If you’re new to this blog and you want to catch up quickly, all my works are listed in the annual Year In Review posts.

I’m retired and live in Canberra, Australia. I’ve been sewing since I was a child, first embroidery and then quilting. I am a hobby sewer (or sewist, if you prefer), tending towards traditional over modern and planned over improvised. I enjoy the process and the finished projects, but I don’t see any need to track my hours, fabric usage or money spent (I have absolutely no problem with other people doing that; but it has no utility for me). My focus changes from year to year so output is variable — sometimes quilts, sometimes doll clothes, sometimes embroidery.

Most of my quilting hours are in support of Aussie Hero Quilts, run by Jan-Maree Ball, OAM. The rest of my sewing is done entirely to please myself and to pass the time. It’s a sad fact, but my family and friends have no interest in quilting or quilted products, so they don’t get quilts for Christmas or birthdays.

I don’t have any one defining aesthetic or technique. I use many different styles and colour schemes, and I will use whatever technique is appropriate to the project — hand piecing, mosaic piecing (over papers), machine piecing, appliqué, embroidery, even painting … it’s all fun and games (until the bobbin runs out!). Current WIPs include basic machine-pieced patterns, appliqué, Celtic appliqué, hand piecing, and wholecloth quilting. I’ll get around to finishing them all one day. I’m not particularly active in blogland — I rarely comment on other blogs — but you will find me occasionally on reddit (r/quilting), giving advice and encouragement and doing calculations. (I love quilt maths — I can spend hours on it!)

I’m not a professional (or even a semi-professional) blogger. I don’t have affiliate links and I’m not an ambassador or influencer for anything. I’ll never monetise the site or try to sell you kits or patterns or tutorials, and I’ll never host a quilt-along, blog hop or block swap. I’ll only blog when I have something new to say, so you won’t be bombarded with variations on the same theme every day for weeks on end. I have a basic paid account so you shouldn’t see any advertisements  — if you do, please let me know.

I live with two cats, sisters who are almost identical, both of whom love quilts. One likes to sit near me and watch me sew, while the other is content to sit on them (or to burrow under them). I don’t let them get near the machine when I’m sewing as I’m scared they will try to catch the needle. They vie with each other as to who gets to sit on the recliner with me when I’m hand sewing and sometimes I end up with one in my lap and one by my feet.  Being tabbies, their fur is purrfectly designed to show up on any colour of fabric.

About the name: a long time ago I played World of Warcraft and needed a name for my draenei priest. I had been reading the Vorkosigan books by Lois McMaster Bujold, in which the Dendarii Mountains feature, so I named her Dendaria and felt extremely pleased with my unique and beautiful name … until I checked the Armory and found a dozen others. Later on I joined reddit for r/wow, but gradually spent more and more of my time in r/quilting, so Dendaria eventually became my quilting identity rather than my WoW identity.