I'm keen to be working on another top, but there are other things that keep demanding my time.  We had a meal with friends on Monday night, 10 of us got together for dinner under the stars at Deb's place.  I cooked two veggie dishes that afternoon, so there was no sewing time then.

It was a beautiful evening, drinks at sunset, dinner served at dusk and stretching into the night.  It was good to relax and just be with friends, and appreciate the garden filled with wisteria and roses.  Delightful.

I finally made time at the sewing machine and put the borders on the Checkered Lattice quilt.

I love the way it turned out, so different from my usual palette.  It was fun to make, I would definitely make another one if I needed a quick quilt.  The thing that took the most time with this was trying to find the border fabric; I haven't even thought about the backing and binding, I don't know I have anything suitable in these colours, so I will have to keep looking when I'm next in a patchwork shop.

This is the fourth top I've finished this year, which is so much better than last year when I finished exactly none.  I have two other close-to-finished tops in my project boxes, and I think I will work on one of those next.  It's a good feeling to cross these old projects off the list.

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The days don't seem to go quickly, but the weeks are flying by.  There's so much around here that I want to do, and I work at several projects a day which is satisfying, but all of a sudden a week has gone by and nothing is finished.   I know that I'm primarily a Process quilter, I quilt just for the pleasure of it, but it's nice to have a finished Product every now and then.  And this year has been pretty woeful on the  finishes.

Yesterday we had a family lunch at our brother Doug's place.  Our other brother Greg and his wife drove down from Port Augusta, and we had a leisurely lunch that stretched out till 5.30.  We had such a good time sitting around the table with glasses of red wine, and then tea and coffee, swapping stories from our childhood.. Doug is 13 years older than Mereth and I, and Greg is 3 years older.  Doug's memories are so different from ours, he was a young adult while we were little children, plus he was a wild boy, and a wilder young man, so he has a lot of tales to tell.  He drove our parents to distraction at times, some of his exploits are family legend.  We thoroughly enjoyed our afternoon of reminiscing.

I came home and started sewing, determined to finish the quilt on the design wall.  I've been working on it consistently this week, and I had the centre in one piece, so I just had to work out the corner blocks and attach the borders.  I was so relieved when I took the last stitch and hung the finished top on the design wall.

 This is the corner block I came up with, I just love those little strips.

I started this in June, it's been a fun project to work on while I lived in Adelaide and it helped use up a pile of scraps.  It generated a lot too, so I still have a box of 1.25" strips, but at least they're different fabric from the old ones.

I changed my mind about the size of it.  I have a double bed, and I decided I would actually like to use this myself so it was no use making it as large as the pattern.  That meant less blocks, and because I used a border I needed even less blocks. I only used 320, instead of the 520 I was planning on. 

I have about 30 leftover, and they are going to be the start of another quilt like this, but set on point.  I will do these as leader-enders I think, while I move on to a new project.  Or......

Maybe I'll tackle one of these boxes and sort out another WIP.  I would like to whittle down that stack of boxes, and add another finished top to the list.  It's fun choosing what to work on next.

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I've been easing back into life at home, pottering about and fiddling with projects here and there.   Mereth and I have had fun going out to dinner with friends, catching up with family, having coffee in a new coffee shop.  Both of us spend so much time helping with our grandkids, it's nice to just have time on our own, without the babies.  We miss them,  but we're never away from them for long anyway.

I've been spinning in my spare time, which I find really relaxing and absorbing.  Once I've decided what sort of yarn I want to make I just have to concentrate on keeping the thread the right thickness, until I've filled up the bobbin. Patchwork involves decisions all the time, which is what makes it interesting and exciting, but it takes a lot of mental work as well.

These two are going to be plied together to make a jacket for Isla for next winter.  Plying handspun with a commercial yarn  makes the handspun thread go much further.  It feels a bit like cheating, but I'll be knitting much sooner than if I had to spin another bobbin.

 I made a few more of the little blocks over several days, just fiddling with pieces, until yesterday I decided I needed to make some significant progress.  It involved a bit of tidying up first, because the sewing room is still a mess, and there's a lot of new fabric to organize.

 I'm entirely OK with that, I've been buying for projects, not just for stash, so I will use a lot of these straight away.

Once I had a clear cutting table I went full steam ahead on cutting pieces for the border. I cut and sewed, until I had enough pieces on the design wall to see that my border idea was going to work. 

It's like a piano key, but the widths of the strips correspond to the blocks, which will make it easy to attach.  I'll invent some sort of corner block when I get to the stage of assembling it all.  I have about one third of the quilt in one piece, and all but 25 of the blocks finished, so the end is in sight.  I'm getting excited about seeing this come together.

I was really making progress, until I spilled my coffee all over the cutting mat and a pile of freshly cut strips. As a child I was always known  for being the clumsy one in the family, and it hasn't changed apparently.  I don't know if the strips will be usable after being washed and ironed, they may shrink.  Oh well, they can go in the scrap bag for some crumb piecing.  I think I'm going to ban myself from drinking coffee at the cutting table in future, I can't be trusted.

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I've been lazy since I came home, just pottering around and not doing anything much.  It's been so luxurious, to wake up and decide what I'll do, even if that means not doing anything.  I spent one day out with friends, we had a road trip to a Jamestown and lunch in the pub.  Another day I spent at Helen's farm, chatting for 6 hours over coffee and cake.  And I've spent many days in the shop, so that the other people who run it can have a break.

I'm just sewing in small bursts, whenever I feel like it, and the count for the tiny blocks is 340.  I have 212 sewn into larger blocks, and the rest are single blocks.

 They are so easy to make, it takes no effort to send another 10 or so through the machine.  I've been finishing off all the partly completed ones I brought home from Adelaide, and soon I'll have to start from scratch, building the units up again.  Nice mindless work.  I think I want a border on it, so I won't be making the 520 that the pattern calls for; more like 460, so I'm nearly finished.

There were several fabric expeditions during my time away, trying to find a suitable border fabric for this quilt.  I hate buying fabric for a specific purpose, and then it turns out to be not quite right.  I bought two lengths that looked OK in the shop but not at home;

I finally found the One in Jamestown after our pub lunch.  Now I just need to cut the strips and get them sewn on.

My sewing room is a mess, too many projects and pieces everywhere.  I collected some big boxes from the supermarket, and corralled all the bits for each quilt in one place.  These boxes stack nicely, so they don't take up much room. I will work my way through each project and actually see some finishes soon.

Spring has arrived, the weather is warming up and all the plants stating their new growth.  I feel like I missed out on winter this year, we stayed inside with the baby and the heating was on, which I absolutely hate.  I'd rather rug up in a jacket and adjust to the cold.  But  I won't complain, because it's just so nice to be home again.

(Except that I wrote that a long time ago and I"m now back at Shonny's for a short visit over Father's Day.  But I'll be home again soon; life is a lot of travelling at the moment.)

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I'm home, after 6 weeks at Seonaid's house, helping with Thomas.  I had hoped he would be an easy baby like my son, who loved to sleep and be cuddled and was no trouble at all.  Alas, Thomas had some problems with feeding, and some gut issues, but I think we've solved those now.  He's 9 weeks old, weighs 6 kilos (13 lbs) and is growing at a great rate.  He's just started to chat and play with toys, and is a very handsome lad indeed. 

Emergency bath in the kitchen sink after a spectacular nappy failure.....

In other news, his dad has finished his contract at the gas field where he's been working for the last 15 months, and is home for good.  That means that I'm not needed for a while, so I'll be home for a while.  It will be nice to pick up the threads of life from where I dropped them so many months ago.  Unless Hayden accepts another remote job, and then I'll be back helping out.

I've been home two days now, and I haven't sewn a stitch, too tired to throw myself into the sewing room just yet.  I've been knitting and watching DVDs; actually watching them instead of listening as I work.  It's like a whole new experience, LOL.  I have a stack of new fabric to fold and put away, and things to unpack, so it will probably be a while before I do start sewing.  It's so nice to be home, but I'm going to miss these two.

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The family visit was fun, we booked an entire dining room at the pub and there were 18 of us there, most of them meeting Thomas for the first time.  It's lovely to see a baby welcomed into the family, being admired and cuddled by Great-Aunts and Uncles all the way down to little cousins.  My Mum would have been tickled pink to see all those babies. 

Shonny came up to have photos taken by Kim, a very talented local photographer, and I went along to wrangle Isla.  She was so suspicious of the lights and various props, and the huge lens of the camera.  When Kim put her on a shaggy rug with Thomas, Isla's panicked expression was like someone about to be operated on without anaesthetic.  But Kim is a baby whisperer, and soon had the shots she wanted, and I then took Isla away while the rest of the photoshoot went on.

We went to a play cafe with niece Liz and her twins, and spent a relaxed two hours with coffee and cake, watching the kids on the play equipment.  It was like the coffee shop in Friends, but with an enormous playground, and for most of the time we were the only people there.  Just our kids, and all that stuff to play on.  I would have adored that as a child.

The photos are stunning, Kim captured the family beautifully.  I love this one of Thomas, he's a little elfling. 

He was so good, for hours, but at the end he was grumpy and just wanted to be left alone to sleep.  What a darling.

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Sewing at last

Since I arrived home on Sunday I've barely set foot outside the door.  Normally I run around and visit friends and family to catch up, and then I've no time left for quilting and playing with my stash.  So this time I've become a hermit,sewing late into each night and waking up later in the morning.  It might be anti-social, but I feel like I've had a real holiday.

I thought perhaps I might try and get a few UFOs finished, maybe these Northwind blocks,

but that didn't really appeal.  What I really wanted to do was cut up some stash fabrics to go in my Farmhouse quilt.  I was tired of the fabrics from the box of strips, and desperate for some variety.  Another thing that annoyed me was the frayed edges of some of those strips;

a lot of them felt tattered and worn, and I was sick of threads hanging off and getting stuck in the seams. It seems like the more disordered my life is, the more I need my quilting organised and in control.

Time to add some purple to the mix.

And those charm squares?  It turned out it WAS possible to cut the pieces for a whole block, with no wastage at all.  But then I had to exercise so much care as I used those pieces, allowing for pinked edges and the odd piece that was just too small.  Some 5" squares just aren't 5" after all, which is frustrating.  I tried to trim off the pinked edges where I could, but that created fabric dust that got into my eyes, all over my clothes and the black carpet. (Really?  Black?)  It wasn't the sort of piecing time that I'm used to.  The first little block that I made at home, from my freshly cut, accurately cut strips, was like a little burst of happiness. 

THIS is how I like to work.

I'm up to 100 blocks assembled,

 and many more pieces cut out and bagged up.

It took me so long to work out how I wanted to press it, so that it all nested together the way I wanted, with the seam intersections spinning.  I know it was because I was tired and a bit stressed, but I just couldn't work it out at Shonnys, and it it took me several tries at home too.  But it finally clicked, and now I know how I have to press and arrange them.  Full speed ahead with the next 420 blocks.....

This afternoon Shonny and family are coming up for a quick visit, and then we'll all go back to Adelaide tomorrow, so I need to get some blocks prepped ready to take back with me.  I feel like I'm getting somewhere at last.

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Our beautiful baby boy arrived, 1 day after his due date, and we are beyond delighted to have him here.

 Thomas Charles, weighing a respectable 3.9k, (8lb 11oz). 

I'm so glad Hayden was there to support Shonny through the labour, I'm sure I would have been useless.  Mum told the story of when she was in labour with her first baby Gran was supposed to bring her things to the hospital.  Gran got halfway up the stairs, heard Mum yelling, and turned and ran away.  She was such a softie, couldn't bear to think of Mum in pain, so she scarpered.  After having 10 children herself you'd think she would have been just the person to have around at a birth, but no.  She never even warned Mum that it was going to hurt, so Mum thought something was horribly wrong and that she was going to die. 

Isla is delighted with her baby brother, and is very loving with him.  All the girls are thrilled, he spends a lot of time being cuddled by each in turn. He's been very good, waking only to have a feed and then obligingly going back to sleep. 

Isla was 5 weeks old before she reached his birthweight; a bigger baby is so much easier to care for than a tiny wee one. 4 hours between night feeds instead of two, settling to sleep straight away, no problems feeding.  In fact, Shonny is managing so well, and Hayden is so attentive, that I'm having a little holiday at home.

It's lovely to be in my sewing room, with my projects on the design wall and my fabric at hand.  I was getting mighty sick of having no choice about what I was putting in my teeny little blocks.  Now I can raid the stash drawers and get some variety in there.  Bliss.

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New project

A while ago I bought The Big Book of Civil War Quilts.

There are some beautiful quilts in it, and I have plans to definitely make 4 of them.

This one caught my eye, firstly for the blue and brown colours, second for the tiny pieces,; then when I read the directions I realised that I already had a box of 1.25"  and 2.5" strips ready and waiting.  It was so easy to grab those boxes and bring them down to Adelaide with me.

I arranged all the 1.25"strips in stacks of four, and then cut out my rectangles and squares.  It helped me to visualise what I had left to cut, rather than be overwhelmed by a whole box of strips. 

I spent two days sorting, cutting and arranging in whatever spare time I had, and finally managed to sew 9 blocks.

It took forever, arranging each block, then sewing each in turn.  I felt like I was getting nowhere; 520 blocks at this pace?  Really? 

So my next sewing session I concentrated on just pairing the rectangles with the large squares, then chain sewing them to two sides. 

In no time at all I had 20 sets of pieces sewn together.  It was so much quicker to just choose two fabrics to use together, rather than planning the whole block.

My next window of time I used to match a stack of small squares to each set; I pressed what I'd sewn, and added the small squares to the remaining rectangles.  Then just two more seams and I had a pile of blocks.

I know that it's probably the same time per block, but it was much more satisfying to see progress on a large number of blocks all at once.

Amazingly, I've cut up nearly all my 1.25" strips, so it's back to the charm square stash to cut more pieces.  I'm trying to tell myself to ignore the pinked edges and use the whole 5" square. 

I can cut one 2.5" square, four 1.25" rectangles and four 1.25" squares from each one.

1 charm square equals one block, which is pretty neat.  But I HATE the pinked edges, I hate having to guesstimate where to line fabric up, and what edge to use for the seam allowance.  And the pieces are just too tiny to lose that much in the seam allowances.  Sigh.  I just may have to cut the shapes accurately and deal with the waste, because then the sewing is a breeze and I get perfectly accurate blocks.  I think accuracy is going to win the day.

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No progress on any front

I'm down at Shonny's, waiting for our baby to arrive, but he's in no hurry. It's so hard to be patient, especially when Hayden has a limited amount of time home. But I'm making the most of just having Isla, it will all be different once the new baby arrives.

I did get some more sewing done, and put all the blue-green blocks together. I'm really pleased with how it turned out, and pleased that I didn't go and buy more of that colour to have more variety. It worked out just fine with what I had. I will have to get a metre of darker print for the borders, but that's OK. I won't have to add that to the stash.

The picture above is very washed out, the colour in this photo is more true to life.

The pattern was Checkered Lattice, from Missouri Quilt Company.  However, that method created bias edges on the outside of the blocks, and I can't be doing with that.  I cut 7" squares, cut them on both diagonals, and used those triangles to build the blocks.  All the finished blocks were trimmed to 7.5" and because the edges were on the straight grain it went together really easily.  I could use even small pieces of fabric instead of the 10" squares in the video.  It wasn't as quick, but I enjoyed the process of choosing fabrics for each block.

I have several things to work on next, I'll spend today sorting out some blocks to sew. I want to have things ready so that I can quickly sew a few things together in any spare moment. 

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I have had nearly two weeks at home, which has been pretty wonderful.  I haven't achieved much of the big clean up I wanted to tackle.  I've spent a lot of time in the shop, so that the other people who run it could take a break.  I've sorted out stuff that mice had got into in my absence (poxy little creatures). I've spent time catching up with family here.  So overall, not a lot on my list was ticked off, but it has been relaxing.

I did take a couple of days to sew like a mad thing, and as a result my Tumelo Trails is done.

I'm really happy with how it turned out, it was a lot of fun collecting those shirts and then choosing combinations for the blocks.

I couldn't face that piano key border, so I used leftover 3.5" triangles to make the border.  I like how airy it makes the finished quilt. 

I left it on the design wall for a day, then folded it up and out these blocks back up.

It's been forever since I worked on them, and I had fun last night moving it further along. I love he blue-greens in this, and the back and white is so crisp. They are a fun block to make.

 But alas, I'm back to Adelaide again today.  Shonny is nearly 38 weeks pregnant, and Isla is sick, so I'm going down to help wherever I can.  Shonny needs a few nights uninterrupted sleep.  Hayden is home in a week, and I'm hoping that baby stays put until he gets here, otherwise it will be me in the birthing suite with Shonny.  I'm useless, I had two C-sections, so all I could do is hold her hand and be encouraging.  I guess that will be enough.

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The last three months have been hectic, looking after Isla, then the trip to Queensland. We were home for three weeks, then went back for the funeral; it was delayed so that a family member could attend after the last of radiation treatments. Way too much cancer in this family.

Shonny decided to stay an extra week to catch up with friends, and I flew to New South  Wales to visit my friends Kaye and Bruce.  They gave up their Gammil dealership last October, but there are still 3 machines to play on.  I did a customer quilt for Kaye, using the latest software, which was a bit nerve-wracking but it went without a hitch.  Might have to see about updating my system soon, even though I'm never home to use it.

I had a lovely time catching up with Kaye, and sleeping in late every morning in my beautiful 4 poster bed.

The quilt on the bed is made with nine patch blocks made in 2009 by myself and two friends.

We made hundreds of nine-patches over the course of three days, 1 person cutting and 2 sewing. We all had a set of them, and mine are a top, but still not quilted.  I should make that a priority, but there are so many other tops that need quilting.  Some day.....

Kaye was helping plan a Biggest Morning Tea fundraiser for cancer, and we spent the week stitching out mug rugs for the 70 people attending, and making 70 microwave bowls.  They work really well, so I need to make some for myself, now that I know how easy they are.  I also quilted a 60" white sateen wholecloth for a raffle quilt, but luckily someone else offered to bind it so I didn't have to tackle that myself.

Kaye always moves at a million miles an hour, which is how she gets so much done.  She can pin on a quilt in minutes, while I'm still debating whether to get out of my chair.  I was complaining that my feet hurt after the 11,000 steps that day, and Kaye looked at her Fitbit and said '20,000 so far, and I still have stuff to do...'  I'm just not in her league, and she's older than me!

I flew straight home to Adelaide when the week was up, and was met by Mereth.  Surprise, she'd brought Lily along, so after parking the car we bundled Lily up against the cold and the rain, and went back to wait for Shonny and Isla to arrive.  Isla was delighted to see us all, and she and Lily held hands in their car seats on the way home, so sweet.

We didn't have to go back to Crystal Brook in a hurry, so we stayed 2 days and just relaxed.  There was a trip to Costco, which Lily absolutely loved.  So much to see, so many people to say hello to, and a pizza crust for lunch.   It was very exciting.

Finally we drove home, and I walked into my sewing room and thought, What on earth was I doing before I left?  There was stuff everywhere, things have just been dumped and piled all over the place.  I've been sorting out a bit each day, and I'm finally able to see the floor! I have to tackle the cutting table next.

Shonny and Isla came up on the weekend to stay with John and Liz, to celebrate Mother's Day and the twins first birthday.  What a year it's been!  It was Sunday evening before I finally sat down and sewed, but family comes first.  The only redeeming thing about the last few weeks has been so much time spent with family and friends.

So this is my design wall.  Time to get busy making more nine patches.

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I'm always cautious about how much of my private life I share on the blog, so I'll just say that the last two weeks have been a very sad time for our family.  Shonny's dad was diagnosed last year with lung cancer, just after a trip down to visit Isla.  A week after Shonny finished work we were flying up to Rockhampton to say goodbye to him.  He and I stayed good friends, and I was glad to go back, to help with Isla and feed all the family and friends that gathered. It's been devestatingly sad, and Isla was the only bright spot for all of us.  We came home on Saturday, and a day later he was gone.  I'm so glad that we have photos and videos of Isla with her grandad; I just wish she could have grown up with him in her life. He was an extraordinary man.

I'll be in my sewing room for a couple of days, finding comfort amongst all my projects. The sweet, calm monotony of sewing fabric together is a great healer.

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Last day of the Adelaide Festival today, thank heavens.  Depending on Shonny's workload I could be home as early as Friday, but we'll have to wait and see.  I'm really looking forward to getting home and catching up with friends and family, and seeing what's happened in my absence.  Autumn is my favourite time at home, and I'm missing it while I'm away.  I'm trying to arrange to take Isla home with me, so Shonny can sleep for as long as she wants and make changes to the house uninterrupted.  That new baby is only 2 months away, and we need to sort out a new bedroom for Isla, and put the nursery back to tiny baby mode.

I've been trying hard to use up every available scrap of time, I don't want to go home and think. well I got nothing done down there. 

I've sorted through my charm packs and weeded out the multiples in each one, and pulled out ones that I don't love. 

They've been cut up into 1.5"strips and I've made nine-patches from them.  It's such a good way to get variety, there are colours in those blocks that don't occur elsewhere in my stash, so the finished Tumelo Trail blocks are going to look different from my normal quilts.  I'm really loving the charm packs, I'm pretty sure I'll buy another stack next Christmas.

I forgot to bring my all 1.5"strips, I only had a handful of little bits.  I've been using up every last little scrap, and I have a renewed appreciation for the little offcuts and scraps.  They are useful, if I take the time to deal with them.  But in future I'm still going to give most of them to Mereth.....

I'm way behind on cutting up my shirts, but it makes such a mess.  I've been very good about vaccuuming up all the threads and snippets, but I'm sure Shonny is a bit appalled at the mess.  She's nothing like me in that respect, I can live in the chaos quite happily, knowing that one big clean up will see it all put to rights again.

Isla and I went to Bunnings yesterday, and I found these cute little boxes. 

My 9" blocks fit in them perfectly.  I'm so addicted to plastic, and finding just the right containers for everything.  But it does help me keep everything organised, so I'm unapologetic.

Dear me, that baby is awake, I'm off to fed her some lunch. Maybe we'll go back to Bunnings for more plastic boxes and a Bunnings sausage....

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Sew good

I'm not getting a lot of sewing done unfortunately, life is busy and there is not a lot of time when I can sit at the sewing machine, or cut up strips.  Hayden came home for his week off, and we organised a seven year old's birthday party and cleaned up afterwards; 15 kids and 13 adults.  Seonaid would have done a much better job I'm sure, but she was working so we did the best we could.  So much Sugar! But everyone was happy, there were no accidenets,  melt-downs or tantrums from the kids or the adults, so we're counting it as a success.

I've accumulated about 20 shirts, it's been a lot of fun finding opshops and visiting them to see what's available. 

This is my favourite so far, I love the blocks I've made with it.

They have to be washed, then cut apart, which seems to take forever.  I don't use scissors or the quick unpick around Isla, she would want to snatch them and run off and I can't be chasing an armed toddler around the house.  She's too quick, and I don't want there to be any accidents with sharp things.  She sleeps about one and a half hours in the late morning, and then goes to bed at 7.30, so my sewing time is limited to those hours.  When she's in daycare I cook and clean, put the house to rights and do whatever shopping we need, so there's not a lot of free time there either.  But I have made a bit of progress.  

I've made 6 blocks, and I love how they turned out.  I fear that I'm also making a Churn Dash block that I saw on Jo's Country Junction blog.  I might be a bit obsessed with this quilt as well; I'm cutting the pieces as I cut for the Tumelo Trail.  Lots of cutting, no blocks made yet, but I'll be ready to start swing on that as soon as I have time.

I have quite a few of the 3.5" HSTs that I need, enough for 8 more blocks.  Now I need to concentrate on the nine-patches and build up a stash of them so I can get those blocks done.  It's nice to have something to think about besides babies and housework. 

 

One more day of the Adelaide Festival, and then Shonny can go back to regular working hours as they wind up the admin over  the next week.  I'm so ready for things to go back to some semblance of normality, and so is Isla.  She misses her mum....

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Fun day out

Mereth and friend Deb came down to attend an auction, and I went along to catch up.  I'm not really into the auction scene, it's a lot of sitting around in uncomfortable, hot surroundings, with some very dubious people, watching them buy a whole heap of really weird stuff.  Deb and Mereth enjoy it though, and they got some wonderful bargains. 

There was nothing there this day, except maybe a couple of dolls that were quite nice.

But I wasn't going to pay $75 for a job lot of really ugly dolls to get the one I wanted.  The auction was an estate auction of a collector, and she had hundreds of dolls and paintings and china and collectible plates.  I have a lot of stuff too, but it's not as indiscriminate as this lady's collections.  Some of the dolls were like little nightmares waiting to happen; the cast of every creepy doll movie ever made.

I wasn't upset about not getting anything at the auction, because I visited three op shops and got three bags of cheap men's shirts for my Tumelo Trail quilt, and that made my day.  I was wondering if I"d be able to afford to make a shirt quilt, at the prices I was seeing.  $5 a bag is affordable, especially when I can cram it as full as I want.  So my quilt is off to a fine start.

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