I was asked about the templates I used for the Sunburst, and you will find them here at the Marti Michel store. There is more info on the whole range of templates here. I don't have much use for the squares and triangles, because I love strip and quick piecing methods so much, but many beginners find them to be wonderful. I think I will be buying the Winding Ways set though, I've wanted them for years. I can handle curved piecing by machine, it's doing it by hand that I don't like.

What to use as a photo today? Today is the first day at university for my DS, and I just drove him out there. Luckily it's local, so he doesn't have to leave home or anything drastic, I couldn't cope with that! My mind went back to his first day at school, 12 years ago;I had shed a few tears, and thought all those thoughts about my baby growing up, but I was also relieved to be moving on to the next step. And that's the way I feel today too. Except I feel about 30 years older, not 12!


At that time I was handquilting a Friendship Star, and I came home from walking DS to school, and quilted for four hours straight. The first thing I did was to quilt the date into the sashing, as a permanent record, so I'll always know that he started school on January 31, 1994. I don't have a quilt on the frame today, but I've blogged about it, so that's a record of the day.




And just to get out of the past for a moment, this is what is on my design wall right now. I put the pattern for the Double-V blocks on my website, but I've hardly had a chance to do anything with the blocks since. I have about 13 settings sketched out in my workbook, and this is just one. The alternating cross blocks are fun, and I'm using up a lot of dark greens that I no longer love, so it's a good stashbusting exercise. I'm keeping it green and red and cream so that it will have a Christmas feel, and can go on our bed each year at that time.





Two more days of computer work, and then I'm going to sew for a whole day. I will have earned it.