So glad to be home

Amused, originally uploaded by austysmum.

Just look at this boy! How could I not be glad to be home to be snuggled and kissed and squeezled to bits all weekend by this adorable son of mine? Sorry, totally self indulgent non-craft related post, but I just HAD to share this photo of my darling little boy. For those of you who don't mind seeing doting mummy photos, you can check out a few more at Austy's blog where I let myself dribble on about him for all the rellies.

February? Where did you go?!

I just realised that I haven't blogged for a whole month. I did try once or twice but the posts just stayed drafts as I kept running out of time. Then, when I finally had a chance to finish one of those drafts, our net connection went awol for about a week! Just before I flew out to Detroit to finish off the month overseas on a work trip.

I guess I didn't really have much to blog for the month anyhow. I just did lots of little bits and didn't finish anything because I kept getting to a certain point in each project and realising I didn't have everything I needed to finish with so much of our stuff packed up and in storage. I did do a little bit of knitting until the heat really put me off and took three knitting projects with me to the US, thinking that since I was child free and staying in an apartment by myself for 7 nights I'd have time to knit and finish at least one of them off. How WRONG was I?!!

The workshop I was there for finished at 5pm each night but we often all stayed back late to talk more work with other GM reps from around the globe, so we never really left until 6pm. I got lifts with the German guys most of the time as I was terrified driving on the wrong side of the road in icy conditions. This meant that I had to go wherever they went, which wasn't so bad as they were lots of fun and we went shopping a couple of times and were great dinner companions. I would have been having a boring dinner in the apartment on my own if I wasn't out with them. We also went out to a sports bar one night with the local guys which was a very American experience - big screens on every wall and a very blokey menu of burgers, fries and steaks.

I didn't get back to my apartment any earlier than 9:30 -10ish, and then hooked up with DH and Austy on a free skype call for about an hour and then, absolutely exhausted, fell into bed. Can you believe I didn't knit even a stitch!!!?

Now I'm back (to a record heatwave after all that snow in Michigan!) and have loads of study to catch up on (thank goodness next week is Spring Break at Purdue so I can watch my lectures without having to download any new ones!), and we're finally moving house on Friday. So as you could imagine it's still a super busy household and I'm dying to have some one on one time with my crafts!

This little quilt was made for a newborn, but will now be lucky to reach him for his 3 month milestone. I finished it in January but it's still waiting for a label as our printer has been packed somewhere since Christmas. Thankfully, Emma has come to the rescue and printed a label for me which I should get on Tuesday, and the quilt can finally go out before we move.

And here are some progress shots on my Round Robin centre block. I was going to do a whole underwater scene but decided to keep it simple as I had already stretched out the deadline and I figured it might get too busy with the coral, seaweed and starfish on there as well. The shells were pieced VERY randomly, and there are some weird shapes in there but I like how I have used some of my favourite (and tiniest) scraps from past quilt projects. There are memories in each piece.

And finally some fabric goodness - I bought this stuff in a quitshop in Michigan called Guildcrafters, a HUGE shop that overwhelmed me at first, but to be honest I wish I had more time and a bigger suitcase. I could have brought home half the shop VERY easily. They had such beautiful fabrics and of course fabrics are half the price in the US as opposed to the $22-28 a metre we are expected to fork out here so it was very tempting. I fell in love with those rocketships straight away, perhaps because Austy didn't leave my mind for a moment (he scored so many things from Baby Gap, some little Nikes, a leap frog computer that was less than half the Aussie price and some other cool toys we don't have here).

Then I found the swirly bright fat 8ths packs that matched perfectly so I'm all set for another quilt. The batiks were for my Round Robin (just divine and matched my theme perfectly) and the other fat 8ths pack was just because it was irresistable with those gorgeous colours. Sadly the girraffe pattern I wanted to buy was all sold out.

When I arrived home a neat little package of fabric and charm squares from the Fat Quarter Shop. How beautiful are those Daydreams squares!? I was very impressed when I opened the parcel - perfect for who I am making the daydreams quilt for.

I look forward to settling in to the new house and getting crafty again. Unfortunately this Masters is going to keep me busy for a few months yet but I hope to fit in some craft time to unwind sometimes.