I don't think I have what it takes to be a good blogger. I miss too many opportunities for blogworthy photos, and I'm not dedicated enough to record things when they happen. Nearly 6 weeks in America, and there are three posts? Must try harder next time..... I'm buying myself wireless internet before I go anywhere else, so there will be no excuses next time.

I do have several hundred photos to edit, so I'll post some over the next few weeks, as I get to them. I'm still trying to catch up with business and family stuff, plus doing a little bit of sewing in odd moments to preserve my sanilty. Don't know if that's being very effective though.

It's good to be back, even if the cats ran away in terror when they saw me come in the door; it took a day for them to stop peering through doorways at me as if I were an intruder, and an unwelcome one at that. But all is forgiven now. I've seen the photos and heard the stories of Rhys' 18th birthday party, and it's a good thing I wasn't here. I would have ruined it entirely by being sensible.

I've divvied up the purchases and there is a parcel for Meredith waiting to be sent; you can see why there are always people wanting to be our long-lost triplet. I was remarkably restrained; I was allowed 64 kilos of luggage, and I only had 60. That's 132 pounds of stuff I lugged from the International Terminal at Brisbane to the Domestic Terminal. Whew. I was glad to get that lot home.

I have been wanting to do some round blocks for a while, so I bought several sets of acrylic templates from John Flynn. I tried out the Wheel of Fortune set, using my 2 1/2 " strips. The tiny triangles are cut from pre-pieced strips, so it goes togethere really quickly. The cutting is fiddly, but so much quicker than any other method, and I love the finished block.

I made 6, liked the effect but hated the pink setting material. If I'd been sensible I would have stopped then and replaced the pink fabric, but some madness made me think it would grow on me. It didn't, and then I had 16 blocks to deal with.I should know by now that I have to listen to that annoying little voice that tells me to stop what I'm doing before it's too late.

While I was at the various shows I found myself drawn to the antiques booths and the really dark and dirty looking antique quilts, with strong colours and vibrant contrasts. That's what I'd been wanting in these blocks, and they were just too perky and bright. So I threw caution to the winds, and dyed the blocks with something called Parisian Essence. It's a food colouring, but has the happy side-effect of staining fabric a deep browny-yellow. It looks like Dirt-Of-The-Ages in a bottle, and I really like the way the blocks look now. I've picked out the border fabrics, and the top should be in one piece this weekend. And I'm still not sick of piecing the blocks, so I think I'll pick out good fabrics for another variation....

I have acrylic templates for Wheel of Mystery, and Inproved NinePatch blocks, so I will have to grab some scraps and make sample blocks of those too. The Wheel of Mystery will be a great scrap quilt; the sample quilts at the John Flynn booth were batik, and they looked fabulous too.




Those antique quilts were divine. I loved this one with the pumpkin coloured sashing. These were at Cindy's Antique Quilts, and she had some utterly fantastic quilts. I could have spent a lot of money there, if I had lost my senses entirely. As it ws, I succumbed to one that was machine quilted, and will fit nicely into a collection that my friend and I are building, showing early machine quilting. Well, that's how I justified it anyway.....