Who is Cinzia on Scatterday?

Can't always rely on scheduling...this should have been uploaded early in the morning but I found on checking my settings that it is set to upload early next Saturday...Can't win them all.

So what are some of the things that make me what I am

C for cooking. When Paul and I were married he was used to having a fully English cooked breakfast every day. I tried and lasted two days. At which point he was told that either he cooked it or he didn't get it. I have never been a morning person.

I for intuitive or an idealist. In 1985 Paul and I were married. Two days before the wedding his parents flew into Sydney airport. As Paul was ill I had to drive and collect them.  I was, and still am, a country kid. I hated street directories, or was it just that I was too lazy to use one. Either way you can picture the situation. I am driving the parents back to Wollongong, hoping that a sign turns up soon telling me where to turn. Paul's father not too keen on my occasional, 'I think I should have gone down there' comments, asks if I know where I'm going. My response of 'It's somewhere down on the left' didn't inspire any confidence and he started to search for the Gregory's. Fortunately the Wollongong sign turned up shortly after.

N for totally non neat freak. I used to be very tidy and orderly but as I have aged my neatness has reached a sensible phase and my places now look lived in.

Z for zombie which is the best description I can give for how I am after I find a great book. Unfortunately I am not one who can put a book down and so will read until 3a.m. or even 4a.m. You can imagine how I was going to work that day. That is why I stopped reading during term time, either the book had to be boring so I could put it down. In this case it wasn't worth picking up. Or alternately I didn't sleep. Great book I read earlier this year is January First, it's about a child's development of early onset schizophrenia.

I for immature However immature I may be at times I don't believe that this is a real elephant

A for algebra. This was one of the parts of maths I loved best when at school and still enjoy teaching it to kids. I love it when they finally understand how to use it and they see that once you have algebra the rest is easy peasey.

Scatterday B

 Quick update for next Scatterday. The letter is B and the categories are
# Library
# Smell
# Equipment
# Blog

posting date 22nd June

Time is speeding along

Far out. It is already Wednesday night and I am yet to start my Scatterday post. I wish whoever it was that put a bomb under the world time keeper had put it under me instead.

Scatterday X

This week was going to be the letter X but that is such a hard one I will give you a choice.
Now the categories are # hidden #famous # alive and # crosses in quilts.

So what is the choice you say?  Well if you don't like X you can find a photo for each letter of your name (similar to an acrostic), for example my name is Cinzia so I could find a photo of
Cat
Insect
Nose
Zoo
Ice cream
Apple 

your choice either X or an acrostic on your name
Posting date 8th June

Scatterday - M is for memories

WOW I can't believe that it has been two weeks since I listed the Scatterday M categories. I know I have been busy but I am sure that there hasn't been thirteen days since I posted that info. Note today is Friday which is why I said thirteen days.
So what will M bring you from my busy life?

M for sport -  well I have a bunged up knee and sore hip due to the healthy lifestyle of my teenage years. I was a hockey goalkeeper for many years and though I knew that sliding into the opposition wasn't really a 'nice' thing to do, it was just so cool and I could take out the player and the ball with one foul clean sweep. We all remember those first few training sessions when every muscle ached and we wondered why we were there. For those whose eyesight isn't the sharpest that is a hand holding a calf muscle not anything rude!!

M for foreign - a few years ago Paul and I did a cruise around the Mediterranean and while that starts with an M it was not what I was thinking of. No the M word has to be monstrosity. We started our cruise in Barcelona which is where the architect Gaudi comes from. If you check this link here you will see some of the buildings he designed. The word gaudy comes from his name and you can fully understand its origins if you look at any of his buildings. Architecturally I think his buildings are amazing but too way out in many aspects. Just like this monstrosity, Sagrada Familia which on the inside is magnificent but the outside does nothing for me. it is a church by the way.

M for animal - when my children were young for several years we bought a yearly pass to the almost local zoo, Symbio. Apart from an angry pig all of the animals were friendly and you could hand feed them and pat them. This includes a wooly mammoth impersonator. Now I realise that many of you believe all wooly mammoths died quite a while ago but when you have a young child asking you what's this and what's that and you are stressed to the hilt anything this big and wooly has to be a wooly mammoth. In truth this is a wooly buffalo(late edit...this is a highland cow?) I think but it didn't matter at the time..... how many kids got the chance to tell about the wooly mammoth they saw on the weekend during their school news session. Fortunately my children survived and moved on to another font of wisdom.

Modern Quilt - this is not my kind of category. I am seldom into the sew a few big squares together and kill it with quilting style of quilting, even my first quilt which was sew a few big squares together wasn't killed with quilting... it was too big and too bulky and I had no idea what quilting was at that time so for modern quilt I have had to steal from our dear friend google.
 Actually the google image search came up with some nice quilt but not nice enough for me to try this style.

Success another Scatterday survived and two weeks to go before the next one is due.

Terrifying Turn Tumbles V Scatterday

Alzough unpuntual end vizout ze pictures ze post iz finally here

Ze veather last Vednesday voz vet end violent ven ze village vagabonds ventured forth vid out ze necessary Romanian violet garlic vase necessary to vord off ze voracious vampires.

Wrapped within ze vibrant veil zay vandered verily until zey veered into ze vehicle verging on ze village velodrome. Vair voz he now?

Vy vaulting ze vertex of ze village venue of vership ov course!

Zair vould uv been zay pictures if zee iPad vould ave vorked!!!

Scatterday M

Well I hope that everyone hasn't been drowning like the letter M. If you found any of the recent letters a challenge this should be an easier week as the categories suggest many everyday things..well most of the categories do.

@ Sport        @ Foreign (perhaps not so everyday in most houses - but my kids live overseas)      @ Animal     @  and a modern quilt - ouch this one is hard if we only follow the criteria that appears to be the 'Modern' quilt online.  You may select what you see as modern. It doesn't have to be just unpatterned fabrics which are quilted to death. Mind you if you are skillful enough to do that plz show us... I know Linda in Florida does beautiful work in this regard.

Posting date  is 25th May

Scatterday V

So what do you think of our snazzy letter this time around?  
And the categories to birghten your week are
# colour
# pointy
# weather
# and of course it has to be a vibrant quilt

Posting date is the 11th May

Late, late and late. Logging my progress for Scatterday L

Well I suppose it just had to be L stands for LATE. It is now 8:09am, well it was when I first opened the page, Saturday 27th April and I am just starting my L post.
How fast can I make it? As you will all no doubt guess there is no way that I will be able to actually take any of the photographs for this post so it will again be a steal from the internet. Where would one be without old Google and its images?

So here goes the morning's post.

8:12 managed to log on
8:13 fixed up spelling and typo errors from above piece
8:14 L is for sky . Lofty clouds in images got no hits
8:17 couldn't decide between a decent looking Lear jet and some lofty clouds... so here you have both.

8:18 boy I will be more than lucky if these things actually format correctly but one can only hope when one is desperate and LATE

8:19 Purple - this was always going to be lavendar as my neighbour grows lots of it. I haven't checked if any is in flower but again Goole images to the rescue

8:22 well three minutes wasted as the post images moved all over the place while I tried to add an 'l' to the words lots above... why do I make so many typos when rushing?



8:23 City - London. I know you probably won't believe this but I do have a photo of this same spot...somewhere on my camera.. somewhere being the most important word in that sentence.

8:25  Lap Quilt - now this is actually one of my own. I made Green Scrap several years ago and will today add a label to it and give it to a fantastic guy who lives down the road.
Viv is 92 years old and was to be the first person I had ever known who actually hit the 100 mark. I had joked with him last year about looking forward to his 100th birthday party because I have never known anyone who was 100. We had talked about what gifts to give to people who are so young and he said no gift was the best gift as they invariably have everything.

Unfortunately two weeks ago Viv was diagnosed with a brain tumor and has been given only three months to live. He has opted for no treatment as he feels he has had a full life and has never recovered from the loss of his wife a couple of years ago. It will be a great loss felt by our whole community as he, and his wife Gwen, have always been real tireless in their efforts to make this a better world for everyone.
I will miss him.

8:36 upload

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Scatterday L

The categories for this fortnight are interesting to say the least

# sky

# purple

# city

# and a lap quilt

I think those are sweat drops falling off our letter.. showing what it thinks about the challenge.

Posting date is 27th April

Scatterday A - Where are we now?

Boy has this been a rush. It is now Friday and tomorrow is just one day away.
So for today's categories I have home, bird, junk and art
OK I know I have never seen a real life attic but I do have a space above our bedroom which could be classed as an attic..if one didn't have to get a ladder out to climb into it. But such is life. Here you have a photo of our attic door.


Now in here as may be seen from my photo is attic junk. If you look closely you will also see ancient boxes, aged toys and antiquated stuff. While I am certain that there is something valuable in there, if my husband cleans it out before I do, I know most of it will hit the tip.
There is probably also some ancient bird in there too but I think I am really pushing the boundary of what you, my reader will accept from slack me and so have found this on the web.  Pity it wasn't plant as I have a friend who actually paints the old fashioned watercolour style of botanical plants..but now I am really wandering... must say on task.

Last but not least for art from my sewing room I have a quilt I made years ago which is based on Australia's history.

 If you look from the left to the right the fabrics and images reflect the important things in our society over the times. Starting with the indigenous people, plants and animals, going through the English and merino sheep with mining, and other primary industries, the war, death, Bradman (could you have an Australian quilt without Bradman?) the immigrants and their quarter acre blocks to modern times of multiculturalism and the environment. Funny I made this quilt about 15 years ago and today's concerns/focus are still the same although focused in a different direction.

Books for Sale

1.       $1 Patchwork Playthings with full-size templates by Margaret Hutchings 48pg paperback http://tinyurl.com/bumtl8u

2.       $5 Textured Embroidery by Jenny Bradford Milner Craft Series 93page paperback http://tinyurl.com/c9wvnpj

3.       $10 Sew Necessary by Nancy Halvorsen published by Art To Heart 36pg paperback http://tinyurl.com/cvp8b5r

4.       $15 A Christmas Story by Anni Downs of Hatched and Patched includes quilts and 11 other projects 39pgs paperback http://tinyurl.com/cyff3va

5.       $10 Persian Designs and Motifs for Artists and Craftsmen by Ali Dowlatshahi with 400 motifs and 8 full colour plates 109pg paperback http://tinyurl.com/bmqdxrk

6.       $10 Quilted Bags and Purses by Mary Jo Hiney hardcover 144pg http://tinyurl.com/d8rvwqe

7.       $40 Japanese Imagery in One Hundred Quilts 124pg softcover http://tinyurl.com/d8okoo6

8.       $15 Focus on Features – Life-like portrayals in Applique by Charlotte Warr Anderson C&T Publishing 96pg paperback http://tinyurl.com/clou63n

9.       $15 Faces & Places Images in Applique by Charlotte Warr Anderson C&T Publishing 128pg paperback http://tinyurl.com/cy2hun2

10.    $15 Curves in motion – Quilt Designs and Techniques by Judy B. Dales C&T Publishing 160pg paperback http://tinyurl.com/dxmald8

11.     $1 Inspirations Vol 4 1994

12.    $15 Pieced Curves So Simple – The 6 minute circle and other time-saving techniques by Dale Fleming C&T Publishing 80pg paperback http://tinyurl.com/bm9eneq

13.    $15 Dear Jane by Brenda Manges Papadakis EZ Quilting by Wrights 160 pg paperback http://tinyurl.com/bw2235w

14.    $8 Ribbon Embroidery 29 Inspirational projects with pattern sheet included Country Craft Series by Craft World Books 176 pg hardback http://tinyurl.com/chuor72

15.    $20 Introduction to Bobbin Lacemaking by Rosemary Shepherd 112 pg paperback http://tinyurl.com/cpcl3yd

16.    $5 Colours of Australia – Directions in Quiltmaking by The Quilters’ Guild 96pg paperback http://tinyurl.com/cpcl3yd

17.    $5 Sampler Supreme Showcase quilt for the 6in pieced block by Catherine H Anthony. 80pg paperback

18.    $1 Hooked on Hemp jewelry by Suzanne McNeill 24 fun jewelry items to make and wear 20pg paperback http://tinyurl.com/d3kk58z

19.    $5 Celebrating the Traditions Quiltmakers of Australia by Karen Fail 96pg paperback http://tinyurl.com/cu8rlyk

20.    $5 Workshops from Quilt Skills by The Quilters’ Guild 96pg paperback http://tinyurl.com/cllzs7c

21.    $5 Between Friends. Quilt to Share by Karen Fail 104pg paperback

22.    Celebrating the Traditions AND Workshops from Quilt Skills AND Between Friends $10 for all three

23.    $5 Quilts to Come Home To by Joy Hoffman and Darlene Zimmerman 17 New Designs featuring Tri-Recs and Tri-Mate tools 80 pg paperback

24.    $5 Machine Embroidery by Gail Harker. Merehurst Embroidery Skills 127 pg hardback http://tinyurl.com/bolstt9

25.    $3 Super Quilter II Challenging Projects for the Advanced Quilter by Carla J.Hassel 196pg paperback http://tinyurl.com/cmjx7bg

26.    $1 Basic Embroidery by Creative Handicraft Books 32pg paperback

27.    $1 Quilt Art 2004 engagement calendar by Klaudeen Hansen & Annette Baker American Quilter’s Society fantastic collection of quilt photos

28.    $1 2003 Masterpieces Sprit and strength. Husqvarna Viking Gallery of Quilt Art catalogue from the International Touring Exhibition

29.    $1 2005 Masterpieces Art Takes Shape. Husqvarna Viking Gallery of Quilt Art catalogue from the International Touring Exhibition

30.    $15 historical book English Quilting – Old and New By Elizabeth Hake unnumbered paperback http://tinyurl.com/c59lu5t

31.    $15 historical book Forget Me Not – A gallery of Friendship and Album Quilts by Jane Bentley Kolter 128 pg paperback http://tinyurl.com/cv3bqyr

32.    $15 historical book Red and Green. An Applique Tradition By Jeana Kimball Patchwork Place 160 pg paperback http://tinyurl.com/bmbbky3

 Note I am in Australia  and will only post to Australia

Scatterday S - almost cheating

While I realise that without even trying my sister Charmaine would easily fill all of the required categories this week I think that people would think I had staged the whole category selection thing if I merely posted a photo of her with strawberry ice cream around her mouth and an empty spoon in her hand and as she never sews any empty box would depict her empty stash.

However in the true spirit of this week's letter I have instead included photos and story from a recent retreat I attended.

Last Saturday and Sunday I arrived early at Cobargo for a sewing extravaganza

But alas when I peered into the shed that was to be our studio it was empty.

I worried that I was in the wrong location. With many a fine stitcher soon to descend where were we to stitch. Luckily it turned out that I was looking in the wrong shed but I need an empty so the photo has remained. 

Snippets - Enter With Care - Joy Holmes

Day 1 was a relaxing day of hand stitching while day 2 was machine work. I had actually taken a fantastic photo to use here but am unable to find it so have had to resort to this harried stitcher. Unfortunately one student had trouble with her machine and did indeed resemble this lady fair.

Many colours were used even strawberry, both light and dark for Joy's block. And after a fine desert of strawberries and ice cream everyone agreed that this project would not make a dint on anyone's stash.

Scatterday A

hmmm I wonder what they meant by this week's categories
# house
# bird
# junk
# art from/for/in your sewing room

One's mind can really do a lot with those words and you have until 13th April to find your photos and words..see you then.

New BOM

C30 - I Remember

Well starting on Tuesday I am starting a new BOM series based on blocks from my Raconteur - The Storyteller's Collection Quilt. I don't know how well it will go but am hoping that enough people show an interest in it that I can get more photos of completed blocks and collections. I just love to see what people can do with my blocks and how different they all turn out when made in other colours or fabric ranges.

Carol Le Maitre is a person of my thinking and has made her blocks in such a variety of colours. Margaret McC has just started this weekend and I can't wait to see what it looks like in civil war fabrics as that is her present love, while Rhonda usually picks such soft and elegant fabrics (Shabby Chic I think is what it is called - but don't hold me to it) so they again will be totally different. 

I meet up with Margaret and Rhonda about once every two or three months and can't wait for the next meeting. If we all m

anage to get there, not as easy as one thinks, then in three weeks I should have some photos of their blocks.

Almost Caught Up

C13 Log Cabin Baskets

C12 Turnaround

C12 Hidden Extras

I would love to say that I have caught up with posting all of the blocks that Carol has emailed me but alas she sews quicker than I edit and upload.

Mind you everyone is fortunate that she is so far ahead as she also edits my patterns for errors. We assume I had been getting stuck into the wine when I wrote the numbers for Log Cabin Baskets as they were all over the place. Thankfully now that has been corrected.

This is also Carol's second attempt at Hidden Extras. Rather than wasting time, like I did, using the same fabric for both the little and the long star points she used two colours so that they could actually be seen.

Doesn't Turnaround  look great with her fabric choice.

Youthful Fun

C10 Fiesta

C12 Relay for Life

C11 Winter Sun

These three blocks were named for events around my youngest son. 

He loves parties and the Winter Sun, particularly now as he lives in Norway and sees so little of it.

He has also always been a willing participant of many fundraisers. While at uni he joined with a group of friends in the Relay for Life. This was his first fundraiser where he discovered that there could be fun in the event rather than just slogging it out to get money for whatever charity.

He related with pride how one night he and nine of his friends managed to come second last in a trivia night...because they had bought nine of the last ten answers. He loved the Fiesta afterwards.

Childhood Memories

C15 Bond Street

C13 Spinning Spokes

C15 Goldilocks

 There are many of my memories within the blocks of Raconteur, the nights of Monopoly and cheers when I held the  Bond Street card in my hand - it was my good luck charm. As a child I fought to win like every other child. Now I dislike the game and that same aspect. For every winner there are more losers and I won't play. Thankfully our children have discovered many other games which aren't quite as cut throatgh cut throat is still their favourites.
Do you remember....
.... the Xmas you received yoru first bike and the Spinning Spokes and those plastic ribbons attached to the handlebars?
..... the story books and characters like Goldilocks and the moral of all of those stories. I am sure they were written with the sole purpose of drumming values into children.
.... the games of hide and seek..Searching for that last kid who always had the perfect spot?
.... and best of all that great big tractor tube, the Childish Tube, which was always found beside every swimming hole? Wouldn't be allowed these days ..OH&S or some other government regulation.

C9 Childish Tube

C9 Rabbits in the Light

C15 Searching

Another memory which would be common to many country kids would be the rabbit hunting and those poor Rabbits in the Lights. A revolting sport according to one of my city friends when told of it later. As a child I simply considered it to be food. Different times. Different circumstances.

Nature Rules

C10 Salmon Run

Salmon Run was made when Paul and I were on a cruise through Alaska. One of Paul's hobbies is researching holidays which are good value and one year he managed to pick up an amazing special on a land and boat package through Alaska. It was the most breathtaking place I have ever been. 

We saw brown bears, close enough to touch had we been stupid/game enough, squirrels, otters, puffins and many others including salmon. Although most of the animals were in the wild the salmon weren't as we went there in April/May but we did walk beside one of the rivers where they 'run' in the springtime.

C12 Sparrow's Flight

Our son's live overseas and we are very lucky to be able to have free accomodation whenever we can stand to make the 20-30 hour flight.

One year we went to England where one son was living and it was there that I finally understood the concept I had always grown up believing..'birds fly south for the winter'. Isn't it terrible of our education that we grew up with all of these 'facts' which weren't changed to suit our location. As so many of our books were published, or at least written in the northern hemisphere we simply learnt and believed these facts. There I saw many sparrows and stopped to think that yes the English birds would fly south, to warmth for the winter. I never understood why our birds would fly to Antartica for winter... a child's thoughts and memories.

C4 Summer's Day

We can all guess when I made Summer's Day. Although Carol had prewashed her fabrics the red still ran here. I had the same problem with a number of my blocks, but it was my fault for being lazy and not prewashing..why does one only learn after the fact...and then repeat the error at a later date.

Mistakes Corrected

C10 Sweet September

Carol has finished another two blocks...I have found a soul mate...someone who must never stop for food or to do horrid chores... how else could she finish so many blocks so quickly. 

In truth once the fabric is cut Raconteur is a lovely project which can be used to fill in a few minutes here and there. 

There are quick and easy blocks such as Hidden Extras as well as other more time intensive ones like Sweet September.

Sweet September is a simplified version of Rhonda Loves Spots in Collection 22. I liked the idea of the star in the middle floating here and tried to develop it further in Rhonda Loves Spots. Failed miserably in that aspect but it is still a pretty block.

C12 Hidden Extra

Hidden Extras gets its name from the fact that in the original quilt the six star arms are made of two pieces each. I had chosen the wrong fabric for some of the pieces but wasn't home at the time so couldn't recut the fabric. As I had run out of other sewing I figured I may as well make it up anyhow.

Raconteur took me an average of 30 hours per collection...error like this one contributed to that time:) I am sure Carol will finish her quilt a lot quicker than I did.

Funny Coincidence

C10 Rainbow Writing

What a difference fabric design makes. In the original quilt this block was made with a rainbow coloured stripe. 

In my day job I teach hearing impaired children who are placed in a regular school.  Most of my time teaching has been with older children, upper primary through to year 12 but  this child was only 5 and so I was spending some time in the kinder working out how things ran and what the child was like.

Well one of the activities that the children did was Rainbow Writing. In this activity the children traced their names first in one colour and then over the top of that in another colour and then a third colour and so on. 

Being a secondary teacher I thought this was a real time waster and of little benefit, but it looked pretty. BTW I have since learnt that it is a great activity to help the littlies improve their pencil skills besides looking pretty and most chldren don't find it as boring as colouring in...we can all learn something.

An amazing co-incidence is that Carol's fabrics look just like one of the buildings at the school.

Fear of Curves

Cool Cat in the Outback

C13 Maypole

Carol this week started out thinking that this was not a week for curves. She looked at Maypole and decided that it was not the time to try  those corner circles and so she made Cool Cat in the Outback. If you look closely at these two blocks you will see a lot of similarity. Cool Cat is simply missing three circles. After a bit of deliberation she decided that no circle was going to beat her and so she EPP'd the background, foundation pieced the circles, cut them out and then gathered them over 200gsm paper, ironed them and then appliqued them on top...not scarey at all she said.....apart from the EPP it was similar to how I made them. I still can't understand why people enjoy EPP rather than regualr piecing but Carol appears to be having great fun with this method. Patchwork is such a wonderufl hobby where everyone can indulge their delight.

C9 Portrait Pain

Another block which originally caused Carol some pain was Portrait Pain but as may be seen from her block it oculdn't have been all that painful. Carol tried foundation piecing this one but found the curves just didn't suit it so she then returned to her favourite method of EPP again:)

Midnight Escapades

C11 Mandola at Midnight

So what do you do at midnight? No I'm not obsessed with quilting and designing quilts and yes I do read widely... it's just that one day a few years ago I had received the latest copy of QNM and in it was an article explaining the process for designing mandolas. Well of course I couldn't resist and so I jumped out of bed and went to the computer and set to immediately designing my own mandola. And in a totally impartial manner I was able to go to bed assured that my design would be perfect for sewing the next day.

Well next day brought a few challenges as I discovered that what looked perfect and easy when magnified to 800% was perhaps not so perfect nor easy at 100%. Those little triangles in the middle were added at the last minute to assist in flattening the centre. Not a bad block for someone having lots of tiny scraps. This block only has 142 pieces. From memory there is one block which has more pieces. Oh in case you didn't know the side length of the hexagon is 2in.

Any idea what time I was designing?