Post 231 World Embroidery

     

The weather has warmed up here. 31C today and 20C overnight. Time to change over to my Summer quilt.

The weather has warmed up here. 31C today and 20C overnight.  I woke up this morning and decided it was time to change over to my Summer quilt. I stripped the bed, replaced the underlay, the pillow under-cases, the sheets and pillow cases.

Before I left home around 10.50 am to go to the Guild for World Embroidery Study Group I had washed the quilt and hung it on the line.  It was dry when I returned home at 1pm. Now is the time for me to add the 75 hexies I made earlier this year around the edges.

I washed and dried the sheets and pillowcases this afternoon. The underlays can be done tomorrow.

We had a great meeting of the World Embroidery Study Group. There were nine members there - back to pre-Covid attendance. This is especially good in view of two regular members being absent because they have broken or dislocated arms! 

It was a terrific team effort. We had a PowerPoint by one member outlining Inuit history and traditions and a workshop on Inuit applique by another member. The computer was set up by someone else, another was Covid Marshall. Everyone joined in as it suited them and helped to sanitise at the end. It is a great group and every single person expressed their pleasure at meeting, learning and engaging.

This is my effort, obviously unfinished, but on the way. I didn't, unfortunately, take photos of what others were working on, but there was a variety - birds, abstract forms and sea creatures. 

The plan is to put them together to display something of what our group does for the Guild Exhibition next year.

I did a bit of work to finish my bear this evening. I didn't get the jaw right. He doesn't look fierce enough. I don't think I can alter that so will have to live with it. I'll try to add the hunter i

in the next few days.

I was anxious to try out my Adelaide Rosella colour scheme on a feather so worked a little to try it out. I think it's going to work.

Tomorrow is service of my reverse cycle air con and Pilates.

Post 230 It's all about the preparation

I bought these yesterday at Frewville. They are quite small but such a lovely colour, and very frilly. They are opening slowly in this warm weather and I'm hoping to enjoy them for several days.

My major task today is to prepare for the World Embroidery Study Group tomorrow. We are looking at Inuit embroidery. Margaret has prepared a PowerPoint and Junette is bringing felt and templates for us to try out some appliqued shapes.  

Unfortunately, Margaret has broken her arm and has a hospital appointment tomorrow morning, so has emailed me her presentation. I now have that on a memory stick for tomorrow, along with a short presentation I put together on terminology. I've also gathered some threads, scissors and bits and pieces I've promised individuals. 

Serendipitously, this morning I received a digital copy of the latest Piecework Magazine, with an article on Inuit string games traditionally played on cord made from animal sinew. It's a form of what some know as Cat's Cradle. Not, of course, embroidery, but an interesting study. The figures traditionally made by Inuit families are canoes, ice floes and other local elements, but not dissimilar to figures we made in Australia 60 years ago. The author's research suggests that the hand actions associated with these figures become imprinted and come back almost automatically after decades of disuse. Perhaps we should try it out.

I went to Unley shopping centre this morning to pick up a top that I'd ordered online but saved postage by picking up in shop. I dropped off my soft plastic recycling, collected the parcel and popped into Coles to see if my favourite ice creams were on special. They weren't. Raspberries and strawberries were cheap, however so I got some for my breakfasts. 

It's a small, very pleasant shopping centre, with plenty of space and people being careful.

The building work has continued all day with a concrete pour happening. Anthony was right when he suggested the wooden struts were to support concrete walls.  I did have an hour away but the noise did not disturb me. Steady motor noise blends into the background, especially when I am concentrating on something.

After getting ready for tomorrow's meeting, I moved my attention to feathers.

Today's effort was a Galah feather. I feel much happier working a feather to a particular bird.

This morning my friend Vivienne suggested woking an Adelaide rosella. I think I might try that next.

I'm planning to stick to three colours. It needs to be simple and impressionistic rather than representational. Now that the Galah has worked to my satisfaction I will try this one.

After that I might just have a go at the lorikeet. And there's always a dove.