If someone had told me a few months ago that I would have won Best Dressed at the work Melbourne Cup event I would have laughed. Somehow though I managed to pick up the prize. It wasn’t till sometime yesterday arvo that I decided to wear a hat for the happenings today. After SES, I stopped off at my parents and ummed and ahhed over the various hats. Then Matthew suggested I wear Karl’s WW1 Brodie Helmet, a little bit of fabric and a few ribbons later I had myself a hat which would protect my head from shrapnel and was classy enough for the “field”.
I have donned my glad rags and I am off to the Redcliffe Cultural Centre tonight to drink OJ out of champagne flutes and to eat assorted nibbleys whilst looking at the entrants in this years Queensland Quilters Challenge. The challenge fabric this year was a doozy and I can’t wait to see what people have done with it. I can’t find a photo of Mum’s quilt at the moment but will put one up later tonight.
And a photo of me from today. I think this is the most me self portrait I have ever taken. I love it.
This is my Mum. Well her interpretation of a drawing that one of her students did of her a few years ago. Mum and a few of her friends are responsible for organising activities for the night meetings of Queensland Quilters. This month’s challenge was to make a self-portrait quilt.
The blue and green fabrics have been painted with sun reactive paints with leaves, lace and shells used as masks. To stitch the face she used the Stitch a Sketch technique by Faye Anderson in the June 2005 issue of Quilters Newsletter Magazine. She has a few more things to quilt on there yet but I wanted to show it off 🙂 I took it along to the meeting on Tuesday night as Mum is currently spending 3 weeks exploring the country west of Longreach and Birdsville. We had a phone call from her the other day and she is having a ball, lots and lots of native plants and birds to look at as well as seeing some very different country side to what she has seen before.
This was the roughly planned itinerary however I know it has changed since they have been out there due to where the rain has fallen and what creeks have flooded etc. I really recommend jumping on to Google Earth or Google Maps or whatever you like to explore the earth from above with.
To start at Longreach on May 2nd and travel to Birdsville by the shortest route. From Birdsville, travel down the Birdsville Track to Goyder’s Lagoon Waterhole where we will spend a couple of nights. From there we go to the Warburton Creek crossing, past which we turn back and travel up the northern side of the Warburton / Diamantina River, between the river and the bottom of the Simpson desert. This route will eventually bring us out at Birdsville or the Big Red sand dune west of Birdsville.
From Birdsville the course will be north by north west to Muncoonie Lakes from where we begin to follow the watercourses that flow here from the north.
Immediately above the lakes, the Mulligan River joins Eyre creek and after negotiating their confluence we will follow the Mulligan north through the western edges of several cattle properties. Crossing the Bedourie – Ethabuka access road we continue on up the river until we are near the source and as far as we are allowed to go. This point is on Glenormiston station and from there we travel back to Ethabuka, where we will stay, provided our interest is sustained, for 5 days. From Ethabuka we will return to Longreach by the most direct route hoping to arrive on May 23 or the morning of 24th.
Well in a couple of short hours I will walk across a stage in the city and graduate. Here is a sneak peak of the dress Mum and I have made. You will have to wait till after I graduate to see the whole dress.
In other news last night I lost a tooth I never had. That is right my false tooth broke off my plate, so just like my formal photos were in High School, my graduation photos will also be toothless. Luckily, it was just the tooth part that broke off, so I will be able to keep wearing my plate till I can get to the Orthodontist. Not exactly how I wanted the day to start but I guess that is life with a false tooth.
Well the way too short mid-semester break is over and to show for it I have written two essays, caught up on my readings and prepared for an exam this week. As well as a little bit of playing.
Yesterday I made these two headbands and cut out all the pieces for my 21st birthday quilt – Mum paid for the fabric and I am making it. It uses fabric from the Flowershow and Palazzo collections from Benartex.
Between cutting out all the blocks I also made two headbands 🙂
Now that I have played with two different patterns I plan on merging them a bit for the next one as I like the ties on the Heather Bailey pattern but prefer the tapered cut from Katie Sue as I prefer how it sits on my head.
Now whilst I was having fun at home, Mum went out to a little class and made this most adorable little pouch.
The little stone affair in the middle is one of those glass pebbles that people put in vases covered with a scrap of chiffon. How cool does it look!
I made a new top yesterday 🙂 Well I started it on Sunday and finished it on Monday evening. The pattern is Burda 8517 made with some mighty fine Liberty Tana Lawn in a print called Paul that I picked up the fabric in the remnants section at Gardams for a sure fire price of $43.50 (original price for 1.1m was $55). Of course the big question was then what pattern to use and after flipping though all the pattern books they had there we decided on the Burda pattern.
Since this was no cheap fabric we played it safe and made a muslin first and decided to lengthen the sleeves by about 1″ and to skip the elastic casing below the bust. The end result is a top that I am super happy with, feels comfy and looks great. 🙂
