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.
I made a hexigon quilt back when my daughter was still at school. Every saturday I would watch her play soccer and hand stitch hexigons. I forgot about how many I stitched and in the end had enough for a Queen sized quilt. I had it on the bed in the guest bedroom and it has always been one of my favourties.
When we sold the house I put it on my bed in the townhouse. My daughter was living there doing her PHd at the time and unbeknown to me her dog, Chester, must have got into my room and slept on my bed. Trouble is he didn't only sleep, he peed on my quilt. I didn't discover this until last week when the weather turned cold and I got the quilt out to put on the bed in town. There was this terrible yellow stain on my quilt.
Chester has been dead for a few years now, so the quilt has sat in the draw 'fermenting'. I brought it home to the island to try and rescue it. I started with washing, no difference, then soaking, but, no difference, I added bleach, no difference. Finally I made a paste of bleach and Sarb fabric stain remover and painted it onto the white fabric, not the floral. Now, it hasn't taken all the stain out and if you look closely you can see it but I think I have saved the quilt.
I didn't realise how attached to this quilt I am. I had always thought of it being handed on as a heirloom and all that hand stitching!
I bet Chester is saying, "What me?"
(Still love you Chester.)
These are some more shots of Mowong beach, this time with Nugget. He is my son's dog and is completely loveable, but no brains, except when there is food around.
He is most unhappy because he would like to be swimming with my grand daughters but on this beach he has to be on the leash.
Still, we took him to the dog off the leash beach later in the day. This day was for the girls to enjoy the swimming without that annoying dog.
Back at Xmas 2021 my present from a group member, Debbie, didn't arrive. Debbie's husband has motor neuron disease and she had more important things to think about than my present. But last week at our meeting there was my present and I just love it.
This little bag holds my coffee cup and other odds and ends.
The lining was a challenge fabric that had to be included in the present and I don't think I would like anything else in it's place.
It is a simple pattern but works super well. I might make some more as gifts and I am thinking of how I might add some embroidery.
Up before dawn to attend the ANZAC service.
This year with a war in Europe I think of all those men who are fighting. I also remember my father who fought in WW2. He died at 55 years of age. The war had taken his health and his peace of mind. Once again history is repeating itself.
Lest We Forget.
I came across this old photo of a childhood friend taken in front of my Mother's vegetable garden. Roslyn died last year from cancer and because the borders were closed I was unable to see her before she passed.
I had forgotten what a pretty young girl she was, with deep red hair. Her father always called me "Carolina". I think she would have been about 12 or 13 when this photo was taken. I remember all of those plants. The peach tree, the tomatoes, peas, beans, strawberries, potatoes. We never got big crops because my sister would eat most of the produce off the vines before we could get to them.
I have been doing some research regarding a brass slab from the 1400's and have found a wonderful book on line regarding these. It is called Monumental Brasses and Slabs by Charles Boutell. I am sure there is a ton of inspiration in the images in this book along with the great explanation regarding the meanings of the images.
Another book that I think has the best images is from 1849 and is titled "The monumental Brasses of England" by the same author, Rev. Charles Boutell, M.A.
Both books are freely available on-line. My mother's first name was Joyce and it came as a surprise to find that this is an old name from the 1400's. I still have to work out why the women are depicted with a small dog and the men with what looks like a little lion. A good number of the plates have small animals in them, which is an interesting source for design. I have lots of images of stained glass which compliment these. Great resource for portraits. I don't know what to start with faces or animals!
Some more loot from my trip. I found some lovely pieces of Tilda fabric.
These are going to make a shoe bag for my new winter boots that have a woolly linning.
I might also have enough fabric to make a new mug bag for the mug I bought at the Op-shop. The colours will match.
And I found a rain jacket. The same make as the one I wore for over 20 years when I went hiking only this time it is a fashionable colour and not navy and has it's own carry bag.
Besides the lovely bag my friend gave me I also received another little bundle of goodies.
I haven't decided just what to make with these. I had better start making things I think.
Well I'm home again after my little trip to the country where I have been judging at some country shows. I do love doing this. You meet the nicest people and get to see some wonderful work. The weather was considerably cooler, and that was very pleasant. It was cool enough to have a quilt on the bed at night. I also get to look in shops that are new to me. I saw a lovely writting desk that I would like for the townhouse. My son won't like it, (he lives there) but it would be great in my bedroom. The town house is modern and Guy often works from home so he has the living area set up to take all his computers, so it wouldn't fit there at all. It would be an indulgence for me as it is an antique and not that cheap. (I'm trying to talk myself into this.) I didn't buy it but if it is still there next time I go up I will.
The other thing I like to do is the op-shops. Only Vinnies this time but I still managed a good haul. One thing was this lovely doll for my grand daughter. Cost $4.00.
And this mat that I will unpick for the embroidery to repurpose. I have a machine finishing class soon and this will make a good demonstration piece.
See the price? 50cents!! You couldn't buy the buttons for that.
(I bought lots more which I will keep for later.)
I didn't give my daughter a subscription to Phillipa's sewing classes for this to happen but I have to say I am chuffed.
She has made me a woollen jacket for when the weather turns cool, and I love it. She made a toille first to get the fit right and then the jacket.
She has completely fallen for Hong Kong seams. I think the over locker has become redundant.
Even the pockets got the treatment.
I have some serious catching up to do.
I was going to my son's home for the next week as my grand daughter is ill but Mother Nature has intervened. It has been raining hard for 4 days straight. We have had over a years rainfall during that time. My shoes are permanently squishy, they will probably rot with mold when the sun comes out, along with everything else in the house, so I must stock up with bleach to kill it all before it takes hold. It is pretty bad up in Brisbane as well with the river breaking it's banks and all kinds of things washed away. My son is flooded in at our town house, but he still has power so will ride this out.
We are not only cut off as an island a lot of the roads around the area are cut as well. This is the local pub on the mainland,
and this is the car-park.
You have to wade into our local Cafe on the island.
the verandah is above the flooding so I can still get a coffee.
But, the water does drain away fairly quickly once the tide goes down. The wetlands are getting flushed out.
But the many trees have been brought down. On the main beach where there are usually big gum trees,
there is now a hole. I'm not sure just where the tree has ended up.
At the other end of the island 6 or 7 new creeks have been created by the run off.
The biggest seems to have brought the contents of a midden as well. This beach has numerous middens from the times the aboriginals hunted here.
I think the boat ramp will have to be rebuilt.
And there is more rain to come. Still the kids think it is great.
The other thing that the rain has brought out is frogs.
There seems to be thousands of them, the noise is deafening. All the males are singing to get a mate.
The Kerlews (birds) and the snakes are feasting. So this weather isn't bad news for everyone.
We are back to school today. The speakers were cactus in the laptop but they managed to disconnect them and I bought some external ones. A lot of running around to get things back on track. To work off my frustration at the whole saga I got to work in the garden. I thought I should channel all that anger and frustration into something positive. I mowed my own lawns and the houses on either side, then I collapsed. I was so hot I dived into the sea with all my clothes on and then came home, had a shower and just lay on the bed in the air-conditioning for a couple of hours. I went to bed early that night and slept for 12 hours straight. (I am no longer a spring chicken.)
I didn't do any sewing because I knew I would make a mess of it. But it is time to get back to my dressmaking course.
I have got really behind since I put everything away at Xmas. I am at lesson 4 and the rest of the class is another 3 garments ahead of me. Part of the problem is that they are working with woollen fabric and it is the middle of summer here. I just couldn't face that. But looking at the previews I see that Phillipa is wearing a dress on which she has Hungarian Stitching. ( I know she will have stitched this herself.)
I have wanted to learn this style of stitching for some time and last time I was in the Fabric Shop I bought a length of fabric that I want to decorate with this type of embroidery. It is an Italian linen and would make a great wrap or bed throw with a band of Hungarian stitching at either end.
I think I will try a cushion cover first and have bought some Eco knitting cotton and some Milford 3ply to experiment with.
I found some instructions on Pintrest. It is interesting to see the how the back of the stitch will look, not unattractive.
And then Mary Corbett has another version.
And then I found a whole lot of patterns on ETSY which I have bought.
I will just try one first I think and see if I like it. The dressmaking might have to wait until March!!