This same piece of broderie anglaise had a very nicely executed hand sewn mend, too….

Since I last wrote I have been travelling, at speed with very little time to even read emails let alond download pics and upload them with thoughts to my blog – dear reader if you are feeling deprived, normal routine should now resume with luck and a fair wind. In addition to family and house and hearth matters, while in Western Australia I attended the Expressive Stitch workshop at Fibres West in Bunbury. Great workshop by Dorothy Caldwell of Canada, in which we were introduced to the technical and cultural aspects of Kantha cloth from NE India, particularly the state of Bihar. The women in the villages which produce these textiles communally decide the content, and several stitchers work on the same piece. In the pic on the right hand side above, is an image of a whole piece about single bed size, constructed of two layers of cloth through which are sitched about half a million small running stitches filling in various desiogn elements outlined in chain stitch. The whole quilt is designed around the impressions of New York USA, felt by a young 19 y.o. girl who accompanied a group of the textiles there for an exhibition. The upper left pic shows a panel in detail from the whole view, featuring a pet shop and all the doodads and gadgetry obtainable there for the pampered pets inNY society, all of which she found amazing.

The last pic, in white on black, is my version of an exercise the whole class did stitching our responses to particular words and phrases, while blindfolded. The dots down the rhs of the pic are french knots which were the starting point for each different response. To our right on our table was a threaded needle for each response, all of which we prepared before we took up our blindfolds. I don’t recall what each was, but the thing that looks like a spectacles frame was I think ‘space’ and certainly the bottom one was ‘positive and negative’. All of us had at least one very interesting outcome, which we then used to build further later on in the class. In future post I will show pics of some of the stitching I did that week.

These wonderful knotted constructions were part of the naval display down at the port on ddp – the strange format of this posting is the best I can achieve after many tries at loading them up… so apologies. I just really wanted people to see these.

The top left and top central pics show knotted cording on oar handles to give a better hand grip, obviously. On the far right is a wonderful construction, a “bolster” may or may not be the right word – clearly to protect the bow of the boat it is mounted on; a closeup view of that is at-left-hand-down-a-bit . The lowest left is an ordinary vehicle tyre covered with heavy nylon cord, and I imagine it too is used as a boat protecting bolster.

Feel free, anyone, to correct my terminology – I didn’t think to ask the couple of sailors in attendance…. I think they are all fabulous.

Well, it’s actually both days of a weekend, in september each year. Many public buildings, musuems, galleries, historic buildings, theatres, places many of them that usually charge entrance give free entry, groups give free public performances, and so on – so that citizens can visit venues and through enjoying them and the displays they often contain, make themselves more aware of Uruguayan culture and history – a great example that could be taken up by Australia, for sure. So, last year we missed going into a building I have always admired, the Russian embassy, and so that was first on the list, and the interior was just as fascinating as I thought it would be. It was not orignally built as an embassy but was once a family’s home and has always seemed to me to be a classical slightly intriguing south american mansion, pillars and palms, and lovely proportions. From there we hurtled onto the Uruguay Club, and then down to the port where naval ships were decked out in flags, a band was playing, people going on and off ships , lots of activity all round. Since the Navy’s HQ, one of my favourite buildings, I have shown it before, is just opposite the Mercado del Puerto, what else could we do but enjoy lunch there. ..again! We had Aus visitors and some Uruguayan friends with us, and a table reserved out in the sunny fresh air, well located to enjoy the passing parade.

The man who sells flowers in season outside one of the supermarkets is always so amiable, we are regulars. DH had his doubts, but I was intrigued, had never seen this before, so think it’s something very new here. This was his last bunch and approaching lunchtime….

These are ordinary white funeral type lillies, and they are flowering all through the swampy parts of the countryside just now. By spraying them they look at first glance like those tropical red anthuriums….