It’s International Women’s Day. We are strong but we are not unbreakable. Let’s celebrate all the women who have gone before us, all those around us today, and all those in the future. We rock! Detail of my Goddess Roseus quilt. Foil and hand stitching on silk paper.
Welcome
Hello! I’m Erica Spinks and I’m so pleased you are here.
I’ve moved from my Creative Dabbling blog to this shiny new online space. Welcome to readers who have followed me from Creative Dabbling and to all of you who have just found me.
I write mostly about gardening, books, quilt making and creativity.
Weekend reading
What a satisfactory week! It’s been sunny every day and that’s helped my dahlia flowers unfurl their petals. I’ll write more on that later and show you some photos. I’m so glad I planted these glorious blooms. The sunshine cheered my spirits this week. The leaves on the deciduous trees in my garden are changing […]
Japanese Anemones
Japanese Anemones are such pretty plants to have in my garden. With their long stems and delicate flowers that ripple in the breeze, it’s easy to see why they are known as Windflowers. I have a pot of pink ones, that I brought with me from my previous garden but haven’t yet transplanted into the […]
Weekend reading
It’s a stunning Southern Highlands day today – sunny, with light winds to dry out the ground after yesterday’s tumultuous storm. I’m gazing out the window of my office and watching the washing flapping in the breeze. I love that. The smell of freshly-washed and air-dried clothes and sheets – it’s one of the small […]
About Facebook
You may notice that the Facebook icon is no longer at the top of this page. Facebook (or some unsophisticated rogue program of theirs) decided to block my public page last week. I’ve been thinking about whether to continue with that page and have now decided to delete it. I’ll be posting more here on […]
Weekend reading
The current Facebook debacle in Australia reinforces something that we already knew – we have no control over the availability of content on sites we don’t own. It’s a message that hit some Australian users with force yesterday when Facebook stripped their pages. With that in mind, I’m starting a new feature here – weekend […]
My book of the month: February 2021
What a fun story! Queen Elizabeth II as a sleuth (discreetly, of course) is a wonderful premise. The Queen is at Windsor Castle ahead of her 90th birthday celebrations and she is not happy. A guest has died in one of the castle bedrooms and the Queen wants to get to the bottom of the […]
Can I please have a personal fabric shopper?
Before we moved house, I purged my stash of many metres of fabrics I will never use. I have no idea why I bought some of these pieces in the first place. I donated them to a charity shop where I am sure they will find new owners who will appreciate them. To prevent this […]
In My Garden: February 2021
In February, my thoughts turn to bulb catalogues – for blooms in spring! It’s so absorbing, looking through the photos of perfect blooms that we see in plant catalogues. It’s even better, though, if the flowers we grow from purchased bulbs look just as good. Last week, my February column was published in our local […]
My ideal quilt event
The virus is still with us and I simply can’t imagine going to a major quilt show, like the Sydney Quilt Show (my Guild’s one) and mingling with large crowds again. Most shows have been postponed indefinitely and I miss catching with my friends and seeing all the wonderful quilts on exhibition. But the idea […]