And the winner is…

Actually, there are two - first time commenter, but apparently regular lurker, Anne from Dunedin, New Zealand clocked in as Visitor 9999 . Soon after, Erica popped in to comment as Visitor 10,001. A copy of my Synchronicity pattern is winging its way to Anne in the Deep South. However, as Erica has ready access to an abundance of original Aussie designs as the editor of Down Under Quilts, I’ll have to come up with a different treat for her.

Incidentally, at the suggestion of our friend Monica, Erica, Stephanie and I are signed up for a Gees Bend challenge. The first step is to pick an inspiration quilt from the Gees Bend Gallery. The next step is to make a quilt in this style entirely out of fabrics that are currently in our stash be they patchwork, dressmaking, upholstery or just plain shocker fabrics. The totally arbitrary deadline is Monica’s 27 August birthday and toe-catcher quilting is optional. I haven’t decided upon my inspiration quilt yet but I am reviewing my stash now.

I love visitors!

So tomorrow some of the whanau Mahurangi* are making a pilgrimage to Copacabana. While Maggie came to stay earlier in the year, and her sister Jamie before her, this is Maggie’s Mum first visit to Casa da Praia and I’m looking forward to showing her around. It’s also a good incentive to tidy up my studio which seems to be suffocating from paperwork at the moment and needs to reassert itself as a creative space.

Meanwhile, back at the blog, I will soon be receiving my 10,000th visitor since setting up in this domain on 1 January. To celebrate this milestone, there will be a small quilting goodie dispatched to the visitor closest to the magic 10,000 that leaves a comment. And just to make it really easy for you, I have temporarily changed the format of the counter at the bottom of my sidebar so that you can see where my visitor count is up to.

(*Whanau is a Maori language word for extended family, not limited to kinsfolk related by blood and Mahurangi is the river that runs through the town of Warkworth where I grew up.)

Small Gifts

Teaching patchwork and quilting to enthusiastic students is so rewarding that you hardly expect your students to bestow further gifts but look what I came home from the Cobargo retreat with:

Jenny is a talented potter and screen printer and the graphic motif on this pin cushion looks great in my studio.

Anticipation vs Spontaneity

I’ve long maintained that anticipation is all part of the fun of a holiday especially for a consumate travel planner like yours truly. Nevertheless, I always leave room for the serendipity factor and do not discount the merits of spontaneity. Experience over the past few hours highlights the differences of each approach.

On the one hand, I have been concentrating on e-mail negotiations with two potential home exchange parties which would see them relaxing at Casa da Praia in December and us sojourning in French Cognac country and then the Cote d’Azur hinterland in September 2008. Gasp! talk about advance planning. That will give me plenty of time to research our destinations and work on improving my language skills so that there is no repeat of the infamous Axat liver sausage incident.

On the other hand, this morning I received an e-mail from one of my bestest childhood friends saying that she is coming over from NZ for the weekend THIS WEEKEND and is our guest room available? Goody goody!

Strata Embellishment

While I experimented with embroidery as a teenager, I am VERY rusty. My Mum is an accomplished embroiderer and a good coach but, in her absence, I consult The Embroidery Stitch Bible by Betty Barndon. It is a spiral bound book so it sits flat and the layout and instructions are clear and informative:
  
As you may see from this close up, I’ve added some cross stitching to the top strata and a little seed stitching on the gold band underneath:

I’m not sure about the dark seeds - David thinks they look like ants and I am inclined to agree! I am a bit limited by the embroidery threads I have to hand. It tooks like I will need to stock up a little when I go into the city later in the week.

Sunset Strata

I’ve enjoyed Alison’s series of March posts “Anatomy of a Commission” and thought I would do something similar with my experimentation with the layering technique set out in Ineke Berlyn’s book.

First I reviewed some photos from my recent trip to Western Australia and cropped a slice from one of the Indian Ocean sunset shots:
   
I then auditioned several different combinations and proportions of fabric strips:
     
In the end I could not decide which variation I preferred so I just built up the layers as I stitched them together with some wadding and backing. If you click on the image, you may see some of the quilting. Now I am going to incorporate some hand quilting and embroidery stitches:

A Civic Duty

As a dual passport holder (New Zealand and Australia), I get to vote in both countries. Indeed, one of the obligations of Australian citizenship is that it is compulsory to cast a vote in local, state and federal elections. Accordingly, after this morning’s walk and swim, David and I will rock up to the local primary school (one of Copacabana’s very few public buildings) and perform our civic duty in today’s State election. So what if we are still in our wet togs, encrusted in salt and sand. We’ve done it this way before and the officials didn’t bat an eyelid. Copacabana is a very laidback kind of place.

Did I ever mention that I have a Masters degree in Political Science? Well I do and, as such, I like to think that I am reasonably politically aware and knowledgeable. Just the same, I reckon I need a PhD and a half to properly understand the ins and outs of the Australian preferential voting system. It is especially confronting when you are presented with a ballot paper for the Legislative Council (the upper house) that could cover your windscreen. No wonder the parties take the opportunity to hand out “how to vote cards” as you enter the polling booths. I’ll just have to run the gauntlet.

Old fashioned letters

Way before e-mail and blogging I was a penpal extraordinaire and yes I still have shoeboxes of letters to prove it. The simple pleasure of giving or receiving an old fashioned letter is hard to beat. I was reminded of this today when, amongst the bills and State election propaganda, I found a handwritten letter in the mail from a student from one of my recent workshops. I value student feedback in any form but it is especially touching when someone takes the time to write a note to let me know how much they enjoyed my class. Now please excuse me while I write a couple of thank you notes of my own…

White Out

A while ago, I mentioned my purchase of the book Landscape in Contemporary Quilts by Ineke Berlyn. What a fabulous read! One thing that struck me as I admire Ineke’s quilts is her use of white and nearly white fabrics. Not just as clouds, sea foam or snow but as buildings, sunrays, yacht sails and backgrounds generally. Such is Ineke’s skill is that the white is effectively incorporated into the design without the white parts screaming “look at me!” and dominating the quilt. I don’t know about you but the only white fabric in my stash tends to be either for dyeing or for more traditional quilts such as Single Star Wreath:

White also pops up in the occasional Christmas quilt such as Bon Bon:

Ineke’s book has opened my eyes to other possibilities.

The Fortress of Fear

So did you notice that I upgraded my Wordpress software today? No? Perfect! The process took all of about five minutes including restoring ALL of my customisations. What’s more, I have been able to activate some nifty new plug-ins such as an image resizing facility - thanks for the links Kim. I should have done this weeks ago but I was apprehensive about what might happen in the course of deleting old Wordpress files off my server. That basic fear provoked inertia if not paralysis.

The same thing can happen in quiltmaking or other creative endeavours. As David Bayles and Ted Orland observe in Art & Fear - Observations on the Perils (and Rewards) of Artmaking: If you are prone to disaster fantasies you may even find yourself caught in the middle, staring at your half-finished canvas and fearing both that you lack the ability to finish it, and that no one will understand it if you do.

If this predicament sounds familiar to you, then the chapters “Fears About Yourself” and “Fears About Others” may be instructive. Orland and Bayles highlight the benefits looking at your work clearly “without judgement, without need or fear, without wishes or hopes…ask your work what it needs, not what you need. Then set your fears aside and listen…” Furthermore:

“…courting approval, even that of peers, puts a dangerous amount of power in the hand of the audience. Worse yet, the audience is seldom in a position to grant (or withhold) approval on the one issue that really counts - namely, whether or not you’re making progress in your work. They’re in a good position to comment on how they are moved (or challenged or entertained) by the finished product, but have little knowledge or interest in your process. Audience comes later. The only pure communication is between you and your work.”