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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sThis will just be a quick post, I've still got heaps of things to do before we leave tomorrow. I've been busy quilting, I finally loaded a top of my own, the pink and blue orphans, and quilted it.This is one of the new pantos, called Lida, and it worked up a treat, very quick to stitch and good coverage over the quilt. This is destined to become a new favourite I think.There has been puppy watching, they are getting so playful that it's easy to waste an hour just laughing at their antics. The ear-chewing looks excrutiatingly painful, especially when they throw in that characteristic Staffy head shake, like a tiny crocodile going for the death roll. Ouch! They get quite grumpy with each other at times.

This boy is beautiful, so placid and good-natured. They all are remarkably quiet and cuddly, they have wonderful natures. And no, I'm not having one; I rent the place I'm in now, and the landlady has no problems with me having a cat, but no dogs. Fair enough. I think I'm going to go get a cat right away, because I Need a pet to cuddle. And I don't think I'm a dog person really, I just like some dogs.

And for a total surprise, there was a knock on the door this morning, and it turned out to be our friend Robyn, from Queensland, down for the Scquilters Retreat in Adelaide. Her friend took her for a drive to Pirie, and she said 'My friends live somewhere around here....' and they managed to track us down. What good sleuthing. It was great to catch up with her, and it would be such fun to be going to the Retreat, but what can we say. There's this wedding.........

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I'm sewing a simple Pyramid quilt at the moment, from fabric that was gifted to me by my friend Terry in Perth, when I went to stay with her. It's the Metro Blue range, and I enthused so much over it that she gave me a whole bag of scraps left over from a quilt she'd made. And then I felt terribly guilty, as if I'd badgered her into giving them to me. It was silly to think that, but I'm not entirely rational sometimes. Anyway, I decided that I would sew them into a donation quilt, and Terry can have the pleasure of knowing she helped create a quilt for someone in need, and I get the fun of working with these fabrics, without any guilt whatsoever.

I don't have many fabrics in my stash that go with these distinctive colours, so it's a bit of a struggle to stretch the scraps into a full size quilt. I may have to buy a few aqua and brown FQs, but that's no hardship. I'm liking the way it's looking, and I'm debating whether to throw in a few red patches, as I quite like the red of the table underneath. I'll decide that later.
I finished up the design work that I had to do, so I had a bit of a holiday today, cooking and pottering around the kitchen, and sewing a bit. Tomorrow will be a garden day, as I have a bucket full of cuttings to pot up. I went to a garage sale at a deceased estate, and plucked up my courage to ask if I could have some cuttings from the garden, and was told to take what I wanted. So Mereth and I went back later, to wander around the neglected garden and rescue some of the beautiful lillies and geraniums and chrysanthemums. It's so sad to see gardens struggling to survive. I'm at least giving some of the plants a second chance. My Mum would be proud of me; she kept secateurs in her bag, just in case she saw a nice plant on her walks and the owner said she could have a bit.

And there was puppy visiting......

I'm still not sure if I have a favourite, they are all so cute, and very cuddly. They just want to sit and snuggle, which is lovely. I'm sure that's just a phase, and they will turn into yapping, chewing dynamos soon.

But look at these little faces!

This little boy has already been sold, he's the handsomest I think.But I love this pensive girl; surely she'd never chew up slippers or behave badly. She wouldn't!!

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We put in a lot of hours over the weekend, sewing on the donation blocks, and I'm ready for a break. We had Queenie set up next to my Janome, and we sewed and pressed and cut some more, and now we're all sewed out on those particular blocks. I just have to add the borders, and I will have a Queensize top to quilt, and Mereth has a similar one to put borders on. Then I need to sew some Dear Jane blocks just for Me!This morning I printed out a tutorial for a little bag, and made it in about 40 minutes, and 10 of those were spent choosing what material to use. It's so easy to sew, and looks very cute. I think I need one for my latest sock project. Lazy Girl bags are always lovely, and the pattens are so well writen.

It's quite roomy inside, it holds everything I need to make my yo-yos on the go. This particular one will be for my coffee cup and lunch, when I go to patchwork meetings. I'll make one with cutesy fabric for my yo-yo kit. And one out of sheep fabric for my sock knitting.

And Mereth isn't the only one with puppy photos; everytime we visit I fall in love with a different one, but we can't really have favourites until they're running around chewing things and being charmingly individual. Until then, this chubby little girl just might be ahead of the rest.

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