Bag

I started out making this bag as a Christmas present.
But actually, I'm not perfectly happy with it.
The lining material is not a tight enough weave, so it's way too soft and lacks substance, and the handles aren't quite the same, and ... meh.
The dark denim bottom was a success though - and it's been boxed at the bottom so it stands up very well and won't blob.I'll probably use it myself when I need a slightly bigger bag.
Let's hope that won't be the result of the rest of my gift making!

Mix

I'm making the Christmas cake today. It's an old boiled fruit cake recipe that I've had for years, and which always works. When it's baked and cooled and wrapped, I store it in the same big old biscuit tin and get it out every week to feed it with brandy or whatever festive spirit we have in the cupboard.
I always faff about with exactly what fruit I put into the mix. One year, I substituted dried apricots for the cherries, which was pretty good. I always bung in a goodly handful of chopped up crystallised ginger, because I just can't conceive of a Christmas cake without it.

:: I went last night to see When the Rain Stops Falling, at our lovely new Heath Ledger Theatre. Well, yes, it was really very clever, and seamlessly realised and directed. Charged with Themes and Symbolism, and References. And, quite possibly, Messages.
The actors did really well; the stage looked fabulous. But ... and this may, of course, be because of what it was dealing with ... it was a g-r-i-n-d. And it all seemed so self-conscious in its minimalism, and therefore, to me, leaden. And unsatisfying.
What did it lack? Language? Poetry? Some feeling? More fathomable characters? I'm trying to work it out.
But, don't listen to me! I acknowledge that, unlike my brilliant husband, I do carry an awful lot of baggage with me when I see live theatre: I just don't like it. I keep going, and every now and then, something comes along that has me transported, like the brilliant Red a few months ago. But on the whole, no.
It's a bit like me and Tom Waits ... I try and I try and I try. I listen to his old stuff. I listen to his new stuff. I love his songs done well by other people. The guy really can write. I go and see him. But I just don't like him.
Okay - throw stuff at me now!

Finito

Forgive the shonky styling and the super-bright, soon-be-overhead, late-morning, late-spring sunshine, but I am very pleased to have finished this one, and that it worked out okay.It's about 1.6m square, and took me five or six hours to quilt last weekend, listening to bossa nova and getting up every 40 minutes or so for a stretch and a cuppa. Good fun.
I'm tossing up whether to throw it in the washing machine and then the drier so it will achieve that lived-in crinkly look I like so much. Ho hum.
It will be delivered this weekend, I hope. Then it's on to the next project!
This is the de-rigueur shot to show off the surprisingly neat job I made of the binding — especially on the corners!
:: I have Golden Girl here with me this arvo, and this evening I'm off to see Andrew Bovell's play, When the Rain Stops Falling, on David's recommendation. He reviewed it for the West and said it was one of the best plays on in Perth this year.
:: Hope you all have a fab weekend!
X X X

Speeding up

Just when I thought things would settle and I'd gain some quiet momentum, I find myself hurtling towards Christmas ... so I'm all busy again. There are probably no readers left out there, but anyway.
Before I get started on Christmas gifts, I thought I'd finish off this quilt, which is a present for my sister-in-law's 50th birthday.
I'm keen to finish it soon, because she'll be 52 in a couple of months ...
The all-over stippling is looking okay, though there are occasional angular bits, and two points at which I have crossed over a stitching line. But I'm telling myself this is the idea of handmade stuff. As I'm stitching, I keep telling myself, "Curves ... curves ..." to stop doing loops and zig-zags, which feel more natural.
Faves
:: I'm reading Stella Gibbons' (of Cold Comfort Farm) novel, Westwood on the kindle and loving it.
:: David and I have spent several weeks watching 20 gripping, tense episodes of the Danish thriller, The Killing, and now we wish we could start it all over again, it was SO good. And how fascinating it was to hear the Danish language spoken. It sounded quite guttural, with not so many staccato consonants as in the Romance languages. And for the most part it seemed entirely incomprehensible, until suddenly the characters would say a short sentence or the odd word that sounded like German, or English. It just added to the fabulous TV, in my opinion.
We are also loving The Slap - so brilliantly done. I forgot how truly despicable so many of the characters are - good stuff. Likewise the BBC adaptation of Alan Hollinghurst's novel, The Line of Beauty. Lord knows if either of these will get to air in the US - there's so much graphic, no-holds-barred sex in them that they'll cause conniptions.
Oh well - back to the swirly-wirly and curves, curves, curves ...

News from Japan

Lily has a bit of a cough!

Catching up

For the past month I've been working full time and a bit - and for two weekend during that time, we had the grandkiddies staying over, from Friday night to Monday morning, so tempus has well and truly fugited.
For a week, I'll be back doing my regular job, then there's a stint as Sir (which I'll be sharing with my new fellow sub - yay!), and after that a month as arts editor ... and before you know it, we'll be revving up and hurtling towards Christmas, with huge issues.
Here's what else has been happening.
:: Reading ... I'm loving and chortling my way through Rupert Everett's autobiography, Red Carpet and Other Banana Skins, lent to me by my best friend Dace. What a naughty, wicked boy he is! I'm not usually an autobiography or biography fan, but it's a fabulous read, and so cleverly written.
On my Kindle, I'm reading Mildred Pierce, after watching the excellent mini-series on TV, starring Kate Winslet and our very own Guy Pearce. They both recently won Emmys for it, so it will probably get on free-to-air telly soon.
I haven't read any James M. Cain before, and love that early 20th century Los Angeles setting. I'm wondering if the book, written in the 1940s, will be as out-and-out sexy as the TV mini-series. Click here to see the trailer on YouTube.
Our book club has just done The Help (enjoyed that movie, too), and our next book is Larry's Party, by Carol Shields, one of my all-time favourite reads.
:: TV ... My regulars (apart from re-runs of Nigella shows and all the Grand Designs), are Crownies and At Home with Julia - love them both. On Friday night, Scott & Bailey, the new British cop show started well. So great that in these British shows the women are so flawed and look so ordinary - not like the US shows where they are stick-thin and always perfectly made-up, or the apparent 13-year-old legal types in Crownies, who are all utterly beautiful and have outrageous sex lives and the wardrobes to go with them (I still like it, though!).
On Friday, the ABC was touting the start of The Jonathon Ross Show from the UK, with guests Hugh Jackman and Stephen Fry. They said it was the hottest thing on TV in the UK, and he was UK telly's biggest and most popular and beloved interviewer, blah blah. Envisioning the new Michael Parkinson, I watched it - yuck! Inane interviews, no leading the subjects into conversations, just naff, idiotic questions. And he was so obsequious and gibbering about Stephen Fry that it was embarrassing to watch.
:: Sewing ... I haven't yet made a start on the English-language version of the Japanese pattern book, but will very soon. I've also got the fabric for a new bag, and will be making Harper some wee little flowery dresses.
:: Knitting ... Lily has requested a cardie for her birthday, and as she sent me the wool for it from Japan, I have started.
My best friend Shelley also gave me some amazing Noro silk-blend that I'm looking forward to getting on my needles.
:: Crochet ...
My best friend Caroline has been waiting for ages for me to finish this granny square cushion - it is on its way, promise!
:: Breaking in ... New Birkenstocks. They feel so strange ...

A parcel from Japan

And it's full of handspun wool, organic cotton, some extremely lightweight modelling clay, probably paper, and a set of four fabulous and fine brushes with ergonomic grips.And, very excitingly (for stationery junkies like me), a very fine, black version of those amazing pens that can be erased with friction, which means heat - and therefore can be used on fabric and erased with a swipe of a hot iron. They are incredibly useful when you're dressmaking and need to mark where pockets or buttons or pleats or darts go. Brilliant - thanks Lily!Now I'll need to test the gauge of the yarns and work out what to knit. Lily wants a cardie for her birthday in November, so I'll need to get cracking.