I am about to start quilting a new workshop sample that has been the focus of last week, between school run and sorting house related stuff. Finding extended uninterrupted time is difficult right now, so I have been making the most of what small units of time I can. It is amazing how much freemotion embroidery or applique you can do in a short amount of time. Repeated units of time = completed project, before you know it.
I had a whole lot of fun adding beautiful texture and shading with a range of fibre types including rayon, viscose, cotton, poly in a range of weights in order to bring the Lilies to life. I never make two quilts exactly the same and there are differences between this Tropical Lilies II and the first version, in design of applique but also subtle differences in leaves, colours and details. I have actually simplified it from the original for student ease of construction.
On the weekend the family went up Mt. Stromlo to an open day at the Observatory. There is beautiful scenery on the way there and from the top, with panoramic views of the Brindabellas and other smaller mountains and hills. Quite a lot of people were there with I suspect the undergraduate Astrophysics students wrangled in for crowd control, directing parking. There were loads of great displays to see on all sorts of things, telescopes to view and look through, tours to be had, early time pieces from the 1700's on display....
There are lovely views of Canberra and further afield rural NSW from the top of the mountain to enjoy. I say mountain as that is what it is technically called but it does feel more like a large hill.
It was quite cool and really windy up there but the various buildings were interesting to explore. Some had been burnt out completely and were ruins after a massive bushfire in 2003 that melted some of the equipment including telescopes and wrecked buildings.. We were able to see the tracking of space debris caused by space launches of satellites and other equipment with a virtual representation of earth- and all the litter surrounding it like a spotted halo. Laser technology is used to bounce off the debris and determine the distance and position of each bit of junk from earth- and from other bits and pieces up there, highly useful for commercial and scientific applications. 
That happens in the small telescope at the back of the building. The larger one in front is a 1.8m telescope and we were able to go up inside the dome whilst it was being moved around. They have engineered it so that when the top section moves, workers can adjust and continue to work on the telescope as the whole thing shifts. When you look down to the lower level inside, all you see is the lower level apparently moving, although it is the top shifting, its hard for the brain to make sense of it because the platform feels like it is stationery.We saw a very cool part of a meteor that hit earth over 5000 years ago that is magnetic, made of iron and nickel. And a demonstration on what makes up a comet, what happens to planets like the moon during a meteor impact- experiment involved a tray of flour and cocoa and getting kids to throw different sized balls into the tray. Some amazing patterns appear around the craters that replicates closely what happens on the surface of the moon.
Much of the equipment is locally manufactured from materials sourced in Australia, we also saw their workshop where parts are made with computer guided robotic cutting equipment. Talk about boys with big expensive toys! The ACT Fire Brigade hosted a sausage sizzle for a fundraiser so we scoffed quite a few of those between us for lunch and topped up with fund raising chocolate cupcakes. Mmmmmm.
It made for a fun day out with plenty of bracing fresh air!
On the way back I realised that one of my favourite stores, Addicted to Fabric, was open- so I popped in and added some more blues to my stash. Grab bags filled with scrap pieces of useful sizes and some Fat 1/8ths and some 30cm cuts across the bolt that are precut, ready to go. They have the most amazing range of patchwork fabrics that make a quilter's mouth water arranged in "rooms" between storage shelves.
These are perfect for the string pieced block I am working on for an online mystery quilt, at night after work. I needed more variety than those I packed from my stash. Hard to know how much of which shades to bring and what could fit in the car! Again at Addicted to Fabric, the wonderful linens and silks, Liberty Lawn, rayons and voiles from Anna Maria Horner and Amy Butler designed for garments not quilts, cotton voiles, and scrummy knits there were winking at me. I might cave in the New Year, and add some to my dressmaking stash- if I can wait that long! There are some very nice bolts in store for making cool summery clothes.At the apartment, I prewashed my fabrics and draped them on racks in the lounge room to dry. I dont' think the room service staff are used to seeing quilters at work in their hotels- they seem puzzled and confused to see fabric hanging up where clothes should be, and sewing equipment where the office equipment would go. But why not, is it not a quilter's duty to spread awareness of our craft wherever we go?
Happy Quilting!
Stephanie
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