Vintage Treasures

I really love the 'Vintage Treasures' wall hanging which I made in 2005.

Again I made this quilt hanging totally by hand with the majority of it I made while I was in hospital. To make this quilt I have used the Vintage Treasures pattern designed by Libby Richardson.

There are two things about this quilt that are significant for me.

The first thing is that it was made at the start of a time that turned out to be major change in my medical treatment which at the time really saved my life.

I remember the time I started this quilt so well as I was in the William Angliss Hospital in Ferntree Gully for 10 days. Up until this asthma attack I had always been taken to the Maroondah Hospital but they were on bypass. At the start it seemed so frustrating as I had different doctors but this medical team told me that if something didn't change I may not survive many more asthma attacks. Rather than treating me the the attitude 'that nothing more can be done to help you' I was started in a pulmonary rehabilitation program and put under the care of a chronic health nurse. Through a series of events I ended up changing specialists, was referred to a new general practitioner and started on Singulair and haven't had a major life threatening asthma attack since.

The second reason that I really love this quilt is that it brings back so many memories of my grandmother as I have used brooches and gloves that I have treasured for a long time which have always been in her jewellery box. Along with some of grandma's jewellery I still have a little birthday gift card that I gave to grandma. Most of the dried flowers have fallen off over time but you can still clearly read the card.

While I can't remember my grandmother ever wearing these things, just the fact that they were my grandmothers is special and invokes memories of times that I spent visiting grandma and grandpa in Wangaratta and of the times that I spent with grandma when she lived with us in Doncaster East for a short time.

I have never worn these pieces of jewellery and rather than have them hiding way in a box I decided to use them on my quilt where I could see and enjoy them.

The gloves are really old made and were very 'yellowed' so I soaked them in bleach and then I dried them in the dryer to shrink them to so that they would fit on the quilt. I have always had in my mind that the gloves came from grandma but I can't be sure of that.

Along with the gloves, I have also pinned an army brooch/hat pin that came from my grandmother. It has the Commonwealth of Australia symbol with the kangaroo and emu at each side, AIF at the top of the crest and Australian Commonwealth Military Forces along the bottom. I don't know the history of this brooch so will need to look into that.

The brooch on the ribbon of the hat is a Cameo brooch that also came from my grandmother and another brooch is pinned to the 'shoe' panel. Another brooch that I have from my grandmother is pinned just under the 'shoe' panel.









On the handbag I have used a brooch of a butterfly as the clasp. The brooch was sent to me as a birthday present by some old friends when they were living overseas.

With all the memories and jewellery from my grandmother I think the quilts name 'Vintage Treasures' is so appropriate for this quilt.

Homemaking Sampler

A few years ago I was given a book called 'The Gentle Arts 200 Years of Australian Women's Domestic & Decorative Arts' by Jennifer Isaacs. The book covers a wide range of arts and crafts including knitting, embroidery, painting and quilting. It's a beautiful history of arts and crafts in Australia.

In the book there was a picture of a cross stitch sampler called the 'Homemaking Sampler' with Sunbonnet Sue doing a chore every day of the week. I really loved the pattern and as I had been wanting to do a cross stitch sampler for a long time I thought this be be a nice one to make.

The pattern was available through McCalls in the early 1930's and being so long ago it is no longer available. After trying to find a similar pattern on the Internet I decided that I could create my own pattern based on the photo. I enlarged the picture in the book and then using an Excel spreadsheet I set about counting and mapping the pattern and colors. It took me a few weeks create a pattern and although it's probably not exactly right it's as close as I could get.

I tried to keep to the pattern and match the colors as close as possible to the photo in the book. It was a challenge to create a pattern from a picture but also very satisfying. I finally completed the cross stitch in 2006.

A Quilt for Mum & Choosing Patterns

I am well on my way with making my remembrance quilts.

I finished mum's quilt earlier this year and have nearly finished Peter's quilt.
I'm making a 'Spinning Castles' quilt for Jacob and now have all the material ready to start his once I have finished Peter's and my own quilt.

I have chosen the patterns for the quilts I want to make for Sarah, Hannah and Olivia. For Sarah I am making the 'Ruby Rose' quilt which I already have the material ready to start. The quilt I am going to make for Hannah is called 'Raspberries and Lime' and Olivia's is called 'Fresh & Fruit'.

Jacinta has chosen the 'Willow' pattern quilt, another quilt which I have already collected the material ready to make. I still need to decide on a quilt for Megan so I've been looking through some patterns so see if I can find one that I'd really like to make for her. Rhonda would like an 'Oriental' style quilt in black, white and grey so I'm on the lookout for any material that might be suitable. There's lots of colored oriental fabrics but not many plain patterns so finding suitable material will be a challenge.

I love going through my pattern books and choosing patterns that I'd really love to make for each person. Every time I go to a material shop I look at the materials and buy any pieces of that I can use in my quilts.

I feel excited seeing patterns and fabrics come together and can't wait to finish one quilt and start the next. Each quilt finished is one quilt closer to my dream of making a special quilt for all of my family.

Gardening and a day with Jacob

In amongst all my business with work and study I enjoyed spending a day with Jacob last Friday. We spent the morning doing a few jobs down the street and then picking up some plants that had been given to me by a lady. We planted the cuttings into my new garden bed which I started last week and also planted out my bowl of baby lettuce, a tomato plant and seeds of parsley and basil.

When Jake visits he always helps me with the worm farm. He's a great help tipping in all the food scraps and helps bottle the worm wee.

In my new garden bed I have planted out the hellebores I purchased on eBay. I purchased 5 colored hellebores - red, yellow, white and black and also some ruffled lady hellebores. they are growing really well so hopefully next winter I will have some new colors in my garden.

I'm really enjoy having time with Jake and getting to know him more. He's a good little boy with a great sense of humour. Every now and then he'll do something that reminds me of Philip when he was the same age. When I look at Jacob I think how lucky I am to have been able to spend time with his father, Philip at the the same age and now 30 years later to be spending time with his son. There are not many aunties that get the opportunity to have so much time with their nieces and nephews growing up and then with great nieces and nephews.

I am looking after Jacob during the Christmas holidays so I am really looking forward to having the extra time to spend with him. I am also really looking forward to spending some time with my great nieces, Sarah, Hannah and Olivia when they visit in October. I've nearly finished Sarah and Hannah's cardigans so I am hoping to be able to give them their cardigans when they visit.

Work and Study

I have been really busy at the moment with working and studying. I have just resigned from my job as a bookkeeper at the factory working for Eastern Engineering. After some pretty unpleasant working conditions I decided it was time to move on. Even though there were lots of things I didn't like about the factory and my boss, I loved the work and it gave me a path back into the workforce after not working for three years. Over the years I have had over 29 jobs however this is only the forth time I have ever resigned from a position. Most of my jobs were with the Victorian Public Service where I worked from 1983 to 1998. I worked my way up from a mail and photocopy clerk with the Plumbers Board to working in various accounts departments and finally working Policy and Review Officer where I was responsible for writing policies & procedures, staff training manuals and conducted training sessions for finance and disability staff all over the state. I left the government in 1998 applying for and receiving a voluntary redundancy package. Since then I have worked in a wide variety of industries as a bookkeeper working through an agency. Most of the jobs were short term assignments and a few were meant to be 'temporary three month' assignments but somehow I managed to stay with the companies for 12 months at a time.

While working at the factory I have also been working 4 hours a week as a bookkeeper with Geoffrey Bassett from Computer Trouble Shooters. Just before I resigned Geoffrey asked me if I would be interested in working more hours for him. I am now employed by Computer Trouble Shooters for three afternoons (9 hours) a week plus will be responsible for taking all the calls for booking and following up computer repairs. Everything about this job is so much better than the factory, the staff, the environment and even the location being walking distance from home.

I left school in 1980 after completing Tertiary Orientation Program (HSC equivalent) at Swinburne Institute of Technology. In 1981 I enrolled in the Advanced Diploma of Accounting at Swinburne however deferred and for a variety of reasons including starting full time work with the Public Service I never went back however it was always something that I've had in the back of my mind that I wanted to do.

When I left the government I was unable to work due illness. One day I saw a brochure on correspondence courses at RMIT and found that they ran courses by correspondence so in January 1999 I enrolled in the Advanced Diploma of Business Accounting completing my first two subjects with High Distinctions. I studied with RMIT until June 2001 when the correspondence department closed and continued my course enrolling to study at the Swinburne Croydon Off-Campus unit.

It seemed like I would never finish my course as most semesters I only studies one or two subjects however in June 2003 I received my Diploma of Business (Accounting). It was pretty exciting to have actually achieved part of the qualification I had set out to achieve in 1999. I have continued on with studying to complete my Advanced Diploma and am now studying part time on-campus. I enjoy the contact with the tutors and other students in class and can see an end in sight with only four subjects to complete. I am only studying one subject this semester as I still have to sit an exam and complete an assignment from a subject I did last semester.

My aim is to complete my Advanced Diploma in Accounting by the time I'm 50 so at 47 years old now I am well on the way to achieving that goal.

As well as studying for my Advanced Diploma in 2005/2006 I also completed a Certificate 111 in Business Administration by correspondence gaining the highest grade in all subjects.

Working both jobs for the past two weeks as well as studying for my exam on Thursday night (11th September) I have been pretty busy trying to get everything done. I am really looking forward to finishing up at the factory at 1pm on Thursday. I'm not looking forward to my exam - it's on on company consolidations - lots of formula and processes to remember but hopefully I'll be able to do enough to scrap a pass.