Stitching on.....and on......

The border fabrics for my tumbler quilt have been stroked, fondled and pressed ready for cutting.  The inner borders are cut but not yet joined, while the outer border fabric has been drooled on a few times because it it so gorgeous.....and so right.  Cutting will have to be done one piece at a time; no layering and cutting all four together, because the stripe pattern needs to be correct.

The inner border is called 'Broken Stripe', from the 'Sycamore' range by Jan Patek, in a golden brown colour.  The outer border is a leafy stripe from 'Old Cambridge Pike' by Barbara Brackman, and although they are from different ranges by different designers I think they hold hands quite nicely.

The inner border will be 1-1/2 in wide, the outer border will be......I'm not quite sure, it will depend where the stripes are cut but probably a bit over six inches.  Each leaf repeat is a smidgeon over two inches wide.

Those borders will, of course, be mitred.  I firmly believe that every quilter has so many mitred borders in them and when you use them up they are gone forever, so best to use them wisely.  Happily I still have a few left.

This week's houses, a purple house and an aquatic house with fish.

A name for the house quilt has popped into my head - "There Goes The Neighbourhood", what do you reckon?  It's probably not very original but I like it, and it's name of a CD in our collection.  (Remember CDs?  Yes, we still use them, we haven't gotten into the downloading thing at all)  

The tumbler quilt still needs a name, but no doubt a dazzling thought will occur to me one day like a brilliant flash of lightning, and that will that.

Flower basket blocks are being joined into larger pieces......perhaps one day it, too, will be a finished top.

Speaking of lightning - we have had a lot this week!  A few nights ago we were trying to drop off to sleep (the neighbour's younger dog has been very barky because his people are away, we're the dog feeders until they return) when a storm which had been lighting up the valley for an hour arrived with a vengeance.  Much lighting, rumbling thunder rolling around the hills, strong wind and - for a very brief while - heavy rain.  It was quite dramatic, but didn't last long.  The following evening just after 6pm following a few quiet rumbles there was a very loud clap of thunder, one of the loudest I have ever heard in my life.  It sounded as though it was right overhead.  Bianca was quite perturbed (as was I; actually, it scared the living daylights out of me), the kangaroos on the hill were also agitated and were hopping hither and yon.  A few drops of rain, a bit of wind, and it was gone - we checked for damage, fortunately there was none.  

We are going ahead with planning a trip to Canberra at Easter, although there won't be a folk festival.  However we will still be able to spend time with family, and hopefully with friends, and enjoy some autumn weather.  We will take a different route home to meet a distant cousin with whom I have been in touch; we have only met once before, so we plan to catch up again.  Our mothers were first cousins so - I think - that makes us second cousins, and we share the same middle name.

Continuing on from the last posting on table manners and etiquette:

"To be thoroughly at ease at such times is only acquired by the habitual practice of good manners at the table, and is the result of proper home training.  It is the duty of parents to accustom their children, by example as well as by precept, to be attentive and polite to each other at every meal, as well as to observe proper rules of etiquette, and if they do so, they need never fear that they will be rude or awkward when they go abroad."

Yes indeed.  Practice makes perfect, whether it is good table manners or anything else.

Enjoy your days!