough not to steal the exhibits ... (unfortunately it is only most, not all - someone stole a small quilt from the quilt show here last year!)

er ... the evening seems to have vanished again ... and I have to go to work in the morning ... grrrr ...

goodnight ...

"Go figure" ? ... or whatever ...

when I posted the last 2 things here, I was also going to do this too, but I ran out of evening ... oops!

The crochet Dude ( http://thecrochetdude.blogspot.com/ ) had this thingy on his blog (he got it from someone else's blog - it is doing the rounds)

Life's to do list - Completed items are green and purple are the ones I am not sure if they count ;-)

01. Bought everyone in the bar a drink
02. Swam with wild dolphins (can't remember doing that, but I have had them surfing in the bow wave of the boat a few times, and had them try and do it with the catamaran I was sailing but I wasn't able to go fast enough for them)
03. Climbed a mountain (... yeah - I used to live at the bottom of a hill that was actually Mt Taylor! ... but I have also climbed a few bigger mountains too)
04. Taken a Ferrari for a test drive
05. Been inside the Great Pyramid
06. Held a tarantula ( in order to hold a tarantula one has to actually have access to one ... if someone has one that it is ok to hold, I will hold it ... might be kind of nice to actually meet one)
07. Taken a candlelit bath with someone (I'm seriously a hopeless romantic)
08. Said 'I love you' and meant it
09. Hugged a tree ... I have talked to trees too - trees usually listen better than people do ...
10. Bungee jumped
11. Visited Paris
12. Watched a lightning storm at sea
13. Stayed up all night long and saw the sun rise (I have also stayed up and been too busy getting lost in here to actually see the sun rise!)
14. Seen the Northern Lights ... no - but I have seen the Southern Lights (Aurora Australis) instead ... bit hard to see the Northern Lights when I live in the Southern Hemisphere!
15. Gone to a huge sports game ... not that a "huge" game over here is really that huge ... but I think a one day cricket match is big enough to qualify as our next best thing ... and if that doesn't qualify then I think actually being part of the opening ceremony for the Olympic soccer matches (that were here in Canberra) does!
16. Walked the stairs to the top of the leaning Tower of Pisa
17. Grown and eaten your own vegetables
18. Touched an iceberg (does lettuce count?) ha ha ... that was the crochet Dude's comment but I had to leave that one in! ... it is the only iceberg I have touched too ...
19. Slept under the stars
20. Changed a baby's diaper we call it a nappy though - and the first one I changed was the one on my newborn baby! (I didn't see the need to practice before that - I had seen it done and somehow I just knew that when the time came I would be able to do it ... I was right ;-)
21. Taken a trip in a hot air balloon
22. Watched a meteor shower ... also saw and heard a close one once ... the meteor I saw was close enough that I could hear the hiss as it passed overhead (it was falling on an angle i guess ... was high enough not to fall that close to me and I lost sight of it behind the house anyway)
23. Gotten drunk on champagne ... not sure if it was the bubbly or the beer and wine and spirits I had with it ... LOL
24. Given more than you can afford to charity
25. Looked up at the night sky through a telescope (I should do that more often, seeing we actually own a small one ... it even has a motor and a fancy tracking gadget that lets it follow the stars across the sky)
26. Had an uncontrollable giggling fit at the worst possible moment ... don't think I have ever had an uncontrollable giggling fit ... but there have been times when it has been very hard to stiffle a chuckle at something
27. Had a food fight I was in the middle of a huge one in the dining hall at uni - no I didn't start it ... don't think I actually threw any food either - didn't want to have to help clean up ;-) ... but i am sure I have thrown food on some other occaision ... even had a sword fight with the dog, using a french stick (long skinny loaf of bread)
28. Bet on a winning horse (I paid 50cents to go in a Melbourne cup sweep at work ... and got my 50c back because the horse I got ended up coming last!)
29. Asked out a stranger
30. Had a snowball fight ... yeah - one or 5 ... I remember the first one - was on my first trip to the snow (in high school) I threw a big snowball at someone just before we bot back on the bus and it missed them and went in the bus window ... guess what seat it landed on? - yes - mine!
31. Screamed as loudly as you possibly can
32. Held a lamb I grew up on farms ... one was a sheep stud ... I held them, fed them ... and I have even shorn a sheep ...
33. Seen an eclipse a few lunar ones, a few partial solar ones, and a total solar eclipse - wow!
34. Ridden a roller coaster
35. Hit a home run ... it was a fluke if I even HIT the BALL!
36. Danced like a fool and not cared who was looking
37. Adopted an accent for an entire day er ... why?!
38. Actually felt happy about your life, even for just a moment
39. Had two hard drives for your computer - how about three?! ... (this one has 3)
40. Visited all 10 provinces or all 50 states of what country? ... he he ... there is only one state of Australia I have not been to ... but we only have 6 ... and a few territories (I live in one of those)
41. Taken care of someone who was drunk ... even drove his road train (great big long truck) down the road for an hour while he threw up out of the passenger side window and then slept it off (and he wondered why I left him?!)
42. Had amazing friends
43. Danced with a stranger in a foreign country (some of my best memories include this)
44. Watched wild whales
45. Stolen a sign (a friend in college stole a "Please Pay Before Pumping" sign and put it on her bedroom door) I think I once found a stolen one and kept it
46. Backpacked in Europe
47. Taken a road-trip
48. Gone rock climbing
49. Midnight walk on the beach
50. Gone sky diving
51. Visited Ireland
52. Been heartbroken longer then you were actually in love
53. In a restaurant, sat at a stranger's table and had a meal with them ... does an Army mess hall count? - I sat at a table with one person I knew and one stranger ... that "stranger" and I got married and we now have teenage kids!
54. Visited Japan
55. Milked a cow (I've tipped quite a few over, does that count?) ... people actually DO that?! ... I grew up on a farm - of course I tried milking one ... but I have never
56. Alphabetized your cds why?! I don't even get around to writing on my photos - why would I alphabetise a pile of CDs?!
57. Pretended to be a superhero someone who hasn't done that must have had a deprived childhood ... ?
58. Sung karaoke
59. Lounged around in bed all day ... only when I was sick ... although I have slept in rather late a few times ...
60. Posed nude in front of strangers ... does joining a nudist club, and going naked at their activites, count? ... or how about going in a wet tee shirt contest ... then taking the shirt OFF while still up on stage?!
61. Gone scuba diving
62. Kissed in the rain
63. Played in the mud
64. Played in the rain
65. Gone to a drive-in theater ... I grew up in a country town ... the only other sort of theatre was the one with a stage, where they put on plays!
66. Visited the Great Wall of China
67. Started a business
68. Fallen in love and not had your heart broken ... see #72
69. Toured ancient sites (in and around Italy, Greece, Mexico)
70. Taken a martial arts class
71. Played D&D for 6 hours straight does another role-playing game count? ... not that we were really doing much actual game ... it was more like a few minutes of game every now and then in between the "dungeon master" going and smoking joints and the rest of us having too much fun talking, drinking, messing around, etc ... but we had fun ...
72. Gotten married - and I still am.
73. Been in a movie no, but I have been on tv ...
74. Crashed a party
75. Gotten divorced if I had married my first partner I guess we would have - but I wasn't silly enough to marry him in the first place ...
76. Gone without food for 5 days .. only once - when I had glandular fever and was too sick to eat.
77. Made cookies from scratch is there any OTHER way to make them?! .. throwing blobs of stuff on a tray and sticking it in the oven is NOT "cooking"
78. Won first prize in a costume contest ... I won the prize for best antlers at an "antelope day" party once ... the year after, when they had the next "antelope day" party I made them bigger and wore them again and won the prize for "least original antlers"
79. Ridden a gondola in Venice
80. Gotten a tattoo
81. Rafted the Dead River
82. Been on television news programs as an "expert" (Does the DIY Network count?)
83. Got flowers for no reason
84. Performed on stage
85. Been to Las Vegas
86. Recorded music ... no - you do NOT want to hear it - it was when I was a teenager at uni, and I went in to the church one evening and put my tape recorder inside the piano, hit the record button and plucked away at the strings for a while ...
87. Eaten shark ... when I was a kid the fish one normally got given at most fish and chip shops was something called "flake" ... and what is flake? - shark!
88. Had a one-night stand
89. Gone to Thailand
90. Bought a house
91. Been in a combat zone no - but I did serve 6 years in the ARMY
92. Buried one of your parents ... I think I buried most of my dad with sand at the beach once ...
93. Been on a cruise ship
94. Spoken more than one language fluently (English & Spanish)
95. Performed in aisles at Rocky Horror (Just saw it for the first time last year and that was on DVD)
96. Raised children.
97. Followed your favorite band/singer on tour
98. Created and named your own constellation of stars
99. Taken an exotic bicycle tour in a foreign country
100. Picked up and moved to another city to just start over ... didn't really realise that was what I was doing at the time ... but looking back on it ... yes I did ...
101. Walked the Golden Gate Bridge (now that would be a big leash) I have walked over the Sydney Harbour Bridge
102. Sang loudly in the car, and didn't stop when you knew someone was looking ... but I had to stop when everyone threatened to stop and throw me out if I didn't stop that horrid noise!
103. Had plastic surgery (does corrective laser surgery on my eyes count?)
104. Survived an illness that you shouldn't have survived ... when mum had my younger brother the doctor did mention something about nearly loosing me and being worried for a while (I surprised them and didn't come out head first like they were expecting) ... but when mum asked him to elaborate he wouldn't ... just said "don't worry, she looks healthy enough now"
105. Wrote articles for a large publication ... my blog is getting big ... does that count? ... or does someone actually have to READ it?
106. Lost over 100 pounds
107. Held someone while they were having a flashback
108. Piloted an airplane
109. Petted a stingray
110. Broken someone's heart
111. Helped an animal give birth ... had a couple of cats who had kittens ... but they didn't seem to need any help ...
112. Won money on a T.V. game show
113. Broken a bone ... actually someone broke it for me - it was my nose and he did it with his forehead ... says a lot about what was IN his head doesn't it?!
114. Gone on an African photo safari
115. Had a body part of yours below the neck pierced
116. Fired a rifle, shotgun, or pistol ... all of those, and thrown a hand grenade too ...
117. Eaten mushrooms that were gathered in the wild
118. Ridden a horse
119. Had major surgery ... I assume having tonsils out is major?
120. Had a snake as a pet ... no ... but I have stick insects ...
121. Hiked to the bottom of the Grand Canyon how about to the top of Ayers Rock (Uluru)? (I did that one 3 days in a row! ... and did you know that it actually has some bushes and even small trees growing on the top?!)
122. Slept for more than 30 hours over the course of 48 hours ... think I did when I had glandular fever and was too sick not to ...
123. Visited more foreign countries than U.S. states that is easy seeing I have never been to the USA!
124. Visited all 7 continents
125. Taken a canoe trip that lasted more than 2 days ... we didn't paddle canoes for more than 2 days, but the overall trip was longer
126. Eaten kangaroo meat ... we Australians don't mind eating our coat of arms ...
127. Eaten sushi
128. Had your picture in the newspaper ... with an albatross ... which doesn't sound odd until I mention that the albatross was found north of Adelaide - far from where it should have been!
129. Changed someone's mind about something you care deeply about ... don't know ... it is possible I might have but didn't know about it ...
130. Gone back to school ... I work at one - does that count?
131. Parasailed
132. Petted a cockroach ... there are lots of different sorts ... if they are smelly and eating stuff in my house I squash them ... but if they are out in the wood pile or the bush they are usually not the same species and I let them be ... have even taken photos of some pretty ones in the bush ... and there was a fish tank full of "pet" ones in the science lab at uni ... I think I patted at least one of those ...
133. Eaten fried green tomatoes (Mom used to make tomato jam)
134. Read The Iliad - and the Odyssey
135. Selected one "important" author who you missed in school, and read their books. I did find a cheap second hand copy of a book I missed at school (not sure if the other class did it and not us, or if I was meant to read it but was too busy reading science fiction instead) so I bought it to read ... come to think of it ... I put it somewhere and now I can't remember if I actually read it or not!
136. Killed and prepared an animal for eating I have killed, cleaned, cooked and eaten fish and rabbits ... have also killed and butchered a sheep (not sure who eventually ate that one), and I have plucked chickens and helped slaughter a cow ... that stuff is normal when you have lived on farms/etc
137. Skipped all your school reunions (hearing through the grapevine that everyone's going to meet at a certain local bar doesn't make me want to travel 1,000 miles to attend. I'm just saying.) ... ditto - although usually I have not even actually bothered to find out if they have even had one ... I kind of left the town and never kept in touch ...
138. Communicated with someone without sharing a common spoken language ... how hard is it to point at some pretty object and hold out a coin? LOL
139. Been elected to public office ... I probably could have been president of Canberra Quilters one year, if I had wanted to - they couldn't find anyone to put their hand up so if I had put mine up I would have been it ... but being president of something like that just isn't "me"
140. Written your own computer language
141. Thought to yourself that you're living your dream (I have thought more than once that I'm living IN a dream and that I could wake up at any moment).
142. Had to put someone you love into hospice care
143. Built your own PC from parts
144. Sold your own artwork to someone who didn't know you ... ask me again in a few weeks time ... that is if I actually finish something to try and sell in the TASDA exhibition
145. Had a booth at a street fair ... it was a table at a market in some paddock somewhere ... sort of the same thing except it was not a very good market and nobody bought anything ...
146: Dyed your hair
147: Been a DJ
148: Shaved your head (see #146)
149: Caused a car accident ... the police report said I did ... but it was actually the other driver ... but it wasn't worth arguing at the time ... was only a minor one.
150: Saved someone's life ... who knows - I might have without realising it at the time - anyone who fixes up something that was dangerous and/or an occupational health and safety issue/etc or correctly disposes of something poison/harmful rather than leaving it in the wrong place/etc or does something like warn a tourist not to swim at an unsafe beach or whatever may have saved a life without even realising it!
151: Walked the streets of Pompeii then climbed Mt. Vesuvius (I added this one to the list because it was an incredible experience) ... I have probably seen and done one or 2 incredible things too ... but I want to do more ...

talking about DOing things ... there are other things I should be doing now ...

It Figures ...

hmmm ... a month ago I copied 3 links into a blog post and then saved it as a draft ... now I am not even sure what the 3 links were, and what I was going to say about them! (but I am sure I will remember once I go and look at them ;-)

http://www.theiff.org/oexhibits/oe1.html

ah yes - I found a website for something called "The Institute For Figuring" ... hence the title I gave this blog post ... the link is to an online exhibit, about something called Hyperbolic Space ... which I found quite fascinating (even though some of the maths is way beyond what I learnt at school/etc ... sigh)
I think I found the link to this on a blog or website about crochet (that or I saw it mentioned and went searching) - because the site actually has a section on crocheting this stuff! - click on "crochet models" on the menu on the left ... hyperbolic space is kind of what Escher used for some of his art, and they have worked out that it is also how lettuce grows it's crinkly leaves ... kind of like fractals explain how a fern leaf grows the shape it does ... yeah I know - this all sounds like nonsense ... but it makes sense to my weird mind ;-) ... although I kind of got a bit lost when they explained why they now think our universe might be shaped like a pair of pants!

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2004/12/041219170412.htm

oh - this was another crochet model of a mathematical concept - one I found out about a year or 2 ago ... I think it would drive me nuts trying to crochet something this huge - especially seeing I would already know what it was going to look like when it was finished ;-)


http://thatyarnstore.blogspot.com/

A crochet blog - ah - this was probably where I found the link to that hyperbolic crochet stuff! ... then again ... it may have been one of the things that came up in the search results when I went looking for hyperbolic crochet after reading about it wherever else it was i first read about it ... it's an interesting blog though ...

while I am on the subject of weirdo maths concepts etc - I should find the fractal website I was looking at and put that link here too ... if I can find it ... I downloaded a fun program, called "Winfract" ... which is a windows version of one I used to play with, called "Fractint" (both are/were free to download ;-)

hmmm ... still looking ... but I did find this - http://irfanview.com/ - I think this was on the computer once upon a time back when "the computer" was the one that is probably now sitting in bits in the corners of the house somewhere because it has been replaced with a newer/faster one ... or it may have even been the one that was replaced by the one that this one replaced ... or something like that) - Irfanview a handy little freeware graphic veiwing program, that is also useful to convert graphics files from one format to another (which was what I think I wanted it for last time I found it ;-)

hmmm ... I found a different freeware fractal program than the one I was looking for - http://www.fractovia.org/uberto/ ... I have not downloaded or used it yet (because I only just found it!)

Ah - here is the website I was looking for - http://www.dwponline.com/fractals/ - has a basic explanation of fractals, some pretty pictures, a link to download the winfract program, and a whole pile of info on how to download/install it and a heap of hints for how to use it and what to do with it ... lol ... oh - it also has links to more info on fracals and chaos theory and stuff too ... enough stuff to get someone like me lost for hours ... days even!

btw ... more about that making things website, with the stuff made with Altoids tins ( http://www.makezine.com/blog/archive/altoids_and_tin_cases/ ) - I forgot to mention this in the other blog post, but I just had to have a laugh at it - there is even a project on there for how to use an old Ipod shuffle to make a container for your Altoids! ... so you have somewhere to keep them after you have tipped them out of the tin so you can use the tin to make the other projects!
one wonders - if you need to use the tin for something other than keeping the Altoids in, then - unless you are like me and don't like them - why not just EAT the darn things?! ... or if you don't like them - let your partner and/or the kids eat them, or give them to the dog or something ...

I should have spent the time I spent in here this evening doing something else ... like finishing my June and July journal quilts, starting my August one, and writing addresses on the fabric postcards I am supposed to be posting tomorrow (actually I should have posted them earlier this week ... but tomorrow is ok ... and hopefully next week will be ok too - they have to arrive by the end of this month ... but 3 of them only have to go to places here in Canberra, and one to Qld ... so even that one should only take a couple of days to get there ... if they get there at all (that is part of the excercise - to make a fabric postcard, put a stamp on it and post it and hope it survives the trip ... although those who are less adventurous, and/or don't trust Australia Post/etc, have been putting them in envelopes ...)

er ... it is now "too late" ... and I am still up ... oops ... ;-)

I will try and get around to posting a couple of quilt photos sometime soon - the exhibition has now been and gone, and I actually did get my quilts finished in time ... I entered 3 quilts and a bag actually ... but one of the 3 quilts is the January journal quilt that I finished earlier in the year and have already posted a photo of.

btw - I started my own hyperbolic crochet thingy ... and it is also a moebius strip (which is rather weird because as someone else described it "eats itself" as you crochet it!) ... I only did a bit of it, then got busy doing quilts, and now I am busy doing some crochet and other stuff for the TASDA exhibition (although I might enter that, or another better, bit if hyperbolic crochet, if I get time to finish/make it ... and if I can think of a name/etc to relate it to the theme of the exhibition ;-)

goodnight

Some random stuff ...

I figured it was about time I posted something ... rather than writing something new, I probably should post the thing I have saved as a draft - especially seeing I just noticed that the date beside it is 24/7/06 (well actually it says 7/24/06 but we Australians don't write our dates that way around) ... and today just happens to be the 24/8/06! so I saved it exactly one calendar month ago ... weird eh? (but I am going to post this one first, before I forget what I was going to say ;-)

The date kind of jumped out at me more than it normally would, because today is Dad's birthday - Happy Birthday Dad ... not that he is at all likely to be reading this ... I think he is probably just finishing setting up camp somewhere in a camp ground in Kalgoorlie (they are being "grey nomads" and travelling all around Western Australia at the moment ... wish I was having fun travelling instead of stuck here going to work every day ... sigh). - I just spoke to Mum and Dad on the phone almost an hour ago and they were just starting to set up camp
... I am not sure how long it takes to set up a camper trailer ... probably not that long actually - Dad has it all organised with clever little drawers and stuff and places for everything ... and that neatly leads me to one of the things I came in here to write about - there is a website URL that I wanted to post here, and I was also thinking of sending it to Mum and Dad when they got home ... but maybe I shouldn't - Mum might have to start fighting with Dad for computer time ... LOL
What URL would my Dad possibly find so interesting? - this one ...
http://www.makezine.com/

... I found the link to it in a science newsletter I am subscribed to ... one aimed at School students (and teachers) ... which is why I found it highly amusing that the page the link actually pointed to - http://www.makezine.com/blog/archive/2006/02/
it has instructions for how to make a copper pipe potato gun! ... there is a LOT of other interesting stuff on that page too ... including a link to another interesting book on the Project Gutenberg website - http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/12655 ("The Boy Mechanic Vol 1" which has some fun things to make, some things that nobody would bother making but are funny to read, and some things that nobody would want to make/do now that we know how dangerous some of the chemicals/etc are!)

... I have also found a couple of interesting old sewing/etc books, on the Project Guenberg site, too - quite interesting and probably also quite useful!

another thing I found on that "make" webiste was this page about projects that use Altoid tins (or any other small tins that mints/etc come in) - http://www.makezine.com/blog/archive/altoids_and_tin_cases/

I noticed someone has made a survival kit in one - http://www.makezine.com/blog/archive/2006/08/make_a_survival_kit_out_of_an.html
... I have a few tins that same shape/size (I hate Altoids, but luckily my husband and kids like them ;-)
so ... here is a picture of the "survival kit" that I have been carrying around for the last year or 3 ...



... well ... it might not save my life if I get stranded on a desert island, but it might save my sanity for a while ;-)

So ... what is all that weird looking stuff in there?
(and yes - it was all IN there, and - even more surprising - it all fitted back in there again after I took the photo!)

In the tin, there are a pile of fabric hexagons, and the paper hexagons I am sewing them over (so that eventually, one century, I can sew them all together into a quilt or something) and there is a tatting shuttle, with some thread on it (ready to start tatting the 4 butterfies I need to finish decorating a fabric box I made a year or 2 ago), and a crochet hook (needed for the tatting - to join the rings of knots to each other I have to pull the thread through the loops with something and this tatting shuttle isn't one that has the hook built in like some of them do), and there is also a tangle of left over sewing thread that I have been using for the hexagons, and a tangle of embroidery thread that I was using for something else that has been finished and removed from the tin (probably should sort out the tin and take that thread out ... then again ... I think I left it in there because I was going to use it to do some embroidery on that little green scrap of fabric ... not sure what it will end up being used for though), there is also a safety pin, a sewing machine bobbin full of thread, and hopefully there is a needle or 3 hiding down the bottom. One other item ... that also makes the tin qualify as a survival kit? - that little round ish brown thingy beside the bobbin - is a coffee bean! (I ended up with a handful of them somewhere ... ate a few and decided that eating any more would be just a bit too much caffiene in one go ... so I threw them into the sewing tin, which I happened to have in my pocket at the time ;-) ... I ate one a few days ago when I went to get a needle out of the tin and found the coffee beans ... so there is probably another one hiding down the bottom ... with the needles?! ... ).
Sometimes a coin or 2 live in there too ... but not at the moment - I have not put any back after the last time I was short of money one day and needed a couple dollars change ... calling it a survival kit and mentioning that it sometimes has money in there kind of reminds me of when I was a Brownie and a Girl Guide, as a kid - and we used to carry 5c (the price of a phone call), a notebook and pencil, a safety pin, and a bit of string, (and probably a hankie too, but I don't remember that) around in our pocket - in case we ever needed them ... of course my pockets also used to contain an assortment of other odd stuff at various times too ... like rocks and nuts and bolts i had found, and gum nuts and insect cocoons and feathers and leaves and whatever else i found and collected ... and it used to drive my Mum nuts ...

er ... I should have gone to bed 2 or 3 hours ago ... so methinks it is time I posted this, and the other one (which I have just been writing in between writing the last 2 bits of this one ;-) ... and then I should go get some sleep, before it is time to get up again and go to work ... sigh ...

Pixel

Approximately August 1989 - 3 August 2006

RIP

If my maths is ok, that is almost 17 years - not bad for a tortiseshell moggie who had cat flu when we got her from the pet shop ...

(btw, this photo was taken a week or 2 ago, while she was doing one of her favourite things - sleeping in some of my fabric!)

... talking about fabric - I have a quilt to finish, right now - it needs me to sew a few more beads and stuff onto it, before I deliver it tomorrow - it is one of my exhibition quilts ... I was up rather late sewing beads and stuff on it last night, most of the time with Pixel on my lap - kind of a nice way to say goodbye (we noticed she was too sick to eat sometime after the vets had closed, and we had a fair idea that the trip to the vet in the morning might be a one way trip ... Diesel (the dog) was rather upset when the catbox came back empty ... and Spook (the other cat) is on my lap right now ... but that is nothing unusual for her ... she seems to think that having a cat lying over my arms helps me type better )

weird quilts, etc ...

I really should put some more photos of my quilts and crochet and other stuff up here some day ...
I keep saying that, but I never seem to get around to it
(actually I have a "round to it" somewhere ... it is a leather key tag with the word "tuit" embossed on it ... I have also seen a paper version with a circle with the word "tuit" in it, and a caption saying something about how this is to help with all those things you want to do and have not done yet, because you have not got around to it - now you can do them all because you have one ... lol ... trouble is ... i lost mine! ... it is somewhere around the house, last seen attached to a pile of spare/not currently in use keys ... I think I know what pile of mess it might be hiding at the bottom of ... one of the piles I was going to sort out "when I get around to it" LOL (catch 22 could be a good excuse to keep putting it off - "I will sort it out, when I get a round tuit ... but until I find my round tuit, I can't sort it out yet, so I may as well go and do some quilting/crocheting/whatever instead ... " ;-)

Anyway ... what I came in here to do was to copy and paste some more stuff that I have been saying on one of the yahoogroups I am on ...
In the Scquilters group, someone was talking about satin binding, they found out that you could buy it as strips of binding AFTER they bought some satin fabric, and were asking if they needed to stabilize it with anything before they cut it and sewed it on ... and this was my reply ...

er ... why not add the satin yardage to your stash ... maybe it could become a satin backing for a future quilt/etc? lol ... or a satin lining for a bag (a lot of quilters seem to end up making quilted/etc bags ) ... then you can buy the satin binding and use that....
but I know - probably because if it was me I would be thinking/doing the same (LOL) - you want to use what you have because you don't want to have togo and BUY something else ... and you want to get it done NOW and "surely itcan't really be that hard to make it work" ... if it were stubborn cheapskate me, I would probably use some second hand (i collect stuff like that from op shops etc ) satin fabric that I have on hand, and cut it with a rotary cutter, and my "short thumbs" - and make sure I have just the right look on my face and growl at it at the right moments and jolly well make the stuff do what it was told ... and when I sewed the stuff I would probably get a bit of "frogging" practice (rippit rippit) while I was at it... LOL
Andrea,
disorganised in Dunlop
... who really should go out and do some of that sewing I was going to spend the evening doing ... lol

then someone else was asking about freezer paper (some quilters use it for applique etc ) and someone else replied to tell them about using the wrappers from reams of photocopy/printer paper (the stuff that has a waxy coating on the inside does the same thing as freezer paper does) so I had to add my 2c worth ...

Hi All,
Just one thing to watch out for though - don't use the bit where the wrapper
was glued together because the glue is sticky and doesn't come off your
fabric ... one guess how I found out that little bit of handy information -
LOL

Also - not all photocopy paper wrappers have a "shiny side" - I have a
plentiful supply of photocopy paper wrappers at the school I work at
(schools do a LOT of photocopying!) ... but the brand they have been getting
lately just has plain paper wrapping - so it has no "shiny side" to stick to
the fabric! ... luckily I don't use it much and I still have a few sheets
of the stuff that does have a shiny side stashed away here at home in case I
do want to use some ;-)

I used photocopy paper wrappers for some angel swap blocks I made - but not
for appliqué - I used it for tracing a design on and sewing on the wrong
side of the block with fancy thread in the bobbin (so the bobbin thread
formed the decorative design on the right side of the block) it was handy
having something that would stick to the fabric and stay in place while I
sewed and it also helped stabilise it ... but, like when using any tear away
paper/etc foundation, it was a pain having to rip it all out from between
the stitching (next time I will probably just trace a design onto the fabric
and unless it another swap block I will add the batting and backing and draw
the design on the back ... or I will do what I have been doing with a
few things I have made recently and quilt from the back with fancy threads
in the bobbin (crochet cotton and stuff like that) and just make up the
"design" as I go ... lol) ... but I will eventually get around to having a
go at "freezer paper" appliqué ... one year? ... one millennium? ...
whatever ...

Andrea,
who was going to spend this evening working on my challenge quilt for the
Canberra Quilters exhibition ... but tea kind of took a while to cook and
eat, then the dog got a bath and then a walk (brrrr) ... and I got lost in
here for a bit longer than I intended (gee what's new? lol) and I seem to
have run out of "evening" ... sigh ... if I go out there now, I might get a
bit of something done before I either fall asleep or freeze ...

I think I did get a little bit of sewing done ... the next day!

anyway ...
among the replies was one saying that it is a bit difficult to trace on it ... so I just had to reply to that ...

I guess it could be - but I used a plain white photocopy paper wrapper,
without any printing on it, and traced it using my light box
(no - I didn't spend lots of money and buy a light box - I "made" one -
found an old wooden box, found a light globe with a fitting and cord and
laid it inside and put a sheet of perspex over the top ... works fine for me )

hmmm ... I think the only traditional thing about my quilting is that
quilting traditionally used to be about using up what you had on hand, or
could easily/cheaply find ... and most of my quilts are made using fabric I
have collected from op shops and garage sales or been given, or if I have
bought it new it has mostly been when it is on sale/at a cheap price ... and
I don't have a lot of the latest fancy gadgets like a walking foot etc, just
an ordinary sewing machine and the cutting mat, cutter and ruler I got as
birthday and Christmas presents from Mum one year, and another ruler that I
never realised how useful it would be until I won it in a raffle!
I have done a few "normal" quilts with traditional blocks/methods/etc but
most of my quilts/etc (especially the ones I have actually finished!) are
probably not at all traditional - they are too weird ... lol

Andrea,
disorganised in Dunlop

Yes - if anyone is still reading this (that is if anyone ever was reading any of this mess) ... you will notice that this all DOES relate to the title of this post ... because I told scquilters that I make weird quilts ... so of course somebody had to have their say and tell me that I shoud go and "google" (search for) something called "Gees Bend Quilts" and I "might find that mine are not so weird after all" ... so, like the good little girl I am (ha ha ha - not! ... is not hard to get me to go get lost with google!) I went and "googled" ... and sent this reply to scquilters ...

Ok ... of course I went straight to Google and did a search ... after a few "page not found" and other pages mentioning the quilts but not showing pictures ... I found a website with all sorts of info about the exhibition ( http://www.auburn.edu/academic/other/geesbend/home.html ) and there is a page with pictures of all the quilts in the exhibition ( http://www.auburn.edu/academic/other/geesbend/explore/catalog/slideshow/index.htm ) ... wow! - I am glad u told me to go look for these Lorraine!
... these are REAL quilts! ... these are what patchwork quilting is meant to be ... not that it isn't meant to be all the other things it is either ... but I like the idea of quilts made out of whatever one has handy, and without worrying if they follow the "rules" (some rules are meant to be bent ... if I vanish in the next few days, I have probably been taken away and locked up by the "quilt police" ).

warning: read (the rest of this post) at own risk
(I kind of ramble on a bit when I get going ... and this lot is sure to confuse you all because I think even I am confused - and I wrote it!)

I have just been getting lost in cyberspace for an hour or 2! ... I got a bit lost on that website, and then followed a link to http://www.alabamaarts.org/index.html ... interesting site for those after some arty inspiration ... then I decided that maybe I should post to my blog (because most of what I post to my blog is the same weird stuff I have just said in my latest post(s) to whatever yahoogroup I have just posted stuff to ... and I am just about to add this weird post to the pile of junk I have been posting to this list over the last day or 3 ... LOL) ... so I went to the blogger page ( www.blogger.com ) to log in, and did my usual thing - got side-tracked looking at the "blogs of note" they have listed there ... some of them are boring, but some are quite interesting ... anyway ... I am now up to the bit where I need to come back here and finish typing this post, and then copy most of it into my blog, then send this post, then finish writing my blog post and publish it ... talk about round and round in circles! LOL (hmmm - there could be a quilt idea in that? lol)

anyway ... what I really should be putting on my blog is some more pictures of my quilts - so that anyone who wants to can look at them and decide for themselves how weird they really are ... but in the meantime, there are some photos of some of my quilts (and other stuff) in my yahoo photos at http://au.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/aykayem/my_photos ... that URL gets longer every time I go there! ( that is the one that comes up in the top of the browser once the page loads ... but I actually got there by typing http://photos.yahoo.com/aykayem into the browswer ... yahoo works in strange ways ... ) unfortunatley I have been slack and lazy lately and there are no recent photos in there ... but there is a whole album called "quilts" that has a lot of stuff in it, and there are other albums with photos of mystery quilts being made, and crochet stuff, and a couple of scquilters gatherings, and one called "other peoples quilts" that has a quilt mum made in it, and a quilt (made by Evelyn) with blocks from a scquilters swap ... (hmm - I probably should just put photos of all my quilts and stuff in yahoophotos and then mention that on my blog ... but if I talk about any of my quilts etc in my blog I will probably still stick a photo in there too) and, for those mad enough to look at all my photo albums - no - my "family" does not consist of a bunch of stick insects! ... that just happens to be the only photo I got around to putting in that album - I didn't know what other album to put them in - that one seemed the most logical because they do live in the house with us ...

hmmm ... I don't know if my quilts are weird or not, but I am sure you are now all totally convinced that I am definitely weird!

oh ... yeah - if you want to check out what actually ends up on the blog today ... and/or look at what other strange stuff is on there ... and/or look at the few quilt/etc pictures that are on there ... my blog is at www.aykayem.blogspot.com (well, the one I am posting to is ... there are links on there to 2 more, also on blogspot but even weirder than the main one ... and I have one or 2 others but I have not actually posted anything much on them - I just created blogs on a couple of other free blog places to test out how well they worked/etc ... but the blogspot one usually works fine so I have kept using that one ... )

Andrea,
disorganised in Dunlop
... getting lost in here and talking about quilts instead of actually being out in my sewing room and making them ... which I should be doing ... after I have gone and got milk/etc from the shop, cooked tea, hung out the last load of washing I did, etc ... sigh ...

he he he ... I just sent that message ... and had a good laugh at the spell checker ... wants to call my blog a "bog" and blogspot "bloodspot" (but it does find most of my zillions of typos ;-)
And now, like I just said in that post ... I have other things to do ...
but first ... I have to reply to another scquilters message and say "Goodonya" to the person who decided that her daggy old "sampler quilt" that has been lying unfinished in the cupboard can be put to good use and is making it into 2 quilts for her 2 dogs ...

... I said this there, too ... was going to say it here, then decided it went there, then decided that it probably goes in both places ... and ... why type it twice when I can copy it? lol ...

We have a dog and 2 cats ... and I have made them each a quilt ... the cats each have a small one (about 18" square) that I had fun making out of leftover bits from a mystery quilt I made (the one that I then added to so it became my 2m square monster ... lol) not that they sleep on their own quilts - they seem to think that whatever half made/new/clean quilt/fabric/etc I have out on my sewing desk is far better ... so is the basket of clean washing, or any article of clothing that DH or I leave lying on the bed ... The dog has a quilt I made out of old cotton shirts and some bits of an old sheet ... I held it up for "show and tell" somewhere and got told it was too good for the dog ... LOL (gee - it was only some old shirts, even had a stain on one bit ... threw it together in a day and made it for the dog ... so it is HIS quilt ... and he sometimes uses it ... lol ... it lives inside, gets put on the lounge when he wants to lie on there beside us and is wet or dirty or has a "pigs ear" he is chewing ... spoilt brat ... lol)

and now ... I really do need to go buy some milk and come back and cook some tea (we need the milk for the pancakes DD wants and probably for what I might end up cooking for DS and I ... and for a hot chocky later this evening, and breaky in the morning ... the milk always seems to run out in this house - someone must be drinking the stuff or something ... lol)