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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I have been sewing bindings for the Bushfire quilts, and rather than cut up more fabric I made scrap bindings from my box of leftovers. Not that you can tell. It's still full to the brim; I think that I will sew it all into one huge length and send it off to JanMac, to help her with the quilts that she is making. Having a pile of binding already made will be one less job for her.Last year, in my favourite junk shop, I found this immensely tall trestle ladder. I've always wanted a quilt ladder, so I bought it. Matt took off the hinges at the top and separated the two sides, so I have two like this, and then sanded them down and smoothed out all the splinters and loose edges. It fits into the workroom very well, as the ceilings are so tall. I will need to stand on another ladder to put a few quilts on the higher rungs. It's a lovely way to display quilts.
I needed a break from the computer this weekend, I'm busy finalising the three workshops I'm teaching at Sydney, and I'm sick of looking at computer screeens. So I pulled out a bunch of red and cream blocks that I sewed at our patchwork group meetings, and put them together with a piece of leftover backing from a customer quilt. I absolutely hated these blocks while I was making them, but now I like the finished top. It appears I have no judgment at all when it comes to half-finished projects. The best thing to do is to tell myself to shut up and keep sewing.

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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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My workspace seems to have been swallowed up by all the donated scraps for the bushfire quilts, but we are setting up a system to deal with them. We're handing some on to a friend to cut into strips, and then we'll package up kits with instructions for the other girls at the patchwork group. They can sew as many as they like, and it will be a good way to spread the fun of working with these diverse fabrics and simple blocks. And I will get my floor and table back.

We are using this book to plan some of the kits; it's a great way to make short work of the blocks. Everything in this book is made of 2.5 x 4.5" rectangles, so we can cut everything into that size and worry about the layout of the blocks later.
These are some of the light blocks from the quilt on the cover; we're making the dark ones as well, but I love how subtle and soft these are set edge to edge. We can do several variations with the scraps we have on hand.

The other two tops are now quilted, and they will go in the post at the end of the week. I'm taking the opportunity to quilt them with my newly designed pantos, and so far everything looks really good. The autumn toned top was quilted with a design called Oaken, and the blue one has Maidenhair on it. As soon as I get them up on the website I will add links to them.Can we just say that I am Busy!!

Tomorrow I go to Adelaide to pick up my DS, who is staying for a fortnight. I'll have to brush off my culinary skills and try to keep him well fed. I'm sure I haven't forgotten how, but I rarely cook a regular meal with meat and three veg anymore. This omelette is more my thing; it's full of cheese, homegrown capsicums, spring onions and spinach, and it was fantastic. I make a huge 6 egg omelette, and save half for the next day. Because I eat my eggs on the undercooked side, heating it up the next day doesn't overcook it. Gosh, I know I shouldn't tempt fate with uncooked egg products, but I'm pretty lazy and it's like I get two meals for the effort of one.

I have a ton of work to do before tomorrow, but DS has clean sheets and a tidy room waiting for him, and there's food in the fridge so he will be happy. I just hope he's understanding about my recorder practise. Seeing as he's a bonafide musician it might be more than he can handle! And I just know that he'll be horrified at the state of my laptop, all clogged and un-defragged, but tidying it up will give him something to do.

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I put the borders on this quilt over the weekend, now I just have to sort out the backing and it can go on the frame in between customer quilts. It looks very warm and autumny, and it large enough for a queensize bed. It will be donated to Christine for the bushfire appeal.

I wish I had kept an accurate count of the fabric I've used up lately, because the borders and bindings sof these quilts have used up swathes of material. Which is just as well, as my own sewing is just nibbling away at the stash. I have 5 more Jane Stickle blocks finished, and 4 more prepped for applique. I'm just loving these blocks, they are so sweet and intriguing. Some of them are torturous, but it's a challenge to make something other than the usual patchwork. I'm sure some blocks will have me begging for mercy, but I haven't come to them yet.I'm chained to the computer doing new designs for release at the Machine Quilters Showcase in May, and my mood alternates between happy concentration and downright grumpiness. I'm making progress, but it feels like nothing else gets done while I'm in design mode. To make it worse, the garden is basking in the autumn sunshine and I know I should be out there, planting the bulbs and seeds before it gets too cold. I will have to take a day off and just get it done.

They say that learning new things helps keep the mind young; to that end, I decided that I would learn to play the recorder, properly, having found an old one in the boxes of things that Mereth's boys left in my hall. Poor Mereth has been subjected to the most miserable, wretched noises imaginable, as I ploughed through the book of tunes that came with it. Even I can't stand to play Cockles and Mussles one more time; erch! But I'm getting there, and it's sounding less like a demented banshee, and more like music. She still turns pale and leaves the room if I pick up the recorder, but it sounds OK a few rooms away. I have to practise at her place, because the dog next door howls in sympathy if I play it here. Such fun for my neighbours.

Today I bought a new toy, an Irish Black Whistle. It is tuned to the key of D, which makes it easier to play, and the fingering is much more straightforward than the recorder. It plays lower notes, and sounds much more mellow, and best of all, the dog next door just sits and listens. I will never be good enough to play in front of anyone, but it's keeping me amused.

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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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I finished this top last week; it's some leftovers from my Showgrounds quilt. It's about 60 x 70", a nice single bed size, and it will be quilted and sent to Christine for the Bushfire appeal. I have several single bed ones ready to go; there are still many more needed, so we are having another sewing day with our group on Monday.

We took a trip to Jamestown and visited the fabric shop, Charlene's; when the owner, Elaine, found out about the blocks we're making she donated four 1kg bags of scraps. Mereth and I are pretty hardened when it comes to scraps, but we came close to being overwhelmed that day! We already have one quilt assembled, and are still sorting out the next ones, but there must be enough for 4 or 5 quilts in that lot. Lots of it is VERY bright, which is good, because not everyone likes our muted, reproduction fabrics. We should have some nice, modern quilts from this lot, and it will be fun to show Elaine the results of her generosity.

Last patchwork meeting our friend Bev was complaining that the computer screen on her machine was fading and she could hardly read it and it would have to go and be repaired. It's a similar model to my Janome so I could tell her that it had a dial to adjust the brightness of the LCD. She was so grateful that she dropped in the other day with this enormous bunch of roses, and a dozen eggs from her free-range chickens. The eggs didn't last long, a few omelettes took care of them, but the roses are getting better every day. They are just magnificent.My Busy Bee machine has been christened Queenie, and is just delightful. When I investigated her drawers I found two Accessories tins, absolutely pristine, containing spare parts and also these individually boxed feet. None of my other machines ever had the feet in the original boxes; what a treasure.

And they are helpfully labelled, in case I didn't know what they were, and they have an instruction book. I'm well pleased.

While in Adelaide I couldn't resist the lure of a couple of garage sales. At one I found this McCalls book, in very good condition; I have a soft spot for McCalls, as they published quilt patterns when no-one else did, and were the basis of my quilting knowledge for many years.
Anyway, look what was in there; my next needlework project. I may make a cushion like this; I've always wanted a couch full of needlepoint cushions. But I've always wanted a wall full of pictures too. I'll decide later...

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The latest issue of Homespun was in the mail yesterday, and I was surprised to see that I was on the cover; I'm a Covergirl at last!
When I posted my Half and Half quilt off for photography I had no idea of the adventures it would get up to; look at the beautiful blonde snuggling up to it!It's always fun to see your own familiar quilts in print, they look much more glamorous than when they're bundled over the back of the lounge.
Whenever I see my name in print like this I remember my darling FIL, who was very proud of the Emmerson heritage. When I came back from my first American trip, with photos of the Golden Threads booth emblazoned with my name, he was delighted to think that the Emmerson name was being displayed so prominently. He died two years ago, but I like to think he's still getting a smile out of this.

And Bonnie's in print too; what a lovely set of photos, and she looks gorgeous. She's a star, and Lucy's house is the perfect backdrop. Typical overachiever though; we come back from holidays with fuzzy photos to remind of the trip, she comes back with a magazine spread. And Lucy, your quilts are beautiful!

My friends, the two Sonia's, have been asking constantly about the state of the Showgrounds quilt, and seeing as they were due to come round for the evening I chained myself to the sewing machine and got the borders applied. It wasn't hard, but it was heavy work with all that fabric. I have to say I am thrilled with how it turned out, I love the border fabric so much I want another 10m of it straight away. Oh I'll have fun quilting this one!

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Yesterday was our patchwork group meeting, and we had a sewing bee. Last time we met we talked about the quilts that have been donated to bushfire survivors, and I asked them all to bring along some fabric this time so we could make some blocks for the cause. In order for us to make some speedy progress I asked them all to cut five 2.5" strips of light fabric, and 5 of dark, sew them together into pairs of light and dark and bring them to the next meeting. Which they all did.

Damn camera batteries keep draining themselves overnight, so no photos of our day, which is a pity because we had a great time.

At the start of the day everybody gave me their strip sets and I set to work cutting them into 4.5" slices. Mereth took all the scrap bits and cut them into 2.5" slices. The others sewed on their own projects until we had a pile of pieces cut, and then helped us sew the blocks. This is such a simple block, it just flew together. I paired all the slices of fabric like this and gave them to two machinists, who fed them through the machines steadily. It was hard work keeping up to them! From there they were whisked away by the Iron Fairy for pressing, and then back to me for pairing up again and pinning. Then back to the machinists, and the Iron Fairy, then onto the stack of finished blocks. It was astounding how much we got done, and with no fuss whatsoever. Even the pressing is simple with this block, the seam allowances just fold over nicely, and fanning the seams in the middle makes it very flat.Mereth was doing the same thing with her team of girls, but they were sewing 16 patches.

Some aren't exactly the right size, but we will trim them to a constant measurement and they will make a border, or we may even put them into a strippy quilt. Every bit will find it's place, and we should be able to make 3 or 4 quilts.

We made 105 blocks after lunch, and everyone had a great time; lots of laughter and fun, and a wonderful feeling that we were helping others through a difficult time.

We also have a collection of fabric and sewing notions to send to Jenny's step-sister, Alice,
to help rebuild the sewing supplies of bushfire survivors; I'm touched by the generosity that our little group has shown. A lot of good wishes and sympathy have been sewn into these blocks.
That pile of beautiful Oriental 10" squares in the top left hand corner was donated by our friend Sue, and another friend showed us the perfect pattern for them, so we will try and have that finished, quilted and donated soon. The nights are getting cold over in Victoria now, and the quilts are needed.

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