Today we took him to an emergency vet in Streatham, after he spent 24 hours stretched out on the kitchen floor, looking pained every time somebody approached him. I remember seeing that look on Seamus’s face in the last week of his life.

The vet wanted to take some tests, and took Frank off to an oxygen cage to help with his breathing. That was the last straw for poor, vet-hating Frank. He had a fit on the spot, and died.

We brought him home and buried him in a nice sunny spot, with a peony over his body. Rest in Peace, Frankie boy.

Roses from the Heart is a conceptual art/empathetic history project curated by the Tasmanian artist, Christina Henri. Participants were asked to make a simple bonnet for a convict woman, one of the 25,000+ that got transported for petty crimes, who often never saw their homeland, or their friends and family again.

I got Martha Slade, a young woman from Dorset, who was caught handling stolen goods (a few handkerchiefs), and shipped out on the Garland Grove in 1841,

Christina told me that she was given a ticket of leave in 1844, and freed in 1848.

That’s all I know about Martha. I know she was poor. I also guessed that she may have taken the blame to save her boyfriend from being executed. I’ve no idea what happened to him, either.  The little information I had indicated that she was a plain, simple sort of woman, so I thought she might find an elaborately decorated bonnet a little too much. Also, there were time considerations here: I started my MA in October, and I’ve got choir/family/work etc.

This is the bonnet immediately after I finished it (modelled by Charlie – who is a proper Slade, so deserves to wear it more than me). I have a few finishing touches to do. Having sat around on my desk for months, it’s a bit grubby, so it’s being washed right now. I don’t think Martha would have liked a grubby bonnet.

They want my name in the back, so that’s another embroidery job, and I have to trim the loose threads. Then the bonnet goes off to join its sisters in Tasmania. I may see it when it and the other 25,665 bonnets come to London on their world tour in 2013.

I first had the idea of sewing a quilt made of taffeta and silk squares, but couldn’t decide on a backing fabric. Then I wondered about making it out of Japanese kimono silks – but I couldn’t make up my mind about colour combinations.

Then I took a look at the kimono cotton collection on Clothaholics. These were everyday patterns that I had seen and admired in sushi bars and in Japanese movies, and being mostly different shades of indigo, they were easier to match up.

The cottons were also considerably cheaper than the silks, so I thought I’d experiment with a cotton version, and maybe make a bigger one in silk later on. I actually ran out of cottons and had to make an emergency order for more of the red rose on a white and blue background. That gave me enough squares to make up a set of nine-piece patches with the red and white chain pattern in the middle. The rule was that like squares could only touch at the corner, there had to be a red square in the middle, and each nine-piece patch could only have two squares of the same pattern. To push the patterns a little further, I threw in some plain chambray patches from one of Martin’s old shirts.

I matched the red and white chain with some pinstripe shirting (Paul Smith, allegedly) from Fabrics Galore. When it came to the binding, I panicked, I was going to use a navy blue cotton that I found in Fabrics Galore, but then I noticed that I had plenty of scrap kimono cotton left over from piecing up. so I sewed the scraps together (plain, pattern, plain) to make a binding strip, and attached it to the edges. Actually the binding off was the most boring bit. Lots of hand sewing and fiddle.

If you look closely at the back, you’ll see folds and snicks where I didn’t keep the backing fabric flat while struggling with the quilting foot. I also had to trim the edges, so it’s not quite square. But it’s pretty and cosy, and it looks rather lovely against the dark leather sofa.

Based locally, the Nunhead Community Choir has now turned two years old and is on the lookout for new members and local supporters.

We hope the evening will give you a chance to explore how a choir works; enjoy some fine singing and some mighty fine food and ales.

So, whether you’re a secret singer, a shower-time diva, or a tuneless hummer; or you just fancy a night out in an excellent local pub, come on down to our open rehearsal at the Ivy House on Thursday 27 October.

We’ll be singing from 8pm until 10pm.

Finally! I have got around to putting up our holiday photos from Suffolk.

We went to a small campsite near Sweffling, which had a yurt, a tipi, a caravan and a bell tent for hire, as well as the usual tent pitches. The campsite owners have made great efforts to have as low a carbon footprint as possible. There was no mains electricity on the site, and we had a choice of flushing toilets or “treebogs”. I didn’t take a photo of the treebogs, but they weren’t as smelly as you’d think. Though they were bloody cold and a bit scary at 3am.

It was a beautiful site, and our yurt was lovely and comfortable. The only complaint that I might have is that there was a slight lack of understanding towards the children. Children of similar age tend to run as a pack, and children on a campsite tend to be noisy and adventurous. The pack was told off a few times for being noisy and running around a lot. The telling-off really rankled with the children, who claimed they had a right to have fun too, and fun wasn’t sitting around looking at wild flowers, and we parents agreed with them.

There’s a big notice on the website now, emphasising that the campsite is an electricity-free QUIET site. Well, it’s their business, and maybe they do want to make the site  a boutique (ie child-free) site.  So…gorgeous location, lovely accomodation…if you don’t have kids.

Courtesy of Boing Boing.

Our Holiday in Lanzerote. We stayed at the Fisherman’s Cottage, owned by Lanzarote Retreats. The cottage was beautiful, and the pace was relaxed. We went exploring, surfing, cycling and chilling on the beach. Utterly brilliant holiday