On Friday a trip was undertaken an hour north to Armidale, because Armidale has two quilt shops. One has quite contemporary fabrics and is run by a young bloke whose machine quilting is amazing and wins prizes - I spoke to him about my house quilt as I plan to have him work on it - but has no batik fabrics. However, the other shop more than made up for that.
Aren't these fun fabrics? A few are Aussie native flowers....the orange/red with yellow grevilleas fourth from the right, and the two on the far right which have eucalypt blossoms although they are both quite different....and, of course, some green. With what was bought recently, that should be enough to make the required trees.
I also bought fabric for backing, a black and white print of Callistemon flowers, otherwise known as Bottle Brushes. We have a few growing in our garden, but ours aren't black and white.
The maple leaf fabric planned for binding suits well, and adds colour contrast. As many of the fabrics came from Australia and some came from Canada, the backing ties down the links between those two countries quite nicely. Perhaps it can be a Canaussian Arboretum.
So onto this week's trees....a pinkish-beige with enough life in the print to stop it looking like a blob of indeterminate colour, paired with a goldish-pinkish-berry-grape contrast.
A green tree with more trees in the contrast, so....trees within a tree.
That makes 83 and 84. Those new fabrics were purchased at just the right time, because next week's two trees will use the last of the already-in-the-stash fabrics.
How has everyone been this week? We mooched along as usual; went for our Nice Sunday Drive to Armidale on Friday which we quite enjoyed, but which gave my ears trouble coming back down into our valley (reminding me why we don't go up the hills more often); and we hunted, gathered and foraged to keep the wolf from the door. Stitches were sewn and knitted. Songs have not yet been sung because our choir leader is still unwell, but I have high hopes for next Thursday afternoon. Many words have been read. Some household chores have been attended to.
We are getting adjusted to daylight saving. Today's forecast is for possible showers later which would be welcome, as things have been somewhat dry of late. Kevin is watching the Bathurst car race on TV and it seems to be pouring rain down there; we betook ourselves for a spin (not literally!) around the track earlier in the year. As a boy racer in his younger days he would have enjoyed not being limited to only 60 kms an hour, but he was very good and stuck strictly to the speed limit.
Despite a wet start to that day it was dry when we had our trip round the track. This is the car we sold a few months ago.....I have suggested that we take the new(ish) car for a whirl next time we're in the area, too.
My house quilt has been calling, lately. In my stash of black and white fabrics is one from several years ago of little cat footprints in black on white which I have decided to use for a one inch wide inner border.....so it is on the cutting table waiting its turn for the cutter. The quilt also needs trimming before the borders are sewn on, so perhaps that should be done first. Decisions, decisions......it was coming along nicely early last year before I fell and broke my arm, so it had to be shelved for a while. It's now time it came off the shelf.
For nearly 30 years now I have been a member of an online quilt group, and recently an interstate member posted that she was coming to a local town for work. We arranged to meet up last week for dinner at a local pub in a village between the town where she was working and here, and what a fun evening that was! She asked if I would take along my tree blocks as she had seen my pics online, so I did....we had fun going through them.....and now she, too, is making trees, spreading the tree love over more forests.
"Another requisite for conjugal happiness is moral and religious sympathy, that each may walk side by side in the same path of moral purpose and social usefulness, with joint hope of immortality."
Probably.
Enjoy your days!
Jennifer
