Halloween

No door knocks so far, which is just as well since I haven't bought in any supplies. Fortunately there are only a couple of children living in our cul de sac and both of them have parents who probably won't ever permit this kind of door knocking.

I HATE Halloween - it has never been an Australian tradition, and it seems like an excuse for older teens to indulge in gratuitous violence. There is a trial in progress at the moment - an 18 year old killed with a jarrah picket swung by a then 17 year old on Halloween last year. Ugly revelations of continued confrontations between groups, but they all dressed up that night before indulging in their booze fuelled activities.

As a result of my marathon cutting yesterday and more sewing and cutting today I have produced 110 5 inch squares. Not yet ironed and not enough for a queen size quilt. I think my calculations yesterday were a bit optimistic.

And I have now made a post for every day in October this year.

Friday Fiddling - AND Flowers

I have spent most of the day ironing fabric and cutting bias strips. These will magically become squares composed of two triangles - all due to a ruler I have had for years and never used. But I did test it today and it works!

The fabric is something else I have had for years. Part is a collection of Klimt inspired designs in rich reds and browns - 13 different ones. It is accompanied by some reasonably subtle maize and soft yellow prints. There are 27 fabrics in all and I had either a half yard or half metre of each, so ironing took quite a while.

I have cut 54 strips and I should be able to get 6 or 7 squares out of each pair, which means I will probably have almost enough for the queensize quilt I am planning. This is one I promised to make for daughter Helen years ago. It's best not to hurry these things!

We have four bauhinia trees along our boundary fence. Kevin doesn't like them because they drop leaves in winter and pointy pods in summer, but they are absolutely beautiful in spring.

Clearing the decks

Well, at least part of the walk-in wardrobe. I have been intending to do this for months. After three hours, this was the result - 6 rubbish bags full of good stuff for the Salvos Op Shop.


And I'm NOT finished! The chest of drawers is untouched as is Kevin's section of the wardrobe. I also have a bag full of clothes that I couldn't bear to dispose of because I loved the fabric so much - these may be cut up eventually. There is a small bag of stuff for rags, while 3 pairs of shoes went into the bin since they were too worn to give away.

So this was today's fiddling. The worst of it is that you can't see where I have culled.

Fractured English

This sign is taped next to each of the checkouts in the local (Spearwood) IGA. It is a most peculiar example of poor expression.

What security purpose do lettuce leaves serve? Slapping politicians on the wrist?

Today

we didn't go walking. We had to deliver Kevin's new (old) Mazda 929 to a garage for wheel alignment and suspension whatsits early in the morning, though they didn't actually do anything till the late afternoon.

I went to Bestway for yet another of Pam's inspirational 4D workshops. I can now digitise grub roses and circles with various fills - more purple circles?

I sat outside and read after we picked up the car. Temperature possibly 22 degrees Celsius - very nice. But as the sun sank, the mozzies invaded. I think they may be a problem this year since we have had so much rain - it even sprinkled a little today.

Dinner was Cardamon and Black Pepper Chicken - so easy and so yummy. Thanks, Helen, for reminding me of this recipe when I rang - she was making it too.

I did absolutely no fiddling with fibre.

Serendipity

Our walk this morning was at North Lake. We haven't been there for months and felt that it is becoming somewhat degraded. Despite the good rains the lake is a long way from being full, and you can already see the weeds poking through the shallow water.

We didn't take any photos, but here is one that Kevin took yesterday by accident. I love the colours and texture. I think it could be translated into a great background fabric. Can you guess what it is?

What I did today

Went for a walk at Bibra Lake early in the morning. The bird watch boardwalk and jetty are being reconstructed.


At breakfast, ate too much of the bread I left to cook overnight in the bread machine. I have new yeast and it was very airy and hard to cut. Yummy though.

Helped Linda look after the Designing Women stall at the Textile Art Expo. Not many people around, so I went to watch a bookbinding demonstration. Really good. Made two more purple circles using my couronne stick.

Visited an exhibition - LOUD - at the Atwell gallery which Iris recommended. It was. Bright colours and heavy textures.

Bought fruit and vegetables at the markets down the hill.

Sat outside in the warmth of the late afternoon and drank wine while a curry simmered inside.

Started a new book.

Didn't do much really.

A Day of Textiles

Elizabeth Morley ran her Sea Urchins workshop for the Innovative Stitches group today. It was intensive work, but most enjoyable. We needed to prepare six base segments ahead of time, so that today we bound and embellished them. We were then to stitch them together. For once I wasn't left behind in a workshop - in fact I was the only one to manage to assemble it. Here are some of the pieces.


This evening I went to the Art to Wear fashion parade which was part of the Melville Textile Art Expo. It was an impressive show, though I didn't manage many good photos. The models were school girls, seen here wearing pieces by Jennie Abbott.

While there I was chuffed to be told that I had won a prize in the Mad as a Hatter competition for the Tea Party hat and that one of the bowls I had in the Designing Women display had sold. Happy dance here!

A display and Friday Flowers

Yesterday evening my sister Dorothy and I set up the Designing Women display at the Melville Textile Art Expo. We were pretty pleased with our efforts. Here is a section of the display.


I went back this morning to add printed labels for all the pieces, then listened to a talk on zines from one of the exhibitors. Interesting, but I think I will stick with a blog.

As I was getting into the car to come home, I noticed this flower head on a zamia palm ( a common WA native plant). Almost like a pine cone or a pineapple. So this is this Friday's flower.

Coincidence

I wrote yesterday about Joyce Tasma who collects all sorts of stuff for her baskets, including animal skeletons and mummified fish and other creatures. She said she won't let her husband clean out the shed because he would insist on throwing out most of it. I was sitting next to Iris who nodded in agreement as Joyce spoke about her collection - she has a shed full of this kind of stuff too.

Coincidentally, today I made a start on a collection of my own. We were walking at Bibra Lake for the first time in far too long and came across a dead tortoise. It had been dead long enough for the ants to have eaten out all the insides, but the legs and head were still attached. Of course we brought it home - we each had a plastic bag for collecting litter and my collection was promptly deposited in Kevin's bag. It is now sitting on the brick path out behind the shed in the hope that the limbs will mummify a bit more.


We found a tortoise shell once before, but it no longer had limbs or head attached. Helen was doing a unit with her students on bones, so we gave it to her.

And talking of coincidence, Kevin used almost the same title for his blog today.