Last day of the Adelaide Festival today, thank heavens.  Depending on Shonny's workload I could be home as early as Friday, but we'll have to wait and see.  I'm really looking forward to getting home and catching up with friends and family, and seeing what's happened in my absence.  Autumn is my favourite time at home, and I'm missing it while I'm away.  I'm trying to arrange to take Isla home with me, so Shonny can sleep for as long as she wants and make changes to the house uninterrupted.  That new baby is only 2 months away, and we need to sort out a new bedroom for Isla, and put the nursery back to tiny baby mode.

I've been trying hard to use up every available scrap of time, I don't want to go home and think. well I got nothing done down there. 

I've sorted through my charm packs and weeded out the multiples in each one, and pulled out ones that I don't love. 

They've been cut up into 1.5"strips and I've made nine-patches from them.  It's such a good way to get variety, there are colours in those blocks that don't occur elsewhere in my stash, so the finished Tumelo Trail blocks are going to look different from my normal quilts.  I'm really loving the charm packs, I'm pretty sure I'll buy another stack next Christmas.

I forgot to bring my all 1.5"strips, I only had a handful of little bits.  I've been using up every last little scrap, and I have a renewed appreciation for the little offcuts and scraps.  They are useful, if I take the time to deal with them.  But in future I'm still going to give most of them to Mereth.....

I'm way behind on cutting up my shirts, but it makes such a mess.  I've been very good about vaccuuming up all the threads and snippets, but I'm sure Shonny is a bit appalled at the mess.  She's nothing like me in that respect, I can live in the chaos quite happily, knowing that one big clean up will see it all put to rights again.

Isla and I went to Bunnings yesterday, and I found these cute little boxes. 

My 9" blocks fit in them perfectly.  I'm so addicted to plastic, and finding just the right containers for everything.  But it does help me keep everything organised, so I'm unapologetic.

Dear me, that baby is awake, I'm off to fed her some lunch. Maybe we'll go back to Bunnings for more plastic boxes and a Bunnings sausage....

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Sew good

I'm not getting a lot of sewing done unfortunately, life is busy and there is not a lot of time when I can sit at the sewing machine, or cut up strips.  Hayden came home for his week off, and we organised a seven year old's birthday party and cleaned up afterwards; 15 kids and 13 adults.  Seonaid would have done a much better job I'm sure, but she was working so we did the best we could.  So much Sugar! But everyone was happy, there were no accidenets,  melt-downs or tantrums from the kids or the adults, so we're counting it as a success.

I've accumulated about 20 shirts, it's been a lot of fun finding opshops and visiting them to see what's available. 

This is my favourite so far, I love the blocks I've made with it.

They have to be washed, then cut apart, which seems to take forever.  I don't use scissors or the quick unpick around Isla, she would want to snatch them and run off and I can't be chasing an armed toddler around the house.  She's too quick, and I don't want there to be any accidents with sharp things.  She sleeps about one and a half hours in the late morning, and then goes to bed at 7.30, so my sewing time is limited to those hours.  When she's in daycare I cook and clean, put the house to rights and do whatever shopping we need, so there's not a lot of free time there either.  But I have made a bit of progress.  

I've made 6 blocks, and I love how they turned out.  I fear that I'm also making a Churn Dash block that I saw on Jo's Country Junction blog.  I might be a bit obsessed with this quilt as well; I'm cutting the pieces as I cut for the Tumelo Trail.  Lots of cutting, no blocks made yet, but I'll be ready to start swing on that as soon as I have time.

I have quite a few of the 3.5" HSTs that I need, enough for 8 more blocks.  Now I need to concentrate on the nine-patches and build up a stash of them so I can get those blocks done.  It's nice to have something to think about besides babies and housework. 

 

One more day of the Adelaide Festival, and then Shonny can go back to regular working hours as they wind up the admin over  the next week.  I'm so ready for things to go back to some semblance of normality, and so is Isla.  She misses her mum....

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Fun day out

Mereth and friend Deb came down to attend an auction, and I went along to catch up.  I'm not really into the auction scene, it's a lot of sitting around in uncomfortable, hot surroundings, with some very dubious people, watching them buy a whole heap of really weird stuff.  Deb and Mereth enjoy it though, and they got some wonderful bargains. 

There was nothing there this day, except maybe a couple of dolls that were quite nice.

But I wasn't going to pay $75 for a job lot of really ugly dolls to get the one I wanted.  The auction was an estate auction of a collector, and she had hundreds of dolls and paintings and china and collectible plates.  I have a lot of stuff too, but it's not as indiscriminate as this lady's collections.  Some of the dolls were like little nightmares waiting to happen; the cast of every creepy doll movie ever made.

I wasn't upset about not getting anything at the auction, because I visited three op shops and got three bags of cheap men's shirts for my Tumelo Trail quilt, and that made my day.  I was wondering if I"d be able to afford to make a shirt quilt, at the prices I was seeing.  $5 a bag is affordable, especially when I can cram it as full as I want.  So my quilt is off to a fine start.

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All set up

I've been down here for 2 weeks already, that time has flown by so fast.  Isla and I are having a good time, but she's starting to miss her mum.  Shonny gets to spend about 40 minutes a day with us, then she's off to work and we don't see her again that day.  It's hard on a little girl, but she's tickled pink to have me around.  When we go out she tells everyone 'My Nan!!' and points at me. I don't do any housework when she's around, so I'm a lot more fun than Mum apparently.

I've set up my own little space so that I can sew in any spare minute, and I even have a coffee set-up, so I don't have to disturb anyone else when I get up early.

The desk was left out on the footpath as hard rubbish, and Shonny and I  carried it home minutes before the truck arrived.  

It has lovely big drawers to hide all my sewing stuff from Miss Busyfingers, and I appreciate it all the more for being free.  I'm hoping to get some machine time in today or tomorrow while Isla is at daycare.  I miss being productive, but I have to cram in as much housework as I can before Isla gets home. 

I have a handwork project started, and it's a pattern that I've wanted to do for years. 

 I decided to use a colour scheme of pink and grey, also something I've wanted to do for years.  I'll be glad to get a single block finished at this rate, but it's a long term project.

Well I'm off to hang the first load of washing out, and tidy up the lounge room, but then it will be sewing time.

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