Those elusive black pants....

....are still nowhere to be found.  A few days ago I called in at the store where I hoped a pair in my size would have miraculously appeared on the rack, but no.  Doomed to disappointment once again.  However I have High Hopes of perhaps just possibly finding them, or something like them, when we go south in April.

I suspect it will be the last time I pop my head inside that store, too.  When one is greeted as one walks in by "hey darl, how are ya" one thinks to one's self......hmmmm, do I really belong here?  One is far from being a snob, one does not expect to be greeted by 'Madame' these days (in truth, I don't think one ever was) but 'darl'?  To say nothing of the music of a type I never listen to voluntarily (I'm not a musical snob either, my musical choices might surprise you) played at a volume guaranteed to wake the dead, and the rough cement floor which at one stage in its life may have been carpeted but now lies waiting to trip an unwary foot, it's not a pleasant place to shop.

Ah well.  I have enough clothes that I'm not walking around naked or cold, so that's something....but those pants, when and if I eventually get them, will fill a gap in my sumptuous wardrobe.

Something pretty....more of Auntie Laura's beautiful tatting.  It has been previously shown, but it's so lovely we can look again.

The linen centre is surrounded by a very wide lace border.

I'm fairly sure my mother never used it - perhaps for very special occasions, which were very few and very far between when I was young - but I have displayed it with a vase or pretty bowl in the centre.  A darker wood table such as ours shows the lace to perfection.  Despite its gossamer appearance it's surprisingly heavy....there's a lot of thread used to make all that lace!

Diamonds have been sewn, and more have been cut.  The plan is to cut a lot to take away in April; our little caravan doesn't have TV (it's not missed either) but stitching makes the time pass nicely.  Words have been read.  Notes have been plinked and sung.  

Stitches have been knitted, the first time for some months, and now the second sleeve on my jumper should be up to the armhole; it will be measured later this afternoon to check.  A decision also needs to be made about the cable pattern on the front.  I have found a cable design I like but am wondering - should it run up the centre front to the round neck, or be placed to one side or the other?  Or should there be two cables, and if so, how should they be spaced so as not to make me look as though I am wearing braces to hold up my pants?  Perhaps three, one in the centre and two spaced evenly at the sides, would be good....or would it be a bit much, bearing in mind that I am no longer as svelte as I once was?

Decisions, decisions......

While on some of our peregrinations during the week I noticed that leaves are now not as green as they were, indeed a few trees look as though their leaves are starting their autumn change.....or perhaps they are just stressed by our lack of rain and warm-ish temperatures, much as we ourselves are.  However in a few days it will be March, and while that doesn't mean the end of summer heat - it is the start of the winding-down of summer.

Continuing on with Etiquette of the Street:

"Answering questions.

A gentleman will answer courteously any questions which a lady may address to him upon the street, at the same time lifting his hat, or at least touching it respectfully."

I suspect that these days a gentleman, on being asked a question, will look up the answer on his phone.  He may or may not - probably not - be wearing a hat which he can either lift or touch respectfully.

Enjoy your days!

A couple of houses

Two houses were made yesterday, taking the total to 21.......only 40 more to go, but there is no hurry.

This is a long way from being a stash buster, some of those pieces of fabric are quite small, but it has used up some leftovers.

This is another piece of tatting by Aunty Laura - isn't it beautiful?  The removeable lining is pale green fabric, possibly rayon taffeta, with a plain front and back joined by a panel of ruching.  Inside that is a white padded cosy which would have kept a teapot warm. 

I don't know the date this was made, but am guessing perhaps in the 1930s......there's something about it that reminds me of Thirties clothes when ruching was a popular trim; you could imagine a set of pretty underthings in pale green (which was called 'Eau de Nil') with cream lace.  The green is similar to "30s green" quilt fabric, isn't it?  

The next panel of tumblers is more than half done.  There were nearly 100 pieces too many cut because I didn't check the dimensions of the tumbler in EQ7; the height was correct, but theirs was narrower than mine.  So, those leftovers will go on the back.  I prefer the proportions of mine......the EQ7 ones seem a bit skinny.  As I used to be.....sigh.......

Do advertisers really think that those of us of more mature years are fooled by TV ads for "younger looking skin" using Sweet Young Things who seem to be barely out of their teens?  I know they are selling an illusion more than a product, but really.......we're not stupid, you know.

Meanwhile on the larger screen today the world bids farewell to Sean Connery, the first and in many people's opinion the best James Bond.  Earlier this year (I think - time has a way of stopping and starting, these days) we watched some of the earlier James Bond movies made before they became all about special effects at the expense of the plot, and honestly.....some of the bedroom scenes are almost non-consensual by today's standards, aren't they?  It makes for slightly uncomfortable viewing now, when once we would have shaken it off.  The world has moved on.

"No matter what may go wrong, a hostess should never seem to notice it to the annoyance of her guests.  By passing it over herself, it will very frequently escape the attention of others.  If her guests arrive late, she should welcome them as cordially as if they had come early, but she will commit a rudeness to those who have arrived punctually, if she awaits dinner for tardy guests for more than the fifteen minutes of grace prescribed by custom."

In other words, don't be late without a very very good excuse.

Enjoy your days!

Wet stuff is falling from the sky!

Do we dare to hope that it's actually raining?  It has also cooled right down, so Kevin is a picture of sartorial splendour in the trakky daks.  I may be joining him soon as my bare tootsies are feeling a little chilly.

Two more houses have been made.

There's definitely an orange and purple vibe going with these two.  The aim is to make two houses a week; I'm not trying to bust a speed record with this, but they are fun and I enjoy making them.  I'm deliberately not matching patterns.......how they are cut is how they are sewn.

All the black and white fabrics for "Imprismed" are now cut, yay!  It will be foundation pieced, so lots of mindless sewing - my favourite kind - is involved.  Some thought is being given to how the edges will be finished, although that decision won't be needed for a while; I am leaning toward a narrow black and white stripe.  Perhaps.  Maybe.  On the other hand I had also thought of a facing sewn to the back, facings are often used on modern and art quilts......but I don't know if mine will be modern enough, or arty enough, or what.  (Probably or what, if truth be known.)  I'll let the quilt tell me what it needs when the time comes. 

Ukulele group met here on Monday afternoon, and we certainly had fun.  It was good to be getting together again after so long, and Clare arrived with these beautiful roses from her garden.  We have been enjoying them, they smell wonderful.

This beautiful tablecloth was made by my mother's Aunty Laura.  It was photographed to show to Karen - now you can all enjoy it.  The centre is linen, probably Irish, and measures 20-1/2 in square.

The tatting border is a bit over nine inches wide all round.

Aunty Laura's two children both died young, in sad circumstances.  She and her husband were left in their mid-forties with no children, so she seems to have turned her hand to making exquisite lace; I don't know whether she could already tat before then, but judging by the pieces she left she was no novice.  I also have several of her doilies (some with linen centres, some all lace) and a padded tea cosy of cream lace lined with pale green taffeta, possbly from the 1930s-early 1940s, as Aunty Laura died in 1948.

The question is, what's going to happen to all this beautiful lace when I die?  I very much doubt that either daughter-in-law will want it, and as I have no female descendants it will probably end up being thrown out or donated to an op shop.  I would prefer the op shop option, because hopefully then someone will see it and love it enough to want it.  

In the meantime, I shall enjoy owning and displaying it.

"Accepting hospitality a sign of good-will.

As eating with another under his own roof is in all conditions of society regarded as a sign of good-will, those who partake of proffered hospitalities, only to gossip about and abuse their host and hostess, should remember, that in the opinion of all honorable persons, they injure themselves by so doing."

This is true.  

Enjoy your days!

WOW day - and what a WOW!

Yesterday friends called to visit and presented us with a wonderful surprise - a retirement gift, especially hand-made just for us. Knowing of my wombat collection (the whole world knows of my wombat collection by now) Alison painted a beautiful bowl in my favourite colours, and personalised it with a special message too.
Thank you so much! Friends are very special folk.
Earlier this month Carole posted on her blog about some lovely old and embroidered linen she bought, including a white piece that she was unsure about. It's a tea cosy, shaped like mine. This one was made by my mother's Auntie Laura (who made the lovely doyley in last week's WOW post) I am guessing in the 1930s; the outer layer is beautifully tatted lace, front and back are the same, and the lining is green rayon taffeta with a shirred panel joining the front and back pieces. Inside that is a cosy made of white cotton fabric padded to keep a teapot warm. I can't tell what the padding is as the white fabric is tightly woven, but it feels as though it may be unspun wool. It would probably fit a four-cup teapot.

Somehow I don't think this was in everyday use....I think it would have been kept "for good". I also have a beautiful cloth that Laura made, with an ecru linen centre and a very wide tatted lace border. My mother always told me that one day it would be mine, and when she died ten years ago all these lovely pieces came to me. When I die.......who knows?

Jennifer

Today's WOW and last week's finish

First the finish......the blocks for this bag were started a few years ago and I never got around to assembling the bag when the blocks were finished. The pattern is one I have had for a very long time, "Sampler Sewing Bag" by Amberwood Crafts and it's the second time I have made it. The colours for the blocks were inspired by the rainbow striped fabric used for the handles, back and a couple of the blocks; the lining is lilac cotton.
This week's WOW is a blue, green and pink swirly glass wombat bought several years ago in Canberra, and it is posing on a lovely lace doyley made of linen with an edge of tatted lace. The doyley was made many years ago by my mother's Auntie Laura, I have several of her lace pieces. Unfortunately I never knew her as she died when I was a baby. Poor Laura, she had a sad life; had her first child, a son, at 17 then several years later married and had a daughter. Her daughter died as a teenager, and her son was killed just three years later in a confrontation between striking miners and police in the Hunter Valley, NSW. A distant cousin and I both share the middle name of Grace - Laura's daughter's name was Dorothy Grace.

We have been enjoying some lovely rain over the past few days, and more is forecast for tomorrow. Australia has had it all in the past ten days; floods in Queensland and parts of NSW, and fires in Victoria.

Kiera-Oona and I have been trying to work out to combine the posts for the folded star tutorial into one, if anyone out there in blogland knows how to do it we would appreciate a point in the right direction.

Jennifer

Somehow I seem to have lost a day........it's WOW day already

Today's Wombat of the Week is a cute little feller (I think they are all cute!) - it's a hand puppet. Try as I may I could not get a good picture of this wombat with my hand up its bum, so we will have to settle for a reclining hand puppet resting on one of my quilt books.
This little bag was made as a gift for a visitor from Sweden. The pretty fabric is an Australian wildflower print, the bag is lined with sky blue. The waratah bowl was made at Pilliga Pottery and bought in Tamworth last year; I have a soft spot for our native flowers. And the pretty Teneriffe lace cloth on the table belonged to Kevin's mother, I have a lovely stash of beautiful hand-made linen that belonged to my mother, her mother and aunts, and Kevin's mother and grandmother.

Do you know, I could have sworn that yesterday was still January....had my days mixed up...I thought that February started today. It's all the fault of that big machine in Europe, it's mucking around with time.

Last week Kevin and I hung some net curtains in the lounge room, they are very sheer but help keep some of the hot glare out. The receipt was still in the bag of curtain fabric, it was purchased on 22nd January 2005 which means it sat in that bag for four years and one week. Shame on us. I seem to remember we were waiting for Bianca The Beautiful to grow out of the destructive kitten-climbing-up-the-curtains stage before we hung the new curtains.

For the Aussies, stay cool. For those living in the midst of snow and ice at present, you lucky folk!

Jennifer