The Great Plate Wall - Onwards and Upwards

We have been away from Shoestring Cottage for the last couple of weekends for family parties and a flying visit to Sydney.  (Sydney wasvery exciting, and surprisingly good op shops, you will be pleased to learn.  I found three hats to wear to next Art Deco weekend at a fabulous Vinnies, and a duvet cover to use to back a quilt.  The harbour and museum, botanic garden, Hyde Park, all were beautiful.  I think the fact that the weather was brilliantly warm and sunny made a big difference.) But it was wonderful to be back again this weekend and see definite signs of spring.  Today was a perfect day for a spot of spring cleaning, but of course good to get out into the garden for a bit too.  

 The spring bulbs are all putting on a good show and the violets, white purple and pink ones, are finally playing their part and rewarding us with a good crop of flowers. 

While roaming around poking at things I was pleased to find an old bird's nest which was entirely composed of the coconut fibres from my hanging baskets.  I used to be very cross when I saw the birds pulling the basket liners to pieces but now I'm happy to see that they put them to a constructive use at least, and weren't just ripping them apart for the pleasure of it.  

I was so fired up with enthusiasm following the completion of the last "quilt as you go" quilt that I decided to finish this one also, which uses the same technique and which I also foolishly decided at the last minute to make into a reversible one, pink and yellow on one side and pink and blue on the other.  Originally it was going to be only pink and blue but it seemed like a good way of using up a lot of left over yellow fabrics.  These things always seem like a good idea at the time, but then as the project drags on and you would like to be turning your attention to other things, you tend to wonder what possessed you to embrace that idea.  Anyway, I am enjoying making this one and it is taking shape quickly.  It's a bit of a pleasant change after the more sombre terra cotta and green shades of the last one.  

Also I am determined to finish this grandmother's garden type of quilt which I must have started a good 15 years ago.  I took it to Australia with me but of course was stopped by customs, who for some reason always take exception to my scissors.  Last time I went away they found an enormous pair of kitchen scissors in the side pocket of my suitcase which I had forgotten were there.  This time I though I had outfoxed them by packing only a pair of blunt nosed children's scissors, but somehow I had left two small sharp bladded embroidery scissors in there also.  One day I will get it right.  I think I am in their books as a repeat offender because sometimes when they get to my luggage they go off somewhere else for a few minutes, probably to confer as to whether I really have terrorist intentions or are just a bit dim.  Not the sharpest pair of scissors in the embroidery shop.  Anyway, once we got past the difficulties with border control I made huge progress on this one, so it was well worth the angst, even though Customs may not agree.

While scratching through my sewing room looking for the bits and pieces I needed to carry on with these quilts I was pleased to unearth this  rather odd looking piece of grey felt which I was covering with spidery embroideries, to use up old cottons.  Whenever I come across it, it makes me smile with its cheerful random jumble of colours and I really must get past the quilts one day soon and move onto finishing off some of the embroideries I have kicking about.  I think it would make a useful bag, perhaps to carry other embroidery projects about in.  I tend to leave them lying in the bottom of Mr Shoestrings car and they would be a lot better if they were contained tidily; then I wouldn't spend the first five minutes of each journey cursing and muttering to myself while I try to locate yet another pair of scissors.  (Where do they all go, I wonder?  I hate to think how many I have bought in my life so far.  Sometimes they turn up at the bottom of sofas but more often they just seem to dematerialise.  I am particularly partial to the ones which look like a stork bird, and I probably keep the people who make those ones gainfully employed, single handedly.)

 After a drought on the flower front it was good to finally be able to have a well filled vase instead of the rather paltry arrangements of recent months.  I am liking this jug because of its cheerful mix of colour and of course the fact that the flower pattern is made up from a cross stitch design makes it all the more fetching. I have to confess though that I have resorted to using that horrible veiny leaf to flesh things out because flowers still aren't that abundant.  So funny that I always try to eradicate it from the garden but in the end I have had to just give in and try to think of a use for it. 

Mr Shoestring has been very obliging this weekend and put up another 15 plates on the back wall.  He stood back in satisfaction and told me there must be 15 new ones up there, because he had counted out 15 hooks before he started.  I think he was crestfallen when he realised that there were a whole lot he had overlooked, and that his task is not yet complete.  I am still having a lot of difficulty in finding larger, dinner sized plates to put up, because they are always more expensive, but  the thrill of the chase is as wonderful as ever and my dear friends and sister have been very generous with donations too. 

Success At Last With The Birds

Mr Shoestring couldn't wait to see whether the birds had finally relented and started to eat all, or any, of his offerings this weekend.  He was overjoyed to see that the wax eyes had finally twigged to the delights on offer, and were eagerly partaking of the feast.  Mind you, it wasn't all plain sailing.  He had to move (yet again) the logs of bird food, the support and the feeder because for some reason they were suspicious and didn't like the spot he had placed them in.  This meant quite a lot of activity in the garden but finally they are happy, and so is Mr Shoestring.  The strange thing is that they will even enter the pagoda-like bird house to feed, which they never would before.  When we recently had a national back garden bird survey one of the findings was that though tuis are more plentiful, for some reason wax eyes (pihiphi) are waning, so it's particularly pleasing to see them flocking to the bird feeder and Mr Shoestring spent a good part of the weekend gazing adoringly at his avian darlings.

Mind you, he didn't spend the entire weekend on the birds.  He has had this fabulous old fan heater for a long time but of course it wasn't in working order.  He is very pleased with the results of his labours and it does throw out a good blast of warm air, still necessary sadly, though it is nowhere near as cold as it was a few weekends ago.

When we were at winter art deco weekend I was thrilled to spy a "For Home And Country" badge in an op shop; I think it fits in nicely with the For Home And Country teaspoons and the Queen's visit memorabilia.  I also found four more of the sherry glasses commemorating the royal visit, so soon I will be able to have a little sherry party.  I shall wear my For Home And Country badge along with the little fold out book commemorating the visit of Her Royal Highness and the medal also.  In for a penny, in for a pound; no point in doing things half heartedly, after all.

This weekend, after the triumph of having finished a quilt last weekend, I decided to give myself a break from quilts.  Mainly because my right index finger was bleeding after all the labours last weekend, it must be said.  I decided to make some dolls using old wooden pegs I had lying around and it was rather fun, but the results for facial features and hair are quite variable.  Some of them look perplexed and some of them look cross, but I am comforting myself with the thought that when they have some clothing to cover their poor little wooden bodies they will be a lot happier, especially in this weather.  I can't wait to start making them some clothes and jewellery, hats and what not, that will be the fun part.

While I was fossicking around looking for supplies (most of which I never did unearth), I found a lot of old bits and pieces of broken jewellery, so I had a go at putting it to use again

and made a couple of big brooches and rosettes to decorate winter coats. 

Then I found some labels for quilts and resolved that I must label the four I have finished in the last couple of years.  (Lordy lordy, it gives me a thrill to be able to say that I have finished four, not that I like to boast you understand.)  I can never remember when I start or finish my projects so it seems like a good idea to put labels on them, though I usually forget.  So I will put these to good use

Especially the pansy ones, of course.  

Next weekend though it would be better to confine myself to just one project, instead of getting distracted and trying to do so many different things.  Definitely would achieve more that way, though possibly it wouldn't be quite so much fun!

Mr Shoestring The Birdbrain

Mr Shoestring is in the grips of a powerful new obsession which has come completely out of the blue.  He is entirely taken up with the welfare of the birds which frequent (in ever increasing numbers) the garden at Shoestring Cottage.  It started out harmlessly enough with a bird feeder, but when that blew away in a storm he replaced it with another, larger double feeder and then found the original one as well, which he duly hung in place once more.  So far so good; but then he decided this wasn't sufficient.  Yesterday he nonchalantly told me he was "just popping along the road for some bird seed" and when he returned I was surprised to find he has bought 20kg of bird seed.

 To justify this he explained that it was in fact an economy measure and that it would work out cheaper in the long run.  Also he bought some "logs" for feeding the birds and he was very upset to find the birds completely ignored them, which necessitated moving them to various spots around the garden in the hopes that the birds would look more favourably upon these fresh offerings.  When this failed, rather than abandon that idea he set off and bought more logs, with a different flavour.  He spends a good deal of his time peering out the windows, muttering to himself "Eat birds, eat", and fretting that they will never come to his offerings.  I didn't like to point out to him this morning that whole flocks of them had left the back garden and were in the front garden, gorging themselves silly on things such as rosemary flowers and rose hips.  It would have been just too unkind.

I must commend Mrs Shoestring though for his tolerance in the home decorating area.  For many years I have gradually introduced more and more floral accents into the cottage, particularly the bedroom, with roses being my particular favourite.  Rosy jugs, pink depression glass china, rose prints on the walls, and finally the piece de resistance, a rose print which I unearthed on a particularly fruitful day's shopping with my sister.

(I like to remind myself that while I bought a rose print and a few op shop bits and pieces, she bought a beautiful Victorian dining table, four balloon back chairs and many trees for her garden, somehow it makes me feel better.)  This print is now hanging above the bed and not only did Mr Shoestring not bat an eyelid, he even hung it for me.  (This is because decades ago I used to hang things myself and he never liked the way I did it; apparently you have to tap all over the wall to find mysterious things called noggins before you can proceed, which seems downright silly to me, but I bow to his peculiar preference and let him hang things up these days.  It saves us from having a lot of unpleasant scenes.) 

One of the best things about this weekend at Shoestring Cottage (especially since the weather was complete rubbish once more), was that I finally finished this quilt.  I don't know how many years ago it was started (and it's best not to dwell on such depressing questions), but half way through I hit upon the idea, which seemed brilliant to me at the time, that rather than having it the same front and back, I could use different colours.  Terra cotta and green for the "winter" side of the quilt,

and yellow and green for the "summer" side. 

Mr Shoestring much prefers the terra cotta version, which was the originally planned one.

Of course this meant making a whole lot more pieces and set progress back by a long way, but it also made the quilt more interesting to complete.  Or that was the plan anyway.  Mr Peaceable Kingdom suggested to me that I should not only label my quilts with my name and year of completion, but the year of commencement, which was a very hard hearted and mean thing to say, I thought.  I'm congratulating myself that so far this year I have finished two quilts, which was the total for the whole of last year.  If I make four this year, who knows how many I will get through next year? 

We have had another winter art deco weekend in Napier and it was a wonderful one, possibly the best yet.  (I think perhaps I say this every time, but no matter.)  We attended the tea dance and the opening ball, also the radio play and a wonderful talk on hats.  This was very inspiring as we recently went on a weekend course where we learnt from a wonderful milliner the basics of hat making.  We were thrilled that The Dancing Queen could attend as well, so there was quite a bit of chatter and laughter and gossip as well as the hat making.  Our tutor was very friendly and wonderfully knowledgeable and we came away feeling much more confident and ready to create our own hats for future deco events.  It was absolutely blissikins.  While at winter Art Deco weekend we managed to catch up with the Southern Sisters and as ever were inspired by their wonderful costumes, especially the attention to detail with using the correct sewing techniques, fabrics and materials.  We met new art deco chums from as far afield as Sydney as well and as usual came away full of ideas for marvellous confections in the hat department and stunning costumes for next year.  We recently visited a shop in Auckland which sells Japanese imported antiques and memorabilia and were excited to find silk kimono which would be perfect for cutting up to use in making dresses, but so far have been afraid to take to them with scissors, it would seem to be a desecration. 

On the way to Deco we stopped at all the op shops and unearthed quite a bit of treasure.  I was particularly thrilled with this jug with a cross stitch design on it,

also a mother of pearl brooch (a bit bright to show up properly here)

and a diamante hair clip. 

 This pansy bowl of course is a favourite of course,

 and we also found a hat block and several bits of clothing to alter for summer deco.

I'm going to attempt to make a blue rayon two piece suit into something more deco with the addition of some pockets trimmed with embroidered finger napkins and a collar and sleeve alterations.  And mother of pearl buttons if I can find any in the right size. 

Mr Shoestring found an evening suit and cummerbund, plus a hat or two, so he was well pleased. 

Puddings aren't my forte and when I foolishly offered to take one to The Peaceable Kingdom this weekend it caused a bit of hasty rustling through my sparse collection of recipes at Shoestring Cottage.  I have made this pudding before and it always turns out successfully, though it is officially called a fruit cake it's excellent as a warm pudding in winter time as well.  I had no fresh fruits but used cherries, nectarines, pears and apricots for a mixture of colours and flavours and it came out very well.  Put the cherries on top so they aren't buried underneath the other fruits, and put the pears on first if using them, as they look rather anaemic and bland compared to the more colourful fruits such as nectarines and apricots.  .  I'll put the recipe on the side bar. 

The Big Birthday - Or, Abandoning Oneself To One's Eccentricities

I've recently had a Big Birthday (60 glorious years, in fact), which turned into a bit of a fiesta rather than a one day only kind of event.  Mr Shoestring and my adorable offspring, friends and family treated me like royalty and I thoroughly enjoyed being spoilt rotten.  It's a shame it can't go on every day of the year, but I suppose in time the novelty would wear off.  Eventually.  Perhaps.  I decided to stop resisting temptation, and abandon myself to my eccentricities, and asked Mr Shoestring to give me an antique plaster Madonna which I had had my beady eyeball on for some time, and I'm thrilled with her.  She has a cloak of the perfect shade of blue I always envisaged, and though she is a little worn and chipped and the worse for wear, I think it only adds to her charm.

 After all, I could say the same about myself now that I have achieved such a venerable age.  I'm going to use her as a kind of shrine and have fresh flowers and maybe a scented candle and some incense beside her. 

My dear sister, The Equestrienne, gave me the perfect birthday present given my current craze for collecting things related to the Queen's visit.  It was this medal, and I'm not sure whether these were given out only to people who attended events during the royal visit, or whether any old Joe Bloggs could purchase them.  Regardless, it is a very definite symbol of one's attachment to Her Royal Highness.  I did think that my sister was a little unreasonable when she added the caveat that I was only allowed the gift if I wore the medal on all special occasions and outings though. 

Apart from the birthday celebrations, there has been fun and games in the garden.  For one thing, the plates to hang on the back wall have been accumulating and since it was my birthday Mr Shoestring obliged me by hanging a few more on the freshly painted calamine lotion pink wall.  (Perhaps this was where the super-eccentric phase started, it occurs to me.)

They are mainly smallish ones, since that size are the ones which tend to go for 50 cents in the op shop, but this weekend I decided to sacrifice some of the large, pretty ones which I had stashed away in the kitchen cupboards.  They aren't hanging yet, but when they are added to the ever-expanding collection I predict the effect will be pretty awe-inspiring.  Some may say overwhelming and OTT but that's just their opinion. 

Having decided to abandon myself to all my eccentric urges, now that I officially am an old lady and have a good excuse, I have been wallowing unashamedly in all things pink and frilly.  I bought a pair of the vase above and gave one to my equestrienne sister.  (As a punishment for her insisting that I wear my medal at all times, I should have given it to her on the understanding that she needed to attach it to the dashboard of her car and keep it always stocked with flowers, but it didn't occur to me at the time.)  I kept the other one for myself.  The china is fragile as tissue and it's remarkable that the vases have withstood the ravages of time. 

Also I've been loving these two confections.  

There are still some late roses blooming, astonishingly enough given the storms, wind and rain we have had recently.  The pink pleasure garden is looking good for the time of year, and some of the purple foliaged plants have almost become rampant. 

I'm wondering if I could strike some cuttings of this one simply by putting some stems in water.

The alstromerias are also still flowering - it has been wet and windy, but not at all cold.  

The most thrilling thing on the stitching front has been that I am finally approaching the end stages of the chicken quilt.  Madame Canuck helped me rip out the papers and a most satisfying task that was, though it did take an awfully long time.  That is the mark of a true friend, a person who will sit with you and labour over such a tedious but necessary undertaking!

I decided to use the edging technique I have tried once before, finishing off with hexies around the edge and then flipped back over the backing and stitched in place, so that none of the hexagons are lost through trimming.  Also it helps to use up all the "extras" which are invariably left over due to my inability to calculate the numbers required.  I like the look of this but it is awfully time consuming.  I have finished one side, three more to go and then I will be done.  Fortunately this time I haven't developed a hatred for the quilt and can even to look upon it fondly, which is just as well considering all the hours which have gone into its construction. 

It is very disappointing when a quilt has a backing fabric unsuitable to the theme or colours of the quilt, or at least I think so, and this one has the theme whole heartedly continued in the backing. 

We have a chicken all over fabric 

 Plus some chicken wire on the back of the quilt.  

Happy days, once this one is finished I can press on with the cup and saucer/floral themed quilt - strange to relate, it is a very pretty-pretty one and not at all Autumnal in its colourings, unlike the chicken one.  Woohoo, being an old lady isn't bad after all.