Post 220 : Rabbits and photos

I spent a few hours throughout the day working on the rabbits, finishing the components that were entirely within the hoop. I figured it would be better to move the hoop before beginning the section on the right, since the edge could not be finished without a move.

I had used an 8" hoop because the linen just fitted and I thought I might get away with carefully stitching to the very edge. It was a mistake. The linen is barely wide enough to fit in and is therefore difficult to tighten.

So when I moved it, I moved to a 6" hoop, which makes it easier to tighten the linen. It would have been better to begin in the 6" hoop and assume I would need to move it. I have three more of Rabbits at Dawn to do for my chair. 6" hoops all the way!

There is a lovely dimension to the piece - as there is to most crewel pieces. It's so relaxed and enjoyable to do.

I'm thinking about how to vary the other pieces while keeping the connection.

I somewhat reluctantly paused my stitching to continue removing photos from the album of my visit to the USA in December 1995. 

The photos came out relatively easily when I used my bread-and-butter knife. However the little adhesive tabs used to attach the photos remained on the back corners and retained much of their adhesive. I was pretty sure the photos would not go through the  scanner with the tabs on the back so I cleaned half a dozen using DissolveIt. It was going to take hours to clean them all, so I thought I might just try them in the scanner.  To my surprise they worked. I was able to scan 65 in a relatively short time. Praise be!

Katherine had invited me to join them for dinner at Grange Cafe this evening. It was a lovely evening and there were people at the beach but the cafe wasn't crowded. We were early snd it did fill up before we left, but it was not crowded. They have new tables, well spaced.

Really pleasant. We had coffee at Katherine's where I picked up another supply of chicken food for the doves.

I am still struggling with this layout. Another experiment tonight.

Post 219 Photo challenges all around.

The first thing I did when I got home around 5.20 pm from Sit’nStitch with two friends was to bring in my washing. Before I took anything off the line, the cacophony of squawking alerted me to four lorikeets having their evening meal on the trees behind my balcony. My SLR was handy, so the washing waited while I snapped away.

The trees are now bursting with bloom and young shoots. There is certainly something there of great succulence for birds of the parrot family. There were never more than two on any one tree, but they enjoyed feeding & squawking.

The earlier part of the day was not conducive to interesting photos. I spent a couple of hours this morning scanning a pile of photos that hadn't fitted neatly in scanning a pile of photos that hadn’t fitted neatly into any of the 1980s or 1970s folder I had set up.  I then selected another 1990s album to scan. I selected an album of around 200 photos taken in December 1995 when I went to the USA to look at IBM educational software as part of a preferred supplier contract the SA Government was considering for whole of government online services. It  was my first time in the US so I took lots of photos in New York, Atlanta, Florida, Ohio and Minnesota     

     

                                                                                                             

                                                                                                                             

 My trouble in scanning began with, again, getting the photos out of the album. This album is an advance on the sticky pages ones. It has strong pages separated by transparent paper that may be archive quality. The photos are attached to the pages at each corner by small tabs with double-sided adhesive. They stuck very well! I can lift them off using my handy bread-and-butter knife, but the tabs remain on the back. This will stop them passing smoothly through the scanner, so I fear I will need to use the  to wipe the back of each photo to remove the tabs and any adhesive.

It’s slow work! I removed 65 photos today, and reckon that's about a third of what is in the album.

We had another great afternoon talking and stitching. My two friends are contemplating crocheting a spectacular blanket in 8 ply cotton.  The Bendigo Woollen Mill brought out its 2021 cotton chart this week with fabulous colours.   I am committed to using up some of what I have before I even think of indulging. This is 4 ply cotton I have in my stash. Most was bought with the idea of making summer tops for my grandchildren when they were much smaller. I’m thinking I could make a rug in a chevron pattern to join in the Great Rug Adventure.

I worked on the Rabbits at Dawn while we discussed the rug options. I’m very pleased with progress.

Post 218 Back to scanning

I did finally get to scanning this afternoon.  In about two hours I scanned  545 photos from the 1990s, pretty much the whole of the first 1990s album. I can't be sure about particular years for all photos but 

there are a few markers. I don't want to bore readers with photos from my past. I thought, however, a few family and friends might be interested in two family groups, the first Jim and Alison with Jim's brother and cousin with their children. I'm not sure where Katherine was. I took the photo.

          

The second photo records a visit of my mum and dad,  my brother and sister-in-law, Jim and I to  Norahville to visit my mum's sister Grace and her family in January 1993. We did not know it at the time, but my mother had terminal cancer and died three three months later.

I'm so glad we captured these moments in time. 

I had photos, index cards, labelsand storage boxes all over the table, while the concrete pourer chugged away about 3 metres outside my window and the sun flooded the room. Quite pleasant.

The morning was taken up with emails reading news and Pilates, where I progressed a little in balancing. After Pilates I dropped off 3 large, heavy, empty photo albums at the Salvos shop. I also called at DK Fabrics to look for some seersucker, but their parking area now requires a $1 coin for the parking metre and I didn't have one. I could have used a card, but not for less than $3. This, I thought, was unreasonable, so decided I would go somewhere else next week. I went on to the Unley shopping centre to pickup an online delivery from Taking Shape and get a few bits from Woolworths.  Since it was now after 2pm and there were plenty of empty tables at the bakery, I indulged in 2 sausage rolls and a lime milkshake. That, of course, meant I wasn't hungry tonight. Cheese and crackers sufficed.  It was one of those evenings when the moon rises just as the sun is setting. The moon rise was more interesting than the sunset. 

In spite of that, I got on with my crewel  Rabbits at Dawn.            

                                                                                                                                    

Post 217

I finished the tassels this morning, attached them and used machine thread to tidy up the back. The soft  c

cotton fluffs up when cut, which looks untidy and runs the risk of shedding. I photographed it onthe curtain to show the transparency - not that evident as it has loaded here. For the moment it is draped over one of my dining chairs (yes, admittedly un-ironed!). 

The builders next door were pouring concrete today with the motor right outside my window and balcony. Quite noisy.

I went to Frewville to get a bit of fruit and ingredients for my muesli and also to have a late lunch. It was very pleasant. They had been busy and sold out of three of the four lunch dishes on the daily menu. The one left was a green fettuccini with pork and heritage tomatoes and basil. Went well with the Prosecco. The latest Inspirations magazine was in my letterbox as I left home, so I could browse it over lunch. Only one of the projects really grabs me -the Peace Dove by Cynthia Jackson. It's really lovely, but not sure that I'm up for it. In my letterbox there was also a shade card for Bendigo Woollen Mills new cotton range, now in 4, 8 and 10 ply and such fabulous colours. 

Not until I've emptied the two drawers of knitting yarn I already have.

I called at Create in Stitch to talk to Samela about the Catarina fabric and buy another magnetic needle keep so I can have two hoops of crewel on the go.                                           .

I got home just before the rain set in. It didn’t stop the concrete pour. I had planned to spend several hours scanning photos but didn’t want to listen to machinery while doing it, so settled for my crewel rabbits.
 

It was wonderfully relaxing after the Caterina project. I love the flexibility of it - its adaptability and forgiving, as well as enabling really rich colours. Comfort stitching. 

It's also relatively fast. This is quite a small piece so it grows quickly.  Now that's a blessing!

Post 216 Rain, Knots, Scanning and Rosella

 The Rosellas appeared to know the rain was coming about an hour before it arrived. There was a fair bit of bird activity and this rosella alighted for a decent feed.Within an hour it was bucketing down and there was no sign of a bird anywhere. I had a plan to go to Frewville for a few supplies and lunch, but gave up.

Early in the day I finished off the first tassel and attached it to the embroidered mat. Now I have some  I  idea  of what I am doing I got up a bit of a rhythm and finished it without hassle. It just takes time.  I began the second tassel and worked out a bit of a system - preparing the strings of knots in lots of 80 but not cutting or assembling the lengths until I have the four sets of 80 necessary for one tassel. One you reach 80 knots on the thread there is a greater chance of the thread tangling.  After the second set of knots I made them in sets of 40 knots - the number in each of 8 bundles in each tassel.  Altogether i made 1000 knots before beginning to assemble the tassels.

I rook a break to prepare the next lot of photos for scanning. I am about to tackle the 1990s - the decade for which I have the most printed photos. It is a bit sobering and confronting to find how much I have forgotten. Photos, of course, act as an aide memoire, but there are some people and events for which I have no memory at all. There is also sometimes the question of whether I could have done that better. I now have piles ready to scan and some to throw away.

Speaking of memory, my brother and sister-in law are currently hoidaying on the NSW north coast, near the town where as children we spent a holiday each year from the ages of about 7 or 8 until I went to high school.  Our father had two weeks holiday a year. He took them in March, took us out of school and hired a clocottage where we swan and our parents fished. One ritual was a visit to65 a nearby town, where our parents fished from the shore while we explored the rock pools. One year we were promised a visit to the cinema around the corner from their fishing spot at the the end of the day. However, I fell over in mud while playing and got mud on my clothes, so the cinema was cancelled. Today my brother sent me a photo of the cinema, which is still there - and looks very much the same! I hope he goes to see see one of the movies currently showing to make up for the one he missed some 65 years ago!  

The knots provide a steady focussed rhythm and a product at the end that is very reassuring and predictable, for the moment at least. I have no doubt I will not remember how to do these in a few months time. But at this stage I have no plans for making more of them! I had hoped to have the four tassels finished before posting this blog tonight, but I'm also trying to post it by 11pm, so I have to make do with two tassels finished and two to assemble in the morning. 

I still do not like the new Blogger tools but I am adapting to what is possible. For those of us who use photographs with text as a way of blogging this is nowhere near as good as the old interface. I am not the only one complaining! I  have also not found a way to review the whole post as it will appear in a browser, so again, apologies for any layout glitches. 

Post 215

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I am struggling with layout here today. Blogger, the program I use has been updated and I (and a lot of others) have had difficulty getting text to wrap around photos. Until today the legacy system has been available, but today it has been removed. I'm hoping I can work out a fix over the next few days.

Today was the first meeting of the Basics to Beyond Group at the Guild since pre-Covid.   I finished the project I had been working on pre-Covid while in lockdown. My intention was to use today's meeting to progress the Catarina project, in particular, to get some help in making the tassels. There were  5 students there today, plus Gay as tutor. This is a far cry from pre-Covid levels of 15-20. It was, however, pleasant and productive. Two were new students, two continuing, and me as the 'Beyond'. 

I still had one and a half sides of double back stitch to work on the Catarina piece . I finished the half side of back stitch and also turned the hem before beginning the tassels. Since returning home I have finished the other side, hence the photograph. I placed it over a cushion to photograph it - it won’t remain there.

The tassels turned out to be even more complicated than I had anticipated from reading through the article. Each tassel requires you to tie 320 knots in the embroidery thread, each one 2mm apart. This wasn’t that easy. Gay has a useful idea of using a darning needle to manoeuvre each knot into place. By the end of today’s session I had 80 knots, enough to try the next stage when I got home.

It really was a lovely afternoon in Adelaide today. I managed to sit on the Western balcony for an hour to finish the double back stitch and hem. I moved inside as it got cooler at sunset. The tassel knots are too complex to work on outside.

The mobile personal trainer was back in the Square this afternoon in the warmish weather.

The tassels involve a length of knotted cotton, cut into lengths of 4 knots, then joined in bundles..Two of these bundles will make a tassel - 320 knots. So at the end of today I have a bit more than half a tassel!  I need four. 


Maybe tomorrow I will break up knotting with scanning!

Post 214

I woke this morning thinking I would stop work on yesterday's Mola reverse applique. The notion of the bird flying didn't work with the existing bird shape. I thought it would be better to get on with the Caterina project, and file the bird away as the sample of a class.

When I looked at it, I had a few other ideas, so unpicked the legs (again) and returned it to an upright stationary position. I then added lots of tail feathers, wing feathers a button eye and a few other bits of feathers.






I experimented with folding the piece to form a pouch. When I measured it. I thought a square of about 11" would work, so I went looking for a square of lining fabric. Although the bottom layer (green) of the overlaid fabrics could serve as lining, I figured that it would be easier to get a perfect square with a lining fabric and would also cover the underside of stitching.

I found a few squares already cut to 26cm and chose this red paisley.

While this was going on, Turtle had appeared on the balcony, pecked at the remains of yesterday's seed, taken up vigil on the rail, flown away and returned several times.  Sometimes he was puffed up, sometimes not so much.













I had no more seed to give him, so couldn't help.

I was picking Jennifer up at 12 to go to Grange for our Sit'n Stitch afternoon.  I managed to stitch the lining to the bird piece and gather my things to arrive just in time. We made it to Grange by 12.30, where Susan had a Libyan baked pasts dish waiting for us. It was very nice. There was a lot to catch up on and the afternoon passed very quickly.  I did a little bit more on the bird applique, and then some Caterina project.

Back at home, I put in a zip and them embroidered over the joins. It did not end up as a square, but I think it works well.






I am finally pleased with the result. I'm not sure what I'll keep in it, but it works as a small ouch.











Having begun the day thinking I would spend no more time on this, I spent most of the day working on it - but ended up liking it.by sunset.

So back to Caterina where I finished the hem on two sides. Two down, two to go.

I'm hoping to get to Basics to Beyond tomorrow and I'm planning on taking this project along to work on two sides of hem stitching and the four tassels.

Ti me to go to bed so I have some hope of getting to the Guild tomorrow.

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