Relaxing on the seventh day

After a very busy with commitments and appointments every day, we are doing very little today.  I had great plans to accomplish Stuff today, none of them look like happening......but that's all right too.

Where to start!

Usual stuff, shopping on Monday morning (because we need to eat), uke practice in the afternoon (fun), volunteering at the regional gallery on Tuesday (interesting), sewing guild on Wednesday (fun), massage on Thursday (relaxing), choir on Thursday night (fun), uke gig on Friday (great fun), quilt group yesterday (also fun) - makes me tired just thinking about it.

The challenge quilt is done.  It was finished on Friday night all ready to be handed in yesterday, as I had thought it had to be......but no, it doesn't need to be handed in until the end of the year.  Could have saved myself a panic, couldn't I?  At my age one doesn't want to waste too many panics.

Our uke gig on Friday went off very well, one of our best.  On Thursday night I told our choir director we would be playing the next day, he MC'd the concert and also performed on piano; thank goodness, he said, because two of our singers have had to cancel and we are short of performers.  Play for as long as you like, he said.  We ended up playing five songs with a bit of waffling in between to fill half an hour.  Our audience (nearly all older folk) loved our songs and joined in singing, especially the Aeroplane Jelly Song!  For the non-Aussies, Aeroplane jelly is like Jello, we all grew up eating it, and we can all sing the advertising jingle with its cheerful waltz tune word for word.  The feedback we received was very encouraging and Bill told me "you are very very good, you know......those harmonies were amazing".  He was talking about the group as a whole not me in particular although Claire and I are the harmony singers, that is high praise indeed.

Consequently I don't have any new pics this week, so it's time to trawl through the archives for some photographic memories.

While in Canada we spent a few days in Midland.  We had stopped there overnight on two previous trips but this time thought we would have a bit more of a look around.  It's a nice town with an interesting history, and large murals on some of the downtown buildings tell of its story.  Outside the local museum we found one of these:

 Even though it's out of action, it's a clever idea.

 As the sign tells, it is a horse trough/dog bowl/drinking fountain - liquid refreshment for the horse on one side, and the rider plus faithful pooch trotting along behind on the other side.

Probably a very welcome sight, back in the day.

It was quite chilly in Midland.  We dined at a local restaurant where we have eaten on our past visits - the whole idea of spending time in this town was to eat there again!  Our server picked by our accents that we weren't Canadian, we're Aussies, we told her......whereabouts, she asked......we told her the town name, she laughed......she is from a town just a few hours away, over at the coast.

However - today hasn't been a total loss, because I found my fishing tackle sewing box!  It was put away in A Safe Place quite some time ago, and amidst all the packing and unpacking following our two floods I had lost track of it.  Following a brainwave today I looked in just one more place, and there it was.  It was received in a Secret Santa gift exchange at a workplace back in the early 2000s, and I had never before realised what a useful thing a fishing tackle box is to one who sews.  Lift out tray.....pop up lid......deep base......plenty of room to store Stuff.  It's going to receive a good clean, then it will be used for the tumbler blocks.

"How to reprove.
Parents should never check expressions of tenderness in their children, nor humiliate them before others.  This will not only cause suffering to little sensitive hearts, but will tend to harden them.  Reproof, if needed, should be administered to each child singly and alone."

Would it had happened.

Enjoy your days!

It's been far too long

However now my world seems to have righted itself, The Dreaded Lurgy making my life miserable for the past couple of weeks seems be well and truly on the way out, hopefully the worst of the heat is behind us (except for the odd hot day or two coming up) so all is well with the world.

If you're not sure what the Dreaded Lurgy is, here is some information.  Australians of a certain age use the term to refer to a vague illness that is sort of like a cold, sort of like the flu......you know how it is when you don't feel well but don't need to seek medical attention, don't feel good enough to carry on with daily life without stopping to rest occasionally, cough a bit (or, as my case, a lot) which doesn't make for a good night's sleep thereby causing tiredness during the day making me thankful we are retired and don't need to front up to work bright eyed and bushy tailed.  It has made singing difficult but hopefully that will improve now too.

Consequently not much has been, quilting the challenge quilt is still not started although hopefully it won't take long to knock out tomorrow, several unmemorable books have been read on my tablet, and some hand stitching has been done.

We did have a social occasion yesterday.  It was Kevin's birthday on Thursday - Valentine's Day - and a couple of weeks ago I saw an ad online for trips in a vintage train this weekend.  Three rail motors are in town for a few days (a rail motor is a train carriage fitted with its own motor, not one pulled by an engine) and one could take a trip an hour north, stop for dinner at a country pub, then return.  So yesterday we did!

Here it is arriving at our station:

 The lovely old carriages - No 12 was at the front, then No 24 (ours) and No 25 at the rear.

 At our destination an hour north, after a steep climb.  We even had to stop at one stage to switch another motor on so we could continue up the hills!

 This is Walcha Road with its attractive station which dates from the 1880s (and which you can't quite see behind the train, sorry about that, it is a nice old building).  We then walked down the hill and across the road to the renowned pub for an excellent meal, before hiking back uphill, onto the platform and into our seats for the return journey.

It was very quick, as it was all downhill!  Because it was dusk and getting steadily darker, we did see a few wild kangaroos hopping around. 

It was of interest to us both; to Kevin because he hadn't been further north than our town by train, and to me because it was a trip I hadn't done since the mid 1960s.  There used to be several small stations on this line which have now been removed, I remember the trip taking longer because trains used to stop at every little siding and station.  The rail trip is not the same as a road trip; the road is much further west, so the terrain is very different.

So now back to reality.

Currently our state is supposedly celebrating Olde Phartes by having a Senior's Festival, as if growing older and hurting everywhere is something to be celebrated.  It is better than the alternative, I suppose, but why does it have to be so darn painful?  Anyway, next Friday morning there is to be a concert with awards being handed out to Senior of the Year, and Senior Group of the Year (which, I am proud to say, our choir won last year) followed by a concert then a free cuppa.  Never knock back a free cuppa, I say!  The uke group will be playing a few songs at the concert including a doozy called "The senior's lament".  "Are you lonesome tonight? does your tummy feel tight? did you miss your Mylanta and Tums?" etc......it always makes older people laugh, so we thought it was a good choice......except for Prue, who doesn't like playing it because she reckons it is all too sadly true!

"The bow is the touchstone of good breeding, and to neglect it, even to one with whom you may have a trifling difference, shows deficiency in cultivation and in the instincts of refinement.  A bow does not entail a calling acquaintance.  Its entire neglect reveals the character and training of the person ; the manner of its observance reveals the very shades of breeding that exist between the ill-bred and well-bred."

We bow after a performance, which obviously shows our good breeding.  When we remember......

Enjoy your days!

Anyone feel like sharing what I have?

Because I don't want it......don't know what it is, could be a cold, could be something else that makes me feel crook and saps my energy......but I really don't want it.

Never mind.  This too shall pass.

This week's weather hasn't been quite so fiercely hot, thank goodness.  January.....the less said the better, apparently it was the hottest January ever recorded.  Daytime maximum temperatures were 5.4 deg C over the long term average, and night time temps were 4.4 deg C over the average.  No wonder it was so nasty.  Actually, knowing that it really was hot makes me feel better, because then I know it wasn't just me being a grumpy old woman having a whinge - there was something to complain about.

Moving right along.

The large pin cushion mentioned last week is finished, done, but not photographed.  One more ticked off the list.  The charity challenge quilt is pinned ready to be quilted, for which I need orange thread - don't think one small spool will be enough, so that means a trip to Spotties.   Once that is done and out of my sewing room - with much relief - I can get back to my own projects.

Selfish as it may sound I have decided that I don't care about making charity quilts, I would much rather work on my projects.  The local quilt group has one or two members who churn out huge numbers of quilts for Ronald McDonald House as if there is no tomorrow, and a few members who make a (much) smaller number.  At my age not knowing how many years I have left to me.....not being morbid, just curious, after all I am on the downhill side of 70.....I would rather spend that time on my own Stuff.  The churners justify it by saying "I don't need any more quilts myself but I like to make them" - well, darling, that's fine.  You can do that.  Just don't force me the guilts on me to do the same because it won't work.

These are the embroidered Aussie flowers on the hanging made to go to Canada.

 All embroidered with one strand of DMC floss, the first was started with two strands but it was much too chunky.

 When these pics were taken they had not been trimmed down and pressed.....they looked more finished afterwards!

 The original pattern was for redwork but I like the look of old botanical etchings, that was the look I was going for.

 Or old sepia-toned photographs.

Back in the late 1990s-early 2000s two Queensland women started Oz Dye-Art to sell their own patterns and their own hand-dyed and printed fabrics.  The company lasted for several years until one moved interstate; however those of us who have those patterns still treasure them and use them, because they are Australian flora and fauna.  Not pretty flowers from overseas, not cute little animals which don't live here....they are all Australian, something which was quite difficult to find at the time.

My 1886 etiquette devotes a whole chapter to "The Language of Flowers" but even though it's revised for the Australasian colonies (of, I suspect, an American original) no Aussie flowers make the list.  Pity.....I would love to know what emotions the waratah and red flowering gum stood for!

"Bring one of the commonest field flowers into a room, place it on a table, or chimney piece, and you seem to have brought a ray of sunshine into the place.  There is a cheerfulness about flowers.  What a delight are they to the drooping invalid!  They are a sweet enjoyment, coming as messengers from the country, and seeming to say "Come and see the place where we grow, and let your heart be glad in our presence."

Indeed.

Enjoy your days!

One day closer to autumn!

The heatwave continues.

We have had friends of a musical friend staying for a few days while the big country music festival took over the town.  They are very nice people and we all enjoyed ourselves, saw some great concerts with them and without them.......and now it's just the two of us again.

The whole town is starting to empty as the music-loving tourists leave.  Yesterday morning Kevin and I were chatting to two interstate visitors at a concert and, when they found out that we were locals, the bloke said "you don't look like locals".  What does a local look like, we wondered?  Did he expect us to have straw between our teeth, wear boots with spurs, and say "yee har" with every sentence?  Perhaps he didn't expect two neatly dressed Olde Phartes; many of the tourists don't know the meaning of the words "neatly dressed".

Enough of that.  It is a very entertaining time, and people watching is a good part of the entertainment.

During our Toronto visit our lovely Canadian DIL and I attended a quilt show in Ajax, east of Toronto, and one of the things purchased was a kit to make a small bag using only one side of a zipper.  A strip of the unused portion becomes a loop at the side of the bag.  The idea has been around for a while but I hadn't tried it before - and it works!

 Interesting fabric, isn't it?  Not what I would normally choose, but it came in a kit with a lime zip and gold-speckled-lime lining and that was enough for me.  Everything was supplied, outer and lining fabrics, zip and fusible lightweight batting.  After ironing it to the outer fabric I quilted it in a wide two inch grid in case the adhesive ever fails.  I didn't get around to boxing the bottom corners but that won't stop the world from turning, will it.

This bag requires you to (gulp) cut off the zipper end pull which is eventually restored to the folded-around zipper tape; instructions say "this may require some swearing and a glass of wine, but it can be done"!  How could you not try it?  Kit was from Sew Have Fun in Oshawa, also east of Toronto.  An odd thing about this fabric:  to look at it you would think the colours are blue, grey, pink and lime on a purplish background, yes?  Wrong.  There is no pink......it's a trick of the light, those flowers have only white and blue petals.

Currently partly made on the sewing table is a large pincushion, a door prize won at a large meeting a couple of years ago.  Next step is to press a whole heap of 2-1/2 in squares into prairie points, but it has been a bit hot for ironing.  So it waits......

There is also a song to arrange.  The uke group will be playing for a 90th birthday early in March (the lovely mum of one of our members is having a Big 0 day) and I have re-written words to a celebratory song to reflect her and her family's names, for a bit of fun.  Because I didn't want to cause hurt or offence it was first run by the uke playing daughter for approval, she said "Mum will love it!" so now it needs chords.  Easy peasy.

Life will gradually get back to its normal busy routine, U3A launch day on Wednesday - that's when we put our names down for courses which appeal, mine of course is ukulele - and the choir is singing at a funeral on Tuesday afternoon for one of our members who recently passed away.  There is a reason the choir was awarded Senior Citizens Group of the year last year.......we're getting old.  We also lost another member while I was away, both of these people were in their 80s.

"The saddest of all ceremonies is that attendant upon the death of relatives and friends and it becomes us to show, in every possible way, the utmost consideration for the feelings of the bereaved, and the deepest respect for the melancholy occasion.  Of late the forms of ostentation at funerals are gradually diminishing, and by some people of intelligence even mourning habiliments are rejected in whole or in part."

When our choir performs in public we wear black bottoms - skirts or pants - and a bright shirt or top in a single colour; with over 30 members of different ages and body types we can each choose something flattering.  This also applies when we sing at funerals, so my outfit on Tuesday will probably be a flared black cotton skirt and turquoise top, and I will sing my heart out for Tony.

Enjoy your days!

Stitchings

Hoo boy, it's hot.  We're still in a heatwave; the past few days have been really nasty hot and the next few will be the same.  It's not just here, it's a lot of Australia, so we can't escape.  I'm ready for autumn now.......I'm over summer.

Sadly I lack the influence to end it, but you never know, one day.......

This is the quilt top finished last week.......it's bright!  The pattern is fun and easy to make; however, if you are bothered by having points cut off then this isn't the quilt for you.  It happens because of the method of assembly.  I personally myself couldn't care less, the world won't stop spinning on its axis because of this, you know.

 It was going to be pinned yesterday at sewing group but my quilting pins didn't like going through the fleecy backing, so shall have to think of a Plan B - perhaps spray adhesive, although I'm not a fan of using chemicals on my fabrics.

A project as yet not shown.  Made this as a gift for Rose Marie, and it wasn't finished until after we arrived in Toronto; the binding was still being hand sewn to the back.  However, here it is finally done and hanging in Rose Marie's dining room.

 The flowers are all stitched using one strand of DMC floss, and it was machine quilted.  Even tried piping as an inner border, something I haven't done before; it was slightly fiddly but not difficult, even though all four corners aren't as beautifully equal as I had hoped they would be.

 The golden yellow border and dark green binding were chosen to represent Australia's golden wattle, our national floral emblem.  The pattern is by Oz Dye-Art who are no longer in business.

Place mats for our friends on Vancouver Island, some of the fabrics are by Australian Aboriginal designers.  The colours were chosen in the hope that they would suit their new home - and they couldn't be better.

That home is decorated with teal and with dark colours, so once again the golden wattle yellow and pale green for foliage add a little touch of Australia to their home.

Some uke playing has been happening, practice for the gig on Sunday.  We will have fun even if we play the odd bum note......and some of them are pretty odd, believe me.

During the current heatwave we are making sure that the bird baths in out back yard are kept topped up.  A week ago I had been out splashing water around for the birdies and was walking back to the door when.....splat, the toe of my sandal caught on a loop of the hose (which we had gotten out of the habit of rolling up on the holder thingy on the wall) and down I went.  Ouch, double ouch and triple ouch.....bruised and badly skinned right knee, skinned left knee, bruised left foot and specially left big toe, hurting left hand/wrist, smarting palms.  Other bruises in unmentionable places.  I didn't realise that so much of me had come in contact with the ground.

However all is healing well, nothing has fallen off, everything is still attached where it should be, even if I couldn't lift a cup of coffee in my left hand for several days.  Hand piecing and reading are still possible, though, so all has not been lost!

"Speaking one's mind.
Certain honest but unthinking people often commit the grievous mistake of "speaking their mind" on all occasions and under all circumstances, and oftentimes to the great mortification of their hearers.  And especially do they take credit to themselves for their courage, if their freedom of speech happens to give offence to any of them.  A little reflection ought to show how cruel and unjust this is.  The law restrains us from inflicting bodily injury upon those with whom we disagree, yet there is no legal preventive against this wounding of the feeling of others."

This is true, but if you should happen to point out the chopped-off points on my quilt I would not be hurt or offended.  I already know about it.

Enjoy your days!

We're pretty much over summer

We had a late start to summer this year because we weren't here, but it is making up for our lost time now.  According to the weather people we are having a "low intensity heatwave" and have been since Christmas Eve......well, fancy that.  I would much prefer no heatwave at all.

Unfortunately I don't have the power to do anything about it, so we just have to suffer.

It was cooler in Canada.  This is the view looking west from our apartment window - see the bus stop around the corner?  We used it several times, but not on the day this was taken.

 Looking straight across the road.

I know that's not much snow compared to what some of you see every winter, but it's a big deal for us!

The day we drove from Midland to Goderich was quite snowy and very beautiful, if a little exciting for people not used to snow driving.  Maxwell is quite a small town with a diner where one can get excellent coffee; an agricultural machinery place - not quite what we needed - an Amish furniture store, and a really good quilt store, Threads That Bind.  On the premise of  'pics or it didn't happen' here is some of the snow that day......but this is nothing like we had driven through already, almost a whiteout in places.

Some fabric came home with me from Maxwell.  When the owner realised that I had come from a long way away she reached onto a shelf and gave me a fat quarter of fabric, saying she likes to give a gift to customers who have come a long way - how nice is that?  It's a fun piece with moose in checked jackets, and will become the feature fabric on a table centre because it's too good to cut into teeny pieces.

Stitches have been happening, an entire whole quilt top has been completed!  Not yet photographed, but that will be rectified in the next day or two or three.  The challenge quilt top is done.  I wouldn't like to have to count the number of orange spots in that fabric......it will be pinned to its fleecy backing next week and will have straight line quilting, then bound by machine, and it will be called "Quits".

The town is starting to fill with visitors who come for the annual country music festival.  It doesn't officially start until late next week but people arrive early to get a good camping spot, some even camping illegally until the camp grounds are officially open.  These are possibly the same folk who expect locals to step aside for them; while most visitors are reasonable we do get some 'special' people who think the world revolves around them and their demands.

Locals like to play "spot the visitor", and while it's as easy as shooting fish in a barrel it can be fun.  When we were doing some shopping in the main drag yesterday we saw some wondrous sights; I felt like tapping a couple of women on the shoulder and whispering to them that the bra was invented for a reason.  But being the nice person as what I am, I didn't.

Never mind, the money they leave behind them is as good as anyone else's, and the town does quite well out of it.

"Limit of a prolonged visit.
If no exact length of time is specified, it is well for visitors to limit a visit to three days or a week, according to the degree of intimacy they may have with the family, or the distance they have come to pay the visit, announcing this limitation soon after arrival, so that the host and the hostess may invite a prolongation of the stay if they desire it, or so that they can make their arrangements in accordance.  One never likes to ask of a guest, "How long do you intend to remain?" yet it is often most desirable to know."

We know that nearly all of these visitors will be gone by the end of the month as the festival finishes on 27th January, so that spares both parties the embarrassment of needing to ask.

Enjoy your days!

It's 2019 - Happy New Year!

We made it to midnight last night, wished each other happy new year, then went to bed.  Not bad for two Olde Phartes who don't usually keep late hours.

Let's hope it's a good year full of great stuff like love and happiness and some excellent coffee and chocolate, because the world turns more smoothly when it's lubricated with chocolate.

Day one of the year, and I am looking at a quilt I designed 18 months ago (after the Lesser Flood, before the Great Flood) and which has now been changed slightly, being inspired by a quilt seen in Canada.  While I didn't go overboard with the fabric purchases on our travels a judicious amount was bought, some of it black and white with this quilt in mind.  Now the design has been refined on EQ7 and printed out, and I am gobsmacked by its amazingness.  Because it's foundation pieced it won't be a quick make, but it will be worked on from time to time during the year......and before we know, it will be finished.

Meanwhile, the charity challenge quilt mentioned last week will get done.  Pieces are all cut out, the gold/orange solid idea has been dropped in favour of the random orange spot, and it will be quite bright when complete. 

How about a chuckle from Canada.

 The slightly indistinct hand-written sign (it was a drizzly day) says "local squirrel carver"; it was a few days before Halloween, so houses and shops were decorated with pumpkins.  A local squirrel obviously thought it could do a better carving job than a human could, what do you think?

Here's Captain Harry.......

 ......and here's Captain Harry's sign.

 Here's Captain Harry in 2012.  He looks much happier in his new incarnation, but he was wonderfully weathered and lugubrious in those days.  I'm not so sure that I like his sanitised spick-and-span look as much as the old style!

He's not even hanging onto his wheel in the same way.....his new boat must steer differently to the old one.  I reckon Captain Harry has been slurping from the fountain of youth.

When the bloke who shares one's life likes to watch summer sports - mostly cricket and tennis - one realises just how much sport is shown on TV.  Far too much, in one's humble but very honest opinion.  It all becomes interminable, and it goes on forever too.  However one has an agreement with said bloke whereby he watches TV with the sound off, and I listen to a classical music station instead of the inane commentary and drivel which usually accompanies these sports, and we are both happy. 

Now that the rush and bustle of Christmas and new year is over it's time to knuckle down to some uke practice.  It's nearly three weeks until our gospel gig and, while the songs are all familiar, a little playing beforehand is probably a good idea.

"Requisites for a good talker.
To be a good talker then, one should be possessed of much general information, acquired by keen observation, attentive listening, a good memory, extensive reading and study, logical habits of thought, and have a correct knowledge of the use of language.  He should also aim at a clear intonation, well-chosen phraseology and correct accent.  These acquirements are within the reach of every person of ordinary ability, who has a determination to possess them, and the energy and perseverance to carry out that determination."

This is indeed so, and something that I wish the weekday morning announcer on the classical music station would take note.  I don't mind that he has an accent - Scottish, not too broad - I do mind that he mumbles, stumbles and fumbles every morning.  If I wasn't such a nice person I would reach into the radio and give him a severe whack around the back of his mumbling head.

Enjoy your days!