Yet another catch-up post is necessary, as life has been busy and I'm too dis-organised to blog daily.

We spent last week quilting and binding this large Farmer's Wife quilt.  I did a double clamshell in the centre, as the darker colours of the blocks meant the quilting wouldn't show particularly well; then Mereth did a lovely freehand feather in the plain border, and it made the quilt really come to life.  We collaborate well on projects like this, where she doesn't want to do the panto bit, and I don't want to do the fancy border.  I also applied the binding on this, 11 strips to get round the edge; I'm glad I gave it back to the customer to handsew down.

Once we were finished with that we were free to run away to Adelaide for the weekend, so we left at lunchtime Friday.  We took Dolly with us, so it wasn't a quick trip; there were two stops so she could run around on the grass and have a  break.  She was a very good traveller though, I was impressed at how sensible she was.

We went all the way across Adelaide to get to our favourite patchwork shop, Tricia's.  There was only an hour of shopping left by that time, but we enjoyed ourselves anyway.  I picked up some more batiks, of course,

and more neutrals;

I had no particular quilt in mind, so I went with the staple choices that I know I will use. 

I also added two charm packs, just for fun; I've got a basket pattern on the drawing board, and the charm pack will work well with that. My fabric chart has climbed rapidly the last few weeks; 16m in the last fortnight alone.  I've purchase over 86 metres this year, not one of my better efforts, but I've used 124 metres.  That means the stash isn't expanding, but it's not being drastically reduced either!

Then it was back to my DD's place, to wait for her to get home from work.  There is a dog park on her block, so we went there with Dolly to run off some energy.  She behaved perfectly, ignored the other dogs and ran herself ragged chasing her ball. 

When it was time to leave she carted it up the steps and out the gate, so cute!  She was being quite the dapper urban dog, until she found a puddle that was very tasty, and cooled her hot belly in it.  That's not very sophisticated.....

We had a lovely night with Seonaid, watching DVDs and the infomercial channels, which never cease to amaze me.  I don't have a TV, so I don't get to see all that rubbish normally, and we just watch it and laugh and laugh.  Such weird people, improbable products, impossible claims.  Very entertaining.

The next day we had breakfast at a really nice coffee place, Coffee Barun;

wonderful breakfast menu.  There was enough time to go home and do some washing and housework before we went back for lunch with Mereth's family at the same coffee shop.  There was a moment when it looked like we would actually squabble over who would hold the baby first, but Mereth played the Grandmother card, and trumped the rest of us.  Seonaid held her while we all finished our lunch; little Isobel was perfectly behaved, sitting and staring fascinated at the world around her, as any 2-month old girl would. 

She's going to be very familiar with coffee shop society, as her parents and auntie and uncle are coffee afficionados.

Home again, to get the evening meal sorted, as everyone came to Seonaid's place.  We had a lovely meal, lots of good conversation and much baby-snuggling.  She's such a good little girl!  Dolly loved the attention too. It would be wonderful to have all the family living close by, we just don't get to see enough of each other.

We came home Sunday, very tired, and now it's time to pick up where we left off.  I'm keen to make some headway on more UFOs, so I'll be working hard on the vintage rosettes. 

 I could have taken them on our trip, but chose my knitting instead; I'll need to put in some solid hours of handsewing to get this back on track.  I have to put blue diamonds on another two rows, then I'll be able to start sewing it all into one piece.

These basket blocks are close to completion; I need 30, and I have 20 finished and the rest sewn into units ready to put together.  It's a project I set aside after the first rush of enthusiasm passed; it was all kitted up and I didn't touch it again till last week. Now it's nearly finished, and I have no memories of making it;  I don't like it when that happens.  I don't seem to have concentrated on it enough while I was sewing, and it's as if someone else did it.  I must be more focused on what I'm doing in future.

It's a lovely sunny day here, but cold with it.  My fingers are frozen, so I'm off to thaw them on a cup of coffee.  And then I intend to sew for the rest of the afternoon; those basket blocks are as good as done!