Joyce’s Quilting Quandary

Fire Aftermath near Daylesford

A terrible time in Victoria !  

We have had some very bad weather days, by that I mean, extremely hot, dry and low humidity. When the days are calm, then it is not too bad! But , when a Northerly wind is forecast, then the fire danger is very real.  February 6th was announced  as one of the worst days that had ever been, and that it proved to be. The wind was blowing at over 100 kmh, and the temperature was 46.4 degrees Celsius. The bush fires absolutely devastated some of the mountain areas quite close to Melbourne, areas where the population density is quite high for a country area due to large numbers of people choosing to live in the bush. Due to the temperature and the wind, the fires moved very quickly. Some small towns, such as Marysville,  were destroyed with many people killed.    

By Sunday morning, the news was gradually coming through about the extent of the tragedgy. In Ballarat, which was a distance from most of the fires with the exception one fire at Bendigo and one at Daylesford, it was all a little surreal. We had a bit of smoke in the air, but otherwise, there was very little impact on our area. The final loss of life was 173, 100 male, 73 female. Some were children and families. 113 deaths occured in houses.    3,500 structures were destroyed.

There were some herioc stories, some tragic.

The army was called in to assist, so Michael spent several days in the fire areas.

The aftermath of the fires will be with us for years. It must NEVER happen again.

Amongst all this tragedy, I have been sewing to get ready for the trip. I have made a couple of pairs of trousers and a couple of shirts. I have been working on my Kaffe Fassett quilt, which is now complete except for sewing the hanging pocket by hand and going over the quilt to redo some of the quilting . I still love the fabrics! I will put this quilt into the Begonia Quilters  Exhibition.

Back home again! Cats and house were fine! Jet lag was non-existent! Sad news greeted us on our arrival home.  Geoff, a long-time friend and the best man at our wedding had died after a long illness.  He must have died as we were flying from Syndney to melbourne on the last leg of our journey.

I have mentioned the CROSS STITCH a couple of times. It is a cross stitch of the 23rd Psalm and to say it is a long term project is an understatement. About two years ago, a friend of my brother’s, Caroline had found this lovely cross stitch. As she has eye-sight problems, she was looking for someone to do it for her.  I asked Catherine to do it, and very foolishly she said “Yes!” She took it back to London with her and commenced the work. Very soon she found that the design was very complex, both the design and the colour mixtures.

The rate of progress has been rather varied.  It is a very well travelled piece of work, it has been to South Africa, Slovenia, Cpenhagen,Ireland and to many parts of England. It has been done on trains, on planes,  in the tube, at aprties, in pubs and at Catherine’s work. It has been such a part of Catherine that now people are asking her where it is!    During these various expeditions  it managed to aquire a smell all of its own! I did some in Toyko!

Over the last few months, there has been a determined effort to finish! The deal struck was that Catherine would complete all that she could, and then I would bring it home with me and finish it off!!!  By the time we were to leave London, Catherine had completed all of the cross stitch, some of the back stitch, specifically on the Shepherd panel which is the most difficult and some of the writing.  I think she was up until about 1am on the morning we were flying out to St Petersburg.      

When we arrived home, I was determined to finish the  piece. My cross stitch and back stitch are not up to the same  wonderful standard as Catherine’s, but I was determined to do my best. I was very worried about the writing, I seemed to get a bit bigger every time I did it. But, when I finally finished, gave it a good soak, and ironed it, I found that the writing had settled down and had come together so it was difficult to pick the difference.  

FINISHED!!

We now only have to make the arrangements for the hand over!!