Sending my baby out into the wide world

'Autumn Rhapsody' has gone off to spend time with quilter Margaret.  It has taken so much of my life for the past several months that I will be quite bereft until it comes home again.....but it will be much closer to being a finished quilt when it does.

Now I wasn't going to succumb to another project straight away but the little buzz in my brain said, go for it.....so this morning I pulled some fabrics from the Big Basket of Batiks.

These fabrics will be the first two blocks of 'Arboretum'.  There are smaller pieces in the Big Basket which will be suitable for the leaf veins, and which will be paired with a print in a similar range for the leaf.  The bright orange print came out first and was paired with a blue and green print but, much as I loved the contrast, I decided to go in a different direction.  When the houses for the neighbourhood quilt were being made a couple of years ago the decision was taken to make two a week, so that's what I will do with this quilt too.  

That should keep the brain buzz from getting too annoying, yes?  In the meantime, other projects will be worked on too.

Thoughts have been thought on a label for 'Autumn Rhapsody', but none have settled.  It will probably be embroidered rather than written as my embroidery stitches are neater and nicer than my writing, these days.  Thoughts will continue to be thought on the subject.  

Words have been read.  Stitches have been sewn; after the peeper border was all stitched down during the week a few diamonds were picked up again, so more will need to be cut to keep the supply going.  Notes have been plinked and songs sung even though the choir is now in its end-of-year recess, because of course the ukulele players sing too.  (Well, some of them sing.....)  My various hurty bits are healing well.  The usual weekly hunting and gathering was done to avert starvation, and so passed another week.

The year is winding down....yesterday the quilt group went out for its Christmas/end of year lunch, and jolly nice it was too.  I had a radicchio, fennel and orange salad with citrus dressing served with grilled haloumi, and oh my - that was good.  It wasn't as heavy as a hot meal in the middle of the day would have been, and was quite different to the salad I would normally choose.  What's more, unlike many salads, it didn't contain tomato!  One of my earliest memories is of my mother holding me down with one hand and trying to force me to eat tomato with the other.  I didn't like it then, and I don't like it now.  Don't like the taste, especially don't like the texture, so now that I am an adult - I don't eat it.

Decorations are appearing in shops and I suppose it won't be long before the fat bloke in the red suit perches on his throne for photos with the kiddie-widdies.  Festive food has been available for some time now, and Glorias and ding dongs have been creeping into radio programming.

Summer is well and truly upon us, the next few days are forecast to be fairly hot before rain later in the week.  Roll on the rain and cloud, I say, because those clouds provide a little shade and keep the hot sun from frying us, even though they raise the humidity as they do so.....but as we live in a dry inland town, a little humidity doesn't matter.  I couldn't go back to living in coastal humidity, something the Big Smoke has in plenty.

"Ladies may assist other ladies.

It is not only the right, but the duty of ladies to render any assistance or be of any service to younger ladies, or those less experienced in travelling than themselves.  They may show many little courtesies which will make the journey less tedious to the inexperienced traveller, and may give her important advice or assistance which may be of benefit to her.  An acquaintance formed in travelling need never be retained afterwards.  It is optional whether it is or not."

In other words, spending a little time helping a less experienced traveller doesn't mean to say she will hang around you like a bad smell for the next few years.......at least, we hope not.

Enjoy your days!

Jennifer