Tuesday, May 26, 2015

Cutting a Rug



We went to the local RSA on Saturday night with the Cannucks to see Roy Orbison and Elvis (yes, I know, I thought they were dead too but apparently not), and practice our fabulous dance moves.  The Cannucks cut a pretty impressive rug with their rock and roll and Mr Shoestring and I contented ourselves with trying to dust off a bit of rock and roll and some swing, also one or two sedate foxtrots.  I tried not to be annoyed with Mr Shoestring when he realised I had forgotten to don my net petticoat and began ever more vigorous spins to make my skirt fly up, and the whole outing was a great success.  We gave Mr and Mrs Cannuck fish chowder and a nice fruity pudding beforehand so they wouldn’t be overfull for the dancing and I have almost forgiven Mrs Cannuck for refusing my offer of some recently unearthed Jerusalem artichokes – she said she could still remember the bad effects she suffered from last year’s supply.  Some people are just not grateful! 

The weather was pretty dire, although the night was beautifully clear on Friday with not a cloud to blot out the pretty light on the mast at the top of the mountain by Saturday morning the rain had commenced and it continued for the whole weekend so a quick trip to the library was just about the extent of our other outings. 

I continued with the quilting on the latest quilt and the background for the tulip needlepoint but I have decided that although I love the look of a lot of quilting on a quilt, in the foreseeable future I will be content with making a very simple quilt with backing and some ties in well chosen spots to hold the two layers together, and not a lot of quilting, possibly none.  Otherwise I will never get onto starting all the quilts which are spinning around in my head. 

Next weekend is a long weekend and I want to “dress” a hat for winter deco with some colourful silk flowers and some leaves, possibly a bit of net and a few buttons and extras to make it fun to wear.  I have a few cloches and other felt hats to choose from and have a yen for a bit of colour to add some zing to my winter deco costumes.  Winter deco is great fun because apart from the fact that the furs can come out, there is a lot of choice in hats because of the felts not feeling too hot and oppressive (which they can sometimes do in summer, though One must Suffer for One’s Art of course). 


I am thinking if I deconstruct this flower and add in some silk leaves and pretty stamens I could end up with a magnificent chapeau to wow my fellow attendees!  (Things never seem to turn out quite how I anticipated, but I always start out in an optimistic fashion, expecting the best.) 


There is hardly anything flowering in the garden and even the fish were looking somewhat despondent and lacking in energy, perhaps even fish can get too much water in the form of rain or maybe the cooler weather is making them sluggish. 


A few weeks ago when I started cutting 1 inch hexagons out of my scrap fabrics in order to get through them all I found it a very tiresome and laborious task, also the basting of the hexies over their papers was tedious in the extreme.  Over time though I think I have sadly developed a veritable addiction to cutting yet more and more hexies, thousands of them in fact, and even enjoy the basting.  When Mr Shoestring is driving and I am free to stitch I have started keeping a tally of how many I can baste and keep trying to improve on my record.  I have begun to find little stashes of cut hexies and basted hexies and papers in various places and realise that it really is time to seriously think of a few projects to use them up, rather than just stitching random rows of them and never doing anything with them.  Apart from some cushions for the outdoor chairs a bag or two might be handy and I have these old frames, picked up at op shops over the years, which would be ideal.  Also a couple of modern handles which could be fun.  There are a lot of possibilities, now I just have to take myself firmly in hand and stitch all the random rows and random partly made rectangles into something useful!







Lately a new theme has emerged,sewing notions, irons, paper dolls and what not.  Before that there were small florals and also the chickens and roosters, it changes from week to week!  All in all a most eclectic selection in the end.  



I have a collection (yet another collection) of old handbag frames, collected from op shops over the years, and these could be ideal for turning some of the hexagons into bags.  

The most surprising treat last weekend though was when Mrs Peaceable gave me a lovely selection of old crocheted and embroidered pieces.  There was a set of pansy pieces which fitted perfectly with the last remaining flowers in the garden at Shoestring Cottage.  



Who could resist them, and they have an unusual three dimensional pansy as well! 

But the piece de resistance had to be this swan doyley complete with the little black markings at the base of the beak, and the eyes also.  Each swan is stuffed at its base (that sounds wrong somehow, but you understand what I mean) with a cotton wool ball!  I couldn't make the swans all stand up properly for a photo call, they were a little exhausted after their time crushed up with all the other treasures, but I will revive them and change the photo forthwith.  You will be astonished!