Secret Squirrel Reveal

Ta-da!

 It is now in the hands of its new owner.

 Even has a fancy-nancy pieced back.  It was quilted by a local long-armer; I could have done it myself but it would have taken me quite a long time, and I wanted to have it finished.

 The fabrics are from my stash of "Holy Fabrics"......the ones which are too precious to cut up and use for just anything, it has to be a Very Special Project.

 These squares were from a shop which has changed hands over the years but is still in business.  I was unable to get any of the florals for the border (it has been quite a while, after all) so decided on a lavender spot, which was used on the back too.

The last of the florals, a green print, is the centre square on the back.  It has a couple of squares of the background green to keep it company so it doesn't get lonely.

Not sure what to make next, there are so many choices......decisions, decisions......

We have had rain this week!  Great heaps of rain!!  The hill behind our house is bright green and the grass may be even growing; it could be over 1/4in long now.  The kangaroos are quite pleased.  Within a week we had 120% of our average October rainfall, and a couple of towns nearby had even more.  The coming summer may still be hot and dry, but our gardens are happy for now.

We enjoyed our trip to Nundle a couple of weeks ago so much that we did it again yesterday.  For such a small village - only about 300 residents - it's a lively little place, and even has a quilt shop on a farm just outside town.  The Airing of the Quilts was on yesterday, a long line of quilts hanging on the fence from the road to the house and the quilt shop.  A few pics were taken and may make their way onto the blog; I can't credit any of them though, as none were labelled.  Once again we had an excellent lunch at the pub, and found a new - to us - way to come home.

Some people must wish their lives away, mustn't they?  Over the past week ads for The Big Occasion in Late December are starting to appear on TV with the phrase "ten weeks to go".  It will be here before we know it......let's not make it happen any sooner.  We haven't even decided on our plans for this year, we may be here at home and then again, we may not.  It might, as usual, hinge on what the grandkid and his family are doing and we think from hints dropped earlier this year that they may be visiting DIL's sister and her feller way down south.  We have, of course, extended an open invitation to come here at any time but the answer is always "it's such a long way" (yes, we know, we have driven it many times) or "don't think we can get enough time off work" (but there will be no trouble getting time off to go way down south, it seems) or some other reason.  Oh well......the time will come when one or both of us is unable to make that long trip by car, flying is expensive, so perhaps we need to resign ourselves to not getting together much.

When our children were small their grandparents lived away from the Small Smoke, Kevin's because they moved away on retirement and my mother because she lived in a country town all her life; I was the one who moved to the Big Smoke.  We saw more of Kevin's parents who were only a couple of hours away than of my mother because it was a much longer drive to visit her, although nowhere near as long as it is for us to visit the grandkid's family.  Because of childhood abuse I wasn't close to my mother (my father disappeared from our lives in 1972) so I never wanted to spend much time with her as an adult, just enough to feel that duty had been satisfied.

"Yielding to one another.
One of the greatest disciplines of human life is that which teaches us to yield our wills to those who have a claim upon us to do so, even in trifling, every-day affairs; the wife to the husband, children to parents, to teachers and to one another.  In cases where principle is concerned, it is, of course, necessary to be firm, which requires an exercise of moral courage."

Something I have never been good at, I think.  When one is browbeaten as a child it is difficult to stand up for one's self as an adult, you know.

Enjoy your days!

Is done!

Finally - the lime green bag is finished, done, completed, and has already been used.

 It's cheerfully bright, and very summery.

I have trouble coping with summer's heat, but this new bag might cheer up those stinking hot days a little.

Have I ever mentioned that I am quite fond of green?

The Secret Squirrel project is progressing nicely.  Pics have not yet been taken because it is a secret.

Not long ago I buggered up the sound system in my sewing room.  I can't work in silence, I need music; my choice of either a CD or the radio, it depends on the music being played and my mood.  I had one of those radio-CD-cassette player systems (remember cassette tapes?) and those tapes hadn't been played for ages so I popped one in to try it out.....and it stuck.  Eventually we freed it, but every time the unit was turned on there was a continual clicking noise no matter whether the radio was on or a CD was playing.  Considering it was bought in the year 2000 it has done sterling service so a couple of days ago I bought a new mini system, and now I have music again and I am a happy woman once more.

There is a strange sound on the roof......could it be light rain?  It's been so long since we have had a decent shower we have forgotten what rain sounds like......(jumps up and runs to window to check)......yes indeedy, the path outside is damp.  Wonders will never cease!  In recent days we have had a taste of the summer to come, and I for one am not looking forward to it.  We really like living here in the Small Smoke although the hottest weeks of summer can be trying - but the alternative, the humidity of living on the coast, would just about do me in.  I'll take the oven over the sauna any day.

Now that local folk are gadding out and about in their summer clothes again we are seeing some wondrous sights.  Just because one can wear something, doesn't mean that one should.  I do check before going out in public that I am passable, but of course my standard of passable may not be someone else's.

We have a long weekend coming up, so I think we need a Nice Sunday Drive although it will probably be on Saturday.  Perhaps a trip to Nundle, a small town not far away from here, near where my maternal grandfather was born way back in 1885.  He used to tell few tales about growing up in the village when it was still a gold mining town, I wish I had listened more attentively.....but you don't when you are young, do you?  Pop's birth was registered in the local courthouse when it was possibly the most important building in town; the building is still there, but now it's a museum.  His mother's name is wrongly given as Emma on the official record, although her name was Emily......I wonder if perhaps Pop's father John had been wetting the head of his seventh child and fourth son and so slipped up with his wife's name, or if perhaps he called her Em or Emma so that's what he told the clerk who was recording the details?

We will never know.

"In calling upon a man during business hours, transact your business rapidly and make your call as short as is consistent with the matters on hand.  As a rule, men have but little time to visit during business hours."

Yes, and make sure you get your wife's name correct on official forms.  Your descendants will not thank you for making their family history record search more difficult than it should have been.

Enjoy your days!

Spring is now springing

The weather is warming, wisteria is now flowering......it must be spring!  New seasons don't arbitrarily arrive on a particular day, they ease in gradually - and now spring flowers are blooming, trees are wearing their new green leaves, and the air smells like spring.  Perhaps it's only the neighbour's jasmine creeping over the fence......the smell of that stuff drowns out all other scents......

Not so good news for the next few days however with high temperatures, a hot wind and fire danger alerts, a bit early in the season but it does happen.  Hopefully it's just an aberration and things will settle down for a while afterwards.  Some rain would be welcome.

Last Sunday's treadling demonstration went well!  There was a lot of interest from folk of all ages, many people reminiscing - "my grandmother/aunt/neighbour had one of those" and admiration - "my goodness, you are clever" and incredulity - "it's so old, and it still works!"  When children were asked to guess how old the machine was their answers ranged from "about 20 years old" to "about 200 years old".

Over the previous few days the stash was raided and fabrics were cut out to make four bags.  I knew there would be no iron available so hems and facings were pressed at home beforehand, and two of the four were finished.  They still haven't been near an iron.

The ticking was given to me by a colleague several years ago.  She and her husband had a business restoring and selling old furniture; the restoration they did themselves, but the upholstery was always done professionally using beautiful (and probably quite expensive!) fabrics.  One day she gave me a bundle of leftovers including two long already-sewn pillow covers which, when cut across, were just the right size for bags.  Two strips were cut from each piece for handles, and fabric for linings came from my stash of elderly fabrics.

Two down, two to go.

These will also be made on the treadle, because it was such fun!

The lime green purse is creeping slowly towards the finish line, and now that the treadle weekend is done other projects can be worked on.  A Secret Squirrel project is also waiting its turn.

Haven't told you all about an outing we had a month ago.  Each August a big agricultural showcase, Agquip, is held in a town an hour away and, while many locals are blasé about it, we find it very interesting and have been a few times since moving here.  A highlight is lunch; this year we had Hereford steak sangers and very nice they were too; nothing flash and fancy, just a thin piece of tender steak with fried onions and a dash of barbecue sauce inside two pieces of bread.  There was a copy of the Hereford breeders' magazine on the table for lunchtime reading, while nearby in a small enclosure was a live example.  So you can admire the cattle and read about the cattle while you eat the cattle......we could have had Angus, or Murray Grey, or another breed......

We are having this month off choir because our fearless leader, Bill, is travelling overseas.  We miss our Thursday night singing.

"Time to send invitations.
Invitations for parties and entertainments of a formal nature can be sent out for a week or two weeks before the entertainment is to take place.  A notice of not less than one week is expected for such invitations.  They should be printed or engraved on small note paper or large cards, with the envelopes to match, with no colors in the monogram, if one is used."

Do people still send out such printed and engraved invitations, or are they now delivered online or by text?

Enjoy your days!

A tale of two treadles

Which isn't quite like a tale of two cities.

We have a Singer treadle machine up and running!

This was a freebie.  Way back in about 2001 my Big Smoke brother rang me to let me know that his neighbour had "a treadle like your old one that was Mum's" and, if no one collected it from his front verandah that very afternoon, he was going to take it to the tip.  Never one to pass up a free machine we immediately drove over to said neighbour's and found this beauty in its cabinet, above.  It had been taken apart but was not broken, all the screws which had held it together were in a bag, and it even had the original manual, the drawer key - which is as scarce as hen's teeth, let me tell you - and all the fancy feet.  The serial number indicates that it was made in Kilbowie, Scotland, in about 1925.

Recently I bought a couple of new leather belts, and some new bobbins, and felt pads for the spool pins; Kevin has spent some time disassembling, cleaning and re-assembling the tension mechanism and bobbin winder, and now it sews beautifully.

It joined my maternal grandmother Edith's 1924 machine, also made at the Kilbowie factory, which has been in my possession for 20 years.

They are both Singer 66 treadles with "Egyptian Lotus" decals, in identical cabinets.  Sadly the cabinet on Nana's machine isn't in as good condition as the freebie; my mother had kept it on her front verandah for a few years, the verandah was closed in but the machine sat against an outside wall, so because of our dry inland climate the left side of the cabinet is sadly weathered.

Fortunately the cabinet on the freebie is in very good condition, so on Sunday it is going with me to the local historical museum and together we will show how some of our ancestors used to sew.

Kevin's engineering mind seems to have enjoyed getting them up and running again, and he found having two identical machines very useful as he could learn from one while he worked on the other.  He now has a great respect for these old machines - they were made quite simply, but worked (and indeed still work) so well.

Back in the depression of the late 1920s-early 1930s people had their furniture and effects repossessed for non-payment of rent, but I have read that the bailiffs were not allowed to touch a sewing machine - it was regarded as a "tool of trade", i.e. a woman with a machine could use it to earn a living for herself and her family.

I remember my grandmother's machine sat in a corner of their dining room, and while I was allowed to play with her button jar and fabric scraps I wasn't allowed to use the machine.  I don't remember specifically being banned from it but I was never shown how to use it, so probably assumed - rightly or wrongly -  that it wasn't for me to use.

Oh well - it's mine now, and I can use it whenever I wish.

A touch of fame and glory this week too; my Winding Ways quilt, "The long and winding road", is hanging in public!  Volunteers at the local regional gallery were recently asked if we would like our humble efforts to be recognised by being displayed in the council building, so my black and white quilt is on display.  Yesterday morning we popped in to see it, and while there we were talking to a council employee who said she loved it (just as well, the poor woman has to look at it for much of the day) and Peter, one of the choir members who was gobsmacked by it and by the fact that I could do more than sing.  Because it is on a wall in a big space I was able to stand well back to look at it, something which can't be done here at home, and said "oh - wow!"

"Listening.
The habit of listening with interest and attention is one which should be specially cultivated.  Even if the talker is prosy and prolix, the well-bred person will appear interested, and at appropriate intervals make such remarks as shall show that he has heard and understood all that has been said.  Some superficial people are apt to style this hypocrisy; but, if it is, it is certainly a commendable hypocrisy, directly founded on that strict rule of good manners which commands us to show the same courtesy to others that we hope to receive ourselves."

Indeed.......and to save you looking it up, "prolix" means given to speaking or writing at great and tedious length and dates from the middle ages.

Enjoy your days!

Visitors

We have had visitors popping round lately, but not human ones......

 Ever since we moved here we have been entertained by kangaroos and wallabies on the hill behind us.  Sometimes they come fairly close to our fence, as they did earlier this week.

It was late afternoon, as you can see by the shadows.  Rain is badly needed, so the roos are coming close to fences in search of grass.

Occasionally we have seen two males roos fighting, and I wouldn't like to be nearby when they do as it looks quite vicious.  They balance on their tails while raking at their opposite number's chest with those powerful back legs and claws, while their heads are held back out of the way.

It's been an interesting time lately here at Chateau des Wombats.  Recently our main computer displayed a message that our virus protection wasn't working and suggested what to do about it......Kevin duly followed the suggested steps......computer told us that any added apps would be removed......right-oh, he said and pressed the 'run' button.......

......and all my bookmarks have gone, EQ7 disappeared into the ether, as did many other programs.  All are being slowly re-instated, the wonderful technical support folk at EQ helped with re-installation, and I am slowly becoming a happy woman once more.

Sigh.

The green purse only needs handles and an internal base to be finished, then a new guilt-free project can be started.

According to some people - not me, I hasten to add - today is the first day of spring.  Many years ago a bright spark somewhere decided that the first day of the months of September, December, March and June would arbitrarily bring a change of season, but you and I know that a new season doesn't suddenly happen overnight; it's a gradual process over several weeks.  It would make more sense had the first day of the following month been chosen instead, i.e. October, January, April and July, because that's when there is a noticeable difference in weather.  So every three months I yell at the TV when the announcer says "Today is the first day of a new season"......"No, it isn't" I say loudly.......

So spring is coming and that means the weather will get warmer, and before we know it summer will be upon us with its heat and I don't do summer very well, so will be hanging out for autumn to arrive......it's no wonder my life is flashing by before my eyes, is it?

My Winding Ways quilt is hanging in an exhibition at an art space in our local council building, the exhibition is of work by volunteers at a local gallery so there will be textiles, and paintings, and all manner of interesting works.  I shall endeavour to view it, for the thrill of hanging in public, before it closes; it only opened today, so there will be opportunities next week.  Fame at last.......

"Public mention of private matters.
Do not parade merely private matters before a public or mixed assembly or to acquaintances.  If strangers really wish to become informed about you or your affairs, they will find the means to gratify their curiosity without your advising them gratuitously.  Besides, personal and family affairs, no matter how interesting they may be to the parties immediately concerned, are generally of little moment to outsiders.  Still less will the well-bred person inquire into or narrate the private affairs of any other family or individual."

When I was growing up family affairs were never spoken of outside one's family, they were regarded as being no one else's business, and while this seems to have changed (reality TV, anyone?) I do my best to ignore other folks blathering on about their own and their family's private life.  I mind my own business, and expect others to do the same.

Enjoy your days!

A week in which not much has happened.....

Today is a cold grey cloudy day, a good day to stay inside and sew, or read, or toodle around on the computer, or just do very little.  As the saying goes, time you enjoyed wasting is not wasted time.

There is progress on the green purse.

That doesn't look like progress, but believe me it is.  Next step is to sew the inner pockets to the outer bag, which may be done today......and if not, why then it will be done on another day.  It will be a cheerful bright purse, just the Very Thing for our forthcoming spring.

The books are still not in order, but now there is A Plan in my head for doing that.  Meanwhile, it has been fun searching through shelves for a particular volume and being surprised by what is found.

The treadle practice also hasn't started because I have been unable to find the spare leather belt bought several years ago, and obviously put in the proverbial Safe Place when we moved here.  In the back of my brain I can still see the design on the plastic bag with the belt inside, but do you think I can remember where it was last seen?  At the time we bought two belts; Kevin installed one but the other machine is still beltless.  We have decided it will just be easier to buy another, because both machines need to be tried out to see which one is easiest to use.

Someone said to me at a meeting last week "I hear you are leading the U3A ukulele class"......"Oh, am I?  That's news to me" said I......I suspect (in fact I know) I am the most advanced in the group so it looks like it has fallen to me to lead, and I am in two minds about that.  We'll see what happens by the end of the year.

Lately our Federal Parliament has been in somewhat of a tizzy.  One section of our Constitution, put together in the closing years of the 19th century, requires that all members of Parliament must be Australia citizens - fair enough, I have no problem with that - and also that they must not be dual citizens of other countries.  Therein lies the fun......recently it has transpired that several MPs are, indeed, dual citizens although they all claim not to have previously known that fact.  Our local MP found out he is a dual citizen of New Zealand because his father was born there, and for 30 years from 1949 a child born anywhere in the world to a N.Z. parent automatically became a citizen of N.Z.  All these cases are going before our High Court, the highest in the land, for the learned judges to make their decision.  Personally, I hope they say that our local bloke (for whom I didn't and would never vote) is not eligible to be in Parliament and has to leave and, even better, has to pay back all the whopping salary he has been given since taking up his seat.  I would laugh loud and long.

We take our pleasures where we can find them, don't we?

I wish to goodness that TV and radio announcers would learn how to pronounce big words.  Don't they learn in school how words are put together?  A young woman reading the radio news has just said "prodiggus", but we're sure she meant "prodigious".  The woman who often reads our local TV news bulletin adds extra syllables to many words - "three" becomes "the-ree", "threat" becomes "the-reat".  She also mispronounces many local place names.  It has become quite irritating, and I am turning into one of those Olde Phartes who yells at the TV because of it.

"Writing as an aid to correct talking.
To converse correctly - to use correct language in conversation - is also a matter of importance, and while this can be acquired by a strict attention to grammatical rules, it can be greatly facilitated by the habit of writing down one's thoughts.  In writing, strict regard is, or should be, paid to the correct use of language, and when a person, from constant writing, acquires the habit of using correct language, this habit will follow him in talking.  A person who is accustomed to much writing, will always be found to use language correctly in speaking."

Newsreaders, please take note.  Not only do you need to pronounce words correctly and in context, you also need to be able to string words together on screen or paper to make sense.

Enjoy your days!

The books are not yet in order......

........but sometimes I just look at them, and sigh a sigh of contentment because they are home again.

Aaaahhhhhh.......

Not much of anything has been done at all lately.  For the past couple of weeks I have felt slightly ailing....but not ill.  Possibly coming down with a cold......but no, it seems not.  There has been a lot of lack of energy though; fortunately that seems to be going and some stitches were sewn in the sewing room today on the lime green purse. More will be sewn when I get off the computer.  The knitting has been continuing in the evenings as it's a great in-front-of-TV pastime, the front is nearly up to the armhole decrease.

Consequently no photos have been taken lately, either!  However, I've been trawling through the Great Photo File and found a few.

This callistemon - Aussies call them 'bottle brush' - was in our garden in the Big Smoke.

 These spring daffodils were in the garden of a very old house in a small town, an hour south of where we lived at the time.

The jacaranda tree in our Big Smoke back yard with a neighbour's huge house extension in the background, one of the reasons we moved.  I'm not sure why this photo has attached itself to the previous one; I can't be this beautiful and have a technical brain as well, you know.

Jacaranda trees are beautiful.  They originally come from South America but grow well in many other countries including much of Australia, and the view across our town in spring with those blue trees in bloom against the green hills is a glorious sight.  Ours was a self-sewn seedling a few years after we moved to the house, and twenty years later when we moved out it was a big spreading tree which took up a lot of the small yard but gave wonderful summer shade.

Lovely as that tree was, we don't miss living in the Big Smoke.  We have settled in here now.

The local historical museum is having its biennial (bi-annual? something that happens every two years, at any rate) open day next month and I have offered to demonstrate treadle machine sewing.  First, though, the machine needs to be cleaned and oiled.....and much practice needs to be done, I haven't treadled for a long time......I have two mid-1920s Singer 66 model treadle machines, one bought by my grandmother in about 1926 to make baby clothes for my mother and her little brother, the other given to me by my brother about 16 years ago because his neighbour was going to take it to the rubbish dump although there was nothing wrong with it.  They are wonderful machines.

"In every class of life, in all professions and occupations, good manners are necessary to success.  The business man has no stock-in-trade that pays him better than a good address.  If the retail dealer wears his hat on his head in the presence of ladies who come to buy of him, if he does not see that the heavy door of his shop is opened and closed for them, if he seats himself in their presence, if he smokes a pipe or cigar, or has a chew of tobacco in his mouth, while talking with them, or is guilty of any of the small incivilities of life, they will not be apt to make his shop a rendezvous, no matter how attractive the goods he displays."

Fortunately it has been a long time since a retail dealer was chewing tobacco in my presence.

Enjoy your days!