Post 240 Plants and stitches.

I managed to get up and organised for the Certificate workshop this morning - thermos of coffee, lunch, the required thread and usual scissors, needles. Fortunately Christine Bishop was taking the workshop, on Deruta embroidery, and supplying the linen on which we were to work. There were 16 of us there - pretty much back to pre-Covid level.

Deruta embroidery derives from the town of the same name in Italy. There are three styles, or techniques, two antique, one developed between the two World Wars. We were working on one of the antique forms, a counted technique worked on 18 count linen in  a neutral colour.

Christine had a couple of physical examples to show us, as well as some on the screen and notes which outlined the technique and some motifs to be worked into a sample.  

We began with a simple rectangle in the basic stitch, then attempted an L shaped design with a tricky component and then on to a couple of others without the trickiness. 

                                                                                     

 I plan to finish the sampler, but it's not a style I see myself using to create projects.

The greatest excitement of the day for me was this bag of cuttings brought for me by Margaret. Margaret reads this blog and told me on Thursday that she has a number of scented geraniums in her garden, as well as red, white and pink pig face. Today she brought me a generous sample of all of them. It is really generous of her. She did not have a lot of spare time yesterday but managed to gather this bonanza for me.

As soon as I got home, I found pots, some empty and some with space behind other plants, divided them into cuttings and planted them. There is another group that I have placed in water to root. There are rose, lemon rose, nutmeg and pineapple geraniums.  If even half of them grow my garden will be blessed.  A thousand thanks, Margaret.

I spent the evening at Katherine and Anthony's as usual. Very delicious lamb cooked on the barbecue with potatoes, carrots, parsnips and broccolini. Brigid's last day at school went well as did the primary girls' Bookweek celebrations.  Brigid's secret outfit, made from one of her uniforms, was a pair of shorts and a waistcoat. The shorts were cut from the lower part of the uniform and the waistcoat from the top part, with sleeves removed and buttons opened up down the front. It worked really well. Again, since this blog is in the public domain, I am not going to post a photo.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                             This evening I worked a fourth sample from today's workshop.   Unfortunately I did not position the third example well and had to undo part of it to fit in the arrow. If I wish to add the hem (which I do) I will need to redo both motifs before I block it in order to accommodate the hem.    That's not a job for tonight.  

Tomorrow I have book club in the morning and Sit'n Stitch in the afternoon. In the meantime - sleep.                                                                                                   

Post 239 Dressing up and down

It was book-week dress up day for the primary school girls today, and final day of school for Brigid. Niamh chose a character from A Lady's Guide to Petticoats and Piracy and Veronica a penguin from Lost and Found. Since this is in the public domain, I won't post identifiable photos. This photo, however, courtesy of Katherine, gives an idea. Niamh's dress is the one Brigid made in Year 7 as part of her project on Elizabeth I.

I do hope they all had a great day.

My thanks today to Junette, who alerted me this morning to the fact the blog email had not gone out last night. I'm not sure what happened, but think I was so late posting that I changed the mail-out time and in my haste to get to bed didn't press 'save'! Apologies for any inconvenience and I'll try not to let it happen again. I'm very grateful to friends who use the post to check I'm OK.

First job this morning was to block the Tumbling Feathers. They look much better than in their daggy state just out of the hoop. I’ve figured a process for getting them on to the chair once dry. I need to do it methodically, not in a rush to get it done.

I took the opportunity to put the next panel - more rabbits - into a hoop with chosen threads, ready to go.      

I got a couple of other jobs done, reviewing a NetGalley book I managed to finish, hanging out washing and answering emails.

 

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Our usual Friday Sit’n Stitch is on Sunday afternoon this week, which gave me the chance to make up the Pilates class I missed yesterday. I took the opportunity also to try out my new Snag tights. I’ve never tried tights (with feet, as opposed to leggings, without feet) for Pilates before.  

It only took a couple of minutes of wearing them to realise I had nowhere for my phone.

I just had time to find a couple of buttons, needle, thread and my handy button-on phone pouch and do a quick fix before I had to leave home. My mother trained me well - managed to stitch on the buttons without taking them off (taught me well, but not sure she'd approve of that)!

I  even got to Pilates a couple of minutes early - most unusual. My previous instructor took the class today and checked the records to see how long she'd known me. Next February I will have been attending for ten years. It’s been worth it.     The tights stood up well and are extraordinarily comfortable.

I went on to North Adelaide to buy the meat for Monday night’s dinner. I have a Guild Certificate Course workshop tomorrow, book club and Sit’n Stitch on Sunday and Basics to Beyond on Monday, so made the ragu for Monday night this afternoon. 

The washing is dry, but the blocked feathers are certainly not. I’ve tightened the pins and left it for 24 hours. Before I launch into the next Rabbits at Dawn, I’m trying to add a few hexies and advance the shawl. 

At the end of the night I have added six hexies. That leaves about sixty to go. 

One foot up and one foot down

That’s the way to London Town!

Bit earlier to bed tonight. Up early tomorrow to get to the Guild by 9.30am.

Post 238 Crewel work

I opened my blind this morning to Turtle hunkered down on my balcony waiting for seed.  I obliged.

The cushion on my crewel chair had dried overnight, and was much smoother and flatter. Today was the Crewel Work Group meeting at the Guild, so I got myself organised, As well as my Tumbling Feathers to finish, I had a  thermos of coffee, some lunch and the cushion from the chair to show the Crewel Group. In reality, there were only two of us there for the Crewel Group, but the Thursday Open stitching group was full, with ten people meeting in the house.

Margaret was there, promising me, from having read my blog posts earlier in the week, cuttings from her pink pig face and also some scented geraniums . It's not urgent, and she's busy, but it will be fantastic if  and when it comes off.

I had decided to work the last Tumbling Feather in the colours of the Noisy Miner. I looked at lots of photos, including the ones I took myself.

This is where I got to by 2 pm when I needed to leave. When I got home and had another look at what I had done, I decided the orange wasn't right where it was, I was trying to acknowledge the mostly orange beak of the Miner. In the end I took it out.

After leaving the Guild I went to the office of the Sudden Infant Death Syndrome organisation next to Hindmarsh Stadium to pick up some pots of marigolds. In view of the pandemic, they have abandoned their annual Red Nose Day fundraiser this year and are selling potted marigolds, prepared by a nursery, with 80% of profit going to SIDS. I had ordered a couple for myself and 3 for my daughter. Thursday is the designated pick-up day. I had trouble finding the office, which turns out to be through the security gate of the Stadium. The plants look young and very healthy.

I found a place for them on my balcony and watered them in.

My hygienist rang to say she and my dentist advise me to visit a periodontist to check out the 10mm pocket on the gum near one of my molars. I have taken the advice and made an appointment.  It is not until early January - the day before my next appointment with the dentist. I am in no pain or discomfort. They just want to check out there is not a hidden split or infection  in the tooth.

Anthony had asked me this morning to take the girls to their choir practice after school as he had to be in court.  As I stepped out on the balcony to get the washing line, there was Turtle, waiting. He let me step on to the balcony, didn't stay, but returned later to finish the seed. 

Veronica was at home today, so Niamh and I picked her up after school, dropped off their marigolds and got to choir just on time. 

I worked on the Noisy Miner feather all evening, finishing quite late. I'm quite pleased with the representation, hopefully the right amount of yellow and black, with a predominance of light grey.

I've taken it out of the hoop, and, as always it looks crushed and raggy. It's too late tonight to block it and I'm falling asleep. That's tomorrow's job. I should be able to begin appliqueing them on sometime over the weekend.

A good day's work.

Post 237 Foot and mouth

This fabric arrived yesterday from Tessuti fabrics in Sydney. I had ordered it last Thursday when I got their newsletter with new fabrics. It is Italian linen, called “Moroccan tiles”. I thought it would make another lovely tote bag, with a hexagonal embroidery in the middle, so ordered half a metre. It was sold out within 24 hours. Described as medium weight, it is lighter than I anticipated. I’m not sure if it is heavy enough for what I had in mind. It will certainly line something or complement an embroidery.

I had two appointments today, podiatrist at 10.40am and dentist at 3.45pm. After the podiatrist I went to Unley shopping centre to drop off my soft plastic recycling and do some grocery shopping. From there I went on to Barrow and Bench hardware to check out their plants and buy a small broom for my back balcony. They had some tubes of white and red pig face which I thought would fill a gap in my wall garden, hopefully they will spread and fill the gaps.  I also bought this sunflower that’s beginning to flower.

There wasn't really enough time between the two outings to get seriously stuck into stitching. Read a little of The Ghost It Was,  a recent reprint of a Golden Age crime novel by Richard Hull, and did a little jewellery mending.

I have been wearing this necklace given to me by the girls. It goes really well with the top I bought a week or so ago. Unfortunately, the tie-off of the thread on which the beads are strung is tied off with protruding ends that stick into my skin. I went hunting for crimps amongst my bead supplies, but no luck. I will get some at the bead shop in Norwood when  I am there on Sunday.

Amongst my beading things was a shell and greenstone necklace needing a replacement link so I fixed that one. Some progress anyway.

Luckily for me, the postman delivered a parcel before I went to the dentist, saving me a trip to the post office, since the parcel didn't fit in my letterbox. These are Snag tights, made by a Scottish company, but seemingly distributed in Australia from Melbourne. I can't work out where the parcel originated. The label had been pasted over another. I suspect it originated in another country, was sent to a depot in Melbourne, relabelled and mailed to Adelaide, travelling via Sydney. They are great colours, and claim to be vegan friendly and made sustainably but there is no information about origin on their website. I'll try one pair out on Friday for Pilates. 

It was a mild sunset, no bats when this was taken. The wide tree on the right is the top of the Morton Bay Fig where they roost. The twin Norfolk Pine looked like needle lace tonight.

I spent several hours working on the oak stem tonight, awkwardly stitching through the chair cover. Some of the stitches are hard to achieve without a hoop and the capacity to stab rather than scoop.  I'm satisfied with the result. I think I will need to dampen the cover and put it into the cushion to dry - a form of blocking

The Crewel Interest Group meets tomorrow at the Guild and I plan to go. Now this is finished (except, of course, for the two Rabbits at Dawn panels along the front face of the cushion!) I will work on the last Tumbling Feather

Post 236 Quiet Day

Turtle returned this morning, behaved much as yesterday, fed, surveyed the landscape and left.

Ten minutes later, Stormy, the young dove with the dark chest, alighted and pecked up some seed, fairly confidently, but alert. After a few minutes he flew to the rail and away, just as Turtle returned to defend his territory. 

He stayed long enough to ensure Stormy didn't return, then went about his business elsewhere.

I'm still in dialogue with Blog2Print. Jen has solved the problem of why my first two blog books are not appearing on the site, but not why I can't order the third. She works through the issues, so hopefully we'll get there in the end. I also posted another Baby Boomer Teacher Conversation to my webpage . This  is number 41. I have another 8 ready to post. I was aiming for 50. For balance I was hoping to add one more from either WA or Victoria. I then need to add some analysis and put it together in book form.

I spent the rest of the day and evening adding the two Rabbits at Dawn panels to the seat of my Crewel chair. This involved joining the two panels together, stitching the bottom edge of the joined panels to the lower edge of the seat cover, then pinning the upper edge and carefully cutting it around the rabbits and grasses, folding under the edge and stitching down - all by hand.

This is tricky work, getting the piece straight and flat, as well as folding and stitching down very narrow edges.

Once the edge was stitched down I continued the hillocks on each horizontal end to the edge of the cushion.

The next task was to extend an off-shoot of the tree of life to cover the join between the tree of life panels and the flower. I might add a leaf or two, but at the moment I'm keeping it simple.

I still have to extend the acorn spray upwards to cover the join on the other side. There are two more panels of Rabbits at Dawn to go along the front edge of the cushion.

I am extraordinarily pleased with today's effort. It did take about nine hours of work, but I had expected it to be far more difficult. The rabbits blended really well with the tree of life hillocks. I had expected to have to fill in far more than I did.

For those not interested in embroidery, this is a very tedious post. I'll aim for a bit more variation tomorrow.

Post 235 Bookended by doves.

 

I ignored the early morning cooing outside my bedroom but was ready to cooperate just before 9 am when Turtle appeared on my balcony rail. He is still the only one of my dovian visitors who does not fly away however carefully I slide open the door to distribute seed. He was not relaxed about it this morning. He remained alert but stayed. 

He took his time picking at the seed, staying in the sun, exploring the edges of the distribution and drinking from the bowl. He surveyed the scene from the rail for a good few minutes before flying off across the roofs of the houses behind us. I suspect that Myrtle is holding the fort on some eggs or hatchlings somewhere.

I went to Frewville early to buy a  cooked duck and a few other bits and pieces for dinner tonight. They had Tommy Ruff fillets so I got a couple for my dinner tomorrow. It was a lovely Adelaide day, sunny and just warm enough. It’s nearly Jacaranda time.

After I’d deboned the duck, chopped all the vegetables, ham and twiggy sticks for the stir fry and put all the bones on to boil for stock (duck soup for Wednesday),  I  got stuck into the dove feather. 

After watching Turtle this morning I wasn’t happy with the darker pink I added last night So found a colour closer to Turtle’s and put it over the top. The mauve isn’t quite right either. The pink on Turtle's head is bluer than the pink on his chest,  but not quite that blue. Might change it. 

The kids are all on a countdown to the end of a significant school year. This is Brigid’s last week of school. Two weeks of swatvac then final exams. It is Niamh and Veronica’s last weeks of primary school. 

Their end of year concert is being videoed in bits and compiled into a film rather than a live performance.

Fionn has chosen his Year 11 subjects for next year and expects to finish for the year after his exams in six weeks. Big changes all around.

The meal turned out well. I was resolved to photograph it tonight but, as usual, forgot. The sun went down quite gently tonight with no sign of the moon. The bats were later. I could see them in the rapidly fading light returning to their tree. Too dark to photograph.

I've made quite a few changes to the finished dove feather. The colour here is a bit darker than the actual. I had really good light this afternoon, sitting with my back to the western sun. It showed up a lot of faults in the previous work. Artificial light is never as good as good sunlight. Photographs show up problems I don't pick with my eye.


This leaves me with one more to do. I haven't made up my mind yet what it will be. Another galah would be good, but perhaps there is an unrepresented bird that I should include.

I'll sleep on it.

 

Post 235 Sit 'n Stitch at my place

It was after 1.00 am when I posted yesterday's blog and went to bed, so I am not guilty for sleeping in until after 9.00 am this morning and having a slow, lazy morning. After breakfast I set about moving my hoop and finding the threads I thought might work for a dove feather. I do need to put in an acknowledgement of the black and white collar, but do not have black and white Appleton's wool. I may, however, substitute the DMC sparkle threads. See how I go.

I was getting dressed after my shower, around 1pm when Jennifer called. While she was waiting for her Covid test result on Thursday, we had made a tentative plan for her to come here this afternoon to sit and stitch. When she tested negative and we restored Friday's stitching arrangement, we didn't firm up today, but didn't cancel either. 

It was great, therefore, when Jennifer called and wanted to come. 

Jennifer is working on a knitted Mother Christmas figure to go with the Father Christmas she has finished. Regretfully, I didn't photograph him. He is magnificent - about 45 cm high.

I had planned to make a start on adding the hexies to my quilt, a job that is better done at home because of the bulk and weight of the quilt. I got two hexies added in the afternoon- my positioning did not begin well and I had to unpick the first one and reposition. 

After Jennifer had gone I discovered one of the begonias she had given me a year or two ago was blooming. A pity I didn't see it while she was here.                                                                                                                                                                    I made, or tried to make, a third book of my blog this evening, covering July to September. I managed to preview it but when I tried to order, got the same error message as I did when I started this a few days ago.  I've sent yet another message to the support team, but it is, of course the weekend. This is a long, slow and repetitive process.

There was an interesting sky this evening just after the sun had gone down. The colours from the sun were still in the sky while a crescent moon was descending. I managed to also  capture a bat returning to the Morton Bay fig tree where a bat colony roosts.

I made a start on the dove feather this evening while watching a couple of episodes of Series 15 of Midsomer  Murders. A very pleasant end to the day.