Greetings from Montevideo, from Alison Schwabe, Aussie quiltmaker

Better, quicker, this one is the one on which all of them will be modelled - each will be a bit different but clearly part of the same set. So, I'd better get moving....

Hmmm- using a textured looks-like-leather fabric, which did not glide well under the machine ( fixed that with Sewers' Aid) - at least it meets most of the criteria, but it was not quick to do, and, so, it's a sample only. I am actually very pleased with the edge which. although it looks crooked in this pic, performs really well for what I bought it for with something else in mind - and fortuately have over 1 m left, and am sure I can find more around here, if I really get carried away with this type of edging. 

I don't know if it is a 'women' thing, specifically, but I have noticed all kinds of little examples down the years in different interest/activity specifically craft/textile related groups I have belonged to in Aus and USA - on the other hand it might be just a 'belonging' thing.... Either way, I have to decide what to do about this latest example, and soon.

A piece of my work has been selected for inclusion in a touring exhibition. As if the work itself, the effort and expense of submitting it and then once accepted getting it to its right destination by that deadline were not quite enough....it's now "Wait! There's More! " Someone in the group of selectees has come up with the bright idea how wonderful it would be for each of us to swap fabric postcards (for the unitiated, sort of miniature quiltlets/textile pieces, in the 5inches by 7 inches dimensions. (silmilar to artist trading cards, also undergoing a fad of popularity in quilters/textile artist circles) You opt in or out, it's nothing to do with the collection itself, and the dates and deadlines are pretty tight for me. One one hand, yes, if I go in for this, it will be very nice to have a number of small hopefully interesting examples of particular people's original textile art; also, as is often put forward in justification, it IS a chance to try out stuff (techniques, design ideas) on a small scale, even, as someone has suggested, a chance to use up some of the fabric scraps all of us surely have in our workrooms ( amen to that - but using scraps only prompts them to go into rapid breeding mode, IMHE)

I have found myself wondering over the past week since it was suggested, "Do I reeaally want to be diverted along this little side track?" As yet the final number to be made is uncertain, clearly some others are also wavering - but it could be 12, 20, or more, by the deadline. Another part of me has been tossing up "Could this little diversion lead me onto a new, potentially exciting path, perhaps...?"

Is this just akin to the 'please wear your quilted bargello vest and dowdy denim skirt / fake diamond tiara' to show you are a quilter attending a quilt event, or the "please follow your tour leader holding a red flag bearing our logo 'Cultural Tours En Masse', so we do not lose you" sort of thing - belonging. Being an identifable part of a crowd.

I still have not resolved my intital questions about this phenomenon, but anyway have decided to give it a whirl today; to try to run up a few. They must be easy and quick to make (machine applique and machine quilting) say 'alison-schwabe-made-this' , and take me somewhere I want to go experimentally. So, I just came downstairs for a snack, a fresh cuppa and my camera to record the process for I have 6 pieces of fabric and batting cut, and a little machine stitching so far, and already that is telling me this might not be the bogey man I feared. I will post pics and progress later.

Labels: a pet peeve

We have just arrived back in Montevideo from the family visits up in the US.

The recently finished quilt was well received, with GS#3 rolling around in it, carrying it around folded, sleeping under it, and clearly very happy that at last he has one of his own.

GS #2, different family, is rather miffed that younger #3 has one already, and I hope this might be enough to push him over the hurdle of sleeping in his own bed, consistently, and thereby qualify for one, too. Fingers x - I'll start it pretty soon, just in case.

I found some more lovely fruit and veg pattern fabrics and am now ready, mentally and logistically, to whizz off a couple of picnic quilts in time for the northern summer. DD bowled me over with strongly expressed desire for a quilt of her own, after all these years, so I have a fullish looking program ahead. At the same time I am going to really focus on more of the wool and leather ideas, with a particular fibre deadline in view much later this year. 

Saturday's warm muggy morning with sunshine chasing clouds warned of the stormy weather which broke out early this morning and continues to rumble around overhead. We did the sensible thing and headed down to the port for lunch, sitting out under awnings and umbrellas catching the breeze and crowd watching. To make this textile related, these were two very eye catching shirts I saw yesterday - and unusual for this part of the world. I am guessing both are from Thailand....although their wearers aren't. Yesterday there were quite a few tourists around, although it is high summer season and for Montevideo residents and uruguayans generally "summer" means "Punta del Este" 

This second eye catching shirt more accurately reflected yesterday's temperature !
When he approached our table, I was able to confirm it is a polyester fabric, which I find too sticky to wear when it is hot and humid, but he looked pretty cool. This lottery ticket man is always there, selling or attempting to sell lottery tickets.

Yesterday for the first time I actually saw someone buy one. but he must sell enough day after day to make it worth his while.

And just in time for next week's visit.
Machine pieced and machine quilted, for durability and washability when absolutely necessary. It features bright kiddy prints and others, plus hand dyed fabric frames around each block, and a thanksgiving-harvest theme print on the back. 

A new holiday house was noticed at Jose Ignacio last week. Indeed, you could hardly miss this one. They say travel broadens the mind, but sometimes I think people bring back the darndest concepts from their travels; and in this case, IMHO, someone spent serious time in the presence of ancient Roman aqueduct ruins somewhere. Many Europeans now spend vacation time in this area of Uruguay at this time of year, perhaps this is to remind someone of home.

The actual house is two levels; there were people lounging on the patio so I didn't like to intrude with my camera - although I am tipping I will be only one of many to photograph the amazing, eye-catching, puzzling but certainly grand, exterior of this house this season.
You can see an umbrella just between the columns towering above the centre and right pots, and between those same pots themselves just a hint of the lower part of the house. Now, a structure like this deserves a sweeping parkland setting, perhaps a low but expansive grassy knoll. A decent bit of earthwork would have really enhanced the imposing quality of this structure, but look where they put it...

Labels: architecture, folly, placement

Mind blowing, and makes me think the builder MIGHT have first dibs on all properties around him with plans to buy them up and raze them as they become available .... forming the parkland setting this screams out for - but a decent storm might take care of the 'ruins' before that is achieved.
I JUST LOVE IT !!!

Near Punta Ballena, on the tourist resort SE coast of Uruguay is this wonderful fence I have previously admired, and in the last week I had my camera with me and was able to stop and photgraph it.
I know fences need to go up hill and down dale at times, and other times the landholder will do some earthwork along the fenceline to make a fence and land 'fit' better for easier construction. This one has always had a laborious character, IMHO, enhanced by having painted it white ..... 

..........and when I entered the pics into the computer, I found what it had been telling me all along - that I have already pre-interpreted this kind of thing in stitch: there's a message here I need to act on, soon.