How many states? (48)

We had great fun last night. We went to a quiz night at the sports club that we belong to. Unfortunately, we came in 3rd out of 6 teams, although we had led for the first few rounds. We fell down on Sport and Games and on Geography. Terrible really, six members of a sports club who know nothing about sport! The geographical questions were all based on a blank map of the USA where we had to fill in the names of 10 states. If only I had carried out my plan of finding out where all you American bloggers live! I've spent some time today printing off a map of the USA - tell me, am I right that there are 51 states? That's all I've managed to count, so I hope I haven't lost any.

I managed to finish the quillow that I was making for my niece's birthday. I've used 30s reproduction fabrics in a sort of disappearing nine-patch. I love quilting these quillows with big stitch embroidery and a few buttons.

I've also finished the blocks for Step 5. I'm really not convinced that it's all going to work together. I laid some of them out in the way that some people have suggested is the solution to the mystery, and it looked very bright and rather confused, but I just have to hope it will all come together well in the end.

A Typical British Bank Holiday ! (47)

It's been a few days since I last posted - I just didn't have anything much to say, so I didn't. I've enjoyed looking at what everyone else has been up to on their long weekend - both in America and in the UK. Is it just me though, or do other people feel that Blogger is patronising them? If I don't type the letter code in accurately when I make a comment, it comes back with an easier set of letters!! I feel like the 'special' child in the class.

Yesterday was a typical British bank holiday - wet and dreary. Having cut out zillions of squares for Step 5 of the mystery, I felt weary and went back to bed for a while to watch 'The Lost World' a film from way back, just what I needed to cheer me up guffawing at the dreadful acting and special effects. 

In the afternoon we went to see the new Indiana Jones film. I had seen lots of recommendations on the blogs and we weren't disappointed. It was great fun, well up to the standard of the earlier films. I can't remember the last time we went to the cinema, as we usually wait for films to come out on DVD, but it was super - we even had some popcorn!

Today I've been catching up with emails and blogs (which I've enjoyed) and now I've got to catch up with paperwork. Pooh! never mind, there's plenty of sewing to reward myself with once I'm all organised.

Nil Points!! (47)

Finally, here's the picture of my fabric store. It might not look as if I have much fabric stored away, but there's enough there to make me feel guilty. I love buying fabric, but feel guilty just buying it without any project in mind. The posters and programmes on the wall are from various amateur dramatic plays that my sons and I have been involved in.

Well, the voting is under way, and going much as expected. All the Balkan countries are voting for each other, all the Baltic countries are voting for each other, the older European countries are a little less political. So far, though, no votes for  Romania, Germany and poor old UK. Greece, Russia and Turkey are sharing the lead. 

Hooray, 6 points for the UK from San Marino (I really should know where it is, but I don't). I'd better sign off now or I'll be giving you a running commentary for the rest of the voting!

Our garden (46)

I'm writing this while watching the Eurovision Song Contest. I don't know what it is about that programme, it seems to hold a horrible fascination for me! Most of the songs are pretty awful and because of the blatantly political voting these days we can be pretty sure that the UK won't win - no-one in Europe seems to like us any more (All together now - aaahhh!!!). Our song was good though, and Terry Wogan is, as always, very amusing. He's probably the reason we watch it.

Very 

little sewing got done today. The weather was glorious and we spent most of the day outside. I did pay a visit to Hobbycraft to pick up some wadding and some backing for the quillow I'm making, but apart from a bit of hand quilting this evening while watching the first half of the Eurovision Song Contest, I've been outside planting the bedding plants we bought yesterday. DH has worked so hard in the garden over this two weeks and it is looking lovely now. Here are a few photographs. In common with most people in the UK our garden is not very large. The first two pictures are taken from the end of the garden looking towards the house. The third is of our little pond (can you see it behind all the green stuff?), and the fourth is taken from the back door looking down the side of the house towards the garden.

Frogs and fabric (45)

It's been a lovely, quiet, ordinary couple of days. DH has done so much in the garden that it's looking very tidy now. He goes back to work next week and was keen to get it done during his two week break. We went to a local garden centre yesterday and bought some plants and a couple more tubs. I managed to find some slug repellant rather than slug killer - slugs and snails just love our damp climate and munch their way through everything soft and tasty in the garden, but I hate to kill them. Once it's all done I'll take some photographs before the weeds start growing again. We've got estate agents coming to value the house next week, and the garden should be looking just right, so I've just get to get on top of the house.

One of the jobs was to clean out our very small pond. We didn't have any tadpoles this year, which I suspect was because it was very clogged up with old weeds and fallen leaves. After clearing it out we topped it up with a shower of fresh water from the hose hung high up in the tree. The three resident frogs - two adult and one youngster - really seemed to appreciate it.

I've been working on a quillow for DH's niece, whose birthday comes up soon so it's a quick finish. I'm also still going on the Mr Men sampler - up to number 9 now. But nothing much to show, so I thought I'd share a photograph of my fabric store. But Blogger's playing up again, so I can't! Better luck next time. 

The weather is lovely here, but set to change. Typical for a Bank Holiday! I believe it's a Bank Holiday weekend in America too, so best wishes to everyone for a lovely long weekend.

Joy and Jubilation !! (44)

Please imagine me throwing my hat into the air and shouting hurrah! Yes, the black and white quilt - from now on to be known as The Scarlet and The Black - is finally finished. I stitched on the bindings and handstitched them down this afternoon, and THAT'S IT!! This was only the second proper quilt that I ever started - and the third that I've finished, and I am chuffed to bits with it. 

So now, what next? There's a huge quilt shaped hole in my life now that needs to be filled. One of DH's nieces has a birthday coming up at the beginning of June, she's at university so I think a quillow would be a really useful gift for her. And not too arduous for me to make in a short time, especially if I tie it or do big-stitch quilting. 

It's been an odd couple of days. Yesterday I visited a homeopathic doctor. The GP can't seem to get to the bottom of my health problems (not that he wouldn't like to try, but he has no time and no money to do many tests) so we thought we'd start looking at alternative medicine. It's going to cost an arm and a leg I fear, but I want to know that I've tried everything. I spent an hour and a half with him, going through every aspect of my present and past health - and nearly 60 year's worth of health is an awful lot. I came away with a forest of paper to read and questionnaires to fill in, a load of blood tests to get done and some other tests to be arranged. Let's hope something comes of it.

Then today, I went to the dentist to get 'measured up' for a couple of new crowns and a bridge. I'm going to run out of arms and legs at this rate! After that, we went to visit my mother-in-law in hospital. She seemed reasonably bright, all things considered. They've removed a whole load of fluid from around her heart, and need to drain off more fluid from her lungs, so she is likely to be stuck in hospital for several more days yet. Poor thing, she can't get about without help and gets very frustrated and bored and unhappy being away from home. We'll probably visit again in a couple of days.

Thank you to everyone who gave me some suggestions on where to go to get some help with Blogger. If anyone needs help here are the addresses:

www.splitdecisionz.com

www.bloggingbasics101.com

http://blogger-tricks.blogspot.com

And finally, here's a picture of my new kitchen curtains. Please try only to look at the curtains and not the rest of the clutter.

Signature (43)

Well, this seems to work. Rather a showy colour I fear, but one of my favourites. Thank you Tanya for the help on doing this.

Curtains and Charity shop finds (42)

Monday is always a good day to visit charity shops. I never managed to find anything I liked, but maybe my tastes have changed, or perhaps I just have longer to browse and think now. Anyway I found a couple of things last week and a couple more things this week that I really like. The sun and palm tree stand is perfect for my quilting rulers; the cat is a leather money box; the basket is perfect for holding the CDs that we keep in the kitchen; the jug is handmade in Portugal - can't you just see it with a bunch of flowers in it - and the butter dish is, well, it's a butter dish. DH has always bought things in charity shops - most of his clothes plus several nick-nacks, many of which have not been to my taste (or to put it another way, have been ghastly) so now it's my turn. I can rarely find clothes that fit (I'm just 5' tall) or that I like, but I could become a serial nick-nack buyer. I wonder where our nearest car boot sale is?

Yesterday was a domestic sewing day - mending, replacing the elastic in a skirt, etc - but I did manage to finish and hang the new curtains for the kitchen. They are purely decorative, but I'm chuffed with them. It only took me about 8 years to do!! Well, I'm fed up waiting for the photograph to load, so I'm posting anyway, and I'll try again to get a decent shot of the curtains before they start to fade!

By the way, has anyone come across a website that is actually helpful for using Blogger? I don't find their own help pages all that helpful.

Can't think of a title right now, but don't want to leave it without one altogether - perhaps I'll have some inspiration later! (41)

I didn't get much quilty sewing done yesterday, but I did get round to making some curtains for the kitchen - we had the kitchen re-fitted about ten years ago, and I finally get round to it when we're about to put the house on the market! - and started on make a black cotton petticoat. Again, something I've wanted for years. Man-made fibres are just too hot to wear under thin summer skirts and dresses. 

Lunch was a disaster yesterday. The evening before, DH had been cooking supper and had done baked potatoes. We cook them on a skewer to speed up the cooking time. Well, he picked up the skewer to take it out of the oven and poked it through the fan at the back! It made a tremendous noise, but he thought it was okay. So I switched the oven on yesterday - no fan noise, so I reckoned he had wrecked the fan. Never mind, it seemed to be heating up and how else do you cook a roast chicken. An hour later, the chicken was barely warm. So we had to cut it into joints - not something we've ever done, if you want chicken pieces you buy chicken pieces - and fried it. Then we found that the butternut squash had overcooked whilst we were faffing about with the chicken, but the potatoes weren't quite cooked enough. Still, the broccoli was about right! So now we have to decide whether to buy a new cooker - not really worth it since we are hoping to move house in the next few weeks - or manage without. AAgghh!!

It's a quarter past seven in the morning here, and I've just finished skimming through the new blogs on Google Reader and feeling guilty about not making many comments. But I need to get going as we have the cleaner coming in today. She wasn't able to make it two weeks ago, so the house has got rather untidy and needs to be tidied up so she can clean. (Does Amy's lovely phrase 'pick up the house' mean the same thing I wonder?) So far, it looks as if it is going to be a lovely day, so I shall have to get out in the garden to sort out some of my plantlings. It's been cold and wet the last few days, so I've done very little outside. So, time to stop playing and get going.

(40)

I can't believe I've reached 40 posts already. It's been such fun to write - much more fun that writing a diary ever was - and I've met so many kind and friendly people through blogging. It takes quite a bit of time, but since I wake at about 5.15 every morning I spend a happy hour or two reading through all the blogs and writing my own then.

Yesterday DH had to spend most of the day visiting hospital. His mother was taken in unexpectedly with heart problems. She has been unwell with various cancers over the last few years so we just have to wait for test results to see if it's rearing its ugly head again. She has had several operations and now is unable to walk, but has never been anything other than cheerful and gritty, so I just hope that she improves soon. DH ended up driving his father to the hospital since his car was out of action, and he stayed with him whilst all the tests were done. There wasn't much point me going with him today, but will go with him to visit next week.

I ended up watching a film in the afternoon!! Most unusual for me to watch television during the day, but I was fidgety and couldn't settle. I did do some embroidery while watching though. The film was 'Gentlemen Prefer Blondes' which I have never seen. So dated, but Marilyn Monroe was electric. Poor Jane Russell, she didn't stand a chance when she was on screen with Marilyn. 

I finished my little primitive embroidery and got it 'framed'; I'm really pleased with it and think it will look good with the other two when I get them done. I didn't touch my black and white quilt, but will make an effort today. I was going to cut the corners out, so that it hangs on the bed better, but think that will be a bridge too far, so will just finish the quilting, get it bound and washed on ON THE BED!! Then I can think about my next big project.

Men at work (39)

Yesterday, I approached my black and white quilt more calmly, determined to subdue it somehow! I finished hand quilting the two side borders, though I've kept it to the bare minimum. Now I've just got the top and bottom borders to do, and the binding, so another couple of days should see it done. I'm really looking forward to getting enough dry weather to wash it, dry it and get it on the bed. It's very showy and dramatic. At this stage of my quilting 'career' I'm still trying out different styles and haven't settled into any particular style of my own yet. Apart from the OC I'm refusing to start any new quilting project until this one is finished, and my head is buzzing with ideas, so it's about time to get it out of the way.

I did a rather cute piece of stitchery yesterday evening (why can't computers learn to spell words like stitchery when you use it regularly?). I've got three primitive-style cat pictures that I'm going to do in redwork and frame in red fabrics. I'll post a picture once I've got the first one framed.

Yesterday morning two very efficient men came to remove our hedge. They had a machine out at the front of the house which chopped the bushes into woodchips straightaway and shot them into the back of the truck, then used another machine to grind out all of the stumps, then finished off with a kind of vacuum cleaner to clean up the grass and all of the back garden and the pavement outside. A very neat job, and since I for one think you can never see enough of men working here's a couple of photographs! 

The two men over the road are digging up the front garden to make a hard standing. I hate to see it happen, but we gave in last year and had ours done too. One of the problems of living in many of the roads built back in Victorian times is that people didn't have cars then, so there's no room for garages. This road is so narrow and you often end up parking far away from the house so I can understand why so many people are giving up their front gardens for parking areas. It's a shame though - it detracts from the character of these old houses, and isn't good for wildlife or drainage. Something we shall definitely look for when we move is a house with a garage!

***&&&@@@!!! (38)

No pictures today because I don't want you to see the crumpled pile I left the black and white quilt in yesterday evening, I was so fed up with it! 

In the morning DH and I cleared the sideway, in the rain, because a chap's coming this morning to dig up some dead and dying conifers that make up our hedge. That was a job and a half, since we use it as storage space for garden rubbish and old pots that aren't being used yet. Then DH had to go up to London for the rest of the day and was going to a show in the evening, so I was more than ready to devote the rest of the day to sewing.

I'd finished quilting the main part of the quilt so 'just' had to put the borders on. Aaaaggghhh! They take as much time as the rest of the quilt I'm sure. And could I get the blasted things to go on straight! Because I was 'quilting as you go' I had to do the wadding and backing too. I decided to use the method from my new book Machine Quilting in Sections. I WON'T be doing it that way again! I'll stick to the method shown in Quilting-on-the-go by Carolyn Forster, it takes longer but it works first time. Eventually, after much wasted thread and rather bad language I got them stitched on. Then I decided to be brave and machine quilt using a template that I'd bought, so I marked up one border, set up the machine, took a deep breath and the plunge. Yet more wasted thread - yes, you've guessed it, tension problems. Finally, one border done. WONKY!! UNEVEN!! A MESS!! So I spent the next two hours unpicking it. Then I re-marked and started quilting it by hand. I don't think I'm cut out to be a machine quilter (perhaps it's my machine? I wish.)

Perhaps I'll have better luck today.

Mixed blessings (37)

It was a lovely spring day again yesterday (I'm from the UK, so there's bound to be a lot about the weather on my blog), and DH has taken some holiday from work,so we went to visit Sheffield Park Garden, which is owned by the National Trust. The gardens were glorious, full of rhododenron and azaleas. You wouldn't believe the colours; if you designed a flower with those colours nobody would believe they were possible. And then we saw some goslings which were extremely cute - ducklings are common, but goslings more of a rarity.

Unfortunately, a bit later when we were having a cup of tea I started to feel unwell and we had to make a dash for home. I won't go into graphic details, but I think it was something I ate for lunch!!! 

Luckily I felt okay today, and even better when the postman arrived with a package for me. It was some fabric I had ordered from a UK shop with a sale - not as cheap as in the USA, but brilliantly cheap for the UK. Nothing to show on the sewing front, but I made a real effort to get on with my black and white quilt which has taken a bit of a back seat recently. All being well I will get much further on with it tomorrow.

Being normal! (36)

It seems ages since I last posted, but I guess it's only a couple of days. But this glorious weather, plus the fact that I have been feeling really well, has meant lots of being outside and doing stuff and not much time on the computer or sewing.

On Sunday we went to a Cowpie Rally - no idea why it's called that, Desperate Dan was nowhere to be seen. It was a bit disappointing, very commercial and the displays weren't that good. We didn't spend a penny apart from the (rather expensive) entrance fee. Even the queues for food and drink were too long to bother with - luckily we had taken our own bottles of water. BUT, we did see a splendid sheep demonstration. A chap from New Zealand was showing and talking about several different sheep breeds, and he demonstrated sheep shearing. Doesn't sound much, but he was extremely funny as well as informative, and finished with 'sheep dancing' - I imagine they were trained to move in response to the music and food treats. Great fun. (And don't worry, the sheep were in the shade, with food and drink and looked perfectly well cared for)

Yesterday I did something normal! I went to Marks and Spencer for a browse, tried on some trousers and bought two pairs, AND I went to Sainsbury's for a big food shop. Now, for most people that sounds ordinary and a bit boring. Not a bit of it! It's so long since I have felt well enough to do both of those things at all, let alone both in one morning, and it was brilliant!

I've even managed to do a bit of sewing. I put the log cabin edges on the Noah's Ark blocks, finished making a sun dress, completed another section in the Mister Men sampler and finished step 4 for the Quiltville mystery. There's rather a lot of purple in the blocks, and some of the purple bits ended up next to each other, so I'm hoping the addition of the pink yardage will tone down the purpleness a little.  Not bad eh? Long live being normal!!

Answers to puzzles (35)

I wonder how many of you pondered over the puzzles I put in my blog yesterday? I know that Amy did, so she goes to the top of the class. Here's the explanations:

Frog puzzle

If he climbs three bricks, but slips back two bricks each day, then his net gain is one brick per day. So the apparent answer is 20 days. BUT - on day 17 he won't slip back because he has reached the top, so the answer is 17 DAYS.

Wine puzzle

The first thought would be wine = £9, bottle = £1, but that won't work because then the wine would only be worth £8 more than the bottle. So, the bottle must be worth less than £1. Therefore, if the bottle is worth 50p the wine must be worth £9 more, which is £9.50, and the total then is £10. Get it? Or you can use algebra, as Amy The Algebra Teacher did!

The Territorial Army (34)

They had a small parade in Reigate (the town where I live) yesterday. It was to mark the centenary of the TA and to honour all TA personnel who have recently served overseas - including a couple of local men who have died. I'm sure other countries have something similar, but I'm not sure what they're called. The band was made up of cadets aged between 12 and 18.

The Territorial Army is made up of volunteers who do their training in their spare time from their jobs. Although they were set up as a reserve army many of them do end up in active service, currently in Iraq and Afghanistan, and are given leave by their employers to do army service for about three months at a time. I was pleased that so many people turned out to honour them. 

The older men with the flags are representatives of the British Legion, an organisation set up after the first World War to offer fund raising and support to all armed personnel and their families. They organise the Armistice celebrations each year and raise thousands of pounds to help support injured soldiers.

A Grand Day Out (33)

We had such a lovely day yesterday, when we visited Brighton to see our younger son. Although it was overcast at the beginning of the day the sun soon shone through and the second part of the day was glorious. We started off at Waterstones Book Shop for coffee, but were saved (sadly) from purchasing any books as No 2 son arrived earlier than expected - he's a DJ in Brighton and had been giving a lesson. We had lunch in a splendid, cool, elegant Cuban restaurant and then strolled down to the sea front. While DH dozed in a deck chair No 2 son and I had great fun lobbing pebbles into the sea, and devising all sorts of games - there isn't any sand at Brighton, just pebbles - I love the sound the sea makes as it swooshes over them. 

Here are some pictures of the 

three of us debating a puzzle that No 2 son had - if a bottle of wine costs £10 and the wine costs £9 more than the bottle how much does the wine itself cost? We also had fun trying to work this one out - a frog has fallen down a well that is 20 bricks deep. It starts to climb up at the rate of three bricks forward a day, but also falls back two bricks each day. How many days will it take for the frog to get out of the well? No prizes, but I'll try to remember to post the solutions tomorrow.

After a walk along the sea front to the pier we sadly had to call it a day and drop No 2 son back at his flat to get ready for his DJ work in the evening. I hate the business of saying goodbye to him!

Thank you postman (32)

I was really excited to get not one but two packages in the post yesterday. AND NO BILLS!!!! The Jelly Roll Quilts book is newly published by my LQS in Dorking,  The Quilt Room. The quilt I made for my husband's birthday was made from jelly rolls, and I'd really like to make another, so I foresee some happy hours reading and planning.

The next package was Popular Patchwork magazine which I have just started subscribing to. It has a good website too. I like this magazine because it's aimed at regular, everyday quilters rather than professional, clever quilters! Unfortunately it's already cost me money, because I found a website for a UK online store with a sale and inevitably spent more than I should. So perhaps the jelly roll with have to wait for a while.

Don't you love the little sewing organiser on the front cover? I think that will have to be my first project.

The weather here in the UK continues to be glorious and we should be off to Brighton today - hooray, just the day for going to the seaside.

A Woman's Place (31)

My husband was sent this real extract from a sex education school textbook for girls, printed in the early 1960s in the UK - and written by a woman!

"When retiring to the bedroom, prepare yourself for bed as promptly as possible. Whilst feminine hygiene is important, your tired husband does not want to queue for the bathroom, as he would have to do for his train. But remember to look your best when going to bed. Try to achieve a look that is welcoming without being obvious. If you need to apply face-cream or hair-rollers wait until he is asleep as this can be shocking to a man last thing at night. When it comes to the possibility of intimate relations with your husband it is important to remember your marriage vows and in particular your commitment to obey him. If he feels that he needs to sleep immediately then so be it. In all things be led by your husband's wishes; do not pressure him in any way to stimulate intimacy. Should your husband suggest congress then agree humbly all the while being mindful that a man's satisfaction is more important than a woman's. When he reaches his moment of fulfilment, a small moan from yourself is encouraging to him and quite sufficient to indicate any enjoyment that you may have had. Should your husband suggest any of the more unusual practices, be obedient and uncomplaining but register any reluctance by remaining silent. It is likely that your husband will then fall promptly asleep, so adjust your clothing, freshen up and apply your night-time face and hair care products. You may then set the alarm so that you can arise shortly before him in the morning. This will enable you to have his morning cup of tea ready when he awakes."

What more can I say?

Google Reader (30)

Thanks to Candace, I spent some time yesterday working out how to use Google Reader. I was a bit disappointed at first, because I couldn't seem to see the original blogs, but I've worked that out now and I'm really happy with the way it works. It's going to give me much more time to really look at some of the features on the blogs. People work so hard to add content and make them attractive, that it has seemed a shame to rush through them. 

Unfortunately, we didn't get down to Brighton to visit number two son on Monday, as I wasn't feeling too well. 

So, I'm making sure to get lots of rest this week so that we can get down to see him on Friday. It's not difficult to rest when the weather is like this - there's nothing better than to sit in the shade in the garden and read or hand sew. I did manage a bit of quilting. I've been using a small scrap quilt to practice my free motion machine quilting. I must say, it isn't as easy as it looks in the few videos I've seen! I started to get a bit smoother and more accurate towards the end but I have a couple of problems - which may be down to me or to my machine.

Firstly, the machine kept 'jumping' when it came to the seams. Secondly, I found it really difficult to co-ordinate my hands and feet, so the stitches were often either too long or too short. Any help would be welcome.

Isn't this azalea beautiful? DH has a real knack with keeping them and always manages to bring them indoors at just the right time. This one's about ten years old now and never fails.

Other than quilting (29)

Yesterday I felt well enough to walk around our local town. I would have preferred to walk there rather than drive, but it's several weeks since I felt well enough to have a walk round, so better remember to take things one step at a time. I bought some fabric - but not for quilting. I bought some yellow gingham to make curtains for the kitchen, some blue chambray and some black and white patterned cottons to make a couple of dresses and some white linen mix to make a blouse. So, that's next on the agenda. I'm keen to embellish them with some embroidery or applique, but don't know quite what to do yet.

This morning I finished a cute little wallhanging I've been working on for a few days. I really enjoyed making it - felt applique so no tricky needle turning, and a manageable size. And today it was actually warm enough to have lunch out in the garden. The first week of May - that's really early to be able to sit outside. Long may it last - I love this sort of temperature, where you can sit out in shirt sleeves, but not get too hot. DH has been so busy the last couple of days - clearing weeds, cutting back plants, planting up new plants - and our small garden is beginning to look very attractive. The trees and plants everywhere are beginning to look really lush and ex

uberant, and just growing like mad for the next few weeks.

Tomorrow we go to Brighton to visit our younger son, so I'm really looking forward to that - it's been about three weeks since we last saw him. I rather fear that Brighton may be really crowded since it's a Bank Holiday, and if the weather is good loads of people will head to the seaside. Let's hope we can find somewhere to park!

Post-dentist - and Post (28)

Well, the visit to the dentist has been and gone - rather like my tooth! Thank you so much to everybody who wished me well. I don't know why I get so nervous, but I do. I just shook the whole way through. I have a new dentist, and he was so calm and gentle that it helped enormously. Now I have a big hole and a big bruise and have to wait for three weeks before my next appointment - and then the really big expense starts.

But I have saved some money on buying some fabric from America. I just can't believe the difference in price. I bought from the Wish Upon a Quilt sale. I didn't buy anything I really needed this time, just in case it all went wrong and the fabric didn't arrive or was horrible when it got here. But it came in no time at all and was fine. I bought 5 yards and 5 FQs and even with the postage it came to only just over £23 - in the UK the fabric alone would have cost me £58!! So I will certainly buy in that way again. Does that count as saving??

My half triangle patches for Step 3 are finished. I found these pretty easy to put together, although I did count out half and leave them over the other side of the room so as to be sure to make mirror images out of them and not stitch them all the same. The colours look a bit weird here. I've also now cut all the dog ears off from these and my 4patch blocks.

I was pleased with the fact that I managed to finish practically all my jobs for April. The black and white quilt progresses slowly - I have so many other interesting things on the go for hand sewing, and it does get a tad boring quilting the same pattern all the time. But I shall persevere. I am determined that it continue as a WIP and not become a UFO.