Noodling around

Which is what people do when they are playing a musical instrument.....any instrument......with no aim or purpose in mind.  Here is my noodling corner.

 One of my guitars with its blue strap, and my gorgeous hand-made uke with its green strap, and equipment in the corner for playing CDs and listening to the radio.  The other guitar and uke are in their coffins cases elsewhere in the room, and a music stand with lots of printed music and books is just to the left.

One of the women at uke group continually noodles even while our teachers are speaking, which is rude and annoying.  Noodling has its place, and a class is not the place.  She was away recently for a few weeks.......it was much better.

A selection of some possible fabrics for the grandkid's first quilt, which will be cut out one of these days.  Can't rush genius, you know.......the block will be "Economy Patch", won't be paper-pieced, and will finish eight inches square.  The four inch finished centre square will be these fun prints while the two outer rows of triangles will be anything and everything including, of course, the two fabrics used for the stuffed wombat.  Eventually.........

From which you can tell that the female inmate of the Chateau des Wombats is having a lazy day.

Said grandkid's mum is enjoying her musical visit to Switzerland.  Hope the kid is, too.

Who in their wisdom decided that the word "absolutely" meant "yes"?  So many people in the media and in real life say "absolutely" or more emphatically "oh - absolutely!" when a simple "yes" would suffice, and would answer the question being asked more accurately.  Its use was apparently first noted in the 1530s, and it meant "completely" or "without exception", which is not quite the same as "yes".  Every time I hear it on TV I have to sit on my hands to keep from throwing something at the speaker as it gives me a strong dose of the irrits.  It's even worse when "absolutely" is half-swallowed on the way out and emerges as "absy".

Yesterday we had a small rain shower, we could barely contain our excitement!  It took all the willpower we possess to restrain ourselves from throwing off our clothes and dancing nekkid in the street with a cake of soap.  More rain is forecast for later this week and we are hoping it eventuates.  So far this year we have had barely two thirds of the long-term average rainfall to July, which coupled with a dry year last year and a long hot summer means things aren't looking good for the rest of this year.  However, Aussies are an optimistic lot, so we keep thinking that more rain will fall soon.

Last night another block for the flower basket block was finished - that makes 221 done, only four to go, yay!  Way back early in 2006 (that's right, eight years ago) I thought it could be useful to have something done entirely by hand as a take-along project, and so far it has been overseas four times - to Canada, and to Alaska, with fabric since included from both countries - on many caravan holidays, to quilt groups, to sit-and-sew days, even in waiting rooms.  There have been times following arm/wrist injury and and shoulder surgery when hand sewing just wasn't possible for several months, but it was about the journey rather than the destination.....so that really didn't matter.  Once the last of the blocks is made they will be joined by hand into nine patches, and eventually those 25 nine patches will be joined by hand to make a quilt top.  It would be nice if it could be hand-quilted too, but as my hands are now giving me trouble with achingly painful knobbly joints (because, sadly, I am no longer 25) that just may not be able to happen.

As to where those 225, six-and-a-half inch blocks will be laid out while placement is decided, well, that is a very good question and one I am glad you asked.  Some furniture removal may have to take place.......

"Interruption.
Interruption of the speech of others is a great sin against good breeding.  It has been aptly said that if you interrupt a speaker in the middle of a sentence, you act almost as rudely as if, when walking with a companion you were to thrust yourself before him and stop his progress."

Words which our noodling friend in uke class would do well to heed.  Now I am off to noodle "Sway" which we looked at last night.......all together now, when marimba rhythms start to play, dance with me, make me sway........

Enjoy your days!