Tree and tapestries

Despite the cloudy weather it is still too light at after nine o'clock to get a good shot of the tree - but you might be able to make out the 'snowflakes' on the window - another momento of my Canadian trip.

I hope you all had a very pleasant time over Christmas as I did.  We are pretty laid back these days; there were more of us than usual but even with my small house, it was no problem.  I can't remember another year when I have had both front and back doors open until bedtime with no worries about the wind!

My two sons were here, plus one daughter in law, two granddaughters, my son's mother-in-law and a family friend who would otherwise have been on his own.

We spent much of the day outside playing boules, tennis on a stick, badminton and practicing golf chip shots - the amount of laughter made up for the lack of skill I think.  It was a wonderful time together.

My son and his family are settled into their new house and during the move came across a blanket I embroidered over twelve years ago for the first granddaughter.  I agreed to go to a class at Nancy's in Wellington to keep a friend company, and we used wool to embroider a woollen blanket, using mainly bullion knots....

Diana, Amy's other grandmother, drew for me the symbols for her name which I put on the blanket

Somehow, someone washed the blanket - and probably not by hand - which has caused it to shrink ........

I think I shall have to take off the binding and re-size the lining - and in the photo there appears to be quite a lot of colour bleeding - after all the hours of stitching I am reluctant to abandon it - what do you think? is it worth saving?

This afternoon I had a few errands to do - I just love Wellington at this time of year!  Well, anytime of course but now it is so empty it is a pleasure to go out knowing you can get a car park just about anywhere.  I finished my errands, made a detour into the office after receiving a phone call from my boss [my son] and attended to business, then decided I had earned a coffee so went to The Dowse where there is one of my favourite coffee bars, and while there had a look at some of the exhibitions - I shall have to return to do them justice.

But I did get a good look at the Gordon Crook tapestry exhibition, 18 Maritimes.  These works are based on oceanic and nautical themes -

They are each displayed in the wooden frames, reminiscent of portholes to me -

Some of them are based on microscopic organisims

I find it fascinating to examine and enjoy these minute works of art, such a change from queen size bed quilts!

Talking of which - well, this is maybe a large single, it is made using a small amount of the feature fabric and because of this I take it into the prison to show that it is possible to extend the favourite fabric by the use of complementary coloured/patterned fabrics.  I started off with an irregular piece of fabric with figures of children - totally unreal, but pretty -

Some of the pieces had to be cut at odd angles, so I completed the block a la crazy patchwork and used alternate blocks of sympathetic fabric - many of them also vintage, but some reproduction thirties

I understand we are in for rain tomorrow, good because the garden needs it and with a clear conscience I shall spend the day sewing - I am having problems with the latest pale blue and floral scrap top, so I shall have to reconsider - and guess what the thought for the day is? "Method saves hours of wasted effort"

I have been watching a dvd of Mansfield Park, a BBC version which I am enjoying.  One of the books this month was "An Old Captivity" by Neville Shute - it's ages since I read anything of his, he has a quite unmistakable style that I enjoy - this one seemed to finish all of a sudden but that could have been because I was reading it on my iPad and not holding an actual book when I would have known that I was at the end - if you follow me.

Nice talking with you, thank you for your comments and feedback.

June