Finishing a goldwork "UFO"

I am completely in awe of those people who are able to blog regularly, whether it be daily or weekly, their prose just flows.  I always find it interesting.  Sometimes it concerns a craft project, or a meal they've cooked or little items of news about their family.  A small window into a life which in some ways so similar to mine and in other ways so different.

There was a rumble of thunder a moment ago but the rain we're having is nothing to what is happening in Queensland.  We're getting  almost non-stop reporting of the disaster on radio and TV.  Just terrible.  You can't help being horrifed at what is happening to people.  But today the flood is moving into Brisbane and it was a newpaper article which really sent the shivers down my spine. This writer is a master of his craft.

 http://www.theage.com.au/opinion/society-and-culture/darkness-at-noon-lent-a-weird-disaster-movie-aesthetic-to-the-massive-leavetaking-20110112-19mxz.html

I have been using this post-Christmas period to try and tackle some of the UFOs in my cupboard and  have managed to finish one.  It's not perfect, and I ended up making a couple of changes  as I was making a mess of things.  The pattern was "Extravaganza"  by Betsy Bee Designs for Rajmahal.

The background is white satin. I started it about three years ago but kept getting frustrated and  leaving it to do something else. I've decided I don't really enjoy doing goldwork. There a still a couple more smaller ones in the cupboard to finish but I won't start any new ones !

All that's left to do now is get it framed.

Still More Tote Bags

In between other things I don't seem to be able to get away from making tote bags from unused pieces of embroidery, this time some butterflies, a kookaburra and an unused piece from a Batlimore quilt.   All those years I've needed to have a piece of embroidery in my hands when going to various groups has ended up with a stack of interesting smaller embroideries which have never been framed for hanging on the wall - no room left for them anyway. But I find they make most interesting tote bags.  Just simple lined bags, no pockets inside.

I hope the recipients of the bags like them as much as I do.

More Tote Bags

I decided I would try and make some tote bags in preparation for Christmas, i.e. do without wrapping paper and just pop each present into a tote bag for the ladies of the family.  The idea is to try and only use scraps left over from other projects.

For the first two I used patterns and instructions from magazines.

Includes Thai silk scraps

Has a button trim

 Then I branched out with ideas of my own.  There is a limit to the number of framed pieces of cross stitch you can fit on the walls so I thought why not include the unframed pieces into tote bags.  And at one stage a few years ago  I was very keen on Baltimore quilts but  after a few blocks I decided that those interminable stems and leaves done with needle turning was not my idea of fun so a couple of them are also becoming tote bags.

Cross stitch parrot

Baltimore Quilt block

 I've already given away the Baltimore tote and I'm hoping I can get enough totes made so that I can keep the parrot tote for myself as I rather fancy that one ! I love the colours in it.

And my favourite book for the month - Gregory Day's "The Grand Hotel".  It's the third in a series set in the imaginary coastal town of  Mangowak (think Airey's Inlet), a quirky, amusing tale of small-town Australian life.

Linen Tote Bag

I only finished this linen tote bag this week and promptly gave it to my daughter as a birthday present. It had been my "go visiting" piece of embroidery for a while - nice and small for carrying to a friend's house for an afternoon or evening of embroidery.  So now it's on to other projects.  Must think about more tote bags.  They're fun to do and make a pretty but useful present.


It's been raining steadily overnight and again this morning - would be a perfect day for sitting and sewing but it will have to wait for a while - perhaps this afternoon.

Australian Election

Federal Election Day tomorrow.  I really despair for the human race.  These last few weeks leading up to the election has shown the character of  Australia and the Australian people at their worst.  Ugly, bigoted, lying. I fail to understand how a temporary prime minister can stand there and deliberately lie about the opposition and say it again and again and again when it is blatantly untrue.  And then it gets repeated again and again among my contemporaries regardless of any proof to the contrary.. It makes me weep.  They just treat us as though we don't have a brain in our body.

What we need is some ethnic cleansing in the Parliament.,  Get rid of the lot of them.  No-one who has stood for Parliament before would be allowed to stand again. I would love that.

I just hope that tomorrow's results give us a government that we can trust to spend our money wisely.  I hate to see a government throwing money around with no thought to the consequences.

Regardless of anything else, never trust a woman who dyes her hair.  She's trying to be something she isn't !!!!

Online Scrabble

Are there degrees of addiction ?  I wouldn't like to say that I am addicted to online Scrabble but I must say that I do enjoy it and often neglect things I should be doing to sit and juggle letters into improbable words.  The magic words are  "Your Turn".  I couldn't possibly ignore such an instruction.  My Scrabble partner could be waiting anxiously somewhere in the world for me to respond.

The Online Scrabble which I play (via Facebook) is labelled "Worldwide excluding U.S. and Canada"  Interesting.   I wonder why.  A bit racist, isn't it ?   Could we call that a sanction ?  Actually I'm quite happy with UK, NZ and Aussie players but would like it if Canada was included in our group.  The different time zones makes the game active at different times of the day.  Breakfast and supper are my main times for a bit of interaction.

In a different but similar game you can choose to use either their English or American dictionary.  I don't know what dictionary Scrabble uses but sometime words which I consider normal are not included.   Two that come to mind are Aran - a style of knitting - and tute -  as short for tutorial.

Just heard the little beep which indicates that "Your Turn" is again showing, so bye-bye !

Newspaper Cartoons

I don't know whether or not I'm a lazy person who doesn't add to her blog or whether life just gets too busy and complicated at times.

One thing that  captures my attention every day are the newspaper cartoons.  Those cartoonists are just so clever the way they get to the heart of the matter.  Fortunately the Herald Sun puts Mark Knight's cartoon online each day at  

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/opinion      (part of the way down the page).

And about 9.50 am each Sunday morning ABC1's Insiders program has a delightful segment where a guest cartoonist discusses the best of the cartoons for the week from the major newspapers.