New Serendipity Patchwork & Quilting Logo

It is my pleasure to launch the fresh new logo for my Serendipity Patchwork & Quilting website and blog.




Remember, I update my blog at www.serendipitypatchwork.com.au/blog (rather than here on the blogspot blog). You are welcome to subscribe to my current blog feed:

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I also publish an occasional e-newsletter with information on my latest quilt designs, teaching schedule, upcoming exhibitions, images of my contemporary quilts and other quilting news. My newsletter comes out this week. Sign up to the next issue of the Serendipity Studio Newsletter and go into a draw to win a copy of 500 Art Quilts.

Reminder - I have moved

This is a reminder for all of you that are still subscribed to my blog in this blogspot domain. You are welcome to stay subscribed here but I am making all of my new posts in my new blogspace at:
www.serendipitypatchwork.com.au/blog

If you want to keep up with the latest happenings, you can subscribe to my blog in its new location by clicking on this button:

The Last Post?

Following in the very fine footsteps of Red Shoe Ramblings and others, I have decided to bring my blog under my own domain at: www.serendipitypatchwork.com.au/blog



When I first started blogging at the beginning of this year, I decided to go with Blogger to see if I had the inspiration and stamina for regular blogging. 250+ posts later, it's evident that blogging is part of my life and I've decided to embrace my inner geek by moving from Blogger to the Wordpress platform. Whether the move is permanent remains to be seen.

In any event, I will keep this blog space in the public domain so that any links remain operational including my popular tutorial on how to create a personal blog banner in Blogger.

Do come and visit me in my new home!

A little exercise

After the excesses of festive dining, a little exercise was in order. Off to the National Park where the angophoras grace the canopy:


And the flannel flowers bloom on the forest floor:

A Farewell Quilt

I don't know about you, but I find the rhythms of quiltmaking to be wonderfully therapeutic; a sense of wellbeing envelopes me when I am at one with my sewing machine and there are few things more satisfying than knowing that your quilt is destined for an appreciative home.

When my quilting friend Monica announced at the end of November that she was returning to America to take up her dream job at a university in Michigan, I knew that she would need a real Aussie quilt (not a UFO) instilled with plenty of good vibes to keep her warm so far away. I also knew her other quilting friends would want to contribute but the logistics were challenging as the festive season was upon us. Yet, just look at what we accomplished! At the guild meeting in early December, I surreptitiously collected signed circles and others arrived in the post. A quick rustle through my stash yielded a rainbow of background squares onto which I fused and machine blanket stitched the circles:

I found a suitably cheery border and backing fabric on sale (please excuse the crooked photo):

And Erica attended to personal delivery to a very surprised and delighted Monica today:

The Continuing Migration

Between swimming; hanging out with my family; eating leftovers and working on my new blog, there's not much to report from Copacabana. Certainly no quilting is happening but it's good to recharge from time to time.

I am making good progress with setting up my new blog despite the fact that Wordpress does not have a template preview function. You are welcome to have a sneak preview and let me know what you think. However, I recommend that you don't set your rss/Bloglines feed to the new site until further notice as I am still categorising my posts; manually transferring 30-odd recalcitrant posts; and manually inserting author links in my transferred comments. Constantly being notified of these updates could get a little tiresome!

We Just Dyed

Here are the results of our dyeing day:

Can you tell that we are sisters?

And I am inching ever closer to my new blog as Liz kindly referred me to this Wordpress thread which in turn linked me to this clever solution which allowed me to transfer the majority of my posts, images and comments from new Blogger to Wordpress.

Puzzles

The surf was too rough today for safe swimming so Delia and I did a spot of dyeing (photos tomorrow). The family is now working on jigsaw puzzles, concentrating on shapes and colours.

On the subject of puzzles, my new year's resolution to migrate my blogspot blog to Wordpress (tied to one of my websites) has suffered a slight setback. I have searched a number of support forums but it seems that no one has yet developed a tool for importing posts from new/beta Blogger into Wordpress. Of course, I only found this out after I had converted my blogspot blog from "old" to "new" blogger. Sigh.

Anyway, if anyone has a reasonably straightforward solution, please let me know as part of the reason for the proposed move is to keep control over my own content and I would like to get my blogging history (250+ posts) onto my own domain.

Christmas Festivities

We had a wonderful Christmas Eve. Delia brought her guitar,Rowan brought up a new adaptor for my digital piano and Mum brought over my repaired clarinet from high school band so we had our very own Christmas music. An unexpected power outage around 9.30pm fortunately did not interrupt our dinner but did defer our viewing of Holiday Inn. Some of Santa's elves were a little sleepy this morning:

Julian and Tracey love their wedding quilt - an autumn-toned version of my Synchronicity pattern:

And David made me a new sign for outside my studio:

A Kiwi Touch

Those of you in New Zealand, or readers of Dale's blog, will be familiar with the distinctive red pohutukawa blooms that line the North Island coast at this time of year. It's something I miss in Australia so I ordered this platter from Morris & James pottery and Mum played courier:

The pottery is close to the town where I grew up in New Zealand but they do mail order. Judging by the packaging on this platter, there is little risk of goods breaking in transit.

Eagle-eyed readers will notice that this platter has a very similar palette to the tulip urn that we have to the right of the fireplace in our living area. One of my most favourite things!