Same old same old!

Once again another 3 weeks has passed us by and there has been no news from the Hill household! But with messages of "where are you?" and "are you okay" I thought perhaps I had better sign in! I almost forgot how to do a post with the new platform that blogger created but here we are. I am afraid the news is really the "same old, same old" so turn off now if you are looking for something titivating, especially if you are seeking some new creativity or knowledge about anything Morris related! I actually wrote 'titillating' first but changed it to 'titivating' as the definition that came up for the former was described as "arousing someone's imagination, especially in a sexual way"....oops!!  So with my absence life has clearly been busy with all sorts of the usual 'stuff' including walks along the river from time to time. We had good rainfall a couple of weeks ago so it is nice to see the wetlands full again filled with birdlife that miraculously return each season........

Life is still unpredictable with the fear of a second wave of Covid19 and some of our neighbours in Victoria are on a second lockdown with a recent surge in cases. But for us life is as normal as can be so looking after Wade continues. He was pretty happy to have another haircut as he now knows the reward from the barber is a lollypop........

With the current school holidays Wade spent some time with Beau and Maisie so that is always lovely as they share the task! Miss Maisie turned six yesterday and was clearly excited with her newest obsession of  Kindi Kids.....

Maisie and Beau also joined us last weekend for a sleepover and a visit from Auntie Sophie and little Wade resulted in a new hairdo for Maisie.....glad I could hand that task over to Sophie!........

Our carport is now stacked with the completed patterns for the "Bee Mindful" quilt so Larry and I have been putting in a few hours a day packaging them all. I was asked to print 650 patterns and when you break that down with the month by month sets it means packing 9,100 separate sleeves! There has been a hold up with the fabric production so that has given us some added time........

The ever generous Tim from Lloyd Curzon Textiles spoilt me some weeks back with two brand new wool pressing mats produced by Maywood Studios and they have really im'pressed' me! Who would think that a thick wool base would set the seams better than my ironing board with the added bonus of being able to set it up beside the machine. I also noticed the fabrics don't slip like they do on my ironing board and you can poke pins in it too. In fact someone sent me a message to say she uses a small one on her lap when doing any handwork...handy for poking needles in too. So these mats have my big tick of approval.........thankyou Tim.........

We helped some friends move house a couple of weeks ago on a miserable cold and wet day. It was quite a chore especially for the lady of the house Kay who had broken her ankle only two weeks earlier so she was quite incapacitated. Only two removal chaps turned up instead of four and there was difficulty with property access that involving chopping down trees, so what should have been a smooth 7-8 hour day turned into a chaotic 12 hour day finishing in the dark. We were very touched to receive some thankyou flowers for our help that day and the blooms have been lovely.....thankyou Simon and Kay xx.....

and some more thankyou flowers I received from the friend who I've been helping with the Mary MacKillop  dolls.......

Last week we had some very unusual fog that is quiet rare where we live. I wonder what the wildlife thought about it all.......

It was quite eerie not being able to see the end of the street......

Large expressway signs were obscured.....

But then the sun came out on the other side of the river where we saw this gorgeous wattle blooming.......

Last year I was asked if I could deliver a William Morris lecture to a very exclusive club in Adelaide. Well it has proved so popular I have to deliver three lectures over the next couple of weeks! A friend said she looked forward to reading all about it on the blog but I thought perhaps it wasn't appropriate. But I enjoyed it all despite being very nervous and a little overwhelmed! My first lecture is done and as a thankyou I received the most delicious biscuits - both sweet and savoury so I might share more of that story another time........

My charity quilt production line has slowed down now but Faye did send me a photo of another bright one I had completed.....

But I have been at the drawing board designing two brand new projects (one is a very large quilt!), that I will share later. I have also been busy pressing and cutting up bags of donated fabric that have come from quilter's unwanted stashes! This time I have specific cutting instructions from our intrepid leader Lessa and all the yellows have to be cut into two and a half inch squares so I am intrigued by that! The fabrics eventually become quilt kits that quilters can purchase with all funds being donated to charity.....

During recent weeks I received some lovely photos....these below from Gwen of her row by row William and May Morris quilt. It looks gorgeous and I love the crosshatching in the quilting. Thankyou so much Gwen - you must be thrilled.......

And Valerie sent me this image a while back of her version of Morris. Very clever as Valerie has used different blocks from several different quilts in my William Morris Appliqué books  She wasn't able to get a really good image but from what I can see it must be stunning in real life. Thankyou Valerie and I am glad you enjoyed making it.......

So my final "same old same old" is in relation to the "Bee Mindful" quilt raffle. I have been a little disheartened and it has all become way too hard to organise a raffle where tickets can be sold across Australia and further. Each state in our own country has different rules as apparently a raffle is deemed gambling! The red tape and paperwork that has to be completed is all beyond me so if anyone has any ideas I would be most grateful! We want funds to go the the Bee Keepers of Kangaroo Island to assist with the devastating loss from the bushfires early this year. I thought about setting up a go fund me page where I could gather names from every donation and then create a winner by putting names in a hat. But I think it might be illegal for me to do it that way. So maybe a silent auction might work?.....please share your ideas with me! Till next time - take care and stay safe x