Post 431 There's a lot of Covid around. I stay cautious and busy.

Wednesday was WES Group. Lori, who is taking a break from the Guild over the next year, has been researching Pockets, an interest initially triggered by Jan Messant's book Celtic, Viking and Anglo-Saxon Embroidery. As usual, Lori had worked examples of what she was learning. She had put together a PowerPoint presentation, but unfortunately we couldn't get the Guild laptop to talk to the projector. Two regular members, with experience of the IT setup, were  last-minute apologies for the meeting - one on her way to get a PCR test for Covid. I was opposed to any fiddling with the laptop settings. In the end Lori worked from her notes. It was a terrific session, with a lot of engagement. 

I had planned to farewell Lori but was a bit distracted during the meeting. As well as the IT failure, the member with Covid (the PCR test proved positive) had returned the day before from leading a textile tour in Central Australia. Another member of the group, who was at the meeting, had been on the tour. She found out about the potential infection when I told the group. She was horrified. She has since tested positive. Most members were wearing masks and we were appropriately distanced. No-one's fault, but it was a bit scary. To add to it, I had a sore throat that night. I cancelled my Pilates class on Thursday and took a PCR test after 24 hours, which was negative. My symptoms didn't develop. 

Coffee on Friday with two old work friends was cancelled because one is in Canberra with Covid. I had hoped to get to Sandy Lepore's 100 Year Climate Project exhibition at the City of Adelaide Library on Friday, but got a phone call from my AirCon service company to say they had a cancellation and could perform my service later in the morning. It's done and in good order. Now all I need is my repaired blind returned, the Vergola repair investigated and my carpets cleaned. 

Admittedly the lack of a blind is not keeping me awake at night and, if I wake up in time, there are some fine sunrises.

While isolating on Thursday and Friday I took all my folders of embroidery and knitting notes and patterns out of the boxes and folders into which they have been shoved, then sorted, rearranged and labelled them. It is good to reacquaint myself with what is there. 

On Sunday I emptied my trunk of family records and treasures to reacquaint myself with what's there. I have idea for a small set of generational drawers to hold these. It makes me very sad to handle some of these and I choose not to dwell on many of them.  This one, however, given to all school children in primary schools in NSW in 1953, just makes me smile and shake my head (the boys, of course, got blue ones.)  

I  think I'm on the right track with the drawers. I had been thinking very small, but now think they need to be a little larger. I'm on to it, however slowly.

I recovered equilibrium by making a batch of Anzac biscuits. I used a recipe provided in 2021 by Peter Malinauskas who was then leader of the Opposition is SA. It seemed a bit moist so I added extra oats. I also didn't pay close attention to the time. I don't think I can blame the tools for the fact they were overcooked. They taste OK - and have mostly been eaten. I need to go back to my method of three weeks ago!

That night there was a rare opportunity to photograph the moon in the East. Not sure why the photographs worked this time - usually I can't hold the camera still for long enough. 

 

Monday's dinner was another vegetable & sausage bake. It was a bit on the fly because of footy practice and parent-teacher interviews. I made way too much, but it got us through. I had quite a good time, hearing stories from the kids and just serving food. It's a very laid back and privileged position. 

Today I had a hairdressing appointment - just a cut and blow dry. I enjoyed talking to my hairdresser, who is feeling old at 30. I also picked up a parcel from my local PO and another from a gym in the NW corner of the city. Delivery had been attempted while I was shopping yesterday. There was a closer pick-up point but the courier dropped it off at the gym - probably where he stays fit! I grumbled a bit, but it was interesting to visit an unexplored part of the city.

In between I've been working on Jenny McWinney's Arabian Bag.  I've finished the embroidery. 

Since taking the photo, I have added some gold lines and a the single line of sand under the buildings. This afternoon I have begun the construction. I've struggled a little with some of the instructions, but the bag will emerge before next week's post.          

One of my parcels this morning contained a new shawl pin from Scarf Pins and Rings. I couldn't resist a wombat.

I'm hoping all my Covid positive friends are recovering fully. 

Post 368 The ideas, the tests and the certificates keep coming.

It's been a fairly busy week. Last night's family dinner of Chicken Maryland, Eggplant parmigiana, potatoes with bacon and Greek Salad went well. It was nearly late because Veronica interviewed me for a school project and I lost track of time. With Easter and the school holidays, Monday evening dinners are suspended for three weeks.  

After I picked up my five items from the Guild Exhibition last week I found  a spot for the Owl Service under the barometer just inside my door. I will use one or two of the bags myself and  give two or three away.

On Wednesday a couple of Guild friends and I had lunch at the Glenelg Surf Club. Junette picked me up on the corner of our apartments and I took this photo of the crane working on the building next door. It was lifting the next round of wall panels in place.  

The Surf Club is a great venue - a lovely view over the water and no pressure to leave. We stayed three hours.

You might remember last week I played with the Scheepjes wool to make a shawl. I also ordered a pattern and the Noro wool to make this shawl. It arrived while we were at lunch and I picked it up on Thursday before heading to the Guild.

I planned to go to the monthly meeting of the Guild's Crewel Work Group from 10-12.30 then on to my 1.00 pm Pilates. The Pilates class was cancelled and I was offered a 12pm class, which I refused because of Crewel. However, when I got to Crewel, the convenor had called in sick and I was the only participant/ I ended up minding the Gallery station for members to collect their Exhibition items while those on duty attended a meeting. I progressed the Aesop piece a little but not as much as I'd hoped.

It gave me a chance to talk to Christine Bishop about the requirements for her upcoming classes and also about the kit I'm putting together for the Certificate Course class I'm leading in June. This resulted in Christine bringing me 30 count Belgian linen and a metre of doctor's flannel on Saturday.                                                                                                                                      I will measure up and tack the linen at next month's Basic to Beyond but the kit for the Certificate Course workshop will take a lot more preparation. The workshop is on Icelandic Embroidery and I want the participants to work on wool, either working on a 16th Century couched figure or an 18th Century split stitch piece. The latter was usually on black. A friend has given me some very dark navy wool, which I also plan to use. 

I planned another concession to the twenty first century by using some solvi to transfer the pattern. At Create in Stitch, where I went to buy a metre of Solvi, Samela showed me a new product she has acquired but not yet tried - printable sheets of solvi that adhere to the fabric without ironing. Of course, I had to try it.

I think it is fit for my purpose. I can give students a choice of either the 16th or 18th century design already printed on the stitchable solvi sheets, or they can use regular solvi to design their own. 

My next challenge is to put together some bundles of appropriately coloured Appletons wools to get them going - and to stitch an example of each design.

While all this was occupying hours of my time, my newfound family history collaborator Melanie and I have been working on our shared family tree, examining the certificates of births, deaths and marriages we ordered last week. This week we discovered that one of Ada's brothers spent time in an asylum with significant mental health issues. From the case notes it appears this might have been related to syphilis. It also seems that at least one of his children was impacted and that his (and Ada's) father may have had similar issues. Ada was the youngest of her family. She was only 5 when her father died. There are more death certificates to come. It testifies, however, to a lot of suffering, perseverance and resilience.

It also looks as if we may be very close to solving a major mystery around my other grandmother, Nell, whose family baptised and married under one surname and used another on decades of the census. This photo of her was taken in 1917 when she was 25.

Melanie has done some extraordinary detective work to come up with a very likely explanation. We have ordered more certificates and I will report when we have some more information. 

Both my grandmothers' stories are worth telling and I am hoping to write about both of them later this year.

So far the aloe flower is too small to attract the Noisy Miner. I'm considering covering it with a net bag when it begins to open.

As a follow-up to my doctor's appointment two weeks ago I had my  fasting blood test. My GP has followed up with a phone call this morning to ask me to have another one, without fasting, to check electrolytes again. She would not be concerned, she said, if I had 2 kidneys, but since I have only one she wants to double check. So another test tomorrow.  I also have an appointment for a bone density scan and a mammogram - and, yes, my first Covid vaccination appointment on 15 April, to be followed by a flu vaccination on 5th May.

Last Saturday's Certificate Course Class was by Di Kirshner on invisible hem finishes. The instructions were to bring a piece of homespun 110cm x 25 cm. I was well out of my comfort zone - measuring, ironing, folding, ironing, tacking, ironing, then finally stitching, to create 6 pleats which we then stitched. To my horror, when I asked why the fabric piece was so long, the answer was because we might want to keep going and do more!  I thought she had rocks in her head.  

Di had brought along a steam station iron. I, who am at best an indifferent ironer, was impressed. 

I went home, finished the six examples, marked up the rest of the piece of fabric - and ordered a steam station iron! I have now finished 12 rows. The iron arrived today and I have just quickly tried it out on the piece.

I marked the names of the stitches in archival pen. I've got an idea for using the sampler. I will write this up for my embroidery blog and post a photo of the finish next week.

At Saturday's workshop I also discussed my Design Online idea with Barbara Mullan, who is running the course. I've now got an idea that relates to my Icelandic class. 

The Embellish magazine issue on Madagascar arrived. It is really inspiring. I think this will make a great study and presentation for the World Embroidery Study Group in 2022. Dale Rollison has an article on wild silk - so I ordered some for a couple of us to play with and test out. 

Finally, along with the iron, these half-metre pieces arrived from the Aboriginal Fabric Gallery in Alice Springs. They had a 15% discount offer and I thought these would come in handy.

So ideas everywhere - and not a single finish this week. Looks like a goal for next week. 

Post 367 Birds, Building, Blooms and Bag-

This has been a  bit of an Embroiderers' Guild week. I spent two half days on duty at the Exhibition, took Niamh to JEMS on Saturday, worked with a friend to finalise the Guild's Child Safe Environments policy, called out to drop in my enrolment forms for three of Christine Bishop's classes later this year and today called in to pick up my pieces from the Exhibition which was demounted yesterday. I haven't heard the final attendance figures but I think they were down on previous years but respectable.

In between times I finished Sienna's squirrel (bar a few highlights to come later) and moved my hoop on to the next section, the wood pigeon.I've decided to move clockwise around the frame.

I spent a bit of time getting my threads in order, using double-sided tape to put them in number order on card. It has made it much easier to work.

On Thursday I dropped Ken's mended trousers in at their place, as they were off on a road trip on Friday. I happened to arrive at the same time as a magpie taking advantage of their birdbath.

On Friday, after Sit'n Stitch at my friend's place at Grange, I stopped at the Jetty Cafe  before heading home. It was a lovely evening and I watched the birds returning across the water while eating my Seafood Medley.

It really was a lovely evening. I was conscious of how fortunate I was to be able to sit there at this time. 

Our Covid vaccination program is meant to move into Stage 1b this week - over 70s and those who are vulnerable. It will be, however, several weeks before sufficient doses arrive and switchboards were jammed in the practices nominated to deliver the injections. My doctor, who I saw on Wednesday, has suggested I have my flu vaccination early in April, then try to organise a Covid vaccination 2-3 weeks later. I am now organising a bone density scan, a mammogram and a blood test.

To continue the bird theme, the dove pair have been daily visitors, soaking up the heat in the tiles, 

spreading seed around 

sharing amiably

and providing interesting silhouettes. 

They appear unaffected by the continuous upthrust of the building next door, which is now up to six storeys. My neighbours are fed up with the noise and dust. I haven't noticed the dust. The panels arrive by crane and are bolted on. The motor of the crane required to lift them into place is noisy but the construction process itself is much less so.

Before long I won't be able to see the top of the panels from my balcony - no bad thing. 

I'm still feeling it will be OK when built and the scaffold removed.

On the front balcony, the frangipani have continued to bloom in their small way. It's lovely to see the flowers emerging. Hopefully, they will continue to grow and bloom next year. My friend Vivienne has posted a link to a Frangipani Growers Australia, a group on FB. I've considered joining, but there were 22 posts to the group today and 812 in the last month. I'm not sure I can cope with that volume.

Yesterday I shopped at Frewville and took a photo of their wall garden. This density of cover is what I'm hoping to achieve with mine. They do have a watering system, whereas I water by hand.

As I predicted last week, the aloe flower disappeared during the week. Reckon I had a raid by the Noisy Miner.

I did finish the Turkmen Pouch. Detail of the finish can be found in my embroidery blog.

I've also been playing with the box of Scheepjes yarn that Jennifer bought for herself, Susan and I . I've been playing with a shawl pattern Susan found, just to see how it might be managed. It's promising. Today Susan and I discussed how it might work. There is a challenge carrying the yarn from row to row when the rows are so short at the beginning. I'm going to keep experimenting.

The book of the last 85 days of my daily blog arrived late last week. I had inadvertently ordered it in black and white, which is a shame, but I won't reorder.

I've spent hours and hours this week exploring further my grandmother Ada's family tree. I've now ordered some birth and death certificates. I expect it will be a while before I get them, even by email. I'm on one of those obsessive rolls that come when you find someone else working on the same bit of family as you are. It pushes discoveries forward.  

There will be more. 

The days have been warm. The floods in the Eastern states and historic sexual assault claims in Parliament House have dominated this week's news. As they should.  These stories are also far from over.