I wake very early in the morning, it’s still dark and right now here in my home town it’s cold by my standards.

For a fleeting second I remember  that I’m home in my own bed and the events for the day fly before me like a bird on the wing. I suddenly remember that it’s Sunday, Oh wonderful, despite the fact that its just another work day for me in the studio it does mean that family are free from work constrictions for the day and it always means unexpected visits.

I begin my day on Sunday, wandering to the studio in the dark. The lights installed by my son in law light the place like a LA landing strip and I reach to press the ‘on’ button on the radio.  “Australia all over” jumps into the studio and  brings forth a program that I’ve listened to for the past 30 years. Its a collection of live stories from people around Australia and covers everything thing from sheep sheering to baking scones. The laconic Aussie accent unlike anything else keeps  me grounded and in touch with the rest of our big red land.

Its wonderful to be spending an entire day working in the studio.

I have an affinity with everything in here. I’ve worked so hard to get it to the stage that it is at… now I can just appreciate it from the colors, to the carpet on the floor and the paintings on the wall.

During my time home I need to complete 5 quilts and I’m well on the way to doing that at the moment. I find that working on a number of genres at one time works well for me. I don’t get bored with one quilt… and at the end I finish 5 quilts at once… (well there is a possibility that I won’t) It all depends on babies, family, babysitting, another visit to the skin specialist and the need to stop and sigh every now and then.

The concept of this quilt is purely applique. Sometimes applique can look quite flat so some of the fabric is being ‘purpose drawn’ with pigment ink and a few other techniques to create the image.

I’ve been working on these blocks today. I’ve created my own fabric and the images are appliquéd onto the background.

This is an image I drew when visiting Nepal. I purchased this sheer orange fabric in Kathmandu and it has significance for me.. the image has been enlarged and I will thread stitch it through a number of layers of the sheer fabric.

This is a very large thread painting. Her eyes are the size of golf balls. I’ve done  12 hours of stitching so far. 18 bobbins and a few reels of thread… 10 colors so far.

This is a small quilt designed on the Ipad, Ive done a lot more that this but its hand done so I’m a little slow…. I have a series of these small quilts and the patterns will be for sale. Miss Roz is making some too.

This is a fun quilt.I’ve used  found objects, hand dyed with plants… I have more to do on it with thread I bought in Kathmandu… its hand work so I’m slow. I’m not very good at hand sewing. Do you think I could add it by machine.?

In between I have to work on the Bayeux tool..   exhale.