June So Far

On Tuesday I went back to work after voluntarily staying away for 10 weeks. I think they were happy to see me again, as I was presented with this bunch of flowers:

On my way home after work I popped in at the home of one of the guild members, and collected batting to use in a couple of donation quilts. Today I got the first of these pin basted:

It is the "Broken Herringbone" quilt I assembled in April.

Quilting an Improv Quilt

How would you quilt improvisational patchwork?

That's been my challenge for the last few days.  The photo is of a small part of the quilt. About a third of it is pieced like this, another third has irregular stripes, and the remainder is plain white.

I'm not sure this really works, but here's what I did in the "slashed stripes" section shown in the top photo:

Sort-of continuous curve. I wasn't sure how this would look with the irregular-sized squares and rectangles. And like I said, I'm not really loving it, but it looks OK when you see the whole quilt. (I'm not showing the whole quilt here because it is not my quilt.)

The striped section has a mixture of egg-and-dart, ribbon candy, and big feathers in the widest stripes:

And the large section of white background has this "feather meander" filler:

This filler also surrounds the appliqued name I stitched down earlier in the week.

Now the quilting is finished, and it is time to bind it. The binding fabric seemed to have some marks on it, so I've washed it and it is hanging out to dry (or freeze, more likely tonight). But maybe the fabric was a hand-dye, because the marks didn't come out, but huge amounts of dye did.

Never Sew For Someone Else

Many, many, years ago someone asked me to sew a couple of garments for them. I did, but the experience was so stressful that I've never done it again.

Last week someone asked me to finish a quilt for them, and in a moment of madness I said I would. The job turned out to be a little more involved than I was expecting, and includes stitching down some letters that were already fused in place.

When has my machine ever put grease on something I'm sewing?

Today, that's when! Blob of grease to the left of the red flower, and a streak at the bottom left. How did that happen? I have no idea.

After treatment with eucalyptus oil:

Hopefully once it is quilted those remaining marks won't be too obvious. I thought that spot at the top of the white section was more grease, but eucalyptus oil had no effect on it. Then I checked a photo I took before I sewed this section, and the mark was already there. I think it is in the fabric.

So now the letters are stitched down, and I've removed the stabiliser. The next stressful part will be basting it on a table that isn't big enough, with backing and batting that are just barely big enough. There is no room for error. Then comes the quilting, of course, which is potentially the most stressful.

Maybe next time someone asks me to sew or quilt for them I will remember this stress, and say firmly, "No!"

Good-Bye to Spotlight

My local Spotlight is closing down at the end of this week. I popped in today to say good-bye to the place.

I worked in this store for a while back in 1990. Some of the staff I worked with then are still there. One lady I used to share my morning-tea breaks with has been there for 27 years. Fortunately she (along with many other staff members) is being moved to another shop rather than losing her job.

Good-bye Spotlight! I'll miss you.

Been A Bit Sick

But I'm heading for well again.

Here's how I spent today:

Red glasses, red pen, and 75 exam papers.

Good-Bye, City!

Heading home after my last day of work in the city again:

Last time it turned out that it was only my last day for a couple of months.
This time, who knows?

Busy Busy Busy!

I'm nearly as busy as these bees!

Lots of coming and going today, with full pollen bags. Yes, there are weeds beside the hive, but it's not an easy place to get to. Later in the day an extra storey was added to the bees' home. Here's hoping that with lots of space to grow they won't feel the need to swarm the way they did last year.

In the city this afternoon, I bumped into a few more elephants. I loved this one's elephant slippers!

Mali's Winter Wonderland by Pat Minahan.

I was heading to my lecture and barely had time to snap a quick shot of this one on my way past:

Enceladus by Ghostpatrol. I'll have to go back and read its plaque to understand that, but there was no time today.

After the lecture I snapped Baroque Baby by Robert Hague on my way to the tram:

So I've survived 4 lectures. (Seven to go...)

I was happy to find the latest Ottobre Design magazine had arrived when I got home. I think it has a lot more potential than the Burda I bought a week or two back. Not that can see much sewing happening in the near future.

Vacant

Nice-looking lecture theatre, designed by Peter Corrigan:

Not too intimidating when it is like this. But next Wednesday could be a different story. Imagine those seats filled with students, waiting for you to inform and entertain them.

And what do they get up to in the dress circle?

My Head is Spinning

I have spent the last two days in this room, marking assignments. About seven hours yesterday, and another ten today.

Trying to be consistent and fair is a difficult task, and it becomes more difficult as the hours go by.

Now I feel drained. It's an emotional process. I worry if very poor work is produced by a student who doesn't care, or if they will be devastated when they get their result. I am upset when a student has completely missed the point of the questions. Was it a language problem? Why didn't they ask for assistance or clarification? Why didn't they even discuss it with a friend and thus discover they were wrong? And then I get angry at students who don't seem to have put much effort into it, but ask that they be marked leniently.

I'm glad it is over. (Almost, anyway. I have one more to mark which has such major problems I don't know how to approach it.) Of course, once the students get their results, there will be requests for re-marking. Sometimes that is wishful thinking on their part, sometimes there are mistakes in the marking. We are all human.

Here Comes The Tram

Alone on the tram stop as I head home after my last day of work in the city.

For now?
For ever?

Found

Some time last year I was walking home from work and found myself in a street I'd never walked along before. It was quiet and lined with plane trees, which made for a very pleasant walk.

A few times since then I've tried to find that street again, without success.

Until tonight!

Now I know exactly where it is (and where I've gone wrong in my previous attempts), so I'll be able to walk this way again.

A Walk In The Park

Walking through this park on my way to work is much nicer than the walk along the street I've been using.

It's a shame I found the park on the very last time I need to walk this way.

Eighty Minutes

Last time it took 90 minutes to walk home, but I was a bit faster today.

Lovely white blossom on the street trees on the first part of the walk

Walking Home

It took 90 minutes, but tonight I walked home from work.

Photo near the beginning of the journey, before it got dark. While it was still light I enjoyed a closer look at gardens and buildings I normally only see from a bus. The walk was quite pleasant, and I felt better when I got home than I normally do after standing around on cold bus and tram stops.

Chalte Chalte

A beautiful morning for what may have been my last walk to work.

The company is in the middle of moving to new premises which are 7km from home - maybe a little too far to walk? But it seems I will have one more day at the old site.

Corridor

View From a Room

View from my new workspace:

The city in the far distance, with a peppercorn tree nicely blocking the view of the less interesting buildings nearby.  And over everything, a winter sky.

Good News

Today I got the welcome news that I have a new part-time job starting next week. Looking around the garden to find something to symbolise this new life, I found the first blossom on my blood plum - but didn't manage to get a good picture of it. I did find all sorts of other buds popping open, some of which were quite surprising, but today's photo is a flower that has seemed about to open for quite some time.

Grevillea John Evans is a hybrid I planted last year, and this is the first time it's flowered for me.

Bang!

Heading home feeling crushed and crumpled after a gruelling day, I was reminded that my day could have been worse by two little white cars who met in the middle of Franklin Street.

Right Place, Right Time

Returning some paperwork to the office after a class, I found myself just in time to participate in devouring a yummy, chocolatey, birthday cake.


Happy birthday (for tomorrow) to the lucky recipient, and thanks for sharing the yumminess!