Post 338 A new research task and a couple of wins.

 

There was an exploratory visit from Black Tips this morning. I had not put out any seed or replenished the water, although I had hung out washing. 

I had an imminent appointment on the street outside so attending to the doves had to wait.  My appointment was with a friend I had worked with about 15 years ago. We continue in touch  through social media. She got in touch last week to ask if I was interested in having access to her collection of family embroidery. Her family is from Bulgaria. She now lives in the Barossa Valley.

I was very interested, so this morning she brought me this box on her way to an open garden in a seaside suburb.

I now have this box of treasures for a month or so. I hope to photograph and document it. 

We have not done enough in South Australia to document and preserve our heritage of embroidery and textiles from non-English speaking countries and I want to do what I can to rectify that.

The box contains embroidery by my friend's mother-in-law, her grandmother, her mother and her piano teacher.

I have only had a quick look at the contents, but thought I'd provide a teaser with this detail from a runner worked by Vala Georgieva, my friend's mother-in-law.

It is extraordinarily beautiful.

I have been searching for resources on Bulgarian Embroidery. There are not many published in English, but fortunately, the Embroiderers' Guild Library holds copies of those, so I need to get to the Guild Library this week.

One Bulgarian researcher, Daniel Montiglio, has published a bit online about  traditional motifs and their 'secret' meanings.  One of these is a tree of life, which features in this runner.

According to Daniel Montiglio, this was used in Bulgaria to represent the world, the heavens at the top, the earth in the stem and the underworld in the roots. It is used by the Deity to climb down to illuminate human life and mark beginnings. Red, according to him, symbolises mother's blood and continuity of life. It is protective.

I have a long way to go in learning about Bulgarian embroidery, and may well end up with a differing information.

It's a privilege and exciting to be at the beginning of this learning journey.

On my way home last night I almost stopped for petrol. My tank was only 20% full, and petrol was at the lower end of the roughly 20 day price cycle that we endure in most Australian cities. It is, apparently, a marketing strategy and has nothing to do with the wholesale petrol price. It drives me nuts. Last night petrol was $109.95 a litre at 9pm. I decided to wait until this morning as I wanted to get home to write my blog.

When I checked prices this morning, petrol at the same station was $1.58 a litre. I don't usually get sucked into this battle, but it got under my skin this morning, and I drove 5 km to an independent petrol outlet where it cost me $114.5 a litre. I was heading to Unley Shopping Centre anyway, for milk and fruit, The detour added about 4.5km to my trip. It also lowered my blood pressure and made me feel more in control.

Back at home I prepared the pasta bake for tomorrow's dinner. I bought a bunch of multi-coloured carrots at Tony and Mark's at Unley, and added some of them to the sauce, along with celery. It was improved by a couple of cups of red wine and a litre of passata. Towards the end I added mushrooms and parsley along with the pasta.

I always mean to photograph this favourite but forget. Now I've done it I promise not to do it again.

Another photographic success today was to capture a bird in the sunset photo.I don't know what kind of bird it was, perhaps a magpie, given the size.

I gathered the threads for my last Nicola bird, which I'm working as a Western Spine Bill. I've modified the beak accordingly. This will go on the Kangaroo Paw fabric.

I haven't done anything today with the Blue Wren.

I did, however, finish yesterday's square of Myreshka. Christine warned us yesterday that this was a lot of work - and she was right. It took quite a while. I watched 7 episodes of Scottish Vets Down Under while doing it. (Yes, I've run out of Midsomer Murder spisodes on ABC i View).

I'm feeling a bit tired today. The sun set on a lot of unfinished projects - but the pasta bake is prepared, I have a full petrol tank, the washing is put away, there's water for the doves and I made progress on the sampler. 

Sufficient.

Post 337 Mostly Myreshka Embroidery

 

Today there was a Wake and lunch for Susan Monks, the friend who died on 20 November 2020. Out of an abundance of caution, I didn't attend. I'm sure it will have been a time of good food, friendship and great stories about Susan. She was a remarkable woman and a good friend. I find myself reliving the conversations we had in 2020 - and having conversations with her in my head, drawing on her wisdom as I think things through.                                                                                                                                        My world, and the education community, especially in South Australia, is so much richer and wiser because of her life. I rejoice in it.

I was woken just after 7am this morning by the noise of drilling on the building site. By the time I left home just before 9 am there was heavy equipment operating - a bit rich on Saturday, with no notice given to neighbours (at least not to this neighbour).

I was heading to a Certificate Course Workshop at the Guild so escaped the noise. I suspect my neighbours one floor below were less than pleased. Might be worth a phone call to the Council on Monday.

As I headed out I also received a text message to say a parcel was due to be delivered today. Another sign the times are out of joint. We haven't had Saturday mail deliveries for decades. I suspect parcel deliveries are contracted out, so the contractor is free to deliver out of normal business hours. 

Of course, when I arrived home there was a card to say I had missed the delivery and can pick it up after an indecipherable time on Monday.

There were about 18 students at the Guild Workshop. The much anticipated video camera had arrived and yesterday had been installed and connected to the overhead projector. 

It has been set up so an instructor can sit with the camera trained on their hands, projecting the image to the screen as they work stitches.

      

In a Covid world this means tutors can work within distancing recommendations or requirements, without students gathering around them in a circle.

The dangling cord is not ideal, but most students can sit fully distanced where this doesn't impact. 

The workshop, taken by Christine Bishop, was on Myreshka embroidery - drawn thread work from Russia. It is worked in blocks, using very specific and fairly simple techniques demanding a fair bit of concentration until you get the sequence and rhythm.

Part of the concentration is, of course, counting the threads. We began by working the border. Here the pin is marking where I counted 5 threads instead of 6. Fortunately I could undo from the shorter end. My new glasses and magnifier worked well - but obviously didn't prevent a miscount.

I do so enjoy these workshops. I mostly do my own thing, following the instructions and concentrating. People ask questions freely, and the answers help us all. There is enough familiarity to be comfortable and caring but a high degree of focus ensures productivity and shared purpose.

I find them nurturing and enriching.

We remain seated one at each end of out 1.5 metre long, 2 metre apart tables for lunch. The kitchen can now be used by two people at a time, but no-one that I noticed took advantage, except to pour water from the kettle boiled by the Covid Marshall. I brought my usual biscuits with cheese slices and a tomato. I'm making good use of my Sashiko napkins to cover the table, and use the lid of my container to cut the tomato.

This is where I got to. The last row I worked at home. I am playing around with patterns and numbers of blocks between 'holes'. It is a most flexible technique. It is, by the way, usually worked in thread the same colour as the fabric, although there are no rules. I chose to work in a contrasting colour to help me see what I am doing. 

At Katherine's place I caught up on the first three days of school - all interesting, fairly balanced assessments, with friendships and relationships to the fore. 

Brigid had finished making her dress - the one for which I bought the pattern two weeks ago - this afternoon and wore it to a party tonight.She looked smashing.

There was also the feast of barbecued meat, roast potatoes, salad and broccolini. I finished another crocheted circle.

After returning home tonight I finished the blue wren. I am always surprised at the difference the seed stitch makes.

This is now ready to be appliqued on to a bag.

These are the two linens I am considering for the bag, kangaroo paw pattern on the left, bottle brush on the right. I think it goes better on the bottle brush.

I have one more of Nicola's birds to do. At the moment I'm thinking I could turn it into a Western spinebill, which feeds on kangaroo paw.

A friend has offered to drop in her collection of family embroidery tomorrow morning for me to examine and document over the next couple of months. 

The sunset summed up the day - from dark to light with persistent pink.