Squares in squares in squares

Over the weekend 25 blocks were made for Cricket/ette's quilt - that's how our son and DIL are referring to their baby.  Some referenced his/her parents' jobs and interests......like this one, because son is a drummer and his kit is about the same colour as this little feller's drum.

 Mum plays French horn in a symphony orchestra and in a military band.

 Some of those blocks are real eye-poppers......poor little tyke will need to wear sunnies when it arrives in the world if that quilt is anywhere nearby.  The border fabric, a diagonal rainbow stripe, has been in the stash for a while and was also used as a border on a quilt a few years ago.  Still need to buy fabric for sashing - I'm leaning towards light gold, not yellow, not orange, something in between - with cornerstones and binding in turquoise, and also need backing fabric.

Also over the weekend Maritime Beauty had its moment in the sun at a quilt show, and was displayed with a lovely vintage machine......not mine, alas........on the stage.

Also waiting to be sewn is fabric to make two tops but first it will be washed, after learning the hard way when I was a Sweet Young Thing that fabric which has not been washed can, and does, shrink when made into a pretty yellow dress.

Leaves on the we-think-it's-an-apricot-tree in the back yard duly turned golden and fell during autumn and winter, and it has been bare ever since with no blossom, no green shoots, no sign of life at all even though blossom trees hereabouts are covered in flowers, and other deciduous trees are already wearing their bright spring green leaves.  We were concerned that like Monty Python's parrot it had turned up its toes, joined the choir invisible and was demised, which would be very upsetting because it provides welcome summer shade.  It was bad enough losing our big tree in the front yard earlier this year in a storm.  However - a couple of days ago I noticed one, just one, flower and today there are more, lots more, flowers and buds.....and on a couple of sprigs there are signs of new little green shoots emerging, so there is much rejoicing here at the Chateau des Wombats!

Now that it is getting warmer the sights we see on our strolls down the main drag will get even better - or worse, depending on one's point of view.  Mirrors were invented for a reason.  Why is it that those who shouldn't wear revealing clinging clothes are the very ones who do?  Leggings under a skirt are fine, on their own are not.......they are not pants, you know.....whoever invented them should be lined up against the wall to face a firing squad at dawn.

This morning I finished reading a book about William Shakespeare written by Bill Bryson and very interesting it was too.  We didn't learn a lot about Shakespeare, because very little is known to begin with.  It has been said that he didn't own any books, but we don't know that for sure.......just as we don't know if he owned any shoes or what he wore or indeed much of anything, because very few records have come down to us about such things.  Most of the 'facts' about Shakespeare are conjecture and wild imaginings; some people like to think that just because they wish a certain fact to be true, it indeed is.

"More formal entertainments.
Evening parties and balls are of a much more formal character than the entertainments that have been mentioned.  They require evening dress.  Of late years, however, evening dress is almost as much worn at grand dinners as at balls and evening parties, only the material is not of so diaphanous a character.  Lace and muslin are out of place.  Invitations to evening parties should be sent from a week to two weeks in advance, and in all cases they should be answered immediately."

I wonder if many people nowadays know what evening dress looks like?  When I was young and slender we used to dress up to attend balls, it was great fun and taught us how to wear formal clothes.

Enjoy your days!

Done!

Maritime Beauty is finished - berthed - safe in the harbour.  Colours of the sand, sea, rocks and sky......I haven't been to the maritime provinces of Canada, but this is how I imagine their shore looks.

 Shells to collect, and ripples in the sand.

Thank you very much, Karen!  Karen very generously gave me this pattern, one of her own designs.  It's very well written, easy to understand and to follow, and I can highly recommend it.  Should you wish to see Karen's designs (and perhaps make your own Maritime Beauty) you can do so on her website.

Wiggly quilting on this block is easy, and fun.  Just imagine that the spikes are hills and the backgrounds are valleys.  Starting at the top of a hill wiggle your way down to the bottom of the valley, then wiggle up to the top of the next hill......across the top........wiggle down the next valley, up the hill on the other side, across the top.......all the way round the block, or in this case round the whole quilt.  The spikes are left unquilted, but of course that is optional.

Later this month Maritime Beauty will be in an exhibition, an annual quilt show which is held to raise money for a local charity; it was dropped off this morning, so sadly I can't have the pleasure of looking at it here until it comes home again.

The current project under the needle is a cardigan in a very lightweight knit fabric, and for a bit of light relief I may start cutting pieces for the grandkid's quilt because the last weekend of this month is my quilt group's UFO weekend.  The chosen block is Economy Patch or square in square, easy to piece and effective in bright fabrics, so that will be a good project to take along - although it will be a USO because it is not yet started, so it can't be a UFO.  There is always a lot of talking on these weekends, but we manage to get quite a lot of sewing done too!

Life is going to be quiet here for a couple of weeks, uke group is on holidays and so is Thursday night choir as the musical director is overseas.  I shall really miss the music, but the uke can be (and is) picked up and strummed at every opportunity.  Playing guitar is getting easier too, my left arm is able to manage the stretch along the neck a little easier and the strength to press and hold down strings at the end of the stretch is slowly.......very slowly, mind you.......coming back.

"A call should not be less than fifteen minutes in duration, nor should it be so long as to become tedious.  A bore is a person who does not know when you have had enough of his or her company, and gives more of it than is desirable.  Choose a time to leave when there is a lull in the conversation, and the hostess is not occupied with fresh arrivals.  Then take leave of your hostess, bowing to those you know as you leave the room, not to each in turn, but let one bow include all."

Indeed.

Enjoy your days!

Stitching away

The binding on Maritime Beauty is being hand-sewn to the back, yay!

In my stash are three different blue batik fabrics but none of them were quite the right binding fabric, I was prepared to make a choice from them although one was too bright, one was too dark, one was too green - but in a local shop recently this blue fabric jumped off the shelf and into my hands, and like Goldilocks, it was Just Right.

Do you like the wiggly quilting?  Several years ago I attended a New York Beauty workshop with a tutor from New Zealand, Donna Ward, and she showed us this quilting design that she uses for the outer block points.  I liked it so much that I used it on the quilt from that workshop, and on this too.  The best thing about a wiggly line is that it never looks badly done, and because it is done in one continuous line along all the points in the block it is very easy.  I'm all for easy, you know.

The back of the dark teal jumper (sweater) is finished, the front has been cast on.  I am determined to wear it next winter.  That yarn has has three false starts already, so this will be it.

In a few weeks daylight saving will start again here and the mornings will, once again, be slightly dimmer for a short while.  The sun is coming up at stupid early o'clock now, so unless I get up before the crack of dawn for the morning walk I am looking directly into the sun while walking home up the hill.  Once I tried walking in the opposite direction to avoid the sun in my eyes but my brain didn't take to it; for one thing the uphill trudge is much steeper, for another the walk along the main road is on the wrong side of the road, and at that time of the morning people are driving into town for work so there is a steady stream of bike, cars and trucks.  Sometimes the trucks are carrying cattle or sheep for livestock sales on the other side of town, and the odour as they pass me is very........rural.

In my opinion, the term "fun run" is an oxymoron.

Spring now seems to be starting because the air is smelling different, the neighbour's jasmine is blooming over our side fence, and once it has finished flowering I will see how much I can cut back before it starts to take over the whole universe - because it will if allowed, you know.  When we first moved here it was climbing on the back fence too, but not now.  Plants which are quite benign in other parts of the world become weeds in Australia because of our climate; except for a few areas our winters are not severe enough to knock them back, so they grow all year ground.  And grow.  And grow.  And keep on growing........

Our wedding gig went off well, the bride was gorgeous in her vintage frock and she joined us for a song or two, which was delightful.  Because the music school follows academic school terms we have one more Tuesday this term then we are off for a couple of weeks.  By the time we come back we may be starting to think about end of year/Christmas concerts.  I don't know about you, but it sometimes feels that my life is flashing past before my very eyes while I sit back and watch it go by.

"It shows a want of courtesy to consult your watch, either at home or abroad.  If at home, it appears as though you were tired of your company, and wished them to be gone.  If abroad, it appears as though the hours dragged heavily, and you were calculating how soon you would be released."

It does seem to be that watches, rather being an item of jewellery, are falling out of favour because so many folk these days have smart phones which they use instead of a watch.  My phone is not smart, it's quite dumb really.......but time still passes by, just the same.

Enjoy your days!

Sproing

Some people say that spring starts in Australia on the first of September.  When I was at school (a thousand years ago at least) we were taught that seasons start at the spring and autumn equinox and the winter and summer solstice, which is more like it......but then, who said that we only have to have four seasons?  Some countries have only two, wet and dry.  For many years Australian aborigines have held the belief that there are at least six seasons, based on animal movements and plant growth.

Which is a roundabout way of saying that, although this is the first week of September, it's not yet spring because just 40 minutes from here the best snow fall of the year happened only two days ago.

Here are some spring pictures from a few years ago, taken at a local park.

 A pretty Eremophilia or Emu Bush, an Aussie plant - native birds love them.

 Golden wattle.

 A quiet corner.

 A Grevillea, one with spiky leaves - and a spiky leafed Grevillea is a spiky thing indeed..

Should you wish to get married in this park, you can.

Have you all had a good week?  I have, albeit a rather busy one.  Last night three of us from the uke group performed at a concert at the music school where we have our weekly meetings, that was two other brave souls and me.  For various reasons we were the only ones from our group who had the evening free which was a shame, because the concert was performances by adult learners only - no children on stage or in the audience.  It's a lovely idea, and is apparently an annual event.  Adults start music lessons for various reasons, in my case I always wanted to learn as a child but the money wasn't there.  If I had been the boy I suspect my parents wanted I could have had free lessons with a local boys' club brass band as my brothers did, but alas.......no.  There was nothing similar for girls in those days, if you wanted to learn music you had to pay.

Tomorrow the uke group is playing at a wedding!  We have A Big Gig!!  We will be background music while the guests are enjoying canapés, and I hope to goodness there are more than three of us.  One of our tutors will be playing with us, and if we are lucky the bride will join us for a song - she is a great singer and a lovely young woman who loves the retro look of the 50s, and she will be a gorgeous bride.

The quilting on Maritime Beauty is all done and now it needs its edges trimmed and binding to be made and sewn on, but it has been put aside temporarily because more time is being spent on the uke this week.  There is also a block obligation to be met by Monday, so with a bit of luck it will be cut and sewn on Sunday......and if it isn't, why then, it won't get done, will it?  My quilt group meets twice a month, on a Saturday and on a Monday, and the Monday group is all fired up and gung-ho about making charity quilts.  I have missed so much sewing time this year due to my shoulder that I am not fired up at all, I would rather spend time on my own projects right now.  We take it in turns to 'win' the blocks of the month which are then made up into charity quilts, although it has been said that we don't have to do that if we don't want to - but I feel the pressure is on to do so.  This does not make me a happy little Vegemite, so I will think seriously about whether I will continue with the Monday group next year.  Perhaps I will bring it up on Monday, and see what happens.

Or perhaps I will be a coward, and not say anything.

"Unwise expression of opinion.
Another class of people, actuated by the best of intentions, seem to consider it a duty to parade their opinions upon all occasions and in all places, without reflecting that the highest truth will suffer from an unwise and over-zealous advocacy.  Civility requires that we give to the opinions of others the same toleration that we exact for our own, and good sense should cause us to remember that we are never likely to convert a person to our views when we begin by violating his notions of propriety and exciting his prejudices.  A silent advocate of a cause is always better than an indiscreet one."

Which is a nice way of saying, if someone else expresses an opinion, don't ride roughshod over it.

Enjoy your days!

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!