about QUILTING

Quilting can be defined as the process of stitching three layers of cloth together - modern day quilters call it a quilt sandwich consisting of a top layer of cloth, usually cotton, a layer of wadding or batting, usually wool or cotton and a bottom layer of cloth.  All three layers are stitched through, so they are held together firmly with the rows of stitching close enough to stop the filling moving inside. The three layers are stronger and warmer than single layers of clothing.

The skill of weaving is older even than spinning, as weaving began with grasses and leaves. When people began to produce cloth they opened the way for all the other textile related skills.  Samples of quilting have been found in ruins of ancient Egypt and in ancient China.  Quilted fabrics of cotton, flax, wool and silk, were used to make tents and floor covers as well as clothing like jackets, pants, headwear, undergarments and padding to wear underneath armour.

There were no factories to produce fabric before the 19th century so fabrics woven on looms in homes. This made fabric valuable and scraps from sewing, as well as usable sections of worn out clothing, were kept to be recycled as other clothing and bed covers. This patch work was combined with quilting to make warmer coverings.

Quilted jacket

During the middle ages in Britain heavy cloth, quilted with strong thread stitched in straight lines was worn as body armour by the army of William the Conqueror and the Crusaders. Through the 11th, 12th and 13th centuries, quilted bed covers were mentioned in household inventories and accounts.

Whole cloth quilt

In the 14th century the climate of Western Europe changed and they experienced bitter winters.  People used whatever they could find to fill their quilts from lamb's wool to grass, moss or feathers.  In Britain and Holland making bed covers, or 'bed furniture' became a business for many people. The quilted bed covers became prized possessions that were handed down through generations and other traditions developed around the craft. Before a girl married she was expected to have a number of quilts completed and the last one was often quilted by her relatives and friends. This quilt would become a part of her dowry. It was popular to hold quilting bees, where friends gathered to share the work, sitting around homemade quilting frames and enjoying the social occasion while sharing patterns and skills

Quilting bee

In Europe quilted bed covers and wall hangings were in use before the 16th century.  These quilts were whole cloth quilts, just one colour fabric all over with a design created by quilting. Patterns for the quilting stitches to follow ranged from very simple to very complicated and women with fine quilting skills were sought out to work for wealthy people. The sewing machine was invented around 1790 and this made piecing a quilt top easier and faster but the quilting was still done by hand.

Today quilting is used in a wide range of items such as ski jackets and other cold weather clothing, dressing gowns, slippers, seat covers, tote bags, baby cot liners and change mats, bedding such as pillow covers and mattresses as well as decorative bed quilts.  Commercial quilting is done on huge machines in factories and is not what ladies who love handcrafts mean when they refer to quilting.

Section of a winning quilt from the Australian National Quilt Show

If you asked women in America about quilts they would say that quilting was an American invention.  Possibly they don't realise that quilting was a skill used by the Pilgrims, who were told to take at least one piece of bed furniture with them. IN the early 19th century patchwork and quilting came to Australia with the convicts, who practiced their stitching skills aboard ship.
  

A great example of quilting skills moving from Europe to America is the Amish.  Their quilts are known around the world and Amish quilting patterns and quilts are even sold on the internet.  As part of their life style, being 'plain' people, the Amish wear homemade clothing of plain colours. Their quilts are made from clothing scraps, and while their geometric patchwork designs are greatly admired, it's in the quilting that they become art works.

Amish Quilt

Across the world the skills of patchwork and quilting were in use up until World War l broke out in 1914.  With the men away women found they didn't have the time for sewing and after the war improvements in shipping meant that readymade items were available at reasonable cost. As people became more prosperous they gave their time to other things. The handcraft skills began to fade until the 1960's when the 'back to the basics lifestyle' became popular.

By the early 20th century quilters all around the world were able to use their sewing machines for simple quilting. Today sewing machines are computerised and some are capable of producing very fancy quilting patterns.  Special quilting machines are also available for home use and installed in garages, sheds and spare rooms all over the world.

What began as an activity to protect and warm the family is now a hobby and big business for millions of women and men around the world involved in specialist shops, books, websites and clubs. Conventions, competitions, classes and exhibitions are held. We still stitch for our families and for charity, and patched, embroidered and quilted works are exhibited in art galleries. 

---------------- QUILTERS will understand this ----------------

I've been put on this earth to sew
and finish a certain number of projects.
I am so far behind now…
I will never die! 

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about PIRATES

I like to stay up late, sewing, drawing, reading, writing - in fact it's 2.30am as I write this. I always have the TV on, for company and I often see interesting programs that are not on at other times.  One documentary series was about people, mostly Americans I think, who had been imprisoned or taken hostage, while on holiday or travelling.  It was called 'Locked up Abroad'.

I've since discovered there were seven seasons but I only saw a few episodes earlier this year on free to air TV.  Apparently a similar Australian program was made in 2009, called 'Trouble in Paradise' and the British version was Banged up Abroad.

I managed to see several different stories over six weeks.  The program interviews the actual people involved and illustrates their story with re-enactments. Several episodes were about people who had been talked into smuggling drugs and were then caught in central American countries, or Asia, where the prisons are not nice at all.  There were also a couple of stories of people being taken and held for ransom.  One of these really stood out to me.

Martin and Gracia Burnham where an American couple, working in the Philippines as missionaries. Martin was a pilot who supplied missionary workers in the mountains with food, medicine and other supplies.  To celebrate their 18th Wedding Anniversary they had a weekend away at a tourist resort while friends cared for their three children.  It just happened that the night of May 26th 2001 was chosen by a bunch of Pilipino terrorist pirates to raid that resort and kidnap the guests in cabins near the water.  Gracia and Martin were in the group.

After a few days on a small boat the hostages were taken to an island while their captors tried to arrange for ransom to be paid.  The Islamic group, known as Abu Sayyaf, were constantly on the move to avoid the Philippine Army.  Some hostages were released quickly but the others were forced to walk around in the Philippine jungle with the terrorists for almost a year. Quite a story.

November 2001

I was really interested in how they coped and in the interview Gracia talked a lot about that.  She mentioned one thing I will never forget. After what seemed like endless walking the group camped in the mountains for a few weeks. They slept on the ground and Martin was usually chained to a tree overnight. One day Martin said that he had seen hatred, bitterness, greed, covetousness and wrong doing while they were in that camp. Gracia agreed, thinking of things she had observed as well.

But Martin explained he hadn't been thinking of the Abu Sayyaf and the way they withheld food from the hostages, their uncaring attitude or their cruelty .... he had seen these things in himself.  The acts of Abu Sayyaf had brought out hatred and covetousness and other negative feelings in him. They named the place Camp Contentment because they felt they were learning to be content with what they had.

This is a familiar teaching and one we never really believe we must to put into practice, but if you think about it we probably have opportunities to do so every day.

Three quarters of the way through the episode I suddenly wondered why they only interviewed Gracia, and then it dawned on me - Martin didn't make it.  He was killed during the rescue. Gracia made it out, wounded - shot in the leg by the Philippine soldiers who rescued her. She returned home in June 2002. What a story.  She wrote a book, called 'In the Presence of My Enemies' - and of course I had to get a copy and it was worth reading. The book answers many of the questions that came to my mind about these terrorists and their motivation and reveals a surprising lifestyle and attitude.

Arriving home

Hearing about these real life experiences leads me to wonder about the people involved on both sides, to wonder how I would cope in that situation and to look at my life and my attitudes - and that's what these stories are meant to do.  It's also a reminder that everything we have in life, family, material possessions, success and social standing can be taken away in a moment. Pirates are everywhere, in many different forms, waiting to pillage, plunder, sack and burn all that we hold dear. Often our only protection is our attitude.

Sharing personal struggles and how we overcome them is important for all of us, even more important than sharing our achievements.  From personal experience I know that sharing news of winning a prize or getting an expensive gift, gaining a promotion or some other honour can be met by varying degrees of resentment in others, while sharing about surviving cancer or disaster or overcoming poverty is greeted with joy and pride and happiness - other people are encouraged as proof of our survival helps to overcome their fears.  We humans are funny creatures. 

So, what do you think?

PS:  Piracy is the practice of attacking and robbing ships at sea, or similar crimes such as hijacking and holding hostages for ransom. Those who engage in acts of piracy are called pirates.  In the 21st century, the world is faced with a huge problem of dealing with pirates.

DOGS ARE FUNNY

Our dog Rufous can be very funny - they say animals don't have a sense of humour but I'm sure I've seen dog humour. I don't mean that his cute antics make me laugh, no, I mean the dog understands fun.

Chewing sticks

When we first moved into our house, it was not much more than a big shed filled with furniture and boxes, and plenty of places to hide. Rufous and I did play hide and seek.  I'd hide somewhere and give a tapping signal and he'd search for me.  There was great excitement when he found me, lots of jumping up and down, squealing etc and Rufous was excited too. The games usually ended with a treat for him.

This is the treat cupboard

As we worked on the house, dividing off rooms and moving things around the game went on and one day I realised that Rufous was also hiding. I'd hide, he'd find me and then run off and hide himself. Sometimes he will start the game - I miss him and go looking and when I find him behind a box or a curtain he'll give me a huge Staffie grin and rush for the treat cupboard to be rewarded.  At other times he'll pop out from a hiding place, waggling all over as if to say 'boo'.  Just a coincidence, of course and an excuse for the treat cupboard.

Rolling a log

Another favourite game he plays with a log.  Aussie trees are always dropping branches or just falling over so we have a good supply of dead wood for the winter fire.  The logs are left dry out, in the paddock or until Ruffie get them. He likes logs about half his body size in diameter. He straddles them, bites and rips off the bark, and rolls the log around the paddock, even flipping it over at times and always making an aarrrrh aarrrh sound - not growling, more like a cartoon pirate. The sound is so loud I can hear it up the hill in the house and I know he is rolling a log. When visitors are around the log rolling is more vigorous and the  aaaarrrhh  even louder - what a little show off he is.  It is exhausting work but he keeps at it until we insist the log game is over, then he staggers home to collapse on the floor. Over the years the tips of his big teeth have been left, embedded in dense logs and he lost one tooth when it was split in two after chewing wood.  But log rolling is not a game for older dogs and the Ruf is beginning to realise this.

My ball

Rufous has never chased a ball AND returned it.  He's never seen the sense in that. Once he has what he's been chasing he keeps it, in fact he claims anything lying on the ground or on the floor as his property including lizards, tissues, cardboard boxes and food.  It's not that he won't give them up, he just doesn't volunteer it.  Any ball he gets is bitten in half within seconds.  He had a basketball for a few months, but only because Big R kept it on the move and Rufous did not had possession for more than a nanosecond.  It finally died when he was quick enough to grab it and run, and his big teeth punctured right through both sides - one dead ball.

I've read about those lovely gentle dogs who own baskets of fluffy toys and balls and Frisbees that they play with, and share with others.  The Staffie jaw would demolish all of these - even the extra hard rubber toys, in minutes.  The famous Kong is an amazing toy, indestructible - almost.  Other people see them and say, my dog has one of those, he's had it for years!  What!  When the Ruf was younger he destroyed an indestructible Kong in a few weeks.  I was buying a new Kong every three months. I don't want to count how many that is over the years.  But dogs need to chew and as he can't eat bones - his delicate tummy vomits up the chewed bits of bone - the next best thing is a Kong for games - and a raw carrot everyday.  

I've watched him with a Kong held tightly in his paws as he nibbles at bits of red rubber with his front teeth and .... do other dogs do this? ... spits it out!  Little bits of red Kong cover the floor around him and fly into all corners of the room.  I didn't know dogs could spit.  Then he'll get the Kong right into his mouth and work those back teeth on it until it splits.  And that is the end of Kong. 

Where I keep my Kongs

Now that Rufous is over 12 he's losing interest in playing Kong.  The two he owns have actually survived a couple of years They live jammed into the wire of his crate, and, on the odd occasion, when exciting visitors have just left or if he's in a very good mood, he'll rush over to the crate and pull out a Kong. He throws it into the air so it bounces and he can chase it.  He does this with raw chicken wings too and little frankies (frankfurters).  I've seen him put a frankie on the floor mat and giggle the mat with his feet so the frankie hops around.  Funny dog.

Chasing something that moves is Ruffie's greatest joy.  Somehow the kookaburras know this and they tease him by flying very low over the paddock. They fly low anyway to catch their dinner of beetles, lizards, snakes etc, but they do it more when Rufous is around.  Swoop goes the kookaburra and Rufous takes off after it.  And they'll do it two or three times in a row, often to an audience of other kookaburras sitting in a tree.  He has no hope of catching one but he loves the game and comes running back, tongue lolling, big grin on his face with an expression that says, 'Did you see that?'

The Staffie grin

Wallabies (like kangaroos) are also good to chase and probably the reason that last year Rufous had to have surgery on both his knees.  He is not allowed to chase them anymore because of his knees, and I've noticed that with this restriction the number of wallabies in our little forest has increased and they are getting much bolder.  I counted 11 wallabies in the paddock recently.

But, the sense of humour.

There are other dogs living along our road.  It's a short road of acreage blocks and each house sits on 4 - 6 acres of land, so not many houses.  Several people have 2 dogs, many have other animals too. At times cows push down the fence to graze on the road side. Several times lost horses have appeared in our paddock, they follow the wallaby tracks through the bush. A gaggle of geese wanders back and forth from one house to another, wild ducks also cross the road changing dams (ponds) and one neighbour has a dozen chooks (chickens) that live out the front on the nature strip. At different times wildlife such as bush turkeys, carpet snakes and large lizards are seen in the bush by the road - you have to drive carefully.

Our track

We have always kept Rufous away from the road unless he is on the lead.  I'd hate him to be the one to upset the chooks or freak out a goose. If they ran he'd chase. When he first came to live with us we walked him up and down the road and introduced him to the neighbours, but over the years the neighbours have changed and other dogs have arrived.
Every day Rufous walks back and forth across the hills with Big R or down the paddock helping with farm work and in between walks he sits guard, which is apparently tiring as it makes him very sleepy.  I don't like walking in the paddock in wet weather as it gets boggy and slippery so Rufous and I walk up to the letter box every afternoon, and along the road as far as the bend and back and down the neighbours track, where we often see wallabies.  We only walk to the bend in the road because around that bend the road is owned by other dogs - mainly Muttley, a big lanky loveable fella, with a very loud bark, who lives in a car port of the first house, and next door to him is another Staffie.  There are also German Shepherds at the top of the hill and they bark a lot, a Neo Mastiff and a black bittza live somewhere in the bush and a Jack Russell/Fox Terrier couple live half way along. Not all of these dogs are in a yard, they just hang out in front of their houses, waiting to bark at passers by.  Muttley likes to lie in the centre of the road, in the sun.

All of these dogs would be wonderful to chase and run in circles with and slobber over while going aarrrhh and grrrrrr, but ... the expensive knees - the fact that Rufous will always overdo that sort of socialising - the habit he has of running into the bush when off-lead or the problem of handling one dog on a lead while the others are off, forces us into a u-turn at the bend and the walk back to our own bush track.  I would love to be able to jog ... well walk briskly ... with Rufous on the flat surface rather than up and down the hilly paddocks, but it's out of the question.

So, we avoid Muttley. He barks at anything passing his house, alerting all the other dogs and then there is barking and yelping all the way up the hill and all the four legged residents rush out to see who is using their road.  At times Rufous and I have hidden in the bush to avoid being spotted. Of course the more we stay at our end of the road the more convinced the other dogs are that they own the rest. So, no socialising with the neighbour dogs but Rufous seems happy enough to enjoy their scents and leave his own because every day he rounds me up for our walk to the letter box and beyond.

Rufous wears a raincoat on winter mornings

One day it was drizzling enough for me to take an umbrella.  After a wet weather day inside Rufous really needed a walk. It was also drizzling enough for Muttley, and the other dogs, to be inside their own houses.  We got to the bend in the road. Rufous looked at me and his eyes went to Muttley's house.  I looked at him and knew what he was thinking.  Let's see how far we can go before Muttley hears us. Up the road we went, Rufous sniffing every blade of grass and every stone by the road, covering every other dog scent with his own, and me keeping watch. No sign of any other dogs. Feeling brave we got as far as the bushes by Muttley's driveway, crossed over the road and began walking back towards home. 

There is a deep storm water ditch on that side, mostly filled with long grass. Rufous stopped and looked back - it looked like he was forming an idea.  Tugging on the lead he dragged me back. As we drew level with Muttley's house Rufous went down into the grassy ditch where the other dogs like to play, squatted down and left a huge sample of his new diet - brown rice, sweet potato, carrots and chicken.  It was huge.  (No I didn't pick it up, the rain would take care if it eventually).

Finally he did the little hop, skip and jump he usually does to avoid stepping in his business, leapt out of the ditch grinning at me and together we both scuttled along the road towards home.  I am sure he was laughing.

Run Rufous, run

understanding COUSINS

- it can be confusing and over the years the exact description may have changed a little, but a simple explanation is this ...

Brothers and sisters have the same parents. 

The brothers and sisters of your parents are your aunts and uncles. 

The children of your aunts and uncles, and your cousins, are your cousins.

FIRST cousins are the people who have two of the same grandparents as you.

SECOND cousins are the people who have the same great-grandparents as you, but not the same grandparents.

THIRD cousins are the people who have the same great-great-grandparents...

FOURTH cousins are the people who have the same great-great-great- grandparents ...

FIFTH cousins are the people who have the same great-great-great-great-grandparents ...

A cousin REMOVED is only slightly different.  Removed indicates that the two people (you and the cousin) are from different generations. 

You and your first cousin are in the same generation which is one generation younger than your parents and two generations younger than your grandparents.

A cousin ONCE REMOVED has a difference of one generation so your mother's first cousin is your first cousin once removed, because you are one generation younger.

A cousin TWICE REMOVED has a difference of two generations so your grand-mother's first cousin is your first cousin twice removed, because you are two generations younger.

Working in the other direction if you have a son, and your first cousin has a son, they are SECOND cousins. The relationship of your son to your first cousin is cousin ONCE REMOVED.

Your grandchildren and your first cousin's grandchildren will be THIRD cousins.

Going up or down, the generations remain the same - counting first, second, third etc cousin for the relationship and then removing by one for each separating generation.

1925 - cousins with an Aunt

It can be good to make a graph, finding the common ancestor and working out from there. Working with half brothers and sisters might be a little difficult and while in real life it makes no difference to your feelings for them it can complicate a family tree with lots of extra entries. As long as you are not in a hurry it's a lot of fun, and very satisfying when you work it out.

1986 - first cousins on holiday



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NOTE: The children in the photos above are related -
Top photo: the little girl front left with the tongue poking out, is Margaret, 
Bottom photo: these children are Margaret's grandchildren - though she only knew the oldest 3.