April can be a weird month for me, as The Sydney Royal Easter Show is usually on. This means, I hold the fort at home for approx 10 days. Somehow the working dogs go crazy, (Scruff the only female always seems to be on heat for the duration) sending the boys into a barking frenzy. This year was no different. I usually set myself a sewing project to work on while I can devote most of the spare time to it. This year, a quilted jacket and new applique blocks were on the agenda. I also added in a bit of fabric dyeing when I got the jacket to a certain stage of completion. The photo does not do it justice. The pink is an ombre hot pink. Fully reversible with set in pockets on the pink side. I have to ask the intended wearer if they need pockets on the black/pink side. I will need to probably hand stitch them on.
I have decided to use up my dye powders and try to sell bundles of batik cotton, hand dyed with less mottling to be suitable for modern quilters. I have been using Jane Dunnewold's techniques learnt from her classes, and think I can modify the process to suit. I am aiming for a "solid type hand dye", a mottled type and a paler mottle from the one solution.
My finished bundles so far. Many more to do. I have also been dyeing Pimatex PFD alongside Batik Base and finding no difference at all in the finished cloth.
Block 1 in my new applique series, has been stitched by my wonderful stitcher (my sister, who just loves these) I have finally convinced her to use Glide thread instead of Rasant for the stitch. Even she agrees that the quality of Rasant thread seems to have decreased in our opinions. Seems more lint accumulates in the bobbin. I am hoping to have 16 of these completed soon. They are based on tiles rotating around a central point for the design.
I have also been adding new fabrics to my shop. I have quite a few fabric bolts sitting in our lounge room (the storage area for most things). Who watches the very dismal programs on our Main Stream Media in Australia anymore? We definitely don't and during this current Fuel Crisis caused by world issues but also both our main political parties, who wants to listen to them, so our Lounge Room has been converted to de facto fabric storage so the TV stays OFF.
Family wise, it has been school holidays and they have all been busy so haven't visited us. I did get to Mundubbera to catch up with my siblings as they were tidying up Dad's House. This has been a long project but getting to it's final stages. I am still waiting on legal documents to complete other issues.
I brought home a chiming clock. After working out how to adjust it, it is merrily chiming and telling us the time all through the night and day. Amazing what childhood memories surface when you hear the sounds. Both my sets of grandparents had these. My grandmother also had a digital clock which she would touch in the night and the Siri like voice would tell her the time. She liked both of them. Somehow I think I prefer the chiming. Will be interesting to see what the grandkids think.
It is fascinating to sit and watch the mechanism as it belts out the hour strikes.
Also in the box of memorabilia, I was given more family photographic slides to digitise. I found this little beauty from 1966, sitting on the stairs eating a biscuit. It looks like I had the sleep apnoea eyes back then too.
One great excitement in the family, I haven't mentioned is Dad was posthumously inducted into the Australia Citrus Growers Hall of Fame as a recognition for his life long work in the Citrus Industry. My siblings went to the conference in Adelaide in March to receive his plaque. He spent most of his life developing the orchard and new markets etc with his OAM rewarding him. This was industry recognition as well for him.
I found this slide of the wooden boxes label before they changed to Here's the Best brand. The picture is of our house, my grandparent's house and the original packing shed. I can vaguely remember this label which was before my grandparents retired to Mundubbera in 1965. The same house which we have been cleaning up and sorting out 2 lifetimes of possessions. I have already been hearing about what my 2 daughters plan on doing with all of my quilts and stuff. I am not sure if I want to hear more about that.
Will keep you updated with progress on the quilt blocks.
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