Occasionally something gets finished..........

.......even if it's not very big. When we visited Toronto, Canada, in October 2009 Rose Marie and I attended the Creativ Festival and a few things caught my eye - this was one. I'm ashamed to say I can't remember which store I bought it from! The pattern is by Quilter's Line, Markdale, Ontario, but when I googled it to add the link here I had no luck so I don't know if it is still in existence. The scene is Old Baldy in Beaver Valley, Ontario. It's nearly all finished, just sewing the hanging sleeve down on the back now and then it will have a label added. Size is 15in square.

Love those autumn colours, as you can see! I am using these Bear's Paw blocks as 'leaders and enders' a la Bonnie of Quiltville. There are 16 pairs of half-square triangles in each block, so joining them in between other sewing is not too tedious. Another five blocks are cut ready to be sewn too. Every now and then I have a play in EQ7 with this block but haven't yet decided on a final layout. The backgrounds are mostly tan/beige/light gold and the other fabrics are all leaf prints. I was going to call it Barely Autumn....Bear's Paw blocks in autumn prints, get it?......but have decided I like Maple Leaf Rag instead. So Maple Leaf Rag it is. Many of my quilts have musical names.
Haven't shown this for a while. These baskets are all hand-pieced and have been my portable project for nigh on five years now. Yesterday block number 148 was finished, and there will be 225 altogether set 15 rows across by 15 down; blocks are 6in finished, different floral prints with white on white prints.
There is no hurry to finish this as I am enjoying the journey, I'm not in a hurry to get to the destination. Hand-piecing is very relaxing. Besides, I haven't decided on a name.

The other day I decided to print out templates from EQ7 for the unusual shapes on the current challenge quilt, the Grand Plan is to tape them on a ruler to cut out. When they printed I said to myself, I said "Self, these shapes look a bit small to me" I said, and sure enough when I checked the block dimensions, they were for a 9in block and I need to make my blocks 12in. Bummer. When I drew the block I made it 12in, then when I set it into the quilt it must have defaulted to 9in and I didn't notice......so it wasn't changed........so when I printed out fabric quantities they were wrong, and there wouldn't have been enough of the spotted background fabric. Bummer again. So off I go again to the Big Fabric And Housewares Store where it was recently purchased and nearly had conniptions when I couldn't find it on the shelf, but fortunately it had hopped over to another shelf to visit with its fabric friends so I bought another half metre. So you can all breathe a sigh of relief because everything is good again. I have shopped from my stash for the bright fabrics for the windmills and pinwheels, hopefully it will look good. Its title - "Windmills of Your Mind"....."Like a circle in a spiral, like a wheel within a wheel"......that's how I felt when I realised that I had been working on the wrong size.

It's hot again but after all it is summer.....and it is Australia......and Australian summers are hot. Fact of life. Before we know it autumn will be on us, won't that be lovely? Then I won't be whingeing about the heat.

I'll whinge about people instead.

As it is summer many blokes and girls too are getting around with their bare arms and chests hanging out, so we can't help noticing that tattoos are popular. Now folks, I know your body is your body and you can do what you want with it (up to a point), but honestly....who ever told you that a whole arm tattoo looked good? Or both arms, most of your chest and a leg or two covered with tattoos? And while we are on the subject, why do some blokes have that little tuft of hair on their chin? Can't they grow a proper beard? Looks like they were eating gravy and dribbled some down their face. I don't mind a bloke being clean-shaven, I don't mind a bloke with a beard, but what's with 'designer stubble'? All I can think of is beard rash and we know how uncomfortable that can be, don't we, girls? Blokes who shave their heads don't do it for me either; yes, we know that some blokes lose their hair and some don't. It's a fact of nature. Don't shave your head and pretend that your hairline is not receding, you're not fooling anyone. To say nothing of the risk of skin cancer.

End of whinge, thank you for listening. Feel free to add your own.

"Satire and ridicule.

Young persons appear ridiculous when satirizing or ridiculing books, people or things. Opinions to be worth the consideration of others should have the advantage of coming from mature persons. Cultivated people are not in the habit of resorting to such weapons as satire and ridicule. They find too much to correct in themselves to indulge in coarse censure of the conduct of others, who may not have had advantages equal to their own."

Satire and ridicule? A cultivated person like myself? Perish the thought.

Enjoy your days!