The Bride Series - The Bride Painted

This is the last of this series of pieces - and this one is different to the other two in that it is a framed piece, rather than a 3D mask.

The inspiration came from a photo of a young South American girl, her face painted and her head part shaved, that I found on Pinterest.

I used the 'quilt as you go' method using my hand dyed fabrics to represent the painted markings on her face and the bluish shaved part of her head.  A mask shape made from painted and heat treated tyvek continued the Mask theme and a flutter of fabric leaf shapes decorated her hair.

This piece was framed to protect the fabrics.

Before it was framed - I couldn't get a decent shot after it was framed because the light kept reflecting off the glass.

The Bride 1 – Painted

Height:   85 cm

Width:    90 cm

Depth:    4 cm

Materials:             

·         Tyvek, painted with acrylic

·         Hand dyed cotton fabric

·         Cotton batting

·         Silk cord

·         Cotton threads

·         Perle embroidery threads

·         Linen threads

·         Silk threads

The Bride Series was my contribution to our first, 'real' exhibition - 'our' being my Textile Arts cohort, collectively known as Stitch Theorem.

It was a huge learning curve and the experience held us in good stead for our Graduate Exhibition - and what I'll be talking about from next week.

The Bride Series - The Bride Masked

Continuing with the theme, inspiration came from many women/girls who are masked or veiled for the ceremony - which also has comparisons to the veil worn at traditional western weddings....

Beaded, painted and adorned with precious threads and fabrics, all eyes are on her as she makes her way to her destiny.

Height:   69 cm

Width:    60 cm

Depth:    20.5 cm

Materials:             

·         Wood

·         Sun dyed cotton fabric

·         Cotton batting

·         Silk cord

·         Cotton threads

·         Perle embroidery threads

·         Linen threads

·         Silk threads

·         Steel

·         Corflute

·         Beads

·         Commercially printed fabric

·         Fencing wire

Still here........

Busy doesn't even describe the past month or so:

• new job
• do.good Stitching
• sewing
• knitting
• crocheting
• veggie gardening
• felting
• embroidering
• article writing (for my classmates and I, we're Stitch Theorem and we have a couple of exhibitions coming up)
• CFA stuff (Country Fire Authority for those outside Victoria - it's a voluntary Fire Fighting Service and I've joined the support team - I don't go and fight the fires - my husband does that - I do admin stuff, sizzle sausages and stage manage a local Carols by Candlelight....)

Apart from the fact I love my new job (House co-ordinator at our local Community House) and all the wonderful challenges it brings, another fabulous side effect is that I have to be super-organised to ensure I fit everything in - so few minutes get wasted and I have accomplished loads of stuff that I wouldn't have in my pre-new-job life....brilliant!!

One of my exhibition pieces - not yet finished - I used a sun dye in 'bark' and used brown paper as the mask - it was a bit windy that day so I put a load of coins onto the brown paper to stop it blowing away and got a fabulous pattern I wasn't expecting - very serendipitous...

Both my boys are home for Christmas which I'm very happy about and my little brother and his wife will be coming to Melbourne in the New Year - very happy about that too :)

....the only thing I'm not happy about is the cricket...

Ok - back to it...

Moving right along.....

There's a sniff of Spring in the air, which means Red Hill Market is almost upon us - the first market this season is 7th September and I've been busy creating some new stock - I reviewed what I made last year and decided I'd been making things to sell, as opposed to making things I would want to buy - make sense????

So, I decided things needed a bit of a change up.......

I've been hand dyeing fabric, choosing my most favourite commercial fabrics, embroidering a little and obviously missed photo lessons (really MUST do something about that...).  I've got screen printed fabric drying ready to make up into some ipad covers, pouches and journal covers.

It's going to be difficult to let these makes go.....

ps - check out the awesome changes on Picmonkey - there's new features and I have to say, it's a lot more user friendly than Photoshop (which I also think is awesome, but it takes a bit of getting used to)

pps - England has retained the Ashes, so I'm pretty happy about that - good old Manchester rain!!

omg Brad, I forgot to blog!!

Not really - I have been super busy and given I have absolutely no discipline when I get onto the computer, I thought it best not to 'switch on' - I have occasionally Instagrammed and Facebooked so I didn't manage to be electronic free - but I did delete all the electronic games on my facebook account as well as my new smart phone so I wouldn't be tempted - sad but true....

So the busy part - I've had another market which obviously involved making things, I've been teaching (but school hols now so no classes for 2 weeks), I've made a memory quilt for a client using clothes that belonged to her husband (and he used to ride treadlies so there was a bit of spandex - now that is challenging to work with!), I've created a more useful set of books for my home business in Excel and haven't yet transcribed all the receipts and purchases - but I'm a good way through that -  and I've had several quilts on the long-arm.  Throw in a few days of my Diploma plus homework and a day spent dyeing fabric at a class mates house, then re-dyeing the fabric because I didn't like the result and it pretty much sums up a mad month.

I haven't caught up on Blogs yet either but do intend to - I've put an egg timer in the study in an attempt to curtail the time in front of the computer so it may take a while!

Over the Easter break we didn't go away - which is the first time for many years - we usually head north in the camper trailer but this year, my eldest son is getting married so there was entirely too much to do - the wedding is this Saturday (6th April) and it was my intent to start sewing my frock after the last market - but, Sod's Law and all that - my sewing machine broke - AGAIN - same problem as before and as it was over the Easter holidays, Janome wasn't open - however, I drove off to their HQ this morning and they've fixed it - and suggested reasons why this problem occurs.  I'll be monitoring it over the next few months - the volume and the variety of the sewing I do, as well as all the different fabrics I use, means my sewing machine has to be robust enough to withstand the workload - I have to be able to rely on my tools - so we'll see.....

But for now, sewing machine is fixed...

CHECK

The beautiful silk fabric I dyed is dry, pressed and ready to be cut, the adjustments to the bodice have been made and tested on the toile, the remaining pattern pieces are ironed and the silk thread is ready...

CHECK

It's my intent to do some embroidery and artful stamping once the pieces are sewn together, but I'm going to wait to see what it needs when it's constructed. Hopefully this time tomorrow I will have a frock worthy of the mother of the Groom....

Better off red..

I have been busy getting my folio together for school - this unit was all about colour theory, different dying techniques, samples and stitcheries;  We also had to create a folio cover based on 'The colours of our lives'......

It took me quite a while to work out what to do for this folio cover - I knew I wanted to use fabrics I'd dyed myself and I also knew I wanted to use the colour red...

After much faffing about and false starts..

false start no. 1

I thought about layers and how we choose to reveal only some parts of ourselves...and came up with this..



and promptly had an omg moment - it looks RUDE!!!!

So I cut away a few more layers, stitched a little more and roughed up the edges for texture...

this looks very orangey, but trust me, it's red! - the colours on the previous 'rude' picture are more true

Much more presentable!

I also finished all my stitcheries...

yellow and blanket/buttonhole stitch

orange and straight stitch

violet and chain stitch

green and satin stitch

red and fly / feather stitch

blue and colonial knots with rice/seed stitch

so, just have a few more things to do and it's presentation time on friday.......phew

Bee blocks.......and lots of other stuff....

It seems like forever that I posted - in reality, it's been a week, but not getting on the computer everyday makes such a difference - the 'To be read' list of posts from the uber talented I follow continue to circle the globe and I don't seem to be making any dent in it with the paltry time I'm 'allowing' myself - hopefully all will change next term (this term really has been very busy and I'm hoping it's not indicative of the rest of the course)

So, I got up early, read a couple of posts and thought I'd quickly add what's been happening around here....

A couple of Bee blocks, the first for the Australia Bee....

such a pretty block

The next couple are for do.good Stitches - Melissa sent the pink dot for the final round and the rest we contributed...

The final pink round on the second one actually matches the first for colour - so the saturation you see is a bit exagerated!

These blocks have been sent off to their respective bee mamas.

In other news, the ladies in my classes have been busily sewing away their projects of the month...

The gorgeous Barb - and it's the very first thing she has ever made - love that beaming 'I made it myself' smile..

This months project - a zipped, lined pouch - they did a fabulous job.....

A couple of days ago I dyed some fabric to use for the stitched piece for school - the brief is titled 'colours of our lives' and I'm going red....reddish.....what the??

Buster had to get himself in the photo again - this time his 'other' end

 

So, time to go......today I'm mounting samples of fabrics dyed with various dye mediums (sun dyes, RIT dyes and Landscape dyes) and I really must make a start on the reports.......arrivederci...

WIP Wednesday and being just a little slack...

Not slack in the sense of sitting on my duff doing nothing, but slack in that I haven't done a lot of blog reading nor commenting this week.  Mostly this was because Telstra and I had a little contretemps - they insist that I exceeded my quota re broadband (which is horrendously expensive and SLOW in Oz) and reduced my connection speed to 64 bits per minute (or whatever the damned thing is) - a consequence of this is that the internet takes 10 mins to open pages and it completely gives up the ghost on my mailbox - a new billing month started yesterday so it's back up to speed - but I had a full day of teaching yesterday too (classes in the morning, afternoon and evening - BIG wednesdays during term times) so didn't get round to anything internet related....ooh, sound like a moan but really, just stating what's happened - and then the dog ate my homework....

Today, it's off to the sewing centre to find out why my new machine is giving me conniptions about FMQing, out for drinks tonight with friends and then tomorrow my course starts - phew!

So this is a very quick post of WIP's, a link to Lee's WIP Wednesday on Freshley Pieced, then it's off to the shower, get the laundry out and jump in the car..

This week I finished my Mouthy Stitches pouch..

Did some dyeing...

Made a couple of blocks for Quilts of Hope...

Made the February block for the Quilt Australia Bee..

Got one FWQA block done - Rainbow Flowers..

Started a new quilt (on my Winter/Summer Stitching list) which started out as a garden path block quilt, morphed into a Sanctuary Squares and then when I didn't like the look of either using the fabrics I have (the quilts I've linked are totally gorgeous - their colour and pattern combos totally work), morphed into this...

I think it needs a couple of more rows on the bottom - which will necessitate a trip to the shop for more grey solid (damn!!) and a bit more cutting out and sewing - any suggestions regarding layout etc will be gratefully received.

Then go and have a look at the other linkees - again, some seriously wonderful WIP's being whipped into shape out there (sorry about the lame joke!)

Must run in the family....

I have many nieces and nephews - comes from being one of 7 kids I guess (;>) - and all of them, including my brothers and sisters, are very creative - sewing, photography, painting, drawing, knitting, interior design (and I include my sons in enjoying the creative bent)....so last year when we visited my little brother in Queensland, I noticed a pair of runners that his eldest son had been colouring - he'd used fabric sharpies (or similar) to design and colour oriental themes onto a pair of canvas high-tops for a friend of his - of course, I didn't get a photo (what an eejit) but I did ask him to create me a pair with a patchwork theme - and he did.  I received these absolute beauties...............

Cal had said he didn't know anything about patchwork so I directed him to my blog and Flickr pages to get some inspiration - and he's obviously been inspired by this quilt:

a similar quilt is available in my Etsy shop

What a talent - he's done a simply amazing job - thanks Cal - I'm trying to only wear them inside so they keep looking good - but it's difficult when I want to show them off!  Absolutely love them.

.............and for something a little different, my son and his partner bought me the Sew Wild book Alisa Burke for Christmas and on the weekend I got a little inspired:

hand dyed fabric, stamped, written on, stitched and embroidered

I started with the chorus of Adele's "Set fire to the rain" - which I am totally in love with and I got her '21' CD for Christmas too - and just went from there.  I purposely limited my colour palette to the blues and reds - haven't decided whether to make it a small wall hanging or to use it as a journal cover - I've stuck it onto my design wall until I figure it out.

......and in other creative pursuits...........I picked another bowl or 2 from the garden this morning (lucky I did - it's raining now!) - we're picking this much every other day and have enough carrots and beans in the freezer to last a year or two!

toms, eggplants, beans, peas, snow peas, sugar snaps, zucchinis, lebanese cucumbers, spring onions, carrots, corn, green cucumbers

DWR Finish



the sun's shining through which is why you can the see the 2 tone effect of the backing

 This quilt started life in May 2010 when I cut out all the pieces ready to take with me when my husband and I went West.  I used a template from Matilda's Own which has handy little 'holes' so you can mark where the joins need to be - I found these invaluable.

We had decided to go from Somerville, Victoria to Margaret River, Western Australia so we hitched up the camper trailer and spent the next 4 weeks camping across the bottom of Oz, through South Australia, along the Nullabor Plain and into the Great South area of WA - Esperance, Albany then onto Margaret River.  All up we travelled some 8,000 kms.  We had a fantastic time and saw some beautiful places - what a land of contrasts we live in - and I kept a journal - this is the cover:

I traced and embroidered the lower part of the Australian coastline onto a piece of my hand dyed fabric (except Tassie - sorry Kathy!) I then embroidered 2 lines to represent where we stopped - the red line is going to Margaret River and the blue line, coming home

While we were away, I completed about 3 'melons' - I can't sew while in the car (I get carsick - have done since I was little) so I only got out the sewing if we stayed longer than 2 days and only then if there wasn't anything to explore.




A 'melon' is the eye shape - 4 of them together make up the 'ring'

 Most of the fabrics for the rings is Kaffe Fassett and the white is a quilters muslin by Emma Louise in vanilla - it has the softest feel and the needle goes through it like a hot knife through butter.

This quilt could then have sat in the UFO box but I had a chance to join a little group of quilters at the local community house.  This group, quite a bit older than me, is fantastic - we don't take sewing machines as there's not a great deal of room, so I took the DWR along and just kept stitching.  Everyone was so encouraging and before long I was joining melons to make the rings.  Then I joined the rings.

I decided on a 5 x 6 combo - but later decided to do another row so it finished 5 x 7.  I machine sewed the back together (just 2 pieces of fabric, so one long seam) and put it all on the long-arm to baste, in preparation for hand quilting.  Hand quilting was a simple stitch in the ditch around all rings and melons using quilters thread, then a stencilled heart in the middle of the rings using perle no.8.

Lastly, some hand-dyed fabric that should have been red, but finished orange (must read the maunfacturers instructions again) was made into 'proper' binding and it was hand stitched on - and I finished hand stitching it down last night.

Given it's been a long time in the making and I have pets, I put it into a pillow case and threw it into the washing machine on a delicate setting - so it's on the line now, drying - hence these pictures.

I'm really happy how it turned out - the colours glow (that's Kaffe for you) - and I still can't quite beleive I hand stitched a large quilt.

I will make another of these, in different clours and probably with solid arcs instead of the pieced arcs, and I'll make it bigger - but I think next time I'll sew it by machine.

Ker-knackered with a capital K

My husband is taking 3 weeks off work - so this week has been about maintenance jobs that never seem to get done- he's bogged the joins in the new posts my son built - which was changing this (and I just realised I haven't shown Benjo's work - will rectify that once we have the new posts painted - which won't be for at least 2 weeks because my darling read the instructions on the wood putty after he'd used it and you have to wait 2 weeks before you can sand and paint.... )

He's cleaned the pool and mowed front and back.  He's snipped the growth from from the root stock on the fruit trees and spent some time examining the inside of his eyelids....and today he ordered 2 cubic metres of vegie patch grade soil.  It arrived at mid-day and given we've been inundated with heavy showers all day, it's amazing that we got the lot shifted where it needs to be - I can't say how many barrow loads we moved - it was a hell of a lot - and how much onion grass we removed - again, it was a hell of a lot - but it's done.  We then set up a huge A frame (surplus pool fencing) to accommodate sugar snap peas, beans and snow peas.....and tomorrow morning I'll be planting.  So just now, I'm pooped.  I don't normally do that much physical labour - my physical labour usually consists of moving fabric from one spot to another, cutting it and sewing it - the most strenuous part of my day is shifting the rolls of batting around - or fabric around, because I can't find anything in my sewing room - heh!

But, whilst chatting with my bff last night, I got out some of my hand-dyed fabric that I chose to use as the binding on my double wedding ring quilt - she's convinced me that because I have done the rest of the quilt by hand, I should put the binding on by hand (hmmm - it grieves me she's right!!)- and made up some 'real' bias binding to accommodate the curves...



this hand dyed fabric was supposed to be red, but turned out a gorgeous watermelony orange - poifect



and started to sew...




pardon my toes!

 I hope to have this finished by next wednesday's WIP - and given we're going to be watching the AFL grand final on saturday afternoon (Liz, we are coming to yours on saturday for the GF and for dinner - will call you tomorrow!) I think I've got a good chance.

Now it's time to rinse out the wine glass (cheeky NZ rose) and go to bed - lots to do tomorrow with planting and visiting and card making and sewing.

Next week I REALLY will have to make the samples and lesson plans for my new class (which starts the following week) but this has to fit in with the fact we're going camping to Daylesford with my sister-in-law and her husband for a couple of days - omg, running out of time.....

Aimless, but now with a plan

I find that unless I have a specific goal in mind, and I get onto to it almost straight away, then I usually achieve it, plus more....but if I have something I want to do and can't start it (for whatever reason), then I become sort of, like this.....

However, once in a while I take stock - and spurred on by the WIP wednesday hosted by Lee at Freshley Pieced, I've decided to join the ranks - and first things first, what am I looking at??

In progress:

1. Double Wedding Ring - hand pieced and quilted - now needs binding
2. Double Diamond - not sure what to do with this - it's only about 45" square and has been on the go since at least 2008
3. Blanket Box Hexagons - hand piecing, and just started (not related to Lynne's of Lily's Quilts Hexalong, but I can see we were both inspired by the same quilt - Broderie's Candied Hexagons)
4. Which Way To Go - batik medallion - all pieced, needs to be quilted
5. Dancing With The Stars - this was a bom through stitchin' heaven in Texas, USA, all pieced, needs to be quilted
6. Kimono Mini - needs binding
7. Cam's Ispy - needs to be quilted, but I do have this loaded and ready to go on the Gammill
8. Farmers Wife - stalled again - have 36 blocks made
9. Sashiko qayg - have about 12 blocks made but need at least 24 for a halfway decent size
10. do.good.stitches cherish circle quilt - currently have 6 blocks and waiting on remaining 14, then it'll need putting together and quilted by 10th september
11. red and white challenge blocks - I have 4 blocks but need a lot more
12. hand dyed convergence piece - not sure what to do with this - i just started playing with my hand-dyed fabric one evening
13. Whirleygig II - this was put together after finding I had quite a few patches leftover from the whirleygig quilt I completed last year - it's not all that big so probably needs a border or 2, before quilting and binding

To be made (cos I have the fabric and notions):

1. pouches - need to make many, all different sizes, for sale
2. soft baskets - same as pouches
3. other stuff for sale - yet to determine exactly what that means
4. baby quilt - for neice who is expecting a baby - want to do Drunkards Path but haven't got the templates yet - and it'll need to be completed by 10th September (arrrrrrgh)
5. quilt artistry quilt - from the genius of Yoshiko Jinzenji
6. new york beauty - using thai silk
7. layer cake quilt - I have 2 layer cakes, just sitting there, looking at me
8. shirt - I bought chambray last year for a long, casual shirt...
9. skirt, using fabulous pieces I bought from Kelani's at the Melbourne show
10. pants - although might have to hold off on these - the fabric I bought is a tartan and completely unsuitable for our upcoming summer
11. slippers for my ma-in-law's birthday by 18th September

Here's a mosaic of some of my Works in progress


1. sashiko qayg, 2. cam's I spy in full, 3. Dancing with the stars, 4. Playing, 5. Which way to go, 6. red and white challenge, 7. do.good.stitches cherish quilt, 8. double wedding ring, 9. blanket box hexies, 10. whirleygig II, 11. double diamonds, 12. cam's I spy

 So - unless something really urgent comes up, I'm going to complete the items on this list first - especially those with deadlines!

and I'll save what I've completed this year for another post

WIP - 13
Stuff to be made - 4,356,692

Just stuff

It feels like I haven't done a great deal of sewing since my last post - but thinking back there's no wonder.

On saturday I spent most of the day with 4 very talented women - they completed a textiles uni course together about 12 years ago and get together about once a month - I felt quite priveleged to be invited - we had a lot of fun with many, many different dyes and the cram-jar method (stuffing fabric into a jar, adding a dye and some soda ash solution, then stuffing more fabric in the jar, then another colour, until the jar is full).  Some of the results were a bit ordinary so we just overdyed them.  Apart from discussing the dyes, all of the ladies are very talented and I learnt a lot about their work - from fabric manipulation to doll making and quilt making, both traditional and modern.  I was very happy to be invited to their next session next month, especially as it's going to be a show and tell and I will be able to see more of their work.

We had a wonderful day at the farm for Stella's birthday - the sun shone (very surprisingly for Melbourne just lately!) - lots of animals to see and pet.  My favourite bit was when Campbell (Stella's big brother) encountered a rather feisty kid - it reared up on it's back legs and Campbell's face was an absolute picture - he was very brave though and petted quite a few animals - he said his favourite bit was when the goat and the calf tried to eat my dress - I can't say I was all that impressed with animal goz on me, but all in all, a fabulous day.

Monday was spent babysitting - and I was exhausted by monday night!  Today was all about cleaning, mopping and ironing - bleugh.  I did however also properly research information about a Diploma in Textiles and it looks like what I'm after - 3 years part time - unfortunately the open day for that school is the same day we're out for a celebratory 50th birthday lunch, so I'll have to get appropriate info later.

This evening I have been able to start piecing the backing for Campbell's I spy quilt (I promised him I would have the quilt finished this week so I'll have to get cracking) and I also made a prototype pouch which will become stock for the markets (or Etsy - haven't decided my distribution as yet).

So no photos - just stuff

Going over all psychedelic.....

Some days, you just need to finish something the same day you start it - and I needed a new journal cover as my current journal is almost full (I know it's a little bit nerdy to have a journal, but I have the memory keeping capability of a goldfish, so the journal works for me!).

I made one for my bff's birthday which was specific to her and her tastes (blogged earlier) but I wanted mine to be a bit more unfinished.

So, out with scraps of fabrics I'd hand dyed - especially the selvedges - and in a salute to my Scottish heritage, I wove a psychedelic tartan.  This was stitched down onto a piece of scrap wadding, using variegated thread and then the real farty stuff started:

First of all, I used some of my stamps (Extreme Elements from Stampin' Up - one of my favourite stamp sets) and with a black 'stayzon' stamp pad, stamped here and there.  Then, I remembered I could also use bleach as a stamping solution, so out with the White King and a bit more stamping - the dye came out of the fabric but not the black stamped images - guess that's why they call it 'stayzon' !  I really enjoyed this part - except for the fumes - it was amazing to actually watch the dye leach out.

Once the bleach had all dried, I got a nail brush out and vigourously scrubbed to further distress the fabric - and the result is a super soft, very distressed, psychadelic tartan.  Perfect!

I added a couple of pieces of fabric to hold the notebook, left all the edges unbound and then added a little brad on the front - I love it - it's soooooo tactile - here's hoping it inspires me to bigger and better things......

Notebook is opened out so you can see the entire piece (rotten photo - it was taken at night)

Here's a close up of the front:

It's very different to the one I made my bff, but some of the elements are the same - my hand dyed fabric, stampin', variegated thread - love, love, love how a similar set of components can provide the stimulation for ideas at either end of the spectrum.....chaos/order, rough/smooth etc etc

My bff's journal opened out - my hand dyed fabric, stamped, hand quilted, foundation pieced circular flying geese, buttons, sweetwater fabric line and a piece of ribbon taken off a beautifully packaged cake!

WIP Wednesday

We had a scheduled electricity outage today, so not a lot of sewing done - but, there has been a fair amount of activity since the last post:

My bff finished all her blocks for her sampler quilt - rich and sumptuous japanese prints and beautifully stitched - this was the last photo before it was packed up for the night (and after several block moves to get just the right layout!)  Well done bff - very, very gorgeous and your Sparky is a very, very lucky boy...

I created this in EQ6 to keep track of the FWQA blocks I've made so far (and haven't got any new ones to show as I didn't get any done this week)

I finished and sent off 2 of these Shoofly blocks for a Red and White challenge, issued by Elizabeth - these were finally completed after a disaster concerning a small child and a very muddy dog which meant an emergency dispatch of new fabric from the USA - but that's a whole other story....

I dyed a rainbow of fat quarters - don't you just love how the sun is shining through the pots?  Just like a stained glass window - and given we've been subjected to a great deal of rain and wind, the sun was a very welcome sight

I made some triangular pouches - can't say who they're for because I just posted them off today......when I opened the zips, they reminded me of little birds in the nest - so searched out this twig wreath and attempted a little arty farty photography - perhaps I should stick to sewing????

Once the electrickery came back on, I loaded my sampler quilt (same pattern as the one my bff made at the top of this post) onto Gertie (the long-arm Gammill) and started quilting - had to stop when my stitch in the ditch started to become stitch everywhere else but the ditch....

and finally, Buster and Antonio enjoying a little rest time....Buster is the (ex-muddy) dog and Antonio, the cat (whom I wanted to call Zorro, but that too, is another story) have a reasonably friendly relationship but it is unusual for them to lie down together - usually the cat baits the dog until the dog moves...

...............and now it's very late Downunder, so it's time for bed - au revoir