iQuilt

Really I am back this time! VBG.

2011-11-26T15:27:00.000-08:00

So after an even longer absence I am back. I plan to post on a regular basis but I am not making any promises. Over the last few years my life has been what can only be described as hectic. But I have achieved quite a few things and failed in some other areas.
iQuilt is sitting in limbo till I get time to attend to it properly. It is now a huge job to update it to the latest version of Joomla and the two bits of software I had bought for it are yet to be upgraded. Big lesson there. I also need to cull users as there are lots of phantom registrations created by bots. Why do people do this stuff? But it will happen so keep checking back, just maybe not to often so you are not disappointed to many times! lol!
I have finished my masters degree - woohoo! This used so much of my headspace to do the last subject that I struggled to think about other things. But all done now so I can think about other things.
My boys are not little children anymore - they are both taller than me now. We now have the challenges of high school and a looming Higher School Certificate. As well as this one of them has decided to become a serious skier, but we will see in time where this leads.
Recently I have found flickr groups and swaps. These groups are such fun and some of the people are sooo creative. Mmmm, I think my next post will be about these and I also need to do a tutorial on ahnging quilts. So I will get my stuff orgaanised for that and be back soon. I promise (at least for these posts).

Toooo Busy

2008-12-09T17:16:00.000-08:00

Hi all

After an incredibly long absence I have returned. Yes I failed all my good intentions to return more frequently before but just have to move on from that. This time I really do intend to make more frequent postings and now that my life is slowly becoming less busy and I am getting some stuff finished I should be able to achieve more regular postings.

So what have I been up to in my absence? Lots but I will tell about all of that in bits and pieces.

The most recent event of note for quilters was my visit to Dianne Finnegan's exhibition at Primrose Park Gallery Cremorne NSW. What can I say but Wow! I came home inspired!There was so much to learn and absorb. Even the finding Primrose Park was a worthwhile experience - one of Sydney's many hidden little gems. And the opportunity to learn about the venue, the Artist in Residence scheme as well as see the quilts and talk to Dianne was one I am just so glad I took. Watch out for some articles on this in the next few issues of iQuilt next year.

The one regret was that I did not learn about this exhibition earlier. Consequently it was not listed in the "Wot's On" section of iQuilt. So the message is, if you have an event please submit it to us for listing via the website. Then we can list it for all to find and hopefully increase the participation in the listed quilting events.

Must away now, so back sooon!
Nora

The new house

2008-01-28T00:07:00.000-08:00

What can I say but WOW!

We are "moved in" sort of. And everyone (except the dog) is very happy. We have boxes, boxes and more boxes scattered over the floor but that will pass. And finally I have a sewing area.

During the move we had a few mishaps the worst being

I put a project I was sewing in a "safe place". It will turn up I'm sure but in the mean time I started again.

My DH has hurt his back. That will teach him to lift and twist - the thing we mothers are told not to do when we are lifting babies.

A few stored boxes of material were wet. Fortunately it doesn't seem to bad but I am waiting for the washing machine to finish to really know.

The cat is very happy. He has no dog inside to deal with and can see outside through the windows that go to the floor.

The boys are very happy. They finally have seperate bedrooms, though they really have not wanted them till now. And they have their own living area where we can shut the door and not hear the noise.

DH is very happy. He has an office and lots of cables to investigate. This house has phone and TV connectors all over the place. The oven does not produce toxic smoke every time you use it. He likes to cook roasts. There are lots of windows to open and let a breeze in. And the list goes on...

The dog is not actually unhappy. She has been shut out of the house but has her own yard to run around in and we rescued a little dog from the pound to give her a little friend to harass. She has a lot of Kelpie and Collie in her and cannot help but round things up. Being rounded up drove the cat nuts.

And best of all I am very happy! I finally have space to set my sewing up, and a garage we can store stuff in that is weather proof and a yard I can have a veggie garden in and..... a long list of things. The view does not compare with the one we had in Sydney but hey who has all day to look at the view, but the sunsets are better, like those where I grew up that were spectacular in part due to the dust in th air which you never get on the coast.

There are lots of things we need to sort out but at least this is our place and we can fix, repair and improve things. And my biggest complaint over the last few weeks is that I have been to tired to stay up and watch the tennis. Oh you missed it to because it went so late? Oh well!

Now I will be able to get back to iQuilt instead of all the other distractions I have had recently in my life.

So till next time, bye from a contented
Nora

Moving

2008-01-11T13:30:00.000-08:00

I'm back quite promptly - working on that commitment to return regularly.

Next week, hopefully we settle on the house we are buying in the country. I sound dubious about it because I have never been given such a hard time by a vendor and until we actually settle something can happen. The picture is of the Ned Kelly sculpture out the front.

Anyway all that aside, we are all getting very excited about moving out of the house we have been renting for the last 12 months into our own house. It is a long time since we have rented a house and it has been a very interesting experience. Some of the things we are looking forward to are:

having doors that close properly

being able to put in a pet door so the cat can come and go as he likes without going over the kitchen bench to get out the window (hate cats even in the kitchen le alone on the bench)

having windows without broken glass

having the hot and cold water connected correctly (this house has a tap with them the wrong way round)

having a kitchen floor that does not immediately absorb every liquid that is spilled on it (I dropped a bottle of wine and it had dissappeared into the floor before I could even get a cloth)

having light switches that are not dodgy

being able to establish a proper veggie garden

and the list continues

And the big thing is being able to fix or change the things that are not how we want them.

But the main point of this is that my time will be occupied moving for the next few weeks. So the sewing will be packed up and put aside for a little while until I have the new house sorted out. But the really good thing is I will finally be able to unpack lots of stuff that has been in boxes for the last year. I am really looking forward to reacquainting myself with all my treasures, especially my stash.

Till next time
Nora

I return, at last!

2008-01-06T20:29:00.000-08:00

After big absence I return. So much for my my intention of blogging on a regular basis. But now I hope to improve my track record. (Won't take much! lol)

I hope you all had a safe and enjoyable Christmas and New Year. Our's thankfully was quiet and relatively uneventful. We did get up to Thredbo. Top picture is a relatively gentle run we sometimes ski - just as well the snow covers those rocks!

2nd picture is of some of the alpine wildflowers. I was trying to get pics the different varieties but the battery in the camera died. These were at the top of the chairlift. We then made the mistake of walking down the Merrit's trail (or some such name). We asked how long it would take - "Oh about 45 minutes" was the reply. Over 2 hours later the boys finally got their ride on the bobsled (which is at the bottom of the trail).

2007 has been a huge year for me. The 3 major events were:

moving out of Sydney
going back to uni effectively full time
starting iQuilt

The end of the year got a bit crazy/busy with keepng iQuilt going and my uni exams - 3 in a week. And I probabkly did more sewing in 2007 than I have for a long time.

And by the looks of things 2008 is going to be another huge year as well. The big tasks are almost repeats of 2007 being:

moving house again (but just locally now we are staying in the country)
more uni but not full time and
improving iQuilt (watch out for lots of new things)

So the next 12 months are a bit daunting, but 2009 will be a lot quieter and less busy and hopefully I will have time to smell the roses so to speak.

Nevertheless, the plan is to make my life a little easier by being more organised and focussed and the best thing is that I will have some more people involved with iQuilt.

The first of these is Alison George. Those of you who visit the iQuilt website will have seen projects from Alison. Having Alsion on board will allow me time to "play" with all the technical bits of the website. This is something I have been unable to find time for and I am very excited about finally getting to some of these things. There are just so many fun things that can be added to the site, well fun if your technical and hopefully useful and user friendly for everone else.

So I had better go and get to those fun things.

Till next time and I really do plan for it to be sooner

Nora

Busy busy busy

2007-09-06T02:18:00.000-07:00

I've been very busy since my last post. One of the things that occupied my time was a trip to Sydney to go visit a few businesses and to visit the stitches and craft show at Rosehill. Now, whilst I am a quilter, the thing that took my attention was the scrapbooking. I bought lots of books and pads of push out paper boxes and decorations, not to actually scrapbook myself but as ideas for christmas decorations, fabric postcards and ATCs. So watch out for those in future.

Oh and the other thing that has kept me busy - we have published Issue #6 of iQuilt and we have subscriptions up and running. So if you want to subscribe to iQuilt finally you can. And if you have not looked at iQuilt yet go look at the free issues to see if you like what we are doing.

Till next time

Nora

Back again, only a week this time!

2007-08-19T21:50:00.000-07:00

I am getting better at this. This time it has only been a week since my last posting. I've been busy organising lots of stuff for iQuilt. But that will all come to light later.

I have been asked where is the photo of me on the blog. Well I went looking amongst the piccies and realised there almost none of me. But here is the most recent one I could find. I am on a chairlift a Thredbo. Thank goodness there is more snow now!

Till next time

Nora

Back at last

2007-08-13T20:28:00.000-07:00

Well so much for my good intentions. But I have been very busy and we have published 2 issues of iQuilt since my last entry. I have also made my first PIF. Sorry Bron, but I wanted it as a project for iQuilt. I love the idea of Doll Quilts and since you were in a swap, that is what it had to be. I raided the strips I had been collecting for a colourwash quilt. Hope you like pink and black/grey.

Back soon (honest!)

Nora

Pay it Forward

2007-07-19T19:43:00.000-07:00

Hi all

After a long absence I'm back. Life has been very busy but now I am going to try to add at least 1 blog entry a week.

Well now to the real reason I have come back here, I'v put my name down for a "Pay it Forward" thingy. Until I saw this and had to put my name down, I had never heard of them. So for those who like me had never heard of them let me explain, well at least tell you what I know about them.

Pay it Forward (PIF) is where the next 3 people who make a comment on my blog requesting to be part of this PIF exchange will get sent a personal handmade something or 2 from me. However, if you join here you need to make the same offer on your blog.

Now I will be going the angst of all who put that hand up for this in worrying that no-one will want my hand made goodies. Oh well I will survive as my ego is not that frail. And hey if I get no responses now I might put me down for another one later when there are more people looking at my blog. I might even have some pictures up then so people can see what I do. Worst case you might get a set of placemats like the one above, best case - who knows, a small quilt, something felted, maybe tell me what you like!

anyway, must off to think about what I might make!

Nora

PS Issue 4 of iQuilt has been delayed but is coming soon!

It's Snowed!

2007-06-18T19:29:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone.

I'm very excited because it has snowed! We moved from Sydney to Berridale about 6 months ago and this is our first winter here. We've been watching the snow reports and crossing our fingers for a good ski season. We have had some snow in the mountains already, but this is the first snow here this season. It is very exciting!

Two cold, wet but excited boys came home from school and had a snowball fight in the back yard. The dog and the cat refuse to go outside. Poor Tiger has never seen snow before and it is a bit of a shock for a 9 year old cat! The dog is a 10 week old puppy who refused to go for a walk to the post office just before it started snowing. Smart animals!

I'll put a better picture up next post, but I was so excited I just needed to share this with everyone.

Cold but happy

Nora

Hello from Nora

2007-06-15T19:35:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone.
This is my first entry in my iQuilt blog. Being a technical person and not really a writer, don't be surprised if the writing style is a bit abrupt, but hopefully over time it will improve.
I want to tell you a little bit about iQuilt and what we hope to achieve with this online magazine. The idea is to have a magazine that is purely online. We want to have all the things you find in a print magazine if possible and have extra things that we can bring you because it is online. Because this is so new we have not got all of the details and features worked out yet but we are working in it as fast as we can. This does have the benefit that nothing is set in concrete and we can be flexible to meet our audiences needs. And if you have an idea, a want or a need we are not meeting let us know and we will do our best to accommodate you. Maybe not tomorrow though, but as soon as we can.
So why online? Well with the advent of the Internet, I look for everything online first. And people who have grown up with the Internet will not really think to look elsewhere. When I looked around there was no genuine online quilting magazine so it was time to start one. And by genuine online magazine, I don't mean a magazine that is effectively an online print magazine with a PDF file of each issue, I mean a magazine that you view as web pages with links, with videos, maybe podcasts and whatever other interactive features we can provide.
And as well as bring you lots of new features your magazine will no longer take up precious shelf space. As a quilter (and do-er of lots of other creative things) my shelf space is precious and of course insufficient for my needs. So being able to reclaim space from magazines is a great benefit. We moved house 6 months ago, and the quilting magazines and books came a close 3rd in size behind stuff from my husband's business and my fabric stash. Moving and finding out exactly what I had was a very scary experience!
iQuilt also wants to help the quilt industry thrive and grow and unless the industry keeps up with the times that will not happen. We will be providing a means for quilt related business to contact and inform net savvy people about their business. We went to the trade show at Rosehill last weekend and learnt so much about the needs of the industry. Now we are working on how to meet some of those needs. But all of that will come later.
That's enough for now and I hope this arouses your interest in what iQuilt will be bringing you in the future. When I add new features to iQuilt I'll be posting about them to this blog, so come back regularly to see what fun I'm having.
Oh, and I may even get to tell you about what quilting I'm somehow finding time to do! lol.
Enjoy! from
Nora at iQuilt.com.au