This photo is innocuous enough; my Singer with the light on. However, it actually represents 5 hours of work. When I bought this machine the light didn't work, and on Sunday I decided to put a new bulb in it. The old bulb had broken off in the holder, so it was a case of getting the pliers and trying to work the base out. About half an hour later I decided I'd better pull it to pieces so I could get at it more easily. An hour later, after ferreting around for the right size screw drivers and memorising each bit as it came apart, I managed to prise the old bulb out. Success!

I put it all back together, feeling quite chuffed, only to have the bakelite casing fall apart in my hands as the last screw went in. Damn! So I hunted through the other 20 machines, to find one with a similar casing. The worst machine, one affectionately nick-named Maggot, was the perfect donor; another half an hour had the casing stripped off, and installed on the newer machine. I plugged her in and flipped the switch; nothing! Grrrr. So I pulled it all to pieces again, and discovered that the switch wasn't making contact with the little copper pins, so I fixed that. And the light worked! Wonderful.

As I was cleaning it up I noticed a lot of yellow dust under the motor; on inspection I saw with horror that all the yellow plastic had crumbled off one lead, and there were bare wires sticking out! We always use Shocksafe cords on our old machines, but bare wires are Bad! I was a bit sick of being an electrician by this time; how can changing a light bulb lead to so many extra chores? I wrapped the wire with electrician's tape, after a trip to the shop to purchase some, and by that time I was so sick of it all that I didn't want to sew any more. Hmphh!

On Monday, after packaging up 6 finished quilts, we ran away for the afternoon. It was the most glorious day, it really felt like Spring, and far too nice to stay inside. We took the dogs and went to Wirrabara Forest for a walk. There are miles of radiata pine forests there, some planted 50 and 60 years ago, and it's a beautiful place to wander. The dogs adore it, Jessie took off like a tiny rocket and never stopped moving for the next two hours. She's such a little busybody.

Matt and I did the 5k walk on the Ipinitchie trail. Along the way we came across this enormous gum tree, absolutely massive. It was very mis-shapen, it must have had a rough and varied life to end up so twisted and convoluted. Mereth did the shorter Nursery walk, to the site where they once raised all the seedlings for the plantations. The photo shows some workers sowing seeds into thousands of bamboo tubes; once they germinated the bamboo tube could be planted out and the seedling just grew happily with no transplanting shock. Pretty clever for 1905.

The ground was carpeted with lots of these tiny gum blossoms, about 1/2" across. They could barely be seen on the trees, but they were pretty on the ground. On the way home we stopped to photograph some almond trees, already smothered in blossom; spring is on the way.Then it was corn on the cob for tea, and a sleep in front of the fire. It was a busy day for these two.

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Watching the gymnastics during the Olympics has made me remember when I was 9 years old and learning the basics. It was a fun way to pass the time, and both Mereth and I were keen and enthusiastic. The photo above is our Saturday class on the balance beam; Mereth is the first girl in black leotard, and I am the second. That photo took a while to set up, with all those little girls giggling and overbalancing and not looking in the right direction.

I remember being praised by the instructors, and someone approaching Mum about us trying out for the state team and being picked for special presentations, but it all went over my head. I just wanted to muck around and turn cartwheels and somersaults and soar upwards on the trampoline. I didn't want to be serious about any of it.

It was just a small country town gym, with not much equipment, and after two years I started to lose interest when I realised the risks of landing on the floor with not enough safety mats. The uneven bars and the beam were the worst, with huge metal stands underneath, right where you landed after you fell off. Once we'd learnt all the easy things, and started attempting the difficult manouvres, it started to involve real committment. And after taking some heavy falls, and seeing a girl carted off screaming by the ambulence folks after a mishap on the tramoline, I sort of lost heart. I just didn't want it badly enough.

Those girls at the Olympics do want it badly, enough to take all the falls and the bruises and the disappoinments. I really am amazed at them, and it's one of my favourite things to watch. But when they're on the balance beam I remember exactly how much it hurt to smack your shoulder on it, tumbling down on the way to the floor. I admire their courage.

But the fear of injuring myself didn't stop me riding horses, oddly enough. I did want that badly enough, and even though I fell off, I always got back on again, once with a broken coccyx and once with concussion that put me in hospital. I guess when you're out in the paddock you have to get back on and ride home no matter what. But riding was always worth the risks involved.

I can't wait for the day when we get to choose our own Olympic coverage, and see our favourite sports and none of the others. I will be watching every minute of the gymnastics and the equestrian events, that's for sure. Team synchronised swimming? Don't think so. Distance swimming? As Mereth says, it's like watching mice drowning; not much of a spectator sport. Give me the horses any day.

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There has been knitting activity during the Olympics; the scarf is just a $2 ball of acrylic, but it was fun to knit and a scarf is always handy. It's the One Row Scarf from the Yarn Harlot's blog, and was a great pattern to knit while I was travelling. No pattern needed, and easy as pie to do while concentrating on the current Olympic action. I completed the second sleeve of my Tilted Duster jacket, now there is just the collar to knit, but seeing I have to pick up an awful lot of stitches for that I will wait till I have the time and patience. I really hate picking up stitches, and these have to look really neat afterwards. It's tough when all the fun bits are finished and the hard bits have to be tackled.

We took a quick trip to one of our favourite patchwork stores, at a little town called Moonta. It was business, choosing fabrics for a commissioned quilt, but I bought a few FQs for my latest quilt, which is languishing untouched while I watch TV. Maybe a bit of fresh fabric will entice me back to it. The sewing basket is one I admired at an antique shop last summer, but rejected as too costly. It was half price, so I brought it home with me. The inside is ruined, but I plan to find some silk and reline it; it will be a useful learning project. If it turns out nicely I may refurbish some of my other antique baskets with dreary interiors.

I have been quilting each night, and I'm about quarter way through; I had to give it a rest tonight as my fingers are too sore. The cold makes them ache anyway, and I've stabbed them with pins on the longarm, and they need a few days to recover and toughen up. I'm loving the rythym of hand quilting again, and basting it on the longarm was a success. I have several more to do once this one is finished.
My parcel from Hancocks arrived, and it wasn't as big as expected as they had sold out of two of the backing lengths I ordered. But it was still substantial. The fabric fanned out on the left was one of their packs of ten 1 yard lengths, and there are some beautiful fabrics there. I'm so pleased with what they sent me, many of them I would love yardage of. But no more fabric buying just yet, I need to get this stashed away in the fabric drawers first.

There was one dud fabric......
I mean, if you were a clerk packing that order, and saw what my preferences were, you'd stick a piece of sock monkey fabric in too, wouldn't you? Luckily we know a couple of mothers with small children, and they can fight over who gets this. (If anyone wants it at all, that is.)

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I'm home again, after a week in Melbourne teaching at Michelle's Sewing Basket. We had a lovely time in the workshops, and I found a few goodies in the shop that had to come home with me. I stayed at Michelle's home in an upstairs flat, with my own TV so I could watch the Olympics in bed each night. Luxury.

It was soooo cold, but I handled it quite well. I've always found that quilters tend to warm up a room fairly quickly, so once we started working in the morning we were fine. It must be our high levels of enthusiasm. Or the heat coming off our machines. Or the quilts we're working on. I am a bad blogger, because despite a new camera, and leaving it in full view each workshop, I didn't take a single photo. I am such a ditz.

I've spent the last two days catching up on work related things, and hopefully I can start off next week with a clean slate. I would like to spend the weekend rearranging my stash and getting it all sorted and organised. Mereth took advantage of my absence to shift 70% of the furniture in the workroom, sewing room and office. It all looks much better, I have to admit, but there's a bit of a muddle to deal with; lots of baskets and boxes and miscellaneous things to put away. She worked Matt so hard that I will have to bribe him to set foot in here again.

There's a customer quilt on the machine that I hope to have finished before Monday, but I can monitor our Olympic progress while keeping an eye on Millhouse, as there is now a TV in the workroom. It's wonderful to see the medal tally mounting up.

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This is the BOM quilt that we are putting together for a customer. It's an Annie Downs pattern, and we're enjoying the lovely fabrics and cute stitcheries. The owner has done a lovely job of the embroidery, and it's up to us to complete her good work. It's like a jigsaw puzzle, sorting out which bit goes where, but there have only been minor hiccups so far. I have some final applique to do, and then we can have the top in one piece ready for quilting.

I put the binding on my three quilts today, so I'm caught up again. I should calculate how much material I've used in backings, bindings and the three flannel quilts, it would make me feel better about the Hancock's blowout.
I usually put my bindings on entirely by machine , but I hand-stitched the flannel quilts. It felt really good to be sewing on that luxuriously soft material, and it was a lovely way to spend the evening. I sat on the floor in front of the TV at Mereth's, and Jessie immediately snuggled up with me. Macca crawled underneath, and gave it his seal of approval by falling asleep. These dogs know how to make themselves comfortable.

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Mereth's flannel quilt;
my flannel quilt, which is now quilted and on my lounge;
Rob's quilt on the machine being quilted. It was duly presented to him last week, and is now on his bed in his place in Newcastle. Mission 'Quilt' accomplished!

Last week was such a blur! I had that burst of quilting activity at the start, then on Wednesday drove Mereth down to Adelaide to meet up with Rob, spent Thursday running business errands in Adelaide before driving home, printed and packed patterns all Friday as well as taking in 4 quilts from various customers, drove back to Adelaide on Saturday to pick up Mereth from the airport, drove home on Sunday, taught a class on Monday and spent all day yesterday catching up on work that had been shoved aside during the last few days.

Now where exactly were we? I have loads of tidying up to do in the workroom, putting all the flannel scraps in order. There are two quilts to bind, so I should tackle that straight away. And there are 12 quilts waiting to go on Millhouse, some with close deadlines, so we had better get onto that right away. We have a busy month ahead of us.

I may also have had a moment of madness when Hancocks of Paducah offered to send me anything I liked with no shipping charge. Who could resist free International shipping? When the parcel arrives I'd better have the car handy is all I can say; I won't be carrying it home. I have nothing to say in my defense except that it was Cheap. And I Wanted It! It's a good thing I lost count of how much fabric I've bought this year; can't feel any guilt that way.

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Infinity Quilter asked in the comments if there was a pattern for the Double V; not really, it's composed of these Double V blocks, and an alternate block. I thought I did a blog tutorial on the vine border, made of 60 diamonds, but I can't find it. Maybe one night I will put it all into a pdf file to share. Must make a mental note of that....

Yesterday I spent the day round at Mereth's, as Matt keeps the wood heater going most of the day and it's lovely and warm. After I finish the latest pair of socks I am going to knit gloves, my hands are freezing! I made 240 red and white 1" HSTs for my new blocks. It seemed to take me all day, though I know I did lots of other things as well. In the last two weeks I have made 570 HSTs for Mereth's project, and I'm aiming to make it an even 1000 before next weekend. Then that should be enough for a while.There are 200 in that basket, and the whole 570 seem a pitifully small lot. It will be interesting to see what the quilt turns out like.


I'm probably getting a cold, and because it's Sunday today and I didn't need to get up, I thought I'd stay in bed all day and see if that helped keep the flu at bay. I lasted until midday; lying around in the daytime is not something I like to do. Mind you, I felt wonderful once I did get up!

I whisked through the sewing room and gathered all my flannels together. Once I started cutting up the lovely ones I bought at Jamestown I realized that they were more Mereth's style than mine, so I decided to make two quilts, one for her, poor flannel-less creature, and one for me from my stash.

My quilt was nearly finished when it occurred to me that Mereth's second son Rob is leaving for a new job in Newcastle next week, and he Doesn't Have A Quilt!! How could that have escaped our notice till now? I rang Mereth to inform her of this turn of events, and demanded she come round right away and do something about it. I have plenty of material, I assured her.

She showed up, at 6.30, shaking her head over my un-natural energy. I made her cut up the rest of my flannel stash into 9 1/2" squares, and we laid them out on the workroom floor. As she left to spend the evening with third son she made a flippant comment about seeing it finished on the blog tomorrow morning.
She should know better than to throw out a challenge like that! Rob's quilt is on the left, mine is next to it on the machine, and Mereth's is on the floor. I will take proper photos tomorrow, this is just to show that it's possible to make three flannel tops in a day.

And Mereth is going to have to quilt Rob's before Wednesday......

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I've quilted three of my own quilts lately, so I will have to update my spreadsheet to show what a super achiever I am. Mereth has been stitching small customer quilts on her Janome, and Ms Millhouse looked forlorn standing by unused. Well that's my story anyway.

This is my Christmas Double Vee quilt, and I pantoed it with a leafy pattern and yellowy-green variegated thread. I like how it turned out, and I plan to have this on the wall at Christmas, with maybe a side table in front of it and some of my antique cane sewing baskets. And candles. And red and green baubles. And an angel or two. Christmas seems like such fun when it's months away....

After I took my quilt off the frame Ms Millhouse was still all silent reproach, but Mereth needs to spend some time using the new software so I didn't load another of mine. Ever helpful, I have pinned a small top of hers on, ready for her to start on tomorrow in between other chores. We didn't see eye to eye about how this should be quilted. I wanted her to use the new software for the blocks and the borders. She wanted to freehand feather it. After a lengthy pause we agreed that the blocks would be done with Creative Studio and the borders freehand. We could have argued about it, but I knew she wouldn't give up on doing the borders her way, and she knew that it would be useful to practise new things on her own quilt instead of a customer quilt. So we compromised. Thus peace reigns in the workshop.
Sort of. I'm in love with this little block that I made yesterday, and want to make a hundred more in all different fabrics. I adore it, it's so cute. Those are 1" HSTs in the pinwheels by the way. Unfortunately I may have covered the table in the workshop with fabric and triangles and scraps . I think I'd better get it cleared away before Mereth needs to put a customer quilt out there..... just have to cut some more pieces first. It feels so good to be sewing a new project at last.

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The weekend was productive in more ways than one. On Saturday I kept on designing and quilting on the Churn Dash. On Sunday Matt came round and helped jack up the table of Ms Millhouse so we could install castors on her. Mereth got it into her head that we needed to shift the machine, and nothing would satisfy her until the castors were brought home from Kaye's and the date for the shift decided on.
The machine is much higher now, which isn't good, but it's very nice to use in it's new position, and it leaves us with a large space to set up our classroom. But there's a lot of shifting of sewing tables and paraphernalia still to do, and some ideas we need to work on. I'm sure it will all be settled soon. Today was Patchwork Group; Mereth went because she had to open up the clubroom, but I stayed home to wait for some phone calls. No piecing has taken place here for weeks!

I finished the ChurnDash tonight. This afternoon Mereth made a comment that she expected me to blog about the completed quilt tonight, and then laughed at the idea, as if it couldn't possibly happen. So I skipped tea and stitched away till I could rip it triumphantly off the machine and photograph it. Hah! I thought, I'll show her.....Isn't this how reverse psychology works? I feel like I fell in her trap, but I'm glad I did; I have a finished quilt and I'm ready to start the next one. But there may be some therapeutic piecing before then.

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This is the quilt that is on Ms Millhouse now; I pieced it last year from my blue stash, and it contains some of the last pieces of my favourite blues. I'm quilting it with designs that I'm doing for a new pattern pack, and it's a joy to work on. I'm trekking back and forth from the machine to the computer, tweaking designs and drawing new ones as they occur to me. It's very absorbing, and time-consuming, but I love getting lost in the creative process. At times it's a struggle to keep coming up with new things, but sometimes the ideas just come out of nowhere and it's effortless. I wish it were that way all the time.

It's all about computer screens at the moment; this is the screen of the Statler, in the new Creative Studio software. I can trace outlines of the blocks on the quilt, and place the stitching over them exactly as I want it. It's awesome, and I'm really inspired to get my backlog of tops quilted now.

Then there's the desktop computer that I design on, in AutoCad Lite. It's software that I had for my survey drafting business, many years ago. Thanks heavens I don't have to draw plans anymore, though it was fascinating, and it taught me all about drafting. I also use Autosketch to edit the patterns for the Statler. Great little program, and quite affordable.

And then there's the laptop that's connected to the Interweb, that keeps distracting me with mail and blogs and messages about sales from Z & S Fabrics. Like I need that!

When I get really involved with designing I switch off from the world around me; that was awkward when I had a family to care for. Kids would come and ask me what was for dinner and it was like they were strangers speaking another language; who were these people, what were they saying, dinner?? Eh?? We had some strange cobbled together meals at times. Luckily no-one depends on me to get fed now; I'm quite happy with a bit of cheese and some olives and a glass of wine.
Even I can't believe that I'm brave enough to eat cheese covered in pink mould. I have grave misgivings, but it tastes wonderful and it hasn't harmed me yet. It smells like a damp laundry hamper full of dirty socks; is that bad?

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The Wimbledon final was a real thriller, ending at 5.45am here. I managed to see most of it, but it was a looong night. Well worth staying up for. I'm a fan of Nadal, so I was pleased to see him win; he had to fight every inch of the way though. It made for an excellent final; it's always disappointing when the last match is over too quickly.

My quilt is finished and off the frame, and I love it. I quilted two designs in the borders with no trouble at all, thanks to the new software. It was a bit nerve-wracking, as a friend was visiting, and watched with interest, so I was glad that it all worked out fine. I don't need an audience for my disasters.Today Mereth and I quilted a quilt that was 105" x 94". It was Huge! It had a few issues with it's 10 borders, so it took the two of us to subdue it. It looked beautiful when it was finished, I presume Mereth will post photos of it. It felt really good to be a quilter today, and see that large top turn into a large quilt. I feel like we really did the owner a favour, as she couldn't have quilted it easily on her own. I love our Ms Millhouse stitching away by herself.

I also basted a small quilt for handquilting, and it's ready for me to stitch in the evenings, before I start knitting. Even an hour a day will see it finished this winter. I'm just going to crosshatch the centre, and do fans in the borders. It will be lovely to sit beneath a quilt and stitch, now that the nights are so cold. Winter has arrived at last.

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Home again, home again; I seem to have been glued to the computer since I got back on Wednesday, catching up on all the work that built up in my absence. I think I'm up to date, I sure hope so.

It's been so long since I quilted one of my own tops, I'd forgotten what fun it is. We made sure to finish up the customer quilt that was on the machine on Friday, so that I could have it all to myself over the weekend. I did some badly needed maintenance, and it's running very nicely.This is a top I finished last year; don't know what the proper name is, but I call it a Framed Hourglass. I'm using a variegated thread to quilt it, and I like how it makes the stitching look. It's not exactly traditional, but it adds a nice touch and blends well with all the print fabric in the top.

I designed a few patterns for this top and used the new Statler software to quilt them. Creative Studio is quite a step up from the previous software, but I'm liking it so far. It has so many extra features, and I love how accurately I can place patterns. I had a lovely time playing around.The promised trip to Jamestown with friends took place on Friday, and I picked up a little bundle of flannels because I just couldn't resist. Mereth refuses to buy them because she doesn't want to have a whole separate flannel stash. I gave in last year; my flannel stash is modest, but it's gorgeous. I will have to take a deep breath and cut into these lovelies soon, so I can enjoy snuggling under a flannel quilt this winter.There has been knitting and rug-hooking taking place late at night; another pair of socks will be finished soon, hopefully tonight as I watch the tennis final. I seem to have missed all the action this year; at least I have the Olympics to look forward to.

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These are the photos I was trying to load in the last post;

Kim Diamond discussing Statler stuff with a WA quilter;

lunch outside at Kaye's, on a glorious winter day;

Joanne with Kaye's two dogs, who are so spoilt. They are lucky, lucky dogs to live here! They got so much attention and extra food this weekend that we've quite ruined them for normal life.

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It's Wimbledon time, and I stayed up late watching Lleyton Hewitt get beaten by Roger Federer; never mind, I still enjoy the tennis, even when the Australians don't win.

We did our Teacher Training class yesterday, learnt lots of things about the new Statler software and how to train others to use it. It will be great fun to get home and try everything out. Meredith will want to take the belts off and record her freehand feathers as stitching files, and I want to try trimming cross-hatching around applique. We might be fighting over the machine in the next few weeks.

Our teacher was Kim Diamond, and she was excellent; very knowledgable and made the day great fun. It was amazing how the mood of the class changed when she informed us that we had to get up and present a section to the rest of the class. That took the wind out of our sails real quick; no-one wanted to have to get up and play 'teacher', even though the 8 of us are old, old friends. But it went OK after we relaxed and had a few jokes with each other.

Unfortunately blogger won't let me load any photos, so I will just sign off and come back later when I can put in some photos.

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I'm settled in at Kaye's after a nightmare day of travelling on Thursday. The airport at Sydney was experiencing such high winds that only one runway was operating, and rather than have planes circling waiting to land in such bad conditions the Sydney bound planes were given a strict time slot to take off. Which meant huge delays and cancellations all through the day. I ended up being re-routed through Melbourne, with three cancelled Sydney flights; I think I'm lucky to have got here at all.

And it's not nice to be warned that there will be extreme turbulence on landing; they always say calming things like 'minor turbulence, some disturbance' to put your mind at rest, but not this time. As luck would have it, we landed without even a twitch, for which I was mightly thankful. With perfect timing I walked straight onto my connecting train, and was soon in bed snuggled up with MY quilt.

I spent yesterday catching up with friends and playing around on a spare machine, but nothing too demanding. I'm on holiday till Monday, when the brain has to go into gear again, so I'm just relaxing right now. And taking my time to do a little housework on the computer, that there never seems time to do at home. It's a luxury to be able to play around. I send calming thoughts to Mereth, home with the stack of customer quilts.....

There are always new quilts to admire at Kaye's; this is her copy of an antique quilt, Remember Me, and it won a judges commendation at the Sydney show this year. She does such a wonderful job on her quilts, and has a great collection. This workshop is Quilt Heaven!

Everyone has gone off to the Rydges hotel for the conference, so it's peaceful and quiet and I'm enjoying the solitude. Once I get my work done I'll have a look around and see what's new in the antique quilt cupboard; I wish I had as many as this.
And I did see a hexagon top that I fancied; I would hand quilt this and get to know each fabric. There are some delicious double pinks and mourning greys. I adore this sort of 'farm' quilt, made for utilitarian use. If I had lived in those times I'm sure I wouldn't have been swanning around Baltimore in a hoop skirt; more like barefoot on the prairie. Which is how I would want it.

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