Singing the night away

Last night the music club theme was "songs from the 1950s" and a fun night it was too. But I am feeling a bit second-hand today, there's a little man with a drill who's trying to make a hole in my head....he started while I was asleep last night.......haven't had a headache for a long time, at least not since I finished working late last year. (that must say something about the job I left) And I don't want this one. And before you all ask, it's not a hangover.

My "Road to St Louis" quilt has been coming steadily along, I was planning to do some work on it today but perhaps I will wait for my head to get better, heaving a quilt through My Lovely New Bernina can be hard work. Perhaps I shall just sit quietly in a comfortable chair and hand-piece Flower Basket blocks for a while, and think peaceful thoughts, and inhale lavender.

Here's a gem from 1958 that I sang last night -
Send me the pillow that you dream on..........don't you know that I still care for you.......etc........

Jennifer

Still paying it forward

Congratulations to Debbie on being guest blogger on Quilting Bloggers!

And Kiera-Oona has joined in Pay It Forward, thank you so much! Two lovely people have joined in so there is still one vacancy.

A friend and I had a lovely time yesterday, fabric shopping....probably bought more than I need but what the heck......it's my retirement stash.

Jennifer

Pay it forward

Sherry is joining Pay it Forward....Sherry is from Ontario, Canada....thank you Sherry...... another connection with Canada! Aussies and Canadians seem to get along well. One of the blokes in my choir calls himself "Canaussian"; originally from Winnipeg he has lived in Australia for a long time, I think he said 30 years or so. Our younger son lives in Ontario and we have several Canadian friends. We have seen a little of Canada and it's a beautiful country.

Binky has been very helpful lately as you can see, I don't know I could manage without her help. Here she is minding my 'Road to St Louis' quilt until I am ready to work on it. You can see the pieced blocks under Binky, the backing fabric is blue with a green stripey vine pattern. There's quite a lot of green in this quilt, and it's not a huge quilt but is obviously big enough for Binky. And the Yellowglen box in the background isn't full of wine unfortunately - for the non-Aussies, Yellowglen make a very nice fizzy wine - the room used to be our older sons room and the box is probably full of something like "Modern Drummer" magazines. Even drummers have parents........

Jennifer

WOW day - and what a WOW!

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

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

Jennifer

It's done......

.....I managed to combine the various posts for the folded star tutorial into one, so now the picture links to just one post instead of several. I was thinking I couldn't do it because I don't know html, I don't know much about computer stuff at all really - and in the end it turned out to be as simple as copy and paste. My shoulder is sore from patting myself on the back.

Yesterday I started to machine quilt a scrappy quilt I made a few years ago using the traditional 'Road to St Louis' pattern, I named the quilt "Meet me at the fair" - if you know the song you will get the musical reference! For those who don't, it's from the musical "Meet Me in St Louis", and the song starts:
Meet me in St Louis, Louis, meet me at the fair......etc.....

Now I am off to iron my black skirt as my choir has a gig this evening, we wear black pants or skirts with blue, green or purple tops; then I am going to quilt a line or 2. Or perhaps 3.

Jennifer

Today's WOW and last week's finish

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

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

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

Jennifer

I has a finish!

The bag that I had to re-make the lining for is finished! That makes the third project for 2009. Haven't taken a pic yet; I only finished it last night and haven't given it a final press. But it will get its pic taken and duly posted here, so the world (or my little bit of the world) can see it.

Rain, lovely rain.........it rained yesterday, and has rained this morning. Our dry parched grass is getting greener as we watch it. And there is apparently more rain to come. We are very relieved.

Jennifer