Hands on - thread and fabric

The pictures below show some of the beautiful work on display at the Open Day last Saturday of the Embroiderers' Guild.

(Click on image for a larger picture)

Clematis and a tradition in tin

On Saturday, The Director and Miss Eagle attended the Open Day of The Embroiderers' Guild at Malvern. There is a slide show below of the beautiful things. But beautiful as all those things are, the most interesting was the Clematis tin. The Director drew my attention to it. It was sitting on the floor. The Director said: "Look at that! How many Australian women have kept their sewing things in a Mac Robertson's Clematis tin." Indeed. Our mother had done just that and how it brought back memories. Out came the camera and down I got on hands and knees to photograph it. A woman came along asking if she could help me and wondering what I was doing. I explained to her. It was her tin. She told me that she had found the tin among the things of her great-aunt who used it for her sewing things. The romance of the Clematis tin.

Do others in the blogosphere have a story about the Clematis tin?

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Crafted busy-ness

Hel-l-o-o! Yo-o-h-o-o! Yes, that's me waving at you. It seems like I have been gone for yonks but I notice that I have squeaked in one post this end-of-winter August. But life has been rather busy. I have been caught up with finishing the UFO above. Back in 1992, my mother died. Left behind was an afghan rug, unfinished, which she had been working of for a Family Member. The Director, mother of the FM, could not complete it so I said I would. Occasionally, it would come out and a few more rows would be added. Since I left work, I have put in a bit more effort going around and around until it seemed reasonable to stop and add a few more inches with tassels. Then it was done. And, coincidence, The Director was coming to overnight post-conference in Melbourne.

So, I decided to do something a little extra. I'm not very crafty but I have noticed that some craft bloggers in the USA are altered paper bags. So here is my version:

This afghan had a lot of sentimental attachment so I included an old photograph of the FM's grandparents. I wanted the bag itself, if the FM agreed, to become a keepsake so I put my mothers name on it as starting it, myself as completing it, and the FM's mother as carrying it from Melbourne to Brisbane.

One of my favourite pieces of literature is the piece from Ecclesiasticus, Let Us Now Praise Famouse Men. So, changing men to women, I wrote this on the front and back of the bag. And, as you can see dear Reader, there is much decoration on the front and back of the bag.
The, as The Director's birthday is later this month, I did an altered paper bag for her birthday present. At each corner, are cardboard hearts in a William Morris design sitting on two fabric rose petals laid together to form a heart. Birthday wishes are written around the inside of the rich ribbon and the name is there in print cut-outs. The back takes the shape of a paned window.

Both Val and Gina have posted about attending the Craft Fair held here in Melbourne recently. So I thought I would mention that I attended on the Friday - and, in spite of being highly organised, forgot my camera. I was there just after 8am waiting for the doors to open at 9am and left with head spinning about 1.30pm. In an organised fashion, I had mapped out before leaving home the workshops which I planned to attend. But by the time I had done three workshops, perused every stand, and was stunned by the museum quality quilts, I decided to throw in the towel and go home.

The three workshops I did were:

1. Working beads into your knitting
2. Printing on Fabric
3. Floral Fantasy

I was well satisfied with my choices. The workshops were informative and related to my interests so I think that is why my head was spinning and I felt sufficiently satisfied to go home earlier than I had planned.

The one I enjoyed the most was Floral Fantasy led by Gabrielle of Miss Rose and Sister Violet. I have seen Miss Rose and Sister Violet many times at Gift Fair. Gabrielle's specialties are flowers and beads and all things floral and vintage. The workshop discussed how to use the flowers and beads and the whole thing was interspersed with Gabrielle's philosophy of life: everything has to be beautiful, places like Ikea are ugly and they are invading our homes, behind every nasty man is a woman who lets him get away with it! I'm waiting for the book, I can tell you.

Anyway, here at The Trad Pad we need no encouragement to scatter flowers around hither and yon but, after half an hour with Gabrielle, I have to tell you, dear Reader, I am going OTT (over the top!). So, for Miss Eagle, it is a flower strewn path into the future as far as the eye can see.

The dining room has been the first place to feel the impact. It was already on its way but there has been a huge influx.

One of the inspirations from the Floral Fantasy workshop was to take my basket collection to another level. Miss Eagle does not find cane. It finds her. To date I have painted them pretty and lined them to make them even pretty. Now they will be going floral as well. But I practised first. This basket had remained unpainted and has being doing duty in the kitchen as a vegetable basket. I had these sprays (plastic) of olives and olive leaves. So I cut them up and started applying them to the basket. Simple - but oh the difference!

And finally I resurrected this item. An old piece of EPNS that I had painted ages ago but had never been presented in the best light. Now here it is!

Riding on the sheep's back

Over at Getting Stitched on the Farm, Kristin is talking about shearing the sheep.

So, Miss Eagle thought, I will talk about sheep and shearing in Australia.

Somewhere, sometime, during the last fifty years, Australia ceased riding on the sheep's back.

This was the phrase which highlighted Australia's economic dependence on wool.

This was the phrase which highlighted our interest in the price of wool.

To-day, it's sharemarket prices and not the price of wool that captures the nation's attention.

Miss Eagle recently spotted this beautiful merino on a gate in Dunkeld in western Victoria.

Did the owners make their golden pile from the sheep's back?
From beautiful flocks like this one, near Dunkeld.

Grazing sheep near Broken Hill in New South Wales is different from grazing in Victoria.
The desert, the rocky outcrops of the Barrier Range.
These pictures were taken in August 2006 at The Nine Mile.

The above collage shows the homestead.

Greg and Mia, the owners, are drafting sheep prior to sale.
They are assisted by Greg's father, John.


This ancient shearing shed is at Acacia Vale now part of The Nine Mile.


This is the interior...
the shearer's stands...
natural light...
the sorting table...


the pens...
another view of the pens...
the view from the shearing shed...
stencils hanging on the wall waiting for use on a wool pack...
the wool press...

The trough filled with artesian water.

Amazing grace and curious wainscotting

Miss Eagle went to a preview screening of Amazing Grace last night. I talk about it over here. At Q & A time with the Panel, one gentleman started to get picky about historical inaccuracies and had to be reminded - indeed, the reminders came from the audience - that it was, after all, a movie and there was a disclaimer in the credits explaining that there was some fictionalisation and some reworking of events for dramatic content.

Miss E's view is that she may have liked things a little better had it been a Merchant Ivory production. Not that there were not some good film settings of historic interest.

But you see, a few months ago Miss E picked up an interesting book at City Basement Books: Saints in Politics: the 'Clapham Sect' and the growth of freedom. Miss E thinks it would have been rather nice to see in the movie the following depicted in a nice Merchant Ivory sort of way:

After Henry [Thornton, Wilberforce's cousin] had married, his house at Clapham was the chosen meetng place of the broherhood, and his famous library, designed by Pitt, oval in shape, and "curiously wainscotted with books" became the G.H.Q. of the Clapham campaigns.

Now, dear Booklover, don't you get carried away into a wonderful imaginary place with that phrase - "curiously wainscotted with books". The Library was designed by a Prime Minister of England, William Pitt the Younger. Surely the house still exists. And, if so, surely The Library must exist.

Well, your correspondent did a search. Miss Eagle has found reference to the house which is now known as Battersea Rise House. There is even mention of The Library:

The Oval Library built in 1797 was reputably designed by William Pitt.

Such images as I can find of the house are poor quality. I can find reference to a photograph of a drawing of The Oval Library. But I would love to have seen it - if not the real thing, then a reconstruction of a magical place - so curiously wainscotted with books.

The Glitter Fairy casts her spell.

Herself has gone all a-glitter. She has fallen under the spell of the Glitter Fairy. Miss Eagle may have to watch out - if she stands still for too long it will be a spot of glue and a sprinkle of glitter!

Herself had previously painted the A, B, and C this lovely warm pink. The paint had been on a special at the paint shop.

I had picked up some sprinkly glitter at the last visit to the craft shop.

So, this afternoon was glue and glitter time.

Here they are. All done and all a-glitter.

And then they made their way into the styling of this corner!

Arty-farty festing in Melbourne

It's on again. The program has arrived.

The Melbourne International Arts Festival from 11-27 October.

So much pouring over.

Much figuring. What can the credit card bear?

BTW, love this Visit Victoria ad.

As readers of this blog will be aware, Miss E loves Melbourne's lanes.

Highest on my list of must-sees is The Temptation of Saint Anthony. This is a musical theatre collaboration by Robert Wilson and Bernice Johnson Reagon (we all know her from Sweet Honey in the Rock) inspired by the text of Gustave Flaubert. Reagon's daughter Toshi Reagon will be a significant presence at the festival. Not only in The Temptation but also with her own band BIGLovely.

Snow snapping cold

Can I have what he's having?

John So, Lord Mayor of Melbourne in a traditional Wurundjeri possum-skin cloak (Jiawei Shen, 2005 Archibald Prize Finalist)

In south-eastern Australia, where winters can be very cold, Aboriginal people kept warm with possum-skin cloaks. Check out this ancient craft here. After a life-time in tropical and sub-tropical climes, Miss Eagle still feels the cold in Melbourne even though this is her third winter here. So she could really, truly do with a possum skin cloak.

Forest Glade Cottage, Olinda : St Matthew's Anglican Church, Mount Dandenong


Will this be what it will be like up the road in The Dandenongs this afternoon? Last night, here at Upper Gully, it was like sleeping in a wind tunnel. Cocooned from wind with an electric blanket, a doona, a minky, a Rose and a FootFoot maybe - but oh the howling, noisy wind.

A little while ago it started to rain.

The Age carries this story. They are calling it a cold snap! What do they think we have been having for the last ten days! A fortnight ago from last Friday this was the scene as I breakfasted beside Lake Wendouree. My weekend in Ballarat was oh-so-cold. But here is the picture in The Age to-day just a short step away from my breakfast place:

Brrrrrrrrr!

To-day is another cold/showery/cloudy winter's day in Melbourne and my SAD (seasonal affective disorder) has been responding in its usual way with graduated and increasing intensity all week.

But there is a bright spot this afternoon. My favourite movie of my favourite male star is playing: Cool Hand Luke (made in 1967) with Paul Newman.

What is always of interest in watching old movies or TV programs is to see who was just starting out then and later became a more well known 'name'. Cool Hand Luke is no exception:

Wayne Rogers - five years after this he would become well-known in our homes and hearts as "Trapper John" McIntyre in MASH.

Joe Don Baker - who first came to my attention in the wonderful British drama/mini-series, Edge of Darkness.(1985)

Ralph Waite - who we watched for years and years as the wise and wonderful John Walton Sr in The Waltons.

The ubiquitous Dennis Hopper who was well on his way before this movie.

The big surprise, though, for me was Harry Dean Stanton.

In Cool Hand Luke, Stanton is arguably the best groomed prisoner on a chain gang in the dusty Deep South that one could ever see. He sings "Just a Closer Walk with Thee" while accompanying himself on the guitar. Almost five decades later, we know him in another role with religious overtones as the lecherous, sleazy, corrupt Prophet Roman Grant in Big Love, that story of down-home polygamy in Mormon Utah. If you haven't caught up with this series, tune into SBS on Sunday nights at 8.30pm.