there's alot of love in this room...

who would have thought a little teeny metal object could steal my heart away?  well i think it has.  i went in to my local quilting shop the other day to purchase some thread and found out that if i wanted to experiment with/play/do free machine quilting then i needed to get my hands on this bad boy.  so off we trotted into town and found the Janome shop (i love my janome too by the way) where i got one of these little beauties!

you know, when i was the wee small age of but 12, i got my first job as a 'jounior waitress' at the ascot races in perth (aka kitchen hand and general dog's body-gopher) i used to earn $20 a day which was from about 8  till 5.  well i had dreams back then of being a designer and making my own clothes and being famous lol!  so i saved up all my pay and bought my first sewing machine.  from memory, it was a pretty good one back then at about $450-$500.  and it's the same one i sew on now.  it hasn't skipped a beat!  needless to say, i didn't go on to pursue a career in design, rationalising in those years that i didn't want something i enjoyed to become 'work' - oh how arse about is that?!  what i wouldn't give to have a career now doing something that is a love and a passion! 
anyhoo...
it's funny the things that can spring to mind sometimes from the deep recesses of our memories.  i had dropped the dogs and set off tentatively circling, zig-zagging and basically going crazy with this thing and an old friend of mine from katherine school of the air just sprang to mind.  carolyn, if you're reading - i think this started all those years ago with your crazy, passionate and frenzied love of all things free-stitching!  i remember talking to her about it, and thinking that one day i'd like to give it a try.  well it's only taken about 8 years!  funny thing is - she gave me a little stash of lovely thread as a gift one day and i've carried them around the countryside with me all these years not knowing quite how or what to use them on -  here they are...

aren't they lovely?!

and these are the beautiful threads I bought locally to also have a play with - the colours of pindan and ridges in the fading light...

and here's a little bit of what i've been playing with.  i painted my own fabric with som esparkling H2o's and then cut and reassembled them onto a substrate to sew on - how much fun is this!  i didn't realise how much movement one could get out of a machine and needle - but it's so amazing!

and last but not least - i found this Kapoc seed tonight.  i thought i'd lost it, but again, after all these years it just decided to show me it's little face tonight.  funny how things happen isn't it?  i only just found my photos of kapocs a couple of days ago.  a beautiful piece of nature and just calling out to be used as inspiration don't you think?!