To say that I've been busy for the past two weeks would be an understatement. I've been Frantically Busy!! But I think I'm about caught up on everything, so I'll be able to stop and draw breath soon, and then get into my sewing room. I can't wait for that.

I had to go shopping at the Janome dealer in the next town, and they are having a promotion where they take old machines as trade-ins. This little green Singer was traded in, and I thought it should come home with me. It's been well looked after, the paint is spotless, and I intend to make sure it stays in good condition. I'm powerless to resist green sewing machines it seems.

I had to make a trip to Adelaide for printing supplies, so we went down on Thursday night to take advanage of late night shopping, stayed the night with Mereth's No.1 Son John, and came home early the next day. We all had tea at Ikea, and finally managed to do some real shopping there, even though I was hyperventilating half way through and muttering 'I gotta get out of here!'

A chirpy voice kept announcing on the sound system 'It's easy to shop at Ikea, if you know how!' and then giving details of guided tours about to start. Surely you shouldn't have to have lessons on how to shop? John and I got lost, and he expressed grave disappointment that his 20 or so years of navigating through tricky computer game scenarios hadn't actually helped him remember where he was in Ikea. I suggested someone should make a game set in an Ikea store; it has possibilities.

Mereth bought a Billy bookcase, which she's been wanting for ages, and I got some modular shelving for my laundry. And big terracotta pots. And an ex-showroom sideboard. It took some creative packing to get it all settled into the back of Wilson, I'm so glad I've got a station wagon; a normal car just wouldn't be adequate.

Mereth always has the gluten-free almond cake at the Ikea cafe; when I was putting the furniture together I realised they are both very similar. Is the cake made of leftover furniture? Or is the furniture made of leftover cake? Hmmmm.....

Stolen moments of time in the sewing room have resulted in several more Dear Jane blocks; I have around 65 now, and I should be able to sew Row 4 into one piece tomorrow. I am making steady progress. I was getting hopelessly confused with all the pattern printouts and templates and stuff, so I'm collecting it all into a ring binder, which should make things easier to find. I'll show you that tomorrow, I'm off to help Mereth put together her bookcase. It's just like adult Lego.

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The sum total of my sewing for the past week is this Dear Jane block, all 4 1/2" of it. I should be grateful I had time to do that much, as I've had a frantically busy week. I sat and made this block as a stress reliever, while I watched an episode of Inspector Morse. I started sewing as the opening music played, and I was pressing the finished block when the final credits rolled. So that means this tiny block took 90 minutes to make; unbelievable! I just can't seem to get up any speed with foundation piecing, but I should be happy with the accuracy and not fret because it takes so long. I need to get into the zen of foundation piecing; when you are foundation piecing, KNOW that you are foundation piecing. We'll see if that helps next time.

I often modify the suggested piecing; I couldn't see the sense of adding a triangle of the same fabric in the corners, so I just extended the sewing lines. The block looks the same, but it's two less seams to worry about.

My garden is producing a few winter flowers, but Dolly has proved to be an avid gardener. She likes smelling all the flowers, then rubbing her face in the plants, then grabbing them with her nouth and uprooting the lot. I guess she just gets too enthusiastic, but it's disastrous for my flowers. I have growled at her, but she keeps reoffending. If she shows up with dirt on her nose it means there's trouble in the garden. As soon as she realises I've discovered the crime she's all cringing and contrite, but it doesn't stop her from doing it next time. I'm considering barracading all my pots behind the potted roses, because she has a healthy respect for anything with thorns!

I love pansies, but these flowers are almost tooo big, the stems can't hold them up. They are such sweet flowers, I love all the variations in the colours.
But the violets are my favourites I think, they smell so wonderful. The pink ones came from Mereth's MIL, from the family farm. Mereth has planted them in every garden she's ever had, and carried pots of them from place to place and shared them with many friends. They are like a family heirloom.

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3 rows of the Dear Jane blocks are complete, and I'm adding the sashing as I go along. I would hate to face that job at the end, so I will join them as I make them and it won't be so overwhelming. I like how it's looking, and Judie Rothermel was nice enough to send me two more FQ packs of her latest releases, so I have plenty of wonderfukl new reproductions to play with. But these blocks will be going away for a while, as I'm too busy to conentrate on them for a while.

In two weeks I'll be at the Craft Expo in Sydney, so I have to get organised and everything up to date before I leave. My head is spinning with all the extra work, and if I do any sewing it needs to be very easy and mindless.

At night I go round to Mereth's to work on my crocheted afghans, which I'm enjoying mightily. It's so easy, and the colours are such fun. Someone else is enjoying it too.
I think it's time that Mereth owns up to adopting Dolly. We're sort of sharing her, as during the day she is in her crate in my office, while Mereth quilts in the workroom. She's extraordinarily good, just sleeps and goes outside for walkies. I've never met such a placid, cuddly puppy. Even if she has a play and gets quite beside herself with excitement she calms down immediately if she's asked to. It's not natural.

Did you know that Staffies are lap dogs? I didn't either, but Dolly assures me that SHE is a lap dog alright.

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I've been busy with the Dear Jane blocks, and have 40 finished, which rather surprised me. I didn't think I'd finished nearly 1/4 of the blocks; I'm going to slow down a bit, I want this to be a long term project, not something I gallop through at great speed and hardly remember doing. I mean to enjoy the journey with this quilt.

That block in the middle of the top row nearly killed me; it's fairly straightforward, if tiny and complicated, and it took me about 3 hours to do. If I EVER do another Dear Jane I will substitute a 4 patch for this block, I never want to make it again.

Last week was busy, lots of things to do, including taking all seven pups and Bonnie to the vet in Pirie for immunisations. They all behaved impeccably, and a lady in the waiting room fell in love with this girl, Panda, and bought her. There was much weeping and gnashing of teeth from Mereth, because Panda was her favourite, but she's gone to a great home. She will have an older lady dog to mother her, and a German Shepherd pup to play with, a 5 year old boy as her master and is going to sleep on his bed every night. I'd say she's fallen into a life of luxury.

But Mereth still misses her....

There was a trip to the Moonta patchwork shop with the Sonias, and we had a wonderful day out. Everything at the shop was 50% off, so we did our duty and bought quite a bit of it. This is my haul, and I'm just waiting for a spare moment so I can pet it and put it away in the stash baskets. It's gorgeous stuff.
And today I finished this top, at last. It's been a bu**er to make, it fought me every inch of the way, but at last it's in one piece. I caused half the trouble myself by ironing the seams in different directions for each row. That didn't work at all, because I kept changing my mind and putting bits in different rows, and then all the seams didn't nest properly. Finally I bit the bullet and ironed every seam to the dark side, and they fit into each other perfectly. I knew to do that, but I just forgot somehow. I had one awful seam where I just had to mash all the allowances flat, but after that it was easy.
I'm glad I put the red in there, it would have been dull without it. It's due to go on Millhouse later this week, and then off to the bushfire appeal.

I'm off to Mereth's house for a roast dinner, and to watch some Inspector Morse episodes. I love Morse, and I've never seen any of them until now, so it's a real treat to have 2 whole DVDs of them.

These are the only two puppies not spoken for;

Dollyand Pansy. Anyone want to give them a good home?

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There are two more Dear Jane blocks finished, and I've decided to spend a large part of the weekend prepping as many blocks as possible. I can get quite a lot done in odd moments, so long as all the fabric is chosen and patterns ready and applique shapes prepared. It's quite tedious doing all those things, so it's better if I play a good DVD and just resign myself to all those fiddly decisions about what to use where. I still love making these; some of the blocks seem impossibly small, but once you've actually made them it's a thrill of achievement.

In other spare moments this weekend I plan to put a quilt on Millhouse, just simple quilting while I work on something else. I'd like to cut into this pile of scraps that I bought from the quilt shop in Moonta. It's closing down, which is devestating news to us, as it's our favourite shop for reproduction prints. These scraps are all offcuts from kits, and most of the fabrics are entirely new to me, as I don't tend to buy these prettier fabrics. I want to rummage through them and start making blocks right away, without any idea of what sort of quilt I want to make. Does that sound like a good plan?

As for puppies.... They are Playing now, and it's so cute. They do a lot of this.
and this. and this.



Poor Macca is being bothered by a Plague of Puppies, but he's unfailingly gentle and good-natured with them. And they just can't leave him be. As for Bonnie, well she mostly runs as far away as she can. She's more a Good Time Girl than a good mother; but she did all the right things when it was necessary, so I guess we can forgive her. I don't know that I'd want 7 offspring climbing all over me. We all have our limits.

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Yesterday we went for a drive to the beach, as all of us had been cooped up in our respective houses for far too long. It was a lovely autumn day, slightly overcast and breezy; perfect beach weather. We went to Port Germein, about 35k away. It was once a significant town for shipping grain in the 1800s. The jetty was famous for being one of the longest in the southern hemisphere, 1.68km, or nearly a mile. It was storm damaged though, so it's only 1.5km now. It extended out to the deeper waters, because Port Germein is so flat there's hardly any water close to the shore.

We've been coming here for years, and walking along the jetty. It was very scary at one stage, as there was no railing, and the timbers were so rotted that you had to jump from one section to another. Luckily it's been renovated, and a guardrail erected along one side, so it's a lot safer now.
As I said to Matt, a parrot on the shoulder is more customary for any self-respecting pirate, but Jessie hated walking on the echoing boards, and insisted on being carried a good part of the way. What a life!

The dogs had a brilliant time as usual, splashing in the sea, investigating piles of seeweed and eating all the scraps from our picnic lunch. They enjoy themselves so much, it's a pleasure to watch them; they certainly know how to live in the moment and enjoy life as it comes.

When we pulled up we had managed to park right next to two of our cousins and their families; small world around these parts, and we manage to run into relatives all the time.

This is the storm damaged section of the jetty, out of bounds now. These piles were swaying in the tide, all those birds were being rocked to sleep on the deep. There's a weather station out on the final bit, recording any wild weather that comes through.

Because the beach is so flat there's no boat ramp; instead, certain enterprising fellows tow boats out to the deeper water. This tractor is the conventional choice; for the adventurous, there's this creation. I imagine that took quite a few beers and a lot of consultation with mates in the shed before the final version hit the sands. It looks like it's straight out of Mad Max. I'm sure someone is very proud of it.....

I finished 9 more Dear Jane blocks last night, most of them are straight-forward piecing or applique, and the fiddly one I had done most of already. I have 25 blocks now, nearly 2 rows worth, and it's still fun. Prepping the blocks is the worst bit, choosing which fabric and cutting strange little pieces, and realising that you've cut it all wrong and have to start again. Maybe I shouldn't work at night after a glass of wine.
No matter, I'm surging forward; on to Row 3 next.

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I put the borders on this quilt over the weekend, now I just have to sort out the backing and it can go on the frame in between customer quilts. It looks very warm and autumny, and it large enough for a queensize bed. It will be donated to Christine for the bushfire appeal.

I wish I had kept an accurate count of the fabric I've used up lately, because the borders and bindings sof these quilts have used up swathes of material. Which is just as well, as my own sewing is just nibbling away at the stash. I have 5 more Jane Stickle blocks finished, and 4 more prepped for applique. I'm just loving these blocks, they are so sweet and intriguing. Some of them are torturous, but it's a challenge to make something other than the usual patchwork. I'm sure some blocks will have me begging for mercy, but I haven't come to them yet.I'm chained to the computer doing new designs for release at the Machine Quilters Showcase in May, and my mood alternates between happy concentration and downright grumpiness. I'm making progress, but it feels like nothing else gets done while I'm in design mode. To make it worse, the garden is basking in the autumn sunshine and I know I should be out there, planting the bulbs and seeds before it gets too cold. I will have to take a day off and just get it done.

They say that learning new things helps keep the mind young; to that end, I decided that I would learn to play the recorder, properly, having found an old one in the boxes of things that Mereth's boys left in my hall. Poor Mereth has been subjected to the most miserable, wretched noises imaginable, as I ploughed through the book of tunes that came with it. Even I can't stand to play Cockles and Mussles one more time; erch! But I'm getting there, and it's sounding less like a demented banshee, and more like music. She still turns pale and leaves the room if I pick up the recorder, but it sounds OK a few rooms away. I have to practise at her place, because the dog next door howls in sympathy if I play it here. Such fun for my neighbours.

Today I bought a new toy, an Irish Black Whistle. It is tuned to the key of D, which makes it easier to play, and the fingering is much more straightforward than the recorder. It plays lower notes, and sounds much more mellow, and best of all, the dog next door just sits and listens. I will never be good enough to play in front of anyone, but it's keeping me amused.

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My problems with camera batteries have stopped me from photographing some of the projects I've been working on over the summer. Even with new batteries the camera keeps draining them overnight. I am so NOT amused. It's done this before and then resumed normal operations, soI will wait a while before I have a tantrum over it. I just need to keep the spare batteries charged and waiting.

This needlepoint picture was begun back in the mist of time, in a previous century; I only stitched the date when I was sure that it would soon be finished. That was right before I ran out of the background wool, and found that the colour had been discontinued. Many years later, when the shop I bought the original wool from was closing down, I found one skein of that colour on the throw out table and swooped upon it. However it took me till January 09 to put in the final stitches. I'm now hunting for the perfect frame for it, and I might modify some of the letters in my name; they are pretty clunky and unappealing.

The design came from a MacCall's Needlework magazine, and I love the picture just as much as when I started it. I will start another design soon; I've always wanted to do a Victorian 'spaniel-on-a-cushion',so I'll track down a pattern for that. I'm in no hurry when I do these needlepoint pictures though, as you can see by the date on that one.

I haven't spent much time lately on my own projects, but did manage to fit in a few more Stickle blocks. Having to rethink my usual practises for these tiny blocks is fascinating, and I think I'm going to do a lot more with foundation piecing after this. It has so many possibilities.
Still loving these, and not a squeak of complaint so far.

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