HOT days and domesticity memories!!

Summer has finally arrived with temperatures all week in the very high 30's! Alister and BB bunny are both finding it challenging. Until it gets really hot they stay in their outside cage with drapped blankets and their solar powered fan working overtime. As Alister is an albino mini lop bunny I make sure he is well protected from the sun. About 1pm they go straight onto the concrete floor of the open shed with ice bricks and fans blowing. I check them every 45minutes until it cools down!

I am following along with Jenny of Elefant's "The Gentle Art of Domesticity" book study and it is so inspiring. Jenny is also giving lovely free patterns to augment our journey. To actually be given "permission" to enjoy being at home, free to create, to make this space our own and to be happy and fufilled in doing so is nothing short of liberating! In a society where homemaking is viewed as "a life half lived", this book tears down that fallicy.

I  remember as a child growing up in Brisbane that my mother was always busy at home. Sewing, patchwork, embroidery and knitting were always in progress. Mum was a great jam and chutney maker and I remember her melting paraffin wax to prevent the jam from going moldy before she sealed the jars. Moday's were baking days and to come home from school and see and smell those glorious loaves - it was like nothing else! Mum wasn't much of a gardner but she did have a narrow garden bed to the left of our driveway which she filled with petunias every year - the brighter the better!!! Mum was never one for being overly domestic. If the choice was cleaning or doing something else well something else always won out!! (Having now read further into Jane's book I now realise that my mother was practicing the art of domesticity over being domestic. Now I understand why we had home made bread and home made jam and lots and lots of dust bunnies!!!!)My next door neighbour had a huge veggie patch and always kept half a dozen bantam hens. I loved hearing the chooks cackling and seeing them roam around. She worked full time so didn't have much of an opportunity to pursue anything else. She was always very generous and I remember her making me and her daughter copious pots of tea and innumerable rounds of toast dripping in butter - bliss! Good memories of domesticity!

Well time to have a cuppa and continue quilting my table topper. Then off to town with my daughter for coffee and shopping.

EPP and other BOM's

Off to a great start for 2019! Work continues on Month Three of my Sue Daley EPP BOM and I'm enjoying it!!! I am going to join in with Quilt Doodle's 2019 BOM. It's going to be so much fun - a mystery 1930's style quilt combining applique and piecing. Block 1 is already out and it is super sweet. I have a wonderful collection of 1930's fabrics so am looking forward to working with them. Allie from Allie Oops Designs is also releasing a BOM and it is going to be very elegant and thought provoking. For this quilt I am thinking that Tilda fabrics would look lovely. There is also Jenny of Elefant's upcoming BOM based on memories of her much loved grandma which is going to be beautiful. Well time to get underway as I have clothes to wash, dinner plans to make (or it will be sausages and eggs again!) and a kitchen to clean. Then into the sewing room to quilt the table runner I pinned out yesterday on the tv room floor!!! Happy days!

New Look

After much trialing of colour themes, fonts and background themes this is the new look for 2019. Now I need to work out how to add other bits and bobs to this blog - definitely a work in progress.

First completed EEP blocks for 2019

I have started working on my Sue Daley 2018 BOM. Have to admit that EEP is not my favourite form of patchwork but I have been enjoying sitting in the air conditioning working on these blocks. There are two more to complete and then on to month 4.