It's a journey.

This is what I have been working on over the last month. "Aunt Bettina's Parlour" by Quilted Crow Girls Designs. I started it I can't remember when at a class at Hettie's Patch earlier this year. I am enjoying hand stitching! It's all very relaxing and fun.

This year is all a bit of a blur. Every year I am amazed at the beginning of every month to realise that another month has flown by. This year it is even worse. We left Melbourne last November, but it seriously only seems like a month or two ago, not the eight months it really is. I miss Melbourne a lot. Well, the place a little, but mostly the friends I made there. 

When we moved back to South Australia eight months ago we decided to do something different. Why not? We decided to move to the country. We are just renting so this would be an opportunity to see if country life is for us without too much of a commitment. Our current home is on seven acres, and is on a dirt road. (Can't get more country than that!) When we moved in we couldn't see any houses from our house. We are surrounded by paddocks. Paddocks that are full of rabbits, foxes and kangaroos and also cattle and sheep. Now we can see a house on the hill opposite our hill. It is in the process of being built. And do you want to know something funny? In the tradition of South Australia (it's a small place people) we know the people building the new house. They will move in in the next month or two. What are the odds that we would know them? In Victoria not great. In South Australia, pretty much even. 

This is our backyard. So, after eight months, how do we like country living? So-so. There are some things I love. Like living in the middle of nowhere! And some things I am completely sick of. Like living in the middle of nowhere! I love the quiet. (Well, except for the cows and sheep. Boy are they noisy!) But I am sick of having to drive 20 kilometres to the bus stop to drop kids off. (I know that that is not really a long drive, but it seems long to me!) Sometimes I make the 40km round trip three times a day which is crazy, but necessary. So I'm hoping to move again when our lease is up. Where to? Right now I have no idea. 

We moved back to South Australia to help our daughter. She is one of the most brilliant and capable young women I know. Always has been. She does have a huge challenge though, her son has special needs. Without the regular support of extended family this special boy's challenges were overwhelming for her. As he has gotten older, and bigger, the challenges have grown too. So now we are nearby to help. We have him come stay at our house one day a week each week. This gives her a break and an opportunity to do something other than look after him. He has behavioural problems which are really hard work. Of course, he is still wonderful along with it. Last month was a big month for him. His doctor prescribed him medication. His mother has resisted this course of action previously because she wanted to try every non-invasive way of helping him first. This was the next step. He has reacted really well so far and we hope this will give him a chance to learn and practise better behaviours. 

This is him helping his sister last week, which seems an ordinary thing but is quite amazing for him. 

So, I am still here. Working on sewing projects, babysitting my grandchildren and watching kangaroos in my front yard, in the side paddocks and on the other side of the hill. I have many new projects floating around in my head. I have attended a class and improved my free motion quilting somewhat, and I am contributing to a market that my girls are doing this month. Oh. And we built a tiny house. 

I finished this quilt. Finally.

I thought I would never finish this quilt, but today I did it. I started it back in August 2013 and thought it wouldn't take long. Do I always think that? I love it. I love the fabric. I love the circles. I love the flowers. I love the quilting. I quilted circles around (and in some of) the circles, pebbles in all the frames, and a large free motion flower in each of the "empty" circles.

In other news, my friend who I gifted this quilt to two years ago (I was surprised that it was so long ago when I looked back through my blog, it seems like the other day.) passed away last week. She lived across the road from us in Melbourne and it's a little bit heartbreaking that I couldn't just walk next door this week and attend her funeral. (We used to live next door to the church her funeral service was conducted in) The last time I spoke to her was in a paddock here. I missed her a lot. We had lots in common and thought the same way about lots of things despite a 25 year age gap. Just looking at the photo of this quilt reminds me of life two years ago. It was such a good time!

I finished it!

Last Friday night I crocheted like a demon and finished this rug! It's hard to believe that it took me so long to blog about it, cause here it is Friday night again.

Every week is so busy at my house. We have two girls at Uni this semester. They are back into it this week after a teaching break which means lots of trips to the bus stop. We are twenty-five minutes drive from the bus stop so there is lots of driving. One of the reasons we moved back to South Australia was to be with our grandchildren more and we have our grandson sleep over every Sunday night. That means that Monday is a very busy day here. This past Sunday we had our grandson and his two sisters sleep over. They don't like to miss out so occasionally we have them stay over too. They are so much fun!

It's so nice to have a finish! I am still working on the Anna Maria Horner quilt. I'm keen for another finish. I have a pile of quilt tops just begging to be finished so I see a lot of quilting in my future!

Sewing room

Last November we moved house. This week I managed to do some quilting, the first for six months. I don't think I want to move house ever again. It took me so long to get organised. I'm not sure why. Ok. I say "organised" loosely. I'm not really organised completely yet, but I'm now organised enough to sew. We have just one living room in this house (the last house had four) and I have had the furniture arranged every way possible! Look at my photos for the latest!

Oh. And you can see the quilt I am working on in the first shot. I began quilting it last year in Melbourne, and it's nearly finished now. Here it is.

So I'm sewing again. And hopefully finishing some things too!

It's getting bigger!

When we first moved back to South Australia in November last year (seems just like the other day, but it's months ago now.) I didn't have any sewing or handwork unpacked. My crochet I was working on had to be left behind in Melbourne and packed a month or so later by my Bradley. Still haven't found it yet. (The last boxes to be packed were not labelled and were all full of random items.) I knew before we moved that I had too much stuff, but I know it much more now! We lived in a huge house in Melbourne and the house here is tiny! Anyway, back in November I had nothing to work on, so my first day here I popped to the new local Spotlight (it's tiny and has so little choice, my last local was ginormous) and bought some yarn and a crochet hook and began crocheting a rug. It's getting bigger, but isn't a good shape yet to finish it off. I recently bought second balls of all the yarn (had to go to two Spotlights to find them!) so that I can finish it. It's big enough now to keep my lap warm as I crochet. It's autumn here and becoming cooler so it's more enjoyable to crochet now. Can't wait to finish this rug! 

Still here making things!

Have you seen "Frozen"? We haven't seen it yet. We tend to wait until movies come to DVD to see them. It costs so much to go to the movies, and we choose to spend our money on other things. Like fabric! Nevertheless, Lily17 trawled the net to find out what "Frozen" characters looked like. Apparently this is Anna. Lily17 was Anna when she went to a "Frozen" dance on Friday night. She made the costume herself.

My sewing area is getting more set up and I even did the appliqué on Lily17's vest above. I am crocheting and working on a hand appliqué I started at a class at Hettie's Patch. The class was with the Quilted Crow girls from Tassie and I couldn't resist attending because I met the Crow girls in Tassie last April and loved their wool appliqué. 

That's my wool appliqué hanging on my new pinboards set up in my sewing room come living room. So much has happened since I posted here last. Lots of birthdays. (I turned 50! How weird is that?) And other happenings. I hope to post again soon. 

Stitching

I bought a magazine and it had an article in it about kantha. It is a traditional Indian method of reusing worn fabrics. A way to make them good again. They would take two worn fabrics and stitch them together with decorative running stitches to make a new, stronger fabric which they could use. Of course I didn't find worn fabric, I got some perfectly good fabric out from my stash! Then I started stitching. It was so much fun! I am planning to do this some more. As soon as I get my sewing space better set up. Want to know what I did with my pinboards? Check out this post at A Making Life!