Knotted lace

I just have to share my excitement!

Today I went to my local embroidery group & when I arrived there were a group of women gathered around the back table, so I went to see what they were all looking at. One lady was in the midst of laying out a carry bag full of household linen onto the table so I asked her where it had all come from. The story went that all the linen had come from her neighbour who was moving & all the linen was for sale. As she was talking, the above piece caught my eye so I asked the question of "How much?" The reply came back "50c or $1" . The piece above was instantly mine! along with another three of similar workings & two filet crochet corner handkercheifs!

I have heard of knotted lace, I even posess a book on how to make it, but I have never actually seen a piece! This had made my day!

The story continued that the lace was hand made by the neighbour's elderly Greek aunt who is still living, so I have asked that the message be passed on that it has gone to a very welcome home to sit behind glass!

More Shoe Bags

The last few days have been a little testy over the changes to my classes. So I have buried myself in my sewing room & stitched out another 4 shoe bags. I think that is about 10 now & when these are finished being made up I think that will do. They want about 18 of them but I am not sure if I want to do another 8. I still have to finish two pieces of my own work so I think I might try & concentrate on those pieces.

I'll probably get side tracked into something else though, like the "Sailing to Byzantium" challenge for one of the on-line groups I belong to.

A WISP Nearly Finished

There has been some talk about finishing WISP's ( works in slow progress). This is only one of my WISP's and it is not even the oldest.



It is however the first large quilt I ever started ( I remembered there is a cot quilt that is 23 years old & as yet not finished!). So far this quilt has been 15 years in the making & I pulled it out about 3 weeks ago & decided it was time to finish it.



The fun part has been the quilting. I decided I would try to free machine quilt it with a traditional design . Never again! There are so many ends to end off!!!!!!! The FMQ has certainly been an experience! I have done FME before but doing it on an A4 size & on a 60" square quilt are two different things!



Oh well, it should be finished very soon, only 11 squares left to quilt, end off all the ends, then bind it. Time then to tick another WISP off my ever growing list!

Old Back Steps

Today on one of the on on-line groups I belong to there was some discussion about a particular talented artist that a few of us know. The first time I had anything to do with this lady was with this piece of embroidery. We were in a class together where we had to use a magazine pic as inspiration to paint a background onto fabric, then stitch. As paint brushes & me did not mix very well back then, I had no idea what I was doing. This lady took the brush out of my hand & said " you just do it like this" and in 2 seconds flat my background was painted. I learnt much later that she was an art teacher. No wonder she felt sorry for me! Anyway, the painting of the background may not be mine, but everyone of those stitches has been done my me.

I called the piece " Old Back Steps" & it was the first piece of my own work that I ever had framed . It now hangs on my dining room wall. That was way back in 1995 & there are now a few pieces of my own work which grace my walls. I even dabble occasionally with the paint brush these days, but I much prefer to use needle & thread.

Class changes

Today was certainly different. It was my first day back for a new term & there were 13 students in my class, the most in a long time. Now anyone who dress-makes, or sews, knows how much space we sewers need. So with 6 tables & 13 students can you imagine how cramped we were? They have promised me another table next week, (I would really like another two tables) so we will just have to see how we go.

They are also talking about changing the venue for the class. I know where this new venue is but I have not seen inside it. I need to check things like table space, power points, lighting, seating, whiteboards etc etc. There is plenty of parking, 2 minutes walk to a train station, & only 5 minutes drive from home for me. I think it might be a good move, we just have to wait to see what the students think. They don't get much of a say in the matter, but if they don't like it they won't come to class. The current venue is much more central for the district, but this new venue has plenty of advantages. The shops are even close by & if they run out of thread they can duck up to the shop & buy some. There is also talk of lengthening the class time which should be good.

The one dissapointing thing was that my Seniors class has been cancelled for good. It is a bit of a shame as it was the only outlet for some of these older generation. The class was supposed to be tomorrow & I only found out by accident that it was cancelled. I just hope they have rung all the students or there will be some very unhappy people tomorrow.

This has all happened because we have a new principal. It would be interesting to know how many other changes he has made in just 9 days of being in the job.

A few days R & R

When we get a chance we often go away for short breaks up the coast to a wonderful place called Forster. We have just had 5 days away & even if it rained most of the time we still managed to get out a little bit. This is just a view of the channel between the lakes & the wide Pacific Ocean.

This fellow was very obliging & posed for lots of photos. There are lots of pelicans around & they are funny to watch when the fishemen come in. If they are not careful they will lose their catch to the pelicans very quickly!

Just three of the sunrises we managed to get up early to see! It isn't very often we take the time out to see the sun rise but I am sure glad we did these three mornings. I tried to get pics of a sunset too one day but we got chased by a shower of rain!

I'll say one thing for sure, this planet we all live on is truley stunning if we just take the time to admire it's beauty. We all have to take precautions to make sure it is still here for future generations to come.