How my dearly departed mother would be amazed to see her once wayward, wild daughter dabbling in all sorts of arts and crafts. Mum was just able to sew on a button and had a gorgeous little wooden box where she stored a meagre supply of sewing notions. This box is now in my possession and the contents remain exactly as I received them. Various reels of cotton (to match various buttons, I guess, a packet of assorted needles, a tape measure, a "dorcas" tin containing just a few pins, a sewing kit from Conrads International Hotel, 4 sewing kits from the Hotel Carlton in Brisbane (which is now obsolete, but which was a favourite place for her and her friend to stay in inner Brisbane city) small card of elastic, a small plastic bag of assorted buttons, and a roll of navy cotton tape which she used to replace the ties on my Dad's butcher's aprons. Of course, she did not do this herself, but would supply the tape to a sewing friend to fix the aprons.
So, my love of all things quilty and sewing did not come from my Mum! Ever since I was a very small child, I have loved to create something. My paternal Nana (a very patient soul) taught my sister and I how to knit from about age 5 0r 6. My sister soon got bored, after dropping many stitches, but I always persevered and made a scarf for the bride doll. Next door to us, lived an elderly childless woman (another extremely patient soul) who showed us the fine art of embroidery and crochet. By the time I got to Year 7 to do our embroidery sampler, I could already execute the basic stitches. My love of embroidery still exists to this day.
Like many quilters, I have many projects on the go and a lot of UFO's (unfinished objects). One of these is a crazy patchwork quilt. This quilt has already been worked on for about 2 years and I am looking at it as a very long-term project. Initially I envisaged it to be a rather large extravaganza, but sanity prevailed and now it has worked it's way down to a wall hanging. Basically, it is going to be a pictorial, memory type crazy patch quilt and, as this is my first blog entry, I will attempt to add a photo of one of the blocks. This is "the Rose Block", depicting my absolute love of this God's gift to nature. My favourite rose is "Blue Moon" and is depicted at the top of the block. I just love it for it's seductive lilac colour and it's splendid perfume. Can't see the sense in growing a rose without perfume.
Almost finished is a block of the month quilt, a Christmas design, which began about 4 years ago. Progress has been veeeeeery slow, as I was trying to do a full time admin position, marry off a daughter and all the other vagaries of life whilst working on this one. There are many many more UFO's in the cupboard which may be revealed later on this blog.
So, my love of all things quilty and sewing did not come from my Mum! Ever since I was a very small child, I have loved to create something. My paternal Nana (a very patient soul) taught my sister and I how to knit from about age 5 0r 6. My sister soon got bored, after dropping many stitches, but I always persevered and made a scarf for the bride doll. Next door to us, lived an elderly childless woman (another extremely patient soul) who showed us the fine art of embroidery and crochet. By the time I got to Year 7 to do our embroidery sampler, I could already execute the basic stitches. My love of embroidery still exists to this day.
Like many quilters, I have many projects on the go and a lot of UFO's (unfinished objects). One of these is a crazy patchwork quilt. This quilt has already been worked on for about 2 years and I am looking at it as a very long-term project. Initially I envisaged it to be a rather large extravaganza, but sanity prevailed and now it has worked it's way down to a wall hanging. Basically, it is going to be a pictorial, memory type crazy patch quilt and, as this is my first blog entry, I will attempt to add a photo of one of the blocks. This is "the Rose Block", depicting my absolute love of this God's gift to nature. My favourite rose is "Blue Moon" and is depicted at the top of the block. I just love it for it's seductive lilac colour and it's splendid perfume. Can't see the sense in growing a rose without perfume.
Almost finished is a block of the month quilt, a Christmas design, which began about 4 years ago. Progress has been veeeeeery slow, as I was trying to do a full time admin position, marry off a daughter and all the other vagaries of life whilst working on this one. There are many many more UFO's in the cupboard which may be revealed later on this blog.
1 comment:
I love Blue Moon too! I had a dozen of them all down the side of one house in Canberra - gorgeous blowsy things they were!
Nice to see your Mum's stuff - did you know you can still get those lovely Iris brand pins in the blue tin - but hey cost a FORTUNE now!
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