There has been knitting activity during the Olympics; the scarf is just a $2 ball of acrylic, but it was fun to knit and a scarf is always handy. It's the One Row Scarf from the Yarn Harlot's blog, and was a great pattern to knit while I was travelling. No pattern needed, and easy as pie to do while concentrating on the current Olympic action. I completed the second sleeve of my Tilted Duster jacket, now there is just the collar to knit, but seeing I have to pick up an awful lot of stitches for that I will wait till I have the time and patience. I really hate picking up stitches, and these have to look really neat afterwards. It's tough when all the fun bits are finished and the hard bits have to be tackled.

We took a quick trip to one of our favourite patchwork stores, at a little town called Moonta. It was business, choosing fabrics for a commissioned quilt, but I bought a few FQs for my latest quilt, which is languishing untouched while I watch TV. Maybe a bit of fresh fabric will entice me back to it. The sewing basket is one I admired at an antique shop last summer, but rejected as too costly. It was half price, so I brought it home with me. The inside is ruined, but I plan to find some silk and reline it; it will be a useful learning project. If it turns out nicely I may refurbish some of my other antique baskets with dreary interiors.

I have been quilting each night, and I'm about quarter way through; I had to give it a rest tonight as my fingers are too sore. The cold makes them ache anyway, and I've stabbed them with pins on the longarm, and they need a few days to recover and toughen up. I'm loving the rythym of hand quilting again, and basting it on the longarm was a success. I have several more to do once this one is finished.
My parcel from Hancocks arrived, and it wasn't as big as expected as they had sold out of two of the backing lengths I ordered. But it was still substantial. The fabric fanned out on the left was one of their packs of ten 1 yard lengths, and there are some beautiful fabrics there. I'm so pleased with what they sent me, many of them I would love yardage of. But no more fabric buying just yet, I need to get this stashed away in the fabric drawers first.

There was one dud fabric......
I mean, if you were a clerk packing that order, and saw what my preferences were, you'd stick a piece of sock monkey fabric in too, wouldn't you? Luckily we know a couple of mothers with small children, and they can fight over who gets this. (If anyone wants it at all, that is.)