pennejefford.blogspot.com

My mother is leaving, she has terminal cancer.  The saddest part is you suddenly realise that your connection to your distant childhood past is going with her.  Who will you talk to about stories from so long ago.  The night she gathered up the autumn oak leaves from the road in the car headlights, the air bitter and cold.  They magically became a fancy dress piece titled "Autumn" for my school presentation evening.  She has forgotten it now, I tried to tell her the other day it is one of my favourite childhood memories.  I have been working with rusting fabrics and making wall quilts.  My childhood was spent in the country around Armidale and I used to spend hours in my grandfather's wool shed, I can still see the sunlight on the floor there.  The rusted quilts are all created with my memory of shed walls and rusting tractors and tin rooves.  So today I am putting this piece up in honour of my mum.  She may have forgotten a lot now...

Just when you think everything is in place life comes along and bowls you over again.  A back injury and a hip bursa injury lagged on for six months.  The pain drove me crazy and was depressing.  I finally went for back xrays and the picture was not pretty.  Twenty five years spent as a potter over a wheel had wrought a lot of damage on the base of my spine.  It confirmed for me that it was not going to go away and this is to be my new normal.  Getting older really sucks! That is me in the snow in the photo.  I was four years old, a bright future ahead.  I would grow, marry several times, have three children and a career in the arts.  All I felt in that photo back then was how cold it was standing in the snow outside Guyra that day, look at the feet!  And the hands, they are bare.  What was my mother thinking! I have bowed to the inevitable and sold several of my machines.  I cannot treadle them any more.  Some wonde...

I  only looked at the website for sewing lessons with my Janome 11000.  Seeing a Pfaff for sale I got to dreaming of how I had always wanted one, it was a downline machine and affordable once I put my birthday money and the proceeds of a sewing machine sale together.  However, and there is always a 'however' in the best laid plans, the saleswoman put this machine in front of me.  It was instant love, the 9 mm fancy stitches, the automatic foot that rose at the end of a row and the large free arm that would fit the largest quilt.  It was after this I realised this was a much better machine than I had seen online.  My husband came to the rescue and put the rest of the money to the purchase and I proudly brought her home. What a joy she is.  A bit of Christmas joy.  I find Christmas sad this year, the loss of my eldest son last year hangs heavy on my mind.  I keep seeing Christmases past, the children all gathered for Christmas Eve dinner, f...

It is the storm season in Brisbane at the moment.  Yesterday was awful, the storms gathered out west of Warwick and cut a swathe through the region over the next few hours arriving at our suburb  just on dark.  Our Manx cat was found cowering under a small table and later moved behind  the lounge for cover.  The dog was brought inside as she too hates the lightening and thunder.  Moggy Lucy rode out the storm on the inside of the window, watching the light show with great interest. Thankfully no hail for us last night.  We were awoken about 3.30 a.m. today with a storm and more lightening.  I chose to finish quilting this small basket quilt on my 1910 Singer with Lotus decoration today.  The colour somehow matches the moody air we have at this moment outside the house.  The storms have already risen to the West of us and we are promised by the storm chaser online that today will be a cracker and we are right in the firing line. ...

I  working on a sunset strip pieced quilt at the moment.  In my stash of photos are many sunsets taken over the years as I use them in my pastel paintings.  I caught a glimpse of the sunset last night in the front window glass and grabbed the camera and rushed out to capture it.  Sometimes we miss the things that are happening right outside our own door.  Last night's sunset was a gift.  Now to work out whether to make a strip pieced quilt or a pastel painting from it.  Both would be interesting to explore.  Today is my birthday.  What a beautiful gift this sunset was and when I loaded the image from the camera this morning I was most grateful I had captured one small moment in time outside my door. 

I am having trouble uploading photos this morning, so thinking it was my new camera I selected a photo from my old camera. Introducing my constant companion, he who selects all patterns, sleep tests all quilts and generally runs my life, my Manx cat Raku. Now he may not be a treadle but he knows all about them. His favourite thing that his mummy brings home are brown paper shopping bags from the quilt shop. He just looooves them. He delights it hiding in them, a feat that is becoming harder as he gets older and more rotund. Mostly he now sits on them because he simply has outgrown them. A Manx cat is like no other. I am actually referred to amongst the various grandchildren as the "Nanny with the crazy cat" because Raku delights in bailing them up when they visit and hissing at them. He gets away with it and they scream in fear but the silliest is to see my huge step son who will back away from him and he is in excess of of six foot and a gym junkie. My, my, Raku...