Big move...

... coming up for us. I have been offered a very cool job in Brisbane, Australia, starting in January, and we have decided to accept it. So the big move is on!!!

If anyone has any suggestions about

• how to move and stay sane
• reliable and reasonably priced moving companies
• 'nice' suburbs and great (state) schools in Brisbane
• 'must connect with' Quilting groups and shops in Brisbane, as well as
• any tips and tricks for moving from NZ to AUS

please send them this way, we will need all the help we can get :)

Not much sewing going on I'm afraid but lots of sorting out, packing up etc....

Hope you are more productive than I am! Happy Sewing!

Around the World Blog Hop

The lovely Suz from All the Good Ones are Taken - quilter, neighbour and friend - has asked me to join her in the Around the World Blog Hop. It's been a long time since I have taken part in a blog hop, so let's see how we'll go:

1. What am I working on?

I haven't done much lately, but I have out both the Tokyo Subway Map quilt that still needs more echo swirls as well as Whakapapa I for which I have a lot of ideas but not found the time and 'muse' yet to continue on.

Tokyo Subway Map - WIP - 2013 - 2014

2. How does my work differ from others of its genre?

I like to design my own pieces, but I usually only make one of a particular design - it's a bit like "been there, done that". Often I use bright colours:

I love batiks though they can give me grief with quilting at times due to the tight weave. Lately I have been doing a lot of heavy quilting on many of my pieces. Quite often I have a purpose and finished size in mind and work from that. While some projects develop over time, sometimes I just know what it needs to look like.

3. Why do I write/create what I do? 

I have always liked creating things. I like the touch of fabric, maybe that is one of the reasons why I struggle to buy material online? Quilting is 'me time', it gives me a chance to create, to play, to simply have a good time :)

4. How does my writing/creating process work?

I don't often work from a pattern nowadays - recent exceptions include Spring Fling and Tokyo Subway Map.

Springfling 2014

There is usually some kind of spark, sometimes a Challenge theme like "free" or "ten" from the AQC in 2013 and 2014, 

Uni{que}versal 2014

or just an idea like Against the Odds,

Against the Odds 2011

or something I have seen like Whakapapa I

Whakapapa I - WIP - 2014 (apologies for the poor quality photograph)

which was inspired by our trip to Germany in 2013. Sometimes I know straight away what has to happen, sometimes a piece will sit for a long time before inspiration strikes. I have yet to completely abandon a big project. Suz and I often laugh how size is one of the starting points for me (she takes quite a different approach :D). 

Thanks for joining me for this Blog Hop! To continue it I have asked Rona from Layer upon Layer and Bente from I like to Quilt to hop on next week - please check out their posts on 8 Sept!

Time out over lunch and some contemplating

I took some time out over lunchtime today and DH and I went to the concert of the Royal NZ Navy Band. It was absolutely fabulous and brought back dear memories of our time (a long time ago) playing in our concert band back in Germany. The band did really well catering for the audience of mainly school children, music, entertainment, fun, engagement and at 1h just long enough. As our sons' schools were not taking classes there, DH went back to grab Master 9 and is currently enjoying the repeat of the concert.

As an ex-musician and music teacher I am quite sad that children in our area rarely have the opportunity to hear such music life, also that learning musical instruments happens only in pockets, esp. when you look at instruments beyond recorder, ukulele, guitar and drums. I sometimes wonder if I am denying my children some opportunities by not exposing them to more different experiences, though often it is just too much of an effort to get them there.

Despite the prevalence of online learning and ubiquitous access to knowledge, are we creating a society that has a very narrow view of the world and the limited skills that go with that. What price will we pay as a society for not passing on skills and knowledge beyond what is in their immediate surrounding? How can we expose young people in rural areas to 'what they don't know'? How can we ensure we are not limiting them to the point where they are denied certain pathways - pathways of personal growth, enjoyment and for future job prospects?

(Cross-blogging this post to thebelbird.blogspot.com)

Spring Fling on a grey winter's day

Spring Fling is completed - enjoy:

Rain, rain, go away...

Term break and the weather in the first week has been atrocious! We've had a massive storm that has left roads and country side flooded (just google "Northland storm flooding 2014" to see some of the pictures...). We ended up with no power for 72h from Tuesday night to Friday night. Thank goodness it wasn't too cold (though we ended up borrowing a gas heater on Friday - that's what you get when you build a house with heat pumps and no fire place lol). Our freezer had a sleepover at Suz' place who got power back before us, our oldest son had a sleepover at Oma's (who had power and wifi ;D) and the rest of the time we just got on with things. We had access to plenty of water with 10,000 gallons in the water tanks but carrying it inside in buckets is not that much fun (incl. water for flushing the toilet...). In the aftermath of the storm we are dealing with road closures and detours, but overall our family are just fine, much better off than some other people.

As I am not a friend of handwork I didn't get much done last week - I seriously got tempted to take it up I can tell you! I have made up a little since, let's hope the power stays on :)

Here are some pics of Fireworks which I finished and washed at the end of June; as this is a UFO from 2012 (??) I will share this also on Sew It's Finished:

 

 

 

 

Tokyo Subway is getting there, still quilting endless echo spirals... I won't bore you with pictures that are just more of the same. I think I might have about 2/3rds done now.

I am getting a bit restless with quilting this big beast, so I have basted and SIDed Spring Fling. Using some polyester batting for the loft (and because I still had it on hand lol) it is waiting to be quilted further now. I might try to imitate the quilting on the original.

It's fairly puffy looking as you can see :)

My apologies, I had pinned it upside down so I flipped the photo which looks a bit strange now (at least to me!)

Weekend before last I needed some instant gratification type - combine that with a colleague leaving at the end of the month this will be heading her way:

Remember the lovely coaster Suz gave me for Christmas? I used the same pattern :)

Here is my coaster for Di :) Hope she'll like it :)

So that's me all caught up - I think? What's happening in your neck of the woods?

Happy Sewing!

Pottering along

There's somehow not much exciting going on in my quilting life, so I struggle to post! It's no like I'm doing nothing, but nothing much worth sharing I feel....

The Tokyo Subway will need weeks of quilting until it's done:

Basted stage from a few weeks ago

All coloured subway lines are quilted, plus approx. 1/8" black line around all of these lines. I have quilted some of the white 'stops' but I am mainly concentrating on the black echo swirls in the background.

And here is a shot of the back (please excuse the lack of focus).

This flimsy is completed and waiting for the right inspiration to proceed to the next step:

Fireworks is in the ‘bury threads' stage - not much longer I hope!

And that's about all my quilting accomplishments at the moment!

As you would expect, many waking hours are taken up by work (I read an interesting article today about work-life integrationg rather than work-life balance where in the latter somehow work and life mutually exclude themselves, while in the former you can arrange your work around life - hmmm). A few accomplishments from there to share, though, an article which includes an interview with me about Minecraft in the classroom has been published in Education Aotearoa a few weeks ago, and I have just been asked to contribute to a similar article in a different magazine; I passed my Google educator certificate last weekend (and now have set my sight at the Google Teacher Academy in Sydney in September - anyone interested in billeting a slightly crazy quilting e-learning facilitator from New Zealand???), and I will present two sessions at the ULearn Conference in Rotorua in October.

Can't wait for winter to be over, I can't stand cold/damp/grey weather brrr - and all those socks on the washing line really irritate me ;). What is going on in your part of the world?

Happy Sewing!!!

Split Personality :)

My quilting persona is not coming out much lately, it's all just the BeLchick (my e-learning persona)! A quick catch up:

In the Easter holidays we spent a week in Queensland - blue sky, sunshine, temperatures around the 30degC - my perfect climate! It was a holiday for the kids, we went to Movie World, Sea World, Lone Pina Koala Sanctuary and to Wet'n'Wild and Australia Zoo twice. We travelled in a large camper van with sufficient space and with aircon - it was great!

The second week it was back to work, I spent 2 1/2 days away for the GAFE Summit in Auckland, and then in the first week of term I headed back to Auckland for two days of meetings.

In this whole time I haven't been in any quilting or craft shop (though we passed Ikea in Logan City, south of Brisbane, several times).

Every now and then the quilting persona manages to sneak out: While I'm still stitching on the binding for Fireworks, I just had to piece something else, an instant satisfaction project:

The pattern is free from Sew Kind of Wonderful (http://sewkindofwonderful.blogspot.co.nz/2014/05/spring-fling-freebie.html). The use of the Quick Curve Ruler is recommended, however, with the moral support of some quilters on Facebook I found the lid of my Slowcooker served as template for the curves:

The fabrics were all in my stack, I had a vague idea to make something pink some day. No idea what it will be when it's finished, we'll wait and see!

Hopefully the quilting persona will come out again before next month...

Happy Sewing!