home at last.

First of all, my kid is famous. Check it out. Someone has been practising her walking in the most unlikely places...Cottage Quiltworks, one of our favorite local quilt shops! Don't worry, she's not walking yet...but she has been given free rein (reign like a queen? or rein like a horse! what on earth DOES that saying mean) of the house, so she's been walking around the furniture, finding the flat part of her feet for weeks now. Sometimes she stops, with one hand on the bookcase or bed or whatever, and stretches out her other hand as if she's going to take that all-important first step...and then she drops to her knees and crawls superfast instead. We have lots of booboos and Mama kisses it all better approximately 8,567 times a day. Oh except she hates to be cuddled when she hurts herself because it makes her mad. But you'd better not leave her alone or she'll howl. Definitely my kid - she's all contradictions! :)

We have been thoroughly enjoying being moved in and mostly done. Sitting at the table for breakfast. Enjoying the golden sunshine pouring through our still-dusty windows, peering out at the yard below, eyeballing the washing on the line - is it dry yet? Or a few more minutes? Let's just have another cup of tea.

The books are unpacked and arranged by color. I need more shelves, but for now, these are beautiful and I love them.

Sometimes, heading into the kitchen, I just stop and admire the view. It's so blue. And so beautiful. My sunny, warm little kitchen is where everyone congregates in the house. Whether it is Nanna and Granddad visiting for Mothers Day Brunch, or Piper's godmother coming to see her, or friends of mine, the kitchen is the place to be. It is little but so precious.

Piper has been enjoying naps in her own room! And there is room for everything. It is amazing.

And we as a family have been enjoying our new bed in our new bedroom...complete with a finished quilt for our bed! Sophie Makes Tracks was completed shortly after we moved in and promptly turned into a bed quilt. I batted it with wool so it would be extra warm for chilly mornings! So far so good!

Sometimes it still feels unreal. After all this time, we're here. We're in. It's ours and it is really bloody fabulous.

We have had houseguests, too! My good friend Lucie came to visit. She is Piper's godmother and was there when Piper was born. Piper remembers her of course and spider-crawled over to her, even though she was grumpy and needed a nap, and she was SO happy to see her Aunt Lucie we simply couldn't stop the smiling!

Oh yeah, she has teeth now. There are six in that photo but this weekend another one popped up (what) and its little friend is struggling to make its way out too. Eight teeth by ten months! Might as well give me a heart attack right here and now kid. I can see you're going to be a handful. :)

Aunty Lucie was not Piper's only visitor. Mr Poppleton's cousin Kilian is studying in Sydney and dropped by to meet Piper and have dinner with us. I'm afraid he ended up with oodles of noodles - I gave him my leftovers because I am convinced that college boys are all starving husks with poor nutrition!

These two had a good time...once Miss Grouchy got over her shyness! She's at the age where big strange men are scary and she stuck her lip out, but eventually got over herself and gave up some of those beautiful smiles.

I wanted to also talk about my favorite room in the house: my sewing room. (Well, we call it the study, but really, my husband is just borrowing a few walls of my sewing room!) I have it mostly organised and have spent the last few weeks unpacking, tweaking things, and finally have it more or less the way I like it.

I put my computer behind my sewing desk so I can easily swivel if I need to, and there is a narrow gap between my desk and my fabric shelf - handy for getting those fabrics out, and it's where my lamp goes! I love the light, the shelves, and a room that I can shut the door on the mess when company comes over. Too bad I always end up showing off this room anyway...no chance to hide the mess when I'm always crowing like a rooster about finally having a sewing room! :)

I've been working, too. These are Os for a scrappy quilt I started cutting out at scquilters a few months ago. The pattern is very simple and suited for 2.5" wide scraps. The book is Scrap Basket Sensations and is the same book my mother's Flower Basket quilt comes from!

I've had a few magical Fabric Fairy visits this week, too. I love the postman here. Because we don't live down a terrifyingly steep driveway (like in our unit), and our house has a level walkway to the front door with a protective little nook, if I'm not home, they just leave the parcel on the front steps. Which means I don't have to strap the baby into her seat and drive up to the post office! I LOVE having a house. Brilliant.

Some Alegria from Cloud 9 fabrics. It's a step outside of my usual but very interesting fabrics and colors.

I completed my Heirloom fat quarter sets. I just couldn't resist.

And, it was time to branch out and pick up a FreeSpirit Designer Solids color card. My Kona color card is on loan to a friend and though I am eager to get it back to compare the colors, I am already a fan of these! I will order some and try them in a quilt soon. For now, the card is enough.

And, finally, my little "in tray". This is where my current big projects go. I spent a few weeks fretting over these Mendocino mermaids but when I finally settled on the "how" of the quilt and began cutting, it didn't seem so bad! This fabric is super hard to find but I know that JaneyMacShop on Etsy has a lot in stock. She sells it in fat eighths (her shop is where all of mine are from) and in bundles too.

I am using a lot of solids and letting the Mendocino shine. All Kona, in Charcoal, Bright Pink, Cerise, Pomegranite, Robin Egg, and Ice Peach. I think the yellow is Mango? Maybe School Bus? I need my card! Haha. I've been sewing and starching and pressing like a madwoman.

So, because it is Sunday and I like to make plans, here is what I'm doing next week.

Tomorrow I have to paint a bathroom, book the car in for servicing, and go to the hardware store to source two more sheets of roughly door sized MDF in the same thickness as my existing piece because that will be - TADA - my DESIGN WALL! I'm planning to make it in three pieces so I can move it to the "nook" when company comes over, but still put it against the blank wall of the dining room. There it should have enough space around it I can mull over and change my quilts as I make them. No more shouting at everyone to BE CAREFUL THAT'S MY QUILT and IF YOU RUIN THAT LAYOUT YOU BETTER FORGET ABOUT EVER RELAXING AGAIN. Ahem. Not that I would ever say that. Ahem ahem.

But ahh, it's late, and I should haul my exhausted self to bed. It has been a big weekend - Piper got a "big girl" car seat (sob! growing up so fast!), I made sixty quilt blocks in three hours (ahhh) and the grown-up faction of this household is rapidly approaching Cold City - we both have sore throats and sniffles! So it is time to cuddle up together under the new blanket, in the new bed, in the new house, and sleep.

It's a new life and I am feeling GOOD.

Comments

[Kris]

'Free rein' is from 'to give a horse free rein', ie, whilst riding, to let the horse decide which direction and how fast you go. The opposite is to 'rein [it] in', ie, take back control.

I will read the rest tomorrow when I am actually awake <3