Hope and Christmas Wishes

I didn't really show you the label on our collaborative quilt but have been told that I should talk about what my daughter wrote on the quilt, and the hopes that went with them. The quilt recipient is one of my daughter's team mates from Waka Ama, which is a sport they both love, of Maori outrigger canoeing.

My daughter chose two whakatauki, traditional Maori proverbs, to use on the label which carried all her hopes for her friend.

He toka tu moana, ara he toa rongonui

Your strength is like a rock that stands in raging water - this affirms an individual's strength and courage.

 

He taru kahika

Walk on, as it is only summer rain falling - It is only a small adversity, so don't let it be a hindrance.

I think she picked particularly well, but I will admit that I am a rather biased mother, as we all tend to be.

My annual activity has been reaching fever pitch - I've been making my yearly Christmas decorations for friends. I know we all do it, but I do wonder why I don't start these earlier - one of the great imponderables. Even with the best intentions I'm sure I'll repeat the exercise again next year.

Four years ago I made black hands - it was not long after my dear friend Denys had died and I had no cheery words that year to embroider on decorations so I chose hands instead. One of my friends gave them the nick name "the hands of death" so this year I decided it was time to make some more with a more cheery disposition to keep them company.

I'm really keen on them - especially the one's with tatting and linen buttons on them. I will be making sure that I keep one of these back for myself. They are of course part of my continuing series of 101 things to do with an old doiley!

So the Christmas tree is up, most of the presents have been wrapped and work has finally ceased for the year. I'm starting to feel that the end of year wind down is almost upon us.

Best wishes to you all for a peaceful and happy time this holiday season, full of joy and hope.

All Roads Lead to Frida

Well, so it seems at the moment anyway. Last weekend I visited a few places I hadn't been to for a while and was richly rewarded by treasures beyond my wildest imaginings. I found these wonderful mirrors which I snapped up.

The woman in the shop thought I must have been watching them and finally made a decision - Oh no, I assured her. I had just seen them for the first time and immediately know they need to move to my house. Nothing Like a snap purchase decision!

The family were a little taken aback (I don't know why really - they should be used to it) and there is still debate over just where they will hang. I had thought the bathroom but my husband wasn't so sure he wanted Frida's gaze of silent assessment looking at him every time he ventured in there.

With that success under my belt, I headed to Asia Gallery - I thought I needed some more red for the quilt I am working on at the moment. I was basically spoilt for choice. They had just had another shipment in and the pile in my favourite $5 bin was literally taller than me. I have never seen anything like it. Deciding was almost impossible and there was no way of getting through the pile to see all the treasures buried in there....

What was a fabric loving girl to do?? So another 8 kimono have moved to my house. These are the red's...

Just loved this - don't think it has ever been worn

This on the other hand has been - by me. I've worn it twice now. Its a heavy wool ikat (not sure what the Japanese term for it is), jacket length with the square neckline and domes rather than the full length kimono. It's perfect for this time of year and is helping to brighten up my rather dull winter wardrobe.

In the meantime I've also been working away on the new quilt project. I've decided to chain stitch onto the centre of the crosses. This may be at risk of turning into the most epic quilt project ever ever now I've decided to do this hand work on each block, but it is a nice project to have sitting in front of the fire of an evening. I think there will be about 100 of these blocks in the quilt, so it should keep me going for a while!

I'm starting out by using up some of the threads I already have. This red thread is a Tentkulum stranded cotton which I bought several years ago along with a blue version. They are called Painter's Threads - so it will probably be no surprise that the name of this shade is Frida.

As I said - all roads lead to Frida!

Southern Textile Treats

What trip away would be complete without the odd textile treasure snapped along the way. This well dressed cabbage tree was at the bottom of Baldwin St in Dunedin.

Baldwin St has the distinction of being the steepest street in the world. How steep? This should give you an idea.

While we were there several tour buses stopped there for people to view it - I suspect I was the only one who stopped to photographed the cabbage tree. We all walked to the top - one of my boys even ran it! There are obviously a few characters on the street - I loved this letter box.

In Queenstown I was most taken by these two pieces of knitwear - anyone with a pile of orphan peggy squares might want to start stitching them up into coats. This one was retailing for a mere $1600NZ. Obviously they were targeting significantly more well heeled travellers than us! I joked to my husband about buying it for him to wear - and it was then he pointed out the price which had us both shaking our heads in amazement.

Let me know if you are inspired to pick up the needles - there could be a retailer waiting for your work in Queenstown.

Picking up my needle again

I've been in a bit of a stitcher's slump of late - busy with work and research projects, too cold to venture up to the sewing room - there are always lots of excuses. However last week I discovered that I could still remember how to thread my needle (what a relief!) and got started on a bonnet.... not quite my usual thing. There is of course a back story....

For some years now there has been a major project underway in Tasmania, Australia to remember the women who were departed there as convicts from the late 18th to mid 19th century. During that time over 75,000 convicts were deported, mainly from England, with 25,266 of them women. A recent article in Quilt Mania reminded me of the project and got me digging around in some of our family history.

Christina Henri has been researching the lives of women convicts since 2003 and in 2007 launched an ambitious project, the Roses from the Heart Memorial. She is aiming to have 25,000 bonnets made for the project and is within 5,000 of reaching her target.

The pattern supplied for the project is an 1860 cloth bonnet which was worn by convict women while they were working as assigned servants. It was chosen as a symbol to connect descendants with their convict ancestors and to commemorate the life and contribution of each of those women to the new land they found themselves in. Each bonnet is embroidered with the name of a convict, the ship they were transported on and the year they arrived in Tasmania. Descendants can make one for their ancestor or a name can be chosen from the remaining list of convict women.

My husband, and of course our children, are descended from two people who were transported to Tasmania so the bonnet I am making is to remember one of these people. Elizabeth Allen, from Warwickshire, was only 19 years old when she was tried and sentenced to deportation and a term of 10 years for stealing a scarf. By today's standards it seems an unimaginably harsh sentence for a relatively minor offence.

She arrived in Hobart on the Margaret in July 1843, after spending 164 days at sea. Elizabeth was described on the ship's list of convicts as a "Class One Needlewoman" with a fair complexion, light brown hair and hazel eyes. She was initially sentenced to the notorious Cascades Female Factory, which is now a historic site.

Elizabeth met and married George White in 1845 and they received their ticket of leave in 1848. George, 18, was from Woolwich and was sentenced to deportation and a term of seven years for stealing a trunk from a coach in 1834. Women tended to received harsher sentenced for comparable offence to men - somehow their crime was judged to be worse, requiring greater moral comdemnation!

George White was transported on the George the Third ship which was wrecked in the mouth of the Derwent River as it arrived in Tasmania. Of the 220 convicts who sailed from England, only 81 made it to landfall alive, with many drowning within sight of land.
George and Elizabeth migrated with their five children from Tasmania to Dunedin, New Zealand, in the mid 1860s. They came to make a fresh start as free settlers, without the stigma of their convict origins which they found they were unable to shed in Australia. They are buried together in the North Dunedin cemetery - will will be visiting them when we travel south later in the year.

The embroidery I've done on the bonnet for Elizabeth isn't perfect. The rose is noticeably off centre (I have no idea how I managed this) but after much fussing and trying to make it look more balanced I decided to leave it as it is. Elizabeth wasn't perfect - none of us are - so I don't think she would have minded too much. Today there's no stigma in being descended from convicts, in fact it's quite the reverse in Australia. And that, it seems to me, is perhaps the greatest honour that can be done these women - to remember them, in all their imperfections, and still be proud of the lives they led.

Sneak Peak

There's nothing like some new threads to get you inspired! This month the challenge with my small group of stitching friends was to do three variations of an image. I've stuck to something I love - the Andy Goldsworthy inspired river line that I seem to come back to so many times. This is the first of the triptych of pieces that I'm creating - my first variation on a theme. The background is a piece of old indigo cotton fabric which has a wonderful soft feel to it, while the foreground is a hand dye that I've been using up piece by small piece. Just love it.
But the star, in my mind anyway, are my new Stef Francis threads. Feast your eyes on these - nothing like a bit of fibre temptation.And then, for a bit of a giggle, I thought you might enjoy these. I found these with my friend who I stayed with recently in Auckland -they are baking measures with the top and bottom of each doll being a different measuring cup. We loved them so much we bought each other a set and had an early, impromptu Christmas together. Nothing like a little mutual indulgence! Such fun and having given mine a test run with the weekly biscuit baking I can give them the full stamp of approval - both beautiful and useful. A match made in heaven.

Finding inspiration at your feet

We have been lucky to head away for a few days to Kuratau, on the shore of Lake Taupo, escaping the routines of home. It was great to have a change in pace and landscape, to spend time in the thermal pools so we could warm up in the afternoons before the temperature plummeted in the evening and the thick frost arrived. There was lots of snow on the surrounding hills but the rain held off and we could walk and enjoy the surroundings. On one walk through to Pukawa I was delighted to find inspiration right under my feet - the colours of the stones on the lake front so similar to the Pigeon Holes piece that I was working on in the evenings in front on the fire, while the children played yet another rowdy game of Monopoly.

I hadn't planned to stitch around every stone or block on the quilt but I am beginning to develop a rhythm to the stitching, so I'm not so sure now just when I will stop.

It's also fun to work though some of the threads that have been sitting around for a while waiting to be used - I've been amused to see how many I have that fit into the piece absolutely perfectly. It's either serendipity or I'm in a bit of a rut with the thread purchasing - I think I'll go with the former!

Desperately seeking escapism

Winter can be so bleak sometimes that I thought a pick me up was in order today, for me if no one else. Of course I'd like to show off something that I have been working on recently but illness has overtaken creativity of late.

However when browsing through the photos I realised I'd never shown this wool and felt work bag I made for myself some time ago after doing a class with Rosemary McLeod. Most of the other bags had a more distinctly 40s look to them, while mine was, well, different. I think someone told me they thought they looked liked prancing body builders....the things people think of!

After that analysis the more subdued back drew less spirited comment - just as well probably! I was reminded of the bag today as I discovered a long neglected project in it....just the thing for some therapy to recover from the colds and coughs that have invaded our house just in time for the school holidays...

Happy endings and exciting beginnings

Now that I'm firmly focused on the To Do list I'm surprising myself with how productive I can be. Its strange, but I tend to not get to the last few things that will complete something - I guess its a form of procrastination, or maybe just a sign that I get another idea and find it hard to resist the temptation to move onto the next thing.

First up was the quilt I started at the Mini-symposium in Picton last Easter (I say this as a reminder to myself on the perils of procrastination). All that remained to be done was the binding on the top edge of the quilt, a label and hanging sleeve - not exactly a lot. I'd had it in my mind that I would finish the top edge with binding made of the blue linen - but when I finally tried it, it just didn't work. In fact a more honest quilter would say it looked awful! So after some pondering I finished it without a binding at all - it is turned to the back on the to edge and I really like the look of it. It's now hanging happily on the wall inside out back door and has been admired already - why did I wait so long to finish it? Who knows!

Next up was "Friday Morning Coffee". This has been waiting for me to find just the right pieces of tatting to finish the top off. I took it to our Quilting Guild several months ago and told people I was looking for some tatted pieces and have since been very kindly given a number of beautiful pieces, some of which are now on the top of this quilt. The beautiful piece above was given to me by a dear friend who was given it by a customer at the quilting shop she works at. The customer asked Marilyn if she knew someone who would appreciate it - and lucky, lucky me it rapidly found it's way to my house.

The only piece I have put on it that isn't tatting is the piece above which my mother gave to me and told me was called hairpin lace as it was made on (you guessed it) hairpins.I'm now in the process of putting the finishing touches on this quilt and then only have the label to - more photos and the full story to follow in due course.

Of course temptation (and ideas) got the better of me and I also started something new - it grew out of an idea I had having pondered the odd combination of those photos of the heat mats from my daughter's science class and the amazing work of Rex Ray. It has a tentative title of "Pigeon Holes" to remind of a previous life of mine as a recruitment consultant. I'm thinking its going to be part of a triptych, as I still have other ideas I want to play with.

Here's a detail of it.... it was so much fun
and so satisfying to not only finish things, but to start something new as well. Here's to many more happy endings and exciting beginnings!

O' Peppermint Tea

I feel like I am onto a bit of a roll with making tea cosies. Last week I went hunting for quotes about tea (ain't the Internet a wonderful thing!) and found some absolute beauties, including one about peppermint tea and before I knew it a new tea cosy was born. One of my stitching friends had a birthday looming and she is a peppermint tea devotee - so there was really only one possible result... The Japanese fabric was an obvious choice as she has lived in Japan, has made numerous wonderful Japanese quilts as well as having kindly given me some great textile treasures from her time well spent hunting out the temple sales.

I couldn't resist using an old piece of indigo that has mending on it from its previous life - I love the thought that someone else has so valued the textile that they have spent time mending it for further use. It also brings to mind the wonderful textiles from Sri Threads that I just love browsing.

The back was made from a Japanese Noran, or door covering, which was the perfect base for the quote from Astrid Alauda -

O' peppermint tea -

two delights per sip

as steamy hot as passion

cool as a wintry lake dip

Happy birthday Jill!

And then there were two

I've been meaning to post this for a week or so to show you the second art installation which has appeared in the trees down at my local botanical garden. This has been installed by Sayaka Ishizuka who is the Wellington Asia residency exchange artist-in-residence and is called Whispers.It's right next to Heidi Threlfo's installation and they both provide a great start to my day on the way to the office. And here's Heidi, next to Home, one evening when she spoke about her work.

I'm not sure how much longer they will both be there - definitely worth the visit if you are in the area.

The stitching continues

All progressing well here - I've been busy getting on with the quilting of Friday Morning Coffee and enjoying the chance to spend more time with the piece ans I man handle it through the sewing machine (why are my quilts so large?). I'm trying out a much smaller grid pattern on this quilt that the previous version - its looking good so far but of course will take more time...

I passed through the gardens a couple of days ago and the tree is looking resplendent in its doilies - so I tried for some different types of shots which in time I may even try putting them onto fabric to experiment with.

Just so you don't think that the only places that I can ever find mosaics are in Australia, here's a particularly fine example made by the children of Thorndon School, here in Wellington. They obviously have some really creative and talented teachers there, with a real bent for art making, as some of the works that spring up around the school really are impressive.

Mission Accomplished

Things are moving apace down at the gardens - Heidi now has five branches covered in the doilies. Unfortunately the rain has just started coming down here today so who knows what impact this will have on her installation.I'm pleased to say I have achieved my objective of having the quilt top all put together. Its over 2m square so wasn't too easy getting a photo while it was laid out on the floor. All going well I'll have it all pinned together and ready for quilting before the weekend is out - there is always an upside to rain!No rain in sight on the quilt though - just loved this piece of embroidery will the sun rising behind the hollyhocks and butterfly. This is another piece of my Aunt's linen that I have cut up and put into the piece.The quilt has several fabrics featuring tea cups - to me they speak of friendship and the countless conversations that we have over cups of tea of coffee with our friends that are such a fundamental part of sustaining us all. My daughter has christened it "Friday Morning Coffee" as this is an important ritual for me with a group of friends I have made through the school our children attend. No Friday is complete without a get together, strong coffee and a good laugh.

Once I have it quilted I'm planning to audition having a few doilies appliqued onto the surface. I have putting them onto bags lately and I think that they just might be the finishing touch for this piece. We'll see...

Success at Last!

Finally - here are the day two pictures of Heidi's creation.... This particular doiley caught my eye - just look at the size of it.

Only took three attempts to get these uploaded. Hopefully it will still let me post another update later in the day - when I went past this morning there are another 2 trunks now covered.

Doiley Update - Day 2

As promised, an update on the doilies that are currently sprouting in the Wellington Botanic Garden. The artist, Heidi Threlfo, is making steady progress on getting them up onto the magnolia tree at themain entrance to the gardens. The piece is called Home, which I think is really apt. I'm yet to spot her actually putting them up, but who knows what I may manage to capture over the next couple of days.

The big success today was that both sons actually got out of the car to inspect the work and accompany me on the photographic excursion. I wouldn't call it significant progress, but it was a definite improvement on them hiding in the car!

I'd love to post the progress photos but blogger won't let me tonight....... stay tuned.....

New Year - New Inspiration

When you catch sight of this...being put up in your local Botanical Garden you just know its time to re-enter the world of blogging. Who could resist this? Well actually, I know the answer to this as one of my children almost hid under the dashboard of the car at the sight of his mother leaping out of the car, camera in hand. Yet again, he was horrified. I however was delighted.It's still a work in progress and is being put up for the Wellington Botanic Garden Artist Project as part of the annual fun that is our summer festival. It won't be finished until Sunday 11th January and will then remain in place until 1 February - I'll post more pictures as it progresses.

I'm yet to find out who is creating it - either Heidi Threlfo or Sayaka Ishizuka - or maybe even a joint venture... all will be revealed as I learn more.

It's been a while since my last post but I can report that the wedding quilt was very well received and we all survived the heat of Townsville. Since our return I've been progressing a few projects. The quilt that I felt "coming on" in November is developing well and is up of the design wall. It's going to be similar to the quilt I made in memory of my grandfather, which I have previously posted about. The story of this quilt, along with several photos, is in the latest issue of New Zealand Quilter, which has been quite a thrill.

This new quilt will also be a memorial quilt and it will feature pieces of linen that belonged to my Auntie Dorothy that I was recently given. As part of it I've also embroidered a number of pieces for it onto damask napkins.

I'm pleased with how it is coming together and would like to get most of the top put together by the time I go back to work next week...we shall see.

Focusing the mind

There's nothing like a close examination of your diary to really focus your mind. This weekend I came to the realisation that it is only one month until we head away for my brother's wedding and we have a lot of things to pack into that short time. Some would call it an act of denial but this sent me quickly to the sewing room to finally get cracking on some gifts that I may (or may not - depending on who is reading...) need for a holiday that is coming up in a mere 6 weeks. That's right - the Christmas rush is almost upon us.


Being ever mindful of the state of the world economy, and in the knowledge that something handmade is so much better than anything I could find in the shops anyway, I decided that a close examination of the stacks of fabric that I seem to be hoarding would yield some interesting possibilities. In no time at all I had the bag production facility in full swing - I'm rather pleased with the results.... a rather nice Liberty number....
something more restrained for one of my quieter relatives and then a couple for the floral lovers among us.... Someone asked me a couple of days ago if I had found a use for lace doilies, which got my fingers into action. I think they are just perfect for some bag embellishment...

and I've hand stitched a couple onto the very boring hoodie that I seem to almost live in at this time of year when the weather is still so changable. They have made this garment far more 'me' and I've had lots of positive comments about it already. I'm starting to think that there are a few other garments in my wardrobe that could do with some similar attention.I think there may still be a couple more bags to come, but first I have 34 feet of hand stitching to get through to get the binding on the wedding quilt done. The quilt has arrived back from being quilted and I'm thrilled with it. Sue has done a fabulous job, as always. However the amount of binding to be stitched down is slightly daunting - just as well I like hand stitching.

Somehow I think the new quilt that is in the brewing might be a post holiday activity, but then it's always good to have something to look forward to!