I keep saying...

... that I don't like half square triangles. And then I sew some more. I chose some fabric for my Mum's gift today. A piece that my grandson and granddaughter had drawn and some Kaffe Fassett. How could I go wrong? My Mum loves those grandchildren of mine and Kaffe Fassett. It has to be a winner. I'm still not sure what I am making, but I started cutting this afternoon and sewing this evening. Maxim18 wondered how I could cut when I had no clue what I was making. I wasn't sure how to answer him. All I knew was that I was making half square triangles, which have since turned into zig zags. Anyway, it's too late now to make any sort of decision I think. Thanks to everyone for your suggestions. I am grateful for all your thoughts, and I'm still pondering them! Off to bed I think.

tonight's efforts

Lost Mojo

Losing your mojo right before a handmade Christmas is a bit of a disaster. Ok. Completely disastrous actually. This is what I am doing today. Getting a Birthday gift together for my Mum. (She doesn't have the internet at her house, so I'm safe-ish showing you this. Just as long as she doesn't pop to the library or visit a kindly relative!)

My Mum loves pretty tins, so I thought this one was a winner. And today I am sitting here looking at it, trying to decide what to put in it! It did come with shortbread, but since Mum has celiac disease (no wheat products allowed) I ditched the shortbread and was thinking I would sew a little pretty something and put it in the tin. So far I've got nothing! Suggestions welcome!

It's a little quiet here at my house...

I know Rose will never believe it, but it's quiet here at my house. I think she had forgotten how noisy a house is when there are more than two people living there. I think all the noise and excitement while she and Molly were here was entirely due to their visit. They are both home now, enjoying their own spaces. (Never a truer word was spoken than when Dorothy said, "There's no place like home.")

One...

Two...

Three!

So quiet! Not even any of this kind of noise that we had three weeks ago. I might get back to the sewing table now!

The visit

Rose and Molly on the left of my Bradley

We are entertaining visitors from Adelaide. (Woohoo! Two of my girls are visiting!) It means extra geocaching and extra game playing. (What is geocaching I hear you ask? Read about it here.) It's hard work, but we are the people for the job! Rose is busy vlogging her Melbourne geocaching experiences, check them out!

She and her partner have quite a few geocaching videos on their YouTube channel. Check it out here. They are both into geocaching in a big way! And Molly is big into playing games. Her favourite new game so far this trip is Fluxx, where the rules constantly change. It's a bit like life really. Just when you think you've got it all sorted out, something changes! Molly goes home tonight, but we have Rose for another three days. I see more geocaching in our future!

Fluxx!

What are your daisies in the lawn?

daisies!

I like daisies in the lawn. I must do, because I have lots of photos of them! These are near the doctor's surgery and I can't resist snapping them every time we visit. Aren't digital cameras amazing? Even when I don't have a camera with me I have a camera with me (my phone) and I take many photos of daisies in the lawn. What do you snap with your phone camera? I'm not sure whether daisies in the lawn are a feature of Melbourne footpaths only, or whether I just ignored them when I lived in Adelaide. Anyway, they seem to be everywhere this year and I love to take photos of them!

The day of the Nativity.

This is where the nativities we were working on this week ended up. We turned them into wallhangings just like this one and took them along to the Relief Society service project afternoon today at church.

The calico spaces were for Christmas messages, and were filled up over the course of the afternoon and will be sent to young people from our area who are serving missions for our church all over the world.

 At the service project we did things like making rugs for the homeless, we packed hampers for youth in crisis, and prepared baby hampers for mothers who have very little for their newborns.

It was a hive of activity and we experienced the privilege of being able to forget ourselves and our troubles whilst we did something for someone else. And Sophie and I were just so pleased to have met our deadline! Next up, some quilting!

As Time Goes By...

... and it does go by. Sophie and I are working on the 20 nativities she designed and is making for a friend. We are stitching the applique on in front of our various tv shows. She is watching Sliders while she sews, and for me it is As Time Goes By. We have a deadline and it is looming! Quick! Back to the machine!

Spray Basting

It was a glorious day yesterday afternoon. I managed to piece two quilt backs and decided to spray baste three quilts out the back. Once I had cleaned the table and chairs off, I spent a lovely couple of hours out there cutting wadding, then stretching and spray basting the three quilts in the late afternoon sunshine. Various children drifted in and out to chat (including picklesticks who is now back home in Adelaide, she drifted in on the phone) and then the job was done. I basted the small zigzag scrap quilt I put together last week, little pieces of sunshine from here, and my do. Good Stitches quilt from May. So it looks as though quilting is my next thing!

I might have been to the Spotlight sale...

my haul

Do you have family traditions? We do. One of them is that if you have to do something hard, then you get to do something fun immediately after. Sometimes the fun thing is just coming home. (That's what Lily chose to do after her year 12 exam yesterday.) Today Sophie had to do something hard (don't you hate doctors' visits?) so we decided to hit the Spotlight sale. This morning Dolores suggested that I get some backing fabric for one of my do. Good Stitches quilts that I need to finish from the sale. So I thought, "why not?". Sophie managed to find some beads, I managed to get three quilting fabrics (30% off), one dress fabric (30% off), six packages of bias binding (25% off), and one spool of thread (25% off). So that's the sum total of today's crafting so far. Purchases. Off to the sewing room!

Some making.

Lily's pumpkin cake

Lily made a choc/orange pumpkin to take to a Halloween party she went to on the weekend. (It had a Snickers stalk.) It really was a little too late for a Halloween party, but you know teenagers, any excuse for a party! She went as the lady clown from "Round The Twist". (A costume made for Molly some time ago! We're into recycling here.) There has been all sorts of making going on here. Back with more later.

I got it together!

ziggy zaggy quilt

I actually got this quilt top together yesterday. It's only small (34"? by 44") but I really like it.  I feel terribly happy that there is none of this fabric left, I have used it all up! I also managed to find a backing fabric for it in the cupboard too. Such a happy circumstance. This coming week looks quite busy so I'm not sure when I will stretch it and finish it. I guess I'll put it on the pile.

Moonlight Sewing

Do you sew late into the night? I'm not much for that usually. I get tired. Sometimes though, if I can't sleep, I will go back down to the sewing room and sew for a while. Like now! Sweet dreams people, I'm hoping to sleep now!

May Gibbs Gumnut Babies

Another English paper pieced piece for my May Gibbs thing. Haven't decided what it is yet. Still working on the idea, and the English paper piecing. It will come together I'm sure!

Zigzags

I bought these fabrics as a charm pack at the beginning of October to make my do. Good Stitches blocks. (Which were posted to Morocco five weeks ago and still haven't arrived!) These were the leftovers, and rather than add them to the ever growing scrap pile I thought I would combine them with some Moda bella solids white and make a quilt top. I started out by making some half square triangles which laid themselves out into zigzags. I was two squares short of the perfect zigzag so I even dug into my scrap pile to make the final two squares.

The top is almost together (but not quite!) I thought I would get it finished today, but I got caught up with other things. I guess that's how it is sometimes. So many quilts to finish - so little time!

My view today...

... fashion is a funny thing. I think maybe permed hair is slightly more in fashion than it was? Maybe not. Last time I permed someone's hair the chemicals were quite difficult to find, but I had no trouble yesterday. It's just occurred to me that I'm in a different city now and maybe that is the difference. My mother is a hairdresser and growing up I watched her perm hundreds of heads of hair. And cut hundreds of heads of hair. So now I feel quite comfortable cutting and perming hair. Of course, she did teach me and guide me through my first few haircuts. In fact I became her personal hairdresser. Lily has quite fine, greasy teenager hair. She is sick of it being so greasy. Having both curly and straight haired people in our family we know that it takes curly hair longer to be too greasy so she thought she would have a perm. (Her first ever) This morning I have been perming hair. Our Jess (picklesticks) is visiting too and she has the same kind of hair and is thinking maybe she will have a perm later this week too. It looks like it will be a hairdressing kind of week.

Making

 Making must be something of a family tradition at our house. Here are the Grandies completely involved in their making this morning. They wake early each morning and can't wait to begin the day. Sometimes I am up to eat breakfast with them. Mostly though I get up just as they are beginning their day of play. My teenagers are the complete opposite. They love to sleep in each morning. Sleeping at night just isn't palatable to them at all. They'd much rather sleep in the daylight hours. It's strange how different children and teenagers are. Anyway, I'm off to participate in the family tradition. I love to make!

Fussy cutting

Gumnut Baby Hexies

I fussy cut some hexies yesterday and started putting them together. I like the flowers they make. We have two of our girls and our three grandchildren visiting at the moment. It makes for a full house! Daughter Lily is pleased because although school is in she has a four day weekend courtesy of a horse race, (go horses!) so she will get to spend more time carrying around her nieces. (Her nephew is much too heavy.)

Storytime

The adult to child ratio is at a good level at our house so there has been multiple stories read at one time, a great state of affairs for a kid! (Six adults and two teenagers for three kids!) We are off to the playground this morning.

Gumnut Babies

I found this fabric at Spotlight. They are Gumnut Babies from the May Gibbs stories, an Australian classic. As soon as I saw the fabric I thought of my Mum. She used to read these books when she was a young girl and has a fondness for them. So, ever since buying the fabric I have been thinking what to make with them. It's my Mum's birthday this month and she is on my Christmas list this year so what to make? I'm still not decided. I'm thinking about hexies though. Whatever I make, I think there will be hexies involved.

November in Melbourne

It was warm yesterday. It felt like summer. But today there has been a cool change and we're back to soup weather in Melbourne. So all day I have been cooking soup. My son sprained his ankle last night. His first sprain. Today he is laid up and it has been torture for him, smelling the delicious soup cooking all day. I think Melbourne is famous for it's changeable weather. I like it a lot! It will be cool again tomorrow. Perhaps that means more soup.

Oh. By the way. It's November! (How did that happen?)