Post 356 Perseverence

It reached 38C in Adelaide today.  I kept the roller shutter down on my spare room window, the Vergola roof closed and the aircon on. The washing I put out yesterday afternoon was more than dry.

Katherine brought me a new supply of seed on Monday, courtesy of her chickens. The heat didn't deter Black Tips from exploring at some length.

 He returned later this afternoon with Blush. The worst of the heat had by then moved to the other end of the building.They polished off any remaining seed.

I spent most of the morning preparing a summary of my Bulgarian embroidery research for Nelly. There is one more book at the Guild Library that I need to consult before finalising it. I might manage to call in tomorrow before Pilates.

Margaret M has managed to arrange our Inuit samplers for the Guild Exhibition next month. This morning I  composed the explanation to accompany it, which will be laminated and attached. 

The committee begins to accept entries from tomorrow. The exhibition is from 6-21 March.

In the afternoon I spent quite a bit of time working out how to get the text I want on the Owl Service.  I traced the shape of the negative space on the piece and played with the text on the tracing. Once I was happy with the layout on the tracing paper I decided the easiest method was to copy it on to the linen in pencil. I drew light lines on the piece and centred the text, then penciled it on. I had not expected to use this method, but when it came to the point this seemed the only viable way.

I had several attempts at the lettering, beginning with Quaker stitch in black linen thread. That proved to be far too thick and heavy, so heavy that the text wasn't clear. I unpicked and swapped over to split stitch in 6 strands of silk thread in dark green. It was still so thick the letters merged. I have finally went to 3 strands of stranded silk and took the piece out of the hoop. Holding it in my hand seemed to work better. I have used a combination of stem stitch and straight stitch to get this far. It's hard, painstaking work, but I'm hoping it will come a bit easier before too long.

For those of you who have asked about it,  the orienteering excursion with the Outdoor Ed class.and their teacher did go ahead with Brigid assisting. Predictably, it took more time than the 2 hours allocated  and they were 45 minutes late back to school. Fortunately she still had time to come here, change, relax and get to her birthday dinner on time. She is a remarkable, capable and resilient young woman.  Just as well. There's a lot  outside her control that could have gone wrong today. She did all the right things to contain and manage the risk. Brava.