Having a whole heap of fun!

That was what the choir did last night, at our World Premiere.  We sang our little hearts out, managed to achieve our bits of (sitting) choreography without making fools of ourselves, and enjoyed listening to the lead actors sing their parts with and without us.  It was a pleasure and a privilege to be part of it....and even if our composer/director/musical director Bill is able to have it orchestrated and produced on a stage somewhere, we will still be able to say "we did it first"!

So now our moment of fame and glory is over, and it's back to everyday reality once more.

The back of Autumn Rhapsody is done.

This is a queen-size bed; the bottom corner was pulled up to show the outer border of that gorgeous leaf print.  Almost all of that pale background piece was used, there was very little leftover.

The strip goes from over an inch at one end to over two inches at the other as it wasn't quite cut straight - not much was wasted, was it?  It won't be thrown out either; you never know when it may be Just The Very Thing for a scrappy project so it will go into the bin of autumn fabrics, and probably be thrown out on some future date when it isn't big enough to use for anything anyway

Stitching down the peeper border is proceeding well, the final side is almost half done.  What an achievement that will be....then quilter Margaret will be contacted and decisions made as to thread colour/s and quilting design.

Words have been read.  Stitches have, of course, been sewn both by hand and by machine.  Songs have been sung and strings plinked.  A little shopping here and there to keep the hungry wolves at bay, and that was it.  The various hurty bits are healing well, for which we are thankful.  Today is the seven month anniversary of the big fall and subsequent damage and, while the hand and arm are still weaker than they were beforehand, they are slowly recovering.

It has rained, wonderful rain, which came with lights and music - thunder and lightning - and more is forecast for tonight and tomorrow.  The rain delayed my sewing the quilt back together as My Lovely New Bernina has computer Stuff in its innards, and according to technical sewing machine people it's not a good idea to use a computerised machine during lightning storms......so I don't.  The plug is even pulled out from the wall socket, because I'm not taking any chances.  About 15 years ago we lost a computer to a lightning strike; it was plugged in at the time, so we know these things happen.

What is blogger playing at these days?  Every comment comes up in my email inbox as a "no reply"; hopefully though I can still reply if you are in my contacts from previous replies.  I love reading  your comments, every one is appreciated, and I endeavour to reply as and when I can.

"A lady obliged to travel alone.

A lady, in travelling alone, may accept services from her fellow-travellers, which she should always acknowledge graciously.  Indeed, it is the business of a gentleman to see that the wants of an unescorted lady are attended to.  He should offer to raise or lower her window if she seems to have any difficulty in doing it herself.  He may offer his assistance in carrying her packages upon leaving the car, or in engaging a carriage or obtaining a trunk.  Still, women should learn to be as self-reliant as possible; and young women particularly should accept proffered assistance from strangers, in all but the slightest offices, very rarely."

Assistance offered to those of us of the more senior persuasion is much appreciated, let me tell you.  One cannot do everything by one's self any more.

Enjoy your days!

Jennifer

Finally....

....some quilting is happening on my little hanging.  Some is still to be done, and provided that he promised storms don't eventuate that may happen later; being slightly fiddly stop-start stuff it takes longer than one would think.

Using a computerised machine in a storm is not, apparently, a Good Thing.  So I don't.  The plug only goes in the wall socket when I am using the machine.

Incidentally, something we have learned while watching home renno shows on our visits to Canada  - what we call a socket, or a power point, over there is called a 'receptacle'.  We speak the same language, but sometimes you would never know it.

Because it is autumn over there in the Land of the Maple Leaf beautiful pics are appearing on social media, and I am sighing with longing.  These trees were taken on the same visit to Bayfield.

The colour difference from green to orange is striking.  Obviously this was trimmed by someone who went to the same school of tree lopping that some people attend here, with the same unfortunate result....but the leaves are a lovely colour.

Bayfield is a very pretty town and the trees make a beautiful display, even if the occasional specimen wasn't trimmed as well as it could have been.

Diamonds have been cut and sewn.  Words have been read.  Notes have been plinked and sung.  Words have been read.  The usual forays to shops for various items....and so passes another seven days, or sennight, as we apparently used to say in centuries gone by.  It means - obviously! - seven nights and days.  A week.

It is indeed storm season here, and we have had a few of late.  As we speak the wind is picking up and a check of the weather radar shows storms not far away.  We had some welcome rain last night, a change from the previous day which was quite miserable; we woke up to the smell of smoke - even inside the house - from fires a couple of hours north.  My eyes were miserable, my nose was miserable, and I had a miserable headache.  Fortunately yesterday was much clearer, the weather change is helping put fires out and the smoke is blowing somewhere else.

Last month was an anniversary, 15 years since I started blogging.....it just passed me by, I completely forgot about it.....that's a lot of waffle over a long time about not much, isn't it?

Christmas Stuff is starting to appear in shops, Christmas music is sneaking into the classical music station playlists.  It will be here before we know it, folks.  We have made no plans for anything special although I did point out that, if I still had to prepare and cook a fancy meal (even a fairly plain meal) it was just the same as any other day for me.  In years past we have gone to a restaurant for lunch, but they are pricing themselves out of our reach for just one meal.  Perhaps we could go to a Chinese restaurant instead.....I like honey chicken, I know it's not very authentic Chinese food but I don't care.  I just like it.

Our U3A ukulele course leader was back on Thursday, much to my relief.....however, she announced that she was stepping down next year.  I know she would like me to take over, but I am undecided; while she knows I already have other Stuff in my life as well - we both do - a previous male leader is making noises about coming back and taking over, and neither of us want that.  We are meeting up tomorrow for a cuppa and a chat so I can find out just what is involved; if she is prepared to back me up, it might be possible.  We'll see what our chat throws up.  Even if I give it a trial for a year.....I'm sure I can survive a year.....

Continuing on with Etiquette of the Street, Some General Suggestions:

"Do not quarrel with a cab driver about his fare, but pay him and dismiss him.  If you have a complaint to make against him, take his name and make it to the proper authorities.  It is rude to keep a lady waiting while you are disputing with a cabman."

Words just as relevant now as when they were first published in 1885, yes?

Enjoy your days!

Jennifer

Rattling it down

Many years ago - many many years - a Scottish woman where I worked referred to pulling knitting undone as "rattling it down".  "I had to rattle it down to fix the mistake", she would say.  Well, I have been rattling my knitting down.....the cable on the front of my jumper was proceeding nicely when I noticed a mistake several rows back, so off I went a-rattling.  It has now been rectified and can proceed, but that will teach me to be careful about keeping track of where I'm up to; over the years I have knitted far more complicated cables than this one, and they always work out in the end.  

That jumper may be needed this winter!  The weather has turned freezy frosty chilly with frosty morning and (mostly) sunny days, although today is grey with a nasty wind blowing.  Inside is definitely the best place to be.

A few days ago Kevin took the secateurs to the bottle brush just outside the garage.  It's been getting ideas above its station and taking over its small part of the universe, so he cut back some of the foliage that was starting to encroach on the garage door.  Don't throw it away, I said, we'll enjoy it inside - and we are.  It's from Western Australia, and is called 'Kings Park Special'.

The day we came home from Tooraweenah we looked back at The Warrumbungles, and although it was a misty view that morning it's still an amazing vista.

Another rock from our Canberra trip.  This is from Victoria, from the Central Goldfields, an area which has seen a lot of gold mining.  Members of my family lived there back in the 1860s.

The note on this plaque pointing out "This specimen contains no gold" is in response to a robbery several years ago, when the original top rock was stolen.

It's not something you can hoist up with one hand!  It would have taken some heavy machinery to lift and remove it, and more than one person too.....a pity such enterprising people couldn't have put their 'talents' to better use, isn't it.

Words have been read, notes have been plinked and sung, practicing for next Sunday morning's market gig,  A little hand piecing has happened, but no machine piecing; the day is not yet over, far from it, but I don't hold out any great hopes.  Never mind.  Stitches have been knitted, both before and after the aforementioned rattling down, and the chosen cable design will suit very well.

My baby wombat picture is now in a framing shop.  A frame has been chosen, and two different mat boards will compliment both the picture and the frame, and my little baby should be home again at the end of next month.  Some of the components had to be ordered as they weren't in stock; I suppose framing shops can't keep huge quantities of every colour board and wooden frame, but I eagerly await my baby's return home.

The funeral for our choir member went off as well as these things do.  We do have some other older members, although Wally had been our oldest - but Bonnie is 93, so one day we may be called upon for a repeat performance.

A couple of much-appreciated comments have been left on my blog recently, but for some reason they haven't arrived in my inbox so haven't been replied to - if you think I'm ignoring you, I'm not!  Thank you for visiting, and I hope you will come again.

Continuing on with Etiquette of the Street:

"Walking with a lady acquaintance.

A gentleman should not join a lady acquaintance on the street for the purpose of walking with her, unless he ascertains that his company would be perfectly agreeable to her.  It might be otherwise, and she should frankly say so, if asked."

She should.  No gentleman worth of the name would force his attentions on a lady of his acquaintance, would he?

Enjoy your days!

Moving onto Plan B....

....because Plan A is not going to work.  Yesterday I started the free motion quilting on the border of my Canadian quilt and made a complete hash of it, so it was unpicked.  I do not recommend having to unpick free motion quilting as a fun activity, but it can be done while completely sober without too many naughty words.  

Plan B is straight line quilting to match that already done in the sashing and inner border.  The quilt is quite stiff due to the fusible appliqué, so straight lines will make it easier to control under the needle.

Sigh of relief, now that the decision is made.  Now just need to find the time....the coming week has several things already happening, next weekend is looking possible.....

My quilt group was issued with a challenge earlier this year but I can't raise the enthusiasm for it, so I might let it pass.  I already have enough projects on the go that I would rather expend my time and energy on.  Since joining the group I haven't always participated in the annual challenge because some just haven't appealed to me....and after all, it's my time and energy, isn't it?  So I get to decide how it's allotted.

We need pics.  None were taken this week, so we'll dig into the picture vault.

On a hill behind our town we have a grandly-named Botanic Garden, and one day we went for a stroll to enjoy the flowers......this is a Grevillea with spiky leaves.

Hardenbergia, with its purple pea flowers.

A view looking over the town from under the awning of the open-air Bush Chapel, where marriages and other celebrations are held.

A peaceful corner with its little waterfall.

It's a pleasant place, but we won't go there today because it's going to rain - again - we've had a bit lately, but memories of the drought are still fresh so we are thankful for any rain that falls.

Some diamonds have been cut, and some have been joined.  Stitches have been knitted - the first sleeve is nearly finished.  Words have been read.  Time has drifted on.

The gig during the week went well, my jacket garnered several compliments, and my songs were enjoyed to judge by the comments I received afterward.  I already knew several of the women present so we enjoyed catching up; it was a fun evening.

I am trying to work out how to change some of the things on my blog, font colours and things like that....I used to know, but over the years Blogger has made several changes and now I can't find out where to do it.  Perhaps my brain is getting old....

Continuing on with General Rules for Balls:

"The sooner that we recover from the effects of the Puritanical idea that the clergyman should never be seen at balls, the better for all those who attend them.  Where it is wrong for a clergyman to go, it is wrong for any member of his church to be seen."

Well, yes.  This is true.  A clergyman should be able to kick up his (or in these enlightened times, her) heels in a ball-room without being censured for it.

Enjoy your days!

A momentous week

It has been, indeed!

First up: on Friday 19th March Kevin and I celebrated the 45th anniversary of the evening we stood up in front of family and friends, and plighted our troth.  Forty five years.....and neither of us has yet committed murder!

The forty five year anniversary gem is, it seems, sapphire.  Are these not gorgeous?

My jewellery collection, though no doubt modest by many standards, has some very pretty things including some earrings from Annette Piper; I like her designs and how she puts colours together.

Nothing was posted last weekend because - I went to a quilt show, the first for a couple of years!  A town an hour north of here has their show each March, but of course last year's had to be cancelled with not much notice.  This year's was a little smaller than usual, no doubt due to the restrictions on how many people can be in one place at a time, but the quilts were wonderful and it was good to be 'somewhere'.

Two houses have been made, a red swirly house, and an Aussie kangaroo house with grass for them to enjoy and cockatoos flying through the sky.  Only four more to be done; they will be a "when we are home again" project.

Work is happening on the flower basket quilt.  The date on this pic is 26th November, 2014 - these blocks have been sitting for a while, haven't they?  Never mind; they are now progressing.

All the triangles for the autumn quilt have been trimmed and they are now in their box ready for the next step which will involve lots of lovely mindless sewing.  No doubt you can see the gleam of my shiny halo from your place.

We had more rain during the week, and we even had a flood.  When I say "we had a flood" I don't mean Kevin and I, but the town!  Yes indeed, the river rose above the banks and flooded farmland and sports fields, two out of the three bridges were closed because they were under water, but as far as I know no buildings were damaged here......which is more than can be said for many other parts of the state.  There has been a lot of damage to a large area - why, oh why do councils permit building on areas known to be flood plains?  The more that natural drainage such as grass, undeveloped fields and creeks is covered by buildings and roads, the more damage there is.

When I rule the world, things will be different.

The day after tomorrow we are heading south for our holiday, to catch up with family and friends and to enjoy some autumn colour.  I probably won't have a chance to keep up with reading blogs on my aging tablet, but will resume when we are home again late next month.

"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."

As children we were told "keep your mouth closed while you are eating", but judging from the behavious of people I have seen eating in public - not everyone was.  I wish they had been.

Enjoy your days!

The village is growing

Two houses were made this week.

Bright pink spots - my stash is not entirely lacking in pink - and I don't know what you would call the house on the left, rust, perhaps?  Brick?  It's not quite brown, anyway.  My village will not be Dullsville, and there are a few more cut out ready to be sewn.

It needs a witty name, but that will come in time......probably in a blinding flash of brilliance when least expected.  In the shower, perhaps.

More black and white fabrics have been cut.  A new blade in one's rotary cutter makes a world of difference!  That one does have a name - 'Imprismed', because of the rainbow which will flow through it.

Stitches have been sewn on the tumbler quilt, and the panels are becoming larger; the first of three wide panels is now underway, each panel is eight tumblers wide.  

Blogger has been playing up a little of late - why are we not surprised?  A couple of comments didn't make it into my email inbox, they were dumped into my spam folder which I only check when I remember to, so if you leave a comment and I don't get back to you fairly soon don't worry.  It's in hand.

Our local birds have been active this week.  A male Crested Pigeon has been strutting his stuff to no avail; the object of his affection seems to be muttering "dirty devil" under her breath as she flutters away from him.  Doesn't stop him from pursuing her, though - they are quite funny.  A pair of magpies pop in regularly for some steak, a Grey Butcherbird is aso a regular visitor, a family of Magpie Larks - peewees - tells the larger magpies off, and a Red Wattlebird tells them all off.  Talk about the pecking order......they are very entertaining.

No special outings to report this week, just the usual hunting and gathering.  Quilt group met on Tuesday, choir was on Thursday night - suitably distanced with everyone sitting, as it has been since we resumed - and tomorrow afternoon the remnants of the ukulele group are coming here to play together for the first time in over six months.  If we meet at the golf club (as we did for quite a while) we have to abide by government regulations of sitting, no standing or walking around......most of us prefer to stand while playing......signing in, etc.  By coming here we can be more relaxed and informal.  Our town hasn't had a case of the covid plague since April so we feel confident to go ahead.  Most cases are happening in bigger cities with much larger populations, but everyone has to abide by the same regulations.

The thought of playing music with friends again has me all a-flutter with excitement, I can tell you - notes have even been plinked in preparation!

 "Duties of a hostess and host.

Tact and self-possession are demanded of the hostess, in order that she may perform her duties agreeably, which are not onerous.  She should instruct her servants not to remove her plate until her guests have finished.  If she speaks of any omission by which her servants have inconvenienced her guests, she must do it with dignity, not betraying any undue annoyance.  She must put her guests at their ease, and pay every possible attention to the requirement of each and all around her.  No accident must disturb her; no disappointments embarrass her.  If her precious china and her rare glass are broken before her eyes, she must seem to take but little or no notice of it."

I shall endeavour to be a gracious ukulele hostess tomorrow, but won't be using the precious china or rare glass.

Enjoy your days!

Two more sleeps.......two more wake ups

The appointment to have the stitches in my face removed is early o'clock on Tuesday morning, at 8.a.m.; quite early considering how cold it is - we have had some very very chilly weather - but I will be there on the dot, even if I haven't breakfasted first.

It's too soon to notice any difference when looking in a mirror, the same old woman looks back at me - but the difference in my sight is amazing.  As the song says, I can see clearly now!  The bruising is still very noticeable though.  Perhaps when that fades and any suture marks disappear I may look truly gorgeous.  In my dreams......

On to much happier stuff.

It's only been in the past few days I have been able to wear my glasses for any length of time without irritation from sutures.  Some knitting has happened however, the scarf in progress has been undone (again) and is now in progress again (again).  Version 2 was coming along nicely when, a couple of days ago, I looked at what had been done......then looked at how much yarn remained on the ball......and thought "hmmm......this needs to be narrower, or it will end up shorter than I want it to be".  So it was undone and restarted.  About one inch had been completed when it was compared to a previously made scarf, and it still didn't look right.  So it was undone again, and Version 3 re-started with a size bigger needle.  Success!

Oh well.  While all that happened it kept me out of mischief, didn't it?

Warm scarves are definitely the order of the day, yesterday was really really cold and today isn't much better.  Our "feels like" has barely touched 5 deg C all day; last time we were this cold was when we were wandering around Canada late in 2018.  Bianca hasn't stirred much from her cushion in front of the fire.

Aren't these stunning colours?  They were taken at Bathurst on our way home from an Easter trip to Canberra, some years ago.

It can get quite cold at Bathurst, which means their autumn colours are beautiful.  Yesterday they had snow.

The wall below had memorial plaques to pioneers of the district set along the top.

It was a pleasant, if slightly cool, place to stop for lunch.

A couple of days ago while browsing through the book, "Freddy's house" by Freddy Moran, I came across an idea that will work for my little house blocks.  61 houses will be needed, each will be framed by four triangles to make 'square in a square' blocks set on point - and for those frames I will use black and white prints.  Freddy's house blocks is different to mine but is the same size, so the cutting instructions will work.  I like Freddy's work, her colour sense is very exuberant and her designs are fun.

How are you all doing with the new Blogger?  I am still sorting it out but so far so good, although I may need to fiddle around with a different template.

"The word "present" is often used in place of "introduce".  While it is customary to repeat the names of the two parties introduced at the close of the introduction, it is often omitted as a useless formality.  It is of the utmost importance that each name should be spoken distinctly.  If either of the parties does not distinctly hear the name of the other he should say at once, without hesitation or embarrassment, before making the bow, "I beg your pardon; I did not catch (or understand) the name" when it may be repeated to him."

Indeed.  It is probably slightly embarrassing to immediately forget the name of someone to whom one has been introduced.

Enjoy your days!

Reporting a finish!

'Ontario' is done......finished......completed.

It's 40 inches long, so it's a bit difficult for a short person as what I am to get a good photo without standing on a ladder.

Trees and foreground quilted, and the borders.  I love that rich dark yellow-green border fabric, found in my stash.

Some rays around the sun.  The background was quilted in the ditch.

The pics above are truer to colour, this one isn't; the paler green is a beautiful soft green, not a washed-out grey.  However, you can see how the back is finished, those stripes are offset from the centre.

A souvenir of our trip to Canada in October/November 2015, gifted to me by Rose Marie - thank you, my friend!  It looks great on our dining table, and brings back memories of a wnderful time.

Trying out the new Blogger again; I tried it several weeks ago but found it clunky, so went back to the old one.  However it's time to bite the bullet, put on my big girl duds (which are, sadly, several sizes bigger than they used to be) and go for it, clunky or not.

Life has been going on swimmingly.  Books have been read, stitches have been knitted, tumblers have been sewn.  Socially-distanced notes have been sung at choir.  Same as for the past several months, and probably the same for goodness knows how many more months to come.

The sole topic of many people's conversations currently is, of course, the covid plague.  I refuse to join in those conversations, just as we refuse to watch the news.  We are doing what we can to keep ourselves safe, and what other people do is out of our control - so I will not waste my emotional energy worrying about them, in the interest of my well-being.  Many is the post which has been made to disappear from my facebook feed for that reason.

Some of our TV time......all right, more than some.......is spent watching renno porn.  I like those shows; we see some beautiful parts of the world and some interesting houses we would never see otherwise.  Some of the people though......imagine our smiling agent showing the happy couple around with many flourishes, they come to a room with cupboards, a stove, a fridge, etc., and the agent says "this here is your kitchen".  No!  Really?  No flies on him......it never ceases to amaze me how many couples - sometimes the woman, sometimes the man - says as soon as they walk into a room "this will have to be gutted".  Never mind that it was renovated a month before to the highest standard, if it's not to our taste we have to 'gut it' before we could even think of setting foot in that house to live.  Such a waste.  I know that unless one has a house built to one's exacting taste there will be things to change, we have made changes here, but unless they are in really bad shape that doesn't have to be done before moving in.

Another thing which has us puzzled is the propensity for putting boys and girls, even as teens, together in one bedroom.  Mum and dad have a spacious bedroom and en suite bathroom, while everyone else is crammed into a small bedroom.  We were completely floored recently, however, by a family who bought a holiday home, a one bedroom condo, despite having a boy of 12 and a girl of 10.  It was - of course - renovated before they moved in; mum and dad's bedroom has plenty of space......but the kids will share a fold-down bed in the living room with not even a bedroom to call their own.  Are we the only people who think that is just a teeny bit off?  Would you let your teenage son and daughter, who will both be teens in a few short years, share a bed?

Oh well.  Not my circus, not my monkeys, as they say.

"Politeness.

Politeness is kindness of manner.  This is the outgrowth of kindness of heart, of nobleness, and of courage.  But in some persons we find an abundance of courage, nobleness and kindness of heart, without kindness of manner, and we can only think and speak of them as not only impolite, but even rude and gruff."

This is true.

Enjoy your days!

Time for the autumn leaves

Now that the tree hanging is done, it's time for one of my favourite pastimes - mindlessly feeding fabric through the machine.

A couple of years ago while going through some 'free to good home' magazines at a local quilt shop a front-cover project caught my eye.....can't resist those autumn colours......so it came home with me.  All the fabrics have been cut for a while, some half square triangles sewn as leaders and enders then trimmed to size.  One hundred and twenty 2-1/2 inch squares are a wee bit fiddly-diddly to trim - not all at once, thank goodness - but they are now all done.  Then 15 stems had to be made, because there are 15 leaves.  This will be the first one, pieces are laid out ready to be joined.

The magazine design (an issue from 2007 of a now defunct Aussie magazine) had the leaves all in shades of one colour, all red, all green, etc., but I like my autumn leaves mixed, so mixed they shall be.  Just like leaves are in real life.  Lots of different backgrounds (but no white, the corner piece is actually a pale beige print) and lots and lots of leaf prints, many of which are souvenirs from Canadaian trips.

Then.....would you believe it?  While going through magazines recently to sort out what to keep and what to give to the Rotary Club book shed I found I already had that magazine!  The spare copy has now been donated along with other books and magazines, and a couple of books from the Rotary Club book shed came home with me in return.  We have all missed the Book Shed which has, of course, been closed for a few months but is now open again.

Every town needs a Book Shed.  It's a place for us to donate our unwanted books, magazines, CDs, DVDs, jigsaw puzzles.......and a place to buy more.  Yesterday my $5 bought me two good quilt books (each of which probably cost up to $40 new, and they are both only a few years old) and a CD, and the money raised goes to support various worthy causes.

Welcome to Frédérique from France, the first time I have had a French visitor to my blog!  

What do you think of the new Blogger?  Looks like it is being forced on us whether we want it or not, so I might as well give it a try.  No use postponing the inevitable, is there.  

Today is the winter solstice, the day of the year with the least amount of sunlight.  Pretty right too; it's been a cold grey day with a few showers, a good day to stay indoors and sew.  Or look at those two new books on scrappy quilts.  Or veg out on the computer.

"Always recognize acquaintances.

One should always recognize lady acquaintances in the street, either by bowing or words of greeting, a gentleman lifting his hat.  If they stop to speak, it is not obligatory to shake hands.  Shaking hands is not forbidden, but in most cases it is to be avoided in public."

Looks like that answers last week's question, doesn't it?  Of course, when that was written in 1885 people - most ladies and many gentlemen - would have worn gloves in public, so no touching of actual hands would have taken place.

Enjoy your days!

600 posts!

That's a lot of words, a big milestone for celebration.  I started blogging sometime in October 2008, and am still here.  There have been times when I wasn't here - when we've been away - so no words were written for a while.  The best part is, most of me is still in pretty much the same condition as then.

That row of tumblers that I was so pleased with last week......

well.......

it was too long.  Note that I said "was".  It isn't now.

According to my design in EQ7 it was to be 65 inches wide, plus borders.  Not 75 inches.  I then checked out EQ7's tumbler template only to find out that, while they are both three inches high finished, theirs is skinnier than mine so 35 across was ten inches too wide.  The border fabrics were bought with 65 inches in mind.  Bugger.  Double bugger and triple bugger.  So out came the fine-pointed scissors, four tumblers were taken out of each row, then the rows seamed together again to finish at 67 inches.  As they have been made in blocks of four that wasn't as arduous as it might otherwise have been, and these extra blocks will find a home on the back anyway.

Still......having to unpick all that hand stitching then sew it up again......sigh......

Nova Scotia is done, block four of the Canadian quilt.

Sunrise over the Atlantic Ocean would be quite a sight to see, if one was a morning person.  Which one isn't, so this will have to do.  I am loving these batik fabrics, they give such a wonderful texture.

Bianca the White Cat and I are having a very quiet weekend as Kevin has gone to a town several hours north-west from us to play lawn bowls.  He's not all that noisy when he's here anyway (except when he's watching sport on TV), but it is very quiet without him.  The TV has stayed off except for one hour last night when I watched a music documentary, and will stay off tonight too.  Even the news.  I am not watching the news, it's mostly murder and mayhem and never anything good, and very little in the regular programming appeals.  Doesn't matter how many channels there are, there is seldom anything worthwhile to watch.

The uke group is playing for a seniors concert on Wednesday morning, so this afternoon will be a good chance to run through the songs.  "Bye bye love....bye bye happiness....." etc.  I can let you have the rest of the words if you like......

"Requirements for a happy marriage.
Respect for each other is as necessary to a happy marriage as that the husband and wife should have an affection for one another.  Social equality, intellectual sympathy, and sufficient means are very important matters to be considered by those who contemplate matrimony."

When these words were written in 1885 they didn't have to put up with noisy sports on television.  We have reached a compromise - the sport is on TV with the volume off, the radio still plays its gentle classical music, and everyone is happy.

Enjoy your days!

And again.......

The past few weeks have been very busy!  A few uke gigs with time spent practicing have swallowed quite a chunk of hours, but that's nearly all done now.  Even managed to get some pieces cut for the autumn leaf quilt without too many protests from this aging body.  The only stitches sewn have been by hand, but that's all right......more and more tumblers are being joined into sets of four, and once that's done they will all be spread so I can see the final layout.  So long as the colours and values are mixed I think it will look good.

Next year's challenge from the quilt group has been given out - we are to finish a UFO.  It is to be shown in its unfinished state at the February meeting, then worked on during the year.  That Canadian mystery quilt from a few years ago is calling so that, I have decided, will be my UFO project.  It will be wonderful to have it finally done.  That's the kind of challenge I like.

Several years ago we had a similar challenge - to make a quilt entirely from stash - so I used fabric which had been bought in the Big Smoke before our move north, and pinwheels which had previously been made of leftovers from another quilt, and made the quilt I called "Plastered Pinwheels"......so-called because those pinwheels were sewn while my left arm was in plaster after being fractured.  I couldn't do much, but I could feed them through the machine.  Here's a pic from those days for those who haven't seen it:

That was taken before it was quilted, also by yours truly.

Recently we have had a couple of storms which resulted in a little - very little - rain, so the kangaroos were out in force.  They are a fair way off from our back fence and there would have been about 30 that day, some of which were out of range of the photo.

 It looks green, but you can see the hill in the background is dry and the trees don't look lush and healthy.

Our visiting magpie couple.  They now have a youngster who also visits when I take them a treat of steak; some days I only have to appear at the back door and they come flying down!

Isn't it nice to have friends?  Even if they are the feathered kind.

The air quality hasn't been kind lately, and today was particularly bad.  The wind has blown smoke this way from bushfires south and east of us; this morning the whole valley was full of smoke and it was difficult to talk, let alone sing as we did at a lunchtime gig.  Fortunately it wasn't outside, or I think we would have had to call it off.  According to the agency which monitors air quality ours, while not the worst in the state, wasn't at all good......and the next few days are supposed to be no better, with even hotter temperatures.  However we are Aussies, we are tough enough not to let it get us down.

The blog backgrounds which I have used for many years seem to have disappeared from cyberspace!  Now I shall have to get creative and work out how to do my own.

Yesterday evening we let our hair down and went to the movies!  We saw "Fisherman's Friends", an English movie with a fairly predictable plot but really good singing.  I know several of the shanties sung in the film and was hard pressed not to join in the singing, even though there were very few people in the cinema.  Sigh.......I like a good sing......

"Treatment for moist and damp feet.
Some persons are troubled by moist or damp feet.  This complaint arises more particularly during the hot weather in the summer-time, and the greatest care and cleanliness should be exercised to it.  Persons so afflicted should wash their feet twice a day in soap and warm water, after which they should put on clean socks.  Should this fail to cure, they may, after being washed as above, be rinsed, and then thoroughly rubbed with a mixture consisting of half a pint of warm water and three tablespoons of concentrated solution of chloride of soda."

I suppose that answers my concern at the end of the previous post.

Enjoy your days!

Busy week coming up

Every now and then the week ahead has something happening every day, and the coming week is one of those......all things I enjoy, just so many of them!  So while I was doing nothing much this afternoon, it's time to update the blog.

Have you noticed that blogging seems to have fallen in popularity?  Why is this, I wonder......is it because so many people are on other social media platforms, and have let their blogging lapse?  Perhaps keeping things updated became onerous for some folk......or perhaps they have just moved on.

There's not even much to report on because not much happened last week, apart from the fact that I buggered my back.  Last Monday morning I was rubbing moisturising cream into my legs (the current dry weather plays havoc with one's aging skin) - one at a time of course, that's all I can manage these days - one foot on the toilet seat creaming away, when I felt my back give a little like a piece of overstretched elastic, and that was that for the next few days.  According to the chiropractor it's a bulging disc; I've had it before, and no doubt will have it again before I die.  It is feeling much better now, thank you, I can move without pain, my back just feels tired sometimes but even that is easing.

Consequently very little was accomplished, although many books were read.  My quilt was collected from the quilter but hasn't yet been bound, the gorgeous orange binding hasn't been cut, but I have high hopes for later this afternoon.  The quilt has turned out beautifully, so I want to get it finished!

The most excitement we had was on Thursday night when I was coming home from choir.  Picture this:  a quiet street in a country town, ten past nine on a cold winter's night, a car being driven steadily because of wildlife sightings (kangaroos have been coming into town because of the drought, we have evidence on our front grass to prove it and we have seen kangaroos in the street) when I saw a very large kangaroo on the front garden two doors away from our house.  Because of the size I am guessing it was a male, it was huge.  It hopped slowly along to the next house......I followed equally slowly.  It then hopped onto our grass and sat near our mail box......I still crawled along behind.  Kangaroos are very unpredictable; they can hop along in a fairly straight line then suddenly veer to one side or another, which makes a collision hard to avoid.  So we have a stand off, the kangaroo sitting on the edge of our driveway and me waiting to turn into said driveway, not quite game to make the turn in case Mr Roo jumped into the side of the car door - yes, they do that.  Eventually it hopped on down the road, and your correspondent was able to make the turn safely.

Imagine one of these fellers jumping onto the side of your car......Mr Roo would have been over six feet tall with very powerful muscles.  Don't be fooled by their cute cuddly appearance.   This was taken from our back fence nearly a year ago.

Next Sunday the uke group is playing again for the monthly market at a small church just out of town, we have even learnt some new songs for the occasion as we don't want to bore our audience by repeating songs we sang a couple of months ago.  One favourite from many years ago is "Vaya Con Dios"......."now the hacienda's dark, the town is sleeping".......we like singing that, it has lovely harmonies.

"Rehearsals should be carefully attended to, no indulgence in personal whims or preferences should be allowed, but the directions of the stage-manager, who should be, if not a professional actor, at least competent for the work, should in all cases be rigidly attended.  There is no greater proof of good sense and sweet disposition than to pass the ordeal of taking part in amateur theatricals without a single quarrel."

Well......we don't quarrel, that's for sure, but then we don't have a stage-manager either.  Although - it must be said that I seem to be falling into the part of leader, simply because I have more performing experience than anyone else in the group.  Not sure if that's a good thing......

Enjoy your days!

Fixing the blog comment issue

Following on a link from Fiona's blog I checked out what Shez had to offer on the subject.......tried it, and it works!

Don't forget to save your changes, though.

500th post - fancy that!

According to the counter thingy on blogger this is my 500th post, it was started in October 2008.  That's quite a lot of blather, isn't it?  Sometimes serious, often light-hearted.  If, in those years, I have hurt or offended anyone I humbly apologise - it was never my intention, but after all it is my blog so I can say what I like.

A new project for a new has been started, but has ground to a halt because I don't own a small paintbrush.  It has a pieced background with applique so I thought I would try the freezer paper and starch method, something I have never done before, so took myself off to the computer and sat in front of a tutorial to find out how it's done.  It wasn't a fabulous tutorial because of the tutor's hands hiding what was being filmed but I did get the gist of it, so now all the applique shapes have been traced onto freezer paper, cut out, and ironed to their respective fabrics just waiting for that paintbrush to be purchased.

Monday is usually our day for food shopping and socialising, so in addition to buying bananas and milk and other such exciting items I shall buy a small paintbrush.

The first project for 2017 has been started.

The top picture is part of a row by row (blogged about a couple of months ago) which was a gift from a friend in Victoria, Canada, on our last trip.  The pieced strips in front are the background fabrics for the new project, a row by row from northern Ontario - thank you, Rose Marie!  The fabrics are the same, not surprising since they are all by Northcott (under the 'Archives' tab, 2015 Row by Row Experience), and the Cunning Plan is to turn them both into table runners by adding a narrow dark brown border then a wider pine tree green border.

Today in the Small Smoke it is mild with a pleasant breeze blowing, quite a change from the heat of the past week.  I'm sure it's not just me getting older......something over which I have no control, but I would if I could......but summers seem to be getting hotter than they used to be.  Once we would have the occasional few hot days with one or two very hot to spark us up a bit, but now we have a week of heat wave temperatures.  The past week has been nasty, with nights too hot for refreshing sleep.

Never mind, it will be autumn in a few months......

Late in January there is a big humungous ginormous country music festival held here, and the diehards have been arriving since before Christmas.  They quite happily pay camping fees for that extra month to get a good spot.  Our neighbour across the road refers to them as 'the bumpkins'.  They do, however, spend a whopping amount of money while they are here so we are all nice to them.  We were asked by one of the organisers/performers, who runs a fringe festival within the big festival, if we would billet another performer for a few days and we said yes, so we will be having a really good fiddle player staying here!  Yee har!

A couple of days ago our neighbours at No 66 moved out and soon we will have renting tenants living next door.  Ms 64, the cause of their moving, told them that she would be putting her own place on the market too - she is a nasty woman.  It hasn't appeared in real estate listings so far; we are tipping that it won't appear at all, that she was just stirring up trouble and leaving bad feeling behind.  It is quiet now, they have left a lovely garden behind and Mr 66 was out mowing or blowing nearly every day.

"Politeness.
Politeness is kindness of manner.  This is the outgrowth of kindness of heart, of nobleness, and of courage."

Something Ms 64 is lacking in spades.

Enjoy your days!