My drawer of 2" strips was bugging me because it was too full and was getting hard to shut. So I weeded through them and made this pile to turn into....hmm, something.

I limited myself to using the medium and dark strips, as they were the most plentiful. I lined them up roughly and chopped them into 8 1/2" lengths. That went pretty quickly, it's nice not having to be accurate for a change.


Some people might just sew the long strips together, but I loathe sewing 42" seams, and by cutting the pieces roughly to size I could have a greater variety as I paired up the fabrics.
I sewed them into pairs, grabbing whatever came to hand,

then sewed the pairs together to make a set of four strips.


I divided the sets into two piles and added a dark strip to one lot, and a medium strip to the other, making five strips all together.

Then I squared them up to eight inches
and had enough to make a small lap rug. Perhaps.....I'll show some other ideas for them in another post. The main thing is, I can shut the 2" strip drawer now!

And Keryn was remarking on her blog that Dolly considers herself a lap dog- I wonder why? When Keryn comes around to watch telly at my place and work on her crochet, Dolly is there at the chair, standing on her hind legs and begging to come up. She lies on the wool, squeezes Keryn over to one side of the chair, paws at the crochet hook, reaches up to give little kisses. Then she gets sleeepy and nods off, completely happy and usually in some position that makes further work next to impossible. As Keryn said, there'll come a time when she's too big to fit on anyone's lap, so we might as well make the most of it while she's little.

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Keryn and I went to Adelaide this week and so there hasn't been as much achieved on the sewing front. I did manage to finish this donation top, a Chinese Coins that might be suitable for a boy. The strips were all made from 5"cut-offs from a fabric store, and the blue setting fabric is a backing fabric that we have a bolt of. These lengths were the left-overs from trimming another donation quilt, so it's a very frugal top.

It IS square but a breeze blew it askew and I couldn't be bothered taking another photo.
Lots of strange ugly fabric here, but it will keep someone warm.

And here is Matthew's art photo....."Tomato With Pup"......

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This is a top donated to the bushfire cause by our friend Sue, being quilted ready to join the stack to send. It's a scrappy star, and I've had fun looking at all the fabrics as I worked on it. I do love Scrappy!

The pattern is quite simple and was made from 4 1/2" by 2 1/2" strips, I might have to try one of these myself.

And this was going to be the back of it, but why not make two quilts to send? We have it on the machine now, and Sue can make two people happy with her generosity. This was made from 5" squares from a fabric club, cut in quarters and sewn into four patches, then joined into a postage stamp. Wow, there's a lot of different fabrics here, and I love looking at all of them.

And here's my photo of an old project; scrappy baskets that have been waiting far too long. Doing all these bushfire quilts has made me enthused about getting things finished, so these old UFO's might see the light of day soon. Or I might just cut out something new- who can tell?

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I might have been pretty quiet lately, but I assure you I'm still busy sewing. But the demise of the camera means I've had to go back to an ancient digital one that takes forever to focus, drains the batteries and goes to sleep at inopportune moments. I hate not having a reliable camera anymore!

And because I don't want to post without photos I've been putting off blogging too. I'll just have to dig up old pictures from my files to give you something to look at, hmphh.

At our lessons yesterday our friend Sonia finished the main part of her top and is now ready for the borders, yay! She has a million ideas for her next quilt(s) so we'll be doing lots of cutting at the next session. This was an Annie Downes pattern and there are some beautiful stitcheries here that you can't see because of my geriatric camera, grr.
A lot of work went into this, but it's turned out lovely, except that the colours are very washed out because of.....geriatric camera

Last year I tried to take a photo, however rough, of all my projects so I could have a visual record of them. I don't know the actual number, but trust me, it's three digits...

So while photo fare is scarce, I'll show a few of my Ufo's, just to have something to look at. And then when I finish them you'll know what I'm talking about Ha!

These string blocks are very old, made when Matt was about two years old. (He's 21 now...) The diamonds are pieced from dressmaking scraps from our teen years- Keryn will remember each and every one of them. Dancing dresses, sundresses, some scaps from Mum's shifts and blouses. They are set with different pastel backgrounds and I think there's only twelve, so they wouldn't take much to finish. Just not yet.

And this is a Mariners Compass that I've started, this one's only about five years old. I have in mind some red and green applique to set in alternate squares and an elaborate border. Yep, I'm quite clear about that, but this block is the only finished one, although I've prepared a lot of the rest. Won't take me that long once I decide to finish it.

I'm trying to get the bushfire quilts finished, and I have three more tops to photograph and at least three more nearly done. My floor is awash with threads and offcuts, so I must be getting through the pile of donated scraps, surely. I'm looking forward to sewing to my own projects again, I've missed them.

Matt has taken up Art Photography, and here is his Still Life With Pup and Flowers.

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The puppies went for a picnic on the lawn the other day, and they loved it. There was lots of running and tussling and some of this.. Ahh, the great outdoors!

But the favoured activity is still playing with Dad. Poor Macca gets over run, especially by this little girl with the white face, she adores him.

Dad! Hey Dad!!


Daaaad!

What a good natured dog he is.

Letting his daughter chew on him like this, and never a growl or a nip back.


I think this gal might be Trouble, but she's already been spoken for so it's someone else's worry!
Listen dear, you're going on the pill, OK?

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Now all parties concerned can breathe a huge sigh of relief, the wedding was beautiful. The weather was absolutely gorgeous, and apart from a few hitches, everything went smoothly. The gardens at Carrick Hill were a perfect backdrop and there should be some great photos later. These are the only shots I took, before my camera died with a horrid prolonged squeal- what timing!

Isaac, Elisa's not quite two nephew was the ringbearer, and after the practice when the pillow was dropped, hurled, frisbeed and otherwise flung about, it was decided perhaps the real rings should stay in the best man's pocket. But Isaac himself seemed perfectly happy and not too fazed by the responsibility.

On the big day he came down through the arched trees at a fair clip, pillow clutched in fist and leaving the bridesmaids to follow more sedately.....


until he caught sight of the gathered guests and didn't know what to make of that. All those people weren't there yesterday!
He sussed it out, decided we were friendly and throughout the ceremony ran circuits around and around.... and around.

He was gorgeous, and nearly stole the show.

But my boy Rob was pretty gorgeous too,

and as for Elisa, well, I can't tell you how beautiful she looked. This picture says it all; stunning.


It really was a beautiful day, and a wonderful beginning to their life together.

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Tazzie's post here makes me think I'm not alone in my trouble with leader-ender projects. I imagine myself like Bonnie, sewing bits together for months, and ending up with a gorgeous huge quilt, composed of tiny pieces. Then I'd virtuously, and with becoming modesty, point out that I really hadn't noticed it's progress, because it was all Leader- Enders, and after a year of sewing other projects well, (slight blush) There it was. All put together, and I hadn't even noticed!

Oh yes, of course I religiously use leader- enders, but usually somewhere along the line I find that they have taken over. The main project sits abandoned while full of enthusiasm, I steam on ahead and finish the leader-ender. Then I have to decide on another project and deal with the guilt of getting carried away yet again.

So, I found myself stuck with a huge assortment of 1 3/4" by 5" bits, leftovers from the strips a shop cut for a fabric club. What a weird measurement, but as I didn't want to cut them all to 1 1/2", I thought I'd just make 9 patches from them. Easy, no thinking required.

Many ninepatches later, I decided perhaps I'd set them into 25 patch blocks, which necessitated more nine patches, with the light and dark reversed.

Yep, this is all good, things are coming along nicely, and I haven't wanted to rush ahead so far. I think I've got this under control at last!

Until I looked at the pile of blocks and wondered what to do with them next.....

I went through my file of ebay pictures, looking for ways to incorporate 25 patch units, and found this old tattered piece, and after a tricky bit of maths figgerin',




I came up with this connecting block.Really strange measurements on this one, no doubt because of the size of the original strips, but it's looking good anyway.


And then I just had to sew a few together, to make sure it all fitted,


and then perhaps a few more to each other, to check the pressing order, and....


Someone stop me! All I want to do is work on this now, and I can't.
I have other quilts to finish, and customer quilts and bushfire quilts, and there's only enough blocks put together for half the top anyway. I need to go back to the ninepatches and start plodding away again, all the while fighting the instinct to cut out heaps of 1 3/4" strips and chain piece this like a maniac. I will be Strong! I won't have this finished for at least another 6 months. You can quote me on that!

And can you remember a year ago, I mentioned something in this post? About how the wedding was a year away? Well, it's not! It's three days away now, and we're leaving for Adelaide tomorrow and it's time to put aside all thought of patchwork and sewing and concentrate on the matter at hand.

Now if you will excuse me, I've got a lot of panicking to do before then.....

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I have spent hours sewing on the donated scraps and over the weekend I got these happy blocks finished and set into a top. They really are super easy and I'm still cutting them out as I plan to work on another one. I could easily sew thirty blocks at a sitting, so I can see why these are so popular for charity quilts.

I added a couple of borders, and this is set to go on Millhouse next- once I decide on the backing.

The colours are pale but pretty, and I enjoyed working with something completely different.

Poor Bonnie is looking very hunted because every time she sits down the puppies swarm all over her. They are all eating puppy food as well, but the competition for the milk bar is intense and she's not keen now that they have tiny little sharp teeth. Oh well, only three more weeks of it girl, and then they can go off to new homes.

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Here is a video of the puppies, I love the little growls and squeals. Bonnie's getting rather sick of feeding them so often,but they're three weeks old now and some of them will lap a bit of milk from a saucer. I can't believe they're growing so quickly!

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I finished a top from some of the blocks that our patchwork group made and I hope to quilt it in the next few days. Keryn sent four more quilts off last week, and there are at least four more in the making. It feels good to be turning all these strips and scraps into useable bed coverings.

I've been going through all my project boxes and found two little tops made with one of Bonnies strip patterns and a heap of leftover blocks. I joined the two little tops together and then added the other blocks to make it a decent bedsize. Another top nearly finished, and an empty project box, everybody wins! I've just got to find a border fabric now to set it off.

We've gone through quite a pile of material, by the time you take into account backings and borders, but there's no danger we'll run out any time soon.

All the puppies opened their eyes on the day they were two weeks old, right on cue. The cuteness factor is appalling, and I waste far too much time cooing over them. I have to spend some time every visit gazing into each little face and making sure they know their granny loves them.

Bonnie's getting better about allowing Macca near them, and he's shown nothing but curiousity and a rather slapdash affection so far. He loves washing them, but his enthusiastic swipes tumble them hither and thither, and when I bend down to turn them up the right way he gives my face a good going over, just to show I'm cared for too. I really can't stand being licked, but take it in the spirit it's intended. He was so patient and kind with Bonnie when she was a pup that I'm hoping he'll display the same tolerance for his offspring when they start being obnoxious.

Is that you Dad?

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