Winter has come back

A close-up of the quilting on my scrap Road to St Louis quilt which is entered in Quilting Gallery's weekly contest - not prize-winning by any stretch of the imagination, but not bad for a mug like me. All done on My Lovely New Bernina. I traced the pattern onto lunch wrap paper (not waxed paper) and quilted through it, then one good movie on TV......a rare occurrence, I must say.......was enough to provide entertainment while I tore away the paper.

Deb has a giveaway but you can't enter, because I want to win the lovely fabric and book she is so generously giving to one lucky person! While you are there you must admire her gorgeous chocolate brown quilt, do you think if I asked very nicely do you think she would give it to me?

Winter has returned here today with a vengeance, we are having very cold winds and rain. Instead of the usual 23 deg C (that's 79 deg F) it was only 4 deg C (39 deg F) at 11.30 this morning. That is very cold, so we have our woodburning stove keeping us (and the kitties, it's all for them you know) from feeling too chilly. This weekend some local gardens are open to the public, we had hoped to go to one in particular but it's so cold and windy and nasty that we have stayed in. We'll see what tomorrow brings. I feel sorry for the gardens' owners as they have worked hard to make their gardens beautiful, then the weather comes along and mucks things up.

Have started on quilting my challenge quilt and will do a little more later when my pedal foot recovers from standing in the kitchen while making chocolate hedgehog slice. For the non-Aussies, that's broken plain sweet biscuits (cookies) mixed with melted butter, sugar, dessicated coconut, cocoa powder and beaten egg, pressed into a large pan then iced with chocolate icing. No, I don't intend to eat it all myself - although I may have to try a piece to make sure it's OK before serving it to guests on Tuesday. Don't know what I have done to my foot but by gosh it is sore. But it was worse before the chiropractor worked her magic the other day, so that's something isn't it.

"Cleaning silver.

For cleaning silver, either articles of personal wear or those pertaining to the toilet-table or dressing-case, there is nothing better than a spoonful of common whiting, carefully pounded so as to be without lumps, reduced to a paste with gin."

Or you could put up with your silver being tarnished, and drink the gin yourself. A much better use for it, I would have thought.

Enjoy your days!