Guerilla knitting: getting in on the act

Spotted at a train station in Melbourne's north...

(I also have a bigger project in the pipeline - watch this space)

My creative space: my first quilt

This creative space is a bit retrospective. And the reason for this is also the reason this blog has been a bit sketchy lately, and why the posts that have appeared have been light-on in the photo department. You see, some less fortunate souls decided our house was an easy target, and late one January afternoon decided to help themselves to our tv, laptop, ipod, camera and worst of all my touring bike, which is like a dear friend.

When someone steals your electrical stuff it's irritating, but when they steal your bike it's different. It's personal. Which means that I am now constantly on the look-out, making a quick assessment of every bike that goes past to see if it's mine (what I will actually do if I see it, I haven't quite thought through. Let's cross that bridge when we come to it...).

The point of all this is that I have a new camera (a Canon G11, to replace the brand new Canon G11 that disappeared). And so I can finally show you my new(ish) quilt. Ready?


I really love this quilt. Some of the fabric is opped, some I picked up new but heavily discounted, and a couple of pieces were worth paying full price for.

You may notice I started hand stitching the quilting (in a sashiko pattern). Knowing this was a big task when I took it on, I persisted - for a while... then (yawn), I grew a little bored. The quilt was relegated to a guilt inducing pile on top of my bedroom drawers. It taunted me, "you never finish anything", "come on, stop starting new projects and just finish me already". So I did.

The hand quilting went out the window, and within a few hours I'd stitched in the ditches and attached the (cheaters) store-bought binding. But it was finished. Well... sort of. Really I should unpick the handstitching, but it seems a bit of a waste. And it's a nice reminder that aspiration is great, but sometimes you get more satisfaction when you respect your limitations...

For loads more creativity, launch off from Kirsty's.

do shopping centres scare you?

Today I watched a program about anxiety, phobias and physical responses. There was a woman who had agoraphobia, and had barely left her house in years. One of the treatment methods was for a therapist to 'expose' her to situations that triggered her anxiety. There was footage of them in a shopping centre. She was training her brain to adjust to the environment.
Now, not for a minute am I suggesting agoraphobia or other anxiety disorders are not serious. Quite the opposite. I think the more sensitive people in our society, the ones who are more often prone to mental health issues, act as our societal barometer. They detect when things aren't quite right.
My point is, in many ways, this woman was right. A shopping centre should induce panic. The fact that they don't, and we are building more and more of them, is the real cause for concern.

image credit: avlxyz

Do shopping centres scare you?

My Creative Space

today it is anticipation of creativity... for I just ordered Jinny Beyer's 'Designing Tessellations'. If you are interested in pattern design (and let's face it, that probably means you are a bit of a maths nerd), this is a really excellent book. It has lots of detail about all the possible combinations of repeating patterns, which can each be traced back to a unique building block. Once you know the fundamentals, a whole world of pattern design opens up before you...

If you are interested in this book, I can tell you there's a copy in the Brunswick library in Melbourne, which has spent a fair proportion of the past year at my place. Borrow, renew, renew, overdue, return, borrow, renew... soon I will have my very own copy.