March 18, 2012

It's all about the colour!

This week has been one that probably shouldn't be talked about!  Working on a couple of thousands of pages of manuscript was not on the "to do" list, but that's how the week panned out.  After a few frustrating days, my husband and I yesterday decided to take advantage of a little break in the wet weather to go bushwalking before breakfast.  We live quite close to an environmental reserve, 26 hectares of lovely Australian bush with myriads of walking tracks and sitting right on Moreton Bay. It's one of our favourite local places and we try to go there once a week.

We've had plenty of grey skies and life has been rather on the grey side sitting at a computer manipulating pages of text, so it was wonderful to get some colour back into life!  As soon as we arrived, we saw one of these:


 A pale-headed rosella. The blue and yellow back and firey red tummy is just a gorgeous mix of colour - good quilt colours.

It wasn't long before one of these robins came out to greet us:


 They make an amazing splash of colour hopping from the ground to their favourite spot on the side of a tree trunk.

Then we saw a flash of tan in the sunshine as the Rufous Fantails displayed their beautiful rich brown colour:


And even the usually drab waders excited us.  They are all colouring up into their reddish breeding colours before they soon take off on their 12,000 km journey back to Siberia, Mongolia, China, Japan and Alaska. It was very refreshing and lovely to have colour in our world again.

The latest issue of Australian Country Craft & Decorating arrived in the mail this week. It has some colour in it too - some ruby red silk:


This is my Roses are Red pincushion and scissor keep - bulliion roses, beading, cord and a lovely centre rose.  I was thinking 'elegant' when I designed this one.


As there's been very little stitching done this week, I will show you someone else's lovely work!  I recently received back from sweet Dawn, my quilt which I had sent to have professionally quilted.


 I was delighted with the all-over rose design that Dawn quilted for me. Do you recognise the fabric?  It's the Scarborough Fair range I have used for the Thoughts in Thread free quilt pattern.  I have actually also used the dove design from that quilt around the centre, but I'll show you that another time.


Lovely soft, romantic, peaceful colours. Just what I need this week!

Happy stitching!
Val


9 comments:

Anonymous said...

what a wonderful lot of birds so pretty and lovely pin cushion and scissor keep.xx

Susan said...

Love tht pin cushion set! Aren't the birds gorgeous!

Ondrea said...

Val, you are so prolific with all your lovely creations. I love seeing what projects are coming up in magazines and the lovely photos you have on your blog. Those birds are gorgeous. We have some lovely parrots raiding our miniature apple trees, as they do each year. We love to share. I enjoy listening to their chattering. WE have maggies and cockies here too and sometimes the odd Kookaburra. Unfortuanetly we do not see or hear as many kookaburras we we used to since the Marina was built
here.

Corina said...

Lovely rose pincushion set!

KaHolly said...

Oooh and ahhh #1 - those beautiful birds! How lucky you were that day!! Oooh and ahhh #2 - such a divine pin cushion set. You are remarkable!!

Anonymous said...

The bird photos are so amazing - they look professionally done. You were so good at getting close-up shots! Love the pinkeep, too.

Alicia said...

lovely bird photos¡¡¡
have a nice day

Gayle said...

What a beautiful pincushion and scissor keep. Love the colour.

FlourishingPalms said...

What pretty birds! I didn't see any of these when I was in Oz. You're so fortunate to be able to take long treks on a preserve. We spent time in the Blue Mountains, so I have an idea of the area you enjoy walking in. Australia is just so gorgeous! Your stitcheries are lovely too. Congratulations on being published AGAIN!