Whew!

It has been a crazy few weeks. I know I always say that, but this time, I swear, it's true!

Halfway through November I decided to man up (chick up? woman up?) and write for NaNoWriMo. Have you heard of NaNoWriMo? It's National Novel Writing Month, and basically for the entire month of November, you try to crankout 50,000 words. I'm a writer, and I have never actually completed a NaNoWriMo before! I've definitely written that amount before. My first manuscript (hidden safely in a drawer) took 16 days and clocked in at 93,591 words. The latest manuscript I spent two and a half years on, and there were between 15-27 drafts, and I reckon I topped a million words trying to get that thing perfect. (It's settled at 89,551 words.) So I knew it was possible. I am a quick writer, a great first-drafter. I love new characters. I adore plotting as I go.It was frankly just embarrassing that I had never "won" a NaNo!

When I say I'm a writer first, I really mean it. I was asked earlier this year if I was interested in teaching some quilting classes. I thought about it, and I concluded that, as much as I love sewing (and textiles, and pattern-making, and everything that goes with it), I can't turn all my focus to just one thing. I also am conscious that I spread myself quite thin at times, and, perhaps because it's so portable, writing is the first thing to get omitted from my docket if there are other things on.

Not writing hurts me. And never having finished a NaNoWriMo was bothering me, too. I had given up on my first attempt at a manuscript this November because it sucked. I just wasn't feeling it. I had the kernel of the idea, but the characters weren't playing to that. I had to ditch it, and start entirely from scratch. So, eight thousand words are just sitting there, gelling in my slush pile. And that is fine.

I went back. High school. Two characters. I gave them names first, and everything else followed.

I got to 56,000 words in 5 days. I am pretty sure that's a record for me, and for the first time in a long time, I am returning to my writing "home": Young Adult. I like YA almost exclusively, to read and to write. I believe that coming of age is the most interesting part of our young lives. Everything is magnified when you're a teenager or in your early twenties. Life throws curveballs and your reactions to those curveballs can come to define you. It's a crazy time and I love to read about it, and write about it.

I don't think my manuscript is super great. (I already rewrote a rough chunk, about 18,000 words.) I like it, though, because there is real growth in all the characters. They try and fail and flop and change. And they survive. So I'm feeling pretty great!

But I promise, it does explain why I've been so busy lately! Hopefully the writing portion of the craziness a subsided. I kind of wish I'd taken longer on my manuscript, because I liked writing it so much...but on the other hand, I am facing a squillion rewrites, so I'm sure I'll be able to spend lots more time with my characters. Until them, a bit more sewing, a lot less TV parenting (I love ABC kids, and I hate myself letting Piper watch TV at all), and back to my regularly scheduled life.

It feels good to have finally won NaNoWriMo!

Good news. :)

It has been a long time. To be honest, I haven't done much sewing, but the real reason I stayed away wasn't because I was embarrassed or anything. It was because I had a big, fat secret and I knew if I blogged, I would say something!

Well, as of yesterday, we got the all clear to tell the world: we are PREGNANT!!

That is Bean. I'm due around the end of May. So far all three scans have been tops. Yesterday we had the combined NT scan and bloodwork done and the counsellor was pretty blunt about it: she said our risk factors were so low we had the best results we could possibly hope for. (I am even an overachiever at blood tests, apparently.) I was relieved to see this baby was a lot less wriggly than Piper at twelve weeks! Maybe this one won't age me quite so fast as its older sister has. :)

Piper of course is growing like a weed. She's getting taller but losing the baby roundness: she's all skinny limbs. I have no idea what she looks like awake, because if she's not sleeping, she's a blur of motion. It's hard to catch her in a quiet moment. We have to trick her with FOOD.

After Christmas we'll start some from-home Montessori tasks, just a few hours a day, to get her used to the idea of preschool. I was reading by age 3 and boy, I'd love for her to be able to read! I have resisted turning on the television up until this week, but the exhaustion combined with stress made me give in: ABC Kids it was. Good thing we have quality children's programming in this country! No ads, good shows...it makes me feel like slightly less of a crap parent.

I have still been abstaining from any heavy sewing, and trying to focus more on writing and parenting. It's actually been a great break for my wallet AND my poor, tendonitis-y elbow. But I miss it, too, so I whipped out a little quilt to list in my shop. I'll let you all know when it goes up. I have to find the time to finish binding it! :)

I did manage to grab some time this morning to go fabric shopping with my friend Jenna. She is a fellow fabric curator and we had fun picking through the piles at Craft Depot. I came home with a ludicrous amount of half-meters.

The real treasure, of course, is that Craft Depot has Michael Miller Cotton Couture. For $12/m all this month. That is cheaper than buying it online and shipping it over! If you haven't felt the Michael Miller Cotton Couture, you must. I think it's the nicest hand on any solids I've encountered. (Yes, even nicer than the famously "nice" ones.) It's got a great weight to it - I feel like it could hold up to being sewn alongside linen, no problem. Plus, the colors are just beautiful.

That's Wedgewood, Starfruit, Mermaid, Raspberry, Eggplant, and Cinnamon. I actually really like this stack on its own!

Afterward Jenna and I had yummy lunch and then I came home to be on Mama duty for a while, and then, social butterfly that I am, I snuck away to have a late afternoon tea with my good friend Lucie. We so rarely catch up these days, but she is one of the people I met pretty soon after I moved here and we just instantly clicked. She's Piper's godmother and one of my best friends. Yay for tea!

Also I may have made some Christmassy type purchases for my better half. He will just have to wait and see!

Tomorrow I have a bit of prep to do for the Sydney MQG Meeting on Saturday. Hey, are you coming along? It's in the city - all the details are here - and we'd love to see you! We are working on group quilts and it's a short day (10-12 only) but I always love our Saturday meetings. It's the last Saturday for 2012! Only two more Thursdays left! Also tomorrow I have to sew a tiny handbag for Piper. She keeps wearing green bags around her neck, or my 241 tote, and tripping over it. So I'm going to make her a mini-version. And if I have time, maybe I'll cut out this dress pattern!

I can't wait to be showing, not just pudgy! I really loved being pregnant and despite being tired, constantly nauseous, and really chubby-feeling, I know I'm busy growing an amazing little person! I can't wait for MAY!

Now that the cat's out of the bag, I should be blogging more frequently! Hope so, anyway!

Cheers!

Penny xx

WiP Wednesday

Well, it's been a while since I had anything sewing-worthy to relate here, but last week in a fit of inspiration, I did actually get something done! Well, something sewing-related. :)

I'll start by admitting my Terrain quilt is just...stalled. Of course my partner-in-crime is busy working on something far more amazing and brilliant, so I'm absolutely fine with waiting a few more weeks to finish! (Or you know, get inspired at all.)

I have also done nothing with my Colorstory quilt, though I am thinking about it a bit here and there.

Sigh. Let's not even talk about Swoon. I am one block in, eight more to go. And no impetus to finish.

Real progress, though, was made with my Washi Windows quilt top! It's finished!!

I'm excited to get batting and to quilt it, but I'm waiting until November. Why, you ask? Because a) this weekend I am throwing my ANNUAL HALLOWEEN BASH*, b) I have opted to take October off of sewing, and c) the BIG sale at Craft Depot starts on 1 November! I'll be there with bells on, November 1st, at approximately 10:30am. And I will shop, and shop, and shop. I plan on scooping up a roll of batting, a ton of cheap-as quilt backings, and lots of bobbins. Maybe a ruler or two. We shall see. :)

As for my *ANNUAL HALLOWEEN BASH, well, what's a girl to do when she's born American and has to suffer the indignity of Australian apathy over our cherished, sugar-fueled holiday? I throw a party. Some years I manage to host Fakesgiving, too. Right now I'm thinking about how many pumpkins to carve, what cany I need, and how spooky those frozen hand ice cubes are going to be in the punchbowl I have yet to procure. (That all happens tomorrow.) I am excited about that, and I do hope to have some pictures afterward, especially of us in our gruesome costumes! (Or not. I'm going as a hipster. That's not very scary.)

My other finish for the day was to rearrange my husband's half of the study. His desk faced the window, which faces west, and he was complaining about the glare, but didn't want to go to the hassle of moving anything around. I took pity on him and sorted it out for him.

I did rearrange his bookshelf but he now has a whole other bookshelf, and I'm pleased to see he'll have lots of room to get in and out of his half when I get my new sewing desk. (Eventually.) Also there is still room for a filing cabinet, which we DESPERATELY need! All our paperwork is in a BILLION white boxes, which is beautiful, but it's taking up valuable crappy cupboard space. I need that crappy cupboard for other things. (Like gardening supplies.)

Oh and look! My strawberries sprouted! Mr Turtle is pretty stoked. :)

So what has everyone else been up to this week? Pop on over to Lee's and link up!

Cheers,
Penny x

Seeds and starting out.

The why of gardening.

I think I garden for selfish reasons. Even though I am community-minded, and I love my family, there is nothing better than growing food for yourself, by yourself. I like to be independent, and not having to go further than my backyard to grab dinner sounds bloody brilliant. Let's face it: I'm busy, and though I'm not lazy, I really really want to be. So gardening is work that yields a fantastic reward; I don't have to go to the grocery store and pay them for their crappy fruit and veg. Also, I can get food for dinner in my pajamas. BONUS.

I'm more of a "plant it and let it grow" type of person (aka lazy gardener), which is why initially when we cut down and poisoned (grr, so frustrated, but it's so unavoiable) all of the privet, it irritated me to see stumps. I'd rather have trees, but here, privet is a noxious weed that can choke a backyard in a few short years. The other reason we went "scorched earth" is because I want to grow vegetables, and you need sun for that. We are also affected by a storm drain easement, which inconveniences me because it means there's a 2m long strip of my yard I basically can't build any structures on, like raised beds, or garages, or any of that. It's totally sunny, but no planting (other than grass or a similar grouncover). So we got rid of the privet, cleared the area where our shed and herbs will go, and have built three of the four (or five!) beds needed to get our garden started properly. There is enough sun now, and I have started my seeds inside.

The what of gardening.

I love growing from seed, so I usually order seed catalogues and pick out plants from there. I get that online ordering is great, but there is something about opening a newsprint-smelling booklet and poring over the seed description. One description I read today said it "gladdens the heart." Yes, please! Despite loving printed catalogues, I always order online from my favorite retailers. They are prompt, have a good selection, and, most importantly, they are majority heritage, heirloom, or rare seeds.

These are my favorites:

Green Harvest - my most trusted and reliable source. Always prompt and always friendly. Heaps of organic seeds, poultry forage, green manure, and lots of tropical friendly plants for eating. Also a great "toolshed" and book shop.
Eden Seeds - a beautiful catalogue and lots of interesting flowers/herbs as well as veg! Good selection of books, and they do sell in bulk for farmers.
The Lost Seed - they have lots of rare, heirloom, in-need-of-seed-saving seeds. Cheap and quick and wonderful selection.
Greenpatch Seeds - organic seeds and lots of different and interesting varieties!

I do not belong to Diggers, though I have heard good things, mostly because I don't think the benefit would outweigh the cost. When we move to Tasmania and retire to our tree-change, I think that's when I'd join, but for now, with only 1/6th an acre, I'm happy with littler seed companies. And the above four give me plenty of selection of rare, non-hybrid varieties.

Of course, if I'm at Bunnings, I can't go past Mr Fothergill's Seeds just for a squiz. I have also been given a few packs of Johnson's Seeds, and I do plant with Yates, usually bought at garden stores (like Sherringham's Nursery or Eden Gardens), but there I tend to grab flower seed packets with the desperation of someone starved for beauty. I prefer organic for my food, but like Michael Pollan said in Botany of Desire, I am willing to try and grow almost anything. (Read that book for the story about his one attempt at growing cannibis. Hilarious.)

I like to get seeds I've never heard of. So everyone's had supermarket tomatoes. I have one variety of Roma, and that is a good cropper good for drying and preserving. I have yellow, purple, green, and even black tomatoes in my seed bank. (I want rainbow ketchup. Imagine!) I do like pickles, so we bought three cucumbler seeds, and the other night at dusk I went out and drilled holes in my new fence to stick eyelet screws in and make a trellis. I tossed some cucumber seeds in front of our weldmesh fence in the front yard, as our bougainvillea isn't big enough to fill the fence yet. (Yet!) I have sunflowers to attract birds and beneficial insects. And pumpkins! Good keepers, and there is nothing better in this world than pumpkin pie. Or roast pumpkin. Or pumpkin chorizo soup. Or pumpkin seeds, toasted with a little salt. I could go on. (I do go on. Stop me.)

I'm also a huge fan of medicial herbs and flowers. (And perennials. See: lazy gardening 101.) Our front yard was originally going to be two trees and some daisies. The plan has slowly grown from this spare front lawn (down the bottom of the picture)...

To this more herbal and floral grid...

To this no-grass amazing foodie's paradise. (No pressure on myself or anything. I just want to be on Gardening Australia someday.)

I learned last week how to put down paths so I could dig out and get rid of the concrete nonsense that is my wavy, wobbly front path. I'm thinking herringbone reclaimed brick. Yeah? Yeah. My Pinterest has a few cute paths to inspire me.

My reasons for buying heritage seeds are pretty complicated. I'll give it a go. Forgive my fervor; I'm really passionate about this stuff, which makes me a bit shouty, but I'll try and rein it in.

I am terribly inarticulate about this, but it goes something like this: if you buy the same two tomatoes every time you buy tomatoes, then seed companies will only sell the same two tomato seedlings. Most varieties in the supermarkets were bred to be good "shippers" - not for flavor, but good for sticking in cold storage for long periods of time. Note: this does not make them taste better. Usually the far, far opposite. This narrowing of focus has actually driven more flavorful fruit and veg to near-extinction. As an heirloom gardener (who plans to seed-save as much as possible), I am helping combat that monotony by growing lots of different, rare kinds of edible plants. I am limited in what my country has on offer (we're a picky, biologically snobby continent, but that's cool, I mean, let's just think about what it would be like if we'd forbidden cane toads) but still I have a lot to choose from. More than I could ever grow. Really. (Not going to stop me from trying!) Biodiversity is important because without it, we lose things like disease resistance, and entire crops fall prey to insects that evolve around the pesticides we spray on them like crazy.Having this biodiversity is actually really important for the planet, as well. There are seed banks in operation now, trying to save plants from extinction. That is good, valuable work.

The second reason is this: pesticides are bad. They just are. There is so much evidence against them it is foolish to think that it's fine to eat fruit and veg from wherever. Try and buy organic. Try and buy local. Grow your own if you can, because you know what you're spraying on them (if anything). The worst offenders are potatoes, carrots, basically any root veg, because they just sit there and soak up poison like sponges. And yes: it is poison. If you don't believe me, please read Silent Spring, and try not to bawl your eyes out the whole time. Michael Pollan and Barbara Kingsolver also talk about food and diversity in a not-claw-your-face-off way. I'd highly recommend reading The Omnivore's Dilemma and Animal, Vegetable, Miracle. The latter is a yearly re-read for me and it is no less relevant than when it was published seven years ago. (Also fuels my Tasmanian dreams.)

Thirdly, I am excited to try aspects of permaculture. Permaculture, or permanent agriculture, is more about creating a sympathetic and harmonious space for nature rather than wrestling it into submission. Linda Woodrow wrote a great book called The Permaculture Home Garden which is just a fantastic guide to get started. If you have soil, something will grow there. It's up to you to decide what that is. A weed, a vegetable, or a companion plant! If you only have two kinds of tomatoes, there's no way you can sustainably grow those without pesticides, because all the bugs will eat them up, or disease will get them, and besides, no one can live on only tomatoes. So having a variety of seeds and plants provides lots of choice. Some attract the bugs away from your croppers, some are disease-resistant, some are pungent and repel insects.A great book for Australian companion planting is this one by Judith Collins.

Fourthly: we love food. 'Nuff said. Jamie Oliver is my main man for cookbooks (I am just a sucker for his food, his cute little accent, his enormous kitchen garden in Essex, his flower-daughters, everything) and as I've said before, Jamie at Home inspired me to grow my own food for eating. Not just gardening pretty gardens, but growing for surviving.

The education aspect, aka The Autodidacts.

I am not just hopping blindly into this. I've been reading about gardening while stuck in all those barren, mouldy apartments. I know, it's a poor substitute for actually gardening, but some information is better than none, right? The above-mentioned Barbara Kingsolver, Michael Pollan, and Jamie Oliver were just the tip of the iceberg. I can also recommend Radical Homemaker, by Shannon Hayes. She talks about living as more than just going to work and getting a paycheck, but paring back to actually spend time with your family, and learn to be self-sufficient in a really honest way. It does seem a bit overalls-and-chewing-straw, but it's a really different perspective. An oldie but a goodie is Five Acres and Independence, which is about farming a small homestead and being able to live completely sustainably. The Good Life is one couple's story about moving from a hectic city life to Vermont. Great book.

As for resources that directly relate to what I'm doing here, in Australia, I would recommend for anyone starting out, a copy of Growing Your Own Fruit and Vegetables by Alison Chivers and Mary Canning. This book is beautifully written and each veg has its own section with subheadings like "where to grow", "when to plant", "soil preparation", "how to plant", "varieties", "care and maintenance", "harvesting and storage", "pests, diseases, problems", and "companions and succession sowing". It covers literally everything in plain language, and has beautiful pictures. (Always a plus in gardening books!) I read it cover to cover and will use it as a brilliant, local-specific resource.

Another great starter book is the Jennifer Stackhouse and Debbie McDonald book The Organic Guide to Edible Gardens.This book literally touches on everything, and for the people who love to grow food but don't know where to start, you cannot go wrong here. It talks about everything from building raised beds, to compost and natural fertilizers, to urban gardening (me! that's me!).

In sum:

I'd like to say I'm just a sweet-hearted Nanna-prototype clipping flowers and smiling benevolently at the bees in her yard, but it's more than that. I'm irritated at agriculture. I'm irritated that Sydney only has a two-day supply of fresh food on hand. I'm irritated that people think meat comes from the supermarket. (I'm also irritated at the vegans who swan around, conveniently forgetting how devastating a wheat thresher is to a family of field mice, for example, or how many bunnies get decapitated by plowing equipment, but whatevs. Argument for a different time.) And I'm irritated to be dependent on a system that so often fails us: food lacks flavor, is soaked in pesticides, is uniform and shiny but ultimately unremarkable, is not diverse.

Okay. Article finished. Now on to the fun part: my seeds list. Don't judge me! There are 95 different kinds. Ninety-five. Holy smokes, people. Don't worry, I shared them with my friends.

• Asparagus, "Sweet Purple"
• Basil, "Cinnamon"Bean, "Climbing Blue Lake"
• Beetroot, "Chioggia"
• Calendula, "Mayan Orange"
• Cape Gooseberry, "Golden Nugget"
• Capsicum, "California Wonder"
• Capsicum, "Golden Calwonder"
• Capsicum, "Sweet Chocolate"
• Carnation, "Chabaud Mix"
• Carrot, "Colour Mix"
• Carrot, "Purple Haze"
• Catnip
• Chamomile, "German"
• Chamomile, "Roman"
• Chickweed
• Chili, "Ancho"
• Chili, "Jalapeño"
• Chili, "Purple Tiger"
• Chives, "Garlic"
• Chives, "Onion"
• Chrysanthemum, "Snowlands"
• Coriander, "Lemon"
• Corn, "Miracle F1"
• Cucumber, "Gherkin Pickling"
• Cucumber, "Muncher"
• Cucumber, "Straight Edge"
• Cumin
• Delphinium, "Magic Fountains Mix"
• Dianthus, "Blush Pink"
• Dill
• Echinacea, "Purpurea"
• Eggplant, "Casper"
• Eggplant, "Mini Violet Ruby"
• English Daisy
• Everlasting Daisy
• Feverfew
• Kale, "Cavolo Nero"
• Lavender, "French"
• Lemon Balm
• Lettuce, "Great Lakes"
• Lettuce, "Little Gems"
• Lettuce, "Salad Bowl Green"
• Marigold, "Sparky"
• Marjoram, "Sweet"
• Miner's Lettuce
• Mustard, "Golden Streaks"
• Nasturtium, "Jewel Mix"
• Nasturtium, "Peach Melba"
• Nasturtium, "Tip Top Mix"
• Nasturtium, "Trailing"
• Onion, "Red Stem Welsh"
• Onion, "Stuttgart Long Keeper"
• Onion, "Tanami Red"
• Oregano
• Parsley, "Giant of Italy"
• Pink Paper Daisy
• Pumpkin, "Galeux d'Eysines"
• Pumpkin, "Jack Be Little"
• Pumpkin, "Long Island Cheese"
• Pumpkin, "Marina di Chioggia"
• Pumpkin, "Pepita"
• Pumpkin, "Waltham Butterenut"
• Pyrethrum
• Rocket
• Rosemary
• Sage, "Common"
• Silverbeet, "Colour Mix"
• Spearmint
• Spinach, "Summer Supreme"
• Squash, "Ronde de Nice"
• Squash, "Spaghetti"
• Strawberry, "Alpine"
• Sunflower, "Golden Prominence"
• Sunflower, "Sunbird"
• Swan River Daisy
• Sweet Alyssum
• Sweet Corn "Bicolor"
• Tansy
• Thyme, "Common"
• Tomatillo, "Purple"
• Tomatillo, "Toma Verde"
• Tomato, "Black Russian"
• Tomato, "Broad Ripple Yellow Currant"
• Tomato, "Burnley Surecrop"
• Tomato, "Cherry Camp Joy"
• Tomato, "Climbing Black Cherry"
• Tomato, "Green Zebra"
• Tomato, "Roma San Marzano"
• Tomato, "Tommy Toe"
• Tomato, "Yellow Pear"
• Tomato, "Yellow Perfection"
• Watercress, "Aqua Large Leaf"
• Watermelon, "Sugarbaby"

I'll keep you all posted. With much less vinegar next time... unless we're talking about pickling; then all bets are off. :)

Cheers,

Penny x

The start of something lovely.

I grew up in Oregon. My home climate is temperate rainforest, which does not mean a) monkeys or b) bananas, but does mean a) lots of pine trees and b) rain. My parents raised me on a quarter acre lot that sat on a semi-drained river valley. There were a lot of springs. You couldn't dig a hole without it filling with water. (This happened when we renovated, by the way. I don't know how long it took our crawlspace to empty out.) When people ask me about my childhood, I tell them I never had dry feet, and that it was very green.

As a result of all that rain, we had lots and lots of tall grass, and it was my duty to mow it all as soon as it got dry enough, usually in March, when it was waist-high and choked the lawnmower. How I hated that quarter acre then. And all that damn rain.

In the backyard, we had two matching photinias, mature, and under the right-hand photinia there was a clump of dianthus, but I always knew them as Sweet Williams. They smelled cinnamon-like to me, and I looked for them every spring. There were two sweet gums, which here are called liquid ambers, and the ambergris scent of the fallen scarlet leaves are one of my earliest memories. There was a gorgeous birch in the front yard and a much bigger, slightly different one in the back, that stood proudly over the 8-foot slide which we always called the 12-foot slide (that my dad got from a playground that was putting in new equipment).My dad planted a whole mess of crocus bulbs in the front yard that we looked for every February, right around the time the neighbor's "trash tree" (you know, those uneatable plumlike stone fruits that get tracked inside) was blooming its pink-blossomed head off. Those were the constants.

We had a succession of gardening adventures: my dad put sandstone down in the front under the windows, we had wildflowers growing in the front yard, and my mom always bought potted petunias. One year we had a vegetable garden, but lacking any serious adult guidance, third-grade-me didn't really understand what I had to do to manage it, so in the end, we had a bunch of corn and a palm-sized watermelon. Oh, and a rat that our mutt of a dog, Tipper, quickly dispatched. (Those little 'yappy' dogs are good for something, and it's ratting.)

So when I moved to an apartment, it was as far from gardens as you could get: 11 stories high, in the middle of a small city. I had views of other people's yards and trees but I didn't have to mow a damn thing. I pitied my lowly house-owning neighbors with their efficient barrel mowers. Look at those suckers. Apartments, man, the way of the future. Or so I thought.

So, let's fast forward to roughly ten years later. I live in one of the most beautiful parts of Sydney, and being around all the green and beautiful gardens had a definite effect. For years I'd been thinking, yeah, apartments are convenient, but. I had been slowly coming around to becoming self-sufficient, or even just a little less supermarket-dependent. Then I discovered the writing of Michael Pollan, the amazing television series Jamie at Home, and then who comes into my televisual life but Matthew Evans with his amazing tree change to Tasmania! I knew I had to grow. My balcony, too hot and dry for plants, failed me.

We tried a garden apartment. Too much shade, too much noise, not enough oursness.The grass couldn't even grow. Still, I tried. I was hopeful. To no avail.

In our third place, we settled on a balcony with a view, and grew our family. With our roots firmly settled in Sydney's sandy soil, we knew we couldn't go on living in apartments OR move to Tasmania (darn).

We began looking for a house. And I began looking for a house with a garden.

We offered in the first weeks of summer, amazingly got the dream house, and then renovated all through the summer. We moved in just as we were settling in for a nice, chilly winter - not a growing season for the unprepared - and I resigned myself to waiting for spring. We took out heaps of privet, a cotoneaster, a nearly-dead azalea, and I pulled out handfuls of weeds from once-trim cottage garden beds. I'm still working on it. But it's coming along. Our lush granny garden is now stripped back, ready to be changed. We've got a few citrus trees to plant, some leylandis, a ton of baby mondo grass, and I went crazy with seeds.

Oh, I have so many seeds. So many I had to share.

This is where the confessional happens: I am a lot like Barbara Kingsolver with seed catalogues. I really should just mark which seeds I DON'T want. Because I have got 7 varieties of pumpkin seeds. Where am I going to fit seven pumpkin patches? And some of the tomato varieties get HUGE - there's one called Broad Ripple Yellow Currant and it can get 3 meters tall and produce over a thousand tomatoes per bush. A THOUSAND. I will publish a full list someday (not today) of the seeds I have. Of the 120 or so different plants I have seeds for, maybe 3 of them are hybrids unsuitable for seed-saving. I can measure the success of the plants I have and whatever I like, I can keep for next year. Amazing!

But now, just now, we're starting the seedlings inside, and I hover over them daily, sometimes hourly, looking for signs of life. A tiny green shoot pushing upward, vegetable coolness of its hardy green stem; the spicy scent of the seed-raising soil as I poke my finger at the tiny, spear-shaped Yellow Perfection Tomato seedlings. I love how quickly the rocket has sprung up. I love that there are stubborn pale-green shoots of corn popping their sticklike heads above the edges of my home-made newspaper "Jiffy" pots. And I love the way I feel growing things. Knowing that once these bad boys are out there, in the ground, hopefully protected from possums and birds, that I will be feeding my family in a way I've never been able to. And this is all learned, right? The only gardening I had ever heard of was putting barkmulch down in our "fancy" neighbor's yard and his meticulous mowing. (Thinking back, I know he is proud of his garden, but boy, to my adapted sensibilities, is it a dry and tasteless thing. Like stale toast. There's neatness but very little else.) So yeah: compost, a whole new thing. Having a lime tree in my front yard? An unimagined luxury. Being able to say, "nah, let's not have grass at all in front" and instead plan a rolling landscape of changing annuals mixed with perennials, most of which are medicinal or food-based? Hells to the yeah. I won't be shy about it. I'm dead keen to get started. I'm ready for a harvest. I'm ready even just to try and grow something.

It is the start of something lovely.

To Canberra, and return!

We went to Canberra for the weekend. (I know, it seems like I didn't say anything about it here, but that's because people who talk about going on holidays on the internet get ROBBED, and we like to keep our flash Kmart wardrobe and Ikea furniture out of temptation of thieves.) In fact, I was so excited about my trip I barely blogged, tweeted, or instagrammed at all. I wanted to talk about it but I was horribly busy.

But! The week before I went, I did have an excellent mail week. THREE new books!

All of the Washi. All of it. Now that it's OOP and Rashida Coleman-Hale is with a different fabric company, I thought, better now than trying to find it again later!

Plus I got some more out of print Heather Ross. I can't stop, guys. Mendocino, I'm useless. I just want it all. I was seized with a fancy to get the brown and aqua blue, with the idea that I'll make an all-Mendocino quilt (no solids). Have you ever felt that fabric? It is so incredibly soft. Imagine being under that quilt, snuggled up, drinking hot cocoa. Sounds perf, right? Because it would be.

I also picked up some other Heather Ross OOP fabric. Fishies, gnomes, mushrooms, and undersea fabric! It's pretty cute. I'm thinking cushions for my living room!

And, this is very exciting - my quilt labels came! I ordered them from Spoonflower after a solid evening playing with Acorn on my laptop, frowning at DPI and color charts and free font downloads, and what, don't look at me like that! I haven't done any designing in a decade! Truthfully, I was relieved they turned out at all. I ordered them on Kona and they are pretty dang sweet.

Piper and I have had a rough couple of weeks. I don't want to get into why I feel awful lately, but I suspect the little miss is teething, and she is just naughty. Everything is at full-throttle. Screaming constantly, not to cry, but just to be loud and heard. Even eating is a war. Food is glared at, dropped over the side of the high chair, or attacked.

The day before we left for holiday, I was supposed to launder and pack, and I couldn't get a thing done. She sobbed and screamed, and if I picked her up, she struggled and scratched, but if I put her down, she patted my knees until I picked her up again...and so on! It finally ended when I started bawling and I finally gave up (after three hours of this) and we went for a drive. She finally drifted off to sleep. I'm pretty upbeat, but that about did me in. I barely got the car packed, with Mr Poppleton's help, and we stumbled awake and left for Canberra very early, stopping for breakfast, coffee, and then lunch. We took our time getting out there and it was actually really nice.

Thankfully, our grouchy little miss slept most of the way there!

Our hotel - East Hotel - was amazing. We had a little kitchenette, a king-sized bed, and they provided a cot, but Piper preferred to be the middle bar of a capital H and sleep between us. (Teeth, HURRY UP. Srsly.) It was really new and very affordable for what it was (4.5 stars) and the staff at the restaurant, Ox, were just amazing. Really. Truly. Stuff like the bircher muesli was packaged in tiny little preserving jars! What is this, Pinterest Hotel? SO ADORBS!

And when we had our breakfast, I commented to Mr Poppleton that if there was a banana to grab it for the baby...and the female staffer went and found a banana, having just overheard our conversation. Then the same thing happened with orange juice this morning. Seriously, they are awesome, and there's a deli in the hotel. So lux. I would definitely stay there again and am kind of looking for an excuse to...hmm!

I also took the time out to have coffee with the awesome Danielle and offer my help in any way possible for the start of the fledgling Canberra Modern Quilt Guild! As I told her, I wished that ANYONE had said to me when I took over the Sydney chapter "Just call me! Or let's do a swap!" because no one really did, even though other groups started at similar times, and it has felt very lonely. I was really happy to be able to catch up in person!

And of course, I visited Addicted to Fabric.

Can I move in?

Because this...this is beautiful. *sigh*

We went to the War Memorial and caught the closing ceremony. They are honoring nurses and I'll be honest: I bawled. My grandfather was a Marine who served in the Pacific during WWII and I have a tremendous respect for the servicemen and women who make such great sacrifices. As a pacifist, I respect the fact that while I do not like the conflict, I am doubly aware of the people inside of it and how it will affect their life there and later.

We also visited Questacon (fun!), the National Museum of Australia (cool), and walked around Floriade twice, once for Nightfest and the next day on our way out of town. We braved the Giant Wheel and took Piper up, and she was absolutely transfixed! She jumped up and down at the top of the wheel every time and stared out over Floriade. I thought it was funny to reassure her, yes, she was taller than everyone else. :)

We came home happy to be back in the swing of things, and with a little swag! I bought a couple of mugs.

And this is my (somewhat) meager haul from Addicted to Fabric.

Anyway, we're glad to be home. It's already been a busy week, with technical glitches stopping up the website, and various appointments and meetings and obligations of everyday life running us off our feet. I had to come to a decision, looking over my obscenely busy calendar, so...

October I'm taking a break from SEWING and WRITING.

It's spring in Sydney, and the sun is shining, and my sixth-of-an-acre first-backyard-in-a-decade is ready to become a working garden. I love beautiful, sweet, shady cottage gardens, but as a stay-at-home-mama, I am really feeling the need to be a contributing member. So our garden is going to be a vegetable garden. I got my trays, seed-raising mix, and my packets of seeds from Green Harvest out. (I prefer to raise from seed - there is something just so magical about pushing that tiny seed down and a week later, a sweet little green seedling popping up. Also: much cheaper.)

It's all sorted now, ready to start sprouting, hanging out in my dining room! I've begun clearing the back of the garden where the raised beds will go.

I'm just so excited. I ordered even MORE seeds tonight - can't seem to help myself! But I'm sharing with friends. I did a little random scatter of my herb seeds yesterday, Jamie Oliver style, where I chucked them on a bed and tossed some new soil over them! We'll see how those go.

I will miss sewing, because I have a million projects on the table, but I am looking forward to a break from writing. November is National Novel Writing Month so I'm gearing up for that! Hopefully this year I don't lose interest by week two. :)

So that was our last couple of weeks! Whew. Feels like months! I'm looking forward to the weekend: more time in the garden, a visit to Grandma Jean, and hopefully buying a real lawnmower! I'll keep you all posted. :) Cheers!

Penny xx

Whew! :)

First, let me just say it was a CRAZY busy weekend! First I spent the morning chatting with the gals at the Sydney Modern Quilt Guild...it is just so nice to be able to sit & sew! (I cut out all the Terrain I needed and will start on the squares of Kona Snow today too.) It is nice to be able to define ourselves as a guild, too, in these early days. There are a lot of different options out there for sewing groups, and I'm thrilled to be a founding part of one that looks outward. We are proudly community-focused and that means giving back: charitable organizations, free tutorials to members, exhibitions and raffles all to benefit someone besides just ourselves. Sewing bees were invented for women to come together as a community and make something for others. And that will be part of what we do. So that was a great morning!

In the afternoon we (me, Mr Poppleton, and Piper) headed up to SpidersCamp. I've mentioned my writing group (aka Spiders' Group) before, a time or two. But let me just say: these people are my dearest friends. We are all weird and wonderful. We meet fortnightly and we chat, laugh, share, protect and enrich each other and I have never found a group so wonderful in my life. Last year we began the tradition of going on a camp, and this year I actually got to go for a little bit! We headed up the freeway with our bag of pasta and potato salads, our sleeping bub, and had a wonderful dinner. There may have been a dance-off. And a dance attack. And I totally wrote two thousand words after being stuck for like three weeks. I LOVE YOU, SPIDERS.

But yes. Then home, and then a nice, long, squishy sleep.

Yesterday we cleaned up the yard, then I scoured the house from top to bottom, and then we had a dinner party with some of my husband's school friends. I have been trying to get my head around using Acorn to build a fabric line but beyond sketching randomly with my new Wacom, I'm hopeless...so I pestered our friend Matt for some Photoshop/Illustrator lessons! I am going to trade him a Ron Swanson quilt which, frankly, I have been looking for any excuse to make but all the beds in my house are covered three times over so yeah. It was a great party and everyone staggered out, exhausted, at half-past eleven. We might be nearing 30 but we can still stay up late (ish) on a Sunday night!

It was a good weekend. I'm only sorry I don't have pictures to show you! They are on a camera...somewhere...which I must find and upload! That is my next task, after

PS, I was featured on Jennifer's great blog Knotted Thread on Follower Friday! I love reading Jenn's blog and following her on Instagram. She is also opening up a fabric shop and has just gotten in hugely cute chevrons and spots!! Thanks for featuring me!! :)

Well, right.

I could cry... I just had a huge entry typed and BANG, it disappeared. I really hope that tomorrow's Apple announcement has something to do with schmicker, slicker MacBook Airs. Because this one, and it's struggling little Fanta-coated innards, are not cutting the mustard!

(PS The Fanta is what happens when you put bright orange things within kicking distance of a seven month old baby. The guy at the Genius Bar said he didn't even understand how this laptop turned on anymore, it was so covered. Yikes.)

But look, I'll put in the pictures I was going to before the Big Lost Entry of 2012 happened, so you all can see what I've been up to this week!

These Swoon blocks became pillows for a wedding gift for my friend N & K. Congratulations you guys! :)

This is my current creative project. It's for a quilt show, I hope, so I am taking it really slow and enjoying the fastidious design process.

This little mermaid pouch was my reward for having a cranky baby today.

This Swoon block is the start of a quilt for my sister W, who is moving out of home for the first time this year and going to a big college! I'm proud.

I had some posting to do. Not only did I send a friend some batting, I also sent my old Kona card to my Aunt Rose! I hope she likes her mail surprise. :)

I cut my finger putting ClearGrip on my new, superawesome 24"x6" Matilda's Own ruler. Yowie!

I bought and built a bookcase tonight for all the DVDs. Piper hasn't really clued into the fact that there is stuff behind those doors. Literally she thinks if it's out of sight, it doesn't exist. I like this. This can be fact for a little while longer.

This is the quilt I sent in for the comp I entered this week. It's my Nicey quilt. I love it (it's my favorite by total accident) and sending it off was hard but I'm glad I did!

Well, that's it for me. I'll be at the next two Sydney Modern Quilt Guild meetings - hopefully some of you will come along too! Can't wait to get my sewing on with our great group of like-minded gals. YAY! For now, though, bedtime, and a lovely snuggle under my mermaid quilt. Life is GOOD.

Back!

Hoo boy. Two weeks, huh? That was pretty slack of me. I promise I didn't fall in the Pit on Sullivan Street and break both my legs. No, something much more interesting happened: I got busy!

Firstly I was helping out a LQS by making a sample from the Elizabeth Hartman book Modern Patchwork. If you haven't got this book, it's well worth adding to your library. I love almost every quilt in it and if I had the time I'd make them all! It was a surprise find. I picked it up kind of half-heartedly, thinking it would be good to use for the SydMQG library (which is currently just what modern books I have in my collection) but I am finding it very hard to lend out! I love the book a lot. I can highly recommend it.

The quilt I chose to make from the book is Honey. It is the first time I have ever followed a pattern so faithfully! At the end of each pattern she gives options for how to mix it up a little. I chose to make my quilt scrappy in colorstories instead of solid warm colors with a pop of B&W print as she did hers. As a concession to the patter, I put a single solid color in every hexagon.

The instructions for "make it scrappy" said 30 5.5" strips x WOF. I wanted to use my fat quarters too, so I chose 60 different fabrics in 5.5" strips x 1/2 WOF. I chose Kona Slate as the background fabric and used the same for most of the backing, too.

Now, I don't have a perfect picture of the finished product but I have one that shows most of it. I really, really like this quilt, and I am so happy with the way the colors turned out!

Now: the LQS I mentioned up there, Greta's Handcraft Centre, didn't ask for the sample, or comp me in any way, I did it simply because I wanted to. The reason I was so eager to help is because Vivienne is moving from just wool & cotton yarn to having modern quilting fabric. She is just emerging on the local quilting scene and her selections are savvy and judicious. Already she has Tula Pink, Anna Maria Horner, and a LOT of Kona Cottons! If you live on or near the North Shore, pay her shop a visit, and be sure to tell them I sent you! I love local shops and I am so glad to have one opening so near. And the staff are lovely, too. Plus, if you make it in over the next few months, you can see my quilt up close! :)

After I'd finished the quilt, I took a few days to just veg out and try and catch my breath. It's not every week I make a quilt in just 7 days! :)

In the midst of all of that, we had another meeting of the Sydney Modern Quilt Guild - this time a Friday evening Sit & Sew. It was a lot of fun and quite intimate! I'm so enjoying meeting new people as they make their way to our group and I'm even more excited to announce the changes for next year, too! Sewing machine days – new northside location for sit & sews – charity quilts – and so on, and so forth! Please come and join us at any time. We are so excited to be part of the modern quilting movement in Sydney!

After that excitement, I went and got my hair done. Blonde. I love being blonde. People expect so much less of you! And my dream is to look like Blake Lively (yeah, right) so if I have to grow out my hair, it gets to be blonde. :)

And last night, after a very frustrated fornight of a messy sewing space, I decided to clean. After I'd done the 7-Day Quilt, the whole place looked frightening.

So last night I went through, reorganized my stash and books, cycled in the new fabric I'd found hither and thither, and cleaned. Now I have a pretty, re-organized sewing room again. Mr Poppleton suggested I put the computer in the other corner of my desk. I had already decided to use my Alex roller drawer unit as a cutting station and even picked up a smaller cutting mat, but I was still reluctant to move things around. How wrong I was! Check this out!

I have plenty of room to sew and I have a cutting station at my elbow, ready to go! Plus I now have room for the spiffy new Wacom Bamboo my husband picked up for me. He is a dear, isn't he? I think I'll keep him.

I also went through my poor pathetic little overflowing scrap basket and picked out all the precious Mendocino, as well as my last tiny rainbow chicken scrap! I dug out my tiny clothes pegs and strung up some twine and made a little bunting with my scraps. Super cute.

And my freshly organized fabric collection is looking pretty fierce!

I have been feeling very grateful lately to have received the support of local shops, local prominent quilters, and even the encouragement of the NSW Quilters' Guild. Now, these are ladies who know all the rules, but they are welcoming modern quilters with wide open arms. It is great to be able to marry my colorful sense of adventure with their ability to actually follow directions (!) and so this is the year I join the guild. I've filled out my application and am going to post it tomorrow. Being a part of the NSW Quilters' Guild means, though, that I get to enter two quilts into the 2013 Craft and Quilt Fair at Darling Harbour. And guys, I have been inspiration-struck.

There's my start. I was impatient enough to special-order the rest of the fabric I needed (should be here by Wednesday!) rather than drive all over Sydney to purchase it, but I'm going to get a start on it tonight with what I have. It is calling out to me. I don't want to say anything else about it, as it's so unformed, but I am so very excited about this quilt. It will be simple, fresh, and bright without jangling. I'm looking forward to putting it together! I hope it comes together in real life as well as it has in my head. And I'm excited to be submitting! I still have to figure out my category, but I am eager to get slicing & sewing!

I hope your weekend is wonderful! I'll catch you on the other side of it!

Cheers

Penny x

Music dreams.

I used to obsess over music. Look down my nose at people who didn't like what I like. And then I met my husband, who, let's face it, is the awesomest person I know, and he loves EVERYTHING. Even music I disdained. (Sometimes especially.) And he loves music like that unapologetically. And I had to rethink my prior stance of "well if I don't like it, it must be crap", because making the people you love feel bad for liking what they like is kind of a jerk move.

This guy. Love him to bits. It was his birthday yesterday! We went out for breakfast, then bought some fancy whiskey, then tried to go to a speakeasy (!) but they were closed. I think he had a good day.

Anyway.

It took a little while longer to figure out that people liking what they like is way more awesome than people liking what I like. Hello, adulthood! Goodbye, hipster sensibilities.

I am thinking of this today as I go through my fabric stash. I'm putting it onto comic book boards for easier viewing, but hoo boy, I have a lot of fabric. And so much of it I bought for a specific idea that was lost. Or because it was on sale (ugh). Only in the last year have I really begun what I called considered buying: buying what I love, buying for an exisiting project, or buying for specific stash-building (but still fabric I love).

I love having so many options with my stash. I do. I love knowing I could go and make an entire quilt with the contents of my sewing room and not bat an eye. I love being able to play with color and form in a way that shocks and surprises. I like playing with the traditional and I love being modern.

But that's just quilting. Art (or music, or books, or any number of things) is such a deeply personal thing. It occurs to me that what we like is as important as what we are like (okay, maybe Nick Hornby said it first) but that what we like directly informs what are like. My fabric stash is unique to me. No one else has the same history with it that I do. I have fought for many pieces in my collection (Mendocino, Ruby Star Rising) and some I've acquired at the right time just out of sheer love (Sophie by Chez Moi for Moda). Some are trades, swaps, challenges, or combined purchases (Washi, Nicey Jane). Then there are the fabrics I just don't love and aren't in my collection (pretty much anything by Tula Pink). But I can see how people get there, which is the important thing. Just as I can go into a traditional patchwork shop and find something to admire, I can appreciate modern fabric that, for whatever reason, does not appeal to me. (I'm sorry, Tula fans! She is amazing and her designs are great; they just don't speak to me!)

Music is the same. I have loved Bon Iver since my not-then-sister-in-law told me about the song Skinny Love. (A song that is permanently stuck in my brain as the song on my wedding day, because she had it playing in the car as she drove me to the house to get ready.) I find myself drawn to artists who can say more than just one thing. I listen to, and pay attention to, music that has meaning and that can draw my focus outward. Music that has layers and secrets and things to nut out.

But then I tried to get into, like, Mumford & Sons, and I just couldn't. (And guys, my dad plays the banjo, so I should have loved the heck outta Mumford.)

So it's personal, and who knows why we like what we like? We just do. And that is great. Because if everyone had my fabric stash, everyone would be making my quilts, and what would be the point of that? Then I wouldn't get to create something. Or be inspired by what you create. And I count on that inspiration. I buy that inspiration in book form.

This week, it's this book, from this blogger, and I'm going to cut this quilt out ASAP. And listen to Bombay Bicycle Club while doing so. Because music inspires me and I am getting ready to undertake a huge project with an eight day deadline (eek!). So watch this space. It is going to get real.