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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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.

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We were off at sunrise yesterday, for a quick trip to Adelaide. I won another Ebay auction, so we had to go and pick that up, and also go to Spotlight for some needed fabric. It was a gorgeous grey day, Autumn is here at last; I just love a sky full of grey clouds.The early light caused some fantastic effects, and we stopped to take photos of the windfarm; I love these huge blades turning in the wind, they look incredibly significant. Of course in twenty years time we'll have evidence that they are beaming information to aliens in outerspace, and all those nutjobs were right all along; until then, I'll enjoy them.We had to find an address in Port Adelaide, and at an intersection I realised that we were very close to a house my DBrother No1 had lived in about 8 years ago. I knew there was a church just down the road with cute stained glass windows, so we did a little detour to take some photos. It was a very busy street, so we had to be content with a couple of snaps from inside the car. Love the little crenellations on the entry of the church.

Across the road was this beautiful mansion, complete with widow's walk around the top. The beach runs parallel to this road, so there would be an amazing view of the sea from up there. It must be wonderful to live in a place like that.
And once we got back on track we stopped to take a photo of this glorious pile, the Largs Pier Hotel. It's the only grand building around; probably the builders expected Largs Bay to be hugely popular, and it never made it. It looks very out of place all on it's own.
In one of the shops in the shopping centre of Semaphore I photographed this tiled entryway. The grubby footprints made me want to grab a bucket and sponge and make those beautiful patterns gleam. These tiles always look wonderful when they're wet, so that must have been an incentive to clean them, surely...
And the reason we went in the first place? This little beauty, a John Martin's Busy Bee in cabinet. John Martins was a big department store in Adelaide, one of the places to visit on a trip to the city. The cabinet has a retro charm all it's own, as well as being so solidly built it's almost too much for us to move; the machine is a darling, and I've already sewn some blocks on it. The stitch quality is impeccable. I'm looking forward togetting to know her better.

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