Snipping, slicing and dicing

That's what happens from time to time in the sewing room.......snipping, slicing and dicing of fabrics.  Here's a peek into the Big Bin of autumn leaf prints:

There are gorgeous fabrics in the bin.......red, orange, gold, brown, green, certainly more than you can see in this pic.  Nowhere near enough pieces are cut yet, but with a slice here and a snip there, they are gradually getting done.

Slacko that I am, even the table centre hadn't been changed for a while until this morning.  The crochet was done by Kevin's grandmother, he remembers she was seldom without a crochet hook in hand and we have beautiful pieces that she made.  I know doilies are considered old fashioned, but I like to acknowledge the work of previous generations.

The bowl was made by Pilliga Pottery, the leaves are gilded to match the rim rather than being the usual green.  We also have a large bowl with a very mid-European folk arty design, made by Pilliga.

More tumblers are being joined during evenings of watching TV.  Eventually they will become a quilt top, and a Big Decision will need to be made......quilt, bind and finish as is, or add borders first? 

Another gig this morning, at the monthly market at a small church just north of town.  We had fun, our audience seemed to enjoy us, and we will be back there in a couple of months for their Christmas market.  Yes, folks, the C word has reared its head......

Is it my imagination, or is every second ad on TV for a vehicle of some sort?  The ads try for arty but end up being very boring, and all look the same to my untrained eye, probably because cars all look alike to me anyway.  I hit the mute button when ads come on; the volume is nearly always louder than the program it is interrupting, and most of them don't talk to their audience - they talk at us.  Ads seem to be a necessary evil; we don't pay for cable TV because the programs don't seem to be any better than the free channels, so why bother.  We scroll through the TV guide online to decide if there is anything we can't live our lives without watching, but no.......very little comes up.  I don't watch serials (that includes the popular one set in an aristocratic English household) because I just cannot be bothered getting hooked.

When I was a child the country town where my family lived didn't have TV at all.  The only time we watched was when we visited my posh Melbourne grandparents but it didn't arrive here for several more years and by then I was off gallivanting here and there as teens do, not sitting home in front of television with the oldies.  It's just never been a big part of my life.  Music, however......now that's different.  I just can't imagine life without music.  A Mozart piano concerto is currently playing on the radio, and very lovely it is too.

"In the matter of literary genius and talent, the youths of the rising generation are gradually but surely, if slowly, advancing to the front intellectually, whilst Australia's daughters are distinguishing themselves in the arts hitherto cradled beneath Italian skies, or perfected in the classic climes of Greece or Italy - namely, poetry, music and song."

Of course we are.  I wonder if the writer of these words in 1885 ever dreamed that many years later Aussie women would even play ukulele?

Enjoy your days!

One thousand and eleven

That's how many pieces need to be cut for the elephant......er, the quilt......that is currently on the chopping board.  Out of curiosity I counted up the various labelled baggies; 120 of this, 90 of that, 333 of something else, etc.  I am really enjoying going through my Big Bin of autumn print fabrics, it brings back many memories; a lot have been bought on our trips to Canada while others have been in the stash for longer.

Never mind.  The cutting out will eventually get done, then I can have the fun of mindlessly feeding fabrics through the machine - definitely a favourite pastime.

Last Friday afternoon the uke group played for the 30th birthday of a support group for people who have suffered a stroke, and many nice things were said to us and about us.  One compliment we are often paid is "you look as though you are having fun" which we do - we are having a lot of fun!  Next Sunday we are back at a market day at a small church just out of town, then we can sit back and heave a sign of relief......but not for long.  We have several gigs coming up to Christmas, which will be upon us before we know it.

Proof that it has indeed rained since we came here - this was a few months after we moved in, a view of the hill behind us.  Those plants must have been knee to hip height, maybe even taller.

 Wet stuff!  Actual wet rain on the garden!

 Although this wasn't taken recently, the view hasn't changed.......it's still dry and brown now.

Sigh......it will eventually rain again.  We just don't know when.

Yesterday afternoon the boat was well and truly pushed out here - I baked a cake!  I used this recipe, but used an eight inch tin and gave it 45 minutes in the oven.  It also has a streusel topping of flour, brown sugar, cinnamon, walnuts and melted butter, but for some reason the topping soaked into the cake as it baked.  I may have overdone the amount of butter......but all is well, as usually that topping falls off instead of sitting nicely on top.  Instead of using the spices in the recipe I dipped into my little container of ready-made pumpkin pie spice mix bought last year in Canada.  There are many recipes online to make your own spice mix, but I thought I would try the real thing.  As we can't buy tine of pumpkin pie filling here I made my own by chopping a pumpkin (Japanese, from memory) into chunks and roasting it in the oven for half an hour or so with the skin still on.  No oil, no seasoning, nothing like that.  When it was done and had cooled the skin was peeled off and it was puréed in the food processor, then stored in self-seal bags - one cup per bag, most recipes seem to use one cup - in the freezer until the mood took me to use them.

Should you feel like joining me in the boat for a bite of something delicious I can recommend it.  Sometimes I make cupcakes with this recipe, but usually it's a bigger cake as it goes further......12 cupcakes is 12 cupcakes, but an eight inch cake can be cut into more than 12 slices.

"The beard.
Those who shave should be careful to do so every morning.  Nothing looks worse than a shabby beard.  Some persons whose beards are strong should shave twice a day, especially if they are going to a party in the evening."

A gentleman probably shouldn't eat cake while wearing a beard, as it would be a shame to waste even the tiniest crumb......which, of course, leaves more for the rest of us.

Enjoy your days!

Wattle they think of next......

As well as being Father's Day (1st Sunday in September for Aussie dads) last Sunday, 1st September, was Wattle Day.  Our little wattle bush is still flowering well considering its bad start in life, and other species are in flower around town.

A bit of a difference since the photo on the last blog post!  It's a difficult plant to photograph in even the slightest breeze, those little golden fluffy balls do not stay still.

 Gorgeous wattle in the local botanic garden.

 A close up of some yellow fluffiness......I don't know how many species of wattle there are, but apparently there is wattle flowering somewhere in Australia every day of the year.

 Silly kitty Bianca......she loves to dash into that kitchen cupboard if she thinks we aren't paying attention when the door is open.  So far - so far! - nothing has been broken, despite the fact that it has glassware.

We have learned that the best defence is to ignore her, and she soon comes out with no fuss when she realises that no bribery is involved.

Nibbles have been made on the elephant, that is to say some fabrics have been cut.  As there are still many hundreds of pieces still to go it's not worth getting too excited yet, so we won't.  We'll save it for something amazing.......just what I do not yet know, but no doubt there will something.

A foretaste of summer this week - it is quite hot, and the wind is nasty.    A good day to stay inside and not breathe in the dust which is blowing around.  It's been years since I actually looked forward to summer's heat, and this year is no exception; looks like we will have another hot dry summer, just what we need in the continuing drought.

Oh my......if another chirpy young person bangs on our front door scaring the bejabbers out of Bianca and telling me I need to switch my energy plan I may just forget that I am a nice person, and whack said young twerp severely around the back of his head as I chase him down the front steps.  Judging from his English accent it seems to be a popular occupation for young folk travelling from other parts of the world.

"The love letter.
Of this it may only be said, that while it may be expressive of sincere esteem and affection, it should be of a dignified tone, and written in such a style, that if it should ever come under the eyes of others than the party to whom it was written, there may be found in it nothing of which the writer may be ashamed, either of silliness or of extravagant expression."

Indeed.

How long has it been since you received a love letter?  I don't know that I ever have ever in my life ever.

Enjoy your days!