CANBERRA

We've been here for more than a week. There are three wonderful sewing and patchwork shops on this side of town and I've paid brief visits to all three. I was left for an hour in one of them: Rosemount at Tuggarong and matched to spend a healthy amount (the eftpos card worked!) so that I was given a handy shopping bag as well. Again I was buying animal fabrics and also a pattern or two.
There are lots of places to visit so I haven't been sewing on the machine as much, more handsewing in front of the TV in the evenings. However quilts have popped up everywhere. First off the War Memorial where I found 3 of the Changi quilts - they are in a very dim setting and semifolded so not very easy to see even when one presses the light button as this too is faint. It was very moving though to see the redwork blocks the women kept in Changi prison, Singapore, during the war had made, some containing a sort of coded message for their menfolk or expression of longing. The one to placate the Japanese guards used mainly innocuous floral motifs.
We also went to Lanyon, a homestead which predated the creation of Canberra though its land was subsequently taken over to allow expansion of the new city. In the parlour was a table with some faded hexagons pieced over papers. Howmany of these lie unfinished all over the world, I wonder . . . It was too dark and distant to photograph so I shot the display picture instead.