Just when you thought life was getting boring...

...everything changes.

We came back from Australia and everything was as it always was. 

Good.

Then I got very good news:  My 'My daughter" piece was selected for a show in New York.  

Yes, NEW YORK.  My first. To say I'm thrilled is an understatement.

For the local scene I was preparing a new quilt to go into the Quilt Art 2012 exhibition here in Dubai.  I entered two existing pieces and one new (unfinished at the time) piece.

All still good.

Then my Dad got sick. I flew down to SA, spent some good time with him, left him to recover and came home.

Came back to the news that our contract in Dubai will finish soon and it is time to move on. We always knew it was coming, after all, we are expats, we don't stay in the same place for ever. But we thought it might last a bit longer...

While my head was filled with moving and relocating thoughts, my Dad passed away...

Now I am back from South Africa for the second time this month.  I am packing our house. I will go back to SA in July to help my mother pack her house. 

New horizons. For both of us.

But there's a new dawn on the horizon.  We are moving to Australia.  If all goes well we will settle in Adelaide. It's a small, beautiful, green city. Very different from Dubai. 

Life is still good.

(Oh, and the new quilt never made it to the show - still unfinished.)

Dubai in pictures 22

My husband took these photos yesterday.

Here he was in a client's office in the Trade Center area.  

Looking down Sheikh Zayed Road towards the south.

This was just before sunset, taking the dog for a walk behind our house.  We live on the edge of the city near Jebel Ali.  The townhouse complex where we live is surrounded by open veld/desert. 

The difference between the two photos is about 20km's.

Project ABC: K is for Keffiyeh

Also known as a ghutrah.

A traditional Arabian head dress.

Back from Austalia

After 3 weeks in the most beautiful Australia, it took me about a week to find my desert feet again.  But now I'm back and I'm glad you are still here!  

Thank you so much to Kathreen for her wonderful Australian guest post. I agree with her - the colors of the land are just so awesome. You have a beautiful country indeed.

We were about 4 days into our trip when I lost my camera... I am more sad about the photos I don't have than about the camera itself.  

So unfortunately there's no pictures of all the amazing colors, textures, details, art and architecture I saw.  We have loads of family pics from my husband's camera, but alas, they are not meant for this blog...

Apart from the lush green of the East Coast, the beautiful rolling hills of South Australia and the amazing red earth of the North West, the most enduring image I have of Australia is the amazing coastline and blue, blue ocean.

And the beach, of course.

Guest Post from Australia

Seeing that we are off wandering around Australia, I thought it would be good idea to ask one of my favourite Aussie bloggers to do a guest post about... Australia.

I asked her to share with us how being Australian and/or living in Australia has influenced her creative thinking and design process.

She told me " I am not influenced by being Australian, I just AM Australian!" 

 So, without further ado, here she is:  

Kathreen Ricketson is a mother, maker and blogger. She blogs at Whipup.net and lives in Australia with her husband Rob and two children. Kathreen has published six books (two on quilting and four on crafting with kids).

I am happy to be here to today guest posting about my country Australia and how the light and colour inspires me in my creativity and craft. Before settling down with children and work and mortgage I was lucky enough to have travelled to many different countries. I love to experience different cultures, foods, traditions and landscapes, but I think what I love most about traveling is experiencing peoples different sense of design and colour, from how they paint their houses, decorate their markets to their clothing and fabric designs. Every country and culture has a different way with colour that is influenced by their surroundings. 

In Australia we have the most wonderful light, blue skies, purple sunsets, yellow beaches, and red desert sands. The colours we are drawn to for our houses tend to be earth reds and browns, ochre yellows and eucalyptus greens and greys. But we also like to let the startlingly vivid colours of our flowers and birds shine amongst the earthy tones of our country. But we also like to let the startlingly vivid colours of our flowers and birds shine amongst the earthy tones of our country. 

My family and I love to go camping and recently we traveled inland to desert country to experience the amazing sunsets and red earth of our country. I have prepared some colour palettes based on images I took on our trip. Enjoy!  

Thank you Kathreen!

Marilyn Monroe quilt

She's done at last!

This is her in the shop window at Craft Land.  

She measures 2m x 2m, is made of fabric and chocolate wrappers and will go on auction Friday 30 March 2012. 

Craft Land is my generous sponsor.

She was made for the Chocol'Art Charity Event.  The theme is Chocolate at the Movies.

I am very proud of this quilt.  It is the first item I made which will be for sale.  It is fitting that the money will go to charity.  (The beneficiary of this event is the Make-a-Wish Foundation.)

Although the quilt is based on the Andy Warhol painting of Marilyn, everything about this quilt is my own work.   Own pattern, own fabric (and chocolate wrapper) choices, own cutting,stitching and hand quilting. I even ate most of the chocolates myself! :-)

We are leaving for a well deserved family holiday in Australia on Friday. 

I have a beautiful Australian guest post lined up for later this week. 

So until we meet again in about 3 week's time... have fun!

In a War someone has to Die

I few weeks ago I came across the website of Hanne Bang, an artist from Denmark.  

She is working on a project called "In a war someone has to die" 

Hanne says: "A couple of years ago I happened to zap by a TV program, in which a journalist was interviewing a professional African soldier. To the soldiers great disappointment he was out of work at the moment – because there was no war in his region. 

The interviewer asked the soldier if he was afraid of dying, and the soldier said: “No I am not afraid of dying. Are you afraid of dying?” The interviewer answered: “Yes I am afraid of dying”. Then the soldier said, without any sentimentality: “In a war someone has to die”. 

This little dialogue, and the words “In a war someone has to die”, returned back to me over and over again. Of course I knew that in wars people die, but suddenly I saw the essence and the reality of it very clearly." 

She then goes on to invite people to participate in a project inspired by these harsh words: 

"I am going to find women from all over the world. Many women from each country.

I would like to invite you to embroider/sew the text "In a war someone has to die" on a handkerchief. The text has to be in your own language. You may supplement with a symbol ore something else if you want to.

The handkerchiefs (hopefully 200-300 pieces) will eventually be sewn together into a great wall blanket. One universal voice. A commentary on the war and an act of solidarity to all those who must send husbands, fathers, sons, daughters and sisters into war.

In a war where someone has to die."

This is my contribution.  Written in Afrikaans.

If you want to be part of this project visit Hanne's website for more information.

Chocol'Art: Art, Movies and Chocolat

Come and join us for loads of fun...and chocolates!

Chocolates and Movies

The big project I am working on lately (and which is keeping from doing much else) 

looks like this:

I am participating in the Chocol'Art - At the Movies art event 

which takes place in Dubai on 30 March 2012.

The theme is Chocolates and Movies and includes fashion, jewelry, street art, performance art, graffiti and lots more.  It promises to be a great event.  Al the art work will be auctioned off  in aid of Make a Wish Foundation and Gulf for Good.  

I am making a quilt, depicting the face of Marilyn Monroe (as originally painted by Andy Warhol). It is mainly made up of fabric but some of the hair and the eye make-up is made from chocolate wrappers.

I have just finished the top layer of the quilt.  It measures 2m x 2m.  This week I have to layer it and do the actual quilt stitching.  I am quilting by hand...

The back of the quilt layer.  See how the chocolate papers are backed with iron-on interfacing to make it a bit stronger.

So far so good...

If you live in Dubai and are interested in buying tickets for the event, please contact me.

Project ABC: J is for Jewellery

Remember the beads?

Here they are in their new disguise as a bracelet:

It was originally two different stings of beads but I never wore any of it so 

I undid it and kept it in my bead-box for future inspiration.

I used a wooden button from the haberdashery souk as a closer.

I like the blue string peeking through here and there.