Winter weather has arrived,and it's cold and chilly,just the way I like it. We have had the most amazing June, with temperatures so mild it was unnatural. July has reverted to normal though, and I think twice now before I go out at night. However, it's Wimbledon time, and my TV reception is so bad I can't pick up the channel, so I have to go to Mereth's place to watch it. I should just sleep over and be done with it.

I actually subscribed to the live feed on their site and so I can sit in my own bed and watch it on my laptop, while I knit on my current sock. The video is a bit jerky in places, but it's definitely worth it. I love technology, I never dreamed of such developments when I was a teenager watching Wimbledon.

I've been busy as usual, but all boring stuff involving reams of paper and making pattern packs for orders, and cleaning house and endlessly searching for things. Why do things vanish as soon as I put them down? Once upon a time Iwas able to blame the kids, but I can't do that any more. As a friend said, when there's a tissue in the pocket of something you put in the washing machine, there's no-one else to blame it on.

Our Patchwork group are making a quilt for a friend who has some health issues, and really needs the warmth in this weather. Plus the good thoughts that will go into the making of this quilt will be much appreciated I'm sure. It will be a reminder that we are thinking of her.It will involve some embroidery in the blank centre squares, which will make me dredge up my almost forgotten stitchery skills. I've been admiring friends' stitchery quilts for so long, I think it's time I started one of my own and this will be a warm-up for it.

At our night group Sonia showed us what she's been working on. She is smitten with yo-yos, and has made over 100 with the large Clover yo-yo maker. They are seriously gorgeous, and I can't wait to see what they become. They are perfect stitching for the evenings or while waiting at sports practice. I am working steadily away at my collection of smaller ones, but these big ones just beg to be used as embellishment on bags or quilts. They look simply delicious.

Yesterday I sat at the machine and sewed until this top was in one piece. The centre blocks started out as a pile of donated samples from Elaine, at the patchwork shop in Jamestown. These are not my colours at all, but someone will like it, and it used up everything. The border fabric is from a bolt that was sent to us in error, a fabric order gone wrong; just goes to show that everything has it's place, given time.

While Mereth was quilting in the workroom I babysat Dolly. She doesn't like this cold weather one little bit, so I made room for her on my sewing chair. She snuggles up behind me and snores the day away, toasty warm and content. I know she's spoilt, but she deserves it for being so good. And her days of being a lapdog are numbered; toooo big now. Friends have been telling me tales of fullgrown Labradors and Dobermans who still behave like lapdogs; thankfully Dolly won't get that big,but she's certainly an armful already.

Read more...

I'm in transit right now, staying with my nephew in Adelaide and getting on the plane to Sydney tomorrow. I'm teaching a slew of workshops at the Craft Expo, and I've been finalising notes and class samples and arranging things to run smoothly while I'm gone. I just hope I've thought of everything, and if I haven't, well tough.Yesterday I finished quilting these little wholecloth samples, and that was a lot of fun. I love patchwork, but there's something very satisfying about quilting plain fabric where the designs show up so well. I just love making these patterns and working out easy ways to stitch them. Even on Millhouse they can't be quilted all in one pass, the quilt has to be rolled on and the next bit done, and it's an art to make it all match up perfectly. Or as near as you can get.

Who could ever get tired of feathers? I just love how classical they look, and they suit so many types of quilt. They are such fun to work with.
On Saturday it was a glorious day, so we went off to Bowman's Park for an afternoon walk. It was the end of autumn, so we thought we had better get in some quality outings while the weather was good. We walked up by the quarry, and along the top pf the ridge to the lookout. I love these trees and spinifex grass, and the clear blue autumn sky. So Australian.The view from the lookout was wonderful, and towards the eastern ranges it looked like a watercolour landscape, all soft and delicate. It's well worth the climb up.
I tried to get photos of Dolly, but I only have about 20 blurred images as she galloped here and there at great speed. With no other puppies she had the full brunt of Bonnie's and Macca's attention, and it was a bit overwhelming; she spent a lot of time racing around with them bowling her over and both trying to play with her. Parents can be a bit like that.

She's growing up so quickly, I just hope in two weeks time she'll still remember me. It's a long time in puppy time. I know she's Mereth puppy, but it's the closest I'll get to owning a dog for quite a while. She's has my highest praise; she's as good as a cat.

Read more...

We had to run an errand yesterday, and made a small detour to Stone Hut for lunch. We took Macca and Dolly for the ride. Amazingly, both of the other puppies have gone to new homes, so now there's only Dolly left. I'm glad that other families will get to enjoy Macca's lovely offspring, and Dolly is enjoying having her Dad to herself.

Who would have thought that dogs like Rock Cakes so much? They begged for every last bit, and hoovered up the crumbs. It's no secret how to get a Staffie's attention; food will do it every time.

Back at home after our little outing, I finished quilting this little quilt of Mereth's. I designed all the motifs and border just for this, and I'm pleased with how it turned out. I seldom get to quilt things for us anymore, too busy with all the rest of the computer work, so it was a pleasure to get this done. I only have about 20 more waiting in the wings.And in isolated moments when I'm sick of doing all the dutiful work I sew a few of these donation blocks. The fabric was a stack of red and black and white samples donated by Elaine in Jamestown, and the blocks are going together very quickly. Soon there will be another quilt to add to the pile of tops.

Read more...

Yesterday we went for a walk at Bowman's Park, with all the dogs. The puppies did very well, keeping up all the way. On previous occasions we have had to carry them when they got tired. Matt still has two, he intends keeping one, and Pansy just hasn't found a home yet.

They looked ridiculously small in the landscape, and in the creek bottom they weren't even visible above the grass; ripples in the surface marked their progress. They have a ball on our walks, so many things to see and do. Dolly took a while to pluck up her courage, but then became brave and dauntless, so long as we were close at hand.
There isn't much grass around this year, lots of soursobs and thistles as usual. We had lots of rain overnight, so that will help green up this area.
We climbed up quite high, with the dogs covering twice as much territory as us, with their constant back and forthing. Small wonder they get so tired.
I'm just glad none of the puppies lost their footing on the side of this hill, it was a long roll to the bottom.Quite a few trees have blown down this year, and this one had intruiging patterns left by borers all over it. They must have been busy little creatures. If I had any inclination to find out more I'd Google it, but I don't really want to know.
The trails look like Maori patterns, or circuitboards, or the 'dwirling' that Mary does on her quilts.

Read more...

Last week Mereth and I went off to Adelaide yet again, to collect another couple of machines that I won on Ebay. One was this Singer 185, in pristine condition. I have to wire another plug onto this, as the one it had was incompatible with Australian sockets. I haven't been able to sew with this yet, but it's absolutely spotless and beautifully cared for, so I imagine it will sew well. It's a backup in case Mereth's beloved 185 ever stops sewing. For $25 it was a bargain.I love the old paper tag attached to the cover...
I also bought this 1960s Singer for $23, a little the worse for wear, but still functional. I love this crackle finish on it, so 60s, and it was all the rage in my childhood. This would have been a top-of-the-range machine in it's day.

Most importantly, it had it's manual, and I really wanted that. Last year I bought a close cousin of this machine, a 631, and I use it as a backup for my 201. There was an intruiging part that came with it, which I later discovered was a chainstitch accessory. But I had no idea how it was used; that's where this machine and it's manual come in. It has the same accessory, and it fits into the bobbin area, with a special chainstitch plate. Eh voila! Now it sews a chainstitch instead of a lockstitch. It's like magic.
I had no idea that there were machines that could do both; it would be great for tacking clothing parts together, so easy to undo. Alas, I can't think of anything I can use it for right now, but I'm glad I know all about it. One less mystery in my life. I may even embroider something in chainstitch, that would look good I'm sure.

While I tinkered with my machines this morning, up at the hall, Dolly kept vigil behind Mereth's chair. She is never far away from either of us, she just loves company.

Read more...

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.

Read more...

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?

Read more...