Home and happy.

The truth is, I really like my husband. He's just the greatest. I mean, he has flaws (as do I) but when it comes to two people who like each other (who really like each other), and who are pretty perfectly suited, well, that's us. So when work takes him Very Far Away for seven days, I get a little blue. That happened on Easter Monday: he got on a plane and went all the way to Austin, TX.

I did not get very much sleep all that week.

Aside from all the (imaginary) robbers trying their best to break into my house (that did not happen), my husband is a professional snorer. I am very used to the sawing of logs starting from about thirty seconds after his head hits the pillow, and I have found that trying to go to sleep without it is more or less futile. He's my white noise machine.

Anyway, Piper was distraught and clingy and I was flat-out mopier than a teenage Rilke fan.

But! It ended! He arrived safely at stupid o'clock in the morning (we were in the car at 545am to pick him up, if that's any indication of his earliness), and even brought his little cowpoke something from Tejas:

And life is back to normal, more or less. We ladies are both grateful to have Daddy back!

This weekend I got some proper time to do Fun and Exciting things - namely, visit Calico & Ivy for a last trip before they close on 4th May. (Please, quilters and fabric people, go forth, the sales are amazing: half off almost all fabric, except Liberty, which is discounted to $45/m.) I am mostly devastated I haven't been stockpiling Liberty for the past year and a half, because now they are going and I won't be able to just drive down and go to Calico & Ivy whenever I want some. So even though today was my "last visit"...well, we'll see. (There are weeks yet.)

This is the Liberty I picked up.

And this is the other fabric I chose. I can't seem to go past those deep blue/greens, and I love that honeycomb orange/white dot. I was also chuffed to grab some of the Sherbert Pips scarf fabric - perfect for a binding or a wee little skirt!

It occurs to me my camera is...well, it's somewhere, so I can't post a professional picture of the finished quilt I made for Aaron & Floss's lovely new baby Matilda, but it was all done in Liberty lawn and Michael Miller Cotton Couture. Piper and I dropped it off last Sunday and I got to hold a teeny little three-week-old. I am so ready to have my own baby. Hurry up, kid! (In 3-7 weeks, that is, once you are cooked.) Baby Matilda is so sweet and so tiny and it always melts me when people have tiny baby girls - having had one myself, I am a sucker for wee lasses, for sure.

I also made a mug rug for my husband's work desk...

And before that, one for his home office.

I was thinking yesterday (looking out over my shamefully neglected garden) about how on my birthday last year I was outside, doing serious gardening, for three hours. I doubt I could do it for three minutes now. It's useful to remember that this pregnancy will end and I will be back to my peppy, energetic self soon enough! This is good, because I'm quite miserable at how LITTLE I can get done in any one sitting.

I miss being productive. I know it seems a little antithetical to say I'd be more productive once the baby comes, but I am hazarding a guess that babywearing is a lot easier than being swollen, pregnant and exhausted. :)

We have been talking about schools for Piper, this one, and the possible third one, and we've settled on what we want to do. Now I just have to decide what grown up occupation I'd like to do that can actually pay school fees. I'm already doing what I want to be doing (writing, and crafting), but it's a decision to pursue monetizing those activities. I need to sell my book. I've had people read it, and honestly critique it, and I believe it's good enough to be sold. Now: to do that. I do have two sequels planned (one sequel's character sorted, and a glimmer of an idea for a third), and the option for an earlier "prequel" set in Scotland, that fully develops the ideas introduced in the current book. In the meantime, we've enrolled Piper in the local Montessori and hoped for the best. The inside baby will be booked in as well. It's something we believe in, can get behind, and appreciate. In fact, when we toured the school, both Mr Poppleton and I were consumed with jealousy over how relaxed, inspiring, and creative the classrooms were. How I wish that had been my education!

I have a pin-basted quilt all ready to go. (The baby quilt for Miss Matilda is the one on the left; the one I have yet to quilt is on the right.)

I have a couple dolly quilts of some orphan blocks to make for Piper's little friends Ava and Ruby (they are dolls). I also have three other quilts to pin-baste and quilt before the end of April. In May, it's time for the Craft Depot sale. If you're in or near Sydney, be sure to stop in. There's heaps there and it's all on sale. I'll be camped out for that roll of batting. No dithering this time - I'm buying two! 

Ooh - I almost forgot. One of my favorite all time novelty fabrics is this sweet little sailor print by Minny Muu for Lecian.

Isn't it cute? It has been impossible to get hold of yardage, until I tried something new - I did a Google Image Search and followed a few of the image links backward. Some were dead Etsy links, some were personal blogs, but one was a link to an Australian fabric shop that had YARDAGE. Suffice to say I was buying a meter before I could blink. That was Apatchy Quilting from somewhere in Brisbane. There was a bit of a kerfuffle getting the order through (of course I ordered when their Internet was down) but she express-posted it to me for no extra cost so I got it straight away once things were up and running. Great customer service and a nice quick turnaround!

I have also discovered The Stitcher's Cupboard, which is Camden based (so near Sydney) and I have gotten all my parcels within two days of placing an order. They are pretty reasonable for Australian fabric prices too, and the sale section is divine.

I have been a lot more judicious in my purchases since I began my big destash on Etsy, but let me tell you, it is worth it to add a bit of the right things back into my recently culled stash. Though considering how much of my stash is low-volume (one whole shelf of yardage and an entire container of FQs or large scraps) I think it's time to start a low-volume quilt. Someone mentioned a spiderweb quilt on Twitter. And a Farmer's Wife quilt. And I am off and running, with a million new projects...where I should be finishing the ones on my list!

(Still haven't made it through the list...am working on it though!)

Anyway hope you all are having a fabulous weekend. Catch you again soon!

xx Penny