More creativity!

Yesterday I put a lot of my Sister's Choice blocks together.

Here it is hanging over the balcony.
Now it is up to 8 blocks by 10, the blocks are 8" (finished).
I have another 30 blocks so it is going to end up being 10 blocks by 13 which will make it 80" x 104" - that is a good size!

These are blocks made by my Best Sister, and my friend Trish. And me.
We have been making these and sharing them around for quite a while now.
Here are some more pics. Now each of my three sisters and my two sisters in law have one. Shall have to make one for The Sweetheart's baby sister, too. (She is only 24 (younger than most of our Smellies!) and we have only recently had her back in our lives. SHe is off to Europe in a few weeks so I shall make a Travelling Quilt firstly).

The white dangly bit on the top RH side isn't daggy threads - is the wiring from the sparkly Christmas lights which decorate my chandelier.

Sister's Choice

What happened @ Easter...

On Good Friday we went to Albury and stayed with S2 and his Beloved again. They have done lots of things since we were there last (the weekend before!) including digging out all the weeds from their patch of lawn and reseeding it, planting LOTS of seeds and plants in their vege garden, and getting on with their guitar lessons...

On Saturday we headed north.

We played submarines in Holbrook, and a nice Kiwi woman from Gisborne took our photo at The Dog on the Tuckerbox at Gundagai.

Then on to Bathurst where we met up with TWO Axe Murderers, and staying with one!

Christine is on the LHS of this photo in her studio, and we stayed in her wonderful home.
The most beautiful place we have ever stayed.
There are more photos after this, but just picture a 19th century workmen's brick cottage, semi detached, but instead of a dark passage to access the rooms a wide sunroom with the rooms opening off it with internal windows and glass paned doors. And then filled with flowers, quilts, beautiful old furniture, and wonderful food smells!


And that is Del on the RHS of the photo above. She came around for a moment to see what I looked like and we didn't stop talking for three hours!!!

This is where we went on Sunday, me in the 'truck' as Pit Crew and The Sweetheart getting ready to scare the living daylights out of himself! AS I mentioned in this post we were there to have a lovely fun time on what is The Mountain of Australian Motor Racing. I don't think it is very often used for club racing - mostly it is The Big Boys with all their money and sponsored hot cars that get to run around here. 

The Festival of Sporting Cars was a wonderful event!

This is The Sweetheart in our dear Little Red Car, lined up on the Dummy Grid. He had enormous fun, with a top speed of 200 kph down the straight on his runs. 

He leapt from the car at the end of each run absolutely GLOWING!!! 

This is the hotel where we stayed Sunday and Monday nights. It is right on the track with all the rooms opening onto balconies overlooking the track, the other side of the hotel has all the service rooms. Our room was on the second floor just in front of Armorall.

That cloud of dust is someone giving themselves an almighty scare. Nobody was hurt and only a couple of cars out of the field of 600+ were a bit bent over the entire weekend. A wonderful record!!

The whole event was organised and run by volunteers from all around the country - members of various car clubs. They all did a wonderful job - everything from flag marshalling to timing and just being helpful. This country really would be rooted if it wasn't for volunteers...

We packed up on Tuesday afternoon, getting Little Red onto the trailer just as the rain started, and headed for home.
The very first hill out of Bathurst the trailer started driving the car - it was a very greasy road. I started yelping and essentially didn't stop stressing for 15 hours. We DID stop for a snooze in a truck stop out of Wodonga for 2.5 hours but didn't get home until 5 a.m. I am still a *bit* tired...

However, it was a wonderful weekend, and a great experience. However, NEXT Easter we are going back to the National Folk Festival in Canberra - The Sweetheart can do My Thang!!!

That 10,000th visitor...?

A little while back the 10,000th visitor to here came along and I am offering a prize to that person. But they aren't a bloggie person and therefore don't have any contact details.
Check here if you were in Little Rock on April 1st (not an April Fool's Joke) and let me know for a little surprise!
Otherwise, I shall just wait till the 20,000th person has a squizz...

Some yearnings

I have a few little shakers of various types - a silver sugar caster, and some salt shakers. I put my cinnamon in one so I can shake it in a nice fashion over my yoghurt, honey and mango.

But isn't this a rather yummy looking little cupboard and an even lovelier collection!
It belongs to quilt designer Anne Sutton and I found it on The All People Quilt site.

It is a site filled with all sorts of time-wasting pages...
Oh, and you can sign up so they will send you some more ideas every week thereby causing even more time to vanish.

You were warned.


I think this is also from the same place (ie BH&G All People Quilt). I deleted the link so I can't totally credit it, and another day will vanish if I go looking for it...

ThANK YOU Susie!!! She found the link to the quilt:

http://www.allpeoplequilt.com/antiquequilts/antique-quilts_ss2.html

Click on it to have a good look!!

But it is an old (1930's era) quilt in the top photo and a modern reproduction underneath.

I like the brighter old quilt much better. The modern quilt looks gloomy I reckon.

Very cute little Nine Patches with that curved sort of sashing  in between the blocks.
Be a good setting if you had a collection of Nine Patches from a swap.
Especially if they were tiny blocks...











This is a really nice idea for my bathroom.
REALLY nice!

I will post some photos of my current bathroom one day. When I get brave enough to show you.
It is a temporary bathroom. It isn't going to be temporary forever. If it was then it wouldn't be temporary, would it?

I DO really like the idea of a quilted tiled bathroom, however.

Shall have to collect more old tiles. I have some lovely old blue and white antique ones that have been around here for a long time. So this is an idea I have had for about 20 years. I haven't even had a temporary bathroom for anywhere near that long!




Incidentally - have you noticed how much easier it all is to post now? Blogger Fairies have been even busier whilst I was busy last week  and done all sorts of lovely things.
It is so much quicker to post and edit - look at uploading photos for starters!
However, I am still getting used to what it looks like. My Preview hasn't turned out like the original posting looks and I came back to re-edit and it is just getting even more all over the place.

Better finished that perfect. My quilts are like that.

Life...

Life... We would be a bit stuffed if we didn't have Life but geez it DOES get in the way sometimes.

This past week has been so busy.

Dad's funeral was on Wednesday.
Here we are (some of us) at the pub for a little wake after. There are a lot of boys on that side of the family!
Got to meet The Sweetheart's little sister for the first time (she isn't in the photo). Of course the family have known her marginally but she wasn't really a big part of this side of the family. Seems to have been actively discouraged from knowing her Dad.
She is only 23 - Dad remarried when he was 65...
She is gorgeous, tall and with a smile that lights her face and half the world - even though she was so distraught at the funeral for the Dad she never got to know. And she is living in Melbourne, last year at University (Industrial Design which is what my Baby Brother studied. And at the same place, too).



 On Thursday The Beezs came back to visit. They had a gig on Friday night at The Palais in Hepburn Springs which unfortunately turned acoustic when The Palais sound system went very ill. They were fabulous though and JUST what we both needed to cheer us up after a sad week.
They stayed a few days before heading to their last gig in Australia for this tour. They will be back in 2012. I shall let you know when their next gig is. Or check their website for Northern Hemisphere dates.

I got up one morning and Trevor seemed to be missing. Then he poked his little head out from a nest he had made in the couch cushions. Right in between them.
That dog certainly is a worry!
He did look very sweet however.

And look at that Chook cushion. She is wearing purple Doc Martens like I do and has a secret pocket in her wing that sometimes has treasures in it...Easter eggs for example.



Then Saturday we drove four hours to Albury to have a housewarming party for S2 and his Beloved. And it was also my Biggest Little Brother's 50th birthday. S2 and his Beloved cooked a great meal and we ate and had a lovely time. Except I forgot to take all my lovely drugs and found just how effective those pain killers are. Even panadeine every couple of hours didn't do anything nice for me. Got home last night and immediately gobbled my dose. Can't believe how much pain they do indeed kill!

Three quilts went north - a Housewarming Quilt for S2 and his Beloved, and a Birthday Quilt for my darling handsome Bro, and another Quilt that S2 made when he was 18. Actually, they are only tops so far...

The photos for all that partying etc are on The Sweetheart's camera, and we shall have to wait until  he downloads and sends them to me. I will add them later. Or sooner...

Got back Sunday afternoon in time to watch the Australian Grand Prix - poor Mark Webber, when is he ever going to have a proper podium? Or ten would be even better...

I am going to close my Blogaversary Give-away tomorrow night (Eastern Aussie D.S. Time) so hop in for it if you haven't entered

More op shop treasure!!!

And I found some more op shop treasure at The Salvos in Albury!!!
This is four panels that had been hand sewn into curtains, so really easy to pull apart. Each piece of material is about 2 metres long, lovely 1960's print I guess.
In all 8 metres of material for $6...

Just look at these mad statues of liberty, space capsules, astronauts, and all with luscious lime green and hot pink accents!!!
Think this will just HAVE to be a 1960's frock for next summer:



And this is S2 with Trevor sucking up to him. He thinks Trevor is depressed, so he cuddles him and says "Are you sad, Dear Little Dog?" and the DLD gazes soulfully at S2 and snuggles in and sighs "Yes I am, but less so when you cuddle me. Don't stop"....


The quilt is a couch quilt for The Sweetheart's lounge room...

Time flies

I have been away doing all sorts of things.
Last weekend was Labour Day long weekend. To celebrate the 8 hour day everyone in Victoria takes a holiday...

We went to Mitta Mitta to visit my brother and sister in law at their wonderful Witches Garden.
This past weekend was extremely rainy - a remnant of a couple of cyclones that have been wandering around the northern parts of Australia. So warm(ish) tropical rain bucketing down. We drove up in the rain to the Dartmouth Dam because it was too wet to do anything else:


And look at the rain pouring down the spillway cuttings (been years since there was water over the spillway from the dam, sadly) into the Mitta River:


Same as last year - the Might Mitta Muster was on. (Check out the link for last year's photos in the sunshine!).
Because of the rain all the woodchop events were cancelled, and many of the horse events too. There was a clever young bloke with a pile of whips he had made himself, and he was thrashing them around his ears, and around the ears of anyone who was brave (silly) enough to be his 'assistant'. What looks like smoke is the rainwater evaporating off the ends of his whips at the speed of sound as he cracks them:

And THEN I stayed on for a few days and helped my S2 and his darling move into their new home in Albury. This was some of the 1/3 truckload of boxes that had been in storage for the five years they have been working in Europe, and also some of the treasures they air-freighted home from Dublin. It was like Christmas for them, discovering all sorts of delights:

The bride is wearing her hen's night veil with the red devil horns...
All those boxes are now unpacked and their contents tucked away in their right places. It seems the only thing that got smashed along the way was the Man of Steel tin (sorry about the blurry pic - I was laughing too hard at this symbol of irony):


Tomorrow I shall post some pics of the quilts I have made for them and that I not only got to take photos of but GOT TO WASH (one was for his 18th birthday, the other for his 21st. Only one of them had been washed. EVER. He is now 33... And he lived under them all through 5 years at Uni. They were pretty stinky...)

Blogaversary Give-away

And to celebrate my first blogaversary I am going to give away one of my quilts.

Freshly made for this momentous occasion.
To be perfectly Frances with you - is STILL being made for this milestone!!!!

Here is a hint of it. It will be about 45" x 55" when it is finished - give or take a few inches depending on what sort of borders I discover at the quilt shop I am heading off to right now...





Please post a link to this give-away notification on your blog, and leave a comment telling me you have done that.

And in a couple of weeks I shall get some impartial person to randomly draw a winner.
Please make sure your blog settings are such that I can email you. It is a good thing to do anyway, because then bloggers can write and thank you for leaving a comment on their blogs.
And you know the rules for this sort of thing - keep it nice please!
P.S. Please note the rules!!!!
The only one is below the photo of the quilt - "...post a link ...on your blog, and leave a comment telling me...".
I am going to be tough here - you should know that I am the eldest sister of six kids. I was always the one held responsible for all the naughtiness of my sibs - so I am a stickler for rules (especially when applied to others....!).

AND THE WINNER IS CINDY OF B.C. Check it all out at:

http://banaghaisge.blogspot.com/2010/04/and-winner-is.html

Thank you all for your lovely comments, and your enthusiasm, and your entries.
And if you aren't a quilter but would love a quilt I can always teach you how to make one. Or I will make one but that costs LOTS...
Again, thanks heapsly, you are all wonderful winners. 
I had to type "Communicate fullness" as  verification on a post to Facebook. I reckon that isn't such a shabby motto for life, actually.
Go and communicate fullness!!! 

Something useful

Look at this most very useful colour wheel tool:
http://colorschemedesigner.com/

I would like to grab the front page to show you here but I can't figure out how to do that (yet).
So, just go and have a look, and have a play around with it.

You can work out all sorts of triad, tetrad, mono colour schemes.
ALL sorts of things!!!!

And thank you to Ansie at http://sonenskadu.blogspot.com/ who had this tucked away on her blog.

Back to making that quilt top for the give-away...

Blogaversary begins...

And here is a little peek at what is on offer for my Blogaversary give-away.
I started it on Monday, and it is coming along very well indeed! It is a jelly roll - Mary Engelbreit for Moda. One of the JRs I got from Miss Vikki Frou Frou when she was having her clean-out recently(ish)
The top is almost together, I just need to get some more border material - I think red...


Stay tuned!!!!

Blogaversaries...

Annie O is a quilter in California and she started her blog just before I began mine. Last week she had a give-away because it was her first anniversary.
Which reminded me that it was almost my blogaversary, too.

She is giving away this gorgeous little quilt. Along with four patterns of other little quilty things to make.
Anways, I was lolling about in bed this morning with Trevor sticking his shiny wet black beetle nose onto mine (to tell me he needs me to open the door for him to go out and make sure the pot plants haven't moved in the night or something. Be great when he grows opposable thumbs. I can then sleep in) and thinking about what I shall do for my blogaversary on the 26th of February.
Which quilt?
Drag a WIP (really a UFO) out of the meat safe?
Or shall I make one especially?

And finally got up for Trevor, checked my emails to find I HAD WON THE QUILT!!!!!

How good is that?! I am so pleased. And it is going to come all the way across the sea for me.
Hooray!!!

So tomorrow, watch this space. I shall be announcing a give-away to celebrate a whole year of blogging. Blogsteading.

That should give me another 24 hours of making a decision on what to give away.

Be assured, however, that I shan't be just passing on Annie's give-away.

Stay tuned.

The Traveller Returns

One of my nieces went to Denmark 12 months ago as a Rotary Exchange student.
Sunday night we went to Melbourne Airport to wait for her return.
Lew, Floss, Frosty and I waited, leaping every time the doors from Customs and Immigration opened!


Caitlin was 15 when she left, and very nervous and frankly a skinny child...



This woman returned to us!!!!

She has had a fabulous time in Denmark, and is planning to return for her Uni studies...(and she put on 12 kgs and grew a foot taller!)



This is the Travelling Quilt I made for her to take away with her. It is Aussie quilt labels with red or blue triangle edges on each block then gold or green sashing.

Friends and family wrote on lots of the labels, and she says the quilt is now covered with memories of her travels.

Welcome home Caity!!!!

Busy Sunday!

I did so much on Sunday that I am only now getting to the computer...

It was The Sweetheart's Dad's 88th birthday.
He went in to Happy Paddocks Nursing Home* a few months ago after a fall and 6 weeks in the Royal Melbourne Hospital. He is a good old bloke - trotted off to hippydom in his 50s, grew his hair, got into Substances (*possibly*) and became a potter. A wonderful potter.

On a scale of kerosene to ten, Happy Paddocks rates about 12. It is terribly elegant, lovely antique furniture, classy prints, huge arrangements of silk flowers (that from a distance look real, are dusted frequently, and swapped around so the residents believe they have fresh flowers every week...), water features and marble at the entrance, even a concierge.
And terribly expensive.
Dad was a Rat of Tobruk and then fought in New Guinea and consequently has a Veteran's Affairs Gold Card which makes it possibly for him to be in this place.
I made a quilt for him when he moved into Happy Paddocks.

His partner Barbara is a beautiful, elegant woman. She used to be a stewardess in the 60s with Lufthansa, and has a bucketload of German effiency and style. She goes to visit him almost every day (train, two trams and some walking), and on Sunday organised a fabulous afternoon tea (would we have expected anything less????). Her own baked cheesecake, chocolate mud cake, fruit cake (that was all fruit), nibblies, as well as champagne, real coffee, tea. And organised a private room for the event.

I made a quilt for Barbara. It was going to be a Christmas present but with everything else I just didn't get it finished even though I started it in November. Far more sewing than I expected actually, even though it was quilt As You Go. Those 1" strips... And I also hand stitched all the strips on the back over the raw edges. (Excuses, excuses...).

Here is the quilt:

And here is Barbara after she finished being overwhelmed (she teared up!). That is Dad in the foreground with one of my handsome step-boys:


And she HUGGED me! Isn't she gorgeous? She was born in 1932, I hope I look as beautiful when I am heading towards 80. Tho I know enough about genetics to realise that there isn't much chance of having any of the genes of a step-mother. And a double de facto one at that...



* Not it's real name...

Friday Flaunt

I got my sewing mojo back!!!

Because it has been so lovely and cool (only about 30*) I have been sewing.
I made a quilt top on the last two afternoons.
I had some Mary Engelbright Jelly Rolls from Miss Vikki Frou Frou when she was having her clean-out.
I used this pattern from Piece N Quilt. She only used one Jelly Roll, and I had TWO. HOORAY!!!!
My quilt therefore is much larger, 66" x 80", it will come down a bit with quilting. Or may go up a bit if I add another border...
(If you are unaware of just what a Jelly Roll is here is an explanation).


Last night, when it was hanging from the Design Balcony I saw that I should have got anal about the stripes. Because I had two JRs I could have extended the colours in the border so they matched up with the centre panel. In the bottom row I fluked a blue, pink and green, and a red, green and pink in the top row.
Last night I thought about unpicking and resewing it so it all matched up.
But I had had a few Bloody Marys - now that I have sobered up I realise it would be a really silly thing to do...
This is a detail of the flowers. Yet to sew them on, and there are also leaves to add, but I ran out of vliesofix. The flowers are raw edge, but I made the stem the same way as the pattern said.

I got immensely clever with the mitred corners.
They aren't mitred at all, but striped panels cut in half diagonally, swapped around and sewn back together.

Five strips are 10.5" wide (close enough to 10" which is what the border panel widths are). Make four of these, same colours in the same places. (But better if they are diff materials tho for that scrappy look).
Cut two of the panels from top left to bottom right and the other two from top right to bottom left. Swap 'em around and sew the centre seam.

Join them to the ends of the side panels and then on to the quilt. I sewed the top and bottom panels on first.
Because the top is made from Jelly Rolls then the measurements are easy. It is just multiples of 2.5".
There is a fraz of fudging on the half square triangles which are the corner units - because you lose a bit in the centre seams. But nothing a bit of steam and some judicious stretching whilst sewing wont fix...

And this is how clever the corners look:


I saved all the white background strips for the binding, and there are a couple of bits of side border, two lengths of red and some scraps from the flowers and trimmings to add to the backing.

The JRs are Baskets of Flowers by Mary Engelbreit for Moda.
The backing is going to be Pantone 3005U which is a lovely 1940s era blue.

(BTW, I borrowed The Sweetheart's Pantone Guide. It is a wonderful tool. And you could spend hours playing with their website...)

This quilt reminds me of Mum's aprons.

Christmas IS Coming...

Yep, even tho I have been trying to believe yesterday was November 23rd it didn't happen. Never got that extra month.
I had a minor panic attack when someone on the radio said "...and only a day and a half left to get all your shopping done..." I could do with an extra few days at least.



Anyway - the tree is up and sparkling away! The tree itself is the 8' tall wire stand that usually is in the bathroom with soap and stuff on it's shelves and towels hanging off. Circled by fake pine tree garland I have had for 20 years, and lights, and lovely antique shiny red glass balls I bought in a garage sale in San Francisco in the 80s. At the bottom is a little wooden train I painted in the 80s with my boys initials as the carriages.

Jake is one of Santa's Little Helpers and he KNOWS he isn't allowed on the couch.
This is his compromise!!!! So naughty!


On Tuesday I had a Little Christmas with Smellie 4 - we met half way from where he lives in Melbourne (in time) at Sunbury. This is what he and the Gorgeous Clancye gave me.
(More photos of the Quilt Calendar following).
They also bought The Sweetheart two very appropriate pressies - "The History of Porsche" (lovely coffee table sized book full of wonderful photos), and a little Matchbox 911 that S4 found on the 'Net. It has had a roll-over, and obviously is as well loved as The Sweetheart's 911 is (tho his DOES have a windscreen...) and was made in 1978 - almost the same age as his 911. Very clever pressies, thank you darling ones. (And one can never have too much Chanel 5. Has been my perfume of choice since the 1970s and I love it. Even tho they have changed the formula somewhat. Probably used up all the rare species' juices they once used...).

This is what the Quilting Calendar looks like:
It has a quilt on one day, and the following days have the patterns for that quilt, and then there is another one! What a way to spend the year - looking at quilt patterns to start each day.

Off to finish a quilt which is a pressie, and do a few things - then to Mitta to the mighty Witches Garden for Christmas, hooray!!!!!

Stay safe and happy Christmas time to everyone!

We don't know how lucky we are...

Way back in the 70s I was married to a Kiwi whose lovely Mum kept sending Fred Dagg records and tapes over for us. Last night ABC TV had a Fred Dagg retrospective. John Clarke is genius of the first water. And who can forget the farty scene in Death in Brunswick when John Clarke and Sam Neill were carrying the corpse of the nasty chef through the cemetery at the dead of night?

Here is one of my favourite Fred Dagg songs:



Here is a tiny trailer for Death In Brunswick, too:


PS One day I was in Threadbear quilt and antique shop in Castlemaine and heard a most very familiar voice. Dashed in to the antique half of the shop and came nose to nose with John Clarke. Who of course I don't know in the biblical sense or indeed any other way except electronically. I did a sort of head scratching skid to a halt, checked the price tag on something and scuttled nonchalantly back to the quilt side of the shop...

Back to Christmas sewing. I am fooling myself that it is still amonth to Christmas I know. BUT - it is a month to Newstead Live best little folk festival in the world (Andy Irvine told us so. Which reminds me - still have to finish HIS quilt too...)

Friday Flaunt

I know, I know - it is TWO weeks since I last blogged. But I have been busy. And so busy that when I am not being busy I have been recovering from being busy...

Firstly, two weeks ago The Sweetheart and I went to Adelaide to the Classic Adelaide Car Rally. We had Media Passes - all very important bits of laminated plastic around our necks on important looking lanyards and hi-vis white vests. The rally goes for four days, covering about 1,000 kms around Adelaide and surrounds. I shall write about it all in another blog. However, this is a shot of the Porsche which won.



I made a pile of Happy Scrappy House blocks for a swap with the American group I am on. Lovely, easy and good fun pattern from Quiltville, thank you Miss Bonnie!!!
There is a door mat with my addie and I fussy cut kangaroos looking out each window...



Smellie 4 and his GF are moving into a house in Northcote (hopefully they have a landlord who can see what great tenants they will be and they have the house they want!).

I found some furniture for them at St Vinny's. A wonderful almost new couch - for $10 and a table for $15.
The round table has lovely slender Scandanavian looking legs, really rather elegant and pulls out to a larger oval.

Really pleased with these treasures.






And my garden is coming along - I had strawberries for dinner the other night. Not many but they certainly made up for the paucity with their wonderful flavour.
These are the ones I bought at the South School fete a couple of months ago.
The spuds and corn are also looking healthy.







And then - I dug out 8 Ohio Star blocks that are ages old. All rose prints with pink backgrounds and all rather last century looking.

Made another dozen blocks and they still looked rather last century.
It pays to sleep on things - in the middle of sleep on Wednesday night I woke up to "Double Nine Patch" running through my head.

And how good do they look!!!!

They are 12" blocks so if I use 18 stars and 17 Double Nine Patches I shall end up with a fairly decent sized quilt...
Set 7x5 that will make it approx 7' x 5'. Ahh, probably need borders on the side to make it wider.
I don't want to set it 6x6 cos then the stars wont be in each corner. I don't like the lopsidedness of that sort of setting. But may just have to live with it.
OR - I could set it 7x7... Stars will be in each corner... Woo - I shall have to get a new bed - this would be draped across the floor on my double bed.

The Nine Patches start with little 1 3/4" squares pretty cute all scrappy pinks and greenswith pink larger squares making up the Nine Patches.

How funny is this? I had 8 leftover blocks and suddenly am now looking at a king sized quilt. All from stash so it is a FREE quilt.

New bed would be nice though. I lust after a four poster bed. With curtains I can pull around and close out the world, and lots of quilts on it, and a mossie net for the summer when I open all my French doors and sleep in the tree tops...
I keep checking eBay. All the good (ie cheap!) beds are in Perth or Brisbane it seems...

Got to run - am off to the Porsche Club Dinner Dance at The Windsor in Melbourne this evening. And all I have to wear is a 1930s black crepe gown. However, The Sweetheart may have a coronary if I wear something that is really vintage but which he may just see as 'old'...