The show was a success, and we had a steady stream of visitors over all three days. Mind you, some of them may have been there for the wrong reasons; more than one person, on hearing me speak, immediately turned to a friend and said 'You're right, they even sound the same!' So the twin thing was a drawcard as well as the quilts. Apart from feeling like a freakshow it was funny to see the reactions.

We talked to so many lovely quilters, and would-be quilters, and people who just admired quilts. We met a Canadian couple who had sailed a yacht over here in 1997, and had toured Australia in a motorhome ever since. She was a quilter, and said it was time to go home and get back into her sewing room again. I can't imagine living a gypsy life for that long, without my sewingroom and stash and machines. But what wonderful memories that couple have, for those long cold Canadian nights!

Our aunt and cousin came to visit too, and they thought I was Mereth! The real Mereth had sneaked off to have a cup of tea and a scone with friends, so it was an understandable mistake. Side by side we look quite different, but when we're apart people see who they are expecting to see. On Mereth's wedding day her FIL called me Mereth all day; um, she's the one in the WHITE dress, I had to keep telling him.

After we closed the doors we went up to the Institute to help pull down the show. Everything vanished within half an hour, as teams of people stripped the quilts from the racks, others folded and piled and ferried them out to cars. Watching the people working like a huge family made me remember the shows I've seen taken down in America, with security guards and checklists and eagle-eyed supervisors making sure the quilts go to the right people. All very necessary, but we can afford to be a little more relaxed here.

And then Mereth and I dumped all our quilts and racks and stands in one room and crawled off to the kitchen to drink coffee and groan about how tired we were. Luckily dinner had been in the crockpot all day, so we had a very early meal and a quick visit to the sewing room to rummage through the new fabric. But we didn't have the energy for anything else.

This morning was a different matter. I have pinned up the finished Double Anvil blocks, with their red setting squares, and I'm sewing them together in between other chores. I'm liking how it looks, it will be a wonderful winter quilt, very warm looking. BUT....
remember my over-cutting problem?
Somehow I have enough pieces for 10 extra blocks! I kitted up the 31 blocks I needed, so I have no idea where these extras came from. Maybe I sleepwalk, and cut up fabric without remembering it. I do love making these blocks, so I will add the extras to the Orphan box, and see what I can do with them there.

This last photo is one of Mum's cactus plants, with flowers bigger than my hand and stunningly beautiful. Unlike the red ones, these only last a day, but what a display!