Wandering Camera

We are just back from our holidays on the west coast of Clare with the dogs so I though I'd pull together some photos of the pups for this months wandering camera link up with Soma @ Whims and Fancies!  I'll have a sewing update on Friday as it wasn't all play and I did get some quilt tops finished and made massive headway on the round robin quilt to share with you then!  For now over to the furballs:

There was lots of this:

Maggie is now bigger than Charly and at 6 months old is all paws!  Wilbur on the other hand at 10 1/2 is on 5 tablets a day and slowing down massively these days.  I've been calling him Snuffalufagus as slow and steady seems to be the way of it these days!  Poor mite had an arthritis flare up so short walks on the beach is all he could manage while the other two bounced around him!

You can tell when he is not happy as his normally relaxed droopy face gets all scrunchy and wrinkled with the effort of walking.   Feels like this could be the last year we walk him on Doonbeg beach.  So while Wilbur snoozed in the back of the car, the puppy mania continued:

Then Maggie got tired!

But not Charly!  Who's eleven?  Not me!  I'm still a puppy!

In the middle of the break we came home for a few days as Maggie had her neutering operation and had to wear the cone of shame!  She managed amazingly well with it, better than any of our other dogs.  Patch used to get stuck in a corner and just stay there forgetting he could walk backwards!  Maggie had fun running after Charly scooping her up in it and clever dog managed to figure out the cone covered the food bowl so Wilbur couldn't get at it!

Then the humans had a holiday!  My cousin and her husband came to visit from Chicago and we wandered around the loop head peninsula admiring the scenery of the Wild Atlantic Way and finding some really good pubs open for food despite it being October and the end of the tourist season!

Some of my favourite photos - Queen Charly who clearly owns the whole beach!

The two pals!

And the senior citizen having a wander!

Linking up to

Wandering Camera - August

While looking to catch up on Sky Arts Photographer of the year on the Sky tv box, I came across a whole section of catch up TV on photography.

One of the programs I clicked on, out of curiosity, was a standalone program about David Hockney, looking at his polaroid collage series.  It was amazing to see the discipline he exercised in taking perfectly aligned photos, in polaroid form and laying them out in a grid with white space in between to recreate the image.  It reminded me of a quilt!  I found his later work where he abandoned the grid and overlayed the images collage style more visually interesting though and was inspired to play with this and see what happened.

So, I spent today clicking away on things I could find around the house and came up with this image made up of 16 photos taken not at all in a disciplined way but instead playing with odd angles and some close in, some further away.  This was tons of fun!  It reminds me of a cubist painting with the angles and broken pieces.

When I first heard the term modern applied to quilts it struck me as a bit odd, as to me, modern in art was Van Gogh, Picasso, Cubism and stuff from the early part of the last century.  And yes I see quilts as art - it is hard for me not to see deliberate design decisions in terms of form and aesthetic as art, though not all quilts are made as art, some are.   It surprised me too in this documentary that the debate about photographs as art was mentioned - I thought we were past that old chestnut.

Having had a great time clicking away even capturing a self portrait of sorts in the reflection of the shiny guitar, I turned to my favourite subjects to snap shoot!  Maggie had woken up from a snooze in the crate and Wilbur came to check on her so I had fun trying to capture their hellos!

I took lots of shots of Maggie, 27 of them and discarded about half!  Then I picked a few to try a collage in Photoshop and got this image below.  Maggies toys on the left and right and Wilburs big head in the middle!

Bassets have a very distinctive bony head and I think even they look goofy most of the time the have a very proud shaped head!



While wandering around the house,  I did capture images of our increasingly cluttered home - I give you Ruth & Gordon's on a Saturday morning:

1. Mum's perfectly made bed complete with remote controls ready for when she next stays over 2. In contrast our messy bed - in my defence I'm not usually the last one up! 3. Gordon's favourite chair from his Grandmother's house - I'm itching to paint it but he won't let me near it, not even to make a cushion... 4. Depression in new sofa (already!) where Gordon usually sits 5. Bedside reading!  6. Gorjuss tin peaking out 7. Dusty make up brushes - made an effort for lunch in town with mum!  8. WD40 not for the racer but for the ladder - a certain someone was supposed to be painting the outside of the house - didn't happen, ladder is still there in hall pretending... 9. Wish I could say that crack in the exercise bike was from lots of use!  10. Ben's toy (puppies have teething issues too and like to chew).  Now being used by Maggie - that makes me smile! 

Linking up to

Wandering Camera!

Things have been busy!  I'll have more posts soon on the numerous exhibitions that have been on in Limerick but the big news is there is a new puppy in the house!  This is Maggie, another Basset Hound!

1.Sleepyhead 2. Where did that small thing come from? 3. Eating Charly's collar  4.  Big smiles - first day home!
5. This is what I have to look forward to... 6. Pounce! 7.  White sharp nails - not enough calcium in early weeks!  8. Mine!
9. Are step ladders edible?  10.  Cuteness overload 11. Still mine!

I'm supposed to be decorating the front room and the hall this week but my back has given out on me so its spending lots of time in the garden with the pups!

Colours from the Garden!

Quilting wise not much new to report on the making front but I did buy some new fabric to add to the rainbow stash!  Think I need another Ikea trolley!

Rainbow of colours from Ruth's stash! (Did buy some grey toned fabrics to try out..)

Wilbur's not too sure about the little intruder so we're giving him lots of treats and making a big fuss of him.  Charly on the other hand is over the moon to have a little thing to boss about!

Wilbur looking for a spot to bury a bone in the garden.  Charly - who needs a bone when you have ball?
Hair growing back after MRI - way nicer to pet him on the head now!

Be back with photos of Evolution, Distance, River of Dreams and a trip I took to MountMellick to see Ethelda Ellis's exhibit.  Yup, not a lot of making but still a lot of quilty things going on here!  Linking up to

Wandering Camera!

This month's wandering camera has some sunshine at last!

Mum and G at Riverfest, View of the Shannon river with Thomand Bridge and King John's Castle

Limerick had Riverfest for the May Bank Holiday weekend and it was tons of fun!  When the sun shines the river just looks amazing.  There was rowing, jet skiing and tricks and stunts on the river this year and the location of the festival on the river front instead of by the old Granary worked really well - it was thronged!  The carousel had the longest line, even longer than the ice cream and Erdinger lines!

I have to say a big thank you to my Instagram swap partner@stichedbybetty for my May the 4th be with you mini quilt swap!  I received a brilliant package full of R2 extras and a light saber inspired mini quilt for my wall!

Other happy post included the next rounds of our Round Robin bee - we have a bit of a bottle neck due to one member traveling the world and now catching up.  I added very minimally to these to get them moving on again.  I turned the triangles into arrows and echoed the grey squares on the first one and then, extended the HST to flying geese by bringing back some text print that I saw had been used in the starting block for the second.  Still working on the amazing curved block - hoping The Improv Handbook will help me with ideas!

Not too much wandering outside the sewing room - the design wall looks like this in preparation for the class in June - Traditional blocks made modern.  I am definitely going to make a quilt for myself using my dog fabric and the modern economy block. 
Lastly. Wilbur is delighted to be home after his adventure at the Veterinary College. There's still lots of sleeping and yawning. Makes me tired just looking at him. He has developed a hard case of selective hearing as he is getting very good at ignoring me calling him off the sofa! I have resorted to schmackos from time to time to get him moving!  I think he is training me!

Linking up to

WIP & Wandering Camera

If it seemed quiet around here for the past week or so its because of this!  I may have bitten off more than I can chew when I decided to machine quilt Flower Power by myself on my Janome.

You might remember this one from the 2 1/2" squares swap our IPS branch did last year.  We swapped 375 squares +25 of our own to make a challenge quilt.  I pieced this over Christmas while my Janome was in the repair shop and finally got around to basting this monster bed quilt.

I chose wool batting as I had it on hand from a massdrop buy last year and it was ginormous so no piecing batting!  It's my first time using wool and though it takes a lovely stitch it is quite puffy.

It's been a right pain wrangling it through the machine but it has given my Janome a really good work out and I discovered a few things in the process of quilting this already!

My aurifil pink 2410 (favourite thread!) kept breaking when I moved the quilt back upwards to the left - I changed to a new titanium needle, rethreaded everything, cleaned out every bit of lint and still had breakage in this direction only!  I think it might be because moving in this direction for some reason, I am sewing down on the thread more than any other and I think I might be the cause of it shredding.   Once I finished sewing on the hexagon strips, the free motion background work went really well with no issues so, even though I still hear a clicking sound from time to time in the bobbin, I think the repair has worked and my machine is good to go.  I'll definitely know by the time I've finished quilting this one!

Backing is Tula Pink Freefall 108" extra wide and it took ages to pin through all the layers.  My glutes got a good workout on this one pin basting on the floor!

In other news, a rotten head cold followed the flu which hasn't helped much in getting things done on my to do list- I'm doing a great impression of red nosed Rudolph at the moment!  But it's not all been sneezing and sniffling!  I made some more blocks for my Traditional made Modern course in June - a nested churn dash and some wonky bento blocks - they are keeping it bright and happy by Lara's mug rug portrait of Wilbur and Charly which to be fair can do that on its own.  It makes me smile when I see it!  Lara's new book Crafted Applique is on the way and I'll be taking part in the blog hop in May and can't wait to try her technique.  She has gifted me a copy to give away so stay tuned for more or check out Amazon for a copy for yourself!

I have a Star Wars applique project to get cracking on this weekend too.  My glow in the dark fabric and thread arrived so I'm all set to give Darth Vader a go!  More on that during the week - ship date is Wednesday!!!!

Finally for wandering camera I have the usual monthly update of the furballs and some St. Patricks day photos to share!

My mum and aunt enjoying the parade - 1916 rebellion celebrations featured big with kids dressed up in short pants and the usual groups of girl guides, scouts and community groups kept it really bright and colourful this year!

Back in the day you weren't allowed get married during lent, so my Mum and Dad got married on St. Patricks day!  Yes it is in lent,  but every Irish person knows it's a day off!  Sweets and chocolate you've been saving in tins are broken into, mint flavoured ice cream and shamrocks impressions on pints of guinness are consumed and the priests would allow a wedding or two!

It made it really easy to remember Mum and Dad's anniversary.  My Dad died the week before my 24th birthday which was quite some time ago but had he lived they would have been 50 years married this year so we made a big fuss of Mum.  Our St. Pat's day consists of Mass for some who get up on time(!), parade, pints and dinner at mums!  Even though its her anniversary she insists on cooking!

She does love her cards and its a bugger to find a card suitable as most of them are something like: to you both on your special day....  So this year I found this card of a boy and a girl cow and gave her that with a big 50 and happy anniversary written inside - my aunt thought it was very funny! Mum smiled and put it with the other cards of for you both etc... on the mantelpiece.  Next year I think I'm going to have to come up with something better!

On the furball front Wilbur has been sleeping.... a lot...

Having to steady Wilbs on the sofa as he is prone to falling off at the moment!
Even his eyebrows are going grey now!

We've had to increase his meds as he is still seizing in his sleep - 2 last week.  So now he is on Phenobarbital as well as the expensive, less bad for you, stuff!  We are taking him up to the veterinary college in Dublin next week to see if there is more he needs but for the moment it's seeing what dose works for him.  The meds create a barrier in the brain but they also suppress normal brain activity too so, too much and his hind legs go all wobbly and he's like a dog after a few pints too many - not enough and its grand mal seizure.  Still at the current dose he's been snoring his head off on his favourite spot on the new sofa - yes on the sofa - he has me well trained!

Charly doesn't know what to do - when he seizes she gets confused and tries to attack him so we have been keeping an eye on her too.  Thankfully she is happy once you throw the ball for her.  Though with rain, hailstones and snow this March/April she is less inclined to venture outdoors.  Can't blame her really!  Garden needs a miracle this year!  If there is any chocolate left I think I might try bribing G into cutting the grass!

So thats it for the moment - still here - still catching up on reading blog posts (up to the end of March now and onto April)!  No rest for the wicked - unless your Wilbur!

Wandering Camera - March

It's been workshop after workshop here in my corner of the world and I might be all workshopped out!  I was so wrecked on Saturday after my 3rd and final workshop (more on this later) that instead of pulling out my photos from the past month I spent the evening watching Crufts on Channel 4 (massive dog show!) and so I missed linking up with Soma's Wandering Camera party.  I have been reading along all week and finally got around to pulling some photos together yesterday afternoon!

Last month, I went to Dublin to meet friends from college for lunch.  We had fun wandering around a shop called Deco Bake. Who knew you needed all these things to decorate a cake?  I really liked the cakes on display in the window and the angry birds one that hovered in mid air stuck to the elastic band!  We wandered over to the Chester Beatty Library in Dublin castle to see the Samurai chain mail made from silk strands and metal rings and the Royal Chinese robes on display.  No photos allowed there!

I also got to visit Croke Park - its the big national stadium owned by the Gaelic Athletic Association and our national sports Gaelic Football and Hurling are played there.   Limerick haven't won anything there since the 1920's.  I won a big hamper of chocolate and was told it would be the only win to go back to Limerick in 2016!  It was a very nice hamper and was fun all the same to see how many people take care of the field including those moving the lights to help the grass grow!

Given the week that was in it I thought I'd include the dogs and start with Charly!  Crufts dog show is huge over here and not without controversy.  I love watching the agility and flyball and learning about the dog breeds.  A Jack Russell Terrier took part in the flyball this year and I was yelling for them to win but the Border Collies always seem to make it across the line quickest!

Flyball is a relay race for teams of 4 dogs that run down a track, grab a tennis ball and bring it back - it's great fun.  Charly our Jack Russell loves playing ball and we have a game she and I play on the rare occasion when Wilbur is not sleeping on the sofa.  I throw the ball to her and she bats it back to me with both her front paws. This can go on for quite a while! Every now and again to show me who really owns the ball the she keeps it and rolls all over it!

Wilbur, on the other hand, doesn't really care too much about the ball, though he can usually be found sleeping on the tv remote control.   In the colour photos, I can see how old he is getting (91/2 now!) The front of his face is well grey!  My favourite part of him are his paws!  The breed standard for Basset Hounds has been changed as the Kennel Club in the UK has finally cottoned on to the fact that breeding for looks has made a mess of some dog breeds.  This year a German Shepherd Dog that won best of breed was found to have poor mobility.  Certain breeds have to pass a vet check to progress and the first year it was introduced the Best of Breed Basset failed the vet check.  Now the breed standard says paws large but not massive, wrinkles are ok but should not be excessive and the length of the ears should be to the tip of the nose and not any longer!  Their big droopy eyes are prone to infections and being long bodied and short legged they are not really meant to go up and down stairs!

Yes this is the new sofa - on account of him destroying the old one! And no he's not barred from it -  I managed a total of 2 days keeping him off of it and that was really because mum was staying and made sure he didn't get anywhere near it!  So I missed the linkup but am participating in the spirit of the idea:

Wandering Camera - the snapshot edition

I'm calling this one the snapshot edition, as I had fully intended on making an effort and showing some nice photos to link up with Soma's Wandering Camera linky party @Whims and Fancies but January kind of got away from me.  So here's a little look at my past week or so!

Washed my Lost in London quilt and remembered how much I love that scruchy texture you get from the first wash! 


Took a trip to Ikea to pick up a desk and chair for a friend on the way home from Dublin Airport and discovered I really like black in a kitchen. Plus check out that wood log roller blind!

I would love to change our counter tops to wooden ones.  Really love that look!


And this yellow made me smile though I think my mum would never visit if I did this!

Still loving that turquoise blue in the kitchen - am definitely going to incorporate more of this colour into our house this year - and a hot pink blind - perfect!

Am thinking of recovering the sofa with this darker fabric (5Euro a meter!) Easier to keep clean with Wilbur and Charly maybe? And it would be handy to have a second set so this doesn't happen again!


Still can't notice the lumpy bits on the bottom of the sofa seat where I stuffed it back in - this earned Wilbur the nickname of the Horrible Animal.  We call him that affectionately now all the time!

I love the shape of this chair and could see it re-vamped patchwork style!  Wouldn't that be a fun project though I suspect it would be a lot harder than I think to do!

Very little outdoor snapshots - pretty miserable weather all around!

On the bright side I did buy a new camera and have a photo tip for you.  When a new camera model is announced, quite often the camera manufacturers drop the price on the original model quite dramatically to move stock.  If you don't mind not having the newest, shiniest model this is a great way to buy good gear at reasonable prices.  So with the new X-Pro 2 mirrorless camera on the way the price dropped on the X-Pro 1 and somehow magically it found its way into my amazon basket!

 
This was my first shot!  Yup accidentally pushed the button when Charly surprised me - made me laugh!

So that's my photo Friday tip and wandering camera snapshot of January!  Linking up to Soma's @