The borders are finished on the little basket top, it turned out quite sweet I think.
And I found this set of blocks in a project box and whipped them together to make a baby quilt-another UFO tackled. I don't feel any guilt about the tops I have, only the bits and pieces sitting around, so my flush of triumph is usually reserved for when the top is in one piece, not when the quilt is bound. A strange attitude, but it's mine.

Even stranger is my elation, not at the prospect of a finished quilt, but having an Empty Box!! Oohh, what can I put in there now?I've been rearranging my projects quite a bit, and have finished a few lately, but my reaction seems to be "Look at all the empty containers!!Yay!" rather than satisfaction at finishing something.

Matthew bathed Dolly the other day, and Macca climbed in too, just to keep her company. She doesn't share her Dad's passion for water, and made it plain that it isn't her element. He happily licked the soapsuds off her nose and tried to get her to play, but she was most unhappy. Perhaps she'll like it better when it's stinking hot in summer but from the look on her face I doubt it.

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I love it when my floor looks like this, it means I've been busy cutting and getting lots done. You'd think I could take a bit of extra time and make sure the offcuts hit the bin, but I get carried away and just fling them off the edge of the table. Easy enough to pick it all up later when I've calmed down.

This is the other project I completed to the border stage. This is going to be a Big quilt, but I had such fun making the blocks I couldn't stop. I still don't think I've finished with them, even though there are forty-two in this top.
I do love brown and red together, mmm.Remember my Leader- Ender project that I said I wouldn't rush ahead with? I've been good and plugging away, but inspired with my other progress I decided to lay it out and see how far I'd got.


STILL not enough for a top, let alone one the size that Bonnie does. Sometimes I use parts of the main project as Leader-Enders, so that can cut down how much I get done on this, but I thought I was nearly done here. I need another ten or twelve sections I estimate, so it's not going to finish any time soon unless I break my vow and concentrate on this alone. Which is very tempting at the moment...

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Sally emailed me and asked about the pattern for the quilt that won the prize. It was designed by Robyn Falloon, her 2008 BOM and it's called "Bronte's Garden". It was available from a shop called Fragrant Cottage in Warnambool, and that's as much as I know. The fabrics were just beautiful, I would have liked to add some of them to my stash, that's for sure.

Last week I was very busy, and besides doing customer quilts there was a lot of travelling. Keryn pointed out that I'd been to a different town every day, and so by the weekend all I wanted to do was stay home and not go anywhere!

So I did, and I got lots done in the sewing room. Three bedsize quilts to the border stage, a customer's problem borders pieced and attached, and a small quilt pieced together. It's amazing what you can accomplish if you don't let yourself get distracted. Admittedly I'd pieced or appliqued most of the blocks already but it still felt great to be able to sit for hours at the machine and finally see progress.
These tulip blocks will have a border of triangles and then a cream border around the outside.
This little basket top will have a pieced border next, but I haven't quite worked it out yet.

I'll take photos of the other projects tomorrow.

Keryn and Matt and I took the dogs for a walk one afternoon, and we all had a lovely time.
Dolly tried the water in a rock pool and decided that it was Horrible stuff, unlike Macca who had to be persuaded not to jump right in.

Matt says he's climbed up the top of this hill, and little Jessie managed to keep up with him- she might be tiny but she's got incredible stamina.This time Matt went to the top of the green patch, but the descent was hair-raising; he slid halfway then stood up and ran the rest of the way, completely out of control. I expected him to dive head over turkey, but he made it in one piece.

He carries a big walking stick he made and I call him Gandalph and have threatened to make him a grey wizard's hat to go with it. He laid it down for a minute and Macca decided to carry it for him. Taking this photo was all well and good until he ran between Keryn and me and clocked us both in the shins with it- you'd swear he'd done it on purpose except he's too good-natured for that.

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It was our local show last Saturday, and unfortunately Keryn and I didn't get to go. But the quilt in the last post won the trophy for the best quilt, so I was pretty pleased.

I've been really trying to make a dent in the customer tops, and was making good progress until Wednesday, when five new ones came in. Back to square one with all the shelves full, and more promised to us...I feel like I'm running on the spot! But that's better than sitting around twiddling my thumbs, after all, this is what I do for a job! A friend of ours has 90 customer tops waiting, I think that would freak me out, having that many, I'd feel like I'd never get them all done.

Rob and Elisa have been going to dancing lessons, originally so they could do a wedding dance (which knocked everyone's socks off, they were very polished), and their instructor encouraged them to enter the GDS Dance National Competition in Canberra. They went off expecting to have a bit of fun, and came home with three trophies, First in Modern Jive, and Elisa came second in Dance with a Stranger (where they swap the couples around) and Rob came third. I'm very proud of them, and my Mum would have been over the moon, she was a wonderful dancer in her time.But the evening ended on a dramatic note, with Elisa having an asthma attack, being raced off in an ambulance and spending the night in hospital. Poor girl, from the Highs to the Lows, just like that.

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