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.

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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.

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