The Supreme Award winner, Rattle Your Dags by Paula Coulthard and Ursula Dixon of Auckland, who were first time entrants.
The show was superb, and that Supreme winner really did stand out. I'll be back, soonish, with U and V!
The crocodile and the thong were bought on a trip to Darwin. The 'thong' was a joke with a colleague. "What's the dress code?" I asked. "Oh pretty casual", he said, "but no thongs". "Do you know what a thong means to me?" "No", he said, "I don't think I want to". We laughed and laughed. The thistle came from Edinburgh, and the three monkeys (see no, hear no, speak no evil) a souvineer from someone elses travels.
Here's the kitten J bought for me when my cat got run over (oh, Flossie!), E for Edward, and that beautiful steam train I bought in Adelaide. The thimble was a gift from my Mum, and the stein came from Munich of course.
The shell is from Gisborne, reminding me to be thankful, after a horrific car accident from which everyone recovered, the London bus was a gift, and there's J for Jack. Can you see the four leaf clover, horseshoe, and wishbone? A lovely gift from my Mum. The turtle is from London, he has a top hat and a cane. There are bagpipes there, from Sterling in Scotland, when you open them up, there's a dancer inside. There are some lovely Aussie souvineers there too, including a map of Australia, which was a gift, along with a Tasmanian devil (yep, I know one of those!), a cockatoo, and a boomerang, because I wanted to go back. I had a Eiffle Tower, and a white tudor rose I that bought in York, but I lost them in the sea in Corfu. Bugger it.
I've been a lot of places I guess, but there's still room on there for a Statue of Liberty, don't you think?
A little Christmas party dress perhaps?
Or this one, for a luncheon party?
Oh, Boss, about that pay rise...... That little black one would work wouldn't it?
That's my favourite. The blue one with the long sash. I could sashay about in that someplace, couldn't I? With the caplet of course. I live in Wellington after all.
Yep, I'll make me one of those, just as soon as I get the 18 inch waist sorted.
Q had to be quilt, of course. This is Out of the Blue from 2001. It won a blue ribbon at the New Plymouth National Quilt Symposium. That was exciting. I love that cool, clear sky blue.
Ohh, there're some lovely curves in this quilt. It's nice to see it again. It's a shame I keep so many of them rolled up (carefully) and hidden away.
I whipped this up, it was supposed to be a speedy quilt, for me, at the same time I made the fleece backed quilts for the boys. In the spirit of use-what-you-have, I hand-dyed the border fabric one quiet afternoon. I pieced the back from bits of stashed fabric, and an old curtain. I even pieced left over cotton batting together 'til I had a piece big enough. Then I thought I would quilt it heavily with a quarter inch grid. I soon realised the folly of that, it would take forever, so I stuck to a quarter inch diagonal line. Somewhere along the way, the lines developed a curve, and of course, each row magnified the curve a tiny bit more, and now the quilting looks horrible. The quilt is creased in the photo from being folded and left neglected in a corner. But now that I've got it out again, I realise I really do love it. I call it the virginal quilt, just quietly. Well, if I'm going to be sleeping by myself, I might as well sleep among flowers. I can't imagine inviting any man to join me under it, it's far too pretty for that!
P is apparently also for perfectionist. Because that quilting is going to be unpicked, and I'm going to start again.
from the outside, looking in
Here's Jack, a few years ago, inside that window you were looking in.
Now, that'll make a few Wellingtonians homesick I suspect!
The Kiss, by Rodin. You know him, The Thinker is his too. You can see them both, at the Musee Rodin, in Paris. A comparatively small, not so crowded gallery, in a beautiful garden. This was one of the most memorable works of art I saw in Europe (a long long time ago). It's incredibly sensual, and the photograph doesn't do the detail justice. But such passion.....ahhhhh..... 
J is for Jack. He’s 13. Sometimes I don’t understand him at all, at all. He loves his computer, sleeping in, potato chips (chippies, crisps, whatever you call them), his mother’s roast chicken and his very few friends that’ve been a tight unit for years now,He’s into computer animation. They swap funny, clever “Flash” files and critique each others work with humour and honesty. Teenage boys are great fun. They’re so funny! They laugh all the time. I love having the house full of them, but it doesn’t happen very often. They prefer to ‘talk’ via their computers rather than be in the same room. 
I’m not a quilter who struggles for inspiration. I either want to be sewing or I don’t and I don’t let it bug me. I’m a go-with-the-flow kinda girl. I’m not getting much inspiration from quilt books or magazines these days. I’m daydreaming about colour and colour combinations. Look at that cover, silver and lime. Wow! This is the only magazine that I let myself buy these days, and I find it very inspiring. It comes from Australia. This is the current issue, which I haven't seen on sale yet.
There’s a quilt idea in that stripy rug. I love the colours, they'd go well in this house.
Hi, I’m Helen. (I chose the most flattering pic I could find, of course).
There were some glorious little bits of business that I loved....the opening scenes of dividing the kingdom with Lear reading badly from cue cards at a lecturn.....Regan's fondness for a 'drop'. She took a goblet of wine at every opportunity, which set her up for her eventual poisoning very cleverly.....Lear and the Fool had a running gag going tweaking each others noses....and bawdy moments too....Lear nudging Goneril's husband suggesting it was time she was pregnant, Regan spreading herself across part of the crumbling scaffolding to seduce Edmund, and yes, Lear dropped his trousers in a moment that was completely appropriate, and more shocking for the graphic illustration of the madness than for the nakedness itself. The storm scenes were fantastic, real water raining on Lear and the Fool and Mad Tom. Lear's "Blow wind and crack your cheeks, rage, blow" gave me goosebumps.
Sylvester McCoy plays The Fool, maybe you know him as Doctor Who. He played the spoons, sang and made mischief and told those truths of his with great energy. They hung him, front of stage, and left him hanging, while the lights came up for interval and we went to buy icecream. The 'body' was collected with dignity while we watched and chatted. So clever.
These scenes, Lear with Gloucester (William Gaunt) were haunting. Two greiving, broken old men. The Edgar/Edmund story was rich and strong, I thought someone would get hurt in the swordfight. Mad Tom (with a bit of a Gollum feel about him) was wonderful. 
They got a standing ovation. There were hoots and hollers as the top ten (or thereabouts) took their bows. There was serious feet stamping for Sir Ian. He is beloved by Wellingtonians after living here for a year filming Lord of the Rings. I hope the riotous reception he got at the end of the show reminded him of that. (The pictures are from the RSC website).I've been disagreeing with reviews by the Dominion Post's Laurie Atkinson for over 20 years now. How does one become a theatre critic that so dominates this little city? Anyway, today's review is another I disagree with. The set, the rain, the Fool....they were magnificent. I had high expectations. They were exceeded.
Picture from the Dominion Post
There was another class act in Wellington on Saturday. Tana Umanga played his last game for Wellington. Famous for keeping his family out of the spotlight, he was joined on the field after the game by 2 of his children. In his farewell speech he spoke of the need to protect our children, of how he could play hard rugby, but he could also go home and love his kids. Just a very few, carefully chosen words. Very classy. Kia ora Tana.
Ohh, look. These guys are for sale here.
Here's a Golly quilt, called "Golly Gosh". You can buy the pattern here. Gollies seem to be popular in the Australian quilt making world.
