Still here (It's Easter!)

It is the last day of March. I am still here, but have been so busy I recorded very little of March. I ended up not going to the Monbulk quilt show market so I have some freshly sorted stash to destash somehow. (Possibly on etsy?) At the moment we have our daughter and grandchildren visiting with us from Adelaide. This afternoon we managed an Easter egg hunt.

the hunt begins

 We hunted upstairs for eggs and managed to find a few to put in our bags. (Ok. Not me. I didn't have a brown paper bag to put eggs in. I am still trying to lose weight. I am 20kgs down now. Must keep it up!)

inside grandson's bag near the beginning of the hunt

Our grandchildren were suitably impressed with their haul of eggs. (So were my teenagers!) Once the hunt was over and the required bunnies had been found they adjourned to the kitchen table to consume their chocolate.

Enid's first egg of choice was the biggest egg!

grandson's required bunny

On the sewing front I have been busy with "snowballs". I have been using an American Jane Punctuation charm pack and a red Moda Bella Solids jelly roll to create the snowballs. I thought I might make a quilt with them, but decided to make a couple of table runners instead

table runners!

So that's what I've been up to. A little bit of running around after children and grandchildren and a little bit of sewing. Oh. And a little bit of losing weight too. Bring on April!

Piles of fabric - a destash!

Fat quarters to go on the left, those to stay on the right.

Next Saturday Sophie and I will have a stall at the Monbulk Community Quilt Show. (Read more about it here.) The show raises money for the CFS, is always worth a look, and this year I am using the stall to get rid of some of my lovely fabric that is cluttering up my sewing room. It's not the fault of the fabric of course, I'm sure it will look great in your sewing room! I am just having to face the fact that despite loving all this fabric I probably don't have time to sew it all. I will also have handmade items to sell. I'll be featuring some of those items on the blog this week so you know what goodies will be in store for you if you venture to Monbulk. Here are the facts in case you want a lovely day out in the Dandenongs.

Monbulk Community Quilt Show 2013

Saturday, 16th March 2013

9.30am to 3.00pm

Monbulk Living & Learning Centre

Cnr Main Street & Moores Road, Monbulk

(opposite Woolworths)

Entry:  $5.00 

The 2013 Monbulk Community Quilt Show is proudly presented by 

Mrs Martin’s Quilt Shop.  

Local community groups will be holding stalls selling plants, flowers, cakes and craft

Devonshire teas and sausage sizzle available

Market stalls 

A Show Bag with your entry fee for the first 100 people 

Viewer’s choice award 

Product and technique demonstrations by designers

Look for specials in local shops displaying the quilt show logo

A Calico Update.

We worked out today that Calico has been living at our house for eight weeks now. She has grown so much during that time and learnt so much too. This is her being cute. Sophie took these photos while my Bradley rubbed her tummy. A little bit of tummy rubbing is necessary every day in Calico's world. (She also needs walks, food and treats. A lot. And we oblige.)

A Sad Post...

This is my son Joseph and his beautiful wife Amy. They have been married for two years. Last week Amy's lovely Mother passed away. Today would have been her 56th birthday. Next week I will fly to Adelaide to go to her funeral. It is a sad time for them and Amy's family. It is a sad time for us all.

March Bee Blocks

I had trouble getting to my Care do. Good stitches bee blocks in February. Things just kept coming up that kept me from doing them. So I figured I had better be better prepared in March. (Just in case something comes up!) I finished these scrappy trip around the world blocks this evening. I have been watching blogland go crazy for these blocks so I was pleased to give these a go myself. We used Quiltville's tutorial which you can find here, and the blocks were requested by teacupfaery (Jane) who blogs here. She called these "scrappy trip to the seaside" Hope mine are seasidey enough. Sorry for the dreadful photos. My new sewing room is terribly dark at night and the colours are not true. Sophie26 suggested that tomorrow we should go to Ikea and check out their lighting, cause this room sure needs it! She is busy sewing with me tonight. That was the whole idea of switching rooms. So more of us can sew together in the same place. Today Sophie26 and I sewed whilst Maxim18 carved. I am quite enjoying this new room!

Missed it!

I had my dutiful son Maxim18 take this photo last Tuesday as we drove out of Melbourne bound for Adelaide. I planned to blog about it when I got there. Never happened. Adelaide for me is like a vast black hole in which all time, strength of mind and energy are sucked from me. It's something to do with the 5am waking grandchildren, the fact that I need to catchup with family while I am there and the reasons I go there. This visit was to help Jess (picklesticks) and her family move house. It sounds like a fairly easy operation but when you add in three lively young kids (one extremely busy boy and that early riser girl) it's just not that simple. We also were there to help Molly20 move. We had a lovely time and I caught up with all my kids which was wonderful. Our daughter in law's mother is losing a battle with cancer at the moment and she is spending every available moment with her, understandably, so we didn't get to see her. These are dark days for our son and his wife, and her family.

So, I missed the end of February and the beginning of March, fortunately it all happened without any input from me. I am home now and my first job is to work on finishing the sewing room redo. I am sorely tempted to stay online and find out what the blogging world has been up to for the last week, but that won't get anything finished here, will it?