Searching for Jewels in the Junk

A few months ago an elderly family friend passed away and my parents (who are almost 80, so hardly young themselves) were left as advisory trustees to her estate. Since Nola had no relatives what this meant in practice was that my parents and a few other friends were left with the task of largely cleaning out her house. This has had a big impact on all involved - we all now know where hoarding leads to and frankly it isn't pretty.

We all had some good laughs along the way (Why would anyone need to have 26 black skirts in her wardrobe? Is there any good reason to hold onto hats that have not been worn since WWII?) but without exception all of us who have worked on her home have come to look at our own with fresh eyes. There has been much intensive cleaning in my own home and many, many loads of things we no longer needed have been moved onto local charities in the hope that these items will be of use elsewhere.

For my parents they have taken to their lifetime of possessions and collections with unexpected vigour. I have long thought that I would have quite a job on my hands, in due course, but they have taken it as a challenge to deal to as much of it as they can now rather than leaving it for me. I have lost count of the number of times my mother has told me that she is determined not to leave me a mess like we were faced with earlier this year. We will see.

There has been a small downside to their activities - they seem to weekly turn up at my door with another box of "treasures" that they are planning to relocate from their house to mine. It's like a giant merry-go-round of "stuff". Many things I would have been happy to have never seen again. However there have also been some real treasures which I have been delighted to welcome into my life and home. I'm not sure my husband feels quite the same, but this is the real nub of the issue - one man's trash is truly anothers treasure.

One of the jewels I am delighted to be reunited with is the blanket that was knitted for me as a newborn my one of my aunts. It was knitted into squares so in no time at all I've been able to transform it into a new scarf for myself - aforementioned husband rolled his eyes, but my more textile inclined friends have been more impressed and not a little envious. I can still feel the love knitted into every stitch.
Having mentioned in my last post that the crocheted doilies appear to be breeding in my sewing room I can now offer potitive evidence, as this week my mother gave me every piece of crochet that her father had made. As you can see from the photo, he was reasonably prolific.

I'm trying to come up with a project to keep these all together so I know exactly which were his - perhaps stitched together to form a long table runner or maybe stitched onto a blanket. This would probably result in open rebellion from certain family members! But for me, it's lovely to have these links to my past - truly jewels to be treasured, hopefully for many years to come.

Poor neglected blog

It's been one bout of illness after another in our house - if it isn't bad enough looking after children getting ill in sequence I finally succumbed and this cold is a beast to shake. Its a true plague house here if it ever was one!

However I was very surprised when downloading the latest photos off the camera to discover that life over the last very weeks hasn't been completely full of bleakness and illness. I was reminded that at some point I found my way to the sewing machine and made this banner, inspired by much loveliness over at Ravenhill.

I made mine out out of old Japanese kimono fabric that I had and some of the many, many crochet doilies that appear to be breeding up in my sewing room. As I recall I'd gone to the sewing room with the intention of starting a new quilt but couldn't settle on what to do. So I decided that something small and easy would be the thing to get me stitching again. And it has worked as I now know what the next quilt will be... should I ever get shot of this cold enough to get cracking on it....

I also had a real flying visit to Christchurch which was a wonderful 20 hours of indulgence with fantastic food and wine and uninterrupted strolling in the Arts precinct, to be tempted by the creativity of others,and in the Christchurch Art Gallery, which is always full of interesting exhibitions. And even if the art isn't to your taste (not sure I will ever fully get my head around Et Al...) there is always the building to just marvel at and enjoy.

The Best Present of All

That was the verdict from Elizabeth when she was finally given her birthday quilt. When she opened the parcel her jaw fell open and she was lost for words - and believe me, you don't often see that with any 14 year old, let alone this one! So we were well rewarded for our efforts. It will be a well loved quilt.

Meanwhile I've been doing more stitching around those pigeon holes and while I have been doing it they have changed in my mind to stones from the volcanic plateau. Must have been the influence of the few days up at the lake and the photo I posted of the lake shore.
I had the piece with me at my book group a few days ago and one of my friends who is from that part of the country was particularly taken with the quilt.

I think it may have a new name and a new owner who doesn't quite know what is coming her way yet....

I'll be spending the day at the Wellington Museum tomorrow with members of the Wellington Quilting Guild showing what can be done with fabric. They have invited out Guild to exhibit work for the day as part of their Sampler series which is focusing on the reuse of materials. A perfect fit for quilting really. I'll be taking along my two quilts with doilies and am looking forward to the day. If you are in the neighbourhood, do drop by. Photos are sure to follow.

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...

The Great Breeze of Language

A couple of weeks ago I visited Te Papa and discovered that John Reynolds' work Cloud has been installed up in the top gallery. I'd read lots about the work but nothing compared with standing beneath the piece, looking at it swirling around the walls.

Just breath-taking. It did for me that day everything that great art should - took me out of my head and the worries that I had that day and into a totally different place where I was spell bound by the ideas and visual images in it.

The work is a series of small canvases which Reynolds has written words on from Harry Orsman's New Zealand Dictionary - all words that are a special part of our version of the English language - and then he has formed them into a enormous cloud of words. Our very own land of the long white cloud - a great breeze of our language.

See it here on a blog announcement from Te Papa. It even has a short clip from You Tube of John Reynolds talking about the installation of the work.

Be warned though - this is only a pale introduction to the real thing - it really has to be seen! If you are in Wellington made sure you make a bee line there before it leaves at the end of August.

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!