L Scatterings ....City ....Purple .....Sky .....Lap Quilt

CITY


        >
   Lund in Sweden

I took these photos while passing through the city of Lund in Southern Sweden last year.... nice blue local train and some lovely buildings opposite the station. I was a great fan of the Danish detective series 'The Killing'. The main detective, Sara Lund developed a cult following of fans liking her Fair Isle jumper and wanting the pattern! So when passing through Southern Sweden where the second series is set, I had to have a photo of the city! Here is a photo of Sarah, played by Sofie Grabol in her 'trending' jumper!

Like the jumper? 

Here's the pattern!

PURPLE

Luggage

This piece of 'hard-knocks' luggage was in a store room but I know it does a great job housing and transporting quilts

SKY

Liquid 

A break in an afternoon shower creates a liquid sky over Albert Park Beach in Melbourne on Monday, 22 April 2013 at about 4pm. Looking south towards St Kilda and........... beyond.

Lap Quilt

'Technically speaking,....' I hear you all say!

Yes, I know it's still a lap top! But I have more of those than lap quilts. I made this one in 2006 during a Margaret Kirkby course using Jinny Beyer fabric. I found the machine piecing very difficult and feel I have made this top at least 6 times as I had to unpick it so often. I learned a lot but it took a long time before the quilt and me became friends.

Apologies for any mistakes...it is late and my ISP has slowed my connection. Another 'to do' on today's list. Must get to bed ;-0

Crazy Quilt

"Crazy Quilt" Charlie Creath's Jazz-O-Maniacs

If you like trad jazz, you might like the link below:
http://www.20sjazz.com/videos/hot-jazz/crazy-quilt-.html

A Quilting Down Under member, Mary C  also tells me there is a song, 'Little Crazy Quilt' on the Singing Quilter's website! What a coincidence!

'How to make an American Quilt' is one of my favourite movies. The sound track is wonderful.

Scatterings A: House ...Bird ....Rubbish ...Art in/for/from the sewing room

SCATTERINGS A


A House: a free-standing, Federation cottage in my neighbourhood grips tightly onto a steep sandstone ledge. It still has its original name plate, 'Araluen' in place. 

    
'Araluen' takes its Aboriginal name from a small town in SE NSW.  
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Araluen,_New_South_Wales

Perhaps the original owners struck pay dirt in Araluen NSW during the gold rush and later built their home in Sydney. Unfortunately, I haven't spied any water lilies in the area but there are 'running waters' in an old creek bed which runs underground from Crows Nest to the Parramatta River via Balls Head Bay, where Sydney Harbour meets the River. The creek bed runs under parks and building developments but when you stand in the park after heavy rain you can hear the underground flow of the natural water course.

Now a little further afield to the South Island of New Zealand...... and photos from 2006.

A ....Bird: Albatross (Royal)

The Kiwis have wonderful wildlife and, for the less thrill -seeking of tourists, some great places to see animals in their habitat. Taiaroa Head near Dunedin is a fantastic location. It houses and protects the world's only mainland albatross rookery. 

http://www.albatross.org.nz/taiaroa-head/taiaroa-head

Taiaroa Head Lighthouse and one of the rookeries looking North East 

and .................... just around the corner from 'Araluen' ........

A: Rubbish ........ Assortment

 There is a plethora of positives and negatives about this assortment of 'Household Waste'. I am sure you could add your own '+' & '-' views about this 'licorice all sorts', which appears on our streets twice to 3 times per month. The 'waste' goes out on Sunday and is collected Monday so there are no long term piles of detritus.

Sometimes, when I have driven around the Council pick up area, I have stopped and picked up a variety of things which I either use, give to charity fetes and Vinnies or recycle myself when I have no more use for them. It is quite a Sunday outing and an income stream for many. This pile will most probably be halved by 9am tomorrow morning. Today I don't have the car so I can't take what I think I could reuse ie the two timber pallets, which I would like for the garden. Hopefully, someone takes the 
bookcase and gives it a second life. I know a few schools which could use the chairs. If I get a chance to return before the collectors arrive tomorrow, I'll take another photo and post it.


Hello! Back again......

Barely a dent in the pile

:-(

 I passed by this morning, Monday 8 April, at about 11:30am and took the two photos above, which show what will go to landfill! Why can't these people phone Vinnies or the Salvos and ask them to pick up? Those chairs look like standard NSW Education Department furniture. The waste of energy, primary and secondary resources and labour is gobsmacking. 

A: Something for/from/in the sewing room ....

Art: Apple & Afternoon                       

'Champagne Apple', hand blown by my friend, Arthur Zirnsak  & 'Afternoon', a framed painting which I found at Vinnies for the price of 4 cups of coffee.

What does Cinzia have in store for next week?                                                                 

Kaikoura East Coast Southland New Zealand 2009

Seagulls find the best views.

Scattering the 4 Esses

Female, Ice Cream, Empty & Stash

S Female : Strelitzia but don't think pink! 

 A sexist guess at the colour of the strelitzia's female part might be anything but blue. 
However, the blue petals are the female organs. 

Have a look at the link below to gain further insight into the fertilisation process and the role of the blue petals. The white stamen is described as a spathe.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strelitzia

S Ice Cream: Semifreddo with Strawberry and 'Shockolate'

These are the ingredients and Donna Hay's recipe for Semifreddo, an Italian ice cream which I will not be making this Easter! The strawberries are my addition as I like strawberry ice cream with chocolate.  Ice cream is my enemy! I will have to continue my regime of strawberries and yoghurt as my feet appreciate not having to carry around all those ingredients. 

S Empty: Shibori

 In Shibori, indigo tie-dyeing, it's really about what's not 'there' and the beauty of empty space.

 I started with a length of pale blue silk. I folded the piece in three diagonal sections and then blocked areas on these pleats with string, pegs and jumper-lead clamps. The excitement came when undoing and taking away all the 'hardware', revealing the 'empty sections' where the indigo had not penetrated/permeated. I'm now waiting for the second workshop in May so that I can complete the coverlet with some mocha silk and perhaps do some sashiko quilting on it.

S Stash: Selvage Strips

A few years ago, Down Under Quilts published an article about using selvage strips to make skirts, dresses (yes, mega metres needed), bags etc. So I started collecting them but have never used them. In a recent, online, pincushion swap, my partner, Chris from Lansing, Michigan sent me this wonderful pincushion which she had made from her stash of selvage strips. I love it!

Perhaps we should call them 'salvage' or 'upcycling' strips?!? 
The DUQ article is at the following link: 
http://www.downunderquilts-digital.com/downunderquilts/issue139?pg=24#pg23

D did I or didn't I?

D appropriately DOH!

Not happy, Google! I did my post on Tuesday and it has Disappeared into the iEther. So 'dis' will be a quick Digest of my original epistle.

Dearest DEERSTALKER David

David is almost always prepared to 'ham it up' so when we went to Vinnies about three weeks ago, he didn't mind donning the deerstalker. We knew D would eventually appear on the scattering horizon...so all I had to do was wait.

Back to the headwear ...Cute, huh? We thought about buying it for a Swedish friend who hunts deer but alas his head is a little too round for this Scottish tweed number. David had his cataracts done in February so he wore the Cancer Council glasses everywhere for a few weeks. Look closely in the side lens and you can see my reflection.

Di Palin is my podiatrist. Last year, I had very inflamed tendons and bursitis in my left foot. With Di's great care, she had me walking correctly again in 6 months and I was able to travel and walk kilometres most days. She was very pleased to participate in the blog and showed me her dorsal pedis artery to which she is pointing above.

DECO drop desk and bookcase

David and this Deco combo drop-desk bookcase have been hanging out together since circa 1972. His old friend, Bert bequeathed it to him. When David moved to Sydney after we married in 1993, Bert's bookcase came too. We moved house again in 1995, so the bookcase had to tag along. We now use it as a china cabinet and storage for the odd souvenir, stationery and CDs. We occasionally think about Bert and his generosity.

DISPLAY something quilty

Friday Showcase at the NSW Quilters' Guild
February Lyn Hewitt's beautiful quilts

On the first Friday of most months, the Quilters' Guild of NSW invites a quilter to showcase a selection of her/his quilts at Head Office Level 5 276 Pitt St Sydney. The featured February quilter was the renowned Lyn Hewitt who showcased mainly display quilts. If you are interested in attending the showcase just check the Guild's calendar on the website. If you are in the city, drop into the office because the display can be views for at least the whole month. http://www.quiltersguildnsw.com/events.html#friday

The April showcase will feature Catherine Butterworth. In addition, the 2013 Raffle quilt will soon be on display. It was designed by Lyn Alchin and sewn and quilted by a group from the Wentworth Falls area led by Isobel Lancashire. Raffle tickets will be on sale soon. I hope I win it as it is really beautiful….broderie perse, appliqué and  hand quilting. 

WATCH THIS SPACE!

....... Aye, Aye, Aye!

iMoney, iMetal, iTools and iInchies.

Can you hear my frontal lobe grinding into an 'I-think-therefore-I-am' process?

I = Insulinde Tulip ie MONEY or lack thereof

    'Floraison' by Fitz and Floyd

Have you read 'Tulip Fever' by Deborah Moggach? Tulips meant mega, extreme wealth in the 17th century money market. Some of the most exquisite and expensive were two-toned Isulinde and called 'broken'. This 'break' in colour was a to become know in the 19th century as a mutant flaw. the fanciers and money brokers couldn't get enough of them and unfortunately this proliferation led to a deadly virus which killed all the bulbs. Consequently, the effect was similar to hedge funds and the GFC of the 2000s. Investors were left with nothing but the dead bulbs, which were not worth the paper in which they were wrapped!

 http://www.tulipsinthewoods.com/bulbs/insulinde-broken-tulip/

I = Iron Gates, cast and wrought at North    

     Sydney Demonstration School 

There has to be a story behind these glam gates! Not the late 20th century NSW Public School style but not unique. They hark to a time when schools and buildings were made to last. The traditional owners of the area on which the property stands were the Cammeraygal people. However, by 1880 most aboriginal people in the Sydney area had been evicted from their traditional lands in the Sydney Basin to La Perouse on the coast, south of Maroubra.

The first white settler on the large block in the photo was Edward Wollstonecraft, who built a small cottage, named 'Crows Nest' on the land grant. Alexander Berry, his business partner built a more elaborate house on the site in 1850.

Conrad Martens, who had travelled on 'The Beagle' with Charles Darwin, painted the home in its semi 'European' landscape in 1858. 

Read more about the original buildings and occupants on the site below.

http://collection.hht.net.au/firsthhtpictures/fullRecordPicture.jsp?recnoListAttr=recnoList&recno=30933

Look closely and you will see the cast iron 'Crows Nest' emblem, which is synonymous with the suburb Crows Nest, only a few hundred metres up the road from the school. North Sydney Demonstration School has a long history in the training of student teachers who visit NSDS classes regularly to observe specific lessons which are devised by the class teacher in consultation with the university tutor/lecturer. The students also do longer periods of practice teaching at NSDS before they graduate from university.

I = Tools = (now my grey matter is truly struggling!)

  

 Let's play..... iTools ..... so I can include my iPad which has liberated me from sitting close to HD towers and modems. It travelled with us on and in planes, buses, cars, trains and ferries last year, when we wound our way through Finland, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Germany and Japan, allowing us to send photos, emails and postcards instantly. It meant that I could keep in contact with my mother who gave up using her computer last year. I sent emails to her carer, Yan who helps her 5 days per week. I wrote the postcards, photographed them with the iPad and then emailed them immediately to Yan's iPhone, she showed them to Mum the following morning.Yan or Mum then replied by iPhone email.The hard copy postcards eventually arrived by snail mail and Mum showed them to Dad at the nursing home.

The iPad doesn't seem to do blogs well so I use the MacBook Pro and flick between all of the above plus SD disk from the camera and my old Nokia phone, which has an old-eye camera. 

Just juggling all this plus the power and download leads helps to exercise the brain.  

Postcard from Turku Åbo in Finland

 I =  Inchies = Indigo....

...... measured fragments from my stash 

I don't throw out any fabric unless it's minute. I am not the quickest at finishing quilts 'n' things so inchies are something I might consider for a greeting card or tidying my quilt diary BUT I can't imagine getting into them the way I have seen on the net. If I become obsessed with inchies, I'll never finish another quilt. Most of the above inchies are leftovers from three completed quilts or tops.

What will B or C or D on 16 March? Not the Ides!

   

Tasty: I can still remember the first time I tasted pizza! Winter 1970! My brother had ventured into the world of Italian food as he was studying Italian 1 at uni. We bought a large with  Italian salami at 'Reginaldo's Pizzeria' on Lyons Road at Five Dock. The shop lasted until quite recently. My taste buds were awakened to Italian cuisine and it has been an adventure ever since. In 1998, David and I were in Bologna and asked in a menswear shop where we could have a very good ragu bolognese. It was only a few doors down and the meal was memorable: tagliatelle al ragù bolognese.

                                                       

The restaurant is still there so when you are next in Bologna, I can recommend 

'La Cesarina' for its wonderful traditional food.

Via Santo Stefano, 19, 40125 Bologna, Italy 

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Tiny,  I am not .... at 175cm! 

However, my first name, 'Pauline' means 'small'! My second name is Therese.

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Threads: if you sew you have to love them. I love cotton thread and like to find it in Op shops.  The large cotton spools in the tin came from a bag at a market. The bargain bag at the rear is full of poly for the overlocker. I love it because there are 19 cones in 9 colours + white for $2.Darning thread is hard to find and the little bag of darning wool for $1 will not go to waste. I just need more moss green, khaki and dark beige socks! Then there's always the colours of mercerised and Perle. 

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TERRIFY: 

If I were a tick or a thrip in my garden, I would be terrified of the resident reptiles. 

BEANS et al.

Tonight's dinner will be our fourth to include Phaseolus Vulgaris, which loosely translates as 'common beans', giving them no credit whatsoever for the effort they and the sun expended in making them green first and then converting them to purple. The two on the far right are victims of the birds so I'll dry them out and use the seeds next season.
Their taste is nuttier than a phaseolus vulgaris viridis. 








Their tiny flowers are a beautiful, pinky  violet.



The spinach is thriving and will probably appear in tomorrow night's salad. some parsley and possible thyme seeds have sprouted and will need thinning. A capsicum seed has found its way into the middle of the mix along with 'what I thought was going to be sage' but is a mystery plant with purple flowers.

Tomorrow I am enrolled in a Shibori class at North Sydney Community Centre so I have found a variety of fabrics to take along and inject with another life.

The eight white napkins might end up in a quilt. 

The blue silk?????

The remaining pieces are calico and homespun.

HANDY MORSELS

We live in a townhouse with a small garden on three sides.

The conditions are relatively harsh: very hot in summer and very cold with little sun during winter. I planted purple beans in the side garden in the spring but due to the rain, the plants have only just begun to 'flourish'. Two early beans fell victim to the birds, who also like the flowers but today I have 'harvested' two fully grown specimens as shown on the right hand side of the front planter! I protected them with strips of bubble wrap to 'frighten' the birds.

We will have the deep purple produce in salad tonight with the baby spinach, thyme, garlic chives and mint! The spinach has been keeping us in daily leaves for a few days now.

 Luckily, I am only feeding the two of us!

Except for the beans, other things only seem to do well in pots. The parsley likes the most inaccessible patch in the garden.

SPOONS TO GO!

Next stop for those souvenir spoons is a wedding reception. A friend's son and partner will marry on 

16 March and have decided on a high tea reception. So these excess-to-need spoons will find a very happy home in Melbourne.

MYSTERY PLANT

Can you help?

   

I bought this plant about two years ago. There was no label on the pot. It has a single woody branch and has buds and flowers which resemble a passionfruit. I would like to plant it somewhere suitable as it looks as though it would creep. It seems hardy and likes its all year sunny position but it looks like it might need support to creep along. 

At present, the single 'branch' is about 2m high. It is very pretty. I would also like to know how to prune it so I can foster new growth. Does it bear fruit?

Q  


So you are thinking.......

 Wrong! 

Not in Cinzia's little black book!

Now, moving on to the Q scatterings...... 
These small q offerings are not the stuff of which dreams or legends are made. Hopefully, however, they meet the criteria:

• a plant
• something to eat
• night time
• quick quilt

QUERCUS ROBUR

Oak Tree

¿Que Quercus Robur?

I made this doll-sized cot quilt for my three year old cousin, Lucy to place in the doll's cot which I gave her for her birthday in 2011. My father made the cot about 57 years ago. I modified the quilt design from a handcraft magazine and chose strong colours from the stash. I called the quilt the 'Amaroo Quilt' as that is the NSW town from where all the descendants of my maternal great grandparents, Martin and Sarah Toohey come . On the label, I wrote, "Remember the Amaroo Tree", which refers to the strong and huge family tree, a veritable 'quercus robur', which Martin Toohey (1840-1918) and Sarah Wicks (1850-1927) grew. 
Martin was an Irish mercenary in the East India Company army. Sarah was a young woman of an Indian and British background. They married in Madras and migrated to Australia. 

Vitamin Q10

  &

¿Que?

Yes, OK! This is drawing a long bow but it is for real.  As I couldn't find quinoa (packaged) or quinces (out of season) at Aldi, I had to settle for researching the Vitamin Q 

aka Coenzyme Q₁₀  and checking for Q wildlife in my garden. 

As it is soluble in oil, Q₁₀  is actually the 'fountain of youth'. It's found in all those things which the diet gurus have been telling us to eat for aeons: tuna, olive oil (Yes, in my own cupboard) and brush turkey chick (Yes, same family as the quail and in my own garden) as shown in this helpful little chart below... courtesy of Dermascope.

Thank you: http://www.dermascope.com/index.php?option=com_k2&view=item&id=4833:vitamin-q#.UQutYKX5_dk

So do yourself a very big favour and insert a few more of the above foods into your diet. Take a 'before and after' photo and share with us how those wrinkles just fade awaaaaaay!

NIGHTTIME

I knew exactly what I wanted to do with this one but I couldn't find my desired object anywhere. It is here in this house so when I have found it....naturally I will find it not long after I  have uploaded this blog. In the meantime, I found a little hostess ceramic treasure for a Q10-filled, moonlit or cocktail hour tapas dish: dried spinach leaves smothered in avocado and sprinkled generously with toasted sesame seeds. 

Better than a face mask!

¿Que?

Quarter Moon

   

of course!

Quick Quilt

¿Que?

'Quick' and 'Quilt' are not usually in the same sentence on my computer! I still haven't completed the first quilt I started in 2002! However, in 2005, I needed something in double-quick time for my father's 86th birthday. At the time, I was doing a weekly 'sit and sew' with Kathy Doughty (MO) and she came up with this 5x5 combo for me, the slowest  L-Quilter this side of Paducah! I finished it within a week and gave it to Dad on time. I was pleased with the car motif, which I had enlarged from the Aunt Grace Around the World (Germany) fabric. It's the only quilt I have been able to machine quilt so far as it was a quilt-as-you-go. 

Reverse side