bleurghhh

i have the dreaded sinusitis :( thanks to w bringing home the creche cold.... i woke up at 3 am on christmas morning with a sore throat and things have gone downhill from there. i have some gigantic and hopefully potent antibiotics which should start to weave their magic soon but until then i have a head full of wet cement and it feels like someone is standing on my face

and i missed my first blogoversary (december 19)- caught up in cmas panic i completely forgot about it....

on a brighter note there has been some creativity chez seahorse -


first the fox (or fock as w calls him) he was designed to be a hobby fox (like a hobby horse, head on a stick that you ride) but having seen what w can do brandishing a stick i have decided the mr fock would lead a quieter life if he were a hand puppet so i will make him a body rather than impale him on a piece of dowel. the old head on a stick is a bit too reminiscent of good old fashioned punishments like hanging drawing and quartering and having your head put on a stick and displayed on london bridge.....

and here is the 2006 gnessing box - (designed and constructed by A and decorated by A, E and W)

part of our family tradition of celebrating the season of christmas rather than just the day. due to ill health the cmas calendar has fallen by the wayside but the gnessing box has been a great success. it's full of small small tings like chocolate frogs, stretchy lizards, bubble mix and bouncy balls. the only problem is that the concept of 'one man one vote' is completely foreign to a 2 year old who sees it as a cornucopia...

and a photo will be taken tomorrow of A's quilt which i finished tonight. it's by no means a show quilt - basic stitch in the ditch quilting and a few dodges here and there but it's done and keeping A warm tonight.

onward and upward

well after a slight pause - that slightly bereft hiatus when you have finished something that has consumed your mind and energy for months - things are moving again.

this weekend i have made:

2 knitted owl cloths the green one is made of rowan cotton glace (i found a bag of assorted rowan cotton yarns at savers for $6!!!) and the cream one is of jo sharp soho summer cotton - leftover from my zoe cardigan last year.

a notebook holder (possibly a cmas present for someone) inspired by the lovely one i saw over at jorth

and look who arrived on friday -

mr olifant jellibat. created by angelica at jellibat

i did it!

5 journal quilts finished - hurrah!

Textile Seahorse - Journal Quilt #1 January 2006

Silk fabrics and threads, glass beads. Made to reflect the early days of my blog which has kept me honest and prompted me to finish at least some of my work.

Bleached Seahorse - Journal Quilt #2 July 2006

Discharged dyed with Ajax using a homemade stencil. Handquilted and beaded. Making these small quilts has made me realised how much I really enjoy hand stitching.

Winter into Spring Journal Quilt #3 August 2006

Vintage kimono fabric, using Ricky Tims’ convergence technique. Machine quilted to mimic rain. Hand beaded.

This quilt reflects the days towards the end of winter when the early flowers are mixed with dark days of rain.










Experimental Felt #2 - Journal Quilt #4 September 2006

Cotton, wool suiting, wool and silk tops, beads, silk, wool and cotton embroidery thread, silk cocoons. Layered, machine quilted over Solvy then machine washed and dried.

New York Beauty Journal Quilt #5 November 2006

Made to celebrate my mastering foundation piecing. The red and gold block stands for courage and strength and perseverance. The dark block stands for the times in my life when i have been kneecapped by the melancholy, paralysis of will and bleakness of depression.

new toy

i bought this box yesterday from tombo - a great japanese shop in high street northcote - they have great (and cheap) kimono too.

it's from mongolia and is the perfect size to house my renaissance embroidery wool






and my gorgeous ribbons from laura foster nicholson












on the journal quilt front - 5 sleeves are now sewn :) the trim is done on the new york beauty (tentatively renamed cobalt beauty) and stitching is progressing on the kantha seahorse - well done me :)

becalmed....

i'm starting to get that panicky running out of time feeling - with its usual companion of paralysis and aversion to the task at hand ie finishing those journal quilts....

on the other hand i have made this (see stephanie's pattern here) E and I each made one yesterday - e's isn't quite finished but we had fun making them and they will have ribbon loops so we can hang them on the cmas tree.

i have also done some shibori felting (instructions at jussi's blog here) the felting worked really well but something terribly wrong happened with the colours - i've never liked salmon and then the blue wouldn't take and it was all a disaster :( its currently bathing in napisan. i used a 2 meter long alpaca blanketing offcut and borrowed A's marbles and rubber band collection....

popped it in the washing machine


then the microwave with some food colouring and vinegar solution

a day or two on the line drying, being inspected, overdyeing etc


i've also done most of a sock ( no photo yet sorry)

and nothing to the journal quilts...... although i did get as far as turning on the sewing machine before i realised i really had to update my blog.

here here are some gratuitous photos of my insides

- quite beautiful don't you think? and full of art quilt potential. i think they look like something from deep space - especially the first one - quite venusian. the lower one is of my ovaries - described by an ultrasound technician once as "quite beautiful"

on the other hand my brain is still full of og from the anaesthetic and my tummy is soooooooore. i wasn't expecting it to hurt this much and definitely expected to feel sprightly by now