The first two days of the Easter break have been spent doing a customer quilt and painting the shed. I went up and down the ladder so many times that my legs are really hurting today, but I consider it a workout. Like a step machine, but cheaper. We should be able to finish the last little bit next week, and then Lookout!!! We'll be moving loads of stuff  to set the workshop up. I'm hoping we can make it a bit pretty too; we weren't able to decorate the back of the hall. but now we can pull out some gorgeous little things and hopefully be able to hang quilts too. I can hardly wait.

  I found the QNM with the Devil's Claw in it, and it has no border at all. I'm pretty sure  mine would look better with something around the edge, but I haven't thought about it yet.

I had no idea what to do with myself this morning, we'd been going flat out for so long that I sort of crashed in a heap. I pottered in my sewing room and opened every drawer and cupboard, pulling out snall pieces to cut up and refolding and tidying. I collected a pile of stuff to be ironed and then I went

through it and ironed out all the wrinkles and folds; it was great therapy.

 Gradually I started to feel a bit more with it, and I cut a heap of browns up for various projects, and dealt with a small mountain of scraps and remains of fat quarters. I used to put them aside in a container, but now I just cut them straight up into strips or squares, I don't want them hanging around at all. My ruthless scrap cutting is paying off, when I went to hunt for some neutral scraps the other day, I couldn't find any. I've dealt with them all, likewise my pastel scraps, and I had to cut from yardage. I always assumed that I'd never get on top of the scrap situation, but I'm almost in control now. Most of what I've got left are pieces  that Keryn gave me when she was packing up, because she couldn't be bothered with them- that's a win for both of us in my book.

I even went through the project boxes and found this set of blocks I made about six years ago. I wanted to set them on point with an alternate square, but I ran out of the cream homespun I'd used. I ferreted around in the cream drawer and found a similar fabric, so I want to work out the requirements now and start cutting.

I was looking for this set of hand-pieced blocks, as I thought I might set these together next. I got such a kick out of working on the Devil's Claw that I'd like to keep the momentum going on these old projects. So I'll be playing around with settings for these- they're all made from vintage fabric so I'll have to find a fairly big piece if I want it to be authentic. Looks like I'll be pulling out all the vintage stuff soon.

We were in the supermarket the other day and I heard a little boy calling excitedly "Nana! Nana!!" and it sounded so much like Logan I felt a real pang. Oh, I miss them, it's so special to have little people in my life again.

 Isn't it amazing the difference two years can make? 

Max looks a bit doubtful about the whole thing, that brother is a bit full on for him!

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It's at least five weeks since I had a day at home to myself, and I'm loving it. I've been back from NSW for two weeks, but there was the hassle of shifting Keryn back into the hall and tearing apart the workshop in the process, so I feel like I haven't really reconnected yet with 'home'. It's not quite over yet, we now have to paint the shed inside and then move the Statler down there, along with all the tables and shelves and fabric.....It will be thrilling when we have it all set up, but then I'll have to start churning the customer quilts out so I won't be able to rest for a while.

Before I went away I set together these blocks, a very old project from the nineties. The Devil's Claw quilt was a Bernice McCoy Stone pattern in Quilters Newsletter magazine, and I immediately set to and began cutting the blocks out, all from scraps.

 They are handsewn, and my rule was that I couldn't cut into yardage, ever. So they took a few years, but were great fun to do, and many a soccer game was watched while I sewed away in the car.
I think I was put off all those years ago when I realised that it was going to be quite large, and square to boot. But now I just want it finished and off the list, no matter what.

 The design wall looked chaotic, but there was no way I could spread everything out properly. I just put the blocks up overlapping to see if the distribution of colours would work, and then sewed the top in four sections.This was a very easy way to do it as there were far fewer long seams to handle. I think I'll sew my next top like that too.

Keryn thinks some of the fabric combinations are downright ugly, but I was using what I had, and they all hold memories for me.

 I used some fabric for the setting blocks that had been on the shelves even longer than the project box, so I was glad to find a use for that too. I didn't have quite enough, so there are a few different pieces  in there, but the top is in one piece, and that's the main thing.

Some of those eighties pinks were really a disgusting dirty mauve, but that's what was available at the time. If I made this now I would have some lovely reproductions to use, but they weren't even thought up when I started this.

This is a wonderful graphic block and I think I'll probably do another variation one day, I'm not finished with it yet. This photo makes me feel quite triumphant, I'm so close to having this done!

I'm trying to find the magazine so I can see what the border was, just plain shirting if my memory  is right. It's not as big as I feared, now that matresses are so much deeper and the beds higher, so I might even add a pieced border yet.

Hmm, now what to work on.....

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Logan is absolutely fascinated by his little brother and will probably be a big help later on running and fetching things.He's so gentle and loving with him, let's hope that lasts even when Max reaches that annoying tag along stage. They should be good company for each other when he's a bit bigger.

Every little squeak and squawk is funny now- the novelty might wear off that soon!

I didn't really have an easily transported hand sewing project to bring over here, so I just packed some metal templates and a couple of charm packs. I haven't had much time to sit and sew, but I'm gradually amassing some little stars and other bits and pieces.

I did bring a few pieces of red and green fabric to try out an idea, and I'm still exploring where to go with that.

At the moment, baby watching is a bit more important....

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