Very worthy Stuff

This week has seen very little action on the Getting Stuff Done front, but has seen quite a bit of running around.  The Christmas occasions have started; yesterday morning the Historical Society had theirs under the shady verandah, and today we attended a charity fair.  It was strange to just be at the fair without playing music as we have done in past years but at present the ukulele group's numbers are down, so there is no way we can do an outside performance.  We have two indoors gigs lined up in the next few weeks, we can manage those.

We did make a few purchases....Kevin bought himself a magnifying glass with a bone (deer antler) handle to help him decipher the family history information (the writing on some of those old hand-written certificates looks legible until you try to read it); we bought some meat pies, currently in the fridge, which will be frozen later and which look very yummy;  I bought a new wombat, made of rusty metal, for the garden (we have a large pot with a succulent growing in it, which will make a nice home for Rusty the wombat) and a couple more goodies with an eye to Christmas gifting.  I drooled over Annette the jewellery lady's lovely trinkets.....I already have some of her beautiful pieces.....I could quite happily have bought several pairs.  But I was strong, and I didn't.  The home-made lemonade we had was welcome on a warm sunny day, too.

So....let's see what we can find in the photo treasure vault, to liven up this post.

All 225 (!) of these basket blocks were sewn together some time ago.  It was the first time I had tried hand-piecing, and I found I enjoyed it......so much so that the original plan of 169 blocks, 13 rows by 13, was enlarged to 15 by 15.  They all face the same way.

The blocks were sewn into sets of nine, with alternating print and white corners.  The design looks better with matching corners, hence the number of blocks.

However, it is huge.....about 90 inches square unquilted......and I find myself wondering if those extra blocks were really necessary?  Why didn't I stop with the smaller size of 78 inches square when I had the chance?  Now a little voice in my brain is telling me to unpick two rows each way, and be happy with the smaller size.  Which I just may do.  It will still be a reasonable sized quilt, after all.

Some sewing of diamonds has happened, and more have been cut.  Words have been read.  Notes have been plinked and sung, some of the Christmas variety and some not.  The hunting, gathering and foraging essential for survival took place, and also a little op shopping; I am now the owner of a red bag, something needed to match the red straps on my red, black and cream sandals.  They entered my (not quite) sumptuous wardrobe a few years ago, a new purchase on an annual trip to Canberra, and have been asking for a co-ordinating bag ever since.

A link to this quote was posted earlier today on a vintage sewing machine social media page.  It certainly made me chuckle, and I'm sure you will laugh with me:

Advice to the ladies from Mr Rowley of the Sydney Sewing Machine Co:

"An hour's sewing with a good machine soothes a woman's nerves, and exerts the same calming influence that tobacco does with a man. She sews all her little irritations into the seams, imprisons her fancied wrongs into the double gussets, or stays them into the gores; every sensible woman will confess this."

The quote is, unfortunately, not dated. I don't know about the rest of you.....but I wouldn't feel comfortable wearing a garment with so many irritations and fancied wrongs in its seams, gussets and gores!

Continuing on with Etiquette of Public Places, following on last week's quote:

"They seem to know, as if by instinct, how to conduct themselves, wherever they may go, or in whatever society they may be thrown. They consider at all times the fitness of things, and their actions and speech are governed by feelings of gentleness and kindness towards everybody with whom they come into social relations, having a due consideration for the opinions and prejudices of others, and doing nothing to wound their feelings. Many people, however, either from ignorance, thoughtlessness or carelessness, are constantly violating some of the observances of etiquette pertaining to places of public assemblages. It is for this reason that rule are here given by which may be regulated the conduct of people in various public gatherings, where awkwardness and ostentatious display often call forth unfavorable criticism."

Perhaps some nations could also take note of this advice, then the world would not be in such a mess.

Enjoy your days!

Jennifer