Animals come out in the early morning

So, this morning at 5:15, I was lying awake, listening to the birds beginning to twitter, and thinking of my farm quilt-in-progress.

Now, don't think I do this all the time, but by 5:30 I was up, surprising the dog (who cracked some mighty yawns) and thinking of two lovely hours in which to sew and play. I started some bread dough while making coffee, and hit the machine:


If you get up really early, you can see the rabbits running around...


It was fiddlier than I thought, and I had to stitch very slowly, only a few stitches at a time before lifting the foot and adjusting the pieces. But the applique aren't that big, and there are only five of them, so that's fine. I've done the swallow and the rabbit. And now there's fresh, warm bread out of the oven for breakfast.

Let's just hope that I don't fall asleep over my desk at work today!

On my desk: the first house drawing

(click the image above to see it a bit larger if you want)

Here's a loose interpretation of the first photo I posted yesterday. I'd like to work this into a sweet, squiggly-lined sketch to print onto my white cotton/linen mix. Perhaps.

I'm still deciding what to do with it, but I think I need to draw more versions and see what happens.

-B


There's lots more 'On my desk...' goodness, going around the creative desks of the world....

On my desk....

This week, the desk's a jumble of projects all vying to be finished. I've got a growing collection of stencils on the retro farm theme, and the latest additions were a sheaf of wheat, a strawberry, and a very sweet little hedgehog who, I am told, needs a 'shiny black button nose'!

At the back, the drawing for my latest Posted Stitches quilt, on the myths and legends theme. A kimono hanging up has since been finished and is being used. And I'm still reading that gorgeous French book....

More desk delights can be found over at Kootoyoo.

B

On a new desk...

It's 9:07 PM and I can barely keep my eyes open.... Thank you, my dears, for the kind wishes and good thoughts for starting both jobs today. It was ace. It was hard work. I got up early, I schmoozed over breakfast (superhuman!) I raced home, changed and cycled to my next job. I wrote all day, and managed not to fall in the creek all the way home. My bike seat collapsed. I collapsed. Two chocolate frogs were killed in the accident.

Normal blogging service will resume tomorrow.

B

On my desk...

Here's a little thing, on my desk. It's my first (or second) attempt at an art journal page, inspired by the interview Jennifer hosted with Dawn DeVries Sokol over at CraftSanity.


I've been sitting on it for a week or two. (Not literally!) I just wasn't sure if it was really art journaling, and then I opened up the book today and decided that because it had blue all over it, I rather liked it. A photo from a greeting card, some wrapping paper, fabric leaves and a fabric flower. No acrylics? Just use fabric paint. Who can tell?

On my desk ( the sofa): A finished project in one act

Scene:
Sunday night, in a little house in the city. The small room is filled with books, clutter, and fabric. Outside the wind howls and laundry flaps on the line. A couple sit on sofas, their knees covered with brightly-coloured home-made quilts. On the TV the opening sequence of 'Midsomer Murders' is playing...

He: Woman on a bicycle! Woman on a bicycle! - That's how we know we're in England, right.
She: [stitching] Mmm. Wait till you spot the black glove.
He: Twee cottage, roses, check. Thatched roof, check. Gate, check.
She: Scary music, check. Must be a dead body in the roses.
Dog: Grumble. - Rolls over and snores loudly.
[end scene]

I finished some stitching while watching TV this week, and here is one of the projects 'off' my desk and in the finished bag. It's another applique teatowel - this one's for me (I'm learning to be selfish).

Trouble is, while watching Grand Designs last night, I kept getting distracted and poking myself in the finger. "And this wonderful architectural design", says Kevin "is a paean to OW! modernism..."

Just another night in Northcote.


There have also been some SECRET birthday things! (oh ho ho) being finished off and about to go out in the post.

Have a lovely Wednesday!

B

On my desk...

On my desk this week there is a large stack of lovely bright fabric, which is gradually becoming a summer brights quilt. This photo shows the strong rays of sunshine coming in across my desk: it was divine to sit at a sunny window, with the fresh air coming in while I stitched away.


I give away nearly all of the quilts I make, so this is a refreshing exercise in using the fabrics that I adore, in a quilt that's for me. Not a fancy quilt, just a colourful quilt.


Ten blocks completed and I'm getting there!

B

On my desk....

Hurrah, that desk. My husband built it out of a huge slab of MDF and some Ikea legs. And because we're all for reality blogging around here, here it is in its un-excavated state. It's a lived-in artefact!

Notable features upon this relic of recent activity: (can you tell I'm still pretending I'm an archaeologist?)

In the upper layers we find:

• A prominent site of homage and worship: the sewing machine. Ritual purposes?*
  
• A colourful notebook - see blogged post about it - and several strata of notes on jobs.
• 'What Colour is your Parachute?' - a fantastic job-hunting, career-changing manual.

Below these items, we find:

• A cutting mat, in case I feel the need to shred things with a scalpel (does that ever happen to you? I find tax time and whenever I need to do the filing, that the urge to cut things to ribbons mysteriously emerges in me...)
• Moo cards, Mixtape, and fabric paint.

Buried by time, and elegantly cropped out of the photo, is a lovely scrap heap of bits of fabrics I'm 'Working On'.

Happy Wednesday! Thanks to Kootoyoo for the meme.

B

* Note added later: In our house, "Ritual Purposes" is our shorthand for anything inexplicable, as in "Probably used for ritual purposes..." meaning "We have no idea". The other one is, for businesses "Must be a money-laundering operation", meaning "How in heck do they stay in business?"

Anyone got any more of these? We sort of collect them...