Going away tomorrow

We will be heading off tomorrow morning for points south of here, stopping at Cooma for a few days. While I am away there may not be many chances to update my blog so it may have to wait until we come home, but I will see what I can do - we don't have a laptop, but internet access is usually available at libraries and some cafes. Even small country towns are becoming more civilised these days.

The picture at the top of my blog was taken just on a year ago in Dungowan valley north-east of Tamworth, it's beautiful country. My maternal grandfather grew up not far from here. The road through the valley was used as early as the 1830s to move stock to the coast, and there are quite a few markers showing sites of previous buildings - schools, shops, houses. His parents moved to the area in the 1870s and he was the seventh child in a family of eleven, eight boys and three girls. His mother, my great-grandmother, was 19 when she had her first child and 46 when the last was born, what a life she must have had. I wish I could have known her but she died when my mother was a baby.

Daisy time

Those daisies on my sidebar remind me of when I was a sweet young thing in the 60s....everything was daisies, I can even remember weddings where the bride wore daisy-patterned lace and carried a daisy bouquet. So when this design popped up I thought we could revisit the 60s. The music was great....the fashions were fun and young and skinny (and so was I)........

Aren't you proud of me, I am still working on those mattress covers. One finished, the other more than half done. At this rate we will have new covers when we head off on our holiday in two days time.

Happy Thingmas and Seasonal Whatevers to all!

That should take care of most celebrations!

Today's picture is of an experiment I made a few years ago. I had the idea to make a new piece of fabric using crazy piecing, then to cut a shape from it. I chose an evergreen Christmas tree for the shape; every year when it is hung I plan to add beads for sparkle......and every year I forget........so after Christmas I will bead it before it is put away. It was also one of my first attempts at machine quilting on my Bernina, with swirling snow and stars in the background and snow furrows in the foreground. It is a very un-Australian tree, snow at Christmas is very rare here.

Best wishes to all, and I hope 2009 is a wonderful year for everyone.

Jennifer

I do believe it's the summer solstice

I may be wrong (I often am) but I always thought the solstice happened on 22nd-23rd December - today is 23rd so I suppose we are bang on solstice time. So, happy solstice wherever you may be. That means the weather really heats up here in Australia....not sure I am looking forward to that....sigh. Not much I can do about it though, except grin and bear it.

I am making new covers for the new mattresses in our little RV, can't you tell I am procrastinating - the corners are done and I only have to make hems along the bottom edges and thread elastic through, I am making them like a fitted sheet. I have never made a fitted sheet in my life before. Wish me luck.

My blog name WOW

This is the bronze wombat, after whom I named my blog. It is the largest in my wombat collection and is made of solid bronze, all 16kg (35lbs) of it. Several years ago while DH and I were travelling we visited a small town called Uralla, in northern NSW. It had a brass foundry that had been working for over a hundred years, so we paid our $2 and took a tour which was really fascinating. They had a shop with lots of interesting items for sale, one of which was my wombat. If it's still here when we are going home, said DH, we will buy it. It was, and as you can see, we did. No 2 son carried it in from the car staggering under the weight, he was not impressed as I remember.

What a brave woman am I, I went to the local mall this morning to do a little bit of shopping. It wasn't too busy when I arrived before 10am but when I left a couple of hours later I was glad to go. I bought a couple of candles for Christmas decoration, one red and one green; a soap dish for the bathroom to replace the one that DH accidently broke yesterday when we was doing some plumbing repairs; some guitar strings for my lovely classical Ibanez guitar, and not much else. Then after lunch I went to the library and bought some books to take on our holiday next weekend, they sell surplus books - 55 cents for a paperback! That's cheaper than thrift shops. Once we have read them, we can leave them behind in the campground laundry for someone else to read.

And the Christmas tree is up, the house is decorated - not too much though - I don't go overboard with decorations as I'm the one who has to pack them up after Christmas - and there are some presents under the tree already with my name on them. Woo hoo!

Jennifer

Folded star or Somerset patchwork

Recently Debbie showed a pretty trivet that she received. Many years ago I learned how to do this technique, and finally I have had time to make this tutorial. It's a lot of fun, and not difficult. I will spread it over a few posts as there are lots of pictures - a picture tells a thousand words! - which will show the steps to making Somerset patchwork.

You will need to decide on fabrics. I used Christmas fabrics from my stash as I plan to use it on our Christmas table, but of course it will look good no matter which fabrics are used. There are four rows in the star and each row can be a different fabric, fabrics can be repeated, or more than one fabric can be used in a row. As you can see, my light coloured row uses two different fabrics - the colour tones are the same, but the prints are different. You will also need fabric for the backing and binding, and a piece of muslin for the base. The finished star can be used as a table mat, hot food trivet, pot holder, or on the front of a cushion or bag.

Fabric 1, centre: Cut four, 3-1/2in (8.75cm) squares.
Fabric 2, first round: cut eight, 5in (12.5cm) squares.
Fabric 3, second round: cut eight, 7in (17.5cm) squares. I used two different fabrics for this row as I found that I couldn't get all eight squares from one fat quarter.
Fabric 4, third round: cut eight, 6in (15cm) squares.
Base fabric: cut one, nine in (22.5cm) square. Fold it into quarters and press, open out then fold diagonally and press. You will have four pressed lines. If preferred the lines can also be drawn using a ruler and marking pencil. This is inside the finished star and will not be seen.
Backing: you may prefer to wait until the top is finished before cutting fabric for backing, as you may wish to alter the size from the dimensions given here.
Binding: you may also want to wait before deciding on a binding width. I cut two strips 1 in (25.4cm) but only needed one for binding. In hindsight they could have been wider, say 1-1/4 in (3.2cm) or even 1-1/2in (3.8cm).
Thread: thread to match each fabric. Points are stitched down by hand so thread will need to match fabrics, outer edges are sewn by machine but as this thread won't be seen in the finished star the colour doesn't matter.
Depending in the fabric used, you may be able to finger-press; this will result in soft folds and points. For crisp sharp folds you may prefer to use an iron. I chose to press my fabrics using steam, as the gold metallic designs on some of the fabrics made them stiff.

Take one piece of fabric 1 and fold in half; press. Fold one corner to the middle and press; repeat with the other corner, to make a triangle shape. Make sure the point is on the folded edge, not the open edge.

Repeat with all squares. If using more than one fabric for a round you may like to layer the fabrics alternately to keep them in order.

Using fabric 1 and with the lines on the base fabric as a guide, set the four triangles with the points touching at the centre and the folded edges touching to make a square. Using thread to match fabric 1, stitch the four points to each other and to the base fabric. Stitching just inside the outer edge of fabric 1, sew a row of stitches by machine to hold the square to the base fabric. This row of stitching can be seen in the picture below.
Using fabric 2, start the first round. Place the point of a fabric 2 triangle 5/8in (1.5cm) from the centre and pin in place. Continue to place the remaining fabric 2 triangles with the points 5/8in (1.5cm) from the centre point, alternating placement so the points line up with the fold of the square below and with the join between the four sections of the square. Arrange the triangles so they alternate over and under each other. Using thread to match fabric 2, stitch the points to the base fabric, and machine a row of stitches just inside the outer edge as before.
Continue to place the next two rows as before. Using fabric 3, make the second round as previous row but with points 1-1/4in (3.1cm) from the centre point. Stitch points and outer edges. Using fabric 4, make the third round with points 1-7/8in (4.7cm) from centre point. The final row will be partly off the edge of the base fabric.
This is the time to decide on the finished size. I trimmed my star to make a 9in (22.5cm) circle,
but any size from 8-9in (20-22.5cm) diameter would be fine. You can also trim the excess points and leave an octagon shape. If making a circle you will use bias fabric for the binding - if making an octagon or square, you can use straight binding. I used a bias tape maker to make fold lines on my binding.
Trim to shape and size desired. Cut backing fabric the same size - this can be placed on the back of the star, wrong wides together, and trimmed at the same time as the front. It is then ready for binding.
With right side of binding to right side of star, pin and stitch. Fold under 1/4in(6mm) on the end of binding so the fold will overlap the join. Stitch all around.
Because of the many layers of folded fabric, the edges are bulky. I trimmed some of the bulk away to make it easier to fold the binding to the back. Stitch binding down on the back by hand.
In hindsight I would have cut the binding slightly wider to make this step easier, and also for the appearance of the finished piece.
Now make a cuppa, sit back and enjoy your handiwork! When I looked at these pictures I realised that I had made a mistake in the light coloured row - the 'under and over' overlapping didn't quite go right at one point. But in the overall scheme of things it doesn't matter.
If you have any questions or comments I would love to have them.

Jennifer

Beautiful new WOW

Isn't this a gorgeous wombat! Made of red cedar, lovely and smooth - a delight to touch. This was given to me when I left work last week, many thanks to the lovely folks in the library. The beautiful roses were a gift from Lorraine and I received some other gifts, one of which is round my neck as we speak, lovely lime green beads and shells. I am very fond of lime green. Lime green is a neutral, in my book. The quilt in the background has a story too; I was lucky enough to win it nearly ten years ago, it was made in New Zealand, and I love it. My maternal grandmother was born in NZ and it's a wonderful country.

Would you believe I haven't done my Christmas cards yet, I am very slow this year. Each year I say I won't send any, but it is a way to keep in touch with people we don't see much. I haven't put up many decorations yet either. But I will.

I like being retired but it is very easy to procrastinate.....I am supposed to go food shopping, it's lunchtime and I haven't left the house yet.....

Jennifer

A lovely place to look at

Taken from the road between Lithgow and Mudgee, central west NSW, looking north-east-ish. The Aussie countryside is very much part of my heart.

What a lovely time we had last night! My folk club has its last meeting for the year, it was also our Christmas party. Lots more people than we usually have, and a good time seemed to be had by all. Even wading through the puddles for the occasional pit stop wasn't too bad, it rained all day so everything was rather soggy. At the start of this year I decided to perform a new song or poem each time the club met, and managed to keep to that - even sang a new one last night, 'Beautiful Star of Bethlehem', to finish the year. From the feedback I received others may try the same idea. I already have a new song for the first meeting of the new year.

After the continual heavy rain yesterday we have a hot dry wind today and it's about 15 degrees hotter, we can't believe the change! The wind is blowing dust in my eyes and they need some drops put in. And some chocolate would be good to go with the coffee that is waiting for me, pity blogger doesn't have smell-o-vision.

I am now a retired person.......

.......but not, I hope, a retiring one. It feels good, although it hasn't quite sunk in that I won't be going back to work when the current school holidays finish. I was quite surprised by the lovely farewells and gifts that I received, and I have absolutely no regrets that I have done the right thing.

And I have a beautiful new wombat for the collection!

What a storm!

A storm hit just after I arrived home from having a massage an hour ago....thunder, lightning, and very heavy rain. I could see the dark clouds as I was driving and had my fingers crossed I would make it home before the storm came. Storm season isn't over yet! Never mind, so long as my sewing machines aren't affected I don't mind.

Triple WOW day

A trio of little wombats today, Christmas tree decorations that I have collected over the past few years.

The pretty Christmas Bush (Ceratopetalum gummiferum) in our front garden. Compared to many in the streets around here it is a light red; some others are very deep crimson. But they can be delicate to grow so we are lucky it has survived our care of 21 years.

We are all on the countdown to Christmas. This year we will have our older son Stephen The Drummer and his lovely girl Natasha with us for Christmas Day - the last few years have been just the two of us, so we have gone out for lunch at a restaurant. No preparation, no cooking and best of all no cleaning up afterwards! But it's not as good as having family around.

So....the house is slowly getting decorated, the tree hanging I made a few years ago is up, and others will follow. And best of all, I will be retired from work on Thursday afternoon.

WOW half way through two very busy weeks

It's a busy time of year! Choir concerts - one last week, two this week, practice tonight. Folk club gigs - did one at the weekend. End of year functions and Christmas parties - still coming. And only 10 days to go until I retire from work. It will be with a sigh of relief.

This WOW is my first furry wombat, apologies for the slightly fuzzy photo but he wouldn't stay still.......kept wanting to get back inside his burrow. DH gave him to me several years ago, he is very cute. The wombat is too.

Tomorrow my baby turns 30, how can that be when I am only 29 and some months myself....sigh. I blame that big machine in Europe, because I am sure it makes time go backwards while it is splitting the atom or whatever it is doing. Doesn't seem like 30 years ago I was waddling around with three weeks still to go, but he was a little impatient and decided to pop out early. Happy birthday to him tomorrow, he lives on the far side of the known universe (actually Toronto, Canada) so if he wanted to he could start celebrating when tomorrow starts here and go on until it ends in Toronto; they are 15 hours behind us, so it could be a long birthday celebration.

Today I had a pleasant lunch with a friend who brought me souvenirs from a recent trip to Europe, very lovely silver earrings from France set with a local stone and a pretty bracelet from England, then we went fabric shopping. Even though we both have an obscene amount of fabric and we don't need any more we managed to find some that we couldn't live without. Mostly fabric for clothes because there were some good specials - I bought linen blends for pants in brown, yellow and green solids - and some blue knit for pjs - and some pretty gold paisley to make another quilted bag - and some lovely soft knitting yarn - and a couple of other things - I am going to be the best-dressed retired woman around. Maybe.