Post 571 The Eyes Have It.

 

It’s been a week of relentless heat, at least 35C every day and 40C yesterday as the girls made  their way here on foot  from school and working in the city. Troopers. 

The city provided inspirational light to those still out when the sun set around 8.45pm.

I’ve spent most of the week inside, reading, researching, stitching or writing without the use of my right index finger. I shopped a couple of times, and spent Saturday making a pasta bake for Monday, because my big adventure was lunch at friends’ house on Sunday. It was great to catch up in their cool house and feast on gazpacho and seafood.

I cancelled Pilates on Thursday after a lot of thought. It's important exercise for me, but even exercises on legs and torso usually involve gripping something, and I really don’t want to knock or stress my recovering finger.

 Yesterday the 8 stitches were removed. One bled, so I had a dressing on it until midday today. The routine is now pressure bandage overnight for about 6 weeks to disperse fluid and, from Thursday, twice-daily massages of wound to ensure scar tissue doesn’t harden, plus regular mild bending (beware overuse!). It’s a bit sore around the wound.

My main focus has been on stitching the third Evil Eye mandala, which I finished yesterday. Details, of course, in my embroidery blog. 

Inevitably, as I stitched it, I was thinking about history and meaning for my presentation later in the year, so while the bolognese sauce was simmering on Saturday I got out my books and worked on the it. The PowerPoint is now almost prepared. There’s another embroidery I want to do, but fundamentally it’s there. 

On Friday I had a fasting blood test. Foolishly, I had it in my left arm, as usual. The vein seemed to have recovered from the cannula for the finger operation, but by the time I got home it was bleeding messily, so I applied pressure and sat for half an hour. It is still bruised, but OK. I get the results tomorrow.🤞🏼

Progress on the Certificate Course Aida project has been much slower. I'm discovering the limitations of Aida as an embroidery medium - which may, of course, be the point of the exercise. More to come. Before I progress it, I'm trying to make the last two tassels for the Aquile, which, if I succeed, will also go in the Guild Exhibition. I seem to be managing the knots without my index finger.  240 down, 720 to go! I'm on desk duty at the Guild tomorrow, so maybe I'll get some more done.

The kit I ordered from Tanya Bentham arrived today. At the moment working in wool is not attractive, although the design is.

While I have made inroads in my book pile, I haven't eliminated it and another book arrived today. After the knots, it might be time to redress the reading/stitching balance.

Post 393 A promise of Spring

My friend Robin in lockdown in the Blue Mountains sent me this photo of the remaking project she has finished embroidering on the back of a woollen cardigan. Inspiring, isn't it? So clever to have chosen the gold colours and circular variations. 

I spent last Wednesday at home, pretty much absorbed in the third bookmark I bought from the Fox Collection. It took up much of Thursday too, in between Pilates. 

There were a couple of hours of sunshine on both Thursday and Friday afternoons, and I spent at least one of them each day stitching on my front balcony. The plants are doing pretty well right now. The mint I bought from the supermarket is thriving. The frangipani are bare but will soon be bursting to life. Must nearly be time to fertilise. I haven't used the electric barbecue since it blew my fuses nearly two years ago.  I'm thinking of turning it into planter bowls. I might pluck up courage to try it again before I do.

The light was great, both for stitching and for a few photos.I came inside as the sun got low in the West. 

At the other end of the apartment, as I was closing the doors to the balcony, I caught the flash of green and squarking that signals the arrival of the lorikeets to the first buds on the trees.  These first photos are not very good, but hopefully I'll be better prepared next time.

Our Sit'nStitch was cancelled on Friday as Susan was poorly. I went to Unley and shopped for Monday dinner, a task I had planned for Saturday. Back at home I finished the third bookmark. I'm not sure why I have enjoyed these so much. 

The designs are great, as are the colours. The backstitch outlines took me about 4 hours, but there is great satisfaction in completion. I am looking forward to receiving the various Aida Bands I have ordered from the Crafty Frog. 

I'm planning to back the next batch with silk, rather than felt, to make them thinner. Felt works, but I think silk will be an improvement.

At our September Book Club meeting I have to nominate the books for us to discuss in September, so I've been trying out some options. I spent Sunday reading Diana J Febry's  The Skeletons of Birkbury, which I think is a bit of a find. I'm currently reading Robert Gott's The Orchard Murders, also a possibility.

In between reads, I have been charting a couple of motifs from Vala Georgieva's Bulgarian embroidery for my Bulgarian Embroidery workshop for the Certificate Course in September next year. It occurred to me that I might be able to put one of them on a bookmark as an option for one of the projects. I liked the idea so much I set about trying it on the slightly wider 16 count Aida I already have. 

I couldn't do it without magnification, but this is the result over a couple of days. 

To complete the experiment, I backed it with silk. I like the result. It's thinner, so kinder to a book, and looks quite elegant.

I think some students might quite like to work the project this way and I have plenty of this band.

The weather has warmed a little this week in Adelaide, with a couple of days of 20C. It is forecast to be 29C on Thursday and then back to 15C next weekend. I have spent a bit of time in my bedroom chair stitching or reading in the morning light. I'm pleased to have found this resting place for the Sheepjes rug.

I discovered this week that sweet potato goes really well through the spiraliser.

Tonight I had some Osso Bucco left over from last night with sweet potato.  I resisted frying up the leftover mashed potato (the only way I like mashed potato!) in favour of this lower carb option. My weight loss has slowed but still heading in the right direction. 6.8 kilos down this morning.

I spent most of today trying out my chart of Vala Georgieva's Tree of Life embroidery. I am no expert in charting counted thread work. I have charted knitting patterns for myself, but charting a multicoloured embroidery design for others to use is another matter altogether.  

I played around with fabric,  settling on 14 count Aida, close in structure to the original, which I think is handwoven hemp.  I've discovered a couple of errors in the chart as I've worked it. It's fairly easy to fix as I go.

I'm  taking photos as I go, so I can document the stages to suggest to students. I think there are conventions I am unfamiliar with for charting stitches (even though I've used enough of them).  I know there is software but I'm not sure it would help in this circumstance.

The Viking Embroidery workshop is well before this one, but I am still waiting for the wool fabric to arrive from Sweden. It has arrived in Brisbane, but hasn't yet cleared customs.

Jennifer called this evening. She told me I missed a brilliant sunset. I was focused on the Aida tree of life.  My attention has been on the small things. 

Tomorrow I will try to look up and out!

This should definitely be the last post with automated email notification. Next week I expect to email manually.