Rummage

Wow, Eloise Wilkin resonates as an illustrator with a lot of people and she even designed dolls in the 60's! Thanks for all the information, it was a serious trip down memory lane.

I got my copy of Selvedge magazine yesterday which is a show-stopper for me. I curled up with the magazine, some green tea and peeled a few of the first roasted chestnuts of the season. Bloody good.

Despite the encroaching Autumn, my garden is rioting about in a serious case of denial. I love the last flush before the sparse winterscape. Hope you're travelling well today. xx

We've been enjoying the spoils from the Lifeline Bookfair over the weekend. Listening to the Pretenders and a box set of Edith Piaf.

Does anyone recognise this illustrator? I have a strong memory of her work from when I was little. We also picked up some interesting coat hangers recently. Have discovered that I am developing an interest in coat hangers and clothes pins.

Just two more little obsessions to add to the ever-growing pile. Hope your weekend was gorgeous. xx

Run don't walk to the Canberra Lifeline Bookfair today and tomorrow. I had forgotten it was on until I read about it on one of my favourite local blogs.

I have it on good authority that there is nothing like this second-hand booksale anywhere else in the country. The sheer number of books/mags and vinyl combined with the quality and the spectacularly low price make this a not to be missed event. I also know that the National Film and Sound Archive have donated a whole lot of good stuff that is up for grabs for the first time today. If you're in Sydney and are wondering what to do with yourself on Sunday whizz down. Trust me on this. Also all the money raised goes towards the 24 hour Lifeline telephone counselling service. 

Woot! I  am making something that takes more than ten minutes to finish in the first time in god knows how long. That temptress Kate got me going with her post on Kirst's ballerinas - I reckon I can eke two quilts out of this baby so that the girls don't have to armwrestle for it. I can't tell you how much I'm loving listening to episodes of This American Life from their archives while I sew, I think the program is misnamed because the stories are universal. Still, I wish someone was doing something like this here in Australia.

Head over here for craft from people who don't cut their fabric with a stanley knife. x

PS Those two barkcloths below I picked up yesterday at the oppy! Huzzah!!

Tania: I'm not at all surprised, wish you were closer for a spot of tea and books convo.

Letty: you've always got great taste, I'm going to check out all those books like Keneally's and Naipaul, haven't read that one by the beloved Iris either.

Michelle: WE SHOULD GET TOGETHER SOON, YOU ONLY LIVE AROUND THE CORNER!! I am so slack.

Maggie: I'm sure you'd love it! x

I'm hard at work on the quilt listening to bits of Radio National and This American Life podcasts. But I thought I'd show you what I've been reading this week.

I've had the Secret River for years but embarrasingly it got lost in the book pile for several years. Can I just say: YOU NEED TO READ THIS BOOK. No, REALLY. It was one of the most painful things I have ever read and I'm probably putting you off here but it was painful in the most beautiful way. Kate Grenville based it loosely around an ancestor of hers who was one of the first white people to 'settle' the Hawkesbury but this is a narrative about first contact between blacks and whites in Australia unlike any other. Let's just say it ain't Baz Luhrmann's Australia and I write that with no little relief. If I had the money I'd buy a copy for everyone I know, including you, dear reader. And don't think this is an Australian book for an Australian audience only - it was short-listed for the Booker after all.

Book two is Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn's 'One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich', I should have thrown in a Maeve Binchy between reading these two books to prevent the desire to put my head in the oven (I'm not selling this very well am I). EVEN SO, you should read this too - Solzhenitsyn spent over eight years in a gulag in Siberia under Stalin. This book was like a nuclear bomb going off on the literary landscape and Solzhenitsyn won the Nobel Prize for Literature as a result. Read this and you will never again take for granted that piece of bread in your hand.

PS Has anyone read Grenville's latest, 'The Lieutenant'?

Kate completely inspired me yesterday with her post on choosing fabrics. Through a lovely mutual friend we both happen to have a piece of a beautiful old barkcloth, so I thought the time was right to cut into mine just as Kate is cutting into hers.

I think this will be a freeform quilt, who am I kidding, it HAS to be a freeform quilt because I couldn't follow a pattern if my life depended on it. Only hope I do justice to the fabrics! x

The Frenchman's parents have a house in Paris and a place in Brittany where all the family originally comes from. So when Harmony Day swings around there's no rocket science involved in how the girls like to dress up. This is our version of one of more than 1200 varieties of headdress in Brittany. Les Bigoudènnes wore a handmade lace headdress that towered some 30 or 40 cm in the air. Ours was made with some scrap bits of fabric and a truckload of starch.

In other news the party was a rip-snorter, everyone hit the dance floor in full rock-star regalia. Some people took the challenge literally and draped themselves in records, one outstanding punter dressed in a vinyl catsuit (!!), I had a last minute change of heart and decided to go as Blondie after a failed attempt as Nancy of Sex Pistols fame. I also made a lethal version of Jamie Oliver's Jungle Punch which I will document for you if you're keen. xx

PS there is a video here of Les Bigoudènnes, sadly most of these amazing women who made and wore the coiffe have now died. Today it's only worn for special occasions. xx

I've got people from work coming over tomorrow for a record party - byo record plus rockstar outfit. I've been tossing up whether to go as Demis Roussos or Suzi Quatro, I think Suzi will win the day as I don't think I can successfully replicate Demis's awe-inspiring chest hair.  

Someone's bringing a karaoke machine, I'm making some hideous 70's cocktails involving coconut milk and maraschino cherries and the Frenchman is feeling a little nervous. With good reason too, the morning after the last staff party I made the mistake of having an early dental appointment with someone called Dr Fang (!), nursing the worst hangover of my life with a man in surgical goggles sticking his hands in your mouth is not my idea of fun in the sun and the alcohol fumes radiating around my person was no fun for Dr Fang either. What's also got the French worried is at the last party the police turned up to politely ask the music to be turned down which would have been fine if one friend hadn't distinguished herself by calling out to everyone that there were strippers at the door. Will keep you posted.

PS Pip, Suzi always makes me think of you!

When the real world gets a bit tough there is always welcome respite in a spot of fiction. Right now I'd quite like to climb into that wardrobe and go and have cakes with Mr Tumnus. Hope your week is treating you gently. xx

It's a bloody mixed up world out there right now. I watch the news through hands that are mostly covering my face. And of all countries to now be facing the possibility of nuclear fallout, Japan doesn't deserve this horror. I guess it's also a reminder that nuclear power is an energy source that can never be regarded as safe.

This is the Australian Red Cross site for donations to Japan if you didn't know already. xx