Posr 365 A long weekend, birds, and research.

It was a bit of a bird week. These were all taken just after sunset, the top two of birds returning to roost in the many trees in the city parks and gardens. From their flight direction I suspect they were headed to the Botanical Gardens. The lower two were lorikeets descending on the Square to have a final feed before nightfall. They made a lot of noise and fought each other for the best positions to get the opening seed pods.  

This was Sunday's sunset (right)

and this Monday's. Monday was a public holiday in South Australia - for the running of the Adelaide Cup, which went ahead with 5000 attendees, rather than the usual 14,000.

The Embroiderers Guild Exhibition is now running. I visited on Saturday. It looks good. There are some stunning entries, but photography isn't allowed. I am on duty there tomorrow, so will try to get a general shot or two of the room to show include next week.

There was a bit more development on the Bulgarian Embroidery front. 

Genevieve sent me a link to a really interesting article published in French on the National Bulgarian Radio website.about martenitsi -  tokens given on 1 March, the first day of Spring, or Baba Marta Day, signifying renewal. This photo (left) of embroidered martenitsi is from the article.I found photos of these tassel figures,  which are  traditionally given in pairs, one male, one female.

Nelly dropped in the embroidered clothes she had found in her wardrobe, including this dress. I can't wait to show the World Embroidery Study Group  .

On Friday the Sheila Paine book on Amulets arrived. I have browsed a little but not read it as yet. It's going to be really interesting. While there are several referenccs to Bulgaria, the main interest for me will be much wider.

One of my three frangipani trees is blooming. It is lovely to see. Regretably, it doesn't have a strong scent. I will need to wait another year or so for the latest one I bought to bloom for the scent.

In a moment of madness in January, I enrolled in an online design course being run for the Guild by Barbara Mullan. It is the first online course the Guild has run. It trialled last year. I think it's a great idea and wanted to support it, so I enrolled. The second assignment arrived last week - and I hadn't done the first, which focused on beginning to think about a design. I dug out the project I began a year ago - to produce a narrative embroidery about the Bushfires we were experiencing - before Covid hit. I had sketched a design and purchased a hand-woven scarf to use as a canvas and sourced a good range of Australian-produced threads (not easy). As 2020 progressed, the project seemed less and less appropriate. I have now revived it as the basis of my project for this online course. I want to simplify it. The course should provide me with a framework.

The major achievement this week was the completion of the new edge on my winter hexie quilt. The detail on how I got to this point is covered in my embroidery blog.

A couple of family history puzzles occupied me for a number of hours over the long weekend.  One was a straightforward request for information I had about the marriage of one set of my paternal 3x GGrandparents, both of whom made their separate ways to London from Ireland during the famine. It's a while since I researched this, so it took time to refreshing my memory.  I had concluded that they either did not marry, or married in a London Catholic Church whose records have not been digitised. Probably the former. The enquirer turned out to be an Australian currently in the UK researching and hoping to visit Ireland to follow up on research. Pretty amazing. I hope she succeeds. 

I also spent a number of hours following up on the enquiry I received last week. Melanie, the researcher who contacted me has come up with an alternative ancestry for a shared ancestor in the 1820s. We either have a 2x GGmother who was the sister of 2 convicts transported for larceny, or a 3xGGmother who had 2 children by one of those convicts. I had traced the line to the latter, but after hours of checking and digging, I think Melanie might be right.  I need to do more work and then spend time adjusting my tree.

I have begun a Turkman pouch. This is the one I cut out a couple of years ago, because Jennifer was wanting to make one and I was going to help by working one alongside her. She didn't need my help and is now helping a group in her apartment block to make theirs. I've agreed to meet with them to help with stitches, so thought I should revive mine.        I'm making good progress. The pattern calls for button-holed circles in the marked squares, but given my lining I thought I'd do Ghiordes Knots.  It seems to be working.  

Also over the long weekend, I did an early proof-read of a chapter of my brother's next book. Always interesting.

I've also done all the usual things - shopping, mostly for fruit, Sit'n Stitch last Friday, dinner at Katherine's on Saturday. Niamh had a friend to sleep over. There was lots of animated discussion of school activity and interactions. Katherine's front garden is beginning to look terrific.

Today I picked up a parcel of books from the Post Office. These are from Can Do Books. I couldn't resist these small handbooks of textile patterns from the V&A. So many beautiful patterns. I don't have any immediate practical use for them, but they are lovely to hold and to browse.

This one might prove very useful when considering the 3 drawers of wool I have to use up.

Jennifer is flying to Queensland tomorrow night for 4 weeks, visiting her family and attending an annual family reunion, so we had an extra Sit'n Stitch today. I still haven't photographed Susan's Margaret Light square. It is beautifully fine. Jennifer is taking her Sophie's World with her to work on in Queensland. It is amazingly textured - crocheted stumpwork!

This is where I finished up today on the pouch. 9 more Ghiords knots to go.                    

Finally, the wall next door rose by one more panel this morning. It was great to have a break from building work over the long weekend.

It hasn't deterred the doves.

Post 279 Few photo opportunities

I had a few jobs to do today, a bit of domestic tidying in the morning and commitments in the afternoon. I managed to add a zip to the first of the sashiko squares I had finished.I haven't fixed the sides as yet, but I wanted to try the zip. 

It seemed to work, so I went off happy to Pilates. There I was able to try out the new Covid Safe Check-in app. The first time you use it you need to register with a verification code sent to your mobile. I didn't want to do that with a queue behind me. Plenty of time and space at Pilates.

It worked!

I had arranged to meet some friends at Elders Fine Art on Melbourne St North Adelaide. They have an Art auction on Sunday and I am interested in a couple of paintings. My friends were interested in some Bernard Hesling plates. Elders have two buildings in their Gallery, the old church on the left and the terrace on the right. There is a building between. The paintings I am interested in are in the church. I used my Covid Safe Check-in app to get in - again, it worked very quickly!  I'm still thinking about the paintings.

Between Pilates and Elders I managed to park outside DK Fabrics and buy a pile of zips for however many sashiko pouches I might make. DK have plenty of parking at the back, but the council has introduced ticket parking to stop people parking there all day. It is a nuisance. You can't use a credit card for less than 3 hours. For 1 hour parking you need a $1 coin. Covid has all but eliminated coins as a method of payment, so I rarely have a $1 coin. Street parking outside is 15 minutes only - OK for buying a handful of zips!

I got home with about 15 minutes to spare before Niamh and Veronica arrived so I could take them to choir practice.  They are getting ready for a socially distanced end of year concert. Usually Young Adelaide Voices have concerts in which all six of their choirs perform but this year each choir will perform only to their own parents. 

In between my outings I managed to finish a second sashiko panel.

I  also worked another dot square. I'm getting the hang of these. I will make a blanket, but I think I need to come up with a second and third plan to use up some of this cotton.

I admit, however, that I am finding both these projects more engrossing than stitching on hexies. The quilt,  is taking up quite a bit of room next to a chair in my lounge room and will eventually shame me into tackling it.

Eventually.

Post 264 Lockdown

Before the bombshell of a 6 day lock-down  within 12 hours hit around lunchtime, I was relaxed and thinking about desk covers, the first thing those of us who were in primary school in NSW in the 1950s made in our sewing classes. They were rectangles of headcloth, with embroidered hems and embroidered motifs. No one I know of ever covered a desk with one. 

Recently I have thought about those desk-covers each time I've been at the Guild in a class or session that includes lunch. With the kitchen closed under our Covid Safe Plan, we eat at our work stations, moving our embroidery away. Each time I wish I had that desk cover to spread out before opening my lunch box.

Today I dug out a pair of Japanese Sashiko napkins I embroidered a couple of years ago when friends bought them back from Japan for me.  I reckon they fit the bill, so I'll be making them part of my Guild kit.

I was watching a crane loading timber beams from a crane on the building site next door, when I decided I'd better check in on the midday news bulletin. I tuned in just as Professor Nicola Spurrier, our Chief Health Officer, was explaining the 6 day lockdown announced by the SA Government from midnight tonight. All schools,  universities, eateries (including take-away), hotels, gyms, pools closed. One person from each household can leave once a day for essential food  or pharmacy shopping. No exercise outside the home. Masks to be warn outside the home. 

My first thought was that I did not have enough tomatoes for my lunches for six days. I had made a shopping list this morning, which included ingredients for next Monday's family dinner. I figured I should go to my favourite tomato shop straight away, before the rush started, and then call at the butcher. 

It appears everyone in Adelaide had a similar thought.

On the way to the car I realised there would be no Monday family dinner!

At the North Adelaide Village, a shopping complex where I have never seen more than 50 people, the queue to get into the supermarket snaked around the atrium. I estimated about 40 people in the queue, waiting for others to come out of the supermarket so they could get in. 

 Around the corner, in the greengrocer, there were two queues, one to get into the shop and one to pay. The line around the back wall is the paying queue. It went around two walls and out into the atrium - again, up to 40 people while I was in it. The shop has 4 checkouts, each with a packer as well as a cashier. The wait wasn't too bad. It was, however, astounding to see. Adelaide doesn't have queues. Four shop assistants were working constantly to replenish the stock.                                                  People were focused, but cheerful. There was a lot of smiling and sympathy for the young woman who started work there today in her first job. A day she won't forget.

I had thought I might buy a couple of crumbed French cutlets from the butcher but although, when I had paid at the greengrocer,  the queue did not extend outside the butcher's shop door, the meat display was severely depleted and I didn't bother. These food shops are essential services under the lockdown and will be open throughout the six days. I can, if necessary, exercise my once a day food excursion option if desperate. 

By contrast to the shopping centre, the streets were relatively deserted on the way home.  The photo on the left is Frome Rd near Brougham Place and Lefevre Terrace at North Adelaide on the right, both usually much busier.

Since arriving home I've had a few calls and messages checking I'm OK, which I certainly am. These are the toughest restrictions so far in the country. It seems contact tracing data indicates this particular strain of the virus is replicating itself every 3 days. Those contracting it are infectious within 24 hours. Contact tracers are now tracing the 5th generation from the initial infection (which arrived in Adelaide from the UK). The speed of transmission without symptoms is what has epidemiologists worried.  As Nicola Spurrier has said, this is our one chance of a relatively normal Christmas. So hard and early it is.

I posted another Baby Boomer Teacher Conversation today. I  also ordered two more printed linens from The Crewel Work Company after measuring the space left on my chair and calculating what I will need after I add the Aesop Frame.  I've also set up the small stag in a hoop to give me a break from hexies. This one is for the skirt at the front of the chair.

Jennifer has sent a photo of her finished Mr Twizzle, which is another part of a community fundraiser. She is so good at creating at these fabulous figures.

By 11pm I had found the wools I need for the stag and made a start. Plenty of time tomorrow - and more interesting than attaching the hexies to my quilt!

From Adelaide: Stay Safe!

Post 235 Sit 'n Stitch at my place

It was after 1.00 am when I posted yesterday's blog and went to bed, so I am not guilty for sleeping in until after 9.00 am this morning and having a slow, lazy morning. After breakfast I set about moving my hoop and finding the threads I thought might work for a dove feather. I do need to put in an acknowledgement of the black and white collar, but do not have black and white Appleton's wool. I may, however, substitute the DMC sparkle threads. See how I go.

I was getting dressed after my shower, around 1pm when Jennifer called. While she was waiting for her Covid test result on Thursday, we had made a tentative plan for her to come here this afternoon to sit and stitch. When she tested negative and we restored Friday's stitching arrangement, we didn't firm up today, but didn't cancel either. 

It was great, therefore, when Jennifer called and wanted to come. 

Jennifer is working on a knitted Mother Christmas figure to go with the Father Christmas she has finished. Regretfully, I didn't photograph him. He is magnificent - about 45 cm high.

I had planned to make a start on adding the hexies to my quilt, a job that is better done at home because of the bulk and weight of the quilt. I got two hexies added in the afternoon- my positioning did not begin well and I had to unpick the first one and reposition. 

After Jennifer had gone I discovered one of the begonias she had given me a year or two ago was blooming. A pity I didn't see it while she was here.                                                                                                                                                                    I made, or tried to make, a third book of my blog this evening, covering July to September. I managed to preview it but when I tried to order, got the same error message as I did when I started this a few days ago.  I've sent yet another message to the support team, but it is, of course the weekend. This is a long, slow and repetitive process.

There was an interesting sky this evening just after the sun had gone down. The colours from the sun were still in the sky while a crescent moon was descending. I managed to also  capture a bat returning to the Morton Bay fig tree where a bat colony roosts.

I made a start on the dove feather this evening while watching a couple of episodes of Series 15 of Midsomer  Murders. A very pleasant end to the day. 

Post 95 Stitching progress

Showers this morning were light and sparse, but by this evening rain has set in and is, for Adelaide, heavy. There was another little dove drama this morning when the adolescent arrived at the same time as the pair and was fiercely driven off and pursued. It was more than an hour before the pair were back. They ate and hastened away.

I proof-read a story for my brother and went to Katherine and Anthony's place for afternoon tea. Brigid and Niamh made excellent scones which I helped to eat with Katherine's fresh lemon curd and cream. Yum. 

While at afternoon tea I managed to finish five of the last six hexies. The last one I finished at home. I now have 75 hexies to add to my quilt. I need to set aside a day or two to do it. I think the best plan is to replace the quilt with a doona for a while so I can keep the quilt and extra hexies in a bag from which I can do the work as a break from other projects.


I changed the hoop with my bird over from the upright stick seated stand to the jointed Nurge one.
I don't like the clamp on this Nurge stand, but it works OK with a hoop. It annoys me that it doesn't clamp a slate or roller frame, but it wasn't an issue here. It means I can sit further back in a chair, which is much more comfortable for hours of work.

I used a dark grey metallic thread for legs and feet and worked them in tightly packed French knots.






















I somewhat hesitantly filled the backgrounds in with seed stitch in metallics of a variety of colours.



I wasn't sure it would give the effect I wanted. The fine metallics have a way of disappearing into the linen. In the end I liked the effect.

I still have the beak to go, and a little work on the eye.


The overall effect, though, is very much what I wanted.


Tomorrow I have a podiatrist appointment and the kids are coming after school, but I should, I think, manage the finishing touches.

Post 90: a bit of shopping

Great cloud formation this morning.














My first visitor was the adolescent dove, who came to explore the balcony before I had broadcast any seed. It took a few minutes before Myrtle appeared to shoo him away. I discussed this behaviour with my brother. We agreed this appears to be a parental strategy to force young to fend for themselves.They are not allowed to continue following their parents around. They will be forced to find their own territory.





I put out the new seed, which I have placed in a new, larger container. It was not as easy to manage as the previous ccontainer. I ended up distributing more than usual. Myrtle came back and had a decent feed before leaving. None of the doves came back during the day, which is unusual. Maybe there is some drama in doveland.



But for Covid, there would have been a Certificate Course workshop last Saturday, taken by Margaret Adams on Kogin embroidery from Japan. I made a Kogin cushion in 2011 which is still in use. I realised today it needed to be washed, so did so. It's now back on the chair. I like it a lot, and really enjoyed making it. I'd like to do more.

I needed milk, so took myself off to Unley Village, where I could also dispose of the bag of soft plastic I've collected over the last three or four weeks. Even though it was a pretty dull day, the parklands provide a pleasant lift. The traffic was fairly light although the Village car park was about 90% full.

Coles was not crowded and well stocked. I even got a dispenser of hand sanitiser!

I got more reading done for my writing task, but no actual writing.  It will happen.

As at the beginning of the day, the sunset had some interesting cloud patterns, along with an interest colour palette.













I got another 6 hexies stitched together. Only six more to go.


There's also a little progress on Nicola's bird.


Tomorrow it has to be reading and writing all the way!