Wacky weather!

Funny how weather is the constant source of conversation in our lives. My late mother was obsessed with it and all her life she recorded the max and min temps every day in her diary (and it also included the rainfall and barometric pressure stats!) In fact the first thing Larry ever heard when he arrived to pick me up on our first date was a booming voice down the driveway as my late Dad called out to Mum….."weather"! The whole house had to stop in its tracks when the weather came on the TV each night at 7.25pm!  So I will continue this obsession and simply say the weather is extremely wacky at the moment! On Monday we drove the long 10 hours home from Melbourne (with a couple of stops), where the temperature peaked at 39C (102F) and in a couple of days it was back down to 18C (64F)…and it is only Spring! But with Spring comes my first roses………..

 The little ones are growing fast and are always a joy despite the post childcare fatigue! Beau has learnt quickly that the safest place to play trains is out of reach of young Maisie……..

 Meanwhile I am stitching away at the Beatrix Potter projects. The large quilt is coming along well but in between I am tackling some smaller projects too. Below left was a drawing that Beatrix did of some plaster work (see V&A link) when she was only 15 and to the right is my interpretation which of course has inevitably become a bit 'Morris' like……...

Some progress of a project based on her home at Hilltop which will be covered in some wisteria embroidery…...

 And the felted wool ball waiting to be stuffed when I find a bell to put in it…….

 Yesterday we had a lovely family lunch and then headed to the Art Gallery where we met a lady from Queensland who had been longing to meet me! We had a wonderful couple of hours together where I shared a little of our Morris collection and then I was delighted to spend time in the rest of the gallery as well. I had no idea that the  gallery owned so much old Australian furniture and it was wonderful to see it displayed with the paintings this way. I did not take my camera but was glad the phone could record these few……

Thanks so much for emailing me Wendy and making our time together possible. This weekend I am driving a few hours south to Bordertown where I will be opening the Gumtree Quilters' exhibition. I hear there are over 150 quilts on display so if you are in the area do drop by and support them - I'll be there for the entire show stitching…and possibly a bit of nattering too??!!  But good old Larry will be stuck at home collecting quilts for our annual exhibition in a few weeks! So once again I say thankyou for dropping by and sharing in our lives x