Self-isolation Day 9: easy does it

Today I took it very easy and focused on the Muncaster Oranges. I also had a lovely long Facetime discussion with a good Guild friend - so much to catch up on. I registered for online Pilates classes and discovered that another supermarket I use has a home delivery service for self-isolaters. Might use that next week, so I can get my regular meusli.

The oranges were dry and beautifully flat. I took the plunge and cut them out quite close in order to applique them to my chair cover.

It's a tricky procedure. Just getting the cover off the chair is a bit of an effort. It fits very snugly, so has to be eased off. I wanted the oranges to cover the seam joining two of embroideries already attached.












I am pinning through two quite heavy layers of large and awkward fabric

and it is very easy to find pleats on the underside, which will result in puckers when the cover is on the chair.














The larger panels I have machine stitched to the cover, but this one needed to be hand-stitched. My machine skills are no good with curves on bulky fabric!



Then came the job of putting the cover back on. It takes quite a while to manipulate it. There is no zip, and it fits quite tightly.


I'm pleased with the effect, but it does draw my attention to the need for pieces to fill other gaps. I dug out the redwork rabbit - another job for my isolation! What I need is a mirror image of the Muncaster Oranges!




It is good to see people using the square to exercise well away from others. One of my neighbours was also knitting in the park this afternoon.










I covered a few more hexies, but am now working on the Marie Wallin scarf. It's taken a bit of concentration to get back into the rhythm, but I'm just about there.

I'm thinking I might work on the scarf for a bit and then add in the Mellerstain Parrots.

From my grocery largess I had a couple of Jamie Oliver lemon pepper chicken fillets with salad tonight. After watching the last of the current ABC Agatha Raisin series, I discovered Series 1 of the Repair Shop on iView - one of my very favourite shows. I can just manage to knit the scarf and watch!

Self-isolation Day8: Blocking, delivery and stitching decisions

My good news for today is that the Sydney friend in doubt about her cataract operation I mentioned on Wednesday did indeed have her operation yesterday and is recovering at home with clear sight! After she’d cancelled her transport arrangements, the doctor called at 8pm to say he would go ahead at 7.30 am the following morning!  She was able to fast, reorganise her transport and have the surgery. She’s delighted and grateful.

One of the advantages of self-isolation when you live alone is that you can dress anyway you like (unless, of course, you are going to videoconference with anyone). Today I’m wearing red leggings and a very comfortable beige long sleeved top that I bought a couple of year ago from Gardinarium, opposite Hampton Court. (No, I’m not going to take a selfie!) I’m very fond of this top but it has succumbed to the tshirt hole syndrome, as have several other of my tops. These holes appear, often after washing, in the front of the top, just below the waste.

I discussed this phenomenon last year with a friend who convinced me it was caused by the screw on my seated stitching hoop. However, when on holiday with my daughters in January we discovered they experienced it to - and they don’t use seated hoops. A Google search revealed this to be a global phenomenon. The consensus is that it is caused by zips, button sand the hard fabric of jeans rubbing on tshirt fabric, especially while at a sink or bench, and exacerbated in washing machines. I've been looking at creative ways of patching some of mine but at the moment I can wear them without attracting attention!

I had a long phone catch up with a friend of very long standing (63 years I reckon) now living in Canberra. Amongst other bits of mutually catch up, she tells me she has used Woolworths home delivery for ten years and found it totally reliable and helpful. She and her husband are happily spending most of their time at home and not meeting with anyone. Another Adelaide  friend had been to the supermarket briefly where people were steering around each other although some seemed not to understand the distancing notion.

I did a good clean of my bathroom and kitchen before getting out my blocking equipment and blocking the Muncaster Orange. It looks so beautifully thick - quite three dimensional. I imagine it will be thoroughly dry tomorrow and ready to attach to my chair.

Now comes the decision of what, in addition to the hexies, I will work on next. I have had the Mellerstain parrots ready to roll for the best part of a year, so that’s an option. I have my recent travel project, the owl bag to finish. While I keep projects like this going so I can 'grab and go' , it's unlikely I'll be going anywhere for a while, so I could finish the bag.

I have numerous kits, and the big, conceptual project I was planning for the Guild’s exhibition in October- the one for which Nicola gave me the sequins. I also have several knitting projects. I'm  wondering if I should vary my ‘one at a time’ rule to give myself a bit of variety?

I've made a selection. There is the Marie Wallin scarf I have started. I've worked one pattern. This is beautiful and nicely challenging but not the kind of project you can pick up and put down easily.

The Hematite Shawl is alpaca from Adagio Mills in Orange, NSW and will be fun and relatively easy to knit. The ball things are quick and easy to knit from left-over wool.

The embroidery length is from Jenny McWinney and is made up of four panels to be embroidered. Mine will, of course, be turned into various kinds of bags.

I haven't decided yet which to choose. I am leaning towards the Mellerstain parrot and the Marie Wallin scarf, running simultaneously, with hexies for light relief. I also have a counted thread bag I have been working on at Basics to Beyond. It will be many months before we meet again. I haven't written about that yet in my embroidery blog - but will get around to it.


For today, I've continued folding and tacking hexies but by  tomorrow I will be anxious to start the next project. Sleep on it.



The second big good news of my day is that Woolworths delivered my order! I had a message this morning confirming the delivery, followed by a refund of $2.47 on a item whose weight had been overestimated! Around 3.00pm I had a message to say delivery would be between 3.50 pm and 4.50 pm. The driver rang my buzzer around 3.30. I let him in but nothing happened. He rang again to say the lift had been called to another floor before he could enter. This, I suspect relates to lift precautions in light of the virus. I let him in again and soon heard the rustle of bags on the other side of my heavy door. I rushed to the balcony to yell my thanks as he re-entered his truck, before opening my door and hooking in 4 bags without leaving my doorway.
I am a happy camper. I'm assuming I will now be able to keep using this service. Woolworths this morning announced they are recruiting 20,000 workers nationally to keep and expand their delivery service.

Another friend rang as the delivery arrived. I rang off until the delivery was over and put away, then poured myself a glass of wine and called her back to catch up and celebrate!

Then one of my daughters rang and I caught up on family activity. The kids have another week of school before holidays and at least a term of schooling from home.

I had the last of my friend's pasties for dinner with a salad much augmented by my afternoon delivery (and, of course, one of the icecreams)!

While I am looking forward to the end of my self-isolation, I am well aware it is only likely to free me up to visit a supermarket or green grocery, my letterbox and the rubbish bins. To keep myself and others safe, I will probably be unable to socialise for some weeks. I have not set foot outside the apartment door since I arrived home. I am storing my recycling rubbish in anticipation of putting it into the basement bins next Friday and I have managed to freeze my food scraps to dispose of at the same time. My Woolworths delivery today means I have no room to freeze more food scraps. There is a rubbish shute on our landing for landfill rubbish but I have almost none of that and I haven’t been out on the landing. I’m sure, if necessary, I can negotiate to go to the shute while my neighbours are out for a walk, or inside, if I wear disposable gloves. It is, I’m told, OK at the moment to put food scraps into landfill, but it would be nice to manage without. I have a bit of a Plan B forming!

I have just watched Gardening Australia on Channel 2.Thanks to a tip-off from a neighbour downstairs, we knew that Alex, the gardener for our apartment block, was being featured on tonight's program, with his home garden. It was the last segment on the program and worth waiting for.

We're very lucky!

So, sunset, moon and evening star.

Tomorrow should bring a decision on my next project, and Muncaster Oranges to be appliqued to my chair!

Self-isolation Day 7: Halfway; oranges following the sun

Yesterday I listened to the Gesualdo Six while stitching in my living room in the afternoon. I saw them perform at Ukaria, in the Adelaide Hills in February and bought two of their CDs which I hadn’t played. I love the music they make, both the familiar and the less so.

This morning, inspired by Phillipa Turnbull's video in her garden, I decided I would take my stitching outside. I was on a roll with the ribbon on my Muncaster Orange - the topic of Phillipa's video. I rarely sit outside on my back balcony, although I often sit just inside. It was lovely there this morning, very warm without being too hot -not that usual in Adelaide. 

I was stitching happily way when I received a text message from Woolworths, telling me I had been accepted for home delivery from online ordering! Yah! I was so relieved. This had been my major cause of concern in self-isolation. While I am OK for food, I will run out of fresh fruit and veg before the end of my isolation. I have family and friends who will shop for me, but they all have quite enough on their plates without needing to service me as well. If the home delivery works I know I can manage.

I went inside and finalised my order immediately. My first delivery is scheduled tomorrow between 2pm and 7pm. I could take a wide delivery window because I know I'll be here!  I have left instructions that it needs to be brought upstairs and left outside my door. I can't go outside my door, so need it right outside.   Here's hoping it works.

Back on the balcony, I continued stitching - and took another photo of the tree to get closer to the branch structure for a future embroidery.

While I was contemplating the tree,  my immediate neighbour rang. We had a great catch up, the birds, the bats, our concerns, our hopes.  I was pleased to get her husband's opinion that my vine from yesterday's post is indeed a passionfruit. Theo knows this stuff. I've decided the obvious future of the vine is in the garden of someone who likes passionfruit. When we are out of lockdown.

As the day progressed I moved with the sun. It was great light for stitching. I discovered gaps in the rope stitch stems that had not been obvious to me under artificial light. I filled in all the gaps and finished off the stems. By 3.30 I was stitching on the front balcony.

A helicopter seemed to take off from quite nearby in the city and gain height as it came past. Checking helipads in the city, it had to be either from the Royal Adelaide Hospital or AECOM - a private infrastructure company that apparently has a helipad in the CBD - seems a bit upmarket for Adelaide!

There is still a bloom on one of my balcony frangipanis. It isn't a really strongly scented one, but it is lovely.









In the continuous sunlight I made excellent progress on the bow. I went over several bits until I was happy. I was struggling to balance shading for distance (edges behind and in front) and shading for light. It isn't always the same thing. It took me several adjustment to be happy.

There was plenty to look at, including the exhaust trail of the Perth plane from Melbourne - a site we won't, I imagine, see in coming weeks.







I almost finished the bow as the sun went down and the birds came home to roost.

I stopped to call my brother. He's working from home. My sister-in-law is refining her technique of teaching PE to 24 junior primary student via video link in their individual home. 24 separate little screen faces need some getting used to !  There are processes and protocols for online communication that have to be identified and learned. Many people, not just teachers, are on a steep learning curve - but getting there quite quickly. SA is moving to learning from home from the end of term, preferably immediately.

In the hope that my supermarket order will indeed arrive tomorrow, I allowed myself an extra serve of salad tonight. Susan's pasties are delicious. I'm so lucky to have this generous supply!

I finished the bow off quite quickly after my meal. I'm very pleased with it. I think it will fit in nicely with the other pieces on my chair.











It's now out of the hoop. I will block it  tomorrow.

I'm wondering whether my Sydney friend, had her cataract operation or not. I will hopefully find out tomorrow- before or after my groceries arrive!


I am now half way through my self isolation, and doing well thanks to my family, friends and neighbours - not just here but in distant places.  It is heartening to be so connected. I look forward to welcoming Woolworths to my support network!

Self-isolation Day6: Routine - and a bit rambling

I seem to be falling into a daily routine, reading emails and news, late breakfast, check plants, emailing and calling friends, maybe a little reading, late lunch, stitching and blogging, more calls and email, dinner, blogging and stitching.

This morning I focused a bit on this tree,  visible from my back balcony. I like it’s shape and branch structure (the latter not so clear in the photo). It might be useful in an embroidery. 

I have a basket on this balcony that I had planted with herbs, after watching an ABC Gardening program in which Sophie Thomson demonstrated a basket of herbs you could take on holiday with you. (I didn’t want to take it on holiday, but thought it would work on a balcony).




 At the time I was trying to make my own compost, a venture I gave up, when I realised it would take more than 6 weeks from scrap to soil, I had added quantities of my compost experiment to the basket,  The herbs all died but a vigorous vine emerged. I think it’s passion fruit. I’m interested to see how far it develops. Can I bonsai passion fruit?

I have been in touch with several Guild friends today and  contacted the members of the Guild’s  World Embroidery Study Group. There is sufficient enthusiasm for sharing some of our studies online. I was also able to organise to mail some information to one member with email difficulties. Many thanks to Chris, who is working alone in the Guild office and organised and executed this for me.

One member who returned from NZ in the last few days has managed to organise home delivery from Woolworths. As I am still waiting to hear from them, and I applied 5 days ago now, I have reapplied. Not sure what else I can do. Coles are promising to set up a service late this week, so maybe I'll have more luck there.

Another friend in Sydney was booked to have her second cataract removed tomorrow and the PM announced this morning that all elective surgery is to cease from midnight tomorrow. When she phoned the operating doctor’s surgery to ask about arrangements, she was told surgery was banned from today and surgery was off. A few minutes later the hospital rang to confirm arrangements , since she would just scrape inside the ban! She was still trying to sort it out, although we both felt it was unlikely to proceed. 

I was interested to observe, this afternoon, the Council gardening staff in the Square, holding their meeting and carefully observing social distancing. The meeting was followed by the lovely smell of mown grass.

Late in the day I heard briefly from my friends on the Costa Victoria. There was also a segment on their situation on the evening news. The ship is currently heading to Rome, without any idea of what will then happen. They appear in good spirits. 

I can’t do anything for them, but pray. I feel on stronger ground where I can organise online presentations, or regular communication, or make a coffee and talk - or stitch. 

I made a small start on my hexies, digging out my papers and beginning to tack my fabric squares to the paper hexies.  I don't glue them but try to just catch the corners with tacking stitches. I haven’t produced a lot yet, but I’m organised and have made a start.











I switched, however, to my Muncaster Orange to see if I can make my bow work for me. Last night Melody posted her progress, which uses blues to really good effect. I had already started my greeny-yellows. These should be a good colour fit for where I want to place it on my chair. The other embroideries on the chair are in the browny-green dominant pallet and I think the bow should blend with them and let the magnificent oranges dominate.

This is my start. I’m not sure yet, but I think it might just work.







It was a lovely afternoon here for stitching. My living area faces West, which is a pain when it’s 40C, but lovely when it’s 23C as it was this afternoon. The light was lovely, especially when I sat with my back to the window. I got a lot better sense of the colours than I do at night under artificial light.


For lunch I has the raisin bread from the neighbour’s welcome home parcel and for dinner two of the pasties made by another friend, with lettuce, tomato and cucumber delivered by my daughter. I feel so very privileged. There are uncertainties and I do every now and then, feel afraid. Those moments, however are usually overcome either by activity or by counting my blessings - and remembering the strength of connection, community, ideas, adaptation - and resilience, qualities in abundance in my family and  community of friends. Connected we are very resourceful, and I am very connected. Deo Gratias.


There were not a lot of birds around during the day today, but as the sun went down there were noisy flocks over the square. I didn’t get to my phone quick enough, so had to settle for a more solid view of day’s end.


I am  thankful there are so many  sharing this experience with me in one way or another. We don’t know a lot of the answers to our questions, but we have shared values and we are refining our knowledge of the connectedness that matters, and the connectedness that has to be avoided. 

Self-isolation Day 5: Hexies galore

I have been sleeping pretty normally since my return home. Last night was the first I did not take a melatonin tablet before bed. I fell asleep around midnight, was awake for about half and hour around 4 am then slept until around 8am. At 8.15 I had a call to say my Adelaide family was 5 minutes away and would buzz to come up and collect the package I had left outside my apartment door.

The package contained the little gifts I had bought in Stratford. Before they dispersed to work, school and home, we had lots of waves and they opened the gifts as I watched from the balcony.

It was a nice moment.

A bit of a let-down to then hang out the towels I had washed!


This is where I got to last night with the Muncaster Orange. I now have to decide on the colour and style of the bow.

My first priority today ( admittedly after finishing Martha Grimes' The Knowledge!) was keeping in touch. I was delighted to hear from a couple of friends from whom I had not heard. I also managed to deposit the Ort Pot money from Stratford into the Guild account.

I heard from Lori, one of the members of the Guild's World Embroidery Study Group that I convene. Lori has been studying two contemporary embroiderers and was due to talk to us about this at our April meeting.  She has prepared a presentation which she is offering to turn into a pdf file to send to the group at the meeting date. Bless her!  I had intended to send out an email to the group tomorrow anyway, but there is now an added offer! I am also phoning members who don't have easy email access to keep them in the loop.

I have also had a message from my friends on the Costa Victoria. There has been one Covid19 diagnosis on board so they and all passengers are quarantined in their rooms with meals delivered to their door by masked and gowned staff. They are expecting to be quarantined on the ship for 14 days and have no other information.

After keeping in touch, my project today was to cut out 78 hexies to add to my quilt.

I got out my bin of small pieces of left-over cotton fabric and dug out the bits that are suitable.

I ironed  batches of the chosen fabric - a task that I often avoid!
















I wanted to avoid too much repetition so went for the widest range I could. I also went first for pieces that were in strips close to the 2 inch size I needed. This is a really good way to use up such pieces.























Once I had the fabric ironed, I sat down and cut it into roughly 2" squares, placing them in bundles of 6.


I now have 76 bundles, ready to be turned into hexies. I don't think I'll work on this exclusively over the next weeks, but I can work on some each day, then add them to the quilt in batches. I also published an account of the quilt adaptation on my embroidery blog which I have neglected while overseas. Gradually catching up.





















While writing this I have been watching our Prime Minister report on the latest restrictions agreed tonight. I must say, this is the clearest I have heard him. Someone has been giving him good advice about communication.

It was a grey, grey day in Adelaide today. I managed to catch the very last of the sun.

Now to dig into my stash of Appleton's wool to see if I can come up with a colour to try on the bow of the Muncaster Orange.

Self-isolation Day 4: phone calls and writing

Most of my activities today were not photo-worthy! I had planned a stitching day, but in the end I had lengthy phone discussions with a couple of friends - kind of coffee by phone, make a coffee and settle in to catch up, sort out our concerns and laugh.

I spent a bit of time replying to emails and staying in touch with my daughters.

I was in touch with our Guild employee, who is still working, and with Gay Sanderson, who prepared the Ort pot kits and product that I took to Stratford with me, to let them know the result. The $180 I will deposit with the Guild tomorrow as a result of the sales will offset what the Guild is losing in attendance fees at the moment. I also wrote up an account of the interest in the kits for our Guild newsletter - need to keep the stories coming.


Early this afternoon it was, oddly, sunny and reasonably warm (23C) on my back, East-facing balcony, but cloudy and dull from my front, West-facing balcony.  It felt a bit like a metaphor for our time.

Many of us are trying to work out how to avoid being overwhelmed by the cloudy view. The dot in the top of the sky just to the left of centre in this photo is a plane taking off. A site that will become less and less common.

balcony blooms.

Here in Australia we entered a new stage of lock-down last night with closure of all cafes, restaurants, clubs, gyms and, for some states, schools.

SA is keeping schools open. These are not straightforward decisions. There are unintended consequences either way.

The decision to close gyms will hurt a lot of young people, as essential as it is.

I am resisting the temptation to spend much time following the news. I do keep up, but am choosing not to watch or read endless analysis. I had planned to do several circuits walking around the apartment but focused instead on the coffee phone calls and emails. Tomorrow.

I need to begin thinking how to use this sample of sequinned net that Nicola Jarvis generously sent me. I had been discussing with Nicola an idea I had for our Guild's exhibition in October this year with a theme of Nature by Needle, and mentioned the difficulty I had found in last year's exhibition, creating both dead and live fish. Nicola got excited about the possibility of using the sequins on this piece of clothing she had bought in a vintage shop. She sent me a piece before I left England. So generous with both expertise and supplies!  I now need to work out if I can make the idea work.




This evening I made a salad with the duck fillet I cooked the other night. I finished my Qantas bottle of wine last night, so back to Chain of Ponds Pinot Grigio.

I still have no response from Woolworths regarding my home delivery application. I suspect they are overwhelmed. I can manage without at the moment, and I am heartened by the conversations today with my non-isolated peers who are managing their shopping without too much difficulty.







I'm finishing this day on my Muncaster Orange. I realise, as I photograph progress, that I should have embroidered the half-leaf before the orange!

Like fellow students, I now need to decide on a colour for the bow. In the light of the place in which I'm hoping to place it on my chair, I think I'll go for a slightly greeny-yellow. Or maybe a yellowy-green.

I shall try to produce a more visually interesting blog tomorrow. Talking, reading and writing keeps me going, but doesn't make for much of a narrative!