My friend Angela has been quilting her old embroideries and the latest one is quite stunning. It was a cross stitched embroidery stitched by her late mother-in-law, so it held special memories. She turned it, from an embroidered table runner
To a stunning work of art by mounting it on a background and then quilting it.
This is then an heirloom for future generations. What a wonderful way of transforming a piece of embroidery.
Easter can bring beautiful or horrible weather. I remember being stuck with three kids in a beach side apartment and it rained the whole time. This year the weather was fantastic and we got the huge storm on the last night. My family remembered that we live on the sea side and the teenagers decended, with their friends.
(source: Redlands News.)
Noise, mess, sand, new friends they made jumping off the jetty and lots of noise. They ate all the food I had on hand and then they were gone. ( I had forgotten how teenagers eat!)
It was so quiet that a dugong swam into the beach.
School goes back today and peace has descended and I am left with hours of housework ahead of me. They said that they would be back next weekend as that is a 3 day break. I need to have more food on hand this time.
My daughter, Laura, has decided to leave her position as an academic at the University to concentrate on her leather making. A big step. From a good income and career path into the unknown. A brave move and I'm not sure that I would have had to courage to do this. But, she is a very skilled artisan, (besides being blessed with outstanding academic ability) and this is where her interest lies.
She recently won a prestigious leather making competition and plans to travel to Japan to study with a master of the skill there. She has a new web page and her article on the differences between hand and machine stitching on leather is interesting. Among her images is a piece that uses the dreaded cane toad hide. (The inset in the front of the case.)
I just don't like cane toads and they are an invasive species, that at the moment during this wet spell, are everywhere. But I have to admit that hide is attractive in this piece.
We started sewing together when she was small and I still have her first piece of cross stitch from when she was 7 y.o. (I thought I might have another embroiderer.)
During lock down I purchased a course on dressmaking with Philippa Naylor for her. (I can highly recommend her courses. Her web page on dressmaking foundations covers everything you need to know BEFORE you start stitching.) For Laura, these classes gave her the skills to take to that next level. I thought she may have gone into clothing design but she became fascinated with leather work. So, this is the path she has now set out on and I'm sure she will be very successful and happy with her choice. (Despite the fact that I would have liked her to take up embroidery.)
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.
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.
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!!
I found this on the net.
Look who has turned up on my sewing table, AGAIN.
This is nearly as bad as last time!
Some one (my grand daughter Monique) left the back door open and Nugget immediately attacked.
That dog has a long memory and he really dislikes Ted. He thinks Ted is getting more attention than him!
So here we go again.
While the hearts will be on going I needed a special focus for my second piece. I saw reflections of my second son, Guy, in the first 4 sonnets. All my children are special to me but Guy is a special gift.
As a baby, only 4 weeks old, he contracted a virus. He was one of the first to contract it in our city of Cairns, which is in north Queensland. It didn't present as a virus, rather in babies and children it looked like Pneumonia. He was given a half penicillin injection and almost immediately suffered cardiac and respiratory arrest, he had inherited the autoimmune gene that I have, which we didn't know then. He was clinically dead for 50 minutes, although was having resuscitation in only seconds, which continued till they got him on a ventilator. (This had arrived at the hospital that day and it had to be assembled to hook him up.) The next 3 weeks, until he regained consciousness, were the worst of my whole life. But, he lived.
They told me he would be a brain damaged. I spent the next years looking for this. Yes, he had trouble with co-ordination but grew up to be a normal child, if a bit withdrawn. It did not effect his intellect. He now works as a Analyst Programmer and has done so since he graduated from University.
I look at that photograph of us when he was given back to me and sonnet No 4 "Thou art thy mother's glass " rings so true. The section that I have selected reads:
"Thou art thy mother's glass, And she in thee calls back the lovely April of her prime."
I have an old piece of cross stitch that I picked up on a sale table. It was partly stitched and my thought was to unpick some of the stitching and use it in a sampler.
I immediately ran into problems. The original stitcher had not been consistent with her direction of stitch, they went in all directions, were over sewn, pulled tight and just couldn't be unpicked. The fabric was old and ended up with pulls and lumps. But I have kept at it and am finishing the leaves. For the verse I have had to replace the thread with a thinner version than in the image above but kept the same colour. I intend to make the leaves into a wreath to frame the text.
These first set of sonnets are addressed to a young man and the sentiments and context do not ring true in our modern world. But, there are sections in every one that are timeless. I'm sure every mother can resonate with these lines. As yet I haven't been able to find any embroidery or textile item inspired by this sonnet.
I didn't really set myself any goals for this year other than to recover from the cancer, and, I seem to have done that. My last review said I was all clear. But, I have decided, after reflecting on this year, that I will refuse all treatment in the future. I intend to just live for each day.
I also thought that I had retired from involvement in social issue but somehow or other ended up on a committee to celebrate the 50th anniversary of International Women's Day. I stepped back into my old shoes, dealing with government bodies etc, and found that is no longer me. I will complete this assignment but will then permanently step away from involvement in this kind of thing again.
Added to that, I had retired from all kinds of teaching but was persuaded to take on a couple of classes. Maybe I will teach a few classes next year but if I am not asked I will not mind turning my back on that also.
I belong to three fabric related groups.
The Embroiderers' Guild of Queensland. - I will try to attend a meeting every second week. It is a long journey to and from the city but I have a great group of friends.
Star Seas Quilters - This is only for a few hours on a Monday and close to home. Here I am involved in charity work, which I love, and I am the librarian for the group. This one stays.
Mayberly Quilters Cottage Group - This may be my last year. They meet twice a month, which is do-able, but it is a long way to travel and the traffic on the highway is very heavy. I will take this year to consider this one.
So, to projects for 2025
(* More on this one in a future post.)
I thought I was winding back, but I'm not, am I?
(Those hearts should be on the list for next Xmas.)
I am laid up with a nasty infection and have been prescribed some strong anti-biotics. My mind is starting to return and I thought I might try some crotchet, but, I keep losing track of the stitches so I decided I needed to learn to use this laptop better, I've had it a year now.
Like many older people there are times that I struggle to keep up with the changes in technology. My latest challenge has been up-dating my medical certificate for my drivers license. This has to be done every year and last year, because I was in the middle of my cancer treatment, I asked my husband to post in my forms. Now, I'm not sure if the forms got lost or if he lost the forms because when I looked at my diary reminding me to get the test done this year, no forms had arrived. So, I downloaded them, got the medical done and then couldn't find an address to lodge them at. Frustration set in. Should I put them in on-line? What should i do? I think I will have to put them in at the local office.
Fast forward few days and I was in the post office sending a parcel to a friend and this young man, he was 18 or 19, approached me with this look of bewilderment on his face. He had an addressed envelope in one hand and a postage stamp in the other and he asked "how does this work?" He had NEVER posted a letter before, everything was done on-line. I burst out laughing and said "you lick it." He just didn't understand, that called for a demonstration of how to put a postage stamp on a letter. I don't think I have ever laughed so hard.
(I actually found a lesson on how to do this but I still couldn't find how to lodge my form.)
But thinking about it, we were both at opposite ends of a continuum. Me struggling to keep up with technology and him reaching back to understand how sending a letter works.
We all have our little problems.