BURNS NIGHT

Happy Birthday today to Robbie Burns The Bard of Ayrshire.  One of the things on my list is to be in Scotland for Burns Night and go to an official Burns Supper.....but until then I intend to drink several large whiskies to his blessed memory.  He was a man who lived his relatively short life to overflowing....lots of hard work, lots of shagging, lots and lots of drink, creativity, pain and sadness, some fame, but he has lived on far beyond his relatively sequestered life in Scotland in the late 18th century.  He was a pagan in a very restrictive repressive society, who created some very beautiful poetry.

My love is like a red, red rose

That’s newly sprung in June :

My love is like the melody

That’s sweetly played in tune.

As fair art thou, my bonnie lass,

So deep in love am I :

And I will love thee still, my dear,

Till a’ the seas gang dry.

Till a’ the seas gang dry, my dear,

And the rocks melt wi’ the sun :

And I will love thee still, my dear,

While the sands o’ life shall run.

And fare thee weel, my only love,

And fare thee weel a while !

And I will come again, my love,

Thou’ it were ten thousand mile.   I would recommend to anyone to read some of his poems....or better yet download them onto your iPod, and have a Scotsman read them to you with a beautiful Scottish bur.  I have a collection by Alex Norton of Taggart fame.

Wipocalypse - January

Well here we have a new year and hopefully....on my part.....a newly envigorated blog.  Got a bit sidetracked at the end of last year with all the Christmas stuff and just got tired...as if the year was taking its toll....Anyway few days off....and a lovely family Christmas and the warm weather returning to Sydney after weeks of rain.....I am ready for another year.  And Wipocalypse.  I have not made a list but I have it in my head....so here is my first post for the year.  I have made progress on Golden Wood (the reason for this blog) and that is going to be my first entry in Wipocalypse.

Have also finished a couple of quilts.  One for my stepdaughter Tina and one for me which had been around for years as a top.  The  Flying Geese started life as a jelly roll which my daughter Bee bought at a quilt show.  Rather surprisingly she offered to take me to the show and she got sucked in by the lovely jelly roll.  She used to stitch when she was little and I have hopes that her craft side will spring back to life (she is now nearly 20 and it does not seem to be cool to stitch) but I have faith that it will rise to the surface again at some stage....it is in her blood, my mother and grandmother and I are (and were) addicted to craft -- so I say "Blood will out".  When Bee bought the jelly roll she said she would make something for Tina and I swore that I would not do it for her.....well you know how that went.  After the jelly roll sat in my sewing room for nearly 18 months I capitulated and made this quilt...just got it finished in time for Christmas...........

The trouble with making a quilt as a present, by the end of the process you want to keep it for yourself....I particularly loved this selection of fabric.....oh well!


So to all who happen upon this blog and read, may we all have a positive and creative New Year and may we all be able to throw off the sorrows and difficulties of last year (if we had them) and start afresh.

Sculpture by the Sea - Bondi to Tamarama

Number 2 son and I went to the Sculpture by the Sea exhibition on Friday.  They are doing very little at school and he is artistic, and we really needed a day out.  So we took the bus to Bondi Beach - along with THOUSANDS of other people.  Mainly tourists I suspect, but it was packed.


The sculptures are installed along the Coastal Path from North Bondi to Tamarama Beach - which is about 2 kms long running right along the cliff top with beautiful windcarved rocks and rock ledges and grassed areas.  All perfect for exhibiting large sculptures.  

A lifesized herd of zebras at Bondi!!!!

This is my favourite .... such a clever use of the location....want it in my garden - by Juan Pablo Pinto & Clary Akon out of galvanised steel and is worth $18500

Used to have a tap set just like this in our old bathroom

This is my other favourite.....beautifully and painstaking mosaic  by Deborah Halpern "Ship of Fools" worth $145,000

A lovely day was had by all.  And, even better, when I got home my new project had arrived - Glorafilia Swans needlepoint cushion.....another one to add to the queue.  But how quick will it be!!??  It is tent stitch, so I only have to sew it once....and it is on 14 count canvas.....get it done at light speed!!!!  (Yeah I know "Dream On!!")  Oh Insomnia where art Thou??

Hope all is well with you all....and don't forget LIVE YOUR LIFE!! Happy Stitching

Father in Law gone to God

My father in law - affectionately known by everyone as Spud turned 94 on Monday 7 November, sad thing was he was in a semi-coma in hospital having lots of morphine pumped into him, he died on 10 November.  One of only a few years since I have known him, that I did I not get him a birthday cake.  He loved anything with sugar.....chocolates, biscuits, cake......we even put a bag of lollies in the coffin with him!  Spud couldn't go into eternity without a bag of sweeties in his pocket.

I wrote his Death Notice - 

Spud was a gentleman of the old school - charming, honest, loyal and friendly and would talk to anyone (it was said he was inoculated with a gramophone needle sharpened on the Blarney Stone). He was kind and generous to a fault, but would drive across 3 suburbs to save 20c at the supermarket. His life was shaped by his parents Michael & Henrietta, growing up in Glebe in the Depression in a family of 13 kids. He worked hard, wasted nothing, but would give you his last two bob if you needed it. He married Dulcie (“Skinny”) in 1940 and he lovingly cared for her till her last day in 2008. He was adored by all his extended family and all who knew him 

The pretty much summed him up - a lovely man.  I keep imagining his reception in the hereafter......all those relatives and all those mates from all those 94 years there to meet him.....a lot with a beer in their hands for him....and ALL of them talking at once!

A fellow came up to my husband after the ceremony and hoped he did not mind him coming to the funeral, but he had read the death notice in the paper and felt he had to come and see the sort of fellow who had that written about him.  So I am glad I was able to do something special for you Spud right at the very end.  Lots of people will miss you.

Smelly Feet

What is it about boys and their feet!!  My two sons have just come back from a School Tour to Italy and England (yes!!!! when I was at school the most exciting place we went to was Warragamba Dam!!) They were away for 3 weeks but when they came back they managed to bring with them 4 weeks worth of dirty smelly clothes.  Being spoiled boys (I will throw my hands up here and accept full responsibility !) they were little used to doing their own washing.  But I suspect that their strategy was to do no washing at all (much simpler you have to agree).  So....... the two suitcases were full of NASTY NASTY stuff.  Pity help the rest of the group who sat with them on the 23 hour plane trip home to Sydney.


So the last load has just gone into the machine with the Sneakers From Hell (twice) - sad to wash off the dust from their walk up Mt Vesuvius...but the shoes smelled like week dead dogs.


Have not done any blogging because Tim took the camera with him. But I have actually finished the two samplers and have had them framed.  I have to say they do look good.  The Princess Child who pretends to be so world weary (at only 19) sparked up considerably when she saw the framed Wedding Sampler and immediately claimed it as her own ("After you're dead though Mum!" - I thought it was nice of her to be prepared to wait for my demise - remarkably thoughtful of her really!!


Have also nearly finished the Summer Sampler from Butternut Road, so will show that off when I find the camera in the suitcase (may need to be aired out before I am prepared to put it anywhere near my face).  Will then have to go back to the Golden Wood BAP which was the original motive for this blog.  Did a little the other day and it was so refreshing to be working with Aida with all its nice regular holes....rather than the linen which can cause a bit of swearing and a lot of squinting of eyes!


Thank you all for reading and happy stitching to all!

WENTWORTHVILLE QUILTERS SHOW

Have just come back from the Wenty Quilters Show.  Went with Coral the Quilting Queen who, of course, knew most of the people there.  The Wenty Quilters are quite famous in Western Sydney - quite a large group - so large that it has a waiting list would you believe.  Anyway their bi-annual show is excellent and it did not disappoint this time.  It was held at beautiful Linwood House.

The main hall way filled with quilts

Look a long suffering husband passing his time reading about the 

house and ignoring the quilts

The House itself is National Trust - beautiful Federation style with tesselated floors and carving and leadlight (above it the fanlight and side lights for the front door.

There was of course a shop and you will all be proud - only bought two quite small things......this is amazing considering the temptation that there were on offer.  I got out of the well under $100 - this I can tell you is a first!!!!!

Crafty Weekend in the Blue Mountains

After a few false starts and some mishaps The Sisters of the Travelling Quilt (more of this later) did actually manage to go for our crafty weekend.  We have been doing this for several years now.  A group of women at work, all who are craft fanatics or varying sorts decided we would escape from kids and work and housework and husbands etc every now and again.  We started as a group who met occasionally in one of our houses for a day of sewing and laughing and eating......you all know what we mean.


Anyway....latest instalment was at Katoomba in the beautiful Blue Mountains west of Sydney.  It only takes about an hour to drive there from most of the suburbs where we live, so it is perfect and the travelling does not impact on the crafty, laughing, eating etc.

The house we stayed in was called "Lyrebird Loft" - up a bush track that even an agile goat would have had second thoughts about, through the scrub for a short way and then there was the house, perched on the edge of cliff with a view that took your breath away

Here is the verandah which overlooks the view above.  The yellow tree is wattle which means that Spring is on its way.

As always with these little excursions, we never starve, so we had roast lamb and vegetables and gravy for dinner and patisserie cakes that Jen B brought.  Stoked up the wood fire, and drank and laughed and actually did some sewing.

We have infected Jen B with the quilting bug.....she is very crafty by nature, with a great sense of colour - she is actually Australia's answer to Martha Stewart....but she is now also a quilter.  Up to now she has been a crochet person, but we took her to a quilt show at the Rosehill Racecourse and she got sucked in by one of those chenille baby quilt kits. So she started on that.  She got her sewing machine out of the cupboard where it had resided for some years (her mother will be very pleased with this as it was a present from her mother, who was a little disappointed that it did not get more use).  Away she went sewing one big block to another big block....and that was all it took.  The Quilting Bug is more virulent that Ebola.  She kept saying "It's so much quicker than crochet!!"  She basically finished a lap sized baby quilt that evening!

Then there was Iris.....now Iris likes a chat on a hot day....if you know what I mean.  But when she is sewing - not a word - rather disconcerting really.  Like kids when they are quiet you tend to go and check them to make sure they are alright!!  She finished 3 quilt tops over the weekend and basically got all the blocks complete for a fourth.

The top quilt does not give anything like the impact of the actual quilt.  My camera is not the very best.  The blocks are purple and grey patterns and the border is dark purple....very impressive.

Kaz is another one of our converts to quilting and she finished two quilts as well...somehow the second picture went astray...but this jelly roll quilt is lovely.

I actually finished one as well....but to be honest it had been in hibernation for some time.  You know when you start a quilt all full of enthusiasm and then you meet obstacles and the enthusiasm wanes......anyway I discovered that I had actually done all the stars for this quilt and only had to do the quite simple block border.  I am still considering if it needs a border....will have to think about it.  What do you think?

Dont you love quilts that have feet!!!  In this case my quilt has two pairs of feet and a hand!!!

Having been doing a lot of cross stitch recently I really did love getting back to the immediacy of quilting.  I think I have been won over by jelly rolls....Coral the Quilting Queen (who could not come this weekend sadly) gave me a book of jelly roll patterns and both Iris and I are doing patterns from it.  I, of course, in my usual way picked a complicated once with 340 flying geese.  But they are all finished and only have to be sewn together.  When I post this I am going to the sewing room to do just that.

So thank you Sisters of the Travelling Quilt for a lovely weekend.  The Sisters started on one of our other weekends......we have decided to make blocks inscribed with some of the silly things we have said during the weekend.....this weekend will be "Was there garlic in that lamb?"  This from Iris....her digestive system does not react well to garlic.....I will say no more on this subject!!

Hello to all my followers....wish you had been with us....happy stitching!!