Charging ahead

Here at the Chateau des Wombats we are going great guns.  Progress is being made on the knitting when the shoulder permits, and on the flower basket blocks - some blocks have already been joined, so the first set of nine blocks is under way.  Also under way is quilting on my Maritime Beauty topper.

You can see some of the shells already quilted, and the current one under the needle.  Only one or two blocks are quilted per session, because that is enough for my shoulder at present.  The paper is being torn away as designs are finished and thread ends are buried as I go instead of leaving that tedious job for the end of the quilting.

A couple of days ago Anna The Nice Young Physiotherapist said that, while my shoulder doesn't seem to have suffered further damage, the muscles fore and aft of the shoulder took the brunt of the jerk when I grabbed the crepe myrtle to keep from falling.  She did quite a bit of massage work on said muscles much to their disgust, and has suggested exercises to build up more strength in that area.  It has been a bit tender since and last night at uke group it was very unhappy, but feels a little better today  That was a relief to hear, because I was getting a little concerned that worse damage had been done.

You will no doubt be pleased to hear that the crepe myrtle didn't suffer either, and indeed has been enjoying the rain which fell yesterday and today.  Not enough to break the drought, but good soaking rain just the same.

Speaking of uke playing, this weekend a small town 45 minutes south of here is having a uke workshop with visiting tutors so I have put my name down for the advanced group.  Hopefully it will be fun, and we might even learn something!

Lately I have been looking at front doors.  A house two doors away from us has been undergoing renovation, and a painter's truck was parked out the front for a few days.  It now has a newly painted front door and side panels in an unfortunate shade of battleship grey - considering that the house is dark brown brick with white trim I keep hoping that it's only an undercoat and will soon be covered with something more cheerful, but alas no, the painter appears to have moved on and the door and panels are still grey.  Many houses in this area are all brick in various colours (our house bricks are tan, and our trim is all white) while doors and trim seem to be invariably white, dark brown or an unhappy shade of beige/putty.  I know your own house is your own house and you can paint it whatever you wish, but the rest of us have to look at it, you know.  Should our front door need repainting I'm not sure what colour it would be........but it certainly wouldn't be mission brown or beige/putty, and it may not even be white.

Perhaps it might be green.  Have I ever mentioned that I am quite fond of green?

"When a color is chosen which is favorable to the complexion, it is well to associate with it the tints which will harmonize by analogy, as to use contrasting colors would diminish its favourable effect.  When a color is used in dress, not suitable to the complexion, it should be associated with contrasting colors, as they have the power to neutralize its objectionable influence."

House colour schemes are just as important as colours in clothing, yes?  They are probably left in place for longer - clothes are changed more often than houses are painted.

Enjoy your days!

All done!

225 six inch finished flower basket blocks all made by hand since Easter 2006 - the last stitch was taken a couple of nights ago on this block, a cause for much rejoicing.

 Two boxes full of flowery goodness, half with a white background and half with floral backgrounds.

Now to join them, also by hand.  The original plan was to make the top before layering and quilting it but on further cogitation I decided it would be too much of a behemoth to wrestle through the machine, so the blocks will be joined into nine-patches and quilted-as-one-goes by machine before being joined.  It will finish at 15 blocks across by 15 down, 90in square......a very large quilt.

There is just about every colour you can imagine in this quilt because I want it to look like a flowery carpet.  Even pink.  I'm not much of a pink girl so working with it was difficult, but some pink flowers can be pretty.

Last night the knitting needles were picked up again, the cardy which was recently nearly finished has been unravelled and a new jumper (or sweater, for some of you) was started a few weeks ago instead.  The cardy was a very odd fit - perhaps I'm just an odd shape - so I gave up on it.  I know when I'm beaten.  The yarn is a lovely dark teal with pale flecks and when it's finally finished will, hopefully, be gorgeous.

It's been a textile week, last Friday a local gallery held a couple of braided rag workshops with a visiting tutor and I was one of many women attending.  It was fun and very interesting......and a great use for some  of my "whatever possessed me when I bought this" fabrics.  Our Friday group enjoyed it so much that we decided to meet monthly to work on our rugs and to encourage each other.  Do I need something else to do with my time?  No, I don't.  Did I enjoy it?  Yes, I did - so that is justification to finish one rug, at least.

The shoulder is still unhappy following its almost-tumble in the garden recently so an appointment has been made with Anna The Nice Young Physiotherapist who oversaw its rehabilitation following its operation late last year.  While it's not agonisingly excruciatingly painful it is uncomfortable, so perhaps it's time to seek attention.

We have had rain!  According to the local paper, over the past few days we have had the best rain in several months.  It's not enough to break the drought, but enough to give hope to farmers and gardeners.  The hill behind us which was dry and brown has over the past few days become very green; new shoots are even starting to appear on our Ceratostigma, a sign that winter is on the way out.

Ceratostigma doesn't appear in the language of flowers in my 1885 etiquette book, so I can't tell you if its blue flowers in a posy mean the holder is in a blue mood.

"What should we think of one who had invented flowers, supposing that, before him, flowers were unknown?  Would he not be regarded as the opener-up of a paradise of new delight?  Should we not hail the inventor as a genius, as a god?  And yet those lovely offsprings of the earth have been speaking to man from the first dawn of his existence until now, telling him of the goodness and wisdom of the Creative Power, which bid the earth bring forth, not only that which was useful as food, but also flowers, the bright consummate flowers, to clothe it in beauty and joy!"

Flowers are flowers, yes?  Even when referred to in such flowery language.  Did you know that a sprig of the Bladder-nut tree included in a posy meant 'frivolous amusement'?

Enjoy your days!

Crystal clear!

Quilting stitches are being taken on my Maritime Beauty topper, isn't that great?  A couple of shells are being quilted at a time, then my shoulder is given a rest as it hasn't quite forgiven me for that almost-tumble in the garden last week.  These are the designs being used, they were found at colouring pages online.

 

 The bottom shell has my pencil marks to show me a path to take while quilting.  The top design will only use the centre shell, not the interesting scroll border, which will however be kept for future reference......because I like it.

While on things I like, here's another bird at the wildlife park, a yellow-tailed black cockatoo engaged in a favourite pastime - stripping a tree in its aviary.  They have very sharp beaks, as you can see by  its progress so far!  Cockies are very handsome birds, and this one was being chased by a mischievous young magpie half its size; every time it turned its back the magpie lunged for cocky's tail, and with a "gotcha!" look in its beady little eyes it finally succeeded in pulling out one of cocky's beautiful yellow tail feathers.

I was laughing so much that I couldn't take a picture as magpie stalked away with a "see me, I'm so clever" look.  Poor cocky was a bit disgruntled at losing some of his magnificence, though.

Recently an antique fair was held here in town, and like many other locals I took myself along because the trinkets on sale each year are really drool-worthy - some gorgeous antique jewellery, and furniture, and all manner of lovely goodies to buy if one is into spending money and amassing stuff.  A pretty bracelet did come home with me, natural pale yellow-green stones (could be jasper or agate, but I'm not an expert) with sparkly crystal beads in turquoise and lavender.......an odd combination of colours, but it works for me and will spark up my wardrobe in spring when we can let our bare arms see the light of day again.  My best buy was a book about coal mining in New South Wales which has a lot of information on the incident in which my mother's cousin was killed in 1929, including many historic photos I had never seen.  On entering the hall we paid our admission fee, and bought a raffle ticket - I had a few coins in my purse so I lashed out and bought two tickets.  Imagine my surprise last Sunday on receiving a phone call to say I had won a prize!  I now own a lovely crystal-glass bowl which will be used rather than hidden in a cupboard and forgotten, because I really like glass.

Our uke gig on Sunday went really well, people have said lovely things to us and about us, and the feedback we have received has been wonderful.  We performed two songs, "I am Australian" and "Walking after midnight".  Except for our two young tutors, we are a group of older folk - probably the oldest group at the concert!  As our tutors Sam and Brooke said, we are an example to others, even younger people, who think they are too old to learn an instrument or take up music.

It's probably better to be a shining example than a dreadful warning, yes?

"During the performance complete quiet should be preserved, that the audience may not be prevented from seeing or hearing.  Between the acts it is perfectly proper to converse, but it should be done in a low tone, so as not to attract attention.  Neither should one whisper.  There should be no loud talking, boisterous laughter, violent gestures, lover-like demonstrations or anything in manners or speech to attract the attention of others."

The audience was quiet when we performed, and even applauded - which made our practice worthwhile.

Enjoy your days!

It's a quiet time here at the Chateau

Not much of anything to report, which is why there hasn't been any reporting for a couple of weeks.

Action is starting to happen in the sewing room, isn't that a cause for rejoicing!  My Maritime Beauty top is being prepared for quilting, some designs of sea shells were found on the internet and traced off onto light paper.  These are now pinned on ready to be quilted through, after which the paper will be torn away.....and if the stitching should stray off the line, well, who would ever know?  This method leaves no lines to be washed out so no fear of said lines reappearing in the future.  It might not suit everyone, but it works for me.

Last night another flower basket block was finished, that makes 223 done, only two to go!  Hopefully the count is correct.  Way back when not many had been made I counted up how many were done and wrote the number in my diary, then each year that total was transferred to the new year's diary, but over so many years it is possible a counting mistake was made.  Ah well, we will find out soon, won't we?

Recently while going through some pictures on our computer I came across some taken while on holiday Over At The Coast a couple of years back, so here they are.

 I don't know the name of this little pink flower, but suspect it's an orchid.

 This rather interesting plant is an Aussie native, a grevillea called "Peaches and Cream" as my research found out.  The colours were so bright and luminous, they really glowed.

Ever wondered what the back end of a peacock looks like?  Well, wonder no longer.  We were walking past some birds at a wildlife park when we heard an odd rustling whirring noise, which turned out to be a peacock fanning its feathers to entice a female bird.  It had its back to us so this is the backstage view of a peacock display, sadly without sound so you can't get the full effect.

Earlier this afternoon while pottering in the garden I nearly did myself a mischief, somehow lost my balance and almost fell downhill into a rose bush.  We live on a hill, not the steepest hill in the universe but a hill just the same, and while bending over to pull out a weed I found myself continuing to topple forward.  Fortunately I managed to grab the crepe myrtle rather than the rose bush, but after that fright I decided that was enough excitement for one day and came inside.  The other weeds will have to wait.  Of course I managed to wrench my sore shoulder too, so now it's hurting, which is a bummer.  Perhaps I won't be able to cook dinner tonight, wouldn't that be sad?

Is anyone else irritated by the overuse of the "keep calm and - whatever" phrase these days?  I believe "Keep calm and carry on" dates from England during World War II and that's where it stayed for a long time, but over the past few years it has made its way onto cups (keep calm and drink tea/coffee), fruit (eat a banana), other food (eat chocolate, drink wine) and so on ad nauseum.  Perhaps it's about time the world became agitated instead.

Last Thursday a few of us from the uke group performed a few songs for a local charity lunch, and nice things were said to us and about us.  This coming Sunday is the Major Annual Concert for the music school, so amid all the serious string quartets, orchestras and choirs will be our uke group playing and singing.  I suspect we will be a bit of light relief.  Perhaps even comic relief.......

"Correct use of words.
The correct use of words is indispensable to a good talker who would escape the unfavorable criticism of an educated listener.  There are many words and phrases, used in some cases by persons who have known better, but who have become careless from association with others who make constant use of them."

Does this also apply to the overuse of keeping calm?

Enjoy your days!

Noodling around

Which is what people do when they are playing a musical instrument.....any instrument......with no aim or purpose in mind.  Here is my noodling corner.

 One of my guitars with its blue strap, and my gorgeous hand-made uke with its green strap, and equipment in the corner for playing CDs and listening to the radio.  The other guitar and uke are in their coffins cases elsewhere in the room, and a music stand with lots of printed music and books is just to the left.

One of the women at uke group continually noodles even while our teachers are speaking, which is rude and annoying.  Noodling has its place, and a class is not the place.  She was away recently for a few weeks.......it was much better.

A selection of some possible fabrics for the grandkid's first quilt, which will be cut out one of these days.  Can't rush genius, you know.......the block will be "Economy Patch", won't be paper-pieced, and will finish eight inches square.  The four inch finished centre square will be these fun prints while the two outer rows of triangles will be anything and everything including, of course, the two fabrics used for the stuffed wombat.  Eventually.........

From which you can tell that the female inmate of the Chateau des Wombats is having a lazy day.

Said grandkid's mum is enjoying her musical visit to Switzerland.  Hope the kid is, too.

Who in their wisdom decided that the word "absolutely" meant "yes"?  So many people in the media and in real life say "absolutely" or more emphatically "oh - absolutely!" when a simple "yes" would suffice, and would answer the question being asked more accurately.  Its use was apparently first noted in the 1530s, and it meant "completely" or "without exception", which is not quite the same as "yes".  Every time I hear it on TV I have to sit on my hands to keep from throwing something at the speaker as it gives me a strong dose of the irrits.  It's even worse when "absolutely" is half-swallowed on the way out and emerges as "absy".

Yesterday we had a small rain shower, we could barely contain our excitement!  It took all the willpower we possess to restrain ourselves from throwing off our clothes and dancing nekkid in the street with a cake of soap.  More rain is forecast for later this week and we are hoping it eventuates.  So far this year we have had barely two thirds of the long-term average rainfall to July, which coupled with a dry year last year and a long hot summer means things aren't looking good for the rest of this year.  However, Aussies are an optimistic lot, so we keep thinking that more rain will fall soon.

Last night another block for the flower basket block was finished - that makes 221 done, only four to go, yay!  Way back early in 2006 (that's right, eight years ago) I thought it could be useful to have something done entirely by hand as a take-along project, and so far it has been overseas four times - to Canada, and to Alaska, with fabric since included from both countries - on many caravan holidays, to quilt groups, to sit-and-sew days, even in waiting rooms.  There have been times following arm/wrist injury and and shoulder surgery when hand sewing just wasn't possible for several months, but it was about the journey rather than the destination.....so that really didn't matter.  Once the last of the blocks is made they will be joined by hand into nine patches, and eventually those 25 nine patches will be joined by hand to make a quilt top.  It would be nice if it could be hand-quilted too, but as my hands are now giving me trouble with achingly painful knobbly joints (because, sadly, I am no longer 25) that just may not be able to happen.

As to where those 225, six-and-a-half inch blocks will be laid out while placement is decided, well, that is a very good question and one I am glad you asked.  Some furniture removal may have to take place.......

"Interruption.
Interruption of the speech of others is a great sin against good breeding.  It has been aptly said that if you interrupt a speaker in the middle of a sentence, you act almost as rudely as if, when walking with a companion you were to thrust yourself before him and stop his progress."

Words which our noodling friend in uke class would do well to heed.  Now I am off to noodle "Sway" which we looked at last night.......all together now, when marimba rhythms start to play, dance with me, make me sway........

Enjoy your days!

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!