A possible stumbling block

in my efforts to finish the Book of Aries.

I have had an appointment with a specialist hand surgeon for a couple of months - the usual wait. It was in regard to a lump on one of my fingers, a side effect of osteoarthritis. This is the third occurrence and at least it is a different finger each time. This was the last one two years ago.

The appointment was today and I fronted up expecting a wait of a least a couple of months for surgery. Nope. He had had a cancellation and could excise the cyst tomorrow. Good - no waiting. Bad - I wanted to finish my textile book by Friday for Contemporary Quilt Group.

Of course I agreed to the surgery tomorrow. Get it over with, quick. This afternoon I have done as much as I can of the bits that require fine manipulation. I have sandwiched all the pages and edged five of them. I am hoping that I will be able to free machine on Wednesday - since the lump is on my left hand I expect the major problem to be the bandage.

So think of me tomorrow about midday when the surgery is scheduled. Hungry - no food after midnight tonight. Thirsty - nothing except clear liquids until 7 am, then nothing at all. And I have to wear my glasses.

Two down, lots still to go

I am feeling quite chuffed with myself. Today I have finished two ongoing projects.

The first was the piece I started in Maggie Grey's workshop back in August. It has been nearly finished for weeeks - just waiting for some beading to be added. I am NOT fond of hand stitching. Now it is done and mounted on the artist canvas I am pleased with it. I must decide where to hang it.


The other was the bowl I started after the Designing Women Retreat using cord made from torn strips of silk wound with some purple yarn. It has turned out quite well, though I don't think the cord is as successful as wrapped piping cord. It is softer and the bowl is a bit floppy.


But hey! Finished is GOOD!

Gadding About

Isn't 'gadding about' a wonderful phrase? I can hear the echo of several elderly female relatives, all sadly now long gone, every time I use it.

I have been 'gadding about' for the last two days.

Yesterday Kevin and I went to the Royal Show for the first time in probably ten years. You can read all about it here.

Today I went into Perth to visit an exhibition at the Town Hall - The City of Perth Black Swan Prize for Portraiture. It closes tomorrow. I have been intending to visit it since it opened and I am so glad that I made it before it closed.

While I didn't like every painting of course, I was really impressed by the technical skills of the artists (with one exception. I cannot believe that one amateurish painting was selected as a finalist).

I was in total agreement with the Viewer's Choice Award: Love Me Tender. It is a moving portrait of the artist's elderly parents.

Others I liked were Penelope Bladen's Spanish Fan - a portrait of Emma Bladen with the shadow of a lace fan falling over her face, Linda van der Merwe's portrait of Nalda Searles, Lucy Keeler's Mick Mundine and Peteris Ciemitis' Black and Blue, a portrait of musician Matt Taylor.

Most of the portraits were enormous - definitely not suited to the average dwelling. Photo realism reigned, perhaps not surprisingly.

I really enjoyed the exhibition and will watch out for next year.

NOTE: I didn't take photos, even though I had my camera and there were no no signs forbidding it. I have the catalogue and was going to scan the cover, but the scanner is playing up.

'Playing up' almost matches 'gadding about' in the memories it evokes.

Friday Flowers

The roses are in full bloom. This is the bunch I just picked. Much better looking than the ones here.

Multiplication

I have ironed the painted vliesofix onto backing fabric, but no embellishments as yet.


























We went over to Margaret and Haddon's today - it was Margaret's 73rd birthday.

She was showing off a collection of bits she had found a few years ago at Big Bell (once a gold-mining town north of Kalgoorlie, now just a patch of bare earth). I offered to try to make these two bits into pendants for her.


I envisage the china piece wrapped in copper foil around the edges, and the marble encased in a wire cage.

Alas, the projects keep on multiplying.

Computer Junk

I have asked Kevin to save me useless bits from the computers he is fixing for distribution to various groups and individuals. This is today's haul.


Why do I want them? Wait and see!

The Aries Book

For once I will try to document all the steps of a project.

This is the better of the two pieces of vliesofix I painted yesterday, not yet ironed to fabric.

Here are the swapped blocks. I was supposed to make one myself and I did, but it became a journal quilt.

Marka (I love the transferred images)

Gail
Diana
Zoe
Shirley
Margaret

Today I have done nothing with this project. But I did a computer software workshop and renewed our passports on line, so I have achieved something.

Painting vliesofix

I am going to make a fabric book with some blocks I swapped back in 2005. The blocks themselves require backing, plus some of them need to be supported by batting. A turnout of the cupboards found the necessary materials.

I need to make a new fabric to be the book binding. The first step was to paint some vliesofix (paper backed fusible webbing) in similar colours to the blocks - red and gold.

It is some time since I did this technique and I messed up the first one by spraying it with water first. This weakened the web and it broke up as I applied the paint. The second one was more successful.

Tomorrow I will iron both of them to fabric before layering organza pieces and probably some Angelina on top.

Swapmeet

It is a beautiful sunny day today so we went to a couple of local swapmeets. The one at Melville was bustling and we bought some videos of old movies that we had missed seeing.

I couldn't resist buying this 1895 textbook.


The pencil drawing of the owner's name on the flyleaf is lovely.

And this one has some delicious advertisements inside - including one for the Australia Hotel, once in Murray Street, now long gone, which had "a telephone and hot and cold running water in every room". Probably still had communal baths and loos though.


They cost $1 each. Money well spent.

Textile Treasures

I went to Textile Traders in Myaree yesterday to buy some thread and somehow ended up buying two metres of each of these three embroidered braids. No idea what I shall use them for, but aren't they nice?

This Chinese silk brocade also demanded I buy it. Love red and gold as a colour combination and it was cheap - two metres for $20. I did a burn test and it IS silk.