Post 157

After Myrtle and Turtle had eaten some seed, I hung out some washing and examined some of the flowers in my wall garden. The building work is mercifully silent on the weekend.

The Aeonium is well past its flowering peak but remains attractive as it goes into a kind of skeleton with the stamen loaded with pollen.




The yellow flowered sedum is flush with flowers


and the kalanchoe has grown a stem with bell-like flowers, not yet open.

I managed to cut out a few more masks for my brother and sister-in-law and began stitching them

I picked Naimh up from Junior Embroiderers which resumed meeting today. Niamh had a good time once the group got the hang of talking across tables in the new distanced setup. We had a milkshake on the way home at the Queen St Cafe since La Lorientaise Creperie had closed the kitchen.

At her place I got Niamh to help me wind some wool a friend bought me in New Zealand. We took a couple of breaks in the process, although Niamh says it helps build her muscles for Taiko Drumming!






The ball does not look as interesting as the skein, but I'm hoping it will show off the colour when finished.. I found a pattern for a shawl which has a very simple, repeated lace -pattern ( just two rows of eyelets, followed by 6 rows of  garter stitch). I'm hoping it will suit the wool.

I haven't done a lot, but I'm thinking it will work.

I've done a little more on the counted thread bag, but not enough to justify another photo.

We had another great meal of barbecued meat, roast vegetables and broccolini at Katherine and Anthony's place.  The girls had enjoyed their netball umpiring and games. Fionn has clear concussion from his football match which  the clinic says will prevent him playing for a week but is not serious.

Post 156

I have had considerable problems with layout and font size in this post - apologies in advance for  inconsistency.


This morning there seemed to be a pause in the building work around 9.30 am - probably what my father would have referred to as Smoko. It was enough for Turtle to visit for the first time this week.


Once I put out some seed, Myrtle turned up as well. They did a good job of putting away most of the seed in less than 10 minutes and were gone before work recommenced.

When it did, it was right on the boundary of our building, drilling out cores of soil (one can be seen lying on the right edge of the photo near the base of the wall).

This action was followed by the insertion of a wire core. At the end of the day cement was being added from a cement mixer.





The owl bag had dried overnight  and didn't look too bad after it had been ironed. The Inktense pencil had bled a little, but, as Jennifer said, it gives the impression of being tie-dyed. Jennifer has followed the making of the bag and it had her name on it.  We had lunch today at Grange, so relaxed and enjoyable that I forgot to take photos.

Jennifer has another test on Tuesday and is booked for her Bronchoscopic Tracheal Dilation on Thursday. This morning she had a call from a researcher in Perth requesting that Jennifer participate in ongoing research into the long-term impact of Covid on those who have been infected. She is very pleased to be involved and agreed. 

In her email yesterday, my friend Christine in Watford commented that there are many similar stories here and the specialists are looking to set up specialist hubs to deal with the virus survivors and the complex problems they have been left with - but with the ongoing serious complications only now being discovered it's not good news.

Australia, of course, has a much smaller population pool from which to set up hubs, but it is good to know that research is being undertaken. With the recent increase in cases in Melbourne, and, to a lesser extent, Sydney, there is a growing number of affected 'long haulers'.


Christine also wrote of the impact on her community. Depressing news of closures here continue - our last department store in Watford is not reopening - we have lost our John Lewis’s- a great loss so no where to buy a cotton reel now and lovely Christmas decorations etc. Also heard that the WI college at Denman isn’t going to reopen so no more residential needlework courses there for me - not many place left to go and stay now  - others of course may yet bite the dust. Watford's football team this week also managed to get its self regulated down from the Premier League in the play offs in empty stadiums  so a cloud of gloom hangs over the whole town!

At the moment we are very fortunate here in South Australia. Netball has started up again, with restrictions and limited, modified football games are occurring. Junior Embroiderers are meeting tomorrow for the first time since March.  We are all conscious, however, of how fragile these arrangements are. and dependent on continuing vigilance.



There was a fabulous, wide-open sky as I drove home after dropping Jennifer at her place.

Very late in the afternoon, a parcel arrived, a large box from Hampers with Bite. Inside were a range of goodies, from tea, chocolates, marshmallows, and a lidded glass mug. The enclosed card simply said "Josh". I only know two Joshes, one is my plumber, who I haven't seen for 12 months, the other is the youngest child of a family for whom I recently made a set of face masks.

It was, of course, the family who had sent the parcel, but the company lost the message that was meant to accompany it, along with the names of the other 4 family members.! So glad we were able to sort it out. I'm grateful for the generosity and pleasure of the gift - and for the story that now goes with it!





As we solved the parcel mystery the sun was setting in a spectacular fashion over Adelaide

and the building work was silent.














I spent the evening progressing the cube bag. I've finished the four-sided stitch border on the first square and partially on the second square. This is not fast work, but looks good.

Altogether, a eventful and privileged day.

Post 155

I managed to find a spot on the wall of my sewing room for my mother's two bird paintings. The bird already there is one I bought from a sale of art from residents at Catherine House in Adelaide some years ago.  It works well, although I have to fix the hanging mechanism on one of them.

from my balcony.

The building work was full on today. On the whole, the activity is background hum, although there was a very annoying high pitched whine for a while this afternoon.

I have changed my Pilates class from Friday to Thursday, where the group in the studio is only three students. It was, as usual, a good session. Afterwards I went to North Adelaide Village to get more fruit and veg and also to see if the chemist had micropore tape to seal masks across the nose.They had plenty of micropore tape, but none of it was double-sided,which of course is what is needed. They did, however come up with this tape which will work.

It is for use on skin - its purpose being to put on the front of a low-cut dress to prevent a gap that exposes your bra - or worse! So if you need tape to seal the top of a face mask to prevent your glasses steaming up, this is an option! Perhaps not too far from the original purpose.

I took Niamh and Veronica to their choir practice after school and swung past Norwood to pick up a copy of this book. With my newfound interest in birds I thought it might prove interesting. I'm good at buying books, less good at reading them at the moment. I could have had an electronic copy but thought it the kind of book I might want to share with others.

Although it was getting towards dinner time when I got home, I decided to have a go at colouring the reverse side of the owl bag using my Inktense fabric pencils. The trouble was that you need water to fix the colour, so you can do one of three things, (1) colour it dry, then wet it, (2)wet the pencils, or (3)work on wet fabric. I couldn't be sure there would be no colour transfer to the other side if I wet it after dry colouring, so I washed the bag, then put both a wooden and a plastic chopping board inside it to keep the two sides apart, placed the embroidered side on a towel and coloured the wet fabric.

I didn't try any fancy shading - I was more concerned to get coverage without impacting on the embroidered side of the bag.

The result is now drying - with the boards still inside to minimise any colour transfer.

In between these activities I've been working on the box side from last weekend. I have finished one side apart from the four-sided stitch border. I'm working on that now. Then all I have to do is work three more sides exactly the same - plus the accessories.

It's a very elegant design.


Yesterday I had a newsy email from my friend Christine in Watford.  She has elastic envy. There must be something I can do about that...

Tomorrow Jennifer and I are going out to lunch. I'm looking forward to it. If I'm woken by the building work I might have time to make the masks for my brother.

Post 154

I finished reading this yesterday. Hamilton Crane is the pseudonym of Sarah J Mason who wrote a series of Miss Seeton books in the 1980s, continuing a series of original books by the British actor and writer Heron Carvic (Geoffrey Rupert William Harris 1913-80) in the 50s and 60s. This one, written as a prequel, is set in England in WWII. While it is nothing special as crime fiction, what I found interesting was the context of government directed morale building to focus the population on the war effort. While I was aware of much of this, I was not aware of the effort put into stopping negative talk that might undermine morale, or 'loose talk' that might aid the enemy should there be fifth columnists about. Workplaces, landladies, shop keepers, everyday citizens - all promoting 'the right thing' in word and deed.

It was interesting reading this in the midst of a Covid pandemic. While I wouldn't suggest a war time propaganda campaign, there might be lessons in how to engage a society in behaviours that get the whole community through a crisis.


There was a lot of building activity today, deliveries of steel struts on huge trucks and strange sounds. I haven't been out to inspect the progress, but the pile-driver is once again parked next to my balcony.













I was keen to continue my Breton stitch, so finished my diagonals and got on with it. The line at the bottom is, in fact, straight. I have manipulated the photo which wasn't straight and in the process distorted the bottom line.
I then switched to mask-making, stitching down the side hems on yesterday's batch, cutting and inserting the elastics before stitching them by hand into loops.








The gigantic pincushion that Niamh made me for my birthday last year was invaluable in this exercise, which is very pin-hungry.

I used the thinner, softer elastic on the fine fabric masks. This elastic can be tied rather than stitched, as it is therefore more easily adjusted.

This is the set for my Adelaide family finished. I now need to make some for my brother.


Speaking of my brother, I received a parcel from him today














- a photo album that belonged to our mother, for storage with my family history records, and a couple of her small framed paintings - both of red honey eaters. She took up painting in the last 5 or so years of her life, after she retired. She'd be very pleased - and surprised - to know I was embroidering birds! I'm not sure what I'll do with these.

I had a long phone call with my friend Robin in the Blue Mountains. I'm not sure that we solved the world's problems - but we did define a few of them!

I stuck with the counted thread box side. Still a way to go to finish this side - then I have to repeat it for the other three sides. I'm pleased with the progress - if not with the wonky photo!




Finally, I have just finished the heart at the top of the owl, using some synthetic gold thread.

I now have to work out how to colour the owl on the other side of the bag without letting the colour run!

A job for tomorrow!

Post 153: sunrise, sunset

Today's first achievement is the completion of the frame around the owl. That leaves the heart medallion at the top to be completed. I still haven't decided on colour. Do I blend or contrast?







Work on the building site next door began at 7.30 am again this morning, just after sunrise. It was background noise - but plenty of it in the first few hours.

By the time I was up and having breakfast, the road in front of the building site - right next to my apartment - had been blocked off.  I think we can assume this is now months of serious building activity. Unless it came today (I didn't check my letterbox) there has been no notification of road blockage, which, I understand, is a requirement.

I am not getting up in arms about this. So far this has not impacted me greatly



although, I was somewhat taken aback when I went into my sewing room this afternoon to use the sewing machine and found a humungous piece of machinery being parked just outside my window. It was 4.30pm, and this seems to be the corner of the block used to store the pile driver overnight.












I needed the sewing machine to stitch the batch of masks I cut out yesterday. I managed to construct 7 more, to the point where the elastic gussets are ready to stitch down.

Yes, there are only 6 in the photo. I have unpicked the seventh, which needed an adjustment to the shape of the outer layer.













Tomorrow's job will be to stitch down the gussets and insert the elastics. The bamboo T-shirt fabric seems to have worked well. I should, perhaps, have constructed one fully and done a breathing test! It should, however, work.


The most notable event today was a nice long phone call with my friend Vivienne in Canberra. It's these conversations and connections that keep me sane. They help make sense of it all as well as maintaining a thread of friendship, continuity and identity.

I managed to finish the outside border of one side of the bag from Christine's class on the weekend.






Yesterday's sample paid off and I worked one side of the Breton stitch without a hitch.

I'm pleased with my progress on this. It's about as much as I can do before my eyes give out, but it's fair progress.


I took a break from it to finish the frame of the owl, shown above.

I was interested today, in the contrasting Covid news bulletins on my television. The Australian news was focused on Aged Care facilities where the majority of new cases and deaths are currently occurring in Victoria. There is a realisation that not only are workers in much of that sector casual, under or untrained and poorly paid (so reluctant to take time off if they are unwell) but that facilities are not set up for medical treatment and infection control.

The UK news here today was focused on cancellation of flights to and from Spain and the varying responses to that. We have plenty of stories of annoyance and resistance to restrictions in Australia (a few people in Melbourne refusing to wear masks, or sneaking across State borders that are closed or having a birthday party) but interestingly, we are, I think, generally accepting of having our international border closed. As an island nation we have a long history of quarantine restrictions, mostly plant and animal, to keep disease out. While Australians travel a lot, we can't just nip over a border to another country. The tyranny of distance is also a protection. 

It was another gently, colourful sunset this evening - a bit like my day.

Post 152 : Monday meal and making

This morning was mostly taken up with shopping for family dinner tonight. I also posted a set of face masks to a family friend and deposited 3 bags of soft plastic to the recycling at Unley. Dinner was a stir fry of noodles with duck, ham, broccoli, spring onions, capsicum, soy and salami. I bought a cooked Beijing duck and deboned it. I made stock from the bones so hope to have duck soup tomorrow. There was also enough stir fry left for Niamh's lunch tomorrow.
I managed to cut out another 7 face masks while making the stock. This time I did it sitting on a high stool. It avoided the worst of my sciatica but not entirely. It's very difficult not to stand while cutting and ironing. I used the remains of a bamboo Tshirt Katherine gave me for the inner lining (the tealy-green). It will be interesting to see how it makes up.

This will provide a set of 12 for Katherine's family. This is not urgent, since we currently have not community transmission in South Australia, but I hope to finish these tomorrow. I've had one request for elastic for masks.

This morning Margaret Morgan sent me a link to a video tutorial on Breton stitch. I found it useful. The stitch can be worked, it seems, as surface stitchery as well as counted. There are also variations.

I worked a little sampler on much larger  fabric. A is the stitch as included in yesterday's class, only a bit larger. B is a variation that is longer - three times the number of threads in height. C and D are the same stitches further spaced widthwise. This helps me get my head around the way the stitch works. Now I think I can work the smaller variety.


As I had expected, the pile driver began at 7.30 this morning. It was background noise I could live with. Just before sunset I took this photo of the day's work. It seems they are driving very close piles and setting them in concrete. It appears to be slow work.

It's unlikely I will see much of the doves while this work is going on. Enough to put any bird off.




Tonight I have worked a bit more of the owl. There is not a lot to do to finish it. I haven't decided what colour to make the heart above the owl's head.

Post 151 Elastic

Just after the sun rose gently this morning,  I noticed Myrtle and Turtle waiting patiently for some seed.










As I opened the door Turtle stood his ground and Myrtle backed away, but she didn't fly away. They stayed to peck at the seed for quite a while.

I, of course, had to get breakfasted, dressed and organised for today's class. I'd promised to take the products of the Stratford Retreat and my isolation to show my table companion.







She, however, had a bigger - and very generous - surprise for me. Yesterday I had told her about my face mask endeavours. Today she brought me some elastic, given to her by a friend who downsized. She had bought this online as a job lot - we surmised it might have been a shop closing down. The rolls each hold 100 metres. None of them is full - but there has to be well over 200 metres of elastic on the rolls, without counting the smaller packets in the plastic bag. I have not intention of turning into Mask-Making Madame.  I calculate I need to make maybe 15 more. There is enough elastic here for around 600 masks. I'm very happy to share. Just get in touch.

There were two goals for our class today, to finish one item from the project and to learn Breton stitch. I focused on the scissor fob first. Christine had managed to make most of us, myself included, the cord required. The fob fitted together very neatly and was fun to make.

I then practised a little Breton stitch on the sample that Christine had worked for each of us. Hers is in green, mine in blue. There was something wrong with mine. I clearly hadn't got it right.









I reread the instructions and practised more at home. I did have it wrong. My second attempt is much better. The stitch is right. It took a while to get the tension.












Following the example of Lee, my wise table companion, I chose to work the outside border and inner outlines of the box before adding the Breton stitch, which forms an inner border between the little markers along the side of the frame.


So I have a way to go and time for more practice before I need to use the Breton stitch.

It was a good weekend, and a chance to see how the Guild is t the afternoon there was an occasion when a couple of people left their tables to look at something. Melissa and Christine were alert and reminded us of the social distancing requirement. It can so easily happen - and just as easily transmit disease. I'm so pleased to have seen Melissa's reaction and concern.

Eternal vigilance.




Myrtle and Turtle were again waiting for me when I got home, having cleaned up every last bit of this morning's seed. Of course, I provided some more.



This evening I added the elastics to the face masks I completed last week. I decided to do the stitching by hand, because I figure that could be more easily undone to shorten than machine stitching. Many of them (not the one in the photo)  have about 2cm that could be released if the elastic were too tight. I suspect too loose is more likely


I also experimented with very flexible, narrow elastic on one of the child-sized masks by tying a knot with a generous tail. This would be the easiest to lengthen or shorten and slips easily into the hem without a lump that would irritate. I'm hoping these will provide means of adjustment for recipients too far away to give them back to me to adjust.

It has been a very eventful week - and weekend - in my relatively narrow Covid world. It was great to see Guild friends and get a sense of what it means to meet and stitch in the contest of Covid. I met some new people and really enjoyed the lunch time conversation, the quiet companionship of Lee, seeing photos of Margaret's garden and projects and hearing little bits about other groups.

I do home Niamh and Veronica enjoyed their umpire workshop.

Hopefully I can progress the box this week, as well as delivering a few masks.