ScrapHappy on the Couch

Day 11 of languishing with dengue fever.  Of  body aches, axe-through-my-head- headaches, non-stop nausea, upper abdominal pain.....my liver fighting the virus ...and high fever requiring a stay in the emergency department until it came down to an acceptable level. Rest, paracetamol and lots of fluids is the only treatment. Molly kept vigil with me.

I spent the days in an odd fever/pain twilight. I drifted off to sleep as clouds come over and it rained.

Then woke to sunshine.

And was lucky to catch sight of an osprey perched in the tree out the back.......... 

waiting for lunch

By Saturday, as the wicked headaches and pain behind my eyes began to subside, I felt able to think about doing something other than sleeping, and gathered some books and stitching to have nearby, ready for an alert moment or two. 

Day by day, friends and neighbours came by and let the chooks out, locked them up again at night, made sure I had gallons of herbal tea and lemon water close by and took Mirrhi out for walks and games. She stayed close the rest of the time, and I often woke to this face close to mine, snoring gently.

So onto scrappiness. Yesterday I felt well enough to sit up and sew for a little while. I had been making hearts blocks for Christchurch.....I'm sure everyone has heard about the horrific terror attack on the mosques in Christchurch. Since then, quilters from all over the world have responded by coming together under the umbrella of Quilters Healing Hearts for Christchurch, making heart blocks and putting quilts together to gift to those affected within the Muslim community, as well as first responders and emergency services personnel. 

Green hearts were requested for the families who lost loved ones 

I had made these pieced blocks....6.5 inches unfinished .... before I took to my couch, but as there was no way I could sit at the sewing machine, but, upright at last, at least for short periods, I decided to make some appliqued blocks. It's been slow going, I still tire quickly, but have this little pile to show for my persistence. 

Coloured hearts for first responders, emergency services etc.

Joining with Kate and many others for ScrapHappy Day. Go check out Kate's blog and be inspired by what others are doing with their scraps.

It's back to bed for me, see you next time.

Mountains of Hope

Mountains of Teal

Lately, one of the sewing projects I've been working on has been making quilt blocks depicting mountains. Once again, Kate from Tall Tales from Chiconia put out the call for teal and cream blocks for another wonderful quilt to raise funds for the Ovarian Cancer Society. In her usual clever and fun punning style, Kate has called this year's quilt  Go Teal It on the Mountain. I had put my hand up to make 2 blocks, but ended up making 3.

I live with Mt Warning right at my back door, a mammoth peak that's the remnant of the volcanic shield, and standing at over 1000m, it can be seen from all over the valley, from the Border Ranges in Queensland and from the coast as well..  This mountain is what drew me to the Valley many years ago, and I never tire of seeing and photographing her, in all her moods, rain or shine, and from different angles and views.  Mt Warning... or Wollumbin to give her indigenous name.....is a sacred site to the local Bundjalung people.

So it was obvious Mt Warning was going to be one of my blocks. I decided on an applique block, and used Australiana fabrics to highlight the complex network of steep ridges and valleys that fall away from the heights. These hills and ridges have great names like the Sisters, Brummies, Blue Knob, Egg Rock and Doon Doon!

My second block is also a sacred mountain, far from here. Back in 2014 I joined a group from Australia to make a pilgrimage to Mt Kailash .....Kangrinbroque Peak.....on the high western plateau of Tibet.  We travelled by bus from Lhasa to our base at Darchen, then began the trek, firstly a day's walk to Dirapuk Monastery, where we rested and adjusted to the high altitude.....4800 metres. Then we walked 3 days up through the Dolma-la  Pass (5700m) where the weather changed dramatically and we trudged through snow and freezing, biting sleet. This trail descended back to Darchen, and took us 3 days of walking, trudging really, completing our circuit of the mountain. This brief description does nothing to describe my awe, the sense of 'coming home', and the deep connection I felt being near this mountain, and in those wind swept high mountain passes.

I took all these photos from around Dirapuk Monastery, and from up behind our accommodation.....the buildings in the picture at lower right.

Although the sun was shining and the sky was blue, it was actually freezing at the camp at Dirapuk, and I wanted my block to depict this......the snow laden peak and the cold and remote landscape.

I hadn't planned a 3rd block, but this photo a friend posted on a local facebook group stirred my imagination. I hadn't seen Mt Warning from this angle before, with the curve and sweep of the Tweed River so evident. This was taken recently when westerly winds pushed the dust storms from the central west of the state across the range and into the valley.

Photo with permission Raymond Condon

Although I had deadlines for a couple of other projects, I knew I had to do "something " with this image, and after drawing and fiddling with fabric for a couple of days, came up with this appliqued block, River Dreaming.

I wanted to capture the look the mountain has in certain lights, and different times of day, where it looks like a cardboard cut-out against the sky, with no definition of the network of ridges and valleys that radiate out from the mountain. The Tweed River is the other dominant feature of the landscape here, so I took some creative licence and moved the river source up into the high ridges of the mountain, where it would've flowed from eons ago, eroding and deepening the valleys over time, and then carving out the river's present day basin and flood plain. 

If you'd like to see the other blocks that've been made for this quilt, here's a link to Kate's fundraising quilt page. Do go have a look, there are beautifully-wrought mountains in fabric, many with personal stories and memories for the makers.  They will take your breath away, and Kate will do a wonderful job, as always, of combining them into a magnificent quilt.

OPAM and Initial Heart Swap

For January and a little late....

I signed up with  Peg at Happy in Quilting to join the OPAM challenge.  For those that haven't seen this before, OPAM stands for One Project a Month.  The idea is very simple......participants try to finish at least one project a month, be it quilting, sewing, knitting..... a "soft" craft.....and at the end of each month we post pictures of our item/s and a tally.  Thankfully it's a low-stress challenge, so no OPAM police banging on my door if I don't manage to finish anything.  Whew, sounds like my kind of challenge!  I decided to join because I have a few ...ahem!....ufo's tucked away, and a few projects I want to make, and this will hopefully motivate me to get on and finish some things.  And with other participants visiting to see what I get up to, I'll have a cheer squad to keep me going.....thanks ladies.

I only managed one finished project for January, and the reason I'm late posting for OPAM is that it was my gift in the Initial Heart Swap, and I couldn't show a picture until my swap partner had received her gift.  My swap partner was none other than Peg who organises OPAM, and she let me know yesterday her parcel had arrived, so I can show you what I made her now.

For this swap, we had to make a gift of a heart with our partner's initial on it.  The gift could be an actual heart, or a heart on something.  So I made Peg this little mini-quilt with embroidery and applique.  I stalked Peg's blog and saw on an older post that she liked linen, so I used a soft blue-grey linen for the background.  The design is a mix of ideas....I saw the quote on a poster on Pinterest and thought maybe I could incorporate it somehow with the "heart" somewhere as part of my swap gift, then I remembered a pretty little vintage caravan my fellow blogger Maria  here at The Next Stage had embroidered that I particularly liked, and decided an appliqued van would do nicely with the quote.

Thanks to Cheryll here for organising the Initial Heart Swap.


....til next time