Autumn Colour and Some Slow Sewing

I took this photo of the "October Glory" Lipstick maple a couple of weeks ago:

Beautiful colour! It really should have been renamed "April Glory" for the southern hemisphere. But all the leaves have fallen off now, so I'm glad I got a shot while it looked so good.

Here's my ginkgo that same day:

It doesn't look much different today.

The largest crepe myrtle has lost some leaves without me getting a shot of it at its best, so here's the second largest one today:

The tupelo I bought when at a quilting retreat 3 years ago (that feels like a very long time ago, so much has happened since) hasn't grown a lot, but at least it is giving me a bit of colour this year:

 The liquidambar is red at the base, but is losing a lot of leaves before they turn red:

Last month Pamela posted about a Ukrainian cross-stitch bookmark she was beginning, which is a free pattern from Cliffside Stitches. She finished it quickly, and then used it as a decorative panel on a bag.  I decided to make it as well, although I haven't decided yet what I will turn it into when it is done.

Here it was a couple of days ago:

And this is how it looks tonight:

Cross-stitch is a very calming activity, and I'm enjoying spending 15-30 minutes each day immersing myself in it.

Loss

 On the 1st of May, the five crepe myrtles were beautifully autumnal:

A week later those lovely red leaves are gone:

 In May six years ago I lost my two old dogs, and wrote a blog post for each of them to mark the losses.

 

On the 1st of May this year, my father died. It is much harder to write a blog post about this loss.

 

My father was born in July, 1929. His family celebrated his birthday on the 12th, although his birth certificate said he was born on the 13th. He was the youngest of eight children. One sister, who turned 96 last month, survives him.

Mum and Dad married in March 1956:

I posted about their 65th anniversary in March, when it seemed Mum might not be with us for long. Dad dying first was completely unexpected.

Here's a photo I found of them from 11 years ago, on 9th May 2010:

 

They were in their early 80s, and in good health. It is nice to remember them like this.

My relationship with my father was complicated. We had opposite opinions on just about everything. We were not really able to sit and have a conversation. 

 

For his 80th birthday, I made him this quilt:

Photo taken before the binding was quite sewn down. I must have finished it in the car on the way to visit him, as this photo was taken on the morning of 12th July, 2009. Each block is about things that were important to Dad. 

Top left: Snooker layout. The "balls" are appliqued circles. Dad enjoyed snooker, although in recent years in the retirement village he swapped to pool. He played pool every afternoon, and it is what he was doing when he collapsed unconscious on 24th April, as a result of a hemorrhagic stroke.

Top middle: Hard to see here, but it is the badge on a Peugeot 203, Dad's first car.

Top right: A cross, to represent Dad's religious faith.

Middle left: Crosswords. Dad did The Age cryptic crossword daily. In recent years he stopped buying that paper, but someone scanned the puzzle and emailed it to him every day.

Centre block: Royal Australian Air Force. Dad was a member for 22 years. I paper-pieced the kangaroo, then pieced the circular surrounds.

Middle right: Dad was a radio technician, and this is a circuit diagram that I found online and traced onto the fabric with a permanent marker. It is quilted with the letters "QSL", (Wikipedia explanation.)

Bottom left: Essendon football club colours.

Bottom middle: Represents Dad's time in Japan while in the Air Force. The fabric features cherry blossoms, and it is quilted with an outline of the Kintai Bridge in Iwakuni, which opened after reconstruction during his time stationed there.

Bottom right: Dad was a prolific writer of letters to the editor. I have been asked many times, "Are you related to that guy who writes to the paper all the time?"

 

Of course, these were my ideas of what was important to my father; he had no input into it. However I think Dad was happy with it, because he used the lap quilt all the time, all year round. It has only occurred to me now, after all this time, that I never considered dedicating a block to his family. 

Blue and Red

I was out in the garden this afternoon and heard an unexpected sound up above:

We don't get many planes flying over at the best of times, but right at the moment it was very surprising. It was heading west, but no-one west of us wants anyone from here heading in their direction at the moment.

As a contrast to all that blue, here's some red:

The liquidambar has lost most of its leaves, but the remaining ones are very autumnal.

Autumn Colour

Flowers aren't the only colourful things in the garden at the moment. A few of the trees are putting on a display as well.

Cercis canadensis "Lavender Twist" is turning gold:

Berberis:

My Japanese maple, Acer palmatum "Osakazuki", got scorched over summer but the leaves have a bit of colour between the burnt patches:

The crepe myrtles are looking good. Several of them look like this:

And one of them is more red:

The ginkgo is greeny-gold:

Acer rubrum "October Glory" really should have been re-named for the southern hemisphere:

There is more colour ahead, as the liquidambar has only just begun to turn:

Happy Autumn!

My ginkgo tree is maybe showing the first signs of autumn,

or maybe it is just scorched.

My Japanese maple has beautiful red seeds, but the leaves just look burnt:

Maybe it needs a more sheltered position.



February stash report:

I did very little sewing in February. I used up a small amount of fabric making extra bits and pieces for my smaller Frolic., but I added to my stash by buying a metre of this fabric:

I've used some of it in the small Frolic, and some will be a border for that quilt. And some will just be added stash.


Thread:
No spools emptied, none added.
Year to date - no change.

Dress fabric:
None used, none added.
Year to date - no change.

Quilt fabric:
0.5m used, 1m added
Year to date - down 3m.

Trees

This morning we heard from the guy we've been growing TreeProject trees for this year. As he has had some rain and more is forecast he was coming to collect some that are ready to plant out.

Rather than go outside and photograph the trees before he arrived, I took this picture through the window, which you can see was not a good idea:

Reflection of my hands rather spoiling the view! But hopefully you can see that some of these trees are very large. The tallest ones are the manna gums, Eucalyptus viminalis.

When the landholder arrived we sorted through the trees, giving him three boxes of mixed seedlings,

These two plus another one.

The left-overs look a bit sad by comparison:

A couple of boxes of small and very small seedlings, and not quite in sight off to the left a couple of boxes where nothing has germinated yet. The larger plants on the left of this photo are actually from the previous year's batch of TreeProject seedlings. They had only just germinated last May when the rest went to be planted, so we hung onto them to grown them up. Now they are well and truly ready, but we have not been able to contact the landholder we grew them for.

A few trees around our garden this afternoon.
The ginkgo still has a few leaves, despite the strong winds today:

 The liquidambar is colouring up nicely:

One of several new trees planted:

Acer rubrum "October Glory". Obviously named in the northern hemisphere. I don't think it will look this colourful in October.

Retreat - Sunday

Beautiful elms shade the grounds of the retreat venue:

I think it is a while since anyone had a barbecue:

After lots of laughter and interesting conversations and lovely meals and even more sewing it was time to pack up everything and head home. My main achievement for the weekend was making and attaching the 5th border on my Rajah Revisited:

The quilt has grown a little since the last time I posted my progress 4 months ago.

Group photo before we all departed:

I got home at about 5:30, where a couple of dogs were overjoyed to see me again. And I was happy to be home, too.

Autumn Colour

A few touches of autumn in the garden.

My ginkgo is turning gold.

A deciduous azalea:

The liquidambar doesn't have much colour, but it is starting to turn:

The stars at the moment are the crepe myrtles:

 They are looking the best they ever have.

Maple

My Japanese maple Acer palmatum "Osakazuki" is losing its leaves:

The remaining ones are turning beautiful orange and red shades:

This is its first year in the ground, so it is nice to see that its autumn colour lives up to the label.

Maldon

 This is why I went to Maldon:

 Maldon Combined Quilters have their show this weekend. The show is small, but quite nice. A few quilters had quilted their own quilts, which I always like to see.

Trees are starting to change for autumn:

Looking at the size of the gutters, do you think they must get some heavy rain at times?

Maldon Post Office looks like many other buildings around the country:

 But a plaque on the wall tells of a famous former resident:

Her novel The Getting of Wisdom was one of my favourites among the books I had to read for school.

Unlike the post office, this building is not like anything I've seen elsewhere:

The building is from the 1800's. But is the 3D brickwork original, or has it been added when the building was renovated? The same 3D effect appears on the parapet above the verandah, which would seem to imply it is original. But it is so wild!  

I just don't know.

Nearly the End of Autumn

After some stormy weather, my ginkgo has only one large leaf and a few small ones left:

The liquidambar still has lots of colour, though: