This pair of socks went surprisingly quickly. In part because they’re for a gal who wears a size five shoe but also I seemed to find a bit more knitting time in the evening.
I’ve gone through the leftover yarn bag and pulled out balls large enough to be useful – there are several that will make a pair of legs – have to find complementary yarn to work with them.
In this pair a pale grey blended perfectly with the lighter dyed section of the variegated yarn.
I bought the fabrics for the quilt for Noah at Keepsake Quilting in New Hampshire on my way back from the trip to Toronto late August. Six fabrics in shades of green/teal that worked with the photos I’d taken of the paint in his bedroom.
Next, I looked through my Pinterest collection of quilts but nothing stood out. In fact it seemed that given this was to be for a boy’s bed it ought to be simple without a lot of piecing. So I decided to base the quilt on the lap quilt I’d made for myself:
Noah’s is a double bed – I’d bought the fabrics planning to work with the width so I didn’t have enough length in each fabric to make strips the full width of the large quilt without some piecing.
So I inserted strips mid way, and at each end to expand the centre area. I wanted the middle to be almost the width of the bed, so the two dark lengthwise strips would frame the edge of the bed. Then I added more wide strips matching the fabrics from the middle, finishing off with narrow strips around the entire edge. The finished top measures 86″ x 86″.
Now to set up the back – I have enough fabric for two pieces of fabric which will give me 86″ in width but in order to quilt the quilt, I need between 92″-94″ in both width and length in the back to mount it on the long arm quilter, so I’ve set up a 5 1/4″ wide strip pieced from 2 1/2″ pieces (made of leftovers from the edge of the front)- those I will insert to one side of the centre of the back – joining the centre back seam using a 1 1/2″ strip of dark green on on either side of the pieced strip.
I plan to finish the ensemble with two pillow shams, the fronts of which will also be pieced. I’ll do those after I take the quilt to be quilted – I have no room to do this myself – I don’t have floor space to lay out the back and build the quilt sandwich, and even if I did, I don’t have a work space large enough to either free-motion or embroider the quilt! So this time I will have it done for me.
If I’d been planning better, I might have set up the quilt with blocks – then I’d have been able to quilt-as-I-go; but that wasn’t the case here. Perhaps on another quilt.
I have to say this one is a great face! I’ve now got a team of four people vacationing in Italy all noticing faces and sending me photos. I feel rather guilty having got them started – it’s hard to stop once you begin.
I make a wicked dark fruitcake. I always make them around Canadian Thanksgiving — that gives the rum in the fruit time to suffuse into the cake. This year I was a week late but the cakes (I made 9 this year) are done and now aging in the fridge.
The two essential ingredients are the melted semi-sweet chocolate and the molasses. Don’t leave these out.
I don’t use nuts because they have a tendency to go stale. These cakes last well for more than a year.
I gave one I had leftover from last year to friends today — it was better than it was last Christmas!
Here’s the recipe [it’s a forgiving recipe – the amounts of fruit are approximate – I don’t measure, just guess]:
Depending on the amount of fruit you use, this recipe makes between 4 – 6 two pound cakes. [Since I double the recipe, I generally get 6 2-lb cakes and 10 small (~1/2-lb) cakes]
These cakes make terrific gifts—that’s what I do with the abundance I make.
My friend Andrea, who is traveling in France (near Avignon) knows of my penchant for seeing faces everywhere. She just sent me this one she saw on her travels yesterday.
Two weekends ago while we were in Ottawa at meetings on a very dark, rainy evening we walked past the Parliament buildings and we encountered this face on one of the towers:
I keep noticing…
I haven’t been sewing much since getting back from Bali because my two machines have been in the hospital! I took both for servicing just before I left Halifax expecting them to be ready for me when I got back. Both were working well but I did have some small complaints with each: on the Brother quilting machine the thread cutter wasn’t raising the needle high enough to be in line with the presser foot; the buttonholes weren’t working well on the Pfaff CS embroidery machine. When I got back I picked up both machines – the “problems” were a bit more serious – the Brother is back in being fixed; I started piecing a new quilt on the Pfaff only to find it making noises (and the thread cutter wasn’t cutting the bobbin thread) – so it’s back in the shop.
That left me with my serger (which I don’t use for quilting), and my mother’s old Singer Featherweight. This machine is an heirloom. This one was manufactured in 1956. I had to replace the foot pedal and motor belt, but otherwise it’s the original machine and does it ever still sew nicely! I hauled it out yesterday so I could continue working on the quilt – I put a strip of blue masking tape on the bed to mark 1/4″ and I was set to go.
I haven’t used this machine myself since I got it – my mother gave it to my niece about a year before she died. I’d had it serviced at that point. My sister found it frustrating to use, couldn’t get the threading correct, so I bought her a mechanical low-end Brother machine (with a needle threader, top loading bobbin, and free arm) and I took the Singer.
I’m glad I just stashed it below one of my sewing tables – I will certainly use it more frequently because it sews a perfect straight seam. At one point I thought of putting it on Kijiji, but this machine is a keeper!
I started this pair of socks just before I left for Bali – finally finished them! They are destined for the give away pile.
Good gracious the trip from Bali to Halifax is a long one – about 35 hours from the time I left Denpasar until I arrived in Halifax. I’m exhausted – didn’t sleep much on any of the flights (although I had three seats to myself from Bangkok to London and tried stretching out, it was sufficiently uncomfortable that I dozed but didn’t really sleep more than an hour to two); watched five movies, and several episodes of House of Cards, The Mentalist, and Ray Donovan (one movie I watched twice: “Words & Pictures” with Clive Owen and Juliette Binoche).
I am glad to be home. My neighbour just gave me two eggs and some bread so I can make myself a “Thanksgiving” Dinner (today is Canadian Thanksgiving). Then a long hot bath and to bed.
Life returns to normal tomorrow – I will have to find places to store the fabrics I bought – that will involve getting rid of some stuff to make room for them. My first sewing project will be to pick up where I left off on the art piece of the two boys walking beside the Public Gardens. Then who knows what I’ll decide to work on next.
The trip is just about over. We had dinner last evening at a seaside restaurant
and watched (sort of) the sun set while we ate a tasty meal of grilled prawns and red snapper.
While I was standing at the water’s edge, dunking my toes, a cute couple from China wished to include me in their pictures (go know), so I took their picture in return:
After we got back to the resort, we spent a half hour doing a “show & tell” – sharing a few of our new found treasures. Then off to bed we all went.
We met at breakfast to say goodbye to those people moving on – one flying home, three heading back to Ubud for a few more days of shopping and island living.
I spent the morning with two of the gals remaining for a couple of days. We decided to visit a small “museum” dedicated to the “art” of a Belgian painter, Louis Mayeur, who moved to Bali in the 1900s, became fascinated by a much younger Balinese dancer, married her, and spent the rest of his life painting her. The museum was located on Sanur Beach, a shortish cab ride up the east coast from the resort.
The buildings/compound were bequeathed to the Balinese government on his death (sometime in the 1940s – if I recall at all correctly). Hence the museum.
The grounds were lovely:
But there was little in the way of an art collection – what was there were mainly aging paper reproductions which have faded so badly you could get no sense of the vibrant colour of the originals. Oh well, all part of the Bali adventure!
So we soon grabbed a cab to take us back our part of Sanur where we had a light lunch, followed by some yummy gelato, then a short walk back to the Puri Santrian and a cooling off dunk in the pool.
Those of us remaining are gathering at a nearby Italian restaurant for a light dinner. Afterward it will be time for me to finish packing.
I began packing this morning and have been able to fit fabric purchases all into the bag I plan to check (have to weigh it to be sure it makes the limit). Everything else will get stowed in my carry-on bag – one of the benefits of not traveling with much in the first place!
I leave Bali at 4:20pm tomorrow (Sunday), arriving home Monday.
Bali has been interesting; however I have no desire to live in this place – too hot, too humid, too busy, traffic unbelievable (I’d never summon the courage to drive). As much as I’ve enjoyed the two week interlude, I’m ready to get back to my usual life.
Definitely a struggle to get out of bed at 5:45am but to experience first-hand one of the principle Balinese ceremonies was worth it.
The thing that stood out for me, having been family at Benjamin’s Bar Mitzvah at the end of August, was how similar in concept the two ceremonies actually are. Both represent official passage to adulthood. Both involve the participation of family and friends. Both have set rituals revolving the chanting from scriptural material. Both are celebrated with feasting… The parallels are striking!
(You can just see Barb in red – she’s actually observing the tooth filing. Cheryl also got to witness the ritual as a close friend of Sari, the mother of two of the girls having their teeth filed. The rest of us who chose to go, were nearby among the gazillion guests – not kidding, there had to be well over 100 people attending, sitting, milling around, while the ceremony was performed.)
In the background were two musicians playing Balinese music, accompanying two women chanting:
A small group of women nearby smiled, and beckoned me over – they didn’t speak any English, I have no Balinese, but it was clear the woman on the right, in green, approved of my attire.
She pointed to my white shirt and gave me a thumbs up, felt the sash and repeated the gesture, pointed to my earrings and gave her approval once more. All four were curious about where I lived – Canada, they understood although I’m sure they have no idea where that is.
The compound was packed – women mixing with women, men with men.
Following the tooth-filing ritual, a priestess began another ceremony:
This time accompanied by two men doing a responsive chanting from a book, then they were joined by a group of women:
At the same time the young people moved to another location in the small compound to bless offerings that had been laid on the ground to ward off demons:
After this ritual, the young people, in all their finery, posed for pictures:
Two more pictures I need to share:
I tried to ascertain the relationship of what was clearly the oldest of the women present, but my English query “Grandmother?” brought gales of laughter. I have no idea who she was.
Even the dog was part of the celebration – whether a family member or the local stray I was unable to find out.
We left before the feasting actually began but it was obvious this celebration is not unlike a Haida Potlatch, an opportunity to show off hugely by sharing lavishly with friends and family. The cost of this event – it may well have run into $3,000 – an enormous expense for a family who earn relatively little.
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