I actually finished a top today, first one for months. It just needed borders, and I was sick of moving it and the border fabric from place to place in the sewing room. Now it can be folded up and stored with all the other completed tops. It was meant to be a large single bed size, and the thing grew until it fits my QS bed easily. I still can't work out how it expanded to such a size without me realising it. I've had quilts do that before, but I had an inkling that they were larger than I planned. I guess I just got enthusiastic on this one, and didn't add up any of the measurements. I was trying to use up a swag of blue and green prints that I didn't want in the stash anymore, but liked too much to throw away; I must have just kept cutting until the fabric was gone. But I like it, and it will go nicely in our blue spare room.

The pink quilt is one I gave to Mum for her 80th birthday 4 years ago, and was on her bed until she went to hospital in July. Mum really felt the cold, so I made the quilt out of vintage flannel, with a wool batting. The flannel came from her dressmaking stash, and included some strange 70's fabric called Cesarella, which had an open weave. The batting doesn't seem to be migrating through, which is good. The colours are a bit garish, but that's what we wore back then, and Mum couldn't complain since she'd bought it all originally! If the fabric had been made into clothing back then, it would all have been worn out and thrown away by now; this quilt will last another 50 years, and keep me warm with memories too. Oh the struggle I had getting her to part with that material!!! But it was worth it.

I quilted it with freehand feathers and fillers, and it was great fun. The flannel material shows the stitches beautifully and it's very rich and tactile. I had a lot of fun with the quilting, and used variegated threads to add more interest. I'd recommend every beginner machine quilter do a small flannel quilt. The flannel is forgiving of crooked and uneven stitches, and the end result is so cuddly that no-one notices that the quilting may not be perfect.

I wandered into a sewing shop this afternoon and found that they now stock hundreds of bolts of fabrics, some as cheap as $7 a metre, which is amazing . Of course I had to buy a few pieces, especially my favourite madder print. I think I will go back next week and see what else they have; there were tables full of bolts that hadn't been priced yet. How callous of them to make it so affordable; there goes my resolve to not buy anything more. It was never going to be a no-buy month, but I have a feeling that I will be bringing home a lot more of that fabric before the end of September.

I have12 blocks made for my mourning quilt; I can't find the name of that block, but there is a similar one called Lost Ships. I know I've seen it in a magazine, so I will go through my collection and see if I can identify it. It's nice to piece, and I'm enjoying the way they come together. I cut out another 12, and I think 25 blocks will make a useful size quilt. I don't want to end up with another monster quilt that's too big, because I'd like to hand quilt this one.

Hopefully the next post will show a few blocks put together with the plain alternate blocks; I enjoy the process of joining the blocks into a top, very satisfying.

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It's good to be home again, after all the travelling I've done this year. I need to stay put for a little while and get myself organised. The whole year has just raced by in a flash, and I want things to slow down so I can catch up.

Mereth and I took the opportunity to do a little tourist drive on the way to dropping me off at the airport. We stayed the night in a town where we used to live, and went to all our old haunts. Everything has changed so much; I feel quite old. This photo is two seals chasing each other across Encounter Bay, at Victor Harbor. We were thrilled to be able to watch them playing. We lived at Encounter Bay 25 years ago, and it was a freezing place. There is nothing between it and Antartica except lots of ocean.

The picture of the wall is a building in the railway yards at Victor. I love that brown stone, and the design just cries out to be a wool quilt. Another picture to add to my Stone Wall collection.

The landscape is on the way to Murray Bridge, with the sun setting on a rain-drenched countryside. I love the clouds in South Australia; the skyscape is often more interesting than the landscape.

I will have to spend a lot of time catching up on business stuff, but I desperately want to do some sewing as well. I will put out my blocks that I was working on before and see what I think of those. On a subconcious level I think I was making a mourning quilt, with the black setting squares, so I will work on it through the next few months. I will think of happier times with Mum, and make it a quilt of love, not grief.

Mereth's house was full of flowers, and they were such a comfort after the funeral. Every room was full of their perfume, and it was such a positive thing. I can't wait till I can have a proper garden, instead of growing eveything in pots. The photos are of a succulent that is flowering on my deck at the moment. I can see applique possibilities in the shapes and the beautiful colours.

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My camera is being an absolute twit and draining the batteries, so I will have to revert to saved photos. This quilt is one that I made for DS Rhys, when he was 15. When I offered to make him a quilt he flinched and said 'No thanks!' So I explained to him that I would not use florals, or anything pink, and that he would have the right of veto on any material. He gave grudging permission. Hmm, no florals.... I had to shop severely for this quilt, and buy fabrics that weren't me at all. And I wanted it to be a dark quilt, as his last quilt ended up with a lot of grubby marks. Of course, I hadn't counted on the two grey cats sleeping on the quilt every night.... But it turned out very well. One nice little surprise was the black material I used throughout the blocks, and as a small inner border. Unbeknownst to me, the small stars on it were glow in the dark paint. It was only after the quilt was finished and on his bed that we discovered that. How cute! The pattern is the same one I used for my scrap blocks; it also made enough blocks for another quilt.... For the back I chose a heap of FQs that showed things he was interested in; cats, dogs, fish, WWII airplanes, Coke, sharks... I had a ball tracking these fabrics down. I would never ordinarily buy them, but it was perfect for the back. To quilt it, I again asked Rhys what he wanted. 'Whatever' he replied, so I designed a random quilting pattern and called it 'Whatever' It looks great on guy quilts, but I've seen it on Thimbleberries quilts too and it lookes fabulous. The quilt was finished, and presented to the boy, and it has never left his bed since, except to be washed, and once when I managed to wrest it away from him for a quilt gathering. He sleeps under it summer and winter; even goes downstairs and takes it off the line when it's been washed. I think it's a success.

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Her greatest gift was her skill in raising flowers and children. She cared for so many children throughout her life; her brothers and sister, her cousins and their children, her own children and grandchildren and then the myriad of little ones she babysat. She had incredible patience with them, and they loved her in return. Every Christmas brought cards and gifts from all the other families she had cared for.

In the garden she was happiest, planning and planting and caring for all that grew. She was in her element outside amongst her flowers.

It was a struggle to convince her to move from her family home, where she had seen 44 summers come and go. But she was getting frail, and she finally agreed to move and live with Mereth. And there we at last discovered that she had hidden her final illness from us all, preferring to deal with it in silence and solitude. She was so intensely proud and independent, she didn't want anyone to know about her cancer.

She was in hospital for 10 weeks, too long from her point of view, but such a short time for us to deal with what was happening. But we all said our goodbyes, and that was a good thing.

She died alone, peacefully and in no pain, as she had wanted. Her face was beautiful, all the lines of worry smoothed out, all the pain and unhappiness of the past years washed away. This was the face she would have had, if life hadn't been so hard for her.

What an amazing woman she was, so stubborn and proud and strong, such an incredible fighter. Fiercely loyal to all her family and difficult at times, but in the end, staring at her peaceful face all I could remember was that she loved us, that we'd never doubted for a minute of our lives that we were the most important people to her. A wonderful gift, to know you are wanted and loved and cared for. I hope she knew how much she was loved in return.

Mereth's blog

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Two more blocks have been sewn, and I'm auditioning fabric for the alternate setting squares. I know I want it to be a black print, but I want just the right black, which will involve a bit of a search through all the storage containers. I can handle that.

I'm making the HSTs (Half Square Trinagles) needed for the blocks in sets of 16 (with this template of mine) and I only need 12 for each block. That leaves four left over, and I'm sewing them into these Broken Dishes units, as leaders and enders. They will be the starter for another quilt, and seeing that they finish up at 4" blocks it will take a while to collect enough for a whole quilt. Actually these are the sort of blocks that end up taking over, so I will end up cutting more fabric just for them, and the original blocks will languish. I've been there before. But I may also be sensible and make a miniature quilt, cause they are really cute all on their own.

And while other Mavericks are swapping pictures of favourite sewing spots, and entry ways, I thought I'd post these pictures of Mereth's sunroom. It's a lovely room, wonderful to sit and sew and knit around the combustion heater, or put in a few stitches on the latest quilt. That polished wooden floor does look nice when it's just been washed, and there's not a mark on it!

My own house is so disorganised at the moment that I wouldnt dare post any pictures; when I get all the boxes and extra furniture into storage I will show you what it looks like.

Eileen in the comments asked about my studio.

Alas, we sold the cottage last year, because it was the sensible thing to do, given the skyrocketing prices here at the moment. We were going to immediately buy a block of land and build a workshop for me, but that proved way more complicated. All the land in town is covered by covenants, which limit what can be built. The block we loved had 24 pages of restrictions, right down to the colour of the letterbox. A shed or detached building for my workshop was out of the question, so we made rude gestures at the whole thing and went away. I could have the house and workshop of my dreams if we lived 15 minutes out of town, but Don doesn't want to move out there. So we are at a standstill on that front, and I'm crammed into all the available space in our home. I do have an office/sewing room downstairs, but it is being remodelled in aid of the Great House Sale, so I can't work in it right now. (Sob...)

But I am learning some lessons, about patience and what I truly want to possess, and how I need to organise my business and home life. I keep everything, which drives Don mad. I never even delete files, just squirrel them away on a corner of the hard drive. I'm convinced that if I ever get rid of something I will immediately need it, and it's happened so many times in the past that I feel justified. But I need to learn to burn the CD of files as a backup, two if necessary to make me feel comfortable, and then Get Rid Of The Stuff!! Throw out the unnecesary paperwork, get rid of the useless scraps of fabric, ditch the old clothes and odd socks.

In our last cleanup I found 17 odd socks in Don's drawer. 17!! My theory is that one sock in every pair is made of soluble fibre, and it just disappears in the wash. When DD Seonaid was three she carefully packed one of every pair of her socks into a play handbag, took it with her when we went shopping, and left it somewhere. So I had to go out and buy her a whole new collection of socks. After that I bought their socks in multiples, all the same, so that they could still wear them even though the number of pairs gradually dwindled down to one or less.

It has been so hot here already, I could have put the AC on yesterday but I wouldn't, just on principle. It is still Winter, dangnabbit! I refuse to acknowledge the 31 degree temperature. I will knit on regardless! Oddly enough the handknitted socks have proved remarkably easy to keep track of; not one has escaped yet......

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I got busy yesterday and made a sewing corner for myself, so there will be no excuse not to sew a block or two a day. I cleared a corner of our enclosed front verandah, and set up my machine, a cutting table and the ironing board. It's just inside the front door, so I will have to keep it clean and tidy (I Hate That!) but it's better than running between three rooms.

When my daughter was very young I had a similar setup, because we were renovating and had no space for a sewing room. I used to lay my blocks out on our bed, pin them together and then run through the loungeroom to my machine in the verandah to sew and press them. And back through the lounge to the bed to lay them in place. DD kept pleading with me to come and watch TV with her, and I kept saying, on my way through, 'In a minute, I'm quilting now...' She gave me a disgusted look and said 'I HATE quilting!!' So I stopped and watched TV with her. Talk about guilting me out! Is it just coincidence that my spell-checker turns 'quilt' into 'guilt'?

This is the bulk of my FQ stash, and some of the lengths of fabric. There are also boxes and boxes of 5 metre lengths for backings, and a cupboard full of scraps and bits and pieces and not so special pieces. And another cupboard full of dressmaking and upholstery fabric and the associated trimmings. Not to mention three enormous tubs of vintage fabric. You can see why I need to streamline my posessions. Bear in mind that this is what's left after three ruthless sortings already.

My favourite occupation apart from actually quilting is organising my fabric. These drawers are the best thing I've discovered yet, but they look nasty and I don't like the fact that they are plastic. And they aren't vermin or dust proof either, which is annoying. So I continue to dream of matching sets of melamine drawers, expecially built to house my collection.

I do like these CD boxes, because they fit a FQ exactly and the lid seals really well. In case you are wondering, they hold 100 FQs, something which absolutely stunned me. I have 4, which makes me go all hot and cold at the thought of 400 FQs. But each drawer holds more than that, so I'm trying hard not to add it up and discover what I have here. I don't have to be guilty if I don't know......

DS Rhys is on term break from Uni, so I don't have to go out at all this week, unless I want to. What luxury. I adore being able to stay home all day, and not have to brave the traffic. I think I will sit down with coffee, (of course) and make a list of things I'd like to achieve this week; more blocks made, more shawl knitted, spare bedroom sorted so that the floor is visible again! Oddly enough the rest of the housework is up to date, which is so unusual for me. I'm not into houseproud, I would much rather sew or knit or garden and have soemthing to show for my days. But I even polished my kitchen sink this morning; I must be ill..... I'd better sit down with some fabric until I recover. These reproduction fabrics will do nicely.

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There has been sewing done today, after weeks and weeks of being unable to get near my machine. It was by no means easy to sew this single block, as the sewing machine is in one room, the cutting mat in another and the iron in yet another. I just don't have time or space to collect everything in one room, so it will be awkward for some time to come. But I proved I can do it, even if I have to walk around a lot in the process.

This block is similar to the one that Meredith is doing, except the points in the centre square-in-a-square don't meet. It changes the look of the block in a subtle way, makes the corner elements more pronounced. I intend to make about 30 of these and set them on point with alternate print squares. That ought to keep me busy for a while. I can't do my scrap blocks at the moment, don't have the room. With this project I can make it one block at a time, and all I need to have out is the chosen two FQs.

Eileen mentioned in the comments yesterday that it is winter down here and how come things are flowering? I live in the tropics, and we don't really get a winter. This year I haven't stopped wearing T-shirts at all; mostly there are a few weeks when it does get cold, but not this year. We have lots of trees that put on a spectacular flowering display in the winter months, and the mangoes always flower in August. Then we get a single storm that blows all the tiny flowers off; if we don't, there will be a bumper crop of mangoes. This is not good, as then we get inundated by fruit bats, squabbling over the trees and swearing at each other all night. And after that it all falls off and smells like a brewery for about two weeks. Ugh! I hate mangoes, they smell like fetid socks to me. I also hate pineapples and paw-paw too; I don't think I should be living in the tropics.

The southern states do get winter, but it's rarely cold enough to snow. Most places just get a lot of frosts and rain and cold winds. But nothing like winter in the northern American states. Thanks heavens.

I am knitting a shawl, in a traditional Scottish garter stitch pattern. It keeps me occupied in front of the TV at night, and I don't have to concentrate too hard on what I'm doing. When it is big enough I will choose an edging pattern to knit all the way round, just for a bit of fun. I hope to get it done before the weather really heats up and makes knitting impossible.

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I haven't posted for ages, things have been busy around here. Nothing fun mind you, just lots of cleaning up in the garden and around the house. This is why we've never tried to sell the place before, it's just such a big job. The photo is a bougainvillea vine that was growing by our deck. The house is two storey, and the vine had reached the rooftop. The flowers are beautiful, but the thorns are vicious, so last weekend we decided to cut it down to ground level and be rid of it. By the end of the first day we both looked like we'd been attacked by a pack of lions, and it took all week for the scratches to heal. OWWWW!! I kept consoling myself that we would never have to deal with the darn thing again, and that I would plant a pretty vine to replace it, with no thorns.

Ocassionally I think 'What the heck, we'll just go on living here for another 21 years', but I do want a change after all this time. I really want to move so that I can have a bigger workspace, and get a quilting machine. I've spent a lot of time in my friend Kaye's workroom, and it's like a little slice of heaven. I call it my spiritual home, because it has everything a quilter's heart desires. I will try and find some photos to show you how wonderful it is. I want one just like it.

I am heading north in a week's time to teach a mini wholecloth workshop, which should be fun. We start out with a square of fabric and play with stencils and design a little wholecloth quilt to make. The students all surprise themselves with how creative they are, and the little quilts are amazing. The photo is a small quilt I did for a magazine article several years ago. It's lived it's whole life in the local patchwork shop, but it's one less quilt that I have to store. And it's displayed to perfection on the walls of the shop, so I get to enjoy it every time I visit.

The little star quilt is one of my favourites from about 5 years ago. It was so easy to piece and quilt, and I enjoyed every bit of it. I do like making mini quilts (this is about 30" square) because they don't take much material or effort to make, and they don't require much room to store or hang them. I love red and green quilts, I don't think I've made my last one yet......

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The last two weeks have been a blur for Meredith and me. Our Mum had a fall, and is in hospital with complications. I have been here in South Australia for two weeks, trying to shield Meredith from the brunt of dealing with Mum during the worst of the post-surgical stuff. I will go home in a week and Mereth will be left as the only family available, so I don't want her to get burned out at the start of the whole thing. Basically we just need to make sure that Mum is comfortable and as mobile as possible and then deal with life one day at a time.

The picture is a corner of the hospital where Mum is. It's a beautiful old building, 2 years younger than she is, and I love the honey coloured stone and the wide verandahs.

It's the middle of winter here, but in the tropics where I live we were still wearing T-shirts. I'm f.f.f.freezing here! But I'm enjoying it too, because I like everything that goes with the cold weather; knitting in front of the fire, toasting things above the coals, walking the streets at sunset and seeing the trees light up in the setting sun. I love homemade soup and bread at night, and the kitchen warm from the stove.

Mereth's house is very cold, being stone, and the rooms are so huge that they don't warm up easily. We've been living in the sunroom, round the woodstove, and it's been very pleasant, except for the squabbles over who's turn it is to run out and make coffee! I have finished another pair of socks, and now I'm knitting a shawl which is demanding all my attention so I don't make a mistake with the 400-odd stitches. But I'm glad that I have something to keep me busy.

There has been no time for sewing, or sitting in the sewing room, which is a bit sad. Still, I'm just glad that we are able to be together. The locals can't quite believe there are two of us. I need to get a T-shirt printed saying 'I'm The Other One'. So many people see me and launch into detailed conversation, while I try to butt in and explain that I actually don't know them from a bar of soap. It can be a bit difficult. And we don't look all that much alike, we just have the same shape and the same features and people assume I must be Mereth.

The rellies have been coming to visit Mum, and we must look an odd sight all together. Everyone is around 5' tall, and roundish, and grey-haired. All of us would fit right into Hobbiton without attracting a second look. Two of my aunts who married into the family were around the 5'10" mark when younger, which injected a bit of much needed height into the cousins, but now they have shrunk down too. The earth must have a strong pull on us.

Just for the record, Mereth and I had 12 uncles and 10 aunts. (We just had an argument over that, because I'd missed out one of the aunties and had to amend the count.) We can't name our cousins without a family tree to count them all up. It is intruiging to be part of such a large family, but complicated too, especially when some of the uncles aren't talking to the others. Arguments about rabbit traps, firewood and fishing nets can occupy them for years....

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Oww!! What a weekend!

The skip is full, and I think I need to get it emptied and brought back so we can fill it again. There is about 10 times more stuff to go, and I have created an almighty mess. It looks quite hopeless now, but I know from past experience that if I just keep working through all the piles then order will be restored.

It's sad to realise that we're never going to get round to making all the furniture we plannned, re-upholstering all those chairs and settees, repairing the vintage furniture we collected. Some pieces I'll keep, but most of it is being donated to people who will do something with it. And we'll go on to other things.

No sewing has been attempted, as my hands are full of splinters and aching from hauling around several tons of wood. But Mereth's comment on her blog about our handpiecing prompts me to post this example of our backstitched seams. I just can't make running stitch look as nice, or feel as secure, so I'm not about to change now. People always look at my seams and say flatly "You machine pieced this". Then I show them the reverse of the seam, which looks like stem stich and they have to admit that I did hand piece it after all.

It's funny to listen to comments when I'm vending at shows, and hear people tell their friends "Oh that's all done on the machine", when I know it isn't. Or "Of course it's all done on one of those longarm machines", when most of my quilts are sewn on my Janome. Once, when selling my Mini Album, an original pattern with the original quilt as a sample, a woman complimented me in a condescending way because I had matched the materials so exactly to the photo in the pattern. It took several attempts to actually convince her that it was the actual quilt. And that I designed it. Nowadays I wouldn't even bother arguing the point......

My poor little quilt met a sticky end, in a bag stolen from an airport shuttle on the way to a show. I hope it ended up in good hands, and not discarded in a dumpster once the thieves realised the hugely heavy bag contained only the setup for a quilting booth.....

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An interesting weekend is planned, with the delivery of an enormous industrial skip and the intention of clearing up Don's wood stash. He doesn't complain about my material stash, because he has the equivalent in wood and wood-products downstairs. And I love the possibilities of what it will all become, so I don't usually mind the wood mountain. However, we need to tidy it up so that potential buyers of this house won't blanche in horror at the sight of it. I'll let you know how it goes.....

I've been cramming a bit of sewing into odd spaces of time, with the result that I now have a finished Wheel of Fortune top, which somehow grew too big for the quilt hanger I wanted to display it on. I will have to find a larger quilt hanger or use it as a bed quilt. That just gives me permission to make another quilt that will actaully fit on the present quilt hanger.

I did use the Parisian Essence on the borders, and I'm glad I did, even thought the overall change was subtle. The navy fabric had a tiny white design on it, which is probably why I hadn't used it in 15 years; the white was jarring. But it toned down beautifully, and I'm really happy with how it looks.

I also sewed all the strips leftover from my red and green quilt into pairs, and cut them into slices to make into these blocks. Don't know where they are going yet, but I have 4 baskets of scraps cut into units, which is a good feeling.


Remember the four blocks of the pink and yellow and green Many Trips Around The World that I was making before I left for America in April. Opened a pizza box that used to store strips, and found.... 26 more blocks! Where did they come from? Either I am losing my short term memory or there really are quilt fairies.

It's not as bright as the flash makes it look, but it is still going to be a strongly coloured quilt, unless I make a lot of sober blocks to tone it down. But I quite like it the way it is. I am making it for our bed, so I will make another 15 or so blocks and see what I think then,

I'm putting off the moment when I have to count the number of quilts already in this house. Once I know that figure I may give up any idea of making yet more. But that's unlikely to last.....

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I was a little intruiged by my bottle of Parisian Essence, and wondered what was actually in it to make a dye. The label comfortingly says 'Warning! May stain fabric." Well good, I want it to stain, but just how long would it last? The label says it contains food colouring 105, and not much else, so I looked it up on the net. FC105 is Fast Yellow AB. That's even more comforting; it shouldn't wash out in a hurry.

Interesting; what is the difference between a stain and a dye? I guess a stain is more transparent than a dye, maybe it doesn't have the same masking properties. Who knows. I can colour my fabrics with this stuff, drink it without harm, or make a mess all down the front of my shirt; it's got so many uses.

I think tea-dyeing gives a greyish tone, which is why I haven't used it a lot. I prefer the yellow tones of FC105.

These are photos of sculptures from the Chicago Art Museum. They are part of a display of architectural details from buildings that have been demolished. These were by Lora Marx, and she made them for a night club that was redecorated in 1937; thank heavens someone thought to save these. If I could have anything from that museum it would be these two faces. They are so strong and timeless.

I immediately thought of novelist Ayn Rand when I saw these; they say something about the era she wrote about, her high ideals about art and principles.

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These are the Wheel of Fortune templates that I am working with.
They are by John Flynn, and he has a range of other patterns too. I love acrylic templates, I have quite a collection of them, and I enjoy having them all, even if some have never been used. I have plans for them someday.

I can see myself using the pieced ring from this pattern in lots of other patterns too, so it will be useful long after I have got sick of this particular block. I think a sampler of different circular blocks would keep me occupied for quite a while. And I like the idea of being able to use up all those strange scraps of my strip piecing projects.

The hazards of never throwing anything away are beginning to emerge, as I hunt into the deepest cupboards and open every last little box and tin. I have collected tins and storage containers for 35 years or more, and have been stowing little projects or supplies in them for the same amount of time. My goodness, the pitiful scraps and unsorted rubbish that are coming to light is amazing. As I snort and toss it in the bin the pile of empty tins and baskets and plastic containers grows ever larger. I have loads of storage now, because I've got rid of the junk at last.

I have tangles of embroidery floss 40 years old and welded into a solid knot; hardly likely to come in useful. I have thriftshop wool felted together in it's packet because it's more than 50 years old, faded and a bit moth-eaten too. I have scraps of once-white muslin, none larger than a 1.5" triangle. Used papers from a hexagon project finished 24 years ago. The contents of at least 9 sewing baskets that I bought from second-hand stores, mainly rusted needles and pins snarled up in frayed ribbon and unwound reels of thread. Did no-one explain to me in my youth the function of a Rubbish Bin????

There are treasures as well, and it's nice to be reacquainted with them. I collected embroidery for a while, anything that depicted a house. I think I want to make a Log Cabin quilt with the embroideries as the centres. That idea will have to grow a little before I start to do something with it, but it's nice to have this lot waiting.

Every year I take a two week virtual holiday while Wimbledon is on. I sit up late at night, sewing or knitting, watching the world's tennis players slog it out. I don't play, having been forced to when I was young and I hated it; in fact I blame my current wrist problems on those wretched games. But I love watching tennis. Everyone else goes off to bed and leaves me to it. I drink hot mocha, and sleep on the couch and enjoy myself mightily. And get a lot of sewing done.

Two hand piecing projects are at the top of my list of things to do this year. The Tumbling Blocks I started in 1998, to take with me on a family Christmas holiday. I've thought this was finished several times, and then decided to make it bigger, but it now fits our queen-size bed, and that's quite big enough. It needs a few pieces around the edges and it's done.

The Inner City I cut out at the same time as the Tumbling Blocks, and it is intended to be a wall-hanging to match. It keeps getting larger too, and I was shocked to realise when I spread it out that it is finished bar the border. So nothing is stopping me from getting this little

baby into the pile of finished tops, except for the lack of the perfect border fabric. I think I will go shopping for a reproduction border stripe fabric this afternoon.

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There has been no sewing taking place here for more than a week. There has been mindless knitting of socks late at night, but no sewing.

I have been packing away books, magazines and extraneous things that we don't use, trying to get the house presentable enough to put it on the market. I have shifted every stick of furniture we posess, washed every corner of every floor, washed windows and curtains, polished and scrubbed and sorted till I wonder why on earth all this stuff is even necessary. I can feel a minimalist bout coming on, but I know it will pass. I love my junk, but there is far too much of it.

I am trying to be methodical, making inventories of each box of books and numbering the boxes, and I have every intention of making a spreadsheet so that I can find what I want in future. I'm always full of good intentions, but I haven't run out of enthusiasm yet, so I may just be able to see it through this time. I've always wanted to have an inventory of my books, so I'm enjoying the whole process.

I'm also trying to sort out the hand-piecing projects that I'm discovering in various spots around the house. I'm gathering them all together, and then I'll have a serious think about which ones I want to finish as I originally planned, which ones should be finished as they stand and which ones I should pitch entirely. I do love to start things and never get back to them.

I'm also finding lots of non-quilting projects, and I have to make decisions about those as well. I have a huge trunk full of rug-making supplies, for hooked rugs and braided rugs and crocheted rugs and latch-hook rugs. I have enough stuff to carpet the back yard as well as the house. I threw out a heap of old material that was destined for a braided rug; having made four in the past I know that I won't have time in the forseeable future to tackle another one. It's a good feeling to discard things sometimes.

I have done another 4" of a latch-hook rug that has been in progress for two years. I have really weak fingers and wrists, and the repetitive motions and the strength needed to make the knots just ruin my hands after a week or so. This can go back in the trunk until my hands have recovered.

I found an ancient needlework picture, that needs a few night's stitching to complete. This was in a McCalls Needlework magazine I bought in 1975, and I've always loved it. As you can see by the date, I was close to finishing it 13 years ago, and ran out of the cream background wool. Last year I finally tracked down a match, and this year I'm determined to finish it and get it framed. My daughter always loved watching me stitch the roses, and once I came back from making a cup of coffee to find some very odd stitches in place. She was chagrined to realise that it wasn't as easy as it looked! I pulled out her erratic stitches and helped her do some proper ones, but she really wasn't that interested. She loves beading, but not any sort of sewing.

I found heaps of pieced scraps in the sewing room, and cut out as many of the point templates for the Wheel of Fortune as I could. It was a great way to use up some really strange scraps, and the hard work of piecing the bits together had already been done. As you can see by the inch markings on the mat, this template is quite tiny, so you can cut pieces out the smallest scraps. I'm thinking of making a block using the pieced ring of the Wheel of Fortune, and substituting different centres. I haven't got sick of piecing them yet.....

When I was dividing up the material to share with Meredith I had a struggle with three pieces that I loved, and (shame on me) didn't want to split with her. Lo and behold, when I was looking on her blog at the picture of material she'd bought, there were the three fabrics! She'd already bought them for herself, and I could keep all of mine. In total there were eight fabrics that we both bought; do we have the same taste or what!

And her parcel came to 11kilos, or 22 pounds of fabric and books and wool. It will be just like Christmas; I'm thinking of the Christmas barrel in The Long Winter.....(Laura Ingalls Wilder)

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I don't think I have what it takes to be a good blogger. I miss too many opportunities for blogworthy photos, and I'm not dedicated enough to record things when they happen. Nearly 6 weeks in America, and there are three posts? Must try harder next time..... I'm buying myself wireless internet before I go anywhere else, so there will be no excuses next time.

I do have several hundred photos to edit, so I'll post some over the next few weeks, as I get to them. I'm still trying to catch up with business and family stuff, plus doing a little bit of sewing in odd moments to preserve my sanilty. Don't know if that's being very effective though.

It's good to be back, even if the cats ran away in terror when they saw me come in the door; it took a day for them to stop peering through doorways at me as if I were an intruder, and an unwelcome one at that. But all is forgiven now. I've seen the photos and heard the stories of Rhys' 18th birthday party, and it's a good thing I wasn't here. I would have ruined it entirely by being sensible.

I've divvied up the purchases and there is a parcel for Meredith waiting to be sent; you can see why there are always people wanting to be our long-lost triplet. I was remarkably restrained; I was allowed 64 kilos of luggage, and I only had 60. That's 132 pounds of stuff I lugged from the International Terminal at Brisbane to the Domestic Terminal. Whew. I was glad to get that lot home.

I have been wanting to do some round blocks for a while, so I bought several sets of acrylic templates from John Flynn. I tried out the Wheel of Fortune set, using my 2 1/2 " strips. The tiny triangles are cut from pre-pieced strips, so it goes togethere really quickly. The cutting is fiddly, but so much quicker than any other method, and I love the finished block.

I made 6, liked the effect but hated the pink setting material. If I'd been sensible I would have stopped then and replaced the pink fabric, but some madness made me think it would grow on me. It didn't, and then I had 16 blocks to deal with.I should know by now that I have to listen to that annoying little voice that tells me to stop what I'm doing before it's too late.

While I was at the various shows I found myself drawn to the antiques booths and the really dark and dirty looking antique quilts, with strong colours and vibrant contrasts. That's what I'd been wanting in these blocks, and they were just too perky and bright. So I threw caution to the winds, and dyed the blocks with something called Parisian Essence. It's a food colouring, but has the happy side-effect of staining fabric a deep browny-yellow. It looks like Dirt-Of-The-Ages in a bottle, and I really like the way the blocks look now. I've picked out the border fabrics, and the top should be in one piece this weekend. And I'm still not sick of piecing the blocks, so I think I'll pick out good fabrics for another variation....

I have acrylic templates for Wheel of Mystery, and Inproved NinePatch blocks, so I will have to grab some scraps and make sample blocks of those too. The Wheel of Mystery will be a great scrap quilt; the sample quilts at the John Flynn booth were batik, and they looked fabulous too.




Those antique quilts were divine. I loved this one with the pumpkin coloured sashing. These were at Cindy's Antique Quilts, and she had some utterly fantastic quilts. I could have spent a lot of money there, if I had lost my senses entirely. As it ws, I succumbed to one that was machine quilted, and will fit nicely into a collection that my friend and I are building, showing early machine quilting. Well, that's how I justified it anyway.....

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