There is a lot of Stuff not finished this week

But - as I plan to still be around next week that doesn't matter, does it?

One quilt block has been made.  Some quilting has been done on big MUSIC, some is still to be done.  No more Canadian blocks have been made.  A lot of music has been played.

This block is called "Carrie Nation", and was first published in the 'Kansas City Star' in 1940.  Carrie Nation was quite a woman; after her first husband died from alcohol-related conditions she made it her mission to rid the world of the Demon Drink because, as she saw it, society was to blame for her husband's love of alcohol rather than addiction or illness on his part.  Mrs Nation travelled around saloons and taverns with a hatchet that she used to break up barrels and counters, and her followers (the temperance movement was really getting under way at the time) used to wear a hatchet pin or brooch to show their solidarity with her.

I like the idea of using light, medium and dark black and white prints with one tone on tone colour forming a diagonal chain.  This will be my request to my quilt group for our Saturday BOM at the end of this month; the blocks can be kept for our own use or used to make charity quilts.  I haven't yet decided on the fate of this block - I just might keep them for myself.  Instructions still need to be written.

Hopefully this will be simple enough - look, Ma, no triangles! - to keep the whingers from whining too heavily, although the black and white may set Madame Presidente off.  She 'hates' black.  Most emphatically.  Mind you, she 'hates' a few things......but there is a difference between disliking and 'hating', isn't there?  While I dislike the fiddly-diddly cutesy-poo applique that is occasionally trotted out, I don't 'hate' it.  I am, however, pleased to get it out of my sewing room once it's done and handed over.

I don't like tomatoes either, but I don't 'hate' them.  Should they be served to me I leave them on the plate

Last week's gig went well, our audience enjoyed singing along with our songs, and many nice things were said to us and about us.  Now we have a few weeks until we play for the Sunday markets at a small church just out of town, a regular gig.

It has been said your day is wasted if you don't learn something, and yesterday I learned that it was once possible to rent a pineapple to impress your guests.  Pineapples were expensive and as such had become a symbol of wealth in Europe and the U.S.A., so people who couldn't afford to buy would hire one for an evening. It would be taken back the next day and probably sold to someone who could afford to eat it.  Fruit didn't always come sliced in tins, you know.

"Whom to invite.
Those invited should be of the same standing in society.  They need not necessarily be friends, nor even acquaintances, but, at dinner, as people come into closer contact than at a dance, or any other kind of a party, those only should be invited to meet one another who move in the same class of circles.  Care must, of course, be taken that those whom you think agreeable to each other are placed side by side around the festive board.  Good talkers are invaluable at a dinner party - people who have fresh ideas and plenty of warm words to clothe them in; but good listeners are equally invaluable."

Sounds just the occasion to display one's rented pineapple, doesn't it?

Enjoy your days!