African Artifacts close-ups

Remember the African artifacts I told you about earlier?

They are all piled into a corner waiting to be packed. 

Here are some more close-ups.  

Crochet Experiments

I came upon this blog post by Creative Fidget a while ago via Pinterest. 

It made me think of the pile of t-shirt yarn I made ages ago and haven't used yet. 

(Now that I am packing I think of a lot of things I stash for later use....)

My experiment with crocheting a piece of t-shirt yarn into a spiral has produced this.  I tried different ways of  covering the yarn to expose it more or less.  I think if I alternate the color of the t-shirt yarn and the color of the crochet yarn, I might just get something interesting going here...

Now back to packing...

On show in New York

For the very first time I have a piece of my own creation on display in an Art Exhibition.

If you are in the New York area, please go and have a look at this great show, 

curated by the very talented Joetta Maue. 

The show opened last night.

Checking in while Sorting out

Just to proof that I am not doing nothing...  

Just because I am not creating doesn't mean I'm not keeping my hands busy!

In preparation for the big move I'm sorting through the whole house. 

Purging, filing, cleaning, and all such constructive things. The moving company will do the actual packing but we have to sort everything and make sure they only pack the things we really want to (and are allowed to) take to Australia.

Lots of magazines staying behind.  I know this is really sad, but I've decided to go digital from now on.  Much kinder on the trees. And the storage space.

You can't pack candles, did you know?  They melt and make a big mess in the box.

My biggest achievement so far was to reduce a huge, and I mean really huge, pile of school books, artworks, reports, photos, etc into a neat filing system. I kept everything but without any system.  If it wasn't for Pinterest, I wouldn't even have known that it was possible to have a system.  Now I have a file per child per school year, each containing that year's photos, reports,  awards and samples of their art and written work. 

Really cool, if I say so myself.

The next challenge is my work space. Desk, sewing station and fabric stash. 

This is going to be a biggie...

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!