H-I-J-K

Quilt on the lawn

A quilt for my new niece, who arrives in ten days. This was really quick to make - three 30cm pieces of Empress Woo, plus some pink and white flannel for the backing, and a machine-sewn binding (I know that this is totally cheating but I am a lazy quilter, and I'm not sure that my hand sewing would stand up to everyday wear-and-tear).
Today was more of a hobby day than a work day. I need to find some motivation for tomorrow though as I have a stack of pics to edit, and some ideas for Saturday's portrait session to ruminate on. With that in mind, I must away to my bed. Bonne nuit.

Quick quick

Thursday morning: invoicing is done, e-mails have been replied to, picture editing is done, sun is shining.   A perfect day to photograph some products and put them in my not-yet-online shop.  Also a perfect day to hem a dress I made yesterday and start my first foray into sewing knits.    Can't wait for instructions, just going to plough on in.  Also on the list today: read the new Blueprint mag (hey, Martha, can foreigners have a subscription, too?), pre-wash some fabric, and finish a quilt for a little girl who arrived early.   Gotta go, catch you later.

Green

The colours of spring are everywhere in Auckland at the moment - pink, purple, orange, yellow, and that beautiful, almost neon, green of the trees. I am fairly ignorant when it comes to plants but I can't stop taking pictures of them. Everything is so vivid.

Spring brings change, and I have decided to quit my day job to live the creative life. At the moment, I have a pretty pastel-coloured idea of what that means; a simpler life, time to cook, bake, clean, and pursue my current artistic interests. I know that it will not necessarily be so rosy, and I will have to really manage my time, but I can't wait for that first day when I get up and I won't have to go to the office.

I will save greater discussion of the domestic arts for another post. In the meantime, I leave you with Garrison Keillor's famous salutation: 'Be well, do good work, and keep in touch.'

Looking out my back door

The end of a great and productive weekend in the city. Still got blog block; will get over myself soon!

FO, the first

My first finished item from 'In Stitches' by Amy Butler. This is the patchwork handbag. I have the book, 'Bend-the-rules Sewing' by Amy Karol to thank for this - were it not for that, I would never have broken my fear of sewing anything other than small items.

At the gate

It's fair to say that I am perhaps not a natural blogger. The words don't come easily to me at the moment, but I have wondered if it's like knitting, and I might get better at it. Late last year I went to Stash Yarns in Putney and marvelled at the women working there who encouraged people to bring in their knitting mistakes and they would fix them. One of the women assured a customer that there was nothing that the two of them couldn't fix. I was a newish knitter at the time and in awe - would I ever reach that level, when a dropped stitch was enough to give me an attack of the vapours? But now, today, as I knitted into the stitch below and yarned over without a second thought and picked up a dropped stitch with a crochet hook(best hint ever), I realised I had got some of the way there, and perhaps, in a few weeks or months I will be sitting here at my kitchen table banging out blog posts like nobody's business.

Four

Coincidentally, the age my niece was until Tuesday, and the number of posts on this blog!    I've been a bit slow to get going but I hope to be putting some more content up here.  In the meantime, here's a picture of my spirited niece, taken one Sunday afternoon.   Have a great weekend.

Lit up

Today's pic is a lensbaby photo from November 2006 - autumn leaves on Victoria Embankment, in London.

Tea break

Farewell Blighty and hello, New Zealand! More to come....

Paris, France

Me too!