Baker's Dozen

This is what happens when you go away for a few days:

The chooks have laid one dozen eggs, and have started on the next one!

Basting Bee

The Ballaarat Quilters have a stand at the "Old Trades Exhibition" in Ballarat this weekend. I volunteered to bring along a quilt to be basted on their basting frame.

With lots of help and advice the back I made yesterday was pinned to the frame,

then we laid out the batting and the top, and several lovely ladies did rows and rows of basting

and in a very short time it was all done!

Now that I know how to use the frame, I will borrow it at some stage to get my large quilt basted.

After the show we went to look at house progress. My sewing room now has a ceiling!

Backing Take Two

Basting the large quilt tomorrow has been cancelled. Oh well, at least I now have its back made, so it is one step closer to completion.

Instead of the large quilt, I've been asked to bring along a smaller one. Everyone involved needs practice before tackling a large one. So I decided to take this one:

So this afternoon I had to quickly piece a backing for it, which was complicated by the fact that the quilt top is 100kms away and I didn't remember exactly how big it is. Fortunately I found this picture, so if I have remembered correctly how big I made the individual blocks (I think the stars are 20cms), the quilt is 115cms square.

I pulled out a collection of odd-sized pieces a friend gave me a while back, and seamed them together until I had a square which should be big enough:

Now I just have to hope that when I collect the top tomorrow, I'll find a big enough piece of wadding to go with it.

Backing

This morning I was told that I could be able to get some help basting this huge quilt on Saturday:

(picture taken before it got its borders. It's even bigger now.) That meant I had to quickly sew together a backing for it:

It would be fantastic to get this basted so I could start quilting it. I'd like to put it on the bed when we move into the new house!

And here's how our first three bonfires looked by the end of the day:

 Three down, six to go.

Two More Alight

Fire number one was mostly ash, but still smouldering this morning:

So fires two and three were lit:

Another smoky day at the building site!

It was also very cold and rainy. I spent time sitting in the relative warmth of the car, playing with tiling designs for the shower:

Fire Number One

Because everything is so wet it took a bit of effort to get it going, but here's the first (of nine) bonfires:

Not so nice for the tradies, who had rather smoky working conditions for the rest of the day:

Plasterboard delivery:

Plasterer installing channels to hold the plaster board on the ceiling of my sewing room (and the R6 insulation above it):

Carpenter and his work experience student starting on the cladding across the back of the house:

It's all happening!

By the end of the day, fire number one had burnt down to about half its original size:

and as it began to rain, we left the fire to smoulder over night.

At the House

It's nearly two weeks since I visited our house. Here's what's been happening in the interim:

The heater is in place, although not fully installed yet.

 Looking forward to being able to light it!

The weather boards we painted have been installed near the front door,

 and around the bay window:

 They now need to have the fixing holes patched, and then another coat of paint (or two).

And wall insulation is going in:

That's my sewing room, feeling all snug like a padded cell!