Friends,  We are now living in Nhulunbuy on the far north east tip of the Northern Territory. We are living in a furnished flat until our belongings arrive. 

Our internet access is very dodgy at the moment so I'm avoiding going online.  Hopefully we can get broadband in the coming months and I'll be back blogging the same as before.

Riscy has a lot more patience than me and is keeping a blog called gonetogove.com which documents our adventures in this beautiful part of the world.  Please check it out!

Take care and have a Merry Christmas.

Cheers

Claire

 

Today (instead of getting ready to move house) I tried out a technique that I read about in Quilting Arts Magazine which described how acrylic paint resists India Ink.

The ink soaks into and sticks to the paper left bare and washes off the painted areas.  I need to work on my process a bit more to prevent the paint from becoming too fragile during the wash off.

The above piece is the first one I made and I have another one drying out in the kitchen.  I'm definitly keen to get into this a bit more... so stay tuned :-)

It is time I shared some great links I've found recently:

Peter Sharp is an artist living in Sydney. I had a 'connect' between the Quilting Arts article and a magazine profile of Peter. I love the lines in his work, they have a quality that I've been striving for and this technique seemed to fit. Reading back over the article it appears he uses a similar technique but with unprimed canvas with acrylic paint resisting oil paint/glazes.

Aesthetic Outburst is the blog of Abbey in New York. In addition to fab links, Abbey creates wonderful drawings and paintings. I'll be checking back often.

Inspiration Boards is a new blog by Lori Pickert featuring the inspirations boards, wires and walls of featured artists. Each artist is interviewed about their inspirations and artistic practice.

Elizabeth Duffy is a scupturer (a very wierd word to spell!). Her work is inspiring for me as she makes striking scupture out of the most ordinary materials... like sticky tape and lint, or wax paper and wire mesh. This is reassuring given that I'm just about to move to one of the most isolated towns in Australia.

A finished shot of the summer quilt, lounging on our overgrown lawn :-)

I sewed this binding entirely by machine, knowing that it would probably take me forever to get around to sewing it up by hand.  This was better to be finished than perfectly executed.  I've been using it and enjoying it for a week or so now :-) 

Here is a shot of the backing.

I think Riscy likes this side better than the front :-)  you can see the quilting a bit better here, I stitched aorund all the pieces about 5mm from the seam on either side of the seam, and then sewed around some invisible rectangles within some of the larger pieces. 

Anyway, we have been trying to get prepared for the big move.  Last weekend we purchased a little dining table and chairs from Ikea and worked out what we need to buy to make a long and low bench/bookshelf/storage cabinet. We'll need to pop down to Melbourne again to get them in the next couple of weeks.

We also bought one of those flat LCD TV's which we can hopefully mount on the wall.  It is rather large, but wil be more space efficient than our old TV.

Lucy spent the night with our friends Wendy and Kim.  A trial run.  There was a reasonable amount of hissing and whining between Mocha (Wendy's cat) and Lucy, but then Mocha retreated to the bedroom and Lucy found a spot under the couch.  Obviously, we don't want to make Mocha's life unbearable by foisting Lucy into his territory, but if they can work something out between themselves then I think Wendy and Kim will take her on.  It is very difficult for me to ask such a big favour of friends.

 

Riscy and I will be moving to Nhulunbuy in the Northern Territory in 6 weeks time.

Nhulunbuy is a town located on the Gove Peninsula where the main industry is bauxite mining and alumina smelting. We'll both be working for the mining company but in different areas Chris will be in the smelter and I wil be managing the housing improvement project in Nhulunbuy.

I am very excited about the move.  We will be right on the coast and will have lots of opportunities for camping and getting out onto the water. Though I am starting to become concerned about crocodiles and I think we should hook up with some local paddlers before even thinking about getting into our kayak.

From what I have read, it is about 8-10 hours drive to the next town, Katherine, when the road is open during the dry season (I don't see us making this trip very often!!). Qantas flys in a couple of times a day, so it would be possible to go to Darwin or Cairns fairly easily when required but I think this will only be 2-3 times a year so we are thinking very carefully about what we need to take with us.

We'll be living in a little two bedroom flat and Reuben our Cavalier King Charles Spaniel will come with us. But I need to find a new family for Lucy, my cat of 10 years. Who is currently sitting between my arms as I type.

Happily, we will be able to get broadband internet up there, so I can continue to blog.

Anyway, I took the photo above today. I noticed this lovely californian poppy had popped up in a particularly weedy part of our garden. Such a lovely soft yellow on the inside and a dusky pink on the outside.