Self-isolation Day 5: Hexies galore

I have been sleeping pretty normally since my return home. Last night was the first I did not take a melatonin tablet before bed. I fell asleep around midnight, was awake for about half and hour around 4 am then slept until around 8am. At 8.15 I had a call to say my Adelaide family was 5 minutes away and would buzz to come up and collect the package I had left outside my apartment door.

The package contained the little gifts I had bought in Stratford. Before they dispersed to work, school and home, we had lots of waves and they opened the gifts as I watched from the balcony.

It was a nice moment.

A bit of a let-down to then hang out the towels I had washed!


This is where I got to last night with the Muncaster Orange. I now have to decide on the colour and style of the bow.

My first priority today ( admittedly after finishing Martha Grimes' The Knowledge!) was keeping in touch. I was delighted to hear from a couple of friends from whom I had not heard. I also managed to deposit the Ort Pot money from Stratford into the Guild account.

I heard from Lori, one of the members of the Guild's World Embroidery Study Group that I convene. Lori has been studying two contemporary embroiderers and was due to talk to us about this at our April meeting.  She has prepared a presentation which she is offering to turn into a pdf file to send to the group at the meeting date. Bless her!  I had intended to send out an email to the group tomorrow anyway, but there is now an added offer! I am also phoning members who don't have easy email access to keep them in the loop.

I have also had a message from my friends on the Costa Victoria. There has been one Covid19 diagnosis on board so they and all passengers are quarantined in their rooms with meals delivered to their door by masked and gowned staff. They are expecting to be quarantined on the ship for 14 days and have no other information.

After keeping in touch, my project today was to cut out 78 hexies to add to my quilt.

I got out my bin of small pieces of left-over cotton fabric and dug out the bits that are suitable.

I ironed  batches of the chosen fabric - a task that I often avoid!
















I wanted to avoid too much repetition so went for the widest range I could. I also went first for pieces that were in strips close to the 2 inch size I needed. This is a really good way to use up such pieces.























Once I had the fabric ironed, I sat down and cut it into roughly 2" squares, placing them in bundles of 6.


I now have 76 bundles, ready to be turned into hexies. I don't think I'll work on this exclusively over the next weeks, but I can work on some each day, then add them to the quilt in batches. I also published an account of the quilt adaptation on my embroidery blog which I have neglected while overseas. Gradually catching up.





















While writing this I have been watching our Prime Minister report on the latest restrictions agreed tonight. I must say, this is the clearest I have heard him. Someone has been giving him good advice about communication.

It was a grey, grey day in Adelaide today. I managed to catch the very last of the sun.

Now to dig into my stash of Appleton's wool to see if I can come up with a colour to try on the bow of the Muncaster Orange.