Free stuff

In a moment of clarity: "Mum, it doesn't cost money to think!"...
...sometimes I would give anything to see into that little mind for a day!

Goals broken and made

I'm well and truly behind the unofficial (and probably unrealistic) quilting goal I set myself this week, but making progress all the same... Maybe there will be more sewing next week? (I'd love to have this one quilted by Thursday... for no other reason than that there are other exciting projects waiting to be tackled).

One job down

One of the odd jobs I needed to get done was to make Christmas cards. I found pre-cut cards (with matching envelopes) reduced to clear, and screenprinted these images onto them. The designs are inspired by old Japanese textiles, and I love how they turned out. I used my textile paint, which actually gives the cards a 'flocked' look.
I always try to make extra prints onto 'scrap' paper when screenprinting... this time there I also managed to remove the paper stencils from the screen without damaging them. They have dried nicely and I will be able to use them again!

The life of the idle rich

Now for the highlight of this week... I just had my groceries delivered to my front door! That's right, I sat at home enjoying a coffee while someone else pushed a trolley through the supermarket, collecting my groceries and delivered them all nicely boxed and bagged to my front door. Although this whole concept puts a smile on my face every time I think about it, I do feel a bit bad for them. I console myself with the fact that he/she probably didn't do it with a twirling, dancing five year old, a gravity-defying one year old, and one-yet-unborn squirming and kicking in his/her belly...

But still, isn't that just the height of luxury? Thanks heaps for the tip, Leanne. This will work wonders when the baby arrives! Now please excuse me, I have an appointment at the beauty salon while my maid cleans my house... tee hee....

P.S. you don't actually need to be rich - I thought the $8 delivery fee was well worth it in my current circumstances - grocery shopping has been my most challenging household chore lately!

Prioritising

There hasn't been a whole lot of sewing happening here, just very brief fragments of time snatched here and there. There are other priorities to focus on. Caleb and I are busy sorting out who is boss. And there is also a whole host of odd jobs to tackle in preparation for summer holidays and the coming baby.

Hannah has been busy though! Phil is in Botswana and Hannah wanted to count down to when he comes back. So she spent the afternoon drawing and cutting lovehearts......and carefully copying numbers onto sticky labels to make her 'counting-down calendar'...
...with lovehearts "because we love Daddy"...an afternoon well spent...
...only 17 sleeps left!...

Quiet

Sometimes there are moments in the day when everything is blissfully quiet, and you revel in it for a moment, until you realise with a fright that the quiet probably means that the one and a half year old is probably deeply occupied with something he shouldn't be...

This time the alarm was unwarranted... it's hard work reading all about The Very Busy Spider!

Reflecting on a journey

I have been putting off writing this post, I suppose because its a little embarrassing. But because I want this blog to record my quiltmaking journey, here goes... As I already alluded to in an earlier post, my work has been blessed with much publicity recently. Last week I received several copies of duQ138 in the mail, with my work featured. I didn't know what to expect here, but am over the moon with the look and feel of the article. Also, a week earlier I picked up duQ137 at the local newsagents, when I noticed that another WA artist was featured, only to find images of three of my quilts in that issue. I also received a box full of calendars featuring quilt images (including two of my quilts. And the colour catalogue for Art Quilt Australia (including my quilt 'What does YOUR family look like?') also arrived by post last week.

We (Phil and I) often stand in awe of how God has blessed my work to date. I never dreamt five years ago that my quiltmaking journey would have been so exciting to date. I am so thankful that I have a supportive husband, as well as the resources (time, opportunities) to have developed this interest. While the opportunities continue, I certainly hope to make the most of them, and look forward to seeing where the journey goes from here, especially which quilts are going to appear over the next years!