Saturday, November 10, 2012

On the road to Varanasi


Driving through the thick fog, it’s as if the universe has shrunk down to just this. The road disappears five metres in front of our eyes. Beyond that, there could be anything … sea monsters, a fairy castle, the god Ganesha reclining on a cupcake. You would never know.


It’s six am and the sun’s not up – or at least not visible through this unseasonable fog. The mist ridicules the headlights, diffusing the puny beam so that they’re less than useless. Everything is invisible. Everything is white. This must be what the world looks like through cataracts.




Painted trucks loom up at us without warning, their dark windows like eye sockets in a metal skull. The van swerves to miss them, and a cacophony of horns throws blame onto the road as we pass by the skins of our teeth.




As the hour wears on, the fog stays stubbornly in place, though the world starts to warm up inside it. Bicycles begin to appear, and women walking along the edge of the road, and bullock carts stacked high with bags of wheat. Every now and again a fire flickers through the veil, but it swallows the smoke without trace. 



I crossed the border from Nepal this morning. The immigration office wasn’t open and the touts hadn’t started to mill around the boom gate. A man with a scarf tied around his head took my passport, and checked every letter and number on the form I’d filled out against it. He carefully stamped the page and in ten minutes I was across the border and instantly into India.

I’d thought Nepal was quite like India, right up until that moment. But on stepping through the change was so palpable that I breathed it in. India has its own smell, its garbage is an art form and the way the shops are arranged is just so …. quintessentially Indian. In the space of a ten-metre parentheses, the whole world tilted slightly on its axis, I left Nepal behind, and India came sharply into focus.





It’s 300 kilometres to Varanasi, India’s holiest city, and it will take me ten hours in this car to get there. We’ll join another four lanes of traffic on this one-lane goat track that is the major highway, and we’ll go at an average 30km per hour while we avoid disaster on the pitted, pockmarked road. In some places there’ll be cows asleep in the middle, curled up like cats. There’ll be vegetable markets for miles, all selling the same combination of apples and bananas, or cauliflower, potatoes and eggplant. I’ll want to buy one of the hand-woven reed baskets with its pretty patterns of pink and green on the inside, but we won’t stop for that, not for love nor money.

And every time my driver, Mr Yadev, swerves to avoid a dog, or manfully passes a motor bike, or leans on his horn, or tops out the speedometer at the grand total of 43 km per hour; he’ll give a small, burbling wet belch of quiet satisfaction; all the way there.




Friday, November 9, 2012

Reaching Nirvana: are we there yet?


Six hundred years before Jesus or the prophet Mohammed, a baby boy was born.

Siddhartha was a prince born into a royal household. His mother gave birth to him after bathing in a pond.


When the astrologer came to read Siddhartha's horoscope, he predicted that Siddhartha would be one of two things: a great and powerful king, or a saint.


Siddhartha's father, the king, wasn't super keen on the idea of losing his heir to a sainthood, so he kept Siddhartha cosseted inside the palace. The king wanted to make sure Siddhartha had everything his heart desired, so that he would never want to leave.


But Siddhartha wasn't content. When he was 29 he left the palace for the first time, and he was shocked to see the suffering that had previously been hidden from him.


To cut a long story short, he meditated on this, trying to understand why people suffered, and after many years he reached enlightenment under a banyan tree. He became the Lord Buddha.


His realisations were that to live is to suffer. That desire is the root of all suffering.That rising above attachment is the only way to relieve suffering. That to be enlightened, to reach nirvana, is the ultimate state of being and the purest form of detachment.


Lumbini is the place where Buddha was born. It is a world heritage site and a place of pilgrimmage. Baby monks come here.


 You literally leave your shoes at the door, and walk barefoot inside the grounds.


A golden stupa marks the site of Buddha's birth. It's called the Maya Devi temple.


People light candles and incense.


There are many colourful prayer flags, from all over the world.


 And people pray under the big banyan tree. Sometimes for hours, in positions that look terribly uncomfortable.


And monks receive alms, and pose for photos. 


 Sadhus - holy men - come from all over India to pay homage to Buddha.
 

For Buddhists, it's one of the holiest sites in the world.

Thursday, November 8, 2012

Pictures from Nepal

Internet very bad! Cannot connect! Trying desperately to post photos instead! (This always seems to happen when I'm over this part of the world, doesn't it?)

I am reliably informed that access from India will be better. I'm due there tomorrow, after visiting Lumbini today. Lumbinin is where the Lord Buddha was born.

So I am hoping enlightenment will follow shortly afterwards.











Monday, November 5, 2012

Kathmandu, I could Kist you



Whoo, Kathmandu Nepal!

I am a mere 250km from Mt Everest. You cannot see it from my hotel room, but I did not know this. I thought I'd be able to just, you know, look up and see it EVERYWHERE. That is not the case.

Today I've visited a bunch of Buddhist temples and learnt about samsara and kharma. I've drunk yak milk lassi and waited in line for Amma, the hugging guru. (I did not get a hug. I do not hug strangers.)

But the internet, alas, it is very spasmodic and not at all reliable. So I am quickly posting this and I'm afraid I haven't been able to spend time polishing it.

The first thing that struck me about Kathmandu is that no ATM would take my card and that meant I had no money. Not a great start. Especially when you consider that the hotel we first arrived at also had no record of my booking (which I totally booked, and totally confirmed before we left), and therefore we had nowhere to sleep. It was midnight

It took me some time, but we worked through it and eventually got a room at the Kathmandu Guest House. The next day, it was ATM number five - for Kist Bank - that eventually accepted my card and gave me some money.

I immediately went out and bought the Mount Everest of had-embroidered felt balls. A thousand of them, to be precise. For a little over $25.

Score!

Sunday, May 13, 2012

My Life As A Blog

Are you a Sunday Age reader? Maybe you saw the cover story in today's M Magazine ......

http://www.theage.com.au/entertainment/my-life-as-a-blog-20120512-1yjbc.html

If you want to follow the epic project to bake every single cake in the Australian Women's Weekly Children's Birthday Cake Book, you can follow my blog here, or join my Facebook page here  !





Thursday, April 19, 2012

Cake it to the limit


Dear readers, I have begun a new blog project!

Having not had a birthday cake since I was ten or eleven - and that's a long time ago - I've decided to rectify the situation.

I'm going to bake every single cake in the Australian Women's Weekly Children's Birthday Cake book.

Yes, you heard correctly. There are 104, so if I bake one a week, every week, it will take me exactly two years. That's a lot of cake. I may have to start training for a marathon in parallel.

I'm still going to be posting my craft projects here at All Toile And No Reward though, so just add my new blog to your list.

You can visit me at www.womensweeklybirthdaycakeblog.blogspot.com.au -prepare to be covered in flour and icing sugar and tales of disaster!

Friday, March 9, 2012

My first ever neutral quilt! It's actually, um, red.


Ta da! I have completed my baby quilt for The Headmistress. And if I do say so myself, I think it's rather tickety-boo.

I spent months agonising over this quilt. First, the choosing of the neutral colours, because The Headmistress is very tasteful and elegant. My usual baby quilts are brightly coloured and patterned, and I knew that kind of thing just wasn't going to fly with her. This may be the first time in my life I have sewn anything that has "taupe" in it.

I ended up choosing French General fabrics, because they have that sort of quiet refinement that suits her; plus they are in tasteful colours and patterns.  I ended up focusing on red as the base colour because The Headmistress has a few cushions at home with red accents - and I thought if I got this right, it could get a look of the olde-worlde-heirloom-item about it. Do you think I managed it?

I set all the squares on point, and then cut out the triangles for the outer framing. When I sewed them together, I realised I'd cut the triangles the wrong size.

I was lucky enough to be able to ask my crafternoon companion, the Quilting Queen, what I had done wrong. She told me there was a formula involved. A formula! Did you know there was a formula involved? No, neither did I. I thought I'd left formulas behind in high-school maths, and I'm sure I never learnt anything HALF as useful as a quilting formula in school. Calculus and quadratic equations, yes. Quilting formula - SOMETHING I COULD ACTUALLY USE - no.  If you are wondering what it is, you can find it here.

Anyway, once I had the formula then I realised I'd used up all my edging fabric in the wrong-sized triangles. I had to order more from the States and wait for it to arrive. Which took a month. Then finally the package appeared on my doorstep and I was able to get this finished in a single weekend.

I did the quilting stitch a little differently, too - if you look closely you'll see that each square on point is divided into four triangles by the stitiching. I think it gives it a really interesting texture.

And did you notice the polka-dot binding? I made that sucker from scratch, readers, from scratch.  I am even impressed by my own self.

Here's the quilt draped over the cot it will adorn in just a few days time. The Headmistress is waiting patiently for you, Baby A ..... and I look forward to meeting you soon.



  1. Baby quilt for the Amateur Actress
  2. Baby quilt for Beck
  3. Baby quilt for the Headmistress
  4. Cup of tea and a lie down after three baby quilts in quick succession
  5. Complete the massive postage stamp quilt I started early last year. I was doing fine until I realised I'd accidentally doubled the recipe and was now making the quilt twice as big as it needed to be. King-size. In three-inch squares. That's a lot of seams. It's been stuffed into the back of a drawer (a big drawer) for months now, because I get a cold shiver every time I even think about going back to it.
  6. Curlicue Crush quilt 
  7. Complete a patchwork screen using the antique wooden frame that's shoved into a corner of the sewing room and has been unused for years. In the hope of selling it at a market later in the year.
  8. Start the Autumn Daze quilt from Kaffe Fassett's Quilt Romance book
  9. Bit of a breakdown as I realise doing all those quilts is probably impossible, and why do I always set my sights on unattainable goals and is this a major character flaw and do I set myself up for failure this way and why can't I just live more in the now without having to constantly achieve, achieve, achieve; ...valium now please.
  10. Finish those grey wool pants I cut out in the middle of winter last year ... sigh ....
  11. Put up shelves in my sewing room so that my wondrous and ever-growing collection of lovely new and vintage tins can be displayed to its best advantage so that I can actually see and enjoy them. Right now they are piled on top of each other in a heap on the sewing table.
  12. Make a curtain for the sewing room window. It's been naked-of-curtain for more than 18 months now and I can't stand another winter without one.
  13. Organise myself for a destash sale. Gulp.
  14. Get Etsy sorted out. With current stock. Take some damn pictures, Flickettysplits!
  15. Start blogging againOh, I've done that one! Tick that box. 

Friday, February 17, 2012

A surprise Hoot!



Well, look at this! What do we have here?

This is an early edition Flickettysplits "Hoot" owl .... that I discovered, quite by chance, on display at GJ's Discount Fabric Store in Lygon Street!

It was such a nice surprise to see this little guy set up on a shelf. I remember selling this one at a Made N Thornbury market a looooong time ago - maybe three years? - so it was a really pleasant shock to see him again.

GJ's have lots of toys on display to show what you can do with fabrics when you put different colours and patterns together. I feel very proud to have one in the mix.

Saturday, February 11, 2012

Strange Places My Cat Sits: on the rag rug


Actually, Podae does not sit in many strange places.

He is a very proper pussin. Very well-mannered. He sits on the sofa, or the chair, or the bed, or the rug.

He does not choose wild and crazy spots like the sink, as do some other pussins I could name.

So I feel he's missing out on his share of the limelight in this series. Henceforth, I shall include the odd random photo of Podder being his lovely normal self.

Or not ......

Thursday, February 9, 2012

More vintage cushions


Ah, there's something about a tea-towel that warms the cockles of my heart.

Vintage or otherwise, I love Australiana tea-towels. Wherever I go, I pick one or two up. My One True Love knows that any trip to anywhere has to include a visit to the local purveyor of tea towels. I can happily spend hours fossicking through great piles of tat if there is even the mere promise of a tea towel at the end of it. In this matter my patience knows no bounds.

I have quite a lot of them now as a consequence, but in my view you can never have enough. They're kind of like orange shoes in that respect.


I can't bear to actually use them as tea towels, of course. I make them into cushions, or peg bags, or other kitschy pieces. I'll have quite a stash at my next market stall, at the Abbotsford Convent on the third Saturday in March, including these two here.

I need to start selling them, you see, in order to make room for more!

Wednesday, February 8, 2012

Kapow!


I am not ordinarily a car fan.

But LOOK at this car! Look how ORANGE it is! This is my new favourite car EVER.

I photographed it in the carpark at my local gym, just as the sun was hitting it in exactly the right way. It's so vibrant it just seems to burst with colour. Wow. This is not a car you can (or would want to) hide.

No one accidentally chooses an orange car, or decides it's just "okay". It's a very deliberate selection. 

We all know that Tangerine Tango is the Pantone colour of the year for 2012. As orange is my favourite colour, I've been wearing this shade for many, many years now .... and at last, it is on-trend. Even in car paint. (What is the technical term for car paint?)

It just goes to show that if you put a stake in the ground early enough, and wait long enough, fashion will catch up with you. Eventually.

Of course next year there'll be a different colour of the year (I'm betting it will be some kind of minty turquoise-y colour) and I will be out of fashion again. And this time I will be excruciatingly out of fashion too, as orange will be so last year, as opposed to just my own quirky eccentricity. 

Did you know I have four pairs of orange shoes? And three more that have bits of orange incorporated in them? My One True Love thinks that is enough, but I stand in defiant physical proof of the fact that there can Never Be Enough Orange Shoes.

Anyway, back to this car. Apparently it's a Ford Focus - and did you know the Focus will be coming to Australia in an electric version in 2014? I think I might start saving ...... as long as I can still get it in this colour. 

Soooo 2012.

Monday, February 6, 2012

The Kaffe Fassett quilt - finished!


 At last, the Kaffe Fassett quilt is finished, and I LOVE IT. It's a fine piece of work, if I do say so myself.


I think it's the best quilt I've ever made - all the seams match up, the colours are spectacular, the flannel backing is particularly soft and lovely,and of course there's that invisibly hand-stitched binding to top it all off.


So I'm glad it's going to the Amateur Actress. She came to pick it up yesterday and we took these photographs. I especially love the one of her reclining, considering it was actually 34 degrees outside in the burny sun, and she put up with me fussily arranging and re-arranging a super-warm flannel-backed quilt over the top of her bump and making here stay there while I took a range of photographs from ever-so-slightly different angles.

She's a good egg, that Amateur Actress.



  1. Baby quilt for the Amateur Actress
  2. Baby quilt for Beck
  3. Baby quilt for the Headmistress
  4. Cup of tea and a lie down after three baby quilts in quick succession
  5. Complete the massive postage stamp quilt I started early last year. I was doing fine until I realised I'd accidentally doubled the recipe and was now making the quilt twice as big as it needed to be. King-size. In three-inch squares. That's a lot of seams. It's been stuffed into the back of a drawer (a big drawer) for months now, because I get a cold shiver every time I even think about going back to it.
  6. Curlicue Crush quilt as posted on a few days ago
  7. Complete a patchwork screen using the antique wooden frame that's shoved into a corner of the sewing room and has been unused for years. In the hope of selling it at a market later in the year.
  8. Start the Autumn Daze quilt from Kaffe Fassett's Quilt Romance book
  9. Bit of a breakdown as I realise doing all those quilts is probably impossible, and why do I always set my sights on unattainable goals and is this a major character flaw and do I set myself up for failure this way and why can't I just live more in the now without having to constantly achieve, achieve, achieve; ...valium now please.
  10. Finish those grey wool pants I cut out in the middle of winter last year ... sigh ....
  11. Put up shelves in my sewing room so that my wondrous and ever-growing collection of lovely new and vintage tins can be displayed to its best advantage so that I can actually see and enjoy them. Right now they are piled on top of each other in a heap on the sewing table.
  12. Make a curtain for the sewing room window. It's been naked-of-curtain for more than 18 months now and I can't stand another winter without one.
  13. Organise myself for a destash sale. Gulp.
  14. Get Etsy sorted out. With current stock. Take some damn pictures, Flickettysplits!
  15. Start blogging again. Oh, I've done that one! Tick that box.