Every weekend should be five days long.  I'm having a lovely time just pottering in the sewing room and the garden, it would be wonderful if life was like this all the time.  But it's back to work tomorrow, and we'll be running to try and catch up.  But it's totally worth it.

I've quilted all the donation tops that were given to me, just have to bind them sometime during the week.

Check out that vintage print, very nice!

It would have been nice to load one of my personal tops, but Millhouse was busy the whole time.  Maybe next long weekend.  I want to do one of my 'best' quilts, and really do some special quilting, but that will take a lot of time and planning.  It's frustrating to have the machine and not be able to do our own quilts.


I am still working to rationalise my stash; much as I love my Judie Rothermel fabrics that came in the fabric club, I find them overwhelming as a group.  I have four drawers full of them, and I never seem to use them.  It's been three years since I got them, and it's time to start cutting them up.  I devised a couple of projects that use massive amounts of fabric, not just a measly strip or two. I'm cutting a 5.5" and 6.5" strip from a fat quarter, and there's not much left after that, especially if it's been nibbled at already.

I intend to give Mereth the leftovers, which she will be so happy about.  Then whatever is left will go into my regular stash drawers, to be used like normal fabric.  No more "Too good to cut up" rubbish.

The blocks I'm making will end up 5"square, and I'll need well over 100 to make a decent size quilt, which is all good.  I want to have a huge amount of blocks to diffuse the oddity of some of these reproduction prints.  There's no way I would have bought them on their own, they were just part of the collection, and authenticity aside, some are downright ugly.  Hopefully they will get lost amongst the crowd of other prints.

 Yesterday I drove down to Adelaide to pick up Mereth from the aiport, and managed to fit in a little trip to Bunnings, our huge hardware chain.  I adore that place so much, but I never have enough time to go through the whole place, I just run in and grab a few things and race off again.  It's a serious limitation going alone, no-one to help load gear onto the trolley.  I should have bought all the bulky stuff first, loaded it into Wilson and gone back for the fun stuff.  I managed to get some wood and melamine shelving that I needed, plus some plants, so that will keep me happy for a while.

It was fun to have both dogs for the weekend, they had a ball together.  Dolly is still sleeping it off, and enjoying having my undivided attention.  But in about an hour I reckon she'll be up for a visit, and some more fun times.

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On Wednesday we will be driving down to Adelaide with my Dear Brother and Sister-In-Law; they have been here for a three week visit, and it's just flown by. They will be celebrating their 42nd wedding anniversary that day, and are shouting Mereth and I dinner at their favourite hotel. We'll stay the night, drop them at the airport the next day, and then hopefully see the latest Harry Potter movie before we come home. That's the plan, anyway.

Because we have to miss two days of work we thought we'd better work all through the weekend so we won't be behind in the quilt schedule. We had a quilting marathon on Saturday and Sunday, Millhouse ran non-stop. While one quilt was quilting we prepped backing and batting for the next, it was like a factory here! We got four finished, and a few more ready to load. They were all very big quilts, and it feels good to have them over and done with.

We had the DB and SIL over for tea on Saturday, chili with all the fixings, and then Mereth and I went back to the workroom and worked till about 2.30am. Dolly slept in her bed under the table, giving lots of sighs of disapproval that we were up so late. "Can we just go to bed Please!!"

Mereth slept over, and was up disgustingly early the next morning to start Millhouse stitching again. I'm just glad we don't work like that all the time. Dolly thinks we're nuts to spend so much time working that machine.

A little while ago I came to a painful decision, and cancelled my Judie Rothermel fabric club. I loved getting a FQ of every fabric she released, but honestly, do I need anymore? These are four drawers full of FQs and some associated yardage, and there are another 4 or 5 stacks in various other places. I decided that I have to make a dent in this lot before I join the club again, and I can just buy individual pieces as they are released.

This book of Mereth's has some lovely quilt photos, and I've had this quilt bookmarked for years.
The fabric mix is perfect for my Rothermels, so I spent Saturday night cutting 3 1/2" strips from my FQs. It was very satisfying to actually cut into them, and I just love how the fabrics look together. I can't wait to get started on this, but I'll be strong-willed and finish the ninepatches first. I love having a new project that inspires me to sew in every available moment, and this will be one. I might have to sneak some of these in as leader-enders when I finish the nine-patches.

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