Not a stitch, not one street or laneway

No sewing was done on the house quilt.  The older I get, the more the first few days of daylight saving hit me; once it's been underway for a while it's easier to cope, but I'm pretty useless for those first few days.  That's my excuse for why I didn't get to quilt group on Tuesday.  It was still dark when I woke up, and I don't bounce out of bed when it's dark.  

Never mind.  There is no deadline....it's just a fun project.

Consequently it's been a(nother) lazy week, although the time change fog is lifting now.

The backing for the blue and green quilt has been pieced, although it needs to be cut down to size.

The fabric needed to be cut and re-joined to make a big enough piece.  There was no guarantee that the diagonal swirl (this is tilted) would match up when that was done and, if it didn't match, that would bug the bejabbers out of me every time I looked at it, so the blue stripe was added.  My brain can do random with no problems....it can do matched.......but it doesn't do mis-matched.  Mis-matched just looks.....untidy, doesn't it?  The blue stripe will be about one third of the way down going across the quilt, and the swirls will go top left to bottom right.  Or vice versa.

It is Thanksgiving weekend in Canada, so best wishes to my Canadian family and friends!

This was taken on Thanksgiving back in 2015.  We had celebrated Turkey Day with our son and his partner the previous day and, of course, being a holiday there wasn't a lot open on the actual day.  As it was a glorious day we took a bus to Rosetta Mcclain Gardens which we had passed several times by bus and car, but this was our first visit......and it was worth it, for sure; it was a beautiful place to while away a couple of hours with its early autumn colours.  While strolling around we heard a familiar sound - an Australian cockatiel!  It was sitting on its owner's shoulder chirping away, so of course being True Blue Ozzies we said in our best broad Strine "g'day, mate".  However, the bird being Canadian born and bred far from its native land didn't understand our accents, which we thought was funny.

Words have been read.  Notes have been sung but none plinked, but uke group resumes tomorrow so we will be plinking again.  Diamonds have been cut, and sewn.  Thoughts have been thought about many profound things.  Hunting and gathering has happened.  A little shifting of fabrics from one place to another has been done.

A major Aussie car race is taking place today which Kevin is watching, at times through his eyelids.  The sound is turned off because I cannot stand the screaming commentary, and the radio is playing instead; currently it's a program of instrumental music from movies.  I have tinnitus, and find having a radio playing in the background helps distract my brain from the endless annoying humming and buzzing in my ears.  My generation grew up without television, certainly those of us who grew up in country towns did (TV came to the Big Smoke several years earlier than it did to smaller towns) and to this day I am more than happy to leave it off, unless there is a program I really want to watch.  But - we had radio!  There was always music; in our house the 'wireless' was turned on first thing in the morning and turned off last thing at night.  The local station played a mix of the latest hits and music from earlier times so we grew up familiar with music from the 1950s, 40s, 30s.....even the 1920s, and those older songs were also played at the dances we attended so of course we sang along while tripping the light fantastic.

An unwelcome visitor popped in for a chat earlier this week - winter made a return!  It was so cool on Thursday evening that we even had a fire; we could have done with one last night too because this morning was distinctly chilly.  We'll see how this evening develops, it may even be lit again.  This is the latest we have had a fire, we are usually done with them by the end of September......but not this year; last week was very warm for so early in the season and this week has swung to the opposite extreme.

Etiquette of the Street, Some General Suggestions:

"If a gentleman is walking with two ladies in a rain storm, and there is but one umbrella, he should give it to his companions and walk outside.  Nothing can be more absurd than to see a gentleman walking between two ladies holding an umbrella which perfectly protects himself, but half deluges his companions with its dripping streams."

"Absurd" doesn't begin to describe it, does it?

Enjoy your days!

Jennifer

Best wishes to my Canadian family and friends for Thanksgiving!

I hope you all have a great day, and enjoy the time you spend with your loved ones.

Just looking at the photos taken nearly a year ago in Canada is making me feel cooler......our summer is early this year.  Bayfield is a lovely little town and the fall colours were beautiful.

 Our visit to Inglis Falls was on a showery grey day, much nicer than the heat and wind we have been getting lately.

It's been a quiet week at La Chateau des Wombats.  The skirt is cut out and I am plucking up courage to insert an invisible zip into the lining; the skirt fabric is too fine for the weight so I will just leave an opening to reach the zip.  I started making my own clothes at the age of 18 umpty-um years ago, but would you believe have never put in an invisible zip?  It is said, though, that we are never too old to learn something......let's hope we can do it properly.  In all those years I haven't sewn many fabrics as sheer as this either, so fingers crossed I don't make a mess of it.

It's pathetic, I know, but as we get older we seem to lose a certain amount of confidence.  When I was young and silly I would have just charged ahead, inserted that zip and blundered along with delicate fabric, and not worried if it was a mess.  Now I know I have the skills and experience to do it well, but self-doubt is setting in and it's not good......and this from a woman who was game enough to sing a slightly bawdy song in a crowded pub at a folk festival not so many years ago.

On Friday night the Thursday night choir put on a concert for a local charity and to our surprise and delight we had a packed house - we were sending out for more chairs!  Some members of the uke group played too; four of us belong to both that choir and the ukes, one was away but the other three of us had quite a busy evening.  Nice things were said to and about us by audience members, and we think we raised quite a lot of money.  And no, I didn't sing a solo - but I copped the job of introducing the uke group and of counting them in for each song, 1-2-3-4, because neither of our tutors were there and no one else would do it.

So why am I bothered about that zip?

The date for the operation is looming, but first we are going to a folk festival and having a holiday at the coast.  I am checking out op shops to find tops and shirts which button down the front; my wardrobe has a few but they will be useful after the operation when I can't raise my left arm for a while.  It's not a style I wear often so I am not going to pay huge prices for new clothes, and I don't have the time to make several tops.  So far a few new shirts have entered my wardrobe including a green linen sleeveless top with buttons down the front, which should be cool for the coming summer.  If I don't love the tops enough to keep them after the need is passed, they will be donated back to the worthy cause from which they came but will serve the purpose in the meantime.  My summer wardrobe is mostly tee shirts, casual and dressy, but they may be a little difficult to wear for a while.

"But a love of dress has its peril for weak minds.  Uncontrolled by good sense and stimulated by personal vanity, it becomes a temptation at first, and then a curse.  When it is indulged in to the detriment of better employments, and beyond the compass of means, it cannot be too severely condemned.  It then becomes criminal."

To commit a crime because of one's love of dress would not be good.  However, you and I have seen people who commit crimes by their choice of clothing, haven't we?

Enjoy your days!

Best wishes to my Canadian family and friends for Thanksgiving!

A gorgeous Canadian maple tree taken on our visit to Toronto in October 2009, at Bluffers Park in Scarborough. It's a maple leaf-shaped maple tree, how cool is that? Hope you all have a great weekend!

I am really thrilled, I just read on Sara's blog that the name she picked for her sheep money bank is the name I thought of, Daisy....Daisy the sheep looks like a little flower, doesn't she? She is very cute!

Am just having a break from wrestling with some very slippery slidey slithery fabric. The top being made from Jalie 2794 is coming together very well, but oh my......that fabric....not sure it was a good choice, but the price was right to check the pattern fit and style and now it's not far from being finished anyway. I bought the fabric from the Big Fabric Chain Store but will check out the proper fabric shop to see if they have anything I like better; it will cost more but will be worth it. The pattern calls for four-way stretch fabric which rules out quite a few fabrics, as they are two-way stretch only. And during the sewing my overlocker had a hissy fit, I didn't notice that the thread going through the right-hand needle guides had jumped out of one of the guides.......wondered why there were so many loops where there shouldn't be loops on the wrong side of the seams and the tension was up the creek.......took a few seams to notice. Bummer. Le heavy sigh.

Ah well, so long as the top is wearable......the fabric is a black and white print about which I have misgivings, I don't usually wear printed tops.....usually stick to plain tops and bottoms, although I do lash out in summer and wear patterned skirts with my plain tops. There's something about patterned tops and the middle-aged bosom that can set one's teeth on edge. Ships in full sail come to mind.

A few months ago I started making a cardigan from some lovely woollen yarn bought last year from Bendigo Woollen Mills. It had one false start when I decided I didn't like the pattern I was using, so it was started again. Now the back is finished, both sleeves are finished, one front is finished, and I am having misgivings about the size......so have decided to undo it all and make the next size up. Being a cardigan it is worn over other garments, therefore it needs some ease, and I don't think it will have enough. The second front is now being made in the next size up as a comparison and looks like being a better size, even though there's only a few stitches difference. Le heavy sigh again. Fortunately it's plain knitting, slightly boring but quick.

In a couple of weeks we will be going on holidays, I can knit in the car......might get a fair bit done then. We're going to a folk festival then heading for the coast, destination yet to be decided. Pics will be taken and shown in due course.

"Dress for morning calls.

Morning calls may be made either in walking or carriage dress, provided the latter is justified by the presence of the carriage. The dress should be silk; collar and cuffs of the finest lace; light gloves; a full dress bonnet and jewellery of gold, either dead, burnished or enamelled, or of cameo or coral. Diamonds are not usually worn in daylight. A dress of black or neutral tint, in which light colors are introduced only in small quantities, is the most appropriate for a morning call."

Just remember that, next time you make a morning call.

Enjoy your days!

Unidentified no longer......

Yesterday we took a cutting of The Pretty Purple Thing to a local nursery and were told it is an Australian native plant, Prostanthera Ovalifolia Variegata or Variegated Mint Bush. I had a feeling it was Aussie! I had a very small prostanthera back in Sydney but it hadn't flowered yet, so inheriting this large shrub already growing and blooming is wonderful.

We also took along another cutting and found out that we have a port wine magnolia. Kevin has been told he is not to hack it again (he did so soon after we moved here as he wanted to park the caravan alongside) but a careful pruning is allowed. Fortunately he didn't do much damage and it will grow out in a couple of seasons. The scent is heavenly, very fruity, the piece I cut yesterday is on the benchtop perfuming the kitchen.

We also have a large clump of iris - is the plural irises or just iris? anyway we have a lot - which are starting to bloom in a soft creamy pale peach. The garden surprises keep coming. And last weekend the palm tree was chopped down, yay! This is not the coastal tropics. This is inland. If you want to grow cocos palms then you move to Cairns. One house between here and town has 18 cocos palms in their front yard.

This morning just after 2.30am we were rudely awakened by some local lads slowly wandering past, swearing loudly as they went....my tender ears blushed at the language......we turned on the exterior lights in case they had any silly ideas but they continued on. We have a street light at our driveway and I suppose they stopped under it to open another can of alcohol, or light up another ciggie, or both. Because this is such a quiet area it probably sounded louder than it was. Fortunately our neighbour arrived home just then, he is a paramedic who brings an ambulance home when he is on call, so he radioed the police who came quickly. I don't know if they caught up with the lads, but seeing the ambulance arrive was enough for them as they melted away very soon after that. So having missed out on some well-needed beauty sleep I am slightly fuzzy today and am not at my usual brilliant best, whatever that is.

So I am joining pieces of fabric to make the back for my challenge quilt because that's a pretty mindless activity. Horizontal half and quarter metre pieces make a very quick back when joined in a strip! It won't be quite wide enough so I will add side borders, then Bob's yer uncle as they say. It has to be finished soon as I am pinning it on the large high table at a local quilt shop on Tuesday.

Survived my trip to the hairdresser yesterday and my locks are now about three inches shorter than they were, but as it was past my bra strap that means I still have long hair. But it looks better as it's all one length again....like the garden, it had grown a bit wild over the past several months and benefited from its trim. It was nice being pampered.

This is Thanksgiving Weekend in Canada, so best wishes to my Canadian family and friends - last year we were there sharing in the feasting and fun. Turkey.....pumpkin pie.....family and friends....wonderful.

"Good manners are only acquired by education and observation, followed up by habitual practice at home and in society, and good manners reveal to us the lady and gentleman. He who does not possess them, though he bear the highest title of nobility, cannot expect to be called a gentleman; nor can a woman, without good manners, aspire to be considered a lady by ladies."

I have a blogging question: how does one sign off one's words of wisdom with a really cool signature? Does one find something fantastic on the web and save it as a picture then add it to each post, or is there another way? One has decided that one need a flash ending to one's posts.

Enjoy your days!

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