I am pretty sure, and DH, agrees that we have not come across rana on a menu anywhere, but will keep an eye out, and I will ask some of my friends, one of whom is in contact with some very poor fishing people. Otherwise I guess the bodies go the way of other animal wastes – farm fertilizer or animal feeds….

And that reminds me of the most appalling but very funny experience we had on one of the main highways here one night around 1992. It was lovely clear night for driving, and we were on a beautiful new modern highway, heading towards Montevideo. Suddenly on the road in front of the car was a splat of something that looked pinkish, lumpy and yet liquid – quilte like a huge pile of vomit really, then another splat, and another, and then it became a trail down the middle of our side of the road. DH did a good job of carefully straddling it and not sliding in it. It was just amazing – eventually we stopped the car to see what it was – fish guts, absolutely no doubt about it. We passed a group of houses with people standing outside, very puzzled, no doubt pondering the difficulty of getting rid of it, and worrying what it would pong like over the next days whether they swept it off the road or left it there …. and still the trail went on. A police car ‘raced’ past us… and another…. and finally, after about 20 MILES/ 30KM, I kid you not, there in the middle of the road were police and other people, no doubt including the hapless driver, standing around a huge tanker truck. Clearly the trapdoor had come loose, and the whole load had gradually emptied out onto the road. Back in Montevideo we drove through some very deep puddles to wash the underside of the rental car. But, pheeeeew! by the end of the next day we simply had to turn that car in for another – of course splatters got up into the engine and all kinds of places, didn’t they? and I doubt that vehicle was ever the same again no matter what they tried to do with it, because every time the engine warmed the stink would come back.

I met a quiltmaker, Graciela, last weekend, and in true quilter tradition we began sharing information. I have met a few makers in parts of the country – so has she, and some of them we both have met. She confirmed my impression that there are very few of us and there is no kind of organisation, but it would be good for all of us to get together every now and then. I agree and look forward to that.

I lent her a book, she brought me information on a fabric outlet store in Buenos Aires, and a promise to take me to man who works with fish leather….. and funnily enough just yesterday another totally non-quilting friend promised to take me to a leather manufacturer friend of hers who might pass on some bits. Who knows?
I might find more of that metallicised pewter colour yet…..

But today, best of all, as promised, Graciela sent along several pieces of frog leather through her son who attends a nearby highschool. Do we talk of ‘frog hides’? anyway the one pictured is typical of them all – approx 6inches by 4 inches, and the leather is beautiful, very fine, light coloured, soft, smooth with very faint little markings on the centre/back part, and quite different from what I expected when she mentioned them on the weekend.
Somehow with frogs being watery creatures I expected something rather see-through. The flares and frilly bits where the limbs join the body are just fascinating. When I use these it will have to be something quite inspired… so for the moment I will just fondle the leather and think about how to use it effectively. In spanish the word for frog sounds a lot more elegant – rana , so this is cuero de rana, frog leather.

Continuing the leather and lace thing, this mottled suede with brown bloblets and spatters ( accidental, I think) is very inspiring in combination with cut-outs and stitch. Showing is one 5cm sq piece, with large stitches in #8 perle are 2cm approx; other stitches are tiny seed and french knots. I am very pleased with this small work and am, bravely or madly, seriously contemplating a very large piece of about the 1.2 to 2m kind of dimension …. at least 10 recorded books worth, imho.
The whole work should be showing soon since it is likely to be in a local fine craft gallery within the month. 

Another of saturday’s harvest of treasures.
done in very fine linen thread on very firmly woven linen about the style of a good quality sheeting. Really nice fabric – and the sample is pretty aged, showing discolouration every second filler motif – it is the thread used for the needleweaving and binding the edges.

The whole motif is approximately 4inches x 5inches , so the needleweaving is ptretty tiny, and very tight.

It made my day to find this and 14 other little pieces in the Plaza Matriz market on saturday last. The market runs every saturday, and some stalls are there on weekdays particularly when there is a cruise ship in port, which is every few days in the summer months.
Here are found mostly second hand and bric-a-brac stalls, some featuring things like old table and bed linen (I never tire of rummaging here for treasures great and small) others feature glasswares, table ware , a little antique silver, more plated though, and some lovely pieces of very little value. You can buy anything, including an old wind up gramophone with a box of 78-play tango records, an old fashioned manual food mincer, ancient keys and tools, old spectacle frames, old fashioned things like cigarette holders and cases, kid leather gloves, ladies cocktail hats, old sheet music , theatre programmes, lanterns, postcards, prints, costume jewellry, antique cutlery – although there are some traps for the unwary here. I have often noticed there seems to be a lot of a very popular embossed design around – the penny dropped the other day, finally , duh, as I realised someone has a nice little line of putting new antique-style handles onto older cutlery parts – of course !!! to replace aged and dingy damaged bone handles! The jewellery is fun, although, too there are some modern antiques here and there. But if I were into beading in a big way I would be scooping up stuff here – the word is out that necklaces are big accessories this year, there is lots of old stuff re-threaded, and lots of pearl beads, so those selling actual pearls are now putting signs up that their pearls are genuine cultured… actually one one stall I was tempted but had little money left…..and realistically I’m not a pearl operson although I love looking at them on someone else. You could buy a politically incorrect fox fur collar, or even a couple of actual minks I saw the other day – such things were very popular draped over the shoulder of a suit jacket in my grandmother’s day, and were seen through into the ’50’s in Australia. They are sometimes worn here, but maybe more so this winter; since at a fashion parade I attended here last week, fox furs dyed all kinds of lovely colours draped around models’ shoulders in many outfilts. Since most foxes in the world are wild, I do not endorse hunting and using those wild animals’ fur, unless,of course, one just happens to be an indigenous human occupant of fox terrritory.

Around the outside edge of the plaza are some restaurant tables, and areas where dancing displays , folklorico and tango, are given, soldiers march and musicians play at differnt times most saturdays . Also on this outer perimeter and stretching along the peatonal Sarandi towards the city gate are lots of artesan stalls, selling all kinds of craft items. One stall took my eye; a woman was selling lovely felt hats in beautiful colours for winter, very stylish, and very well priced – I’m going back next week. Bring on that winter wind.

While stitching the above quilt, I listened to several recorded books. One was Dan Brown’s “The Da Vinci Code” I’d both read and listened to it in the past couple of years, but this is perhaps in training, preparation, for the release of the movie later this month. I feel as if one needs to be really alert so as to not miss any little thing, just like in the book. It will be a great disappointment if the movie is in fact ‘too easy’, IMHO. I also listened again to “Blue Horizon” by Wilbur Smith, a terrific family historic saga/adventure story. And the book I am reading just now is Anne Tyler’s “An Amateur Marriage” which has held my attention well. It’s an interesting title when you think of it though: most people at least when they begin married life are amateurs at “marriage”. Some get better at the whole thing, but others never seem to get beyond amateur status, even with repeated tries with different partners. This book has caused me to think about some of the great and ghastly marriages I know, and pondering the question of when one moves up from amateur to professional ? Another book I enjoyed a couple of weeks ago was “Last Days of Dog Town” by Anita Diament, what a terrific story teller, exploring human individual and community relationships against a historic background of early colonial North America, totally different from but equally gripping as her earlier work “The Red Tent”, set in the middle east in early biblical times .