Asia Pacific exhibition (continued)

There were a lot of textiles in this exhibition and that included hand embroidery.

For me, I think the work for Uzbeckistan was the most notable.  My friend Pam has sent me a jacket and a quilt  she had embroidered here as gifts.  She buys used sari's in India which are then Kantha quilted by artisans.  They are then  made into jackets or quilts which she then takes to Uzbeckistan to have them hand embroidered.

I love both of these pieces.  When I compare how the embroidery is stitched in my pieces and those pieces in the exhibition, the level of skills is totally different.  The pieces in the exhibition are "Tambour work" by highly skilled embroiderers.  My pieces have been made for commercial purposes using basic stitches.

This level of skill is outstanding and takes lots of practise but my pieces carry lots of love with them.

 

 

A break from stitching

It was that time of month to attend the monthly lecture at the art gallery.  I look forward to this time as I meet my friend Janie and after the lecture we have lunch and 'catch up'.  I always collect a leaf from the Bodhi tree and I see that there will be a special day of blessing coming up next month, I must pencil that in my diary.

Every month I have a look at one or two exhibits in the Asia Pacific Triennial.  I need to set aside a whole day for this before it closes next month.

And this month my friend wasn't well so I was on my own and had plenty of time to look at the exhibits.

Where to begin? 

Maybe with the relaxing lunch I had in the courtyard under the trees.  My friend Vicki brought me here when my daughter was first born and my boys were little.  She came to visit from down south as my husband had gone overseas on business and I was all alone with a new baby and 2 little boys. (My family lived interstate.)That was over 40 years ago.  Over the years this has remained a favourite spot.  My friend died a long time ago from cancer but I still feel her presence every time I sit by this pool and look at the reflections in the water.

A glass of wine and a tasty lunch made my day.  I didn't need anyone to be with me, in fact, I think it would have been a distraction.

To be continued....

WIPW

I don't know if this post will load as I am still having trouble with the connection.  Telstra says that they will be here the first week in April but that doesn't mean we will get a fix.  I am still having to travel to the mainland to get my Emails.  I will just have to 'soldier on'.

I have had to take quiet a few 'steps backwards' with my work this week.  I have no hope of getting my sonnet piece finished.  Instead I decided to concentrate on practising my stitching on the sampler.  My stitching technique is so rough!  This is because of the limited use I have with my right wrist.  It is made worse by the fact that before this I had a good to high level of skill.  Now I am back as a beginner.  I know how the stitching should look, it's getting that look that is the problem.

So I have decided to just do all the sections that are in tent stitch and concentrate on getting the technique right.  My mantra goes;

"Position the needle with the right hand, pull the thread through with the left hand."

I can do my stitching with little pain this way.  To aid this I stitch with a playlist of Baroque Music.  Research from neuroscience and psychology suggests that this music can positively impact my capacity to focus and learn so I am going to keep practising and the music is enjoyable but I have a long way to go.

The other step backwards is with my knitting.  I think I will have to write the pattern out in long hand.  I have it on my Ipad but I keep losing it and I can't print it out as this isn't working either.

I had to unpull everything I had done and start again as I made a mistake, now I can't remember where I was!

And that quilt is still up on the wall.  No progress there.

A slow return

Life still hasn't returned to normal as yet.  The island is over run with workers trying to repair the damage.  They have cut most of the damaged trees that are a danger but there is still a lot to go, some of mine included.  Huge piles of green waste are pushed up everywhere.

I keep thinking about all the birds that have lost their nests but they are making a racket up there in the trees and I am still getting visitors to my bird baths, but less of the little birds.

So today I will go to my patchwork group, then the gallery on another and then restock the pantry.  (My insurance covered my spoilage of food). I ordered more threads which have arrived for the canvas work and now that I have sewn new curtains to replace the ones that were damaged I am doing a little each day on the scrap quilt. I put that little cross stitch I was working on into this.  Can you spot it?

Doing just a bit each day, no major goals, seems to be the way to go.

Running Around

Oh boy!  I have had to come up to town to open the town-house for the electricians.  I couldn't work the key in the lock, or find the switchbox and I hate the $5,500 fences. They are durable, but look terrible and far too expensive for what they are.

There is no water pressure to clean the pavers, which I had to sweep because the were covered in leaves. My husband comes up to town twice a week for rowing, this is his total pre-occupation and my son is computer nerd! He never goes in the back garden.  Now it is raining, hard.  Not my day!!

But I have had a couple of very enjoyable books.

"Trees in Winter" arrived in the post and I read it in one sitting.  I just love his lino prints.  How he gets to include so much detail is amazing.

The other book is so rich in detail it is going to take some time to get through and I want to visit her sources for myself.

I have never heard of some of the sources or the concepts raised before.  But I don't doubt what she is saying.  An eye opener this one and it needs to be widely read.  (I hope it will be included in the reading for Women's Studies at the Universities.). I have it for a month from the library but I think I would like it for my own library.

 

WIPW

I finished three tea cosy's.

I am now knitting the matching booties and I'm trying a new pattern for yet another tea cosy.

Whilst at the Guild I found an old frame that will suit the sampler better and this one I can carry around. I have to pick up my grand daughter and drop her off to go to camp and I need to get up to town for the electrician to do work on the town house.  I can now sit and stitch while I wait.  

I wonder if I should take the dog with me?

A Brief Moment, then...

So I was connected for a brief moment and then lost everything again.

I came to the Guild today and brought my laptop with me so I can connect again.  The island will not be back online until April.  I can only post if I bring my laptop to the mainland to get a connection.  I have been trying to get in touch with creditors because I have no connection to receive and pay bills, everything is done online these days and I have no connection.  This has meant getting a barge to the mainland, going into the bank and then trying to pay the bills!  Then not knowing if they received the payment.  And now my inbox is overflowing!!

The other thing I need is more threads, so that order is now flying through the ether! 

My mind is still in survival mode but I need to get back to my Sonnet piece for this month and I underestimated the amount of thread I needed.  As luck would have it there is a old sampler up on the wall here at the Guild.

Just what I need for inspiration.

Connection back to the world

Oh my goodness.  We survived.  Battered and bruised but still in one piece. 

I can't say the same for the trees and all the plants and the beaches are ripped to pieces.  The big sea eagles are hunting on the front beach and there are lots of sharks out there in the water, their dorsal fins announcing their presence.

Physically I am fine but mentally I am still in survival mode.  I slept fully clothed on top of the bed for nearly a week.  I had my shoes positioned ready to take shelter under the house if the roof came off.  And you know I couldn't stitch.  There wasn't a good enough light.  I kept myself busy knitting.  I have 3 booties, of the same pattern, which are all different where I couldn't see what I was doing!  I will have to go back and knit matching ones.  The world could have ended and we wouldn't have known.

All the food has had to be tossed out, no power and all the ice melted.  I hope there is something in the supermarket to replace some of it.  I lost 5 kilograms living on survival foods.   It will be some time before I can eat pasta or rice again and the force of the wind flexed a window in my car so I have to dry that out. 

Added to this my grand daughter has given me Ted to repair, again.

Now it is time to pick up the pieces

WIPW

We are waiting for this cyclone to hit in about 12 hours from now.   Rather unnerving.  I still have the last of the pot plant to move under the house and some furniture to remove from the verandahs.  We are now isolated and thank goodness for my stitching.  It takes your mind off what might be ahead.  I'm not sure if I am glad that I know what is coming or if ignorance would be bliss?

I have the design for my Sonnet Project for this month, but first I have to rediscover how to stitch it.  To this end I am stitching a cover for my journal in which I keep my drawings and ideas.  I have pulled out that old piece that I finished off to be the centre of the front cover.  There was serious problems where the moths had got into the wool but I unpulled all the problem areas and restitched them.  Not with the original colours,  I'd forgotten what they were, but it will do the job.

I will insert this into my practise canvas.  Oh, how the memories come back.  The difference between tent stitch and continental tent stitch.  Back then it had to be tent stitch because continental tent stitch took twice the amount of thread and I just didn't have the money even though continental tent stitch was a better option.

I dug out my old stitching frame that I had carefully stored and found I was missing one wing nut.  Not bad seeing it has been packed away since the 1970's!  I have drawn the pattern onto the canvas and then laced this in place ready to be stitched but first I have to work out what stitches I will use!  That's the role of the practise canvas.  A bit more needs to be done there but I have made a start only the find I underestimated the thread needed, by one line.

And in my spare time I am knitting flowers and leaves for the tea cosies which are back on the agenda.  They will go back to the Op shop to be sold to raise money for organisations on the island.  The friends I was knitting them for have decided we will no longer give each other presents at Xmas.

I will probably be my last post for a while  but I intend to keep stitching.

Sitting Ducks

I think I have done everything I can to prepare.  Cleared the garden, stocked the pantry, got the water bottles washed and ready, put my most important documents together, checked my medications.  Now we wait and stitch.

 From the weather map we are just below that red line.  We have Stradbroke Island between us and the open sea but that island could lift it slightly and then it will fall on us and then the mainland. This will be my 4th cyclone and I have learnt to have a plan. (I always keep a cyclone cupboard including candles and matches.) Next, be prepared for the terrible noise. ( I'm going to take my hearing aids out.). Then, be mentally prepared for the damage to the bush.  All the leaves will be be gone from the trees and the beaches will be torn up.  And we could be without power for a week or more.

Climate change is getting really boring!!