I need another hand piecing project now that I've finished the Tumbling Blocks quilt. This one seems to be an obvious choice; I have about 1/4 of it pieced, a lot of shapes cut out and it will go together quickly as the pieces are large. The original quilt was published in a Ladies Circle Patchwork Magazine in 1990, and I set about making a copy, even though reproduction fabrics were almost non-existent then. I'm actually quite glad I put it aside, because now I have the perfect 1800s prints to finish it.This charm pack of the Charleston IV range is going to find it's way in there somewhere. The template only just fits.

I taught at a quilt conference with Tina Gravatt years ago, and one afternoon after classes about 10 of us sat on the floor around Tina while she showed us her stack of beautiful miniature quilts. One of them was an elongated hexagon, inspired by the same photo in the magazine that had made me start my full-size version. I love mini quilts, and one of the major advantages is that they are much quicker to finish. Tina certainly didn't waste time completeing her version, and I'm still working on mine 18 years after I started it.

When I mark my templates I use a mechanical pencil with a thick .7mm lead. I also use carbon leads in it, instead of the more common polymer leads. The carbon marks more easily and washes out better, and the thicker refills make them more robust. I use a sheet of Wet'n'Dry black sandpaper under the fabric to stop it from sliding around, and the pencil marks the fabric more easily. It's extremely fine, and is much gentler on the fabric than regular sandpaper.

The Tumbling Blocks quilt was made with a 60 degree diamond that measures 3" along each side. That's quite a large shape, I've made my other ones with a 2" diamond, which made them rather cute. I like the bigger shape because it shows off the pretty materials.

This is a photo of the Tumbling Blocks I made for Mum, with an apron made by my great-grandmother. I pinched the photo from Mereth's blog, from way back in May 06. I'm too lazy to go round her place and take a more recent photo.

I don't use a pattern for these quilts, as it's just the one template shape throughout. All you need is a picture of a Tumbling Blocks quilt that you like, and a 60 degree diamond template, and you're all set. All you have to remember is to join the light, mediukm and dark value pieces together in the same orientation throughout the whole quilt.

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The borders are on and the Tumbling Blocks top is finished, after 8 years. I love hand piecing this pattern, it's so easy and effective, and portable. I will probably start another one soon, ready for when I have to go on my next teaching trip. It's wonderful to have a project to take with me, that requires so little thought or effort. My other quilts in this pattern have been given away, but this one is mine. There are 8 years of memories stitched into this, and some of my favourite fabrics ever. I was careful to include some of my most recent purchases, like that red Judie Rothermel print in the corner; now it contains fabrics from the oldest to the newest.

This border print is really perfect, but I used up every scrap; now I wish I'd bought another 3 metres for the stash. I'm sure there's another UFO it would be perfect for as well. Can't have two quilts with the same border though, so I'll have to keep looking for another border stripe.

We shifted a lot of furniture around last week, including moving all my quilt storage shelves into the workroom, so that I could have a spare bedroom again. We refolded all the quilts as we shifted them, and stacked them neatly in their new home. It all looks really good, and the quilts are easy to get to when we need them. Plus there's room to store three rolls of batting on top of the shelves, which gets them out of the way nicely.
The photo shows some of the 65 quilts we have, including 8 antique ones I've acquired over the years. The applique on the table is one of my favourites, very faded but beautifully stitched, quilted every 1/2", and the fabric is so soft and heavy. We plan to replicate it some time this year, which will be a fun joint project for us.

Patchwork group tomorrow, and I need to dig out another UFO to work on. I've been so good this year, finishing UFOs, I'm sure I've set some sort of record. It kind of makes up for all the extra fabric I've bought, ready for those new quilts I'm going to start one day soon.

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We have been planning to walk a section of the Heysen Trail for months, but the weather was so hot that it wouldn't have been wise. Finally we had a spare day and decent conditions, and arranged things with nephew Matt as our guide. The beginning of the walk is at Bowman's Park, where he lives, and he has walked these hills many times.
The easy walk is along the creek bed, which is where we all started. The recent rain has helped green things up a bit, but it's nowhere near our normal winter conditions.Most of the green growth in these photos is actually a weed known as SourSobs, a form of oxalis which is horribly sour. As kids we used to pick the yellow flowers and eat the stems as a dare. Kids! (Strangely enough, when Mereth and I flew Japan Airlines one of the components of the meals tasted exactly like our soursobs.)

It's a bit worrying that the grass isn't regenerating properly. These things are another worry; they are globe thistles, and while they are strangely beautiful they are also an incredible menace. Covered in thorns, able to grow where nothing else does, every one of those strands in the flower connected to a seed; what a nightmare for farmers. They can grow 5' tall, and completely colonise a field in years. They make me think of Triffids....

Matt and I with the three dogs detoured up to the top of one ridge for a better view of the surrounding countryside. It was glorious up there, a brisk wind and a fantastic view of the valley.
The creek meanders along the junction of those folds, so it takes a while to cover any ground as the crow flies, but we weren't trying to get anywhere in particular, just out to explore a bit.

These grass trees were once called Blackboys, but now that's a bit politically incorrect, so they are Yuccas or grasstree. The tall flowering spikes set seed and dry out into woody spears. We used them as weapons when we went for picnics as kids; Mum just shook her head over us duelling with these things, and moaning about the wounds afterwards. I blame it on our brother, who always came up with the good ideas and walked away unscathed while we got into trouble.

Matt on top of the ridge, giving the dogs a drink. Mereth had followed the creekbed, not wanting to go scrambling up hills, and she took this picture of us coming down the slope at the end.We are the two dots half way down; I had no idea we were so high up until I got to the bottom and looked back. It was pretty impressive. The grass on this hill is a form of Spinifex, with every blade ending in a hard spine. It hurts to touch, so we were coming down rather carefully, except for the dogs, who leapt down the slope like circus animals. They are all energy and no sense when they get out in the country.

The sides of the valley are weathered rock, some areas with horizontal ledges. We surprised a fox who was camping on one of these ledges, and watched him run along the cliff face until he could scramble up and disappear up the hill. I can't like foxes, even though they can look beautiful; they are an introduced species here.

Even though it's winter there is no water in the creek, which should be running and bubbling along with 12" of water in it. Our weather patterns have changed so much in the 40 years since I was a child; back then we had permanent water in rivers, and every autumn we got regular rain that made all these little creeks come to life again. The big trees look shattered and battered and ill. I should stop comparing it to the country I knew back then, but I feel so sad for this area, which is really showing the stress of climate change.

But it certainly looked like rain that day. We left Mereth sketching by the creek and took off to try and reach an orchard that Matt had found on a previous trip. It's the strangest thing, 40 or so orange trees planted in rows in the middle of nowhere. Who on earth thought this was a good idea, and how have they survived? After last summer they should all be dead, but about 2/3 of them were sprouting leaves and several actually had fruit. I picked one and we ate it later, and although it was really dry it was sweet and tasted just like it should. Amazing.

On the way home the rain started, and Matt took pity on Jessie and carried her inside his coat, with just her head sticking out the top. If it hadn't been raining I would have taken a photo, Jessie looked so smug and superior as the other dogs got wetter and colder. It pays to be little and only weight 4 kilos.

We got back to Matt's and had a wonderful cup of coffee before the drive home. It took us three hours to get to the orchard and back, which is about half of that section of the trail. We will plan another days hike to get us all the way through, hopefully without getting wet this time. But who could begrudge this country some rain......

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It's been a week of travel and chores and furniture shifting, and now there's only one day left. I can't believe how quickly the time goes. and I don't seem to get a lot achieved. I'm sure the answer is to get up earlier, work longer and not go near the computer.

I have been determined to finish this tumbling blocks quilt, started in 2000. Several times I thought it was done, but decided I would like it wider, and longer and bigger and.... Enough! I made one final row of blocks, which necessitated finding my gear that I use for marking pieces for hand piecing. I had to collect it from places all over the house, which motivated me to set up an area just for handwork. Now I don't have any excuse not to finish my hand pieced projects.

The top is now finished except for the borders, which I will put on tomorrow. It took me three hours to press all those seams; I was under the impression that I had been pressing as I went along, but I hadn't. It seemed like I would never get to the end of it, and every time I pressed one bit some other seam would bend back the wrong way. AGGHH! I have made three Tumbling Block quilts, and I've done the same with each one, left the pressing till the end. You'd think I would learn. With the first one I watched a Doris Day movie while I ironed it (It Happened to Jane) and I still think of that movie when I see that quilt! Interestingly I found the perfect border fabric for this only a month ago, so it seems it was a good thing I never finished piecingit earlier; it was just biding it's time till the right material came along.

We went for a drive to another town on Tuesday, to deliver a quilt to a customer. After we had accomplished that we had a little outing of our own, visiting a quilt shop, antique shops and a wool shop. I seem to have acquired a wool stash, and the sock wool is building up faster than I can knit it. For the first time in years I'm knitting a garment, a casual cardigan coat, from the blue green wool at the left of the picture. It's knitting up quickly, probably a 12 ply, but there is anxiety when you knit clothing. All that work, and will it fit? Socks are pretty easy to knit, not a lot of thinking involved. I just hope the coat works out, because it is lovely wool.

And there was a small amount of material buying; several pieces of that deep blue that I need a lot of, and some pieces that I just liked the look of. Someone had to give it a home.




And my latest machine, one I didn't expect to get. It was on Ebay and I missed out on it, but the bidder who beat me reneged on the payment and I got it after all. Lucky Me! It's a dear machine, the decals are just lovely and the chrome on it sparkles. I think I can stop buying machines for a while, I'll just admire the ones I have.
I also bought a pair of hiking boots that I'd been wanting for a long time, and there are photos to show tomorrow of our first hike; this post is long enough already.

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I've just spent a few hours researching old singer machines and tracking down the dates of the serial numbers of our latest machines. This site is good; the pdf links on the right contain the models as well as the dates, so I was able to identify a couple of unmarked machines in our collection. I'm going to have to make a file card for each machine so I remember what it is and where we got it.

As soon as I bring a machine home I give it a good oiling, replace the needle and clean off the dirt. Some of these machines are filthy when we get them. At an antique shop last week Mereth dredged a 99k out from a sea of disgusting debris, and the dealer was so appalled at it's appearance that she got it for $10. It's covered in spider webs and bodies, plus pet hair and years worth of dirt. I'm going to have to be brave to tackle that one. The domed cover will clean up well though, so it was worth it for that alone.

Just to be safe, I always use a ShockSafe powerboard to plug these old machines in; their wiring can be a bit erratic, and I don't want them blowing fuses or worse.

Once the machine is clean I tweak the stitching until it's sewing nicely, then go through my collection of feet from lots of different machines, trying to find one that is a perfect 1/4" seam. I bought a 1/4" foot for my Featherweight here, and that has proved just right for several of the 99k machines. If I can't find a foot that's perfect, I have lots of these seam guides, so there can be one for each machine if I want.

I also acquired this beauty of a 201K, in a very sturdy table. She must have been well looked after, because she sewed the most perfect stitch without me having to change a thing. I can't wait to sew some piecework on her. The feed dogs drop down too, so I could free-motion quilt on this if I wanted. We're lucky that only one machine, the $10 99k, has refused to sew; all the others have been coaxed into producing impeccable 1/4" seams. The old Singers are fantastic machines.

What are we going to do with all these machines? Some of our beginner patchwork students don't own a sewing machine, so they can borrow one of ours to use while they learn. If they decide they don't like machine sewing they haven't gone to all the expense of buying a machine they won't use. And meanwhile Mereth and I have 18 machines to choose from when it comes time to piece our own quilts.

And just to prove that I still do piece, my Jacks On Six top is almost finished. It needs one final border at the bottom, but because the material was cut crookedly in the shop I couldn't get the required number of strips from it. So it means yet another trip back to the quilt shop, but that's no hardship. We are planning an excursion with friends, so I'll just wait patiently for this one to be completed.

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After a lot of effort and indecision I have the Mini Monkey Wrench in one piece. It seemed to take forever. When it came time to choose the borders I kept picking fabrics that I didn't have enough of, which was frustrating. These are quite fine, even if they weren't my first choices, and I'm just glad to get the whole thing finished. I have a huge basket of leftovers, so I may have to make a miniature version, or just sew all the bits into crumb blocks. I'm a bit sick of them by now. It's Patchwork Group tomorrow, so I will need another project now. Goody!

We went off to Adelaide yesterday to pick up a couple of sewing machines to add to the collection. There was this one, in a nice cabinet, a cute 99k that luckily came with a complete manual, and as a bonus we found this Godfrey machine for sale as well. We couldn't leave it behind, just look at those pretty decals, and it's in rather nice condition. Missing it's bobbin case, but we will find one somewhere. It's just a rebadged Singer, shouldn't be too hard to track down spare parts.

During the week we went to a local antique shop and the owner fished this Horn sewing cabinet out of her shed for us. It's in fantastic, mint conditon with a gas lifter and everything, for the price of three or four magazines. Plus the drawers were stuffed full of cottons, pins, zippers and bias tape. We had so much fun sorting it all out. I think my 6500 will live in this, as I'm using the old 201 for most of my piecing. I can leave the 6500 set up with the walking foot for any quilting I want to do, and for binding.
I sorted out some of my stash drawers the other night, as I didn't feel like doing anything requiring effort or brain-power. I've often asked mysef if one can have tooo much material; in the case of cream fabrics, I can definitely say that I have Enough! For now.....

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We went for a drive the other day, on the hunt for a suitable table for my sewing room. At an antique shop in a nearby town we spent a pleasant hour combing through all the knick-knacks, books, china and saucepans, collecting a few things we had to have. When we went to pay for them the owner of the shop remarked how strange it was that everything we had chosen belonged to one woman. A 75 year old spinster is in the process of downsizing, and there were many of her things displayed in the shop, including her entire baby layette and several exquisite little dresses. She came from a family of magnificent seamstresses and knitters, that's for sure.

I found two quilted items that had to come home with me. The tea cosy is hand stitched corded quilting, with a machine quilted lining. It has a few stains, but it's in fine shape so I will carefully wash it next summer when the thick padding will dry quickly. The pattern is formed with two lines of backstitching to form a channel, with pink cord threaded in. The backing is very coarse cream cloth, I can just see a glimpse of it through a small hole. The lining inside is pink cotton quilted in a plain grid.

This baby bib is intruiging, as it's machine quilted in a very dense pattern, with the tiniest of stitches. It's a very early eample of machine quilting, and it's so beautifully and skillfully done that it's obviously not a learning piece; this was made by someone who was an expert at machine quilting. And it was used to bits, as the ragged edges show. I may frame this, it's so unusual.
I did get my table, but we'll have to go back next week to pick it up; I think a few more of that lady's treasures might join our collections; it will be nice to keep them together.

And on a different note, Mereth is wildly amused by the cuteness of the Gammil bobbins wound with variegated thread. The thread colours make an interesting little pattern. Small things......

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We picked this bunch of roses early this morning, the garden at Mereth's place is putting on one last show. I'm enjoying the beginnings of the cool weather and grateful for a gradual transition to winter; it will be interesting to see how I handle my first real cold spell in 22 years.

My Janome 6500 has developed a hacking cough and rattle, and will have to be taken in for a service. In the meantime I trialed every other machine I own, trying to find which one was the best replacement. The Featherweight was nice, but ultimately this 201P of Mum's sews the best 1/4" seam. This is the machine that Mum bought when she found out she was having two babies instead of one. When we were in high school we sewed all our clothes on it, and Mum used it until she was in her seventies. It still runs like a dream.

I remember one December when we were 5, watching Mum sew two sets of summer pajamas, with matching brunch coats on this machine. We hung on the edge of the table, getting in her way and asking dozens of questions about the machine and what she was doing and who were the pajamas for. She told us that they weren't for us, she was sewing them for two lucky little girls for Christmas. We were eaten up with jealousy of those two other girls, and got the surprise of our lives when we unwrapped the pajamas on Christmas day. Mum always maintained that we couldn't have been so naive as to believe her, but we never doubted anything she said. It only occurred to me later that she had LIED to us. That gave me pause for thought......

I'm working on the Churn Dash blocks, but they seem to be going very slowly. I've cut all the triangles for the zigzag setting, which busted 2.25m of stash. My browns are being depleted, but that is good because I have quite a lot of these particular fabrics. It's good to be making a dent in them.

My DS has had an exciting week. He is studying at the Mackay Conservatorium of Music; he is part of a jazz band and they had a gig on Hamilton Island. The pictures he sent are fantastic, what a beautiful setting.
He's playing at the Entertainment Centre tonight, and at the Mayor's Ball next week. I'm rather proud of him, and he even remembered to send me a message for Mothers Day!

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There has been welcome rain in the last few days, and nice cool autumn weather. The plants are having a last fling of flowers before the winter arrives, and the garden at Mereth's is full of roses and gerberas. It's a lovely time of year. My Hebe is flowering again, I love that little heart shape in the centre, and the rain drops on the petals.The next two photos are raindrops caught and held by the furry leaves of Wormwood; the plant looked like a little Christmas tree decked with diamonds in the early morning sun.


Our brother and sister-in-law are going home in a few days time, so we are spending a lot of time together. On the weekend we went to visit our other brother and family, for a barbecue lunch. I got to eat kangaroo steaks for the first time, which was.....interesting; I'd definitely have it again. It has to be eaten quite rare, which suits me down to the ground, but I felt a bit guilty eating our national icon. I got over it tho.

Isn't this fruit absolutely gorgeous?
They are persimmon, and they look and feel as if they are made out of porcelain. There's something unreal about them. The flavour is amazing, like melon and apple and apricot all rolled into one, absolutely delicious. I must try and get a tree next time we go to a plant nursery, I'd love to be able to pick them from my own backyard. These came from my SIL's father, who has a loaded tree, lucky man.

We worked hard on a customer quilt this week, it's a present for the customer's soon-to-be 80 year old Mum. There are comments embroidered all over the quilt, and we got such a laugh reading some of them. I can really identify with this one!
When they present this quilt at the birthday lunch I hope they have the tissues ready, the birthday girl is sure to cry when she reads all the messages of love. There are times when it's great to be a quilter.

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There has been sewing in the workroom just lately. I'm still working on my current projects, but I won't see a finish on any of them soon, so I selected a UFO and concentrated on it until it was finished. I finished piecing these True Lovers Knot blocks early this year, but ran out of the shirting for the sashings. I did find some more, but not enough for my original plan; so I made an executive decsion and made the sashings smaller, and substituted another fabric in some of the borders. It made good stashbusting sense to use what I had rather than buy a whole heap more. I used nearly 3 metres for the sashing and triple border, so I'm pleased about that. Another project basket emptied!


We've been busy with business stuff lately, so there's not much else to tell. These are a few photos from the Pirie cemetery, just after sunrise on Anzac day. At that hour of the day it is a beautiful place, with it's avenues of pepper trees, melaleucas and bottlebrush trees. It was one of my favourite places as a child, which sounds odd, but it was never a morbid place to be. Mum took us and showed us the family plots, and then while she tidied them up we would wander through the rest of the place, reading the old, out of fashion names on the headstones and admiring the carvings.We always ended up in the Italian section, where the graves were smothered in brightly coloured plastic flowers and silk flowers in glass domes, along with statues of saints and china wreaths. It was such an extravagant display of grief, compared to the quiet, faded beauty of the rest of the place. This Pietà is relatively recent, and is about 10' high; it's quite compelling. The little rainbow appeared just as I took the photo, and vanished minutes later. What good luck that I had the camera ready.

I do love her face; she is beautiful from any angle. One day I'll be brave enough to try and make a portrait of her in fabric. Pam Holland is showing a portrait step by step on her web site, and I'd love to do something like that. One day.....

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