WOW through the window

A few years ago my online quilt group ran an "Angel Exchange" - a bit like a six month long Secret Santa. My angel made me a wombat block each month as part of my surprise, I set them into Attic Windows and bordered them with a dandelion print. She even made a label! However it has stayed a top for two reasons, one is I am not a confident machine quilter and the other is that I have never been sure that the light border print is right for this quilt. I might take it off and get something in a darker colour, perhaps even something Australian. The backing fabric is a green grass print, as wombats like to eat grass, and when it's quilted it will be bound with the same deep dark brown as the sashing. Perhaps it could have been ironed before I took its picture but that didn't get done, as you can see.

A few days ago I received my Pay It Forward gift from Debbie at Makin' Quilts - Debbie made me a lovely little quilted basket in warm plaids, and popped a pincushion kit inside. Thank you very much, Debbie! I took a photo which looked really good on the little screen of my camera but when I uploaded it to the computer was really bad, so I deleted it and will take another tomorrow so you can all see. When I started looking at quilting blogs Debbie's blog was one of the first I found, I wrote to her and she was very encouraging so I started this one. That was another gift from her, and I really appreciate it.

We had a very nice day yesterday, it was Kevin's birthday. I know it's also Valentine's Day but that has become a very commercial thing, while a birthday is a special day! We met with our older son and his lovely girlfriend for late breakfast, we think they had plans for a romantic dinner in the evening. We do well for birthdays, his is always Valentine's Day while mine hovers around Mother's Day depending on how the days go with leap years. Every five or six years it actually falls on Mother's Day - and this year is one of the years.

Today I took my sore shoulder for an x-ray and an ultrasound to see if the cause of the soreness could be found, and sure enough I have a torn tendon in my shoulder. That, plus an inflamed bursa in the same area, is what is causing the pain and restricted movement. The technician couldn't say for sure if it was damaged when I fell and broke my arm (four months ago today - how time flies) as I landed with my arm underneath me and probably wrenched my shoulder, but it's possible that may have been the cause. The orthopedic specialist wants to see me again next week after I have had four sessions of physiotheraphy so we will see what he says.

The other day I bought a ukulele! While I can play some chords on my guitar there are some which are still so difficult and painful as to be nearly impossible, so I thought that a smaller version would help my fingers get back to making chord shapes. I learnt three chords on it in a minute or two, and played it to accompany myself in a song at the folk club's first night for this year on Friday night - a few hours after it was bought. Some of the people who go along to the club also play ukes so I'm sure I won't lack for advice, and there are lots of fun uke videos on the interwebz.

"Intrusive Inquiries.
If you meet or join or are visited by a person who has any article whatever, under his arm or in his hand, and he does not offer to show it to you, you should not, even if it be your most intimate friend, take it from him and look at it. That intrusive curiosity is very inconsistent with the delicacy of a well-bred man, and always offends in some degree."

Just remember that, next time you meet a friend who has been shopping.

Jennifer