Learning what not to do

Sometimes lessons learned from doing the wrong thing are as valuable, or more so, than learning how to do something correctly the first time you try.  

During the week five of the blocks for the Canadian quilt were joined with their black sashing strips......then taken apart again.  The plan for this is to quilt it myself, quilt-as-you-go style, something I have never attempted before.  Yes, folks - without a safety net!  It occurred to me that quilting one block at a time then joining it to its neighbour would be easier than quilting a larger panel of several blocks, so that is what will be done.  

Here are four of the blocks joined, before being taken apart again.

They looked so good together......sigh......never mind.  It is hoped that quilting will start this week.  Still have to work out how to do the borders, but no doubt inspiration will strike with the help of You Tube.

This week's houses, similar in colour but quite different when finished.  I like them both.

I'm fairly sure that's about half of the houses with the black and white borders completed, and about half to be done.  A couple more green strips were also made.

'Weeds of Grace' with its backing is being delivered to the quilter tomorrow.  We had a phone call a few days ago; she would like to get it done while things are quiet for her, while I am looking forward to having it finished.  We enjoyed our conversation and are looking forward to catching up tomorrow, it will be so nice to chat with another woman again!

So......things are moving along in the sewing room.

After a taste of spring we are now back to winter, and even have a fire going today.  Bianca is pleased about that, she enjoys lying in front of the fire.

Today's 'Shutdown Sunday' earrings are blue stones in a gold setting.  I don't know if it's real gold (although I think it is) and I don't know what the stones are, but I think they may be Amazonite.  They are pretty, anyway.

Today is Father's Day.  Kevin had a phone call earlier and we will also have our Sunday night online quiz with the family in Canberra, so there will be good wishes passed around and all will be jolly.

My father was a distant man, not always a kind man when I was a child, who walked out on my mother after 25 years of marriage and three children; he never made contact with any of us again before he died nearly 20 years later.  His death certificate says no previous marriages (he had re-married a few years earlier) and no children, despite by then having three adult children and an ex-wife, so the new wife was probably never told about his earlier family.  He never met Kevin and never met his four grandchildren - my sons and my brother's daughters, although he was at my brother's wedding.

It was quite a strange thing for my brothers and I to read the information on his death certificate (we obtained a copy in case there were medical issues we should know about, for our own health information) and to read the word "None" where it should read "Three", under "Children of Deceased".  Perhaps we never really existed at all......

An old saying in Australia, if someone is being gloomy and downcast, is to describe them as being "as happy as a bastard on Father's Day".......a saying which never fails to make me chuckle.

"Musical Matinees.

A matinee musicale partakes of the nature of a reception, and is one of the most difficult entertainments attempted.  For this it is necessary to secure those persons possessing sufficient vocal and instrumental talent to insure the success of the entertainment, and to arrange with them a programme, assigning to each, in order, his or her part.  It is customary to commence with a piece of instrumental music, followed by solos, duets, quartettes, etc., with instrumental music interspersed, in not too great proportions.  Some competent person is needed as accompanist."

Many people in those days had a 'party piece' which they used to perform at gatherings.  No doubt there were some very talented people on the programme.....and perhaps some less so, but at least they had a go.  Sadly, I think, the advent of recorded music on radio and records, and later TV, has deprived many people of the pleasure of making their own music because they don't consider they are up to the standard of professionals heard on those media.  It takes confidence to perform in public......it's not an easy thing to do.

Enjoy your days!

The name of my quilt is.......

......"Weeds of Grace".  Something weedy but not 'tumbleweeds', and Grace is my middle name.

You can find so much on the internet, among which are quotations on any subject you wish - even weeds, believe it or not!  That prolific writer William Shakespeare has some, one of which is from Richard III, Act II, scene 4:  "Small herbs have grace, great weeds do grow apace".  Another by Shakespeare (the play was not named) is "Sweet flowers are slow, and weeds make haste" which, to me, is another way of saying the same thing.  So......change the words slightly, and you have 'Weeds of Grace'.  I like it.

This week's houses.

That black and white swirl on the yellow house is almost the stuff of nightmares; you wouldn't want to wake up in sheets with that pattern after a hard night, although it's not quite as bad in real life as it looks here.  

Kevin will be pleased when the current lockdown is over, he is hanging out for a haircut.....and I will be pleased when I can go shopping for undies as the undie situation is getting a bit parlous, although there is fabric in my stash which, if things get desperate, would be suitable.  I have made many garments over the umpteen years I have been sewing but have never made knickers, although I know women who have.  There's always online shopping, but I prefer to feel the fabric before I wear it against my skin.

Speaking of sewing (notice how one subject segués into another so seamlessly?  she's not bad, is she?) earlier today we watched a program devoted to rural Australian topics, 'Landline', which had a segment on Madame Weigel.  Johanna Weigel arrived in Australia with her new husband in 1877 and soon after that started a business making clothing patterns.  The business lasted until 1968 - I remember Madame Weigel patterns, although I have never made one up.  She grew her business by having agents in country towns who stocked her patterns so women in rural areas could be as smartly dressed as their city sisters.  Just imagine the excitement in a farming household or in a small town far from a big city when a bundle of new patterns for the whole family arrived, everything from a wedding gown to a layette for an expected baby!  In just 1915 alone over one million patterns were sold - it was big business, but we never hear about Madame Weigel today.

I bet if the business had been started and run by men we would know all about it, wouldn't we.

My Sunday earrings this week are silver, bought many many years ago at a folk festival.  They were bought from Celtic Dreaming jewellery; I have many of their pieces and love their designs.  These are today's........Short Knot Earrings; there are also other earrings, a pendant, and a couple of brooches made by Desmond in my jewellery box.  If one is going to have trinkets (and one does like a nice trinket) they should be good ones, and these are good indeed.  We looked forward to seeing what new pieces Desmond and his wife had, and watched his gorgeous daughters grow from small children to beautiful women, for 25 years - although that hasn't happened since 2019.  The festival is supposed to happen again next Easter, but who knows if it will?  

We aren't holding our collective breath.  So many events have been postponed, and postponed again, then eventually cancelled......we had hoped to see a production by the local musical society in late October but now it, too, has been postponed until May next year.  We keep trying to be cheerful and looking on the bright side, but lately the bright side is becoming a bit tarnished. 

I'm sorry to say you all missed out on last week's Pumpkin Raisin Bars, but they were very nice.

"Invitations.

Invitations to a reception are simple, and are usually very informal.  Frequently the lady's card is sent with the simple inscription "At Home Thursday, from four to seven."  No answers are expected to these invitations, unless "R. S. V. P." is on one corner.  One visiting card is left by each person who is present, to serve for the after call.  No calls are expected from those who attend.  Those who are not able to be present, call soon after."

When I was a child it was not uncommon for family and friends to call unexpectedly.  There would be a knock on the door and we would hear "yoo hoo - anyone home?"  Doors were seldom locked, so whoever it was could just walk in.  While we don't necessarily wish to go back to the formality of the 1880s as in my book, I don't like the idea of anyone walking in on me either.  I like my privacy.

Enjoy your days!

Backing up

The back of the tumbler quilt is done!

The leafy stripe bought recently has been well and truly cut into; the main backing fabric was bought in Canberra in April.  It is fairly dark but suits the quilt well, I think.  Now to have speech with a long-arm quilter.  If we are allowed to talk to each other......sigh.......

It also needs a name.  When it was in progress many people asked why I was making it by hand, to which my answer was "why not?"  So "Why not" was going to be its name, but I am having second and third thoughts.  "One man's weeds are another man's flowers" is a saying I like; the tumbler shape puts me mind of the old song "Drifting along with the tumbling tumbleweeds", so perhaps it will be named something weedy.

You'll be singing that all day now, won't you.......

This week's houses.

Bird tracks around a bright house that came all the way to the neighbourhood from Missouri - thank you, Sally, I hope you like what has been done to it!  The other bright house in a night sky is pretty much the last of that shaded lime fabric.  Another strip of green has been made; the seams are being pressed open to make for easier slicing and dicing when it happens.

Work has resumed on finishing off blocks for the Canadian quilt, little touches such as embroidering animals' eyes and noses, etc., because a polar bear without its black nose and eye is just a white blob.  It would probably still eat you though.

The wattle at twilight, still looking good but lacking the golden glow of daytime.

Earlier this month it was 12 months since my eye surgery, a whole year of seeing better with amazingly wider vision!  The deterioration in my range of vision had happened gradually over several years as the skin around the eyes became droopier, but until it was corrected I hadn't realised just how bad it had become.  There is a banana-shaped scar over each eye which, fortunately, isn't as noticeable as it first was, but it is worth it.  One woman in my sewing group made a crack about "cosmetic surgery" prior to having it done but believe me - it wasn't.  

My comment last week about always wearing earrings, even with trakky saks, has made people smile.  After so long with pierced ears I feel undressed without earrings; it took until I was 30 and had already given birth to pluck up courage to have it done (because what's a couple of little ear holes compared to popping out a baby, right?) and now have quite a collection.  Today's are dark blue, a little (fake) sapphire bead with a  teardrop (fake) sapphire set in (fake) gold hanging from it, matching my dark blue shirt.  

Even in lockdown we have our standards, you know.

It has been the usual quiet week.  A medical appointment on Friday meant donning the dreaded mask and waiting my turn, so by the time I was seen my blood pressure had shot up so high due to stress that the staff were quite alarmed.  They told me to take off the mask, much to my relief, even though it had to be re-donned to walk out through the waiting room and back down to the car.

"The Refreshments.

The refreshments for "morning receptions" are generally light, consisting of tea, coffee, frozen punch, claret punch, ices, fruit and cakes.  Often a cold collation is spread after the lighter refreshments have been served, and sometimes the table is set with all the varieties, and renewed from time to time."

Earlier this week I made pumpkin raisin bars with maple frosting, and very nice they are too.  If you visit for a morning reception before they are all gone you will be offered some - but we like them and they are disappearing fast, so there won't be any unless you hurry.  I'm sorry to say, though, that you are out of luck with the claret punch.

Enjoy your days!

Glorious golden gorgeousness

Don't you love the alliteration?  This is our little wattle bush, which is now doing amazingly well.

It was planted several years ago and for quite a while really struggled, not helped by the fact that its leaves were eaten off - all but three.  It was a collection of sticks with those few little green leaves; Kevin was all for pulling it out but I said "it's not dead, you know, it has three green leaves" so he left it.  I can't remember what it's called, there is probably a card somewhere in a Very Safe Place, but suffice it to say it's an Aussie native.  It didn't flower at all last year, not one little golden ball despite flowering for two years before that, perhaps the drought was still in its veins - but it is now making up for lost time.

This week's houses, don't you love that eye-popping fabric on the left?     

My black and white stash includes other eye poppers, too.  I also like the white gingko leaves on black and wish my stash also had it in the reverse colourway.  Some green squares were also joined, making two strips of seven squares.

Baking for the tumbler quilt is being pieced as we speak.  The extra wide fabric for the backing was bought on our trip down south a few months ago and is large enough for the purpose but there are also quite a few tumblers left from the front which had been made into a wide strip, because I'm not wasting all that hand piecing.  The backing and quilt top were spread out on the design bed then the pieced panel laid on top, leftover border fabrics were brought out, and much thinking was done.  The thinking resulted in the decision that, no matter how deeply I thought, there was not going to be enough of the outer border stripe for my purpose.  Bugger, said I.  So the local store it was brought from was rung, the details on the selvage quoted......"yes, we still have some, how much would you like?"  "I'll take the lot" said I, bearing in mind that this is the shop which is closing down forever and ever next month, so what's not bought from them now may have to remain unbought for all time.  Kevin collected it for me (50% off, woo hoo!) and it is exactly perfectly the right amount.  Measuring was done, more thinking was done, figures were written down, more thinking, coffee was drunk, more thinking.....oh no, that's not right, it needs to be cut double the height not double the width, erase some figures, write in new (hopefully correct) ones.  The panel is now made, it is waiting to be pressed, then the backing will be cut into two pieces and the pieced panel joined in.......and I will be happy.  

It will be booked in with a local quilter when we are allowed to talk to people - which we aren't much at present, because we are locked down.  Again.  Despite having no active cases of plague our town was locked down for a week from 5 p.m. last Monday, as a woman who later tested positive had visited family here the previous week.  We still have no cases but the lockdown has extended to the whole state, so until at least the end of next weekend and goodness knows how much longer we are only allowed out for hunting and gathering, and essential shopping such as medicinal stuff and things like that.  Again.  Sigh....

So we sit around and sew, and knit, and plink the occasional note on a uke, and read, and do crosswords (me) or soduku (Kevin), and grin at each other.  At least we're still allowed to do that.

"The dress.

The dress for receptions is, for men, morning dress; for ladies, demi-toilet, with or without bonnet.  No low-necked dress nor short sleeves should be seen at day receptions, nor white neckties and dress coats.

The material of a lady's costume may be of velvet, silk, muslin, gauze or grenadine, according to the season of the year, and taste of the wearer, but her more elegant jewellery and laces should be reserved for evening parties."

Right now, I'm ashamed to say, our day and evening attire consists of trakky daks.......but I always wear earrings.

Enjoy your days!

Greening the corner gardens

All the triangles for the outer corners are done.

Now they will be set aside with the completed houses, and eventually they will all make their way into the quilt.  Eventually.  Joining squares has now started for the side triangles; each block will need 49 squares set in seven rows of seven, then will be cut into four quarter-square triangles.  When the decision was made to do this it seemed quite tedious, but actually it's not.......and every stitch will be worth it, when finished.

This week's houses, a black house surrounded by white and a white house surounded by black.

By the time the setting decision was taken several houses had already been made using black and white fabrics so they will be set with the opposite; dark houses will be surrounded by white, and white houses will have black.  

This is the back of the quilt shown last week.  The orange fabric wasn't ~quite~ wide enough so a strip using leftover fabrics from the front was made, a technique used in other quilts too.

All the Canadian quilt blocks have had their stabiliser removed so now they are set aside for a while, because I want to make the back for the (as yet un-named) tumbler quilt.  When we were down south a few months ago I bought some extra wide fabric for the back, and now the plan is to insert a strip to make it longer.  There were tumblers left from the front because too many were cut, so they have been pieced into a strip which, however, needs more width......and my brain is thinking about how to do it, so watch this space.  When that's done it will be booked in for long arm quilting, because it's too big for me to handle.

The flower basket quilt is also being worked on, it's currently a TV project (either that or knitting) - my goodness, it's going to be huge.  It will also be quilted by a long armer.

That's my colourful week, how has yours been?

Playing with bright fabrics was certainly more fun than having my second covid plague shot, which I did a few days ago.  Now I suppose I'm as vaccinated as I can currently be, and Kevin will also be on Tuesday.  I am, however, still staying home because of the compulsory mask rule; he is quite happy to do shopping and household running around, and I am happy to let him.

There is a sporting event being held in another country and it doesn't interest us one bit; there is already far too much sport on T.V.  Members of our family have lost work because of lockdowns and shutdowns, but these people can quite happily swan off overseas, kick a ball and grin for the camera.  They waffle on about "winning a medal for my country" and "doing the country proud" but at the end of the day where does that medal end up?  Probably on a shelf in their own bedroom, unseen and uncared about by the rest of us.  Our orchestras, our actors and dancers, are up there with the best but don't get the rah rahs that sport people do.  I eagerly await the day that our national ballet company or one of our orchestras gets a 'welcome home parade' on completion of an overseas tour as is often done for sport people but I suspect hell will be long frozen over by the time that happens - which, sadly, doesn't say much about us as a nation, does it?

I've been reading mystery books downloaded for free on my tablet, and these books vary from quite good to not good at all.  If they don't grab my interest they are deleted unfinished, in some cases barely started, and another is opened.  At my age I don't know how many years are left to me, but I'm darn sure I'm not going to waste any of them reading a badly-written book.  Having said that there have been some I have enjoyed so much that I have sought out others by the same author......but only if they're free, of course.  

"Receptions, parties and balls.

Morning receptions, as they are called, but more correctly speaking, afternoon parties, are generally held from four to seven o'clock in the afternoon.  Sometimes a sufficient number for a quadrille arrange to remain after the assemblage has for the most part dispersed."

Can you dance a quadrille?  I can, and indeed have often done so; I used to enjoy dancing and only stopped not that many years ago.  In my next life, however, I am going to marry a bloke who dances......because Kevin does not and will not dance, so I relied on friends to partner me.  A 'sufficient number' for a quadrille is eight people, four couples.

Enjoy your days!

Greening up nicely

Oh my, it's windy today!  I am staying inside so I don't get blown away, as I nearly did when it was time to bring in the washing.  It's also a long way from being cold despite the fact that it's still winter, the warm breeze may bring rain......and it's a bit soon to put away the winter woollies just yet, as the coming week will be much cooler than today.

The park is coming along well, as are this week's blocks.

These are two of the outer corner triangles, two more need to be made for the other two corners.  These are four by four squares cut once on the diagonal; the side triangles are seven by seven, and are each cut into four quarter-square triangles.  They are slightly larger than the measurements given in the book if cutting from yardage, but hey......you can always trim off half an inch, but you can't add it on so easily should it be a bit small.

The black and white fabric around the pale spotted house is left over from a skirt made several years ago.  The fabric was bought from a quilt store, I really liked it, but sadly the skirt wasn't a good fit so I ended up giving it away.  The leftovers still find themselves turning up in the odd quilt here and there.

This is one from several years ago.

The same black and white print is in the inner corner of each block, fussy cut to feature the floral design.  It was also used in the piano key border and for the binding.

All the applique on the Canadian blocks is stitched down, a great sigh of relief was heaved when the last stitch was done.  Now the stabiliser is being torn away from the back......then the blocks can be joined, yippee!   

It has been another quiet stay-at-home week.  A time for sewing, for playing music, for reading, for knitting the odd stitch or two.....a time for just......being.  We have stopped watching the news again (as we did last year, for several months) and we do not click on links to stories about doom and gloom.  Some might say we are sticking our heads in the sand - I prefer to say we're looking after our mental health.

The television is off more than it's on because so little appeals to us.  We don't mind some renno porn shows - house hunting and renovating - we have our favourites, but there are many we never watch.  Other so-called "reality" shows - never.  Not ever.  There isn't much drama that we like and we don't want to watch the same British police shows for the unpteenth time; they were good the first time, all right the second, but lose their gloss after that.  There are the online channels, occasionally I remember to look through their offerings but then forget to put it on.

Back in the days when I was young our town didn't have television; it didn't arrive in major Australian cities until the mid-1950s, and not in country towns for several more years.  We, three deprived little kids from a country town, were mesmerised when we visited our Posh Melbourne Grandparents because they had T.V.  The soundtrack to my childhood and growing up was radio rather than television, and I still prefer it.  My mother used to listen to her radio serials - now, that's something you don't hear any more!  She sang along to the radio and we learned all those old songs by osmosis, they just soaked into our brains.

"Strive to keep the cloth as clean as possible, and use the edge of the plate or a side dish for potato skins and other refuse."

The history of the tablecloth is interesting.  Apparently, several centuries ago, people would blow their noses on it, wipe their mouths on it during eating instead of using a napkin.....a bit gross, really.  Makes you pity the poor servants who had to wash the table linen, doesn't it?

Enjoy your days!

The garden is planted!

Although not much has grown yet.

Just one little strip of green garden to go with this week's houses, a party house at night and a brick house surrounded by......barbed wire, perhaps?

That green strip will be joined to three others, and the resulting square will be cut into two triangles for two of the outer corners.  More will be made.  Eventually.  I could have used the same fabrics for all the setting triangles but this is more fun, don't you think?  The inspiration quilt by Freddy Moran was made with red squares, but I like the idea of my houses being set in a green park.

Some stitching has happened on the Canadian blocks, now there are just two to be done.

What an unpleasant day it is today.  The wind is blowing quite hard and it's a very cold wind, a nasty chilly wind, definitely a day for staying inside by the fire.  Which we are.  We keep expecting to see rain spots on the path outside, but so far none have appeared; it's so windy that, if any drops of rain were to fall, they would be blown sideways before they hit the ground.  It's definitely a day for the Big Green Jumper.

It's been another week of staying home.  Two necessary appointments meant having to go out and wear the dreaded mask, but fortunately once in the consulting rooms both practitioners said "you can take it off" much to my relief.  Nothing is on the calendar for the near future, so there will be more staying home.

Recently the front of the house received a little spark-up with new exterior lights being installed.  The previous lights were here when we came so were not our choice; they were 'coach lights', a popular style, it seems, for many years and indeed still sold, albeit with updated styling.  Both lights sported yellow globes, supposedly insect repellant, although we haven't really found them to be so; over the years they had become somewhat dim so needed replacing anyway.  We then thought......"if the globes need to be renewed, why not replace the whole thing?  They weren't our choice and we've never loved them"  So we did.  We looked online, found what we liked and made paper templates to hold up on the wall.  The small size was, like Goldilocks' porridge, just right.  Much was our glee when we found that a local shop stocked what we wanted so a phone call and a short drive later we had our new lights in hand, a visit from our friendly electrician a few days later and they were in place.

I still have plans to paint the front door teal......it's currently white.......but teal would be pretty with the light sandy-pink colour of the bricks.  Not sure what colour, if any, to paint the shutters and the fake colonial verandah columns, all of which are currently white - as was the style when the house was built in the early 1990s.  Perhaps just a fresh coat of white would be all that's needed.

"The host or hostess should not insist upon guests partaking of particular dishes; nor ask persons more than once, not put anything in their plates which they have declined.  It is ill-bred to urge a person to eat of anything after he has declined."

Indeed it is.  He - or she - may have a very good reason to decline a particular food, perhaps an intolerance or allergy, and I am sure a good host or hostess would not wish to make a guest ill.

Enjoy your days!