Pincushions, parties, pruning and play!

We are now in April...the leaves are falling from my trees and the year is whizzing by. This week has seen the submission of a major assignment (phew) and part of my working week covering my manager who was having some well deserved leave whilst addressing some very challenging client behaviours. Glad it is all over. 

Last weekend at Nundle seems a loooong time ago! Seems like the builder will start levelling floors in the new home after the Easter break...it will be nice to see it start.

Part of the GDITC was a pincushion swap from one of Sue Daley's patterns. Mine was a six pointed star...I was happy with it...but I will never know what the recipient thought...not a word or acknowledgment so I will never know where it ended up or if they liked it. Awful really as you go to all that trouble and you never see or know if it was appreciated or not. Oh well....you don't participate in swaps for accolades, but it is nice to be acknowledged. Didn't our Mums teach us to say thankyou?

 I received this lovely apple core pincushion from Maree! I have met Maree before and have long been blogging buddies...so it was great to receive this pincushion and some lovely pins from her. Thankyou, it is perfect and will be a reminder of Maree & GDITC 2012 whenever I use it! 

Little else of note has happened this week, some pruning in readiness for the house to be listed for sale, and that ongoing declutter.

 But yesterday I decided to play with the soul searching quilt...I had red strips ready( I love red), but could not get "into" it...so I swapped for pink instead...loving this! I did not realise how much I really do love pink...maybe that is part of the soul searching journey????

 Last night was Lea's daughters 21st birthday party...themed with songs from our childhood. I hate fancy dress so was in a quandary...here I am with a Blues Brother, Mouseketeer and me...as Sadie the Cleaning Lady (complete with original '45 from 1968...am I old or what!). Funny.

Missing all the fun of the Nundle crowd...glad they are home safely!

Cardygirl xx

Blue...it was a challenge!

 A fairly quiet weekend here...some time to play with my soul searching blocks. 

First green...that was okay...I quite like green, then to blue. Well, then the fun began! I quite like blue...but I prefer warmer colours and green. Don't even wear a lot of blue. Don't buy it in patchwork fabric unless I have a project in mind. So now I have to do a whole block in blue?????? I need to work through this! It took a loooong time...much procrastinating...strips of fabric littering the floor...searching through my stash over and over looking for another bit of blue. Even DS was enlisted for advice! 

But here are my blue and green blocks...I am happy with them, but will have a little break before working on my remaining blocks...red, pink, aqua, purple and brown.

Spent the afternoon organising my embroidery stuff...linens are all measured, labelled with thread count and packed away...threads are all checked off a master list and grouped...here is my cute little cupboard that houses these delights!

Cardygirl xx

Making choices...enjoying the process!

Slowly I have been playing with the Soul Searching top I started at MO recently. It is not one of those projects that you can zip together in a few days...there is a lot of contemplation involved...placing strips on the design wall...moving them about...sitting and gazing...walking past and evaluating...sometimes just playing. But I am enjoying the process...slowing my choices down, not agonizing about them, but just enjoying playing with the colours and placement...it is great for introducing some quiet time in a busy day. Orange and yellow blocks are complete...now working on green.

At my little weekly sewing group, I was given this great cake alternative...gingerbread letters...apparently a newly retired friend spent ALL day making these..delicious too!

And some beautiful flowers from a friend who was very mindful of my "I am down-sizing" mantra!

Having a birthday always makes me think of what has been and what may be ahead...this year is bustling forward with lots of happy changes in store. I am now feeling excited about these changes...good!

 Cardygirl xx

Finally, back to the workshop...

...I had the best of intentions of being back yesterday to finish the workshop, but life just got in the way!

Here we go!

The second day began with our arrival and discussion about how we had been thinking about what we had learnt on the first day. Reece had tubs of his stunning rainbow coloured shot cotton fabrics ...truly drool-worthy and VERY tempting! We were all fired up for a great day. 

So much to learn and then apply to fabric. We made colour wheels from our fabric packs...learning about light/mid/dark...what is warm/cool...what adds depth...what has energy...what is calming.

 As Reece said, we all see colour differently...it was great to see how we interpret themes...we are all influenced by where we live and early influences in our lives. When I picked colours for a winter theme, I thought of where I live, the colours of an Australian country winter, but there was still some warmth with orange....Kathy interpreted her winter as that of an American winter...greys, creams...the colours of snow and a cold climate. Interesting.

But it wasn't just picking the colours, it was learning our personal responses and interpretations of a theme, and then discussing it with the group and appreciating our differences.

 We even had the opportunity to look at quilts and discuss colour, placement and the mood of the quilt...I looked at lovely Wendy's quilt ( she was doing the class too!).

By lunch time our heads were buzzing with ideas, but it was time to say goodbye to Reece and Matteo who had helped guide us through our steps into colour...thank you, it was fabulous!

Then we began working on our colour blocks with Kathy. 

Lots of fun, and wonderful to walk around and see  them all growing. Here are just a few...

Mary was full of energy...

...hi Heather!

and I do love my orange,

 ...and some pieces that followed me home!

If you ever get the opportunity to do either this workshop, or another colour workshop...do it! Whilst it initially takes us out of our comfort zone, it is quite liberating and adds an extra dimension to our work!

Thanks to Kathy, Reece & Matteo for your gentle guidance...and also to the MO girls who fixed our lunch, cut our fabric and cheered us on...Wendy, Cathy & Therese.

Cardygirl xxx