A bit of a fizzer

Is what my birthday was.  

The Hay Fever from Hades had moved in earlier in the week, and from then on it has been cough-cough-cough and more cough.  Sadly the anticipated birthday lunch had to be postponed, but it went ahead yesterday and was all the more appreciated for being delayed.

I can understand why sleep deprivation is used as an instrument of torture, sleeping is so difficult when one is continually cough-cough-coughing.  However the cough is more settled now and I have managed a few nights of nearly uninterrupted sleep, which certainly makes me feel better.  The rib muscles which had been so painful (because: cough) and made machine sewing difficult as a result, are also easing.

Consequently, much as I had hoped it would be, the top of Arboretum is not quite finished.

The section on the bottom right needs to be joined to the section above it - you can see my yellow pin marker top centre on the blue peacock tree - then that whole section will be joined to the much larger section to the left.

Then - it will be done!

I could manage an occasional stitch by hand or by knitting needle in between coughing, but much of my spare time was spent reading because it doesn't require much physical effort.  This was on the "take one, leave one" table when I went to the physio recently; I have read another of Jane Harper's books so this one came home with me.

I enjoyed it, although it's by no means a light-hearted read.  It centres around an annual memorial for Sam, a man who disappeared on his 21st birthday five years earlier, and we find out relationships are falling apart....buildings are falling apart....the town itself is falling apart as a nearby mine encroaches closer and closer.  Despite that it's not all gloom and doom, and there is much positivity.  The book has now gone back to whence it came, for someone else's enjoyment.

Words, as you can see, have been read.  Stitches have occasionally been sewn or knitted.  Not one word has been sung or plinked; I haven't been to choir because it's difficult to sing when one is coughing, but that also means that no practice has been done for the Eisteddfod competition in just two weeks (eek!).  Appointments were kept, something which seems to be happening more and more these days.  We managed to go out for food to keep starvation at bay, and that was our week.

When one is spending more time at home because one isn't well one's world shrinks, doesn't it?  Not sick enough to need medical attention or to take to one's bed like the heroine of a Victorian novel, just unwell enough to feel tired and listless and to occasionally spend time in one's comfy chair wrapped in a quilt.  Which, of course, one made some years ago.

For many years it was my caravan quilt, and now it's my comfy chair quilt because it matches my comfy green chair and because it's warm.

Early last week we had a small rain shower which was very welcome, and more is forecast over the next few days.....which will be even more welcome.  Our drive on Saturday for lunch was to Bendemeer and we drove through very dry brown country, so that rain is needed.

Here we are back at the altar.

"The bridesmaids and groomsmen.

Only relatives and the most intimate friends are asked to be bridesmaids - the sisters of the bride and of the bridegroom, where it is possible.  The bridegroom chooses his best man and the groomsmen from his circle of relatives and friends of his own age, and from the relatives of his fiancee of a suitable age.  The dresses of the bridesmaids are not given, unless their circumstances are such as to make it necessary."

You notice that small children are not mentioned.  For many years now small children - some quite small - have been part of a wedding party, and I must admit to not being a fan.  A retinue of cutesy-poo kiddie-widdies seems to de rigeur at royal weddings; I remember reading many years ago it started with Princess Margaret of the British Royal Family as she and her groom were short and didn't wish to have bridesmaids towering over them, so her attendants were all or nearly all pre-teens.

Enjoy your days!

Jennifer

Taking over the universe

One of these days it might, you know.  One of our darker blue rosemary bushes is growing, and spreading....and growing and spreading some more......

.....and of course, if brushed against, it smells wonderful.  Yes, it does get used in the kitchen.

This week's wattle pic taken a few minutes ago, which is about as up-to-date as you can get - and it, too, smells heavenly.

The forecast for the coming days is for rain so it may get somewhat bedraggled, but will soon bounce back when the rain stops.

This week's trees.  First an interesting brown tree with a rich blue/green contrast, which was one of the Summertime Blues fabrics.

This fishy fabric has been in my stash for many years, so long that I had nearly forgotten about it....it was near the bottom of the Big Basket.  The contrast has affirmatory words such as 'peace' - 'beauty' - 'love' etc.  All a bit hippy dippity, but it makes a fun contrast.

These two make 68 blocks which is very apt, as our house number is 68.

Way back in the mid-1990s when I was branching out from dressmaking into patchwork, I found a quilt in a now-defunct Ozzie quilting magazine which I thought would be within my capabilities.  The pattern is called 'Road to St Louis' and uses lots of two inch squares and two main fabrics; the magazine example used navy and cream as the main fabrics, but that wasn't quite 'me'.  I saw the same quilt at a show, and thought - wow!  The smaller scraps were all autumn prints while the two main fabrics were two shades of olive-khaki, and it was very striking.  That inspired a shopping trip for my two main fabrics, and I decided on a light green mottled tone on tone and this fishy batik.

I was very happy with the result.  It was the first quilt I quilted on My Lovely New Bernina - one of the first quilts I ever quilted at all, actually - so I didn't really know what I was doing, but it worked just fine.

You can see the fishes on the batik print here, as well as my somewhat shaky stitches which were done in variegated Aurifil thread.  

For many years it travelled with me in our caravan, and now it keeps me warm here at home.

How has everyone been this week?  Stitches have been seen and knitted; the first sleeve is progressing well, and will soon be up to the armhole.  Words have been read.  Songs have been plinked and sung.  Choir is much missed.  On Thursday we discussed moving the ukulele group to another day, and every day or time mentioned had someone saying "Oh no, I can't do that time".  So....I have decided that, as leader, I will find another time and another venue, and present it as a fait accompli.  Those who can come can do so, and those who can't, can't   There are only so many mornings or afternoons during the week; weekends most people are doing family Stuff, or social Stuff, or whatever Stuff.  At this stage I am looking at Monday afternoons.

We'll see what happens.  

Thank you to the anonymous person who left a comment a couple of weeks ago, who came up as 'unknown' - yes, we survived the flood which was nowhere near us, fortunately.  Today is sunny but cold, the sun is shining brightly but has very little warmth, so the fire is welcome.

Earlier today I was downloading a book to my tablet which, it turned out, I had previously read, so I deleted it and found another.  Its title has subsequently gone from my mind, but it was something akin to "empty grave", which set me thinking - can a grave be empty?  it would just be a hole in the ground, surely - a grave only becomes a grave when it contains someone buried, you would think?

We are still courting:

"Custom insists that the consent of parents must always be obtained before the daughter is asked to give herself in marriage.  Still in this country, with our social customs, it is deemed best in some cases not to be too strict in this regard.  Each case has its own peculiar circumstances which must govern it, and it seems at least pardonable if the young man should know his fate directly from the lips of the most interested party, before he submits himself to the cooler judgement and the critical observation of the father and mother, who are not by any means in love with him, and who may possibly regard him with a somewhat jealous eye, as having already monopolized their daughter's affections, and now desires to take her away from them altogether."

This is so.  

Along a similar line, to my mind, are public proposals of marriage in which a (usually young-ish) man goes down on one knee before a (we presume) (perhaps) unsuspecting woman, opens a ring box to display a sparkling trinket, and pops the question.  Sometimes it works out with tears of joy all round - and sometimes it backfires.

That is a horrible thing to do.  If it goes well then it is smiles all around, but if not.....she is humiliated, and he is even more so.  Do not do it.  Such occasions should be private.  You can share the joy once she says yes and the ring is safely ensconced on her finger, but if the answer is no then both parties are spared the embarrassment of a public refusal.

Enjoy your days!

Jennifer

I have met another one of me!

Just after moving here last year I took this picture of autumn gold in our small back yard - the unidentified tree shed its leaves and made a lovely carpet, until it went mushy and was cleared away. We have noticed the occasional leaf fluttering down lately to show us that seasons are changing. The back yard looks different now; the palm fronds drooping in the background are gone (the palm tree has been removed) and the shrubby thing at the foot of the tree is also gone. The wash line is still in the same place.

A couple of days ago I went for a Nice Sunday Drive to a town 110kms or so away (that's 70 or so miles) for a quilt show. When we moved away from the city I knew there wouldn't be so many things like quilt shows to see, but am determined to attend as many as I can. Seeing what other people make can be inspirational and I don't want to give up being inspired.

While there I met a local quilter who shares my name! Same first name - Jennifer, although she calls herself Jenny - same last name too. Different middle name. While I knew that I wasn't the only one with this name, it's the first time I have met someone who shares it. Have you ever googled your name to see how many more of you there are? There are lots of me. But if I google my maiden name I am the only one to appear, that is on a family history site so it's definitely me.

A question for the quilters among you: what is the smallest size piece of fabric you keep for future use? I decided on 2in square. Several years ago I used 2in squares to make this quilt. At present I am cutting larger 2-1/2in squares for the child's quilt I am being tardy about, and also cutting 2in squares if a small piece of fabric isn't big enough for 2-1/2in. Anything smaller is being thrown out. But there are some 1-1/2in strips of varying lengths, and I am wondering if they should be kept or if that is getting too narrow to be useful. Decisions, decisions........before anyone mentions 'crumb quilts' let me say I'm not interested. Have you ever felt the weight of one of those? With all those little seams they use a huge amount of fabric, much more than one would think, so even handling it to layer and quilt it would be difficult. I don't do much applique so there's not much point in keeping an applique stash of small pieces - if I wanted a small piece I could use what is in the 2in square box.

Last week I had occasion to be in a local medical centre while waiting to see a doctor and was forced to listen to the choice of music of the young women working in the office, very poppy stuff that I don't listen to voluntarily. It irritated me to the extent that when I was finally admitted to the doctor's inner sanctum (after waiting for 40 minutes or so....just as well I had taken my hand-piecing) I complained. He told them to turn it off, and said to me he had already asked several times. They didn't turn it off, so he yelled at them. I felt bad about that, and now I am probably on their Hit List for causing the yell. Studies have shown that selected gentle classical music - I'm not talking Wagner opera here - calms people down and even lowers blood pressure. Mine was much higher than it should have been when it was taken by the doctor, because I could feel myself seething more and more the longer I was forced to sit and listen. In future I shall take along my almost historic Walkman clone (remember them? mine still works so I haven't succumbed to an ipod) and listen to my own choice of music. Next visit is on Friday for a flu shot and believe me, I am not looking forward to that visit.

"If anyone should assume a disagreeable tone of voice or offensive manner toward you, never return it in company, and, above all, do not adopt the same style of conversation with him. Appear not to notice it, and generally it will be discontinued, as it will be seen that it has failed in its object."

Let's hope the medical centre office staff are not disagreeable on Friday.

Enjoy your days!

Winter has come back

A close-up of the quilting on my scrap Road to St Louis quilt which is entered in Quilting Gallery's weekly contest - not prize-winning by any stretch of the imagination, but not bad for a mug like me. All done on My Lovely New Bernina. I traced the pattern onto lunch wrap paper (not waxed paper) and quilted through it, then one good movie on TV......a rare occurrence, I must say.......was enough to provide entertainment while I tore away the paper.

Deb has a giveaway but you can't enter, because I want to win the lovely fabric and book she is so generously giving to one lucky person! While you are there you must admire her gorgeous chocolate brown quilt, do you think if I asked very nicely do you think she would give it to me?

Winter has returned here today with a vengeance, we are having very cold winds and rain. Instead of the usual 23 deg C (that's 79 deg F) it was only 4 deg C (39 deg F) at 11.30 this morning. That is very cold, so we have our woodburning stove keeping us (and the kitties, it's all for them you know) from feeling too chilly. This weekend some local gardens are open to the public, we had hoped to go to one in particular but it's so cold and windy and nasty that we have stayed in. We'll see what tomorrow brings. I feel sorry for the gardens' owners as they have worked hard to make their gardens beautiful, then the weather comes along and mucks things up.

Have started on quilting my challenge quilt and will do a little more later when my pedal foot recovers from standing in the kitchen while making chocolate hedgehog slice. For the non-Aussies, that's broken plain sweet biscuits (cookies) mixed with melted butter, sugar, dessicated coconut, cocoa powder and beaten egg, pressed into a large pan then iced with chocolate icing. No, I don't intend to eat it all myself - although I may have to try a piece to make sure it's OK before serving it to guests on Tuesday. Don't know what I have done to my foot but by gosh it is sore. But it was worse before the chiropractor worked her magic the other day, so that's something isn't it.

"Cleaning silver.

For cleaning silver, either articles of personal wear or those pertaining to the toilet-table or dressing-case, there is nothing better than a spoonful of common whiting, carefully pounded so as to be without lumps, reduced to a paste with gin."

Or you could put up with your silver being tarnished, and drink the gin yourself. A much better use for it, I would have thought.

Enjoy your days!

Meet me at the fair

What with going away for ten days, and Kevin's heart jumping all over the place and all the associated running around that went with getting him to doctors and having blood tests, it has occurred to me that I have neglected to post finished pics of my Road to St Louis quilt. Here is some of the border quilting....slightly wonky because I am not very experienced at free-motion work, but finished nevertheless. The pretty variegated Aurifil thread is a lovely aqua colour.
And here is the whole quilt, well most of it - either Kevin moved when he was holding it up while standing on a little stool (those are the stool's legs peeking out at the bottom, not Kevin's) - or, more likely, I moved the camera j-u-s-t as I snapped the photo. As you can see, I am fond of green; the bottom photo is truer to the colour, the close-up looks a bit washed out but really it's a soft pretty green.

But it's finally finished. Yay for me. And it kept me warm on a couple of cold nights in Canberra.

Today Australia and New Zealand are celebrating, if that is the right word, ANZAC Day. It's the day when we remember the sacrifices of those who fought in wars for our country. My father was stationed in Papua New Guinea in WWII (as we found out a few years ago, he was in the War Graves unit) and never, never, ever spoke of his experiences - he was only 25YO when the war ended and it affected him profoundly. Consequently it affected all of us; my mother, my brothers and me. He was not a happy man, he was a distant, sometimes abusive, father who walked out one day and never contacted any of us ever again; we found out he had died many years after it happened. War doesn't only take people's lives....it takes away their souls too.

I don't celebrate much on Anzac Day.

Jennifer

The best laid schemes o' mice and men gang aft agley.......

.....or to put it another way, things don't always go according to plan. We will be going away on Sunday, not tomorrow, and coming home after the festival instead of travelling around for a while. Kevin has been having some medical treatment this week - something we didn't know about last week, it's all been very quick - he has another appointment two weeks from now. He's fine now, the visits are to sort out medication doses. So, we will go to Canberra and enjoy the festival (as we always do!), come home again, and plan a trip some other time.

But the best news is that we have been thinking of another visit to Canada later this year to see our son who is four years into his 12-month working holiday, and this week we have it all booked. Because of the 'current economic climate' (to quote the media) there are some very good air fare deals at present, so our trip will be $2000 cheaper than when we last went over in late 2007! Unfortunately the cheap deals are only between Australia and the US, we had hoped to fly into Vancouver first and hop over to Vancouver Island to meet up with friends, but those are such good prices we have decided to go via Los Angeles again. Our son and his sweetie Kiera live in Toronto so we will spend our time there.

Do you like my rather gorgeous fabric and thread? It's for a Maple Leaf table runner, so we can set a Canadian table on July 1, and toast our Canadian family and friends. Positive/negative fabrics are interesting together, and the thread is Aurifil which I often use, I like it - this one is polyester in variegated red and white which I haven't yet tried, but their cotton thread is lovely. And guess what.......the Road to St Louis will have the last stitch put in its binding this evening.

Have a peaceful Easter!

Jennifer

Last for March, and for a while

Books and bookmarks! The books have been gifts and so was one of the bookmarks. The bookmark with lots of writing is an Australian birth sign one - it was on the table upside down, silly me. Never mind. It seems my Australian birth sign is a wombat as my birthday falls between April 21 and May 21, isn't that amazing?

I have quilted the border on my Road to St Louis quilt, and machined the binding on the front, now I am hand-sewing it on the back. When it's finished I will put up a photo. It's such a great feeling to be so near to finishing!

We have had a reply to the letter we wrote to the shopping mall after our experience last week. The man concerned has been rapped over the knuckles, they took our complaint very seriously for which we are thankful. The letter concluded by saying something along the lines of "we hope you will continue to shop with us". We are not sure about that - today we drove to another mall a little further away, and will keep away for a while in case the bloke has revenge on his mind.

Speaking of shopping....one thing that bugs me is people who push the trolley by leaning on it with their elbows....how do they expect to steer the darn thing? Usually it's short older women although I have seen men do it too. I'm short too, but I use my hands not my elbows. End of whinge. Thank you for listening.

We will be going away this coming weekend for a few weeks, the National Folk Festival is held in Canberra over the Easter long weekend and we have been going to it for several years. We set up camp in our RV the previous weekend as I am a volunteer, I work in the office leading up to the start of the festival. Kevin isn't volunteering this year although if they find a job for an Olde Pharte that's not too strenuous he would be available. Last year he volunteered and was put on the Bar Set-up team, hoisting around kegs of beer and cider - he found it very difficult, I think it's a job for younger blokes. The festival is always good fun; lots of music, singing, dancing - I used to dance all day and night but haven't for a few years. If my foot lets me I might have a go again this year. Many of the performers are from overseas and it's always good to catch their acts as well as see the locals we love.

Then we will head off for our first trip away as retired folks. We don't yet know where we will be going but we will enjoy it when we get there. We'll be away for 3-4 weeks altogether.

The cat quilt on my last post has gained several comments! Thank you, I haven't been ignoring your comments, it's been difficult to reply as I have been having email problems again. I am in the process of getting a new email address and changing all my contacts over, then I will give my current address the flick. And good riddance.

Have a lovely week.

Jennifer

Not quite Road to St Louis

This is a quilt made by a colleague and me a few years ago, for another colleague who was about to go on maternity leave. It's based on the Road to St Louis design that I have been blogging about, but instead of pieced blocks we used squares of kids' prints, and alternated them with hourglass blocks. The blue/lime/turquoise striped fabric in the border gave us the idea for the colour scheme. It's backed with a cute frog print. The original design used 6in blocks so I wrote the instructions for this using 4in blocks. (did a terrific job if I do say so myself) I quilted it using a blue variegated Aurifil thread. We bought the border fabrics, and the fabric for the hourglass blocks; the kids' prints came from our stashes - we had one duplicate! We specially included a couple of cat prints as the recipient isn't a cat person and we both are....she took it in good spirit.

Many thanks for the encouraging comments about having a retired husband! It will be a new step in life for both of us, no doubt we will get on each other's nerves from time to time but we wouldn't be human if we didn't. Kevin is playing in a lawn bowls tournament this morning and I am enjoying peaceful music.

Last night we had a daddy of a storm - thunder, lightning, and very heavy rain; we had the TV volume up to 21 and it normally never goes over 12. It had stopped by about 8.30-9.00pm so the party around the corner continued, from the sounds of it they are still going and it's now midday. Must have more stamina than I do. Perhaps I should gently point out that their music, like mine, has a volume switch that turns to the left as well as to the right?

Enjoy what's left of the weekend.

Jennifer

WOW Day already!

Tammy asked to see the Road to St Louis quilt I am working on, so here are a couple of pics. I could have sworn I was loading three pictures but only two came up...never mind. As you can see it is good for using up little scraps and is made of two alternate blocks; my blocks are 6in finished. The fabrics in the hourglass blocks are a soft tone-on-tone green and a darker grey-green batik printed with jade green fish. When the fabric is cut up the fish lose their fishy shape and just become swirls and squiggles - interesting! The quilting thread I am using is a pretty sea-green variegated Aurifil thread which blends beautifully with all the fabrics. There is a 1in red border (you can just see it at the top of the picture), then a 2in border of the batik, then a 3in border of the pale green. I have quilted in the ditch on both sides of the red border and will quilt a flowing leafy design in the green borders; the binding will be the same red as the inner border.
This wombat is a painting that Kevin bought for me at the Umina folk festival a few years ago, a local lady was selling some of her pictures. It's probably copied from a photograph as there are no wombats in Umina, it's a beach town. I really like it although it looks a bit incomplete without a frame, but one of these days I will have it done.

Jennifer