Aren't we lucky?

I’ve had a great weekend, socialising with like-minded people. All are people I’ve met through the Southern Cross Quilters list, the original and best of the Down Under quilting lists. That list has given me so much over the years, including some great friendships. We're so fortunate to live in a time when communication is so simple. I can chat to people across Australia and across the world, and share ideas and techniques so easily. But most of all, I can develop relationships with people who are interested in the same things as I am but don't happen to live in my backyard. Even after more than a decade on the net, it still blows me away!

First was the great unveiling of the challenge quilts. I ran out of time to turn mine into a quilt (is anyone surprised?) but I can finally show you the top.
I’m so pleased with how it’s turned out. (It actually isn't green at all, it's black red and cream, but it seems to have been a difficult quilt to photograph today.) We only had 1/8 metre of each fabric and it was very hard to buy more, but happily we could add whatever fabrics we liked to those original fabrics. I really love the way mine has turned out. I’m afraid there’s no publicly accessible link to show you what the other members of this challenge group did with the fabrics, so you'll just have to take my word for it that they were all incredibly different and very striking.

Then we celebrated the Significant Birthday of my friend Sharon with great enthusiasm. The strangest part of the evening was the way her quilting friends, from three different groups, all congregated on the one table. Quilters must just recognise one another as kindred spirits. (When do we get to the funny handshake?)

So I’ve been partying rather than stitching this weekend. It’s also been a time of rationalisation. I’ve finally recognised that a) things take twice as long as I anticipate and b) I can’t do everything I’d like to do. Simple, isn’t it? You’d wonder why it took so long for me to realise. So, in the second half of the year, I am cutting back on my expectations, and trying to focus on specific things I’d like to get finished. So I probably won’t be making as many postcards and small pieces, though I have remembered to incorporate some playtime into my schedule, something I’ve been conspicuously without for some months. We’ll see how that goes!