Introducing...

... Sprinkles and Slush.

Emily thought it most important that you got to know the latest members of our family. So she organised a photo shoot that she would like to share with you. She was also instrumental in making the mosaic so that you got a good feel the girls' new friends.

Sprinkles (Helen's) and Slush (Emily's) gerbils are now firmly ensconced in our home. I have nothing to do with them, other than cage transport when it involves stairs. The girls are responsible. I don't even feed them, the girls do in the morning. As they have only been here for two days I of course remain confident that there will be no change in this routine! Other than the water bottle leaking continuously the first night and trying to turn these nocturnal creatures into aquatic ones instead, there have been no problems. I have warned though, at no times do I ever, ever want to hear, 'But I don't know where there went!!!'

Humour me here, as I am trying very hard to be a tolerant mother and to keep my low level rantings about rodents to a mutter out of the girls' hearing. Tolerance I can do. Happy, happy aren't they sweet little things I most certainly cannot do.

And on to things that do make me happy. Fabric!! Oh, I just felt my mood lift with the very act of typing the word. I practised restraint on Saturday at the Festival of Quilts due to fund availability. The urge to just slap my card down repeatedly and buy every last thing that I wanted was incredibly hard to resist, but resist I did. here is what I got -

From the Eternal Maker we have -

I was quite surprised that faced with an assortment of wonderful coloured fabrics from the Pez line it was the grey that I was drawn to. The elephants are destined for a charm swap but I won't say which one (she says, humming innocently) because we are not supposed to have bought our fabric yet. The measuring tape fabric is just irresistible. I shall hoard it to use judiciously in pouches and the like.

From Backstitch we have -

Stash building colour. I need more good reds and purples. I have tons of blues and greens. Um, no self control here.

From Doughty's we have -

More stash builders. Doughty's are good for this as four out of five of these FQs only cost £1.75 each. I needed more oranges and the purple. Oh and the darker blue as most of mine are aqua. We are going to ignore the fact that I bought that one on the far end. (But it is a pretty shade and it didn't cost much.)

And from Pin It and Stitch I bought -

I would have loved to have bought so much more of Aneela's Cherry Christmas line but just having a FQ makes me rather happy. The other FQs are all stash builders, and in particular I am in love with the grey flowers. The ladies who run Pin It and Stitch - Natalie and Tracey - were brilliant, really friendly and lovely to talk to. They have the same taste in fabric as me so, quite frankly, I could have happily bought up their entire stock given half a chance. They also live on the Coventry side of Birmingham and are looking at organising some get togethers of like minded quilters. If you are anywhere within the area and would like to be on their contact list let them or me know. I rather like the idea of going on over and having a browse through their stock over cake, a cuppa and chat.

If that little haul is not enough, the fabulous Laura Jane gave me a bag of scraps and some Aurifil thread when I saw her. She gave me loads of Madrona Road scraps and, as I was already lusting after half the fabrics in the line, having these bits in person just makes me that more close to total addiction. They are amazing! Emily rather liked them herself. Thank you, Laura!!

Finally, I used my amazing tote bag from Nicky to haul my newly acquired stash items around for the day. I was so happy Nicky was with me because she got to hear every compliment I received for it that day and see what a covetable item it is. People drooled over it - literally.

Susan