Short and Sweet

It's late at night here and I have to admit I'm rather weary. This little treasure (holding a PS2 controller!) is one of the reasons, Miss Amelie stays with me now for 6 hours 2 days per week while her mum goes to work. At 10 1/2 months she's such a cutie, and just learning to commando crawl (that's using her forearms to drag herself along and pushing at the same time with her feet) Of course now you can't leave her to pop to the bathroom or out to the clothes line because she won't be in the same spot when you get back !! It's been so hot here the last few days, 2 days in a row of 40 C degrees plus so the air con has been running flat out. I'll need to work hard to offset the carbon emissions now, won't I?

I'm also very busy at present making costumes for the Dancing Studio end of year show, so this will have to be a short and sweet post for now. Hooroo !!

Stitches and Craft Show de-brief

The last month has just flown by for various reasons. I haven't been entirely idle, just catching up on sewing commitments for the Dancing Studio, doing alterations for family members and making ATC for my online swap group.
The big display at the Stitches and Craft show was very well received, 39 pieces of pink themed work on display and over 450 people voted in the Viewer's Choice competition. It's very gratifying to see your hard work mounting a display rewarded with such positive comments, and of course the work featured was just brilliant as well. I think I can safely publish a photo now, in a few day's time the winner of the whole competition will be a announced anyway. I can tell you now that the overall winner of the Viewers' Choice comp was different to the Judges' Choice, isn't that interesting?


The volunteers (wo)manning the display

The winner of the Viewer's Choice is just to the right of the lady with the long sleeved striped shirt, called "Jane McGrath's Rose" it features the rose named after the wife of one of our Australian national cricketers who died from Breast Cancer after a long battle. The rose was 3D with stumpwork petals in a pale pastel pink, so beautiful. Wish I'd been the lucky embroiderer, but alas I had no time to enter the competition this time. Perhaps the next challenge?

Just a quick note..

This week in Sydney I'm working at the Stitches and Craft Show at Rosehill Racecourse for the Embroiderers' Guild, stand 120 on level 3. I set up on Tuesday, and will now work Thursday, Friday and Sunday, whew !! It'll be good though to sit and stitch and talk about embroidery with like minded folks, as well as showcase our Guilds' latest group project, the Pink Ribbon Challenge. 40 pieces of work were hung on Tuesday, including bags, hangings, sachets, framed pictures and unframed panels. Quite stunning really, will post up photos after the event.

I've been a bit slack lately, popping around reading other blogs and not posting on my own, but time has been very limited. One particular blog I'd love to plug is Pat Winter's Gatherings, where you'll find lots of great work showcased and even a link to her "store" if you'd like to own some of her work yourself. Or you might be lucky and win the latest giveaway if you sign up and mention her blog yourself, VBG. I'd certainly love one Pat's little birds nest necklaces to come and live in Oz. Fingers crossed?

Alert ! Cuteness ahead !

While I'm in a nostalgic mood (must be all the coverage of the Michael Jackson memorial service on the TV affecting me !) I thought I share a couple of photos of the progress of the grandkids.

Riley is now nearly 11 months old, and has take a few tentative steps on his own. He has about 5 teeth, and is a real little boy now.


This professional photo was taken in May, we call it his "supermodel shot"


Of course he follows Wests Tigers, a western Sydney Rugby League team followed by 4 generations on his fathers' side as well as on his mothers' side of the family.

Amelie is 6 months old this weekend, boy time really flies doesn't it !!


She's at the rolling over stage, but hasn't quite mastered rolling front to back yet, so gets quite frustrated and squeals loudly.

I think she gets her temper from her mummy, and from me before that. I was a terror when I was a teenager, I gave my mum and dad a terrible time when I didn't get my own way!



She's the happiest little girl most of the time, and rewards us with great big smiles.

There's quite a family resemblance, I have photos of myself and my other daughters which compare very favourably with Amelie at various ages, then occassionally she's the spitting image of her Daddy. And isn't that just how it should be, ? My husband and I are very lucky new grandparents, our children have presented us with adorable grandkids and we look forward to watching their further progess as they grow up.

Miss Muffet had a dolly....

My friend MaryAnne at Magpies Mumblings really started something with her photos of childhood dolls. I immediately pulled my own childhood friends from their safe box in the top of the wardrobe to compare.

Luckily I still have my friends Margaret, a Pedigree hard plastic walking doll from the late 1950's and Sue a vinyl Roddy doll from the early 60's and an even older Panda bear from the very early 1950's. Panda was given to me for my christening I believe and used to have a music box in his back. He has glass button eyes (a real no-no these days) and is a little worse for wear, but I'd never part with him. Margaret has not walked for many years, you would hold her hands and pull her towards you and she'd "walk" along with a rocking motion. I think my pesky younger brothers may have thrown her down a few too many times and broken pieces off the hips, and her seams are starting to open a little. This, according to my online rsearch, is not unusual with this type of hard plastic, and led to the invention of soft vinyl dolls.



Sue is marked "Roddy" on the back of her head, but it doesn't specify her country of manufacture. According to one online source, when the English factory closed in the early 1950's the molds were sold on, so perhaps her head was molded from one of those molds and assembled in Australia? I don't imagine my family could have afforded an imported doll when I was a girl, we were pretty poor back then. She still has her original lemon nylon dress and hat, but her little socks, panties and shoes are gone. Mum used to make her some great clothes, I still have some of them too. They included
- A complete school uniform with tunic, blouse, knitted beret and cardigan,
- A ski outfit with skis Dad made from pieces of shaped wood and ski poles from knitting needles and toy car tyres,
- A Red Riding Hood costume with a plastic basket, cape and dress
and lots of other knitted bits and pieces.
We used to enter Sue in the doll competitions at the school fetes, these were REALLY popular back in the 50's and 60's here, and you would raise money for the school by collecting votes (in coins) from your family and friends. We won quite a few prizes for best dressed doll.



I think the dolly dressing probably started my love affair with clothing and dressing up, so you see it's never to early to encourage the kids in something they like, you never know where it may lead them !!

PS I was very pleased today that my vinyl dolly Sue had not deteriorated badly. While re-arranging my wardrobes about 6 months ago I noticed she had a few spots and marks. I sponged her with warm soapy water, dried her well and laid her down in a cardboard box with air holes before returning her to the cupboard. So far, so good. Apparently these dolls can often suffer from Pedigree Disease where the vinyl can get greasy and spotty from poor storage, especially in plastic bags and boxes. It's very hard to treat, so I caught Sue just in time I think.

Another convict bonnet made

A while ago I was commissioned to make another decorated convict bonnet for the "Roses from the Heart" project. This is the result, a calico bonnet for one Sarah Hurley. She was an Irish convict lass convicted of larceny (theft) in County Cork Ireland and sentenced to transportation in New South Wales in 1836. Her ship was the Pyramus which landed her at Sydney Cove in December of that year after a 4 month voyage.




I chose to decorate the brim of the bonnet with a shamrock comprised of 3 hearts stitched in chain stitch for the convict chains. 3 large silk ribbon embroidered roses are surrounded with colonial knot babies breath and 7 small silk ribbon rosebuds for her 7 children. Sarah had married another convict William Jones in 1838. They lived in both the Windsor and Parramatta districts of New South Wales and when she died in 1889 aged 75 years she was buried in Mays Hill Cemetery near Parramatta.

An 80th Birthday Bash

My mother turned 80 recently, and my youngest brother suggested we do something special. Mum has never visited Linnwood so a tour and luncheon was organised. Invitations were secretly designed, printed and mailed by my brother's partner. My children helped with catering and decorating the hall, and an elaborate "white lie" got Mum to the venue, a little late, on the pretext of attending a talk about vintage fashion. I had to cover at the last minute by saying that they had arrived not long after the organisers, who had a car breakdown. I was waiting for a thunderbolt to strike me down, LOL. Mum raised us well, so I'm not good at telling fibs.


Linnwood set up for the luncheon before the tour

Textile ATC trading

It's been over 12 months since I began making and trading textile Artist Trading Cards (ATC), would you believe my collection now amounts to 316 cards? I'm amazed at the variety and creativity that people achieve in these tiny 2 1/2 inch by 3 1/2 inch works of art. I belong to Southern Cross Quilters or Scquilters, an online group of Australians, New Zealanders and expats living overseas. The ATC group numbers over 100 and most began trading originally because there was a Scquilters retreat in Perth, some attendees were going to be swapping ATC and we would miss out on all the fun. It was decided we needed a Cheer Me Up Swap for the stay-at-homes in April 2008. Our valiant List Mum Mandy keeps us all in order (most of the time) She encourages us to suggest themes,then she posts them up for us to sign up, usually in groups of 6. We make 6 identical cards, keep one for ourselves and swap 5, that means we each then have a group of 6 different cards in a set theme. So far I've swapped such various themes as Jungle Animals, Chooks, several colours, Anzac Day, Christmas food, favourite things, I'm sure you get the idea. I haven't featured many of my cards here for a while, I've forgotten to photograph so many that I'll never post them all, but here's a few to whet your appetite. I also posted a little tut on how I make my cards here

I also swap internationally through my Stitchin Fingers ATC swap group, where we swap with the next person on a list of swappers, and a few privately arranged swaps with internet friends happen from time to time.


A Christmas card for Anne in France

We also started a Birthday Swap on the Scquilters ATC group, with 29 members. Each person makes a card for the birthday girl or boy and sends it along at the appropriate time. So on January 1 this year, I looked forward to receiving 29 cards from the group.


Some of my birthday swap cards received Jan 09

This is the card I made for our List Mum Mandy, who loves silk ribbon embroidery. I'm only a beginner, but I think it turned out quite well.

May musings

May just flew by, very busy times with lots to do for other people. The Dancing Studio has kept me busy with some costumes. I'll be posting about that on my costume blog later.

I'm still trying to catch up on my ATC swaps, nearly caught up once, then slipped behind again. Now I owe an international one as well, and must get that away this week or I'll be banned from future swaps, VBG.

Also this month I've made 2 trips to Bathurst to design and make 2 outfits for an 1880's travelling lady and a coach driver. The gent owns an original restored Cobb and Co coach, and his partner wanted to dress appropriately at their latest display. I went up on the XPT train, about a 3 hour trip for a fitting in early May, then again this past weekend to deliver the finished clothes and attend the display at Colonial Day at Abercrombie House in Bathurst.
The brochure describes the property as a Scottish Baronial mansion, and they weren't kidding, I was blown away by the sheer size of the place. Tours were being conducted inside the house, and lots of activities were taking place outside. Here are a couple of photos to whet your appetite, more to follow in the next post.


The tourists listening to information from the owner's son prior to the self guided tour.

The side of the house showing the tower and spires.

Lachlan Living History Group joined with 2 other groups to stage a battle between bushrangers, troopers (police) and soldiers (73rd Regiment of Foot) in a roped area in the front paddock. Spectators were treated to black gunpowder shooting, horses galloping and soldiers marching with fixed bayonets against the thieving bushrangers. This was an unrehearsed performance which seemed as much fun for them as for the audience, and due to the dull weather the photos of the shooting turned out quite eerily. It was great to see the attention to detail in the costuming too, which is my area of interest and expertise.








I also enjoyed lots of wildlife on the weekend including kangaroos, emus, king parrots, lemon tailed black cockatoos, horses and dogs. If the weather had been kinder, I would have been in absolute heaven. But Bathurst in May outdoors high on a hill ..... well the daytime temp was probably about 10 degrees celsius. Luckily I had my purple woollen overcoat and "gumnut baby" knitted hat to wear all day. The area has a certain appeal as a retirement location eventually, but my home would need good heating and cooling, I'm such a wus when it comes to weather extremes !! I'm sure I'll be going again with the better half later in the year to see Abercrombie and visit other Bathurst delights.

April ? Surely not!!

I honestly don't know where this year's gone to, now I can imagine how Rip Van Winkle felt, I've lost 1/3 of a year! It has been very busy at our place between family and building works, but really Easter can't have gone by already??
We spent a very pleasant 4 day weekend with family visiting on the Sunday for a meal. It was only take-away pizza I'm afraid, but don't they say it's not what you eat but the company you keep? Well in that case, we dined like kings, VBG. The 2 grandchildren of course brought their own tucker and had us all besotted for hours. My mother. who turns 80 soon, was delighted to see her kids, grandkids and great-grandkids all together, and really that was all I needed too.

There hasn't been a LOT of stitching happening around here, I've been making groups of themed ATCs to swap online at my group, and I've included a photo here of the last group received just today. There's a face-to-face retreat happening in Adelaide, South Australia this month but those not able to attend decided once again to swap Cheer Me Up cards. I made a dozen cards and sent those in to be swapped out for another dozen.



Aren't they all wonderful and cheerful? My own cards were in different colourways of the same print and embellished with my latest toy, a Bejeweller. It puts little Swaroski crystals onto nearly anything with a heated tool, such fun to plan where to use it. I'll photograph the one I kept and post that soon.

Some other stitching was the class sample for the YTFG club where I'm the Leader. I made a canvaswork wristcuff based on a design shown by another Club Leader Del White at our recent Annual Leaders' Meeting. Our Club is a little smaller this year with a few members busy now with High School and sporting committments, but 4 young ladies really enjoyed making there own version of this design 2 weeks ago.



The following day I took a workshop with Margaret Stephens on Reticella style needle lace at our NSW Lace Day. Here's my sample today:



The bottom rectangle shows 4 sided stitch border, the middle rectangle shows corded satin stitch inside 4 sided stitch and counting started for withdrawn thread blocks. The top rectangle shows some needle weaving begun and 2 filling stitches worked. Not much progress for a 2 day workshop I know, but I'm a slow stitcher!! Apologies for the crooked scan, linen is hard to scan sometimes! Hopefully some more progress soon.