While I do not advocate the importation of American holidays into the Antipodes, the celebration of Thanksgiving has been part of my personal calendar for over half my life for various reasons. I have fond memories of my first Thanksgiving as an exchange student - a sit down affair for over 35 people orchestrated by my host grandmother with great aplomb. Thanksgiving 2008 was a more modest affair shared with our neighbours who watched over our house while we were travelling. There is much to be thankful for.

PS: Pumpkin pie and Texas Corn Bread recipes can be found on Our Family Favourites.

It’s over a year since I was in my hometown holding a Serendipity Circles workshop with Warkworth Quilters. So I was surprised, but delighted!, when I received this picture of Annette’s finished quilt:

Annette doesn’t have e-mail but Anne (the group’s president) kindly sent the image by e-mail along with this note “I hope this gets through okay, I am still not fully computer literate!!”.

I was delighted on two counts. First, it is always a thrill to know that one of my workshops has inspired someone to complete their very own version of Serendipity Circles - a workshop that, incidentally, I’ll be teaching at the Australasian Quilt Convention 2009 in February. Second, I greatly admire people who are willing to learn new skills in order to share special things.

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I cut into my last batch of hand dyes to make this piece. I’ve decided it is too abstract to submit as my mathematics themed quilt for the next Twelve by Twelve challenge. However, I am super-happy with the way the quilt turned out - the fluid curves; the interaction of colour; the quilting and the finish. I’m certain this will be a springboard to some larger pieces along similar lines.

Images of the quilts from the 2008 Guild Challenge are now uploaded to the online album Coast and Country. Alternatively, you can view the slideshow. Members were invited to focus on either theme element or both. It’s always interesting to see what creative images people come up with - Girls Day Out is a particularly light-hearted interpretation of the theme and was awarded Viewers Choice.

The next “reveal” of the Twelve by Twelve challenge quilts is on 1 December US time. I have one three four five numerous mathematics themed quilts in various stages of completion and am not sure whether “the one” has emerged yet.

While I don’t like making quilts to a deadline, challenges can work in a benign way to give you creative focus. Here is just a handful of quilt challenge and exhibition opportunities coming up in the next few weeks and months:

• the 2010 calendar challenge of the Quilters Guild of NSW closes on 28 November;
• the inaugural AP&Q AQC challenge (Theme:Fantasy) closes on 10 December;
• entries for the 2009 Sydney Quilt Show of the Quilters Guild of NSW close on 27 February; and
• the entry deadline for Art Quilt Australia, an initiative of Ozquilt Network Inc and Craft ACT (open to members and Australian residents), is 24 July 2009.

It’s easy to lose count of all the opportunities that are out there so let me know if there’s one that I have missed.

The abstract works of German-born Australian artist Karl Wiebke explore some of the endless possibilities offered by lines and shapes.

Each of the 162 drawings in his Flag series consists of an arrangement of rectangles and squares on small, uniformly sized sheets of paper. The positive and negative space is then filled in with yellow and blue inks.

In Sticks, Wiebke has painted long wooden rods in a variety of horizontal and vertical stripes, dots, smudges, drips and lines. The “sticks” can be exhibited all together as one installation or divided into batches, each forming a different fabric of colours. (Here’s another set of sticks from 2002.)

I’ve been having fun cutting into some of my new hand-dyes and working on a number of small pieces, one of which may end up as my next contribution to the Twelve by Twelve Collaborative Art Quilt Project which is due to be revealed on 1 December US time.

I’ve been listening to Radio National while I have been sewing. If you ever have troubles keeping track of everything, spare a thought for the dabbawallahs of Mumbai. As highlighted in the Karma of Tin (a podcast that you can download):

Each morning 5,000 Dabbawallahs collect approximately 200,000 meal containers in the suburbs and deliver them to offices in the city centre. Four hours later the empty containers are collected and returned. It’s a delivery system that started in the 1890s to accommodate people from different ethnic backgrounds with strict rules about how food should be prepared. It functions without managers or supervision; most of the workers are illiterate and all receive the same wages.

And the remarkable thing is that it is estimated that there is only one mistake in every SIX MILLION deliveries. Wow!

Speaking of the Indian subcontinent, my sister Delia is off to Bangladesh to work at the LAMB Hospital in Dinajpur for 11 weeks. She writes that:

The maternity dept at Lamb is extremely busy, delivering over 3,500 babies a year, with a C-section rate just over 20% and a high number of complicated cases, e.g. eclampsia and obstructed labor. The Gyn dept is also increasingly busy, with a new fistula repair unit recently opened. LAMB Hospital has 5 recently graduated Bangladeshi lady doctors who work in the obstetrics department.

This will be Delia’s third visit to Bangladesh but her first as an active medical attendant. Godspeed Delia!

Over the years, my Christmas stocking has often contained a Red Delicious apple (from Washington State where I was an exchange student). As a delightful gift to all of us, Esther has just launched her Red Delicious Block of the Month:

The launch was slightly delayed because the Blogger platform does not allow you to upload pdf files to share. However, I referred Esther to this post by Blogging 101 about how to link to a pdf or document in my blog, and she uploaded her pdf to the online document sharing service Scribd.

If you have a pattern or document that you would like to share with your readers in pdf format, then I suggest you try dopdf.com a free PDF converter for both personal and commercial use. Using this software, you can create PDF files by selecting the “Print” command from virtually any application. (It’s only a 1.35MB download and there’s no nasty adware involved.) Then you can upload it onto some webspace, link to it and she’ll be apples!

I had a very pleasant day teaching Scrap Queen Odyssey at The Cottage Quiltworks yesterday. I was so engrossed that I didn’t manage to get photos of everyone’s work but here is a glimpse:

 
 
I next teach Scrap Queen Odyssey at the Australasian Quilt Convention on Saturday, 28 February 2009 and I’ll be back at The Cottage Quiltworks on 11 May 2009.

As the Twelve by Twelve Collaborative Art Quilt Project demonstrates, the 12×12in format is remarkably versatile. This versatility is also evident in the One Foot Squares featured in the 2008 Benefit Auction put on by Studio Art Quilt Associates. Fellow Twelves, Kristin, Terri and Gerrie have each contributed works for the auction. Enjoy the online gallery.