The Scrappy Bargello was really easy to put together, and Bonnies instructions worked like a charm. She adds extra length into the strips to allow for trimming up the strip sets, but I had one piece of fabric that was a tad too small.
I thought I'd squeak it out, but that was the strip where I had to make an extra clean up cut, and I was 1/4" too short at the end. I thought of cutting the whole strip set down, and putting it on the edge of the quilt, because it wouldn't make any difference to the overall look.
But I found another piece of the fabric, and it was the work of minutes to unpick a bit of the seams, insert the patch and sew everything back together again. This is called a 'poverty patch', and a lot of old quilts had them, where the maker eked out the fabrics she had to try to keep to the pattern. I always enjoy finding them when I look at antique quilts, it's a real reminder of how women had to 'make do' in the early days.
I found some pretty rose fabric that had all the colours of the strips in, added the borders and started the machine stitching last night. I couldn't finish the quilting, but it will only take an hour to have this done, and then I can add the binding- the first finish for the year!

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After a very slow start, summer has finally arrived. As my Mum would have said, just in time for the kids to go back to school. Yesterday was 44 degrees (112 F) and it was thoroughly nasty all day, and night as well, because the temperature only dropped to 27 .

I've been a bit alarmed at the quilts mounting up- one lady brought twelve tops last week, saying all her friends wanted their tops to get into the queue too, and she'd kindly offered to bring them all up to us. That, and a few other good customers bringing three and four tops at once means that we're working at capacity again, just when the weather is the worst.

The hall is wonderful, but there are a few things that make it hard to bear in summer; the lack of windows and ventilation, and the 18' ceilings which make it impossible to install affordable air-conditioning. It stays remarkably cool for a while, but when these temperatures build up, it stays very hot out the back where the Statler lives. Which is where I work, sigh.

Yesterday we got up at three, and had the machine running soon after, on this large flannel quilt, complete with flannel backing. It would be lovely and cuddly warm in winter, but I felt like fainting every time I touched it.So hot!!
Pippi stayed in front of this little evaporative unit the whole time, she's not silly. It keeps my feet a little cooler, but the main reason to have it on the floor is to try and cool the computer for the machine. The operators come second!
After a few hours that top was done and I got a second, smaller one loaded and finished by twelve. By then there was no way we could function in the workroom/oven so we came home to collapse in various attitudes of exhaustion. The dogs hate the heat, and they opt to lie flat out on the tiled floors, and I've thought of joining them more than once. Roll on Autumn!

Despite the heat I managed to finish sewing all the panels for the Bargello, but I couldn't face turning the iron on and pressing them. They're waiting for a cool morning to get that done, then there will only be three long seams to sew and it's in one piece. I've enjoyed the technique, and now I want to try a Trip around the World.A trip to the patchwork shop in the next town yielded these fabrics, just because.I don't know what I'll do with them, but it's ages since I bought anything new and these spoke to me. That rose fabric is gorgeous, and I'll be trying it on a few tops that need borders, when it's cool enough to pull them out.

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I've been sewing my strip sets for Bonnies Bargello, and have got one cut and sewed into it's final pattern, just to see if everything fits.
Yes, so it's on with the next one, only two more seams to sew and I'm halfway there.
Well, more than halfway, because all the strips are sewn, and I just have to crosscut these and then pin, and pin and pin those intersections.
But it's mindless, and very satisfying to see the chains of colour march up or down across the strips. Then I can think about a border and backing. This whole top has come from the scrap bin, and while there aren't many pastel pink, green, yellow or blue bits left, I can't really see a dent in the pile. Now I'll have to do a dark top, and one with country colours and so on and so on.

This customer quilt had a dark blue background and I had to use a cream thread in places. I thought the contrast might look horrible, but it's not too bad.
These blocks are straight, it's just that I've got the quilt slung over the arms of a chair. The hall is so hot in this summer weather that I can't bear to stay there longer than necessary, and bring the quilts home so I can end the threads sitting in the air-conditioning. Winter is so much more pleasant when quilting for a living.

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I was cutting a pile of brown fabric for my latest project when I read Jan Mac's blog and suddenly all I wanted to do was dig in the scrap bins and start cutting for some donation quilts.
Keryn and I made a lot of quilts for the bushfire appeal, and it felt so good to be able to do something constructive. The floods in Queensland and Victoria have made me want to sew for others again, and Jan's post was the encouragement I needed.

So I've made a huge mess, and I'm scrabbling and cutting and sorting and working out what I'm going to make.


First up I want to do one of Bonnie's Scrappy Bargello's, because it's so easy to cut for- you only need 2 1/2" strips 16" long. As most of my scraps aren't width of fabric, this will find a use for them. Anything smaller is getting cut for Keryn's Half and Half, or Happy blocks. I figure if I get too many 16" pieces I'll make a Scrappy Trip around the World from Quiltville too, as that uses the same pieces.There's enough in this container for a lap sized quilt, but I haven't finished yet, there's more piles waiting.
Look at the pile of trimmings already. It's so good to get all these bits and pieces out of the way.
Dolly is teaching Pippi how to beg nicely, and who could resist those little white paws?

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I've been going through my sewing room and finding all sorts of things that I only have vague recollections of. I can remember making these units for a pink and brown block, and thought I'd finished one or two. But I found 13 blocks in the drawer so I must have pottered away on this project a lot longer than I thought I did.

For now I can just make another pile of sq in sq units, but I'm going to have to get serious and decide how big I want the top to be, and how I'm going to set them.Another drawer contained these two finished blocks and pieces cut for a lot more.
I can remember making one to test the pattern, but I'd done three, and a heap of Puss in the Corner blocks to use as the centre.
Nope, not much was written to the memory banks on this project either. I also made this more complicated version, so I must have been fiddling with the idea for quite a while. Oh well, the pieces are all ready and waiting and I can start sewing with little preparation.
Pippi went for her first long walk at Bowman's Park the other day, and she ran and ran like a mad thing, racing around with the other dogs. When we got home she just collapsed on the gravel driveway- she was pooped!!
Once she builds up a bit of stamina I think she'll be hard to keep up with.

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We had great plans for achieving things this long weekend, but the heat (44 degreesC or 111 F) has meant that we've been settled in front of the air-conditioner just trying to stay cool. Today wasn't quite as bad, but the heat always upsets my plans and drains my energy. I'm a winter person I'm afraid, but we've got three more months of this so I'd better get over it.

Of course plans to handsew are impractical because of the general stickiness and short temper, but I did finish the last of these blocks.

I thought I only had ten more to do, and then I found a little container with eight more hiding in it. Gagh! But finally they're done, now if only I could remember how I wanted to set them.

Originally they were going to look like this, with just two rounds in each block.
I've lost the photo of the antique quilt that made me decide to add another round, but it was something like this, without the hexagon centre.
I know it had two setting colours like this, but beyond that I'm at a loss.
I should have finished the darn thing while it was still fresh in my memory. I've lost so many wonderful pictures of antique quilts in various computer crashes, and I still get cranky thinking about them. Now external strorage devices are so cheap it's not a problem, thank goodness.

Keryn and I spent an hour yesterday making a list of goals and directions for 2011, and we'd be all fired up and ready to go, except for that whole energy-sucking heat thing. But at least we know what we're aiming for.

Pippi has displayed quite an astonishing aptitude for excavating, and all but disappeared in this hole she dug yesterday. She was standing on her hindlegs here, and you can see the dirt flung around in all directions. I think we'd better distract her from her hobby; the first time she digs up a garden bed I won't be quite so amused...
Can you see a theme with the drawings ie pippi's always asleep. I tried drawing her sitting up today, and she got so excited as I continually glanced at her that she ended up prancing around barking at me.
She refused to stay still after that, no wonder I like it when she's fast asleep...

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I hope everyone had a lovely Christmas break and didn't get too stressed out by all the hype. The best part of my Christmas was finally getting to know dear little Logan- I could hardly wait to get my hands on him. He is fifteen different kinds of cute, and even when I wasn't holding him it was fun just watching his face and generally doting on him. It's hard to believe he's only seven weeks old, he's going to be pretty big by all predictions.

It was so lovely to see how Logan responded to Elisa and Rob, he obviously knows he's adored and he's one happy little baby. I miss him already.
I'll have to content myself with my puppy, who's growing up very quickly.
I wanted to draw her quite often, and I haven't done as much as I could, being caught up in the Christmas rush and all, but these are some of my sketches.
Perhaps my New Year's resolutions could include doing a drawing of her every day- I could document her growing up.

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To clear up the confusion about the dogs, Jessie is Matt's first dog, a miniature Fox Terrier. She's nearly nine years old, but still has tremendous energy and is incredibly Busy, despite the number of white hairs around her muzzle. She's a fantastic mouser and during the winter when we had a mouse plague she dispatched dozens of them with great efficiency. The staffies didn't want to know, and Dolly used to look the other way and pretend she couldn't see anything- What mouse?When we lived out the farm she used to disappear down rabbit holes and once was missing for four hours. Eventually she came back, dirty and triumphant, no doubt having finished off a few bunnies as well.
This is the view we usually see of her, hunting in every likely looking nook and cranny for something to chase.
She's a dog of very little brain, but she's fun to watch, and very loyal. My mum loved her, and when she was living with us just before she got so sick, Jessie was her constant companion. Even though she's such a quick little thing, darting here and there in a white blur, she would keep pace with Mum, one painful step at a time. Mum was very touched by this, and even though it sometimes took ten minutes to go from one room to the other with her walker, Jessie was right there beside her. You've got to love a faithful heart like that.

When Mum died she left her grandchildren a few hundred dollars each, and Matt used his money to buy Macca. No money could have been better spent, because this dog has changed Matt's life for the better, and they are totally bonded to each other. It's lovely to see. And now Keryn has Dolly, who is Macca's daughter, and I have Pippi.

Bonnie belongs to the friend that Matt shares a house with, and is the mother of the puppies. So that's the family history of the dogs so far.

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You asked for puppy pictures and here they are. This little girl is "V", named because she had a v-shaped white blaze when she was born. It's sort of disappeared but the name stuck.
This is Buggles, unkindly named because she was 'bloody ugly' when she was born, but now she has her own charm and is pretty cute. The name stuck.
"Kitty" who was black with a white stripe on her face and rather small. She looked more like a kitten than a puppy but now she's filled out and is the friendliest, cuddliest little thing.
"Boofa", the only male puppy and he's always been the fattest and sookiest one. He's going to be a beautiful dog when he grows up."Mirra" who is the smallest puppy, but the most active and playful. She's going to need lots of attention but she's so funny and mischievious that I was tempted to keep her. There would never be a dull moment with her around.

But right from the start I knew I wanted to keep "Pippi".
She's very much like my Panda from the last litter and as soon as she was born I fell in love with the white stockings on her front legs. I said she was Pippi Longstocking and Pippi she's remained.
I wondered if her personality would let her down, if I'd fall in love with one of the others but I'm still adamant that she's the one for me.
She seems placid and sensible and adores her big sister Dolly

How cute is she? Expect to see lots more when she finally comes to live with me, in a couple of weeks time....

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