Filling Out

Back in September I planted up this old planter:

And here's how it looks today:

A Shoot!

In March this year I found a tiny piece which had broken off a chain of hearts plant (Ceropegia woodii). I brought it home, and popped it in a tiny pot to see if it would root.

The stem part shrivelled up, leaving just one leaf. That leaf has sat on the window-sill for 8 months. I've watered it from time to time, as the leaf was still green, even if it showed no sign of growing.

A couple of months ago I was given a hanging planter with a lovely, thriving chain-of-hearts in it. But I still didn't give up on my single leaf on the window-sill.

And look what I found today:

It's growing!

First Bud

This is my replacement "Marie Antoinette" dahlia's first bud. I will be very interested to see what colour the flower is this time!

More Pineapples

For my experiment with the "sew simple" pineapples on Friday, I started with 7cm squares. But I wondered what effect smaller starting-squares would have. Today I found out:

In the middle is my first experiment, which started at 7cm, and has 6 layers.
To the left is my second try. This time I started with 6cm, and again there are 6 layers. If I added two more layers it would be exactly the same size as the first one.
The small one on the right started with 5cm squares. There are only 3 layers, but I've positioned the ruler to show that it is still only 5cms in size. It hasn't grown, which means that if I tried to sew another layer on, it would be exactly over the top of the second layer, hiding it completely.

So it seems 7cms was a pretty good starting size. 6cm works, but the tiny extra strip of colour doesn't really seem worth the extra work to me. So I will stick with 7cms.

Modern Love

Big day out in Bendigo!

First stop was the Modern Love exhibition at the art gallery. Amazingly, photos were allowed as long as you didn't use a flash. The exhibition focuses on "fashion visionaries" of the last 30 years, with pieces by Rei Kawakubo, Jean Paul Gaultier, Alexander McQueen, Issey Miyake, Vivienne Westwood, and many more.

You may notice that there aren't many people in these shots. I don't know if that was because of how early I was, or if this exhibition is just not pulling in the crowds that previous ones have. I did overhear a visitor say "Look at that, it's only 19 years old. That's practically new!", which made me wonder what they thought they were coming to see.

It was nice to be able to get a good view of everything, unlike the Grace Kelly show where there was always at least one person, and often two, between me and the glass cases. Here's a close-up of one of Issey Miyake's pleated garments:

One by Thom Browne that just made me laugh:

This one is not old at all - it is from his Fall/Winter 2013-14 collection. I loved the quilting on the jacket, but what might not be obvious is that it has no sleeves. It is a square straitjacket, topped with a big square hat.

The show is on until 2nd February. It is not huge (just two rooms) but is worth a visit if you are interested in modern designers!

Next stop, the Bendigo Swap Meet.

This is the biggest thing in Bendigo this weekend. A huge sea of stalls selling "something for everyone", although to be honest, most of it was for people interested in cars. However, I did see half a dozen sewing machines and one overlocker, and then this:

Let's zoom in a little:

Squeezed between the vehicle parts, someone selling quilting fabric! But it was almost hidden behind the board advertising several old cars for sale.

Sew Simple Pineapples

Yesterday morning I watched an episode of The Quilt Show which included a segment where Karin Hellaby showed how to make a pineapple block using her Sew Simple method (Episode 1212 if you have access to it). I was amazed and fascinated by it, so I had to try it out straight away. No measurements were given in the segment, so randomly chose 7cm as the starting square for my trial block. I just grabbed fabrics as they came to hand, and because they were purple the block is not easy to photograph:

Bottom left, my trial block. The squares required appear to grow in size in something like a fibonacci sequence. Rest of the picture, squares I then cut to make more blocks. It had suddenly hit me that I needed some little gifts for members of one of my quilting groups by Sunday, and I didn't have much time available for sewing before then.

Next photo is about two-thirds of the way through the process:

I've put a link below to a YouTube video that explains these a little if you are interested. But I'm not using 1/4" seam allowances, mine are all metric. The blocks don't take long to make, although drawing the lines and cutting them open are a bit time-consuming.

Here's most of the finished blocks I made:

They've got one less round than the purple sample block. And here's what they became:

Little stuffed Christmas tree decorations. They're not sewn closed yet, but I think I will be able to do that before Sunday afternoon!

The YouTube video if you want an explanation of the process:

It is always fascinating to me when someone comes up with a completely different way of doing something! I'm going to have to try a bigger block (or blocks) in the future. My mind has been throwing up ideas of other ways to use this technique, so there's lots to explore.

Sitting Piecing

This afternoon was ideal for sitting inside doing some paper-piecing, and catching up with some recorded TV shows:

It is over two years since I made the first of the pieces for this. I'm getting closer to finishing it, but progress is very slow because I usually only work on it when I'm at quilting meetings. But today was a good day for it!

Added later: Linked to Sarah's HeLP for November. Check out the other paper-piecers!