The Third Week of March

Yesterday was the March Equinox, so in my opinion, autumn has now commenced, and the weather has confirmed that.  Our temperatures have dropped to the low to mid 20s C with minimums now dipping below 10 C. I have noticed that some trees are starting to get a tinge of yellow, orange and red.  We are now entering what I consider to be one of the nicest times of the year.  

It has been another busy week, starting on Friday.  I missed Stitch and Chat, due to helping set up the church fete.  However, I still caught up with some of the stitching ladies for lunch.  You see, quite a few of them adjourn for lunch after our morning stitching and are currently working their way down one of the streets in town, trying each of the eating establishments.  On Friday they were going to the flashest restaurant in the street.  There were just five of us, but we enjoyed a delicious lunch special of grilled barramundi and salad, together with a nice glass of wine, and all for about the same price that we would have paid at a pub.  A rather nice treat.

On Saturday, Mick and I both helped out at the church fete, which was very successful. (I’ve borrowed this photo from one of the other ladies.)  I was working on the white elephant stall there in the middle of the hall.

Saturday also saw Chookyblue host another of her Zoom days.  I was able to join in briefly in the early morning and then again once I returned home from the fete.  I felt rather happy at the end of the day, as I had completed my final spiked granny square, making that 30 squares completed.

I also stitched down the final half dresden plates on the border of the Blue Quilt.  It always feels good to finish a section of a project. That is the final border prepared.  Now to get it attached, but that is a job for another month.

I went on a bit of a nostalgia trip at the fete when I saw an old, somewhat ratty, version of the board game Battleship for sale for $2.  I used to enjoy playing this in the library at school in my late primary school years.  Mick has never played it, and I’ve never played it since then.  Despite the box being ratty, the game itself was in great nick and all there.  We had fun playing it on Saturday night.  Hopefully, we will play it again, but if not, we had more than $2 worth of fun on that night.

It started to rain late on Saturday, and by Sunday morning we had received 16mm, which was very welcome.  It meant that Sunday was a very grey day and quite cool.

On Sunday we stewed our motley crew of tomatoes, such that they were.  They were big, small, red and yellow.  Once stewed, they were blended and some were used to make soup that night with the remainder frozen for later use. It was the first pot of soup for the year and rather suitable, considering the weather.

I have finished quilting my quilt and added the binding by machine.  No photo yet, but it is the Twister Quilt I stitched at Scrub Stitchin’ two years ago. It isn’t finished, as I have only made a small start on hand stitching the binding down.  I’m kicking myself that I didn’t do it all by machine, as this is a rather large quilt, coming in at 77” x 86”.  I’m taking it to Stitching tomorrow to make some progress.  I’d like to have it completed by the end of the month, but won’t stress too much if it doesn’t happen.

I once again used the Plumeria pantograph, with a light pink thread, which suited it well.

Now that St Patrick’s Day has passed, it was time to put away the leprechauns and bring  out some Easter decorations.  This didn’t happen last year, as there was far too much else going on.  Firstly, the little shelf in the kitchen.

Next, the mantle piece with the vintage rabbit moulds.  Everything here has been collected at various op shops, white elephant stalls and the like.

Last year on the way to Scrub Stitchin’ I found this sweet little couple at the op shop at Coonabarabran.

I seem to have accumulated a nice little collection of  vintage egg cups, so they come out at this time of year.  I was running out of display places, so they are in the sewing room.  I made the calico rabbit wearing a straw hat at the back about 30 years ago and have just found it languishing in a box.  It’s nice to have it out again.

On the table we have far too many small eggs, but the bowls needed filling, didn’t they.  The eggs will be nice to nibble on over the next few weeks.

Now that all the granny squares are made, it is time to add a final round of cream before joining them together.  The cream tones down the bright colours nicely.  It doesn’t take long to do the round.  I’ll thread in the ends once they are all crocheted.  I have three balls of cream yarn that were in Mum’s and my stash.  However, they are all slightly different thicknesses.  I’m working with the middle one at the moment, but I’m sure there will not be enough for all the blocks, so will just go with what I can.  Hopefully, it will still work out.

Remember I was starting the Octagon and Square mystery project.  Well, it turned out to be a pincushion in a fabric tray.  Very sweet.  However, I don’t really have room for that in my sewing room.  As you know, it is already over filled.  So, I decided to just make the pincushion.  I made it yesterday and think it is rather cute.

The fabric was ideal for fussy cutting for this little project.

As well as being out and about and stitching I have read a couple of books.  That’s three for the month, rather unlike me.  

The first was “Blood on Snow” by  Jo Nesbo.  Mick enjoys reading this Scandinavian author, but I have never read any of them.  This was a very quick read and not too bad.  I read it in an afternoon.  Not one I’d rave over though.  Mick is currently reading it and says it is different to his other books.  

After recently reading “Scrublands” by Chris Hammer I was on the lookout for the sequel “Silver”.  The lady at one of the local op shops said she’d keep a lookout for it and I was pleasantly surprised to receive a phone call from her on Tuesday morning to advise she had a copy for me.  As I’ve said before, I’m a binge reader, so I had it read by Thursday morning.  I really enjoyed it, so I’m now on the lookout for “Trust”, the third book featuring the main characters.

Today, it was lovely to catch up for lunch with fellow Chookshed Stitcher, Jennifer of Bronze Wombat, as she and her hubby passed through town.  We had a very enjoyable time chatting about this, that and the other and the fellows found that they had quite a bit in common to chat about as well.  Hopefully, we will see them again in the future.

So that finishes another week.  As we only have a bit over a week left in the month I think it is about time that I started working on my One Monthly Goal of finishing my Moda Love Quilt.

Yes, I managed to stitch for at least 15 minutes each day.