Quilting is done!

Sides have been trimmed......now to add binding and sleeve.  Finished will be a good feeling.

I am not, and never have been, a fan of stippling as a quilt design but it suits this picture, creating a sense of air movement and wind around the leaves and branches.

After all - wind is the reason there are so few leaves left on the tree!

The edges of the leaves are left unstitched, all were cut from one piece of fabric.

A couple of weeks ago when we bought our new rosemary and lavender plants I couldn't resist this pretty cyclamen.

It's difficult to get a good photo; the petals are so large that light shining through them washes out the colour, but you can see those petals have a white edge.  The bird baths are in a shady corner of the garden.

Have you all had a good week?  We have still been staying home except for hunting and gathering, and the weekly drug run.  We used to sweeten said drug run by stopping off in a cafe for coffee and sometimes a treat, but haven't done that now for nearly three months.  Oh well......perhaps one day soon. 

Some more stitches have been knitted on the scarf, more tumblers have been joined.  More books have been read.  Some TV has been watched, even an occasional movie.

We have noticed a popular trend in home renno shows is to get rid of any carpet and replace it with wood floors, while in older houses ceilings  are removed so beams/rafters can be exposed or installed.  Add to that the open plan so popular nowadays with all its togetherness, and bare uncurtained windows........don't these people ever realise how cold and how noisy that house has now become?  Factor in a clodhopping clumping loud-music-loving teenage male or two......I would leave.  Yes, I know carpet has to be cleaned.  We have carpet in some rooms, and tile in others.  We have an open plan kitchen/family room too, but overall it's not a noisy cold house because of the carpet and curtains.

If you have ever had a coffee or a meal in a restaurant with polished cement floors, no window coverings and no seat cushions - a trendy thing over the past few years - you will know how noisy that is, making it difficult to converse with one's table companion/s.  Now imagine living in those surroundings, day in, day out, with no escape.  No, thank you.

Winter has definitely arrived.  Each morning this week has been colder than the day before, and we have even been visited by Jack Frost......a taste of weather to come, no doubt.  Having a fire is lovely - and of course, Bianca thinks so too.

While reading a social media page on fashions of the past I came across the comment "it used to be regarded as a social responsibility to dress as well as possible".  'Social responsibility'......I like that, and I wish it still held.

"Indifference to dress.
Indifference and inattention to dress is a defect of character rather than virtue, and often denotes indolence and slovenliness.  Every woman should aim to make herself look as well as possible with the means at her command.  Among the rich, a fondness for dress promotes exertion and activity of the mental powers, cultivates a correct taste, and fosters industry and ingenuity among those who seek to procure for them the material and designs for dress,  Among the middle classes it encourages diligence, contrivance, planning and deftness of handiwork, and among the poorer classes it promotes industry and economy.  A fondness for dress, when it does not degenerate into vain show, has an elevating and refining influence on society."

You could say so.  Perhaps it's not so much that standards of dress are slipping, as that some people just have very low standards and do their best not to exceed them......which is not quite the same.

Enjoy your days!

Today is World Parrot Day

So let's hear it for the parrots!  Polly want a cracker, and all that......

We have parrots here.  We have Sulphur Crested Cockatoos (large noisy white birds with yellow comb on top of head), noisy Little Corellas (you haven't lived until you have been woken at stupid dark very early o'clock by a flock of corellas), my favourite noisy Galahs (pink and grey - "silly galah" is also used as a good-natured insult), sometimes King Parrots.  We also have Rainbow Lorikeets, Eastern Rosellas, and Crimson Rosellas, which are all parrots in my book.

The larger the bird, the louder the noise.  Parrots are noisy, but I like them.

A galah, taken in winter in Canberra at the campground where we stay.

How could I have forgotten the majestic Major Mitchell Cockatoo with its pink, orange and yellow crest?  Perhaps because we don't see them here.

A male King Parrot - the girl is opposite colours, green with a red back and wings.

This week has been uneventful.  Not much has been done.  The scarf being knitted is growing longer - it's an elongated skinny triangle - the tumblers are stitched by hand when my eyes aren't too tired, the tree is slowly being quilted with only the main trunk to go.  Then lots and lots of background, in small pieces, to be quilted.

On Friday I went for my flu shot.  The medical centre had set up a clinic in the foyer which I was unhappy about - there was absolutely no privacy.  I know there was no intimate examination required, but just to be stuck out in full view of everyone passing is not my idea of a 'medical consultation'.  The doctor called my name, the nurse said my age, a woman hanging around for her turn made a remark about "not looking it".  That's not the point.  My age (and everything else about me) is a matter between me and the doctor.  If that is how it's done next year I shall re-think.  Kevin managed to have his flu shot when he visited the doctor for something else, so I know what to do in future.

Besides which, I do not like pointy medical things.  Come to that, I do not enjoy being poked, prodded or pushed in the name of medical science at all.  Here it is Sunday afternoon, and my arm is still sore and tender.

Oh well.  Moving right along.

Read a book I enjoyed recently, and now I can't remember its name.  The word 'family' was in it, that I can tell you; it was downloaded to my tablet, and when I finish a book I delete it so it's gone.  It's by an Australian author, set in Queensland, and the family in question revolves around the mother of three grown men, their partners and children and their interractions with each other.  Mother was a poisonous old witch, for sure, but it had its light moments.

I like books which revolve around family secrets, perhaps because my own family had secrets so it's easy to relate to those stories.

My 1882 etiquette book has a whole chapter devoted to British and European titles.  I haven't delved into that chapter as it is not information I need in my everyday life......but some of you may need it.

"European titles.
Titles in Continental Europe are so common and so frequently unsustained by landed and moneyed interests, that they have not that significance which they hold in England.  A count may be a penniless scamp, depending on the gambling-table for a precarious subsistence, and looking out for the chance of making a wealthy marriage."

There you have it, ladies.....watch out for those 'penniless scamps', they're only after your fortune.

Enjoy your days!

Shiver me timbers.......

......it's been a bit chilly.  So chilly that yesterday's temperature came within a foofteenth of breaking the record for the coldest day in May ever recorded here; eventually it creaked its way to 9.7 deg yesterday afternoon, while the coldest ever was 9.6 in the 1980s.  That of course means that, while the mercury may have reached 9.7 deg the 'feels like' was several degrees colder.  At least there was almost no wind - we were thankful for small mercies.

Needless to say, we stayed indoors.  Bianca spent much of her day asleep on her bed in front of the fire.

Houses have been built.

 Overcast days mean not-so-good conditions for photos, the palm tree roof is actually purple - not blue.

Here is the village so far:

 Just what I envisaged, bright houses all in a row.  Trees will also be made as spacers.  This isn't one of those "I must finish this as soon as possible" projects, it's more like a "just feel like making a house or two today" projects.

Another view of my pretty tiara, just because.  Lights on this time.

Every girl needs some sparkle-arkle in her life, yes?

All the leaves have been sewn down on the tree, now to quilt some markings on the trunk and branches.  More tumblers have been sewn together.  Stitches have been knitted.  Books have been read.  Not much else has been done.

Our world is gradually opening up.  While I can't see us going out on the town hitting the high (or low) spots when it's possible to do so it will be nice to order a coffee that I don't have to make for myself and sit in a cafe to drink it, with perhaps a treat as well, and watch the world go by.

Some of you have been making masks.  As we don't have to wear them, I have made none.  Even if we did, I wouldn't be making them.  My sewing room is a happy place, a place for having fun, and I don't want to bring the plague into it.

"Dress of hostess at dinner party.

The dress of a hostess at a dinner party should be rich in material, but subdued in tone, so as not to eclipse any of her guests.  A young hostess should wear a dress of rich silk, black or dark in color, with collar and cuffs of fine lace, and if the dinner be by daylight, plain jewellery, but by gaslight, diamonds."

So......I can wear my tiara by gaslight, it seems.......even if those diamonds aren't real.

Enjoy your days!

We're not locked in so tightly now

However I suspect the slight easing of restrictions won't make difference to us, we will still live a fairly circumspect life for a while yet.

Another little house is finished.

More are cut out, ready to be sewn.  This is going to be a very cheerful neighbourhood!

Finally bit the bullet and have started stitching down oak leaves.  The Cunning Plan was to - carefully - stitch around all those wiggly edges (erk) then stitch the veins, but some of the leaves weren't sticking down very well so I stitched the veins on one leaf before getting into the wiggly stuff.  Well, that is it.  Done.  There will be no more stitching on this leaf.  It's not going anywhere; the wind can blow all it likes but this leaf is staying on its branch.

The veins on several other leaves have been stitched since then and there are only a few more to go.  That will be enough to anchor them.

Did you know I own a tiara?

Way back when the internet was much younger than it is now I joined an online quilting group for Aussies and Kiwis.  The suggestion was made to have a get-together for a weekend, a few people put up their hands to organise it, and it happened.  It was such a success that the following year a group in another city put up their hands......and it has continued to this day, in a different city each time.  I have only been to one of those weekend retreats when it was held in the Big Smoke where we lived, but it was fun.  This year it had to be cancelled because of the current plague, but it still happened this weekend online - and what a hoot it has been.  In earlier years a few women decided to add a fun touch to the Saturday night dinner and wore tiaras; they ranged from a child's sparkly plastic tiara to bridal headwear and everything in between.  I bought this 15 years ago at a street market in a small town, it cost me all of $20......the woman from whom I bought it told me "that was my wedding tiara over 40 years ago.......it came all the way from Sydney, you know!"  These days that's less than a four hour trip, but back then it would have taken most of the day.

Kevin doesn't mind the odd drop or two of whisky from time to time, and when I saw the bag it seemed Just The Thing to store my tiara.  The pic was taken with lights off so you can see the design much better, it's not easy to photograph something so shiny and gleaming.

We all need some sparkly fun in our lives, don't we?  Mine is a tiara to wear to a quilting dinner, and it is also worn each year on the last night of the Easter folk festival.

"The full dinner dress.
The full dinner dress for guests admits of great splendor.  It may be of any thick texture of silk or velvet for winter, or light rich goods for summer, and should be long and sweeping.  Every trifle in a lady's costume should be, as far as she can afford it, faultless.  The fan should be perfect in its way, and the gloves should be quite fresh.  Diamonds are used in brooches, pendants, ear-rings and bracelets.  If artificial flowers are worn in the hair, they should be of the choicest description.  All the light neutral tints, and black, dark blue, purple, dark green, garnet, brown and fawn are suited for dinner wear."

There you have it.  I wonder if a rhinestone tiara would be acceptable?

Enjoy your days!

One whole decade!

This weeks marks a milestone.  On Thursday it was ten years - one whole decade - since we shook the dust of the Big Smoke off our heels and moved into this house.  It has gone very quickly; I find myself saying "just a few years ago" when describing something which happened after our move - but it's much longer than a few years, now.

It's been a good move.  While the Small Smoke has some drawbacks (mostly people who should have seen more of the world than they have, to open their minds a little) the slower pace suits us.  We have nearly everything we need here and we don't miss the traffic, construction, noise, too many people etc. in the Big Smoke.

Another milestone was my birthday yesterday, while not a Big Nought Number birthday I suppose every birthday is significant when one gets to my rapidly advancing age!  We had a very nice lunch delivered from the restaurant where we celebrated our anniversary in March, accompanied by the bubbly which was gifted to us on leaving that day - a gesture not asked for, but much appreciated.  It was very nice bubbly too.  Kevin mentioned that we were celebrating my birthday so with yesterday's lunch came another bottle of wine; how nice is that?  We don't have another Significant Occasion coming up - perhaps we should turn an ordinary day into one, and open our wine.

On Tuesday, if he was still alive, my maternal grandfather Pop Davis would have celebrated his 135th birthday.  Needless to say, he's not still around.  He was quite disappointed when I didn't arrive on his birthday (I was his first grandchild; my grandmother already had grandchildren from her first marriage but I was the first of Pop's five) but perhaps I wanted my own day.  Taureans can be a bit stubborn, you know.

Lucky last block of my Canadian mystery quilt!  Saskatchewan is done.

The applique in those 13 blocks needs to be stitched down, I am wondering about using a clear thread rather than changing colours every five minutes.  Some blocks also need a few embroidered details - animal/bird eyes, noses, etc - to finish them off.

Another block for Birdland (aka There Goes The Neighbourhood) is done. 

Two down......oh, maybe about another 98 something or so to go......I haven't decided how big it will be, but they are fun little blocks to make.  There will be trees too.

"A home.
After marriage one of the first requirements for happiness is a home.  It will best be found in a house or even a cottage apart from the immediate association of relatives or friends, acquaintances or strangers, and here husband and wife may begin in reality that new life of which they have had fond dreams, and upon their own actions must depend their future welfare."

Indeed.....it sounds quite idyllic, doesn't it?

Enjoy your days!

Happy birthday to me......

......Happy birthday to me,
Happy birthday, happy birthday,
Happy birthday to me!

Falling into winter

It's only the start of May, but winter has arrived early!  We have had a fire for the past couple of days, much to Bianca's happiness.  The cold winds of the past few days are easing, for which we are thankful.

How are you all faring under house arrest?  Our conditions have been lifted slightly, we are now allowed a visit from two adults and their children, but somehow I suspect many people will stay right where they are until the plague settles down a little more.  There will, of course, be more plagues in future, but with a bit of luck our various authorities may have learned something from the current one.

I reckon it's Mother Earth saying to us: "Now hold on a minute there......there are way too many of you, and you are messing up the place.  Just stop it for a while."

I am missing out on autumn, and that makes me sad.  Our annual Easter trip to Canberra has, for over 25 years, given me a glimpse of beautiful autumn colours as we drive further south to cooler paces.  You can keep spring, you can certainly keep summer's heat......I could happily live in autumn all year round.

Ah well.

The penultimate block of my Canadian mystery quilt, British Columbia, is done.

The bear needs a nose, it will be embroidered.  This block nearly came to grief - as with all these pictures the background (in this case, dark blue) was cut to size and the rest of the picture made in stages, then fused to the background.  Shock, horror, gasp.....it was only cut 8-1/2in wide instead of the required 9-1/2 in!  So a one inch strip was cut and fused to the back upper edge of the sky, the rest of the background was lined up with it, and you can't tell.

Autumn in British Columbia, on one of our Canadian trips.

Lots and lots of maple leaves and glorious colour.

Meanwhile, the tumbler quilt keeps tumbling along, the scarf has actually had some stitches knitted, but the tree hanging hasn't had one stitch sewn.  Once the Canadian blocks are finished next week, work will recommence on it.  No more little houses have been made but more have been cut; the plan was to sew outside in nice weather, but of late it hasn't been nice at all!  It's going to be a pretty wild neighbourhood......

During the week a family milestone was passed.  Last Wednesday, if he had still been alive, my father would have turned 100.  He was quite an odd bloke; apparently he didn't have a good home life as his father was very harsh and he ran away from home before joining up during WWII but, according to his Army service record, seems to have spent quite a bit of time AWOL.  Once war ended he and my mother married, but I can remember times in my childhood when he wasn't there; apparently the habit of 'AWOL' didn't stop when he left the Army.  Early in 1972 he hopped in the car one night and drove away (to visit a work mate, my mother assumed) but - he never returned.  Turned out that he had been obtaining money by different means and gambling it away, living a double life that my mother never knew about.  The end of a 25 year marriage.  He moved interstate and never again contacted my mother, my brothers or me, or any of our family again although he made contact with his brother.  Mum started divorce proceedings, she wanted nothing more to do with him and neither did we.  Eventually he remarried and died three years afterward although my brothers and I didn't find that out for several years, our mother having died in the meantime.  We obtained a copy of his death certificate in case we needed to know about medical stuff which could affect us, and under previous marriages it has "Not known" - under children it says "None".  So whoever gave the information for that certificate (possibly the new wife) had no idea that he had three living children in their forties.

Talk about putting "fun" into "disfunctional".......even when one is an adult, one's parents splitting up in such a way is a huge shock.  However he (I can't bring myself to think of him as 'Dad') never met Kevin, he knew nothing about his four grandchildren, so he missed out more than we did.

I enjoy visitors to my blog, and I love reading your comments and always reply - but if you are a no-reply blogger I can't, so if you haven't had an answer I'm not just ignoring you.

"The first to bow.
In England strict etiquette requires that a lady, meeting upon the street a gentleman with whom she has acquaintance, shall give the first bow of recognition.  In Australia, however, good sense does not insist upon an imperative following of this rule.  A well-bred man bows and raises his hat to every lady of his acquaintance whom he meets, without waiting for her to take the initiative.  If she is well-bred, she will certainly respond to his salutation.  As politeness requires that each salute the other, their salutations will thus be simultaneous."

A simultaneous salutation would be a good thing.  In these days of 'no touching' a bow is probably a courteous way to greet a friend or acquaintance without causing offence.

Enjoy your days!