Looking back, moving forward

The first drawing I made specifically for the blog was of two presser feet for the Everyday Matters challenge called 'draw a collection'.  That modest drawing had quite a big impact on me because up until then I did little or no sketching, I'd never completed a drawing in a day, and it opened a whole new world of drawing possibilities, namely almost everything around me! So I felt like going back to doing something similar as if was so much fun and it's been a while since I recorded some of those things that are personal to me.

It's funny for me to look back at some of the posts I wrote in the first year of blogging. I declared one of my pet hates to be black clothes, and especially people who dress head to toe in black. Five years on and most of my wardrobe and all of my shoes and bags are black! I didn't write about earrings, but if I had, I would have mentioned how much I disliked dangly earrings too!

As I said back then, I hate looking back, but looking back and seeing how much you've changed is fun. No point regretting the flares and platforms or worse, looking back and imagining everything was better then. I can't bear to listen to people who hark on about the past, airbrushing their own history, but it's good, once in a while, to look back and realise how much you've changed and how far you've come.

I drew this while I was stuck at home waiting for a delivery of firewood. It finally arrived just before 5pm, just as it was getting dark. Some things never change, do they?

HB and 3B pencil, Winsor & Newton cartridge paper

Gone with the wind...

Since the blog is quiet at the moment, I thought I'd post something colourful from a while back. I came across this fabric postcard when I was going through my old posts looking for quilts for a new page (see tabs at the top of the page, under the header). What I find amazing is that I have absolutely no memory of doing this! I made it as a little gift for someone leaving the quilt group and I can't even remember who that was either! To say I have a poor memory is something of an understatement.

I've taken some time off from things I feel I 'should' be doing but I'm picking up where I left off with the large quilt I'm piecing now although eventually I want to play with making some more postcards. I really like this format and the challenge of coming up with little designs that work within the 6x4" format, playing with stitching and trying to work some beads into them.

At the same time, I came across another post about my Wobbly Bits quilt and yet again, I'd completely forgotten the process. Thank goodness blogging has it's uses. It was only when I went through my sewing machine manual that I remembered how I did the stitching (with a combination of mirror image, pattern end and other little clever tricks). For the postcard in the photo, I simply did the stitching with foot to the floor, one hand guiding the fabric and the other controlling the stitch width. I know I waffle on a bit on the blog, but if only I'd waffled a bit more about the postcards I might find out what materials I used because all that info is gone too!

Bits and bobbins

It's a bit of a challenge - painting and quilting at the same time - but I'm hanging in there! So many artists beat themselves up for not focusing on one thing, for lacking staying power, but I have the opposite of this problem. I have to give up everything else to focus on one thing even though I'd really like to be doing lots of creative things.

I forced myself away from the sewing machine when I completed the top for a little lap quilt to finish something I started a few weeks ago. It's an edible squash, called a Turk's Turban, but I didn't quite finish it before I flew off to England. (A few words about the materials used etc. on my other blog, if you are interested.) Every autumn the supermarkets here have lots of lovely decorations like these, some edible, some not, for sale. I never used to like autumn but it's definitely grown on me since I've been here! I wasn't going to make a connection between this squash and the quilting but actually autumn does seem to trigger the desire to start sewing.

I've been busy cutting and sewing the blocks for this quilt, above, (still undecided about whether to make one or two) and had lots of squares left over so I put together a simple little 'lap quilt', below, which should be keep me cosy watching TV in the winter! Well, eventually, because I still have to put it together and quilt it, which is my least favourite part of the process! I've deliberately kept it small so it won't be a chore and finishing it will hopefully give me a boost when I need to quilt the next one.

The colours actually look terrible and dull in these photos and I can't get the true colours to show on any of the camera settings. But anyway, they are lovely warm autumnals- really! The background of the larger one is a soft, warm biscuit colour. I've laid out the blocks on the floor before putting them together just so I can see how it looks and see that the colours are fairly evenly distributed. It's been so long since I've done a large quilt I've gone about it quite slowly (cutting things as I go rather than doing what is called speed piecing) so that it all comes back to me and I don't make too many mistakes trying to go faster!

Finally, I've added two new pages to this blog. You will see the tabs for them at the top of the page, under the header. So far they are just images (portraits and quilts) but I will start adding a few details underneath each later.