Inside the studio

At the moment, the studio is still a bit of a mess until the walls and ceiling go in but that won't be until the electrician has been in next week. I thought of every reason why I'd need an electric plug - sewing machine, commercial overlocker, domestic overlocker, light box, iron, kettle, lap-top computer ........so I ordered four double plugs, which will get rid of having to use power boards or double adaptors. That extra power point is bothering me - please, can someone think of a good way to use it?? 

Another view of the studio and signal

This is another view of the studio showing how low the patio roof is compared to the wall of the building - it will have to go - this shot also shows Eddie's railway signal which is the reason I got the studio in the first place. I wanted to move to a bigger house with a bigger sewing room but Eddie just couldn't bear to go through the hassle of moving his precious signal which a fully restored, fully working 1911 West Australia Govt Railways signal. The post is solid jarrah and took eight hefty blokes to move it from the car trailer to the backyard while all the metal bits were imported from England. When we have a bbq, all the blokes think it's great fun to move the lever which moves the arm, which changes the colour of the light from the lamp from red to green and which also makes every dog in the neighbourhood bark like crazy! We saw it in the back garden of a house which was for sale on Great Eastern Hwy. It was the day that runners were taking the Olympic flame through Guildford so we there to watch. The agent came out and asked "Are you interested in looking at the house?" I said, "No, but how much do they want for the railway signal?" A month later we got a phone call to say, "$500". It was in a pretty dilapidated state but Eddie thought $500 was really cheap, so it's been in our garden ever since. Actually the signal makes the studio look like a signal box or some other station building - I hope Eddie doesn't want to use it for a model railway room..........nah! It's mine - I've waited years for something like this....

Side view of Studio

Another view of the studio frame although it doesn't look very big in this photo. The long window is on this south side looking into the garden while the door and smaller window face into the patio. 

Studio - Work in Progress

I took this photo from our patio at 6 o'clock this morning to show the work in progress on the studio from when the two guys arrived at noon and left at 5pm. This photo shows the proximity to the end of the patio so that I can walk out the family-room door and into the studio without getting rained on. The back wall has been insulated and cladded so I guess the other walls and roof will be done today. This is so exciting after the long 6 months wait.......at least things are moving along quickly now. 

Day One of my Studio

The two guys got to my place at lunchtime yesterday and this is what they acheived in just half a day. It was so exciting watching the girders and framework being put together. They arrived back at seven o'clock this morning and the sliding door is in place and they are working on the front wall. These are photos which I took early this morning before they arrived.

My BIGGEST UFO quilt

This would have to be the BIGGEST UFO imaginable. I started making the hexagons in 1995 while on a plane between Australia and England and took lots of cut-out paper templates and pre-cut fabric shapes with me to work on while on holidays. I made the mistake of measuring the quilt from the floor on one side of the queen sized bed, over the top and down the other side to get the width, then I measured from the floor at the end of the bed, up the length of the bed and over the pillows (in this photo, a lot of the quilt is tucked down below the camera out of sight), and over the pillows to get the length. Then I stitched enough hexagon flowers separated by calico hexagons to finish the whole of the outside edge, thus committing myself to this HUGE size. One momentous day about four years ago, I finally reached the middle and therefore last flower and my hands shook so much I could hardly sew. Each hexagon flower has a yellow patch in the centre surrounded by two dark, two medium and two light colour co-ordinated ones. Every hexagon was hand tacked to the paper then top-sewed with tiny slip-stitches to it's neighbours. There will not be one single machine stitch in this quilt but I have to admit that I have been procrastinating about the actual hand-quilting, even though the quilt, wadding and backing is all sandwiched together and held with quilter's safety pins. It is awkward to manipulate and hand-quilt because of the sheer weight of it all and also because I am using a large hoop to keep the fabric taut. This is my UFO to finsh next year in Sandie's UFO challenge. I intend to finish it off by sewing a wide border to the backing fabric, bringing it through to the front, tucking it under the last row of flowers and then using the applique method to stitch the flowers down on the border, making a straight edge. 

Hexagon quilt UFO

This is another view of the quilt from the side of the bed. This photo shows the small area where I have begun to hand quilt each hexagon. It's not particularly hard work, just awkward because of the large ring I am using to hold the quilt taut while I quilt. The quilt measures 11 feet x 10 feet in total with each hexagon measuring 2 1/2 inches across. 

This is the meccano set which hopefully, one day.........sigh.........might become my studio. At the moment it just consists of the welded wall frames and roofing trusses, roofing metal sheets, weathertex slats for the sides, gutters and downpipes and a box of bits which bolt it all together. This all arrived three weeks ago but because the sliding door and two windows hadn't arrived, it wasn't possible to construct it. Well, three weeks later, the door and windows have still not arrived and if they are not here by Monday I am going to lodge an official complaint against the company with the Ministry of Fair Trading. It has been nearly six months since I signed the contract and all we have is a concrete slab covered in meccano bits. It's dragging on far too long now.......