Only twelve months to go

My performance this afternoon went well considering I was feeling slightly less than fabulous, thanks to the hay fever which has turned out to be the gift that keeps on giving.  Never mind; I made it through both a poem and a song without disgracing myself, and had fun.

Now to think of next year's pieces....there is still twelve months, that should be enough time to decide....

Not much has happened on the sewing front so there are no pics to share, but let's see what's lurking in the photo vault.

Oh my, here's an oldie!  The doll is one I have had since childhood, a hard plastic doll with "Patsy" moulded onto the back of her neck - so, of course, she is called Patsy.

The little bed was bought from a now-defunct chain which sold all manner of  'decorator' items.  They sold a line of dressed dolls (nothing like Patsy, though, she is much older) and this little metal bed fitted her nicely.

This was one of the first quilts I made, machine pieced but - gasp - hand quilted!

I don't usually go for the pink and blue colour scheme but, as Patsy is a 1950s doll, she needed a colour scheme from that era.

Sadly I had no daughters, and no granddaughters.  I have a couple of other dolls, so perhaps I'll just sell them or even give them away.  Do children even play with dolls these days?  I used to enjoy making clothes for mine, rather than playing "mummy" with them.

How has everyone been this week?  We have had a fairly quiet week; words have been read, stitches have been sewn but not knitted.  The coming week, though, sees various appointments for both of us so knitting is a good way to spend waiting time, particularly as I now have to go along with Kevin to his various appointments.  Songs were sung (croaked would perhaps be a better word) and played.  We hunted and we foraged.

Fortunately next week doesn't look like being so busy, so a trip to a town an hour away for Arboretum's backing fabric is on the cards.

Best of all, we have had a lot of rain!  Not enough to break the drought which some say is already upon us, but good rain nevertheless.  It's amazing how little rain it takes for gardens and grass to suddenly look healthy and green, instead of dry and brown.  It's been chilly enough that the fire has, at times, been welcome, in fact there is one burning as we speak.

"Costumes of the bridegroom and groomsman.

The bridegroom and groomsman, at a morning wedding, wear full morning dress, dark blue or black frock coats, or cut-aways, light neckties, and light trousers.  The bridegroom wears white gloves.  The groomsmen wear gloves of some delicate colour."

Just as I chose not to wear a traditional white wedding dress, Kevin chose not to dress formally for our wedding.  His shirt was gold-coloured and he wore brown trousers....well, it was the 1970s, the decade of brown, brown and more brown.  His necktie and gloves were non-existent.

We were both happy with that.

Enjoy your days!

Jennifer

A bit of a "ta-da" moment

Arboretum is now a finished top.

It was a bit too big for my regular holder-upper's help, so yesterday it came along to quilt group with me where some obliging arms helped hold it.  It was even a bit large for those arms, but never mind.  It's done.....and I am thrilled with it!

Now to join some wadding pieces together, and go shopping for backing fabric, and have it quilted.  And of course, not to forget to make a label.

The thought has even occurred to me that four more trees could be made and turned into a seasonal hanging....now, that would be fun.....

How has everyone been?  The Hay Fever from Hades is (mostly) moving back to from whence it came, thank goodness, although every now and then it makes an unwelcome return to tap me on the shoulder as a reminder of its presence.  We had some rain earlier in the week and more is forecast for the coming week, so perhaps that will wash away some dust.  The hill behind us was dry, dead and brown, but now it has a little coating of green.

Words have been read.  Stitches have been sewn, but not knitted.  Much practicing of next Sunday's poem and song competition pieces have been taking place, and those errant chords are now firmly fixed in my brain along with the words; a little fine tuning, and it will be even better.  I made it to choir on Thursday afternoon after two weeks' absence and managed most of the notes, although there were a few which defeated me.  We hunted and foraged, our regular social activity - there's usually someone we know to chat to as we wend our way around the shops, so it's quite a sociable pastime for a couple of Olde Phartes.

There are still trees with autumn colour, but those leaves are rapidly dropping; a tree not far from our place will soon have bare branches as its glorious red/bronze leaves will be a thing of the past - but also of the future, because next year it will happen all over again. 

"The bridal costume.

The most approved bridal costume for young brides is of white silk, high corsage, a long wide veil of white tulle, reaching to the feet, and a wreath of maiden-blush roses with orange blossoms.  The roses she can continue to wear, but the orange blossoms are only suitable for the ceremony."  

I am assuming that the maiden-blush roses are artificial, as real roses could be used for one occasion only.  The "white wedding dress" with its accompaniments is a relative modern idea, started by Queen Victoria back in 1840; before then a wedding dress was not necessarily new (a bride would probably wear her best dress, no matter what the colour) or even white.  A white dress was not a practical idea in those days before modern washing machines, so only wealthy families could afford such an unsuitable dress for a daughter's wedding.  The 'virginal purity' symbolism of a white dress is, likewise, not such a very old idea either, just something which has become attached to the colour white over the years.

Besides which, white doesn't suit everyone, does it?

When Kevin and I married, my dress was a very 1970s long floral dress with a deep double frill around the hem, much in style for the time.  It was certainly not white.

Enjoy your days!

Jennifer

A bit of a fizzer

Is what my birthday was.  

The Hay Fever from Hades had moved in earlier in the week, and from then on it has been cough-cough-cough and more cough.  Sadly the anticipated birthday lunch had to be postponed, but it went ahead yesterday and was all the more appreciated for being delayed.

I can understand why sleep deprivation is used as an instrument of torture, sleeping is so difficult when one is continually cough-cough-coughing.  However the cough is more settled now and I have managed a few nights of nearly uninterrupted sleep, which certainly makes me feel better.  The rib muscles which had been so painful (because: cough) and made machine sewing difficult as a result, are also easing.

Consequently, much as I had hoped it would be, the top of Arboretum is not quite finished.

The section on the bottom right needs to be joined to the section above it - you can see my yellow pin marker top centre on the blue peacock tree - then that whole section will be joined to the much larger section to the left.

Then - it will be done!

I could manage an occasional stitch by hand or by knitting needle in between coughing, but much of my spare time was spent reading because it doesn't require much physical effort.  This was on the "take one, leave one" table when I went to the physio recently; I have read another of Jane Harper's books so this one came home with me.

I enjoyed it, although it's by no means a light-hearted read.  It centres around an annual memorial for Sam, a man who disappeared on his 21st birthday five years earlier, and we find out relationships are falling apart....buildings are falling apart....the town itself is falling apart as a nearby mine encroaches closer and closer.  Despite that it's not all gloom and doom, and there is much positivity.  The book has now gone back to whence it came, for someone else's enjoyment.

Words, as you can see, have been read.  Stitches have occasionally been sewn or knitted.  Not one word has been sung or plinked; I haven't been to choir because it's difficult to sing when one is coughing, but that also means that no practice has been done for the Eisteddfod competition in just two weeks (eek!).  Appointments were kept, something which seems to be happening more and more these days.  We managed to go out for food to keep starvation at bay, and that was our week.

When one is spending more time at home because one isn't well one's world shrinks, doesn't it?  Not sick enough to need medical attention or to take to one's bed like the heroine of a Victorian novel, just unwell enough to feel tired and listless and to occasionally spend time in one's comfy chair wrapped in a quilt.  Which, of course, one made some years ago.

For many years it was my caravan quilt, and now it's my comfy chair quilt because it matches my comfy green chair and because it's warm.

Early last week we had a small rain shower which was very welcome, and more is forecast over the next few days.....which will be even more welcome.  Our drive on Saturday for lunch was to Bendemeer and we drove through very dry brown country, so that rain is needed.

Here we are back at the altar.

"The bridesmaids and groomsmen.

Only relatives and the most intimate friends are asked to be bridesmaids - the sisters of the bride and of the bridegroom, where it is possible.  The bridegroom chooses his best man and the groomsmen from his circle of relatives and friends of his own age, and from the relatives of his fiancee of a suitable age.  The dresses of the bridesmaids are not given, unless their circumstances are such as to make it necessary."

You notice that small children are not mentioned.  For many years now small children - some quite small - have been part of a wedding party, and I must admit to not being a fan.  A retinue of cutesy-poo kiddie-widdies seems to de rigeur at royal weddings; I remember reading many years ago it started with Princess Margaret of the British Royal Family as she and her groom were short and didn't wish to have bridesmaids towering over them, so her attendants were all or nearly all pre-teens.

Enjoy your days!

Jennifer

Happy birthday to me....

....Happy birthday to me,

Happy birthday, happy birthday,

Happy birthday to meee!

Jennifer

The story so far

Arboretum's top is more than two-thirds done.

The resident holder-upper doesn't have a wide wingspan, hence the bottom is touching the ground.....but I love the stained glass effect looking out from our back verandah, don't you?  The remaining section will be done this week; it's a busy week with appointments, choir, quilt group, U3A ukulele starting back tomorrow, but somehow during those days I will find time to make three blocks each with nine trees in them, sew them together and join it to the right of this piece - then the top will be finished.

Getting this far is a good feeling.  Knowing how close the top is to being done is even better.

Thoughts have also been thought about a label for Arboretum.  One of the batik fabrics from the Big Basket is a pale yellow leafy print which will make a good label background while also looking suitably....leafy, and the details will be embroidered by hand.

When I retrieved the quilt from holder-upper Kevin's embrace a visitor fluttered in for a drink, a rainbow lorikeet, a species we often see hanging around this area.  

They are noisy chattering birds, and their bright plumage is very colourful.  When we moved to our last house in the Big Smoke back in 1987 we never saw them, but as the two Callistemon trees on the front footpath grew larger and produced more flowers - and more nectar - they were more frequent (and noisier!) visitors; by the time we moved out 23 years later their numbers had grown considerably.

Several years ago rainbow lorikeets were the inspiration for an art quilt challenge, with fun results.

Next Thursday, 7th May, will be the 16th anniversary of our moving out of the Big Smoke, and into this house.  It's been a good move, and we both know it's a better place for us to spend our declining years than in a huge metropolis with too much traffic, too many people, and construction everywhere you turn.  I used to like spending time in Parramatta which wasn't far away and which has some interesting old buildings to explore from colonial days, but these days it's just another huge city....and those attractive historic buildings are now dwarfed by their taller neighbours, something I'm glad not to see.  Some have even been deemed surplus to requirements and removed, knocked down, which I find a shame.

How has everyone been this week?  We have had the usual running around with appointments and shopping.  Words have been read, stitches have been sewn and knitted.  Songs have been sung.  Some practice went into refining the song for the Eisteddfod concert at the end of this month (so close!), and it's coming along well.

No rain fell this week, not one dribble or drip.  It has now been over five weeks since the last shower of rain, but we have hopes that the next day or two may bring a little drizzle.  Temperatures are still mild but next Friday is forecast to be an early taste of winter, so the winter woolies had better be checked to make sure they are fit to be seen in public.

Continuing on with Etiquette of Weddings:

"After the marriage invitations are issued, the fiancee does not appear in public.  It is also de rigeur at morning weddings that she does not see the bridegroom on the wedding-day, until they meet at the altar."

I find it strange that a newly-engaged woman has to hide herself away from public gaze until she becomes Mrs Someone Else.  Perhaps the idea is to stop her finding a bloke she prefers to the one who finally plucked up enough courage to pop the question?

Enjoy your days!

Jennifer

One down, eight to go

Arboretum is being constructed in panels, for ease of handling.

The trees are set 11 across by nine down in the finished quilt, but four across by three down is a manageable size to work with.  New panels will be joined to the previous one as we go along; the next piece will go on the bottom of this one, hopefully that will be done later today.  There will be nine panels.

Some jiggling of blocks is still happening.  Every time I walk into that room and look at the trees spread out on the design bed another one or two get moved......but it is getting closer to being the final design.

It will go out to be quilted as I'm not sure that my sometimes-painful shoulder and wrist could handle machine quilting, even though it's not enormously huge.  It's about 60 inches across by 72 down.

How has everyone been?  We have dealt with our usual Olde Pharte appointments, and even fronted up with our sleeves rolled up for the annual flu shot early in the week.  Geez, I hate having pointy things poked into me.....apart from tiredness for the next couple of days and a slightly sore arm from the pointy poke there have been no side effects.  I've been having the flu shot for over 25 years without a problem, but I am not having any more covid shots after bad side effects from the last two.

Words have been read.  Stitches have been sewn and knitted.  The shops were shuffled around for the weekly wanderings and food was purchased for the consumption thereof, in a never-ending cycle.  Songs were sung, and the realisation come to that I had better get cracking on learning the chords for my Eisteddfod song; the poem is in my brain, the words of the song likewise, but those chords have yet to follow - and they have just a month to do so.

Our autumn weather has been pleasantly warm, not hot, but it is oh-so-dry....no rain has fallen at all this month.  Not one dribble, not a drip.  Nothing.  Reports have been coming in on social media about kangaroos coming into town because their usual food supply in the bush has died off due to the complete lack of rain.  Apparently autumn is usually our wetter season, so a dry autumn does not augur well for the year's crops.

If wishing would make it rain we would have a flood, but alas......

Do any of you watch the program in which people get 'fake married?  Just seeing the ads is bad enough....I think to myself (and indeed, usually say out loud) "what drivel!"....there are far too many programs in which people are pitted against each other to win a cash prize, or perhaps a fake spouse....the TV stays off more than it is on in our house.  We don't subscribe to streaming (I nearly wrote 'screaming' there) services, either.   I would far rather read a book.  Growing up without television didn't bother my brothers and I; we were teenagers when it finally arrived in our town, and I was far too busy being a social butterfly to stay home and watch.  Kevin is a great one for channel surfing with the remote - it's a bloke thing - but doesn't end up watching much anyway.

 We have finished the chapter on Courtship and Marriage, so now we move onto Etiquette of Weddings.

"The circumstances under which weddings take place are so varied, and the religious forms observed in their solemnization so numerous, that to lay down rules applicable to all cases would be a matter of great difficulty, if not an impossibility.  Consequently, only those forms of marriage attended with the fullest ceremonies, and all the attendant ceremonials, will here be given, and others may be modelled after them as the occasion may seem to require."

Nothing here about fake TV weddings, you notice.

Enjoy your days!

Jennifer

Laid out ready to be sewn together!

All the blocks for Arboretum are laid out on the design bed.

I think this will be the final layout, but of course it's subject to change.  Every now and then I look at the blocks then swap a couple around, but it's pretty close to being ready to sew now.  I hope.  I didn't go for the colourwash idea, because it's never appealed to me - I quite like random.  Nature is random, after all, it's not neat and tidy.

However, I am having second thoughts about the backing fabric.  It's black and white; although I really like it I would have preferred something more autumn-y, so perhaps I should go shopping again.  The black and white fabric can instead be used as the backing on another quilt in progress, one which has lots of black and white.  Decisions, decisions......looks were looked at fabrics during our trip away, but nothing jumped up and down and said "pick me, pick me"......

The labels for both Arboretum and the house quilt have been put into the brain cells to be worked on.  A few years ago a skein of multi-coloured floss was purchased for the house quilt label, and my brain is thinking it will also do nicely for Arboretum's label.

We have noticed that trees are finally turning, leaves are changing colour at last.  No pics of autumn colours were taken on our recent holiday, because there was very little to take; most trees were still wearing their summer clothes, albeit somewhat faded in places.  With the much cooler weather of late there would now be autumn colours galore down south, but we're not about to head off again to find out.

How has everyone been this week?  We've been settling back into our everyday life once more.  Stitches have been sewn but none knitted, although that should change this week.  While we were away the final stitches were knitted on the second sleeve, the page was turned to the instructions for the jumper front, and the knitting bag was reached into for the required 3.25 ml circular needle to cast on......but alas, there was none!  It had been left at home!  Never mind; off to the big op shop, but neither a 3.25 ml circular nor a pair of 3.25 ml needles were to be found.  Not to worry, a set of four 3.25 ml was purchased and when the predicament was explained to the helpful young bloke volunteering at the counter he gave me some rubber bands to improvise 'knobs' on the ends of the needles to stop stitches sliding off.  The required number of stitches was cast on for the front and many rows knitted before we arrived home, and the next row could then be knitted onto my preferred circular needle.

Words have been read.  We went out hunting and foraging to avert starvation, probably a good idea, but of course it has to be done again and again, doesn't it?  That troublesome wrist has mostly been behaving itself, the brace has been worn when needed, and all is (mostly) good.

Final words on Breaking an Engagement:

"Many men, in taking retrospective glances, remember how they were devoted to women, the memory of whom calls up only a vague sort of wonder how they ever could have fallen into the state of infatuation in which they once were.  The same may be said of many women.  Heart-breaking separations have taken place between young men and young women who have learned that the sting of parting does not last forever.  The heart, lacerated by a hopeless or misplaced attachment, when severed from the cause of its woe, gradually heals and prepares itself to receive fresh wounds, for affection requires either a constant contemplation of, or intercourse with, its object, to keep it alive."

Well, yes.  Time heals all wounds, as they say.  Or perhaps it's, time wounds all heels.....

Enjoy your days!

Jennifer