A new project in the making

I quite randomly found these wonderful picture frames the other day. Aren't they lovely?

It was lunchtime at work. Usually I eat lunch at my desk, but on this day I rummaged around in my handbag and only managed to turn up a manky tissue, an old nail file, and my address book. Nothing nutritious there, and certainly no lunch in sight.

I clearly remembered getting my sprouts and tuna out of the fridge at home.... and then, just as clearly remembered walking out the front door without taking them with me. Oops

So a bought lunch was in order. I went out to the cafe in the back lane and ordered some sort of scrumptious toasted concoction, and while it was being prepared I went for a little amble to stretch my legs. Around the side and a few metres down the road, there was a warehouse sale on. And you know how I am about bargains, so naturally I went inside.

I did the classic window-shopper thing. Ho-ed and hum-ed my way around the space, picking things up and putting them down again. I saw a very nice bakers stand that I thought would look good on the back verandah, all potted out with spring flowers. But too big, at six feet there was no way I was going to be able to fit it in the car.

Just as I was on my way out, these frames caught my eye.Looking at the gorgeous carvings on corners made me feel all warm and curly inside.

So I bought as many as I could afford, because I have a plan in mind for them ....

Guilt trip from Grimth

Grimth is sitting on the kitchen bench and giving me the death stare.

I think he's been reading my email. He knows I've had a series of bewildered enquiries from people about why I haven't been blogging, and he's guilting me out about it.

It's very disconcerting to be impaled by the eyes of a cute little furry animal.

I resolve to do better, readers. In between the new job and  .... well, really it's just the new job, actually. I get home and I'm exhausted! In a happy, fulfilled kind of exhausted way, but nevertheless I'm generally asleep before you can say "internet".

It's fascinating to note though, that as my time for blogging and sewing has diminished,my desire to do so has exponentially increased. I find I'm a little more fractious, a little less patient, than I usually am when I have everything nicely in balance. As a rule I generally have a very long fuse; but when I'm out of whack this fuse gets a lot shorter.

So Grimth had better be careful!*

(note: this is an empty threat and employed as a dramatic device only. Please do not write me angry letters about animal cruelty. That cat has got it good, and he knows it.)

A little piece of Britain

Ah, dear readers, the gentle and unspoken pressure of your expectation. Blank pages to fill for you! Thoughts to make into flesh!

Now that I am blogging again, I feel my sewing inspiration returning as well - because what is blogging without pictures? What is blogging without new projects to display? What, indeed?

And thus it was that this morning I put together a beautiful little cushion made from a 100% Irish linen vintage British tea towel.  I love the really vibrant colours and the bold illustrations of this beauty. I found it up the road at a local op shop, and it was just crying out to be turned into something wonderful. 

I know the tea towel in its original state was already both functional and beautiful, but I would have felt it a waste to just dry the dishes with it. Plus, My One True Love has this habit of wiping up coffee grains with the nearest tea towel to hand, and I couldn't bear to have this one stained. It's too pretty.

So now it's a gorgeous cushion cover; perfect for a boys' room or to remind you of that amazing year you had over there in The Old Country. My favourite bit is all the names of the stations in the London Underground.

I'm half-British, though I never spent a gap year there myself (actually, I never had a gap year at all), but somehow when I look at this one I just think of home.

It's because of the banana

It's been six weeks.

The world has turned on its axis. Seasons have changed, from summer to autumn and from winter to spring. Thousands of miles have been traversed, and travelled back again.

Earthquakes have shaken us. Nuclear reactors have wept into the sea.

I've returned to Australia and left the Middle East uprising behind me. I have a new job, in a new industry, and for the first time in my life I'm working outside the CBD. I'm a bridesmaid in a very special wedding.

Boot camp is a constant. A baby has been born.

Today, I bought a banana for the first time in a very long time. It cost me Three Dollars And Fifteen Cents. For a single banana. Just the one.

And I thought: this online silence cannot continue! I must speak of this!

I have found my voice again.

Greetings from Abu Dhabi

The beautiful Sheikh Zayed mosque in Abu Dhabi, picture from here

Greetings, dear readers, from the wonderful city of Abu Dhabi, where your glamorous internationally jetsetting blogger is currently ensconced in a lavish hotel suite (suite!) for a few days.

I'm here on a bit of a whirlwind trip, having flown in for a job interview - at their expense, thank goodness, not mine - and of course a bit of fabric shopping if I can fit it in. And if you know me at all, you know I'll fit that in.

It all happened rather quickly, so Saturday night saw me farewelling My One True Love at the aeroflot yet again. There is something very deja vu / error in the code about our farewells at the airport these days, as we've done so many of them. But farewell we did, and with a grin and a wave I was through the metal doors and into the newly redone area of the international departure space.

And it's lovely! They have a Cafe Vue there now, and my favourite store, which sells merino clothes and Metallicus, had a wonderful golden yellow scarf which I exercised considerable restraint to not buy. After all, I haven't got the job yet - and if I do get it, I'll hardly be needing a woollen scarf now, will I?

Before too long I was on the plane. In economy. In my seat. Which was broken. Noooooooo! True story, it didn't recline. I contemplated the prospect of a 14 hour overnight international journey sitting up ramrod straight as the hours went by, feeling my spine crumble into oatmeal. Oatmeal spiced with razors.

After a few quiet words with one of the stewardesses - during which I fluttered my proverbial eyelashes and mentioned the phrase "job interview" at least eleventy-six times, I was shown to a new seat. In the middle row of the plane. Where no one else was sitting. Four empty seats to myself ......... whoo hoo!!! In all of my flying hither and yon over the years, I have never, ever had an entire middle row to myself. It is a thing of myth and legend.

And so Project Nighty Night began. I put up all the armrests, arranged a number of fleecy airline blankets over me, created a little mound of pillows at just the perfect height, accepted a vodka and tonic, chased it down with a valium, and said goodbye to the world for the entire night. Slept like a baby.

And now here I am. I have five hours of interviews today (five....hours....) and I think that with the help of a little caffeine through the day, I should make it through relatively unscathed.

Wish me luck!

Postage Stamp Quilt

 Do you ever get that urge to sew, like I do? A feeling in the middle of you like something is crushing your insides and you just gottta create something?

Today, I am filled with inspiration. My sewing machine has been in its box for a full four weeks now (four! weeks!) and I can feel the urge getting louder and louder.

I've had a project in the back of my mind for a little while now, and it strikes me that this is the perfect time to begin it. It lives in this book, The Gentle Art Of Quilt-Making, by Jane Brocket. I love this book, because I have so many of the fabrics she uses in the quilts, it's as if she's inside my mind.

I adore the colours and textures of the projects she puts together, and the book itself is stunning. I used to pick it up and stroke it lovingly in the shops before I actually caved in and bought it. Tell me, have you ever seen a more lovely cover? (Ignore the glue stain, oops)

The pattern is called "Postage Stamp", and it puts all the squares on the diagonal, which brings a lot more movement into the quilt.

I've picked out sixteen fabrics from my stash, all in bluey-yellowy shades, and the weather has been so kind that I've been able to wash and dry them all.

I have a range of Joel Dewberry prints, Filigree Gallery, Michael Miller, Anna Maria Horner, Heather Bailey, and a couple of pieces I bought when I was in India a few years ago.

I'm really excited about beginning this project, it'll be my first quilt in a while. Can't talk, must start cutting 3 inch squares!

Blog blog ..... yawn....

Yaaaaaaaawn!

That is not the yawn of a bored blogger. Oh no. That is the yawn of a sleepy blogger.

I've been back in Australia for around 10 days now. Hello Melbourne! Hello My One True Love! Hello pussins! Hello green green gardens and velvet lawns - sooo unusual for Melbourne in summer, but then, I understand most of Australia has been under water for months now, so that explains it.

Yes, I've been back for around 10 days, and unconscious with exhaustion and jetlag for the better part of that time. Bahrain is 8 hours behind Melbourne, so it's almost exactly a reverse timeframe. When I'm sleepy, I should be awake. When I'm awake, I should be asleep. I get hungry for cereal at dinner time.

Every day I try to get up at a reasonable hour.... and then I go back to sleep. It's hard, especially when the pussins are all warm and cuddly and curled up on the yellow silk coverlet. That is the best kind of superglue to keep me in bed.

But I am resolved; I WILL adjust to this timeframe. Today, or tomorrow ....before I fly back to Abu Dhabi for a few days. And then everything will be topsy turvy again. Sigh!