Sewing Helper WOW

This is a little wombat which was probably made to sit in a potted plant and look cute. He is being helpful by holding down a couple of the little Pinwheel blocks I have been making - you can tell the size of the wombat by the size of the Pinwheel blocks, they are less than three inches square unfinished, and the machine is my Singer Featherweight. Not every block is perfect where the seams meet in the middle, but considering the handicap under which I was working at the time they are not too bad and I am not going to re-make them. It will be a reminder of the struggle it took to get them done.
This is one of the beautiful trees at Scarborough Bluffs Park in Toronto, I don't know northern hemisphere trees so I can't identify it - isn't it gorgeous? You can see the cliffs behind.

The past few days have been so good! Following doctor's orders I am wearing a wrist brace, but it is so light it feels like wearing nothing compared to the weight of two casts. My left arm is very stiff from my elbow to my fingertips, the stiffness is slightly painful, my hand and fingers are still somewhat swollen but that will all pass with time. The most painful spot is at the base of my thumb where pressure from the cast has left a large tender bruise; it is so sensitive that I have padded the wrist brace with cotton wool at that point, as any pressure is more than my skin can stand at present.

The other day I received a package from a friend in Alaska, she sent me a pack of batik charm squares - 40 luscious autumn-coloured pieces, which are just gorgeous. I have some other autumn-toned batik prints so perhaps there is an autumn hanging on my horizon......but not just yet. Have I mentioned how much I love autumn colours, whether in real life or in fabrics?

On another note, the house next door has been empty for over two years while it was being renovated, but I think the owners are just about ready to move in. They are a young couple with two small children so I imagine it will be noisier than we have become used to, we have enjoyed the peace! The dividing fence he knocked down over 18 months ago without consulting us was replaced recently, and we were not consulted about its replacement either. The new fence is fortunately similar to the old one and will apparently be painted to match their painted house....but not on our side, thank you very much. You don't move into a neighbourhood and immediately make the rules to suit yourself. We don't need our side of the fence to match their house.

Today is quite cool and raining, after the heat of the past few weeks it is very pleasant. Kevin has almost finished painting my sewing room and it looks great! But even a newly painted house won't make us change our mind and stay, we are looking forward to being out of a large city and in a smaller community.

"Appropriate Dress.
To dress appropriately is another important matter to be considered. Due regard must be paid to the physical appearance of the person, and the dress must be made to harmonize throughout. An appropriate dress is that which so harmonizes with the figure as to make the apparel unnoticeable. This ladies can wear delicate colours, while stout persons look best in black or dark grey. For young and old the question of appropriate colour must be determined by the figure and complexion. Rich colors harmonize with brunette complexions or dark hair, and delicate colors with persons of light hair and blonde complexions."

Have a lovely week.

Jennifer

Soon will be plastered no more.......yay.....!

This morning the orthopedic specialist said the cast can come off today. But because he is special and doesn't remove casts, I had to make an appointment with the physiotherapist who does. So in less than six hours, at 5.20pm, my arm will be plastered no longer.

It will feel very light for a while! Folk club tonight but I won't be playing guitar yet.....songs will be sung a capella. Again.

Best wishes to my American friends as they celebrate Thanksgiving, it's already Friday here but of course you are probably still in the middle of your family gatherings.

"Refrain from making a noise when eating, or supping from a spoon, and from smacking the lips or breathing heavily while masticating food, as they are marks of ill-breeding. The lips should be kept closed in eating as much as possible."

Jennifer

Some more colours

The reverse of the sign....you can take your pick whether you prefer to read it in English or French!
The picnic tables were on a small rise but there were no picnickers on the day we were there. Wouldn't this make a slightly surreal pic on a misty day with the tables looming out of fog? I haven't seen this grass growing in Australia, it's a lovely emerald colour and is very soft.
And of course leaves don't stay on trees, do they. What a lovely mix of colours.

While browsing blogs recently I found this one - isn't Sarah's idea of making decorations with leftover snips of fabric and threads great? Next time I am The Big Craft Shop I shall look for some of those glass or acrylic shapes, I could hang them in my sewing room at Christmas....or just leave them up all year round.

And I have been enjoying Elaine's travels, she is writing about her cruise on Canada's east coast. It looks so beautiful! She is generously having a giveaway for Thanksgiving.

"When dancing a round dance, a gentleman should never hold a lady's hand behind him, or on his hip, or high in the air, moving her arm as though it were a pump handle, as seen in some of our western cities, but should hold it gracefully by his side."

Now I am off to enjoy making some more little pinwheel blocks.

Jennifer

Cool WOW

This is a four-piece puzzle probably meant for small children......made from wood, so I use it as a trivet.

My little pinwheel blocks are coming along - slowly - but at least they are coming along. I think it will be a very pretty quilt when it's finished. The quilt from which they are leftovers was made several years ago from fabrics collected over a few years, and I had forgotten how pretty the fabrics are. New fabrics are scrumptious, but a whole quilt made from a coordinating range can be a bit too matchy-matchy for my taste. I like the scrappy look, or a planned scrappy look like my blue and yellow quilt or all reproduction fabrics. Have you noticed that more and more fabric ranges seem to only speak to themselves...they're not always happy to mix with fabrics from other ranges or other designers? And so many new fabrics are released each month that one gets dizzy (not to say bankrupt) trying to keep up with them all. Quilters of days gone by used a mixture of leftovers from family sewing and some purchased fabrics, can you imagine the reaction of some of those folk to the fabrics and gadgets we take for granted today?

We're very lucky to have so much choice.

Our little corner of the world has been sweltering for a few days, yesterday was 40 degrees C - that's well over 100 degrees C - Sydney in a heatwave can be like living in either an oven (dry heat) or a sauna (humidity), and yesterday was an oven. At about 1am a cool wind blew through so today is much more pleasant, we have even had light rain showers for which I'm sure the garden is thankful.

Kevin is back to painting my sewing room again now that it's cooler. The room is on the north-west corner of the house - the sun is to the north in Australia - with a flat metal roof, so can get rather warm on days like yesterday. But it's a lovely room when the weather's cooler! We are keeping the door shut to keep the cats from getting into mischief with the paint paraphenalia (don't trust those kitties) but that keeps the room hotter in this weather too.

"Keep your temper.
In discussing business matters, never lose your temper, even though your opponent in a controversy should become angry, and in the heat of discussion make rude and disagreeable remarks and charges. By a calm and dignified bearing and courteous treatment you will conquer his rudeness."

Now I shall finish my coffee, and press the latest batch of pinwheels.

Have a wonderful week.

Jennifer

Slowly sewing!

No wonder it's called "Fall"....all those lovely coloured leaves on the path! These pics were taken at Scarborough Bluffs.
I love this one with the different tree shapes, sizes and colours. The sign you can just see says...........
We photograph signs when we see them, it's a handy reminder of where we were at the time.

I have been sewing! Much cause for rejoicing! In my sewing room was a box of squares, each one made of two half-square triangles, the trimmings of star block corners from a quilt made some years ago. (it's still a top, but what the heck.....you can't rush genius) The fabrics are blues and yellows with white-on-white backgrounds. I found out that I can feed them s-l-o-w-l-y through my Singer Featherweight, four of those little squares makes one pinwheel block. The blocks will only be about 2-1/2in finished but there will be 128 blocks. Setting them on point, using alternate squares and borders, will make a quilt nearly 50in square; I have been playing with a few ideas on EQ6 for layouts. I can't sew for too long at a time as my left arm (the plastered one) doesn't like it, but you have no idea how much I am treasuring this small achievement. When the blocks are all made I will go looking for fabric to complete the quilt.

Yesterday we endured a dreadful day, the temperature was 39 degrees C here - that's over 100 degrees F for those who use those numbers - today is milder (mid 20s), but tomorrow is forecast to be another stinker. Let's hope it's not quite as bad as the forecast indicates. Anything over 25 degrees C is too much for me when Sydney's humidity is taken into account.

"Never turn a corner at full speed or you may find yourself knocked down, or may knock down another, by the violent contact. Always look the way you are going or you may chance to meet some awkward collision. People are very rude and vulgar who do not look the way they are going; it annoys others."

Enjoy your weekend.

Jennifer

Stormy evening WOW

This little wombat is on a glass coaster, a gift from my friend Sandra when we attended the National Folk Festival in Canberra last year. I don't know how it's printed - screen or transfer - but it's cute.

Sydney is in the spring storm season now......we had storms last week, lots of thunder and lightning but very little rain. More lights and music tonight but once again, not much rain. With hot temperatures forecast this week (I'm not looking forward to summer) we will probably have more storms.

I was going to post a few more pics of the lovely fall colours but it is late, and I am tired. Heaving around the weight of an arm with two casts on all day makes my bed very welcome at night. That lovely "aaaaahhh......." moment when I can lie in bed and let the mattress take the weight is bliss.

"Prudery.
Avoid an affectation of excessive modesty. Do not use the word "limb" for "leg". If legs are really improper, then let us, on no account, mention them, but having found it necessary to mention them, let us by all means give them their appropriate name."

Have a wonderful week.

Jennifer

Still plastered

Somewhere in east Toronto, Canada....sorry I can't be more specific but I wasn't with Kevin when he took this pic. It's somewhere near Taylor Creek Park.
Nor this one. Aren't the leaves pretty floating on the water? Kevin took some lovely pics of autumn colours when he and our son Doug went for a long walk while Sayward and I were checking out the Kaleidoscope exhibition of gorgeous vintage quilts at the Textile Museum.
This is some of the view from the bus stop near our son's place - waiting for a bus can usually be rather boring, but not when there are colours like these to look at. I wish I could live in a climate with colours like this all year round.

Yesterday the orthopedic specialist looked at the x-ray taken of my wrist the previous day and said that, although it's healing as well as can be expected (he didn't add "considering your age" but he might as well have done) he wants to see me again in two weeks. He said (once again almost referring to my age but not quite) that it's a fine line between leaving the arm in plaster long enough for the bone to have healed, but not so long that the limb stiffens up. As my wrist has been set with a slight downward bend for some medical reason, can't you just imagine how tender it's going to be when it's finally free? I know there are many people in this world who are putting up with much more than I have to, but it is still driving me spare. Two more weeks will be six weeks since it was broken. I wonder if I will still remember how to knit? or play guitar? and as for using a sewing machine......and my beautiful new overlocker is out of its box waiting for me to play with it and I can't........

In the past five days I have read four books and am half-way through a fifth which isn't grabbing my attention as much as some I have read, so I might give it up as a bad job and not even try to find out who dunnit. It's been a while since I have read such a cliched book. One I particularly enjoyed was "Bugatti Queen: in search of a French racing legend" by Miranda Seymour. Helene Delangle was a racing car driver in the 1930s, and led a rip-snorting life off the track too; she had been a dancer before taking to the race circuit. She was glamorous with a beautiful smile as a young woman, but ended her days in a tiny apartment alone, estranged from her family and in poor health in her eighties. Some of her race driving records still stand all these years later.

My sewing room is unusable at present because it is being painted, we are freshening up the house with a coat of paint before selling it early next year. Kevin's plan is to have it ready for me to use again when I an able to, isn't he great?

"Keep to the right.
On meeting and passing people in the street, keep to your right hand, except when a gentleman is walking alone; then he must always turn aside to give the preferred side of the walk to a lady, to anyone carrying a heavy load, to a clergyman or to an old gentleman."

Enjoy your weekend.

Jennifer

WOW is back!

My wombat coasters are made from pine and are probably cut with a laser because each one of the six is an exact copy of the others. Isn't technology wonderful? If the photo is slightly blurry please forgive me, I am under a slight handicap with only one working hand.
This is a gorgeous tree! Rose Marie told us it's a maple tree, and as she is Canadian I believe her. After all, if a Canadian can't recognise a maple tree no one can. Do you know what I like about this tree.....not only is it a maple tree, but the shape of the tree is almost a maple leaf. Kevin took this pic at Scarborough Bluffs in Toronto. He took many others too, and you will see some of them in due course.

I realised that at the end of October my little blog was a year old. Happy birthday, blog. That means a whole year of wombats!

Today I went to the library for some books to read, my sprained right wrist is just about well enough now to hold a book. It's pretty good most of the time, but occasionally says with gritted teeth 'please don't bend me like that.........' so I stop whatever I'm doing, and do nothing for a while. Today I tried to crochet, it's possible but is a slow painful process. But I shall persevere if I can.

My Beautiful New Overlocker is unpacked and is sitting beside My Lovely New Bernina. They make a gorgeous pair. Hopefully soon I will be able to get to use them again.

Yesterday my folk club had a gig, we enjoyed ourselves....the front row was missing a guitar (me) but at least I can still sing, so sing I did. And I will be able to sing at choir practice tonight.

"Avoid talking of personalities.
Avoid speaking of your birth, your travels and of all personal matters, to those who may misunderstand you, and consider it boasting. When induced to speak of them, do not dwell too long upon them, and do not speak boastfully."

Did I mention that we recently holidayed in Canada?

Have a lovely week, may all your points match and your seams be straight.

Jennifer

Paying a little forward

This is the first of my "Pay It Forward" gifts finished - it was delivered in person to Sayward (whose nom de computer is Kiera-Oona) in Toronto recently. The kitty's eyes were embroidered with glow-in-the-dark thread and the purple border print has tiny gold stars. Sayward likes purple and all things Halloween, and I think she likes her little quilt. I started working on another Pay It Forward gift before we went to Canada, unfortunately it as come to a halt due to my current inability to sew but never fear, it will be finished when I can get back to it.

When I signed up for "Pay It Forward" I undertook to make gifts for three people, but only two joined.....never mind, there are probably so many of these friendship swaps out in blogland that people are swamped. But I am willing to make another, should a third person join.

Pics of our Canadian holiday have been uploaded to our computer and will start appearing on my blog before too long. And of course more wombats too, even though I can't use a camera at present I'm sure Kevin will be able to help me. He's a good bloke.

And when typing isn't so painfully slow the etiquette quotes will also reappear. There have been many positive comments on them!

Jennifer

Home again

We arrived home last Thursday morning after a looong flight, it's good to be home but in yesterday's heat we wished we were back in Canada! Photos will follow in due course. Unfortunately I had only taken a few pics before I broke my left arm and sprained my right wrist, and found out that one needs two working hands to operate even a simple point-and-shoot digital camera. Never mind, Kevin took some lovely pics, the fall colours were so beautiful.

Highlights....it's difficult to say. Spending time with our son Doug and his lovely Sayward, meeting Rose Marie and her DH, and of course making the acquaintance of their kitties Hank and Ashes, and meeting up with Debra. The exhibition of vintage quilts at the Textile Museum was fascinating, and attending a quilt show in Ajax was interesting - it's always good to see what other quilters are doing. The Creativ Festival was fun, I was quite restrained really......just think what I could have done had I been intact.......

Places are all well and good, but it's people who really make a place. Everyone we met was so nice to us, from Deb who owned the suite where we stayed (Deb/Debbie/Debra is a popular Canadian name, it seems) whose lovely mum sent us home-made muffins to spoil us, to the staff at The Scarborough Hospital who looked after this rather shaken Aussie tourist who lost her footing on a rough patch of ground and fell over (Nurse Doreen in particular was wonderful), to the people at the folk club we attended where I won a CD in their raffle - when it was announced that the winner was visiting from Australia there was a round of applause, wasn't that great? Thank you too to the nice folk who have left comments on my blog when I posted about breaking my arm, I will reply as soon as I can.

I did indulge slightly as to fabric, yarn and books, as you will see in due course.

My Bernina machine is home again, and so is my lovely new overlocker although it is still in its box - will unpack it soon. When I am all mended again I will be able to have fun with it. Speaking of being mended, I have seen a local orthopedic specialist and he says my arm is healing well. It will be so good to have the cast removed and to be able to do things again......sew, knit, crochet, to practice spinning, and to play guitar. Our computer had some of its innards fried in a storm the day before we went to Canada and wasn't fixed until last night, so now I can read, do crosswords and spend time on the computer. And watch TV. And annoy Kevin........please can you help me with this, or that.......

Have a wonderful week.

Jennifer