Hexagonacrafternoonashower

Today I held a baby shower under the elm tree for a lovely friend. It wasn't your usual baby shower. There were no ridiculous games. There was crafting. There was cake and sausage rolls and cucumber sandwiches. And handmade gifts. It was a crafternoonashower.



Thanks to some very able, and tall, helpers, there were lots of Chinese lanterns hanging in the elm tree. And the weather was perfect.



My baby present was a sunny hexagon quilt - the quilt that I started 2 weeks ago in Cobargo, which wasn't supposed to be a baby present, but it turned out it was perfect, so a baby present it is! I always knew the quilt would tell me what it should be...



But it's not finished yet and I still have to quilt and bind it. Unbelievably, I haven't rushed this quilt at all. It took me a week to finish all the hexagons, and another two nights to applique it onto some background fabric. Then it sat around for another couple of nights and on Thursday night I pin basted it. On the dining room table. It worked perfectly, and I am now hooked on the idea of dining room table basting. Beats crawling around on the carpet.



Speaking of hexagons, a few days ago Rita from Red Pepper Quilts posted a photo on Instagram of some hexagon blocks and said she was never going to finish the project. I offered to take them off her hands, and so she sent them to me.



Except what she sent me was quilt a large unfinished piece of work, not just a few blocks! And it's absolutely beautiful.



I can't wait to see what happens with this one. I'm having such a love affair with English paper piecing at the moment.

Because did I tell you? The twisted hexagon quilt top is finally finished ...

December 6

There's nothing quite like the smell of a BBQ in the great outdoors on a warm summer night.



Unfortunately we've been missing out on the "warm summer night" part of the equation this week as it's been very cold after dusk, but I bought stuff at the farmers' market on Saturday for grillin' and I'll be damned if I'm not going to enjoy myself in the cold night air while I do it.




We are pretty lucky that we have an old uncovered deck outside our lounge room, and that's where we wheel our little two burner BBQ out to start cooking. And then we sit and wait while our food cooks, and enjoy the view of the garden and the shared landscapes beyond our fences. This is my view when I'm sitting and waiting.



And this is my favourite chook.



I've joined Car's Advent blog-a-long. Check out the other blog-a-longers!

Home

Thank you everyone. Each comment, tweet, visit and text message I received in hospital were so precious to me.



After almost two weeks I came home to Autumn in full decline. Each breath of fresh air I take is a treat, and the sound of my feet shuffling through dry fallen leaves in my back yard is such a novelty that it's like I am 8 years old all over again. This morning I sat in the sun and watched the Mister attempt to rake up 3 weeks worth of fallen leaves from our elm tree. It defeated him, but I think that's OK because I could crunch through those elm leaves for weeks yet, and never get tired of them.

Dessication

Autumn is here.



A feeling of sloughing off the old stuff pervades the air so richly, that I can smell it.



I'm really tired and worn out. Last month I started a Twitter account, but I suspect it's days are numbered. I almost deleted my Ravelry account last week, but stopped myself at the last minute.



Why is it that autumn makes me want to take a loofah to life, scrub it all off, and put on something fresh to wear? And I'm not talking about sewing something new, either.



Maybe a holiday is in order.

Switching off

Due to a hefty five minute storm last night and a few trees falling on power lines around our suburb, our electricity went off a little after midnight. Although there were promises from ACTEW that it would be back at 10 am ... 2 pm ... it eventually didn't get put on until after 4 pm.

I wasn't going to complain about not having power for 15 hours. My parents were without it for more than 2 days thanks to Yasi, and my girlfriend's parents still have no power, no landline, no mobiles, and a shed wrapped around their house. But I had plans today which included cooking, stewing, sewing, washing and ironing, so what was one to do? I got inventive, that's what.



I cut out a dress and a skirt so they were ready to sew when the power was switched back on.



We went out for coffee and cake in the morning, and then chips and beer and pear cider in the afternoon.



I went fabric shopping for not one, but two quilts. TWO! Out of control!





And I managed to do a little gardening.



I harvested the last of my potatoes!



And I have to say that having no electricity forced a certain kind of ingenuity in how we spent our Sunday. We are not a pair who tend to be comfortable doing nothing, but by not having a sewing machine, computer, stove, microwave, washing machine and music, we were still able to have a really lovely and productive Sunday. It was, dare I say it, relaxing. Except for the fact I really missed my morning coffee and we were worried about food in our fridge turning, it wasn't such a bad thing to have happen to us. I think switch-off Sundays (figuratively speaking) might be a frequent thing in our house from now on.

Except for the coffee. There must be coffee.