I have a finished top!

However - I'm afraid you'll have to take my word for it because it's quite large (86in square) and my quilt holder-upper isn't a tall enough bloke with a wide enough wingspan.  We shall have to come up with Plan B to get the photo.  The kids next door are growing, a couple are now teens, they are always helpful......

Never mind.  Here, at least, is one of the perfectly mitred corners.

There are another three just like it, too.  You have no idea how pleased I am about them, my shoulder is nearly dislocated from patting myself on the back.....and they do look better than straight borders would have done.  The binding will be the same fabric as the outer borders.

Now my thoughts are turning to piecing the back.  There are a few metres of that gorgeous leaf print used in the border and blocks, and a couple of metres of a different leaf print, and some of the inner border fabric......I'll make it work.  It's going off to be quilted by a long-armer, because it's too big for me to do it justice with My Lovely New Bernina - and, all being well, I hope to enter it in the local show early next year.

How has everyone been this week?  We've been doing well, my formerly broken bits sometimes complain, but I just ignore them.  We had some rain, and more is forecast; when it rains, the neighbourhood kangaroos come around for a visit.

There were several more, too.  It wasn't raining that day but had rained the day before, so the grass was still damp and juicy.  It's a bit difficult getting good pictures of the roos because they don't stay still for long, and we don't want to encourage them down to our fence; kangaroos have been known to attack people they see as a threat, so we stay on our side of the fence when they are out and about.  There is nothing in our garden for them, we are quite happy to see them from a distance, and hope they subscribe to the belief that we hold - "if you don't bother us, we won't bother you".

One thing I did this week was to start making a bag from a pack of five inch squares that came back from Canada with me.  On our last trip a friend took me to a store not far from her house, 'Huckleberry's Fabrics Inc.', which was having a morning of demonstrations, new products and giveaways.  It was a fun day and one of my goodies was a pack of squares - but there were only 22.  What can you do with just 22 squares, without having to buy more co-ordinating fabric?  The idea finally came a couple of days ago; the 18 floral squares were laid out in six rows of three, joined together, then seamed across the bottom to make a bag.  The remaining squares, deep jewel tone-on-tones, will be used to trim the handles.  Sometime soon I will hit the big craft and fabric store for a metre of solid homespun in a suitable colour and the bag will be finished, then off it will go to be filled with toiletries and other necessities to be given to a woman in hospital who may have been admitted with no time to gather what was needed.  Our group has been making such bags for a couple of years now, and they are gratefully received.

Words have been read.  Stitches have been sewn by hand, and by machine.  Songs have been sung.  Exercises are still being done, although not as diligently as a couple of months ago.  We hunted and gathered for the weekly requirements, and that was about it, really.

Last month elections were held to fill places on the local council and I am shocked and surprised by the result, which was recently announced.  Our council now holds the record, not one to be proud of, for being the only council in the state without a single woman.  Not one.  Apparently the last time it happened here was in 1971, and I had already moved to the Big Smoke by then.  Even sitting female councillors who were up for re-election were not voted back in.  Now we have four years of local issues being decided by blokes, despite probably half the population being female.  A much smaller town an hour away has ended up with six women in a council of nine people, but we have none.

If I were younger I would stand for council, but I fear I have left my run thirty years too late.  The older I get, the more of a political animal I have become; back when I was of an age to be useful I didn't have as much interest in politics as I do now.

We have come to the end of Etiquette of Public Places, so now we will turn to Etiquette of Travelling.

"There is nothing that tests the natural politeness of men and women so thoroughly as travelling.  We all desire as much comfort as possible, and as a rule are selfish.  In these days of railroad travel, when every railway is equipped with elegant carriages for the comfort and convenience of its passengers, and provided with conductors and servants, the longest journeys by railroad can be made with perfect safety and but little annoyance."

To which I can only say, so many of these words could also be applied to modern plane travel.

Enjoy your days!

Jennifer