One wandering wombat is finished

With a huge sigh of relief on my part, let me tell you.

There are some spots which could have more stuffing, but it is for a baby after all.....and if it is made too firm those little hands won't be able to grasp and hold it, will they.  It might be more realistic (about as realistic as a blue and green wombat could be) if it had glass eyes, but for safety it has fabric eyes instead.  The pattern had the cutesy-poo twee name of "Wodger" but as I have never ever liked deliberately misspelled words or names that's not going to happen.

So now we go ever upward and onward to the next project which is still to be decided, probably one of the partly done efforts which abound in my sewing room.  While that's happening fabrics will be also gathered together for a quilt for our grandkid who right at this moment is gallivanting in Switzerland with its mum; she has gone there with a band which is performing in the Basel Tattoo, so it will be a well-travelled little person by the time it arrives.

Uke group has started up again after our short holiday break, now we are practising for a couple of upcoming gigs.  Some of us feel that playing together for one hour a week isn't enough, so I suggested getting together more frequently but perhaps waiting until spring before starting.  That was agreed on, so we will see what happens in a couple of months.  Playing music in a group is much more fun than playing alone.

I wonder if our grandkid will grow up to be a uke or guitar player like its grandmama?  Perhaps it might prefer the French horn played by its mother, or its dad's drums, although they can both play other instruments too.

People watching is great fun, we like to sit in the front window of our favourite café and watch the passing parade.  We have seen some amazing sights in the main street lately, and they are not always amazing in a good way.  When I become queen and rule the world some articles of clothing will be forever banned......leggings, for instance......why does it seem to be mostly the over-large or the skinny spindly-legged who think they look good wearing them?

"Visiting costumes.
Visiting costumes, or those worn at a funeral or informal calls, are of richer material than walking suits.  The bonnet is either simple or rich, according to the taste of the wearer.  A jacket of velvet, or shawl, or fur-trimmed mantle are the concomitants of the carriage dress for winter.  In summer all should be bright, cool, agreeable to wear and pleasant to look at."

"Pleasant to look at" - that says quite a lot, doesn't it?  To me, it means not wearing leggings outside the privacy of one's own home or the exercise class at a gym, because leopard-print leggings strained over an ample bum and worn with a short top are not "pleasant to look at".

Enjoy your days!

Step into my sewing room

The grandkid's project is proceeding.

 Since this was taken all the machine stitching has been done, and now it needs to be stuffed.

Way back when I was a teenager a very very long time ago when life was just crawling out of the primeval ooze I bought a second-hand sewing machine, a pattern for a top and some fabric (it was called 'material' in those days), followed the instructions, cut out the fabric and made myself a top.  I was so thrilled with myself!  It was probably very imperfect, but it was an achievement that started me on a journey which is still continuing to this day.  In all that time I have made countless garments, quilts and other projects for myself and for other people, for friends and family.......and I don't think in that time I have ever come across instructions like those for the grandkid's project.  That is not a compliment, you know.

For the quilters among us, have you ever heard of "tossing the cat"?  It is an old quilting custom whereby a group of young women would take a newly finished quilt, place a poor unsuspecting cat on it, and toss the quilt in the air until puss decided that enough was more than enough, thank you, jumped off the quilt and ran away.  The woman who was closest to where the kitty landed as it took off for places unknown was supposed to be the next to be married.  Last year I found this plate in a junque shop and couldn't resist buying it - you can see poor Felix in the centre of the quilt.  It hangs on my sewing room wall.

One of my music books, Jean Ritchie's "Folk Songs of the Southern Appalachians", has a photograph of the same custom!  I emailed her to ask about it and she replied that it was done in the 1940s when the photograph was taken, she was one of the women in the picture......and she married the photographer.  My friend Cathy Miller has even written a song called "Toss the cat".

I don't think throwing Bianca up in the air would impress her.

She is back to her usual self again, for which we are all relieved.  For a couple of days she was licking her front leg (it had to be shaved to take blood for testing) until it looked a bit raw, and we were concerned that she would need to go back to the vet  for more treatment and perhaps wear the Cone of Shame to stop her licking it, but it is healing very well now.

Today is not nice, the wind chill factor is taking the temperature down to low single figures.  Very low.  We even had a welcome shower at lunchtime and because of the wind, the rain was almost falling horizontally.  Up in the hills less than an hour south-east of here it has been snowing.  Did I mention that it's not a nice day at all?

"Results of good-breeding in the home circle.
The laws of good breeding in no place bear more gratifying results than in the home circle.  Here, tempered with love, and nurtured by all kindly impulses, they bear the choicest fruit.  A true lady will show as much courtesy, and observe the duties of politeness as unfailingly, toward every member of her family as toward her most distinguished guest.  A true gentleman will feel bound to exercise courtesy and kindness in his intercourse with those who depend upon him for protection and example.  Children influenced by such examples at home will never fail to show to their elders the respect due them, to their young companions the same consideration for their feelings which they expect to meet with in return, nor to servants that patience which even the best too often require.  In such a home peace and good-will are the household gods."

I hope you all show patience with your servants, because it seems that even the good ones need it.

Enjoy your days!

Much happier news!

After the recent sadness we are ready for something happier, and now it's been officially announced so we can tell, too......we are having a grandkid!  Due in early January.  Never thought we would see the day, you know......we will be somewhat elderly first-time grandparents so I, for one, will not be getting down on the floor giving horsey rides or tossing said kid up in the air.  Not with my crook shoulder.

Fabric has been both purchased and sourced from the stash for a 'welcome to the world' present, pattern has been traced and pinned onto the fabric, and while I'm fairly sure the parents-to-be never read my blog (I doubt they even know I have one, if the truth be known) you will have to wait to see what is being made......but I'm fairly sure you can guess.

The star print fabric is for body, head and legs, the sharp green (which has been in my stash since forever ago and is rather gorgeous) is for ears and snout, while the felt is for claws and the nose which is appliquéd on with the matching thread.  At this stage the kid's gender is not known but trust me - even if they have a girl there won't be much pink coming from this quarter.

I believe grandmothers are usually known by warm fuzzy names like Nanna, Nanny, Grandma, Granny (heaven forbid), or Grammy.......I'm afraid that's not me.  A cultured person like what I am would much prefer to be known by a more elegant title - Grandmama, or perhaps Grandmère.  Much more my style, don't you think?

Both my grandmothers were known as Nanna - Nanna Davis and Nanna Eldridge - my maternal grandfather was Pop Davis, while my paternal grandfather was called that - Grandfather Eldridge.  He had migrated from England as a young bloke and was always quite formal, there was not much warm and fuzzy about him.

Poor Bianca The White Cat hasn't been herself lately, over the weekend she couldn't even keep down water so first thing Monday morning off to the vet she went, where she stayed until late Tuesday afternoon.  They managed to get her hydrated (she had lost a lot of body fluid), and she has eaten some food and keep most of it down.  Blood tests showed no apparent cause, but she is slowly recovering.  She was not a good cat at the vet's, had to be completely sedated to get blood for testing, and managed to pull out her drip.  She is usually not that badly behaved, but I suppose that's what happens when you don't feel well and are a bit scared.  I wouldn't be on my best behaviour in similar circumstances either, let me tell you.

Our winter weather has been very wintry, and Sunday and Monday were extremely cold.  On Monday afternoon I saw what I thought was rain falling in front of some of the distant trees on the hill behind us and a few drops  fell in our back yard, but something about the way they were dancing and swirling in the air made me check......and I'm pretty sure it was snow, or at least sleet.   It certainly wasn't rain.  Yesterday and this morning it was cold and frosty enough that water in the bird baths froze.  One of the yellow-beaked little black bastard birds that continually dig up our garden tried to get a drink this morning and couldn't get its beak through the ice.  Serves it right.

"Home Training.
Our earliest and best recollections are associated with home.  There the first lessons of infancy are learned.  The mother's heart is the child's first school-room.  The parent's examples are first imitated by the child, whose earliest impressions are gained from them.  In no way are evil habits more effectually propagated than by example, and therefore parents should be what they wish their children to be."

Nothing about grandparents setting a good example, you notice.

Enjoy your days!

To My Canadian family and friends.......

.........Best wishes for Canada Day!

Back from the Cold Country

It was cold, too - about as cold as it is here today, it's not very nice......there is no sun, just grey clouds, but the sun will shine again one day.

My brother has been laid to rest in a peaceful country cemetery with tears and chuckles.  Tears because nobody likes to say a final goodbye, and chuckles because of anecdotes told about him by various people at his send-off.  Now there are just two of us, another younger brother and me.

Our motel backed onto parkland beside Quart Pot Creek, the creek which flows through their town.

 It was quite cold late in the afternoon.......

........although that didn't bother the local ducks.

On Saturday night Kevin and I attended 70th birthday celebrations for Bill who directs Thursday night's choir, and who has been a mainstay of theatrical and musical life in this town (and in many other places) since first treading the boards at the tender age of six.  The choir sang a song, a few of us who belong to both choir and uke group performed a song specially written for the occasion......Bill was really thrilled by that......lots of (fortunately mostly short!) speeches, and jokes, and fun.  It was a happy end to a week of sadness, and an affirmation that life does indeed go on.

Tomorrow's slow cooker dish will be beef cooked in dark beer with bacon, carrots and onions - just the thing for the cold day which is forecast.  The following day it will cook chicken, bacon and vegetable soup.  We don't buy ready-made soup, home-made is much nicer......and probably better for us too, as there in no added salt (unless the dish really needs it, which this won't - the small amount of bacon used will provide enough), certainly no added sugar, and nothing artificial at all.

Some of the stories told last week were about my mother, a woman who didn't enjoy cooking and wasn't, in fact, much of a cook - unlike her own mother.  My mother gladly seized on convenience foods as they arrived on the market, sometimes to the detriment of taste and flavour!  I can remember a packet of apple dessert which was supposed to be a layer of pastry, then a layer of apple, then another layer of pastry - like an open-sided pie.  What none of us realised (probably no one read labels then) was that there were two of these concoctions with a layer of cardboard in the middle to separate them.......we thought it seemed a bit chewy.......tinned soups were her best friends, and packet cake mixes weren't far behind.

The uke group is getting into some rock music, would you believe we play the Rolling Stones' song "Honky Tonk Woman"?  The idea of playing heavy rock on inky-dinky ukes appeals to our sense of fun.

Recently a cardigan which has been on the knitting needles for ages was taken up again, as a recovering shoulder didn't lend itself to the fine movement required.  One of these days it might actually be finished.  Pattern is "Peasy", and as it is knitted in one piece from the neck down there are an awful lot of stitches on the needle while knitting the body.......it is already the length required, I am just making it a little bit longer.  Finishing it will be a great achievement, let me tell you.

"Expensive dinners not the most enjoyable.
It is a mistake to think that in giving a dinner, it is indispensable to have certain dishes and a variety of wines, because others serve them.  Those who entertain frequently often use their own discretion, and never feel obliged to do as others do, if they wish to do differently.  Some of the most enjoyable dinners given are those which are least expensive.  It is this mistaken feeling that people cannot entertain without committing all sorts of extravagances, which causes many persons, in every way well qualified to do incalculable good socially, to exclude themselves from all general society."

Even inexpensive food can, and should, be tasty.........so long as the cook reads instructions before serving it.

Enjoy your days!

Ponderings

The Chateau des Wombats is not having a great week.  Last Friday morning my younger brother died after a short period in hospital.  I was the oldest of three children.......and now there are two of us.  We don't think about outliving younger siblings, do we?  Or younger cousins; one of my cousins died early last year and he was three years younger than me.  My grandparents all lived into their eighties but my parents were in their seventies when they died, and now one brother hasn't made it past his mid-sixties.

However, I have decided that I was put on this earth to accomplish a certain amount.......and right now I am so far behind, I can never die.  I'll be here forever.

So......sometime during the coming week we will be driving north to the Cold Country, to the town where my brother and his wife made their home several years ago, to say goodbye.

Yesterday it rained, and this was the view over our back fence - this picture wasn't taken yesterday, but that rainy day view is timeless.

A mob of kangaroos has been visiting, spending some time on the hill behind us.  We never tire of seeing them; back when we lived in the Big Smoke we never thought we would one day be seeing wild animals from our kitchen window!

Isn't that better than suburbia?  Peace and quiet and a lovely view instead of closely-packed houses, and traffic, and noise?

My mind hasn't been on sewing fiddly-diddly quilt blocks for the past several days, so they are still not quite finished - but as there isn't much left to do now, it won't take much work to do so.  Somehow they don't seem important.

Yesterday's rain and today's cold (it is freezing outside) are great weather for cooking.  Yesterday I made a huge pot of chicken and mushrooms in pinot noir sauce in the the slow cooker, and an aniseed myrtle apple teacake.  Today the slow booker (it's quite large) is cooking a big pot of pumpkin soup with green Thai curry paste and coconut milk, a wonderful dish for clearing out one's sinuses.  In case you were wondering aniseed myrtle is a 'bush tucker' flavouring; my packet was bought earlier this year in a town an hour north of here, at the Armidale Keeping Place.  First a cake batter is made and poured into a tin, then sliced apples are layered on top (the cake batter rises up round the apples), after half an hour the cake comes out of the oven and is sprinkled with aniseed myrtle powder, then it is popped back in the oven to finish cooking.  It is really really nice.......if you can't get aniseed myrtle the recipe would probably work with cinnamon, but it wouldn't be the same.

"Mourning for a brother or sister is worn for six months, two months in solid black trimmed with crape, white linen collar and cuffs, bonnet of black with white facing and black strings ; two months in black silk, with white lace collar and cuffs ; and two months in gray, purple, white and violet."

These days people don't seem to go in much for heavy dark mourning clothes, do they?  We often don't even have a funeral now, we have a 'celebration of life' and are asked to wear bright clothes instead of sombre black......but however it's done, it is still a farewell and tears are still shed.

Enjoy your days!

A finished project

Finished projects have been few and far between for several months, but hopefully will happen more now!  My top is finished, if you wear glasses you might want to make sure they are adjusted properly.  The fabric is a bit eye-popping......but rather gorgeous.

The front, it's a bit hard to see but the centre front is gathered to make a sweetheart neckline - pattern is Jalie's "Sweetheart Top".

The back, and as the print is asymmetric it was a wee bit tricky deciding where to place the various pieces so the pattern didn't form headlights on the front.  A viscose-blend knit in green, yellow and blue, and the green is much prettier than it looks here.  Green doesn't always photograph well, sadly.  The print design is bugs, moths, wings, and feelers; it looks as though the images were played with on a computer and this is the result.

Finished is a good feeling.

Now the project being worked on is the monthly block for my quilt group, last month's was a cutesy-poo owl appliqué and this month's is a cutesy-poo and fiddly-diddly pieced dog.  Fabric is supplied and we are asked to make two, one each with a red and a green background.  I don't mind making the blocks as they end up in charity quilts, but oh dear - cutesy-poo is difficult for me, and cutesy-poo and fiddly-diddly is even worse.  The fabric supplied is not good quality and one of them is a poly-cotton blend, so let's hope it doesn't melt when ironed.  Ah well, sewing it will keep me off the streets tomorrow, won't it?

The uke group had its moment of fame and glory a couple of days ago, and we even made the local TV news that night, and the front page of yesterday's paper, in all our glory.  For some reason I was the one the camera lovingly lingered on, double chins and all.......not a pretty sight, folks.......my fingers (and my gorgeous and somewhat expensive uke) were filmed in close-up while I was just noodling round on some chords, perhaps because no one else was playing at the time.  It's probably like many other skills - I know I'm not a marvellous player, but to someone who can't play a note it may have looked very impressive.

It's the same with sewing and quilting, isn't it?  We are critical of our own work, but when someone who doesn't sew sees a quilt we have made they are gobsmacked.  Blown away sometimes, even.  Does wonders for one's self-confidence, doesn't it?

This weekend is a long weekend for the Queen's Birthday, and I hope she is suitably impressed that her subjects on the far side of the world are having a holiday.  The monarch's birthday has been celebrated in Australia since the arrival of the first white settlers on the east coast in 1788.  Perhaps one day we will decide that we are a mature enough country to celebrate on our own behalf, and not on someone else's.

The following excerpt from my etiquette book shows how such matters stood in 1885.

"In Australia we have no titled or hereditary aristocracy.  The Australia colonies are, however, "Crown Colonies" at the present time, and will probably ere long be "confederated", and when that event occurs the title suggested by Sir Henry Parkes, late Colonial Secretary of N.S. Wales, may serve to bind them before the world still closer to the parent country, Great Britain, namely "The British Confederated States of Australia".  As colonists are constantly, to use an everyday expression, "going home" to England and visiting European countries, it is well to understand something of Regal and noble ranks and titles, and the order of precedence of the Royal family and of the nobility and gentry, etc., etc., etc."

Australia achieved Federation in 1901.  My paternal grandmother who never visited England in her life - indeed, who never left Australia's shores (although my paternal grandfather had migrated from England as a young man, and lived the rest of his life in Australia) used to talk about "home" - meaning England.  She may not have liked it much if she had visited, as England has long had the reputation of looking down its nose at 'Colonials'.

Enjoy your days!