These are the Wheel of Fortune templates that I am working with.
They are by John Flynn, and he has a range of other patterns too. I love acrylic templates, I have quite a collection of them, and I enjoy having them all, even if some have never been used. I have plans for them someday.

I can see myself using the pieced ring from this pattern in lots of other patterns too, so it will be useful long after I have got sick of this particular block. I think a sampler of different circular blocks would keep me occupied for quite a while. And I like the idea of being able to use up all those strange scraps of my strip piecing projects.

The hazards of never throwing anything away are beginning to emerge, as I hunt into the deepest cupboards and open every last little box and tin. I have collected tins and storage containers for 35 years or more, and have been stowing little projects or supplies in them for the same amount of time. My goodness, the pitiful scraps and unsorted rubbish that are coming to light is amazing. As I snort and toss it in the bin the pile of empty tins and baskets and plastic containers grows ever larger. I have loads of storage now, because I've got rid of the junk at last.

I have tangles of embroidery floss 40 years old and welded into a solid knot; hardly likely to come in useful. I have thriftshop wool felted together in it's packet because it's more than 50 years old, faded and a bit moth-eaten too. I have scraps of once-white muslin, none larger than a 1.5" triangle. Used papers from a hexagon project finished 24 years ago. The contents of at least 9 sewing baskets that I bought from second-hand stores, mainly rusted needles and pins snarled up in frayed ribbon and unwound reels of thread. Did no-one explain to me in my youth the function of a Rubbish Bin????

There are treasures as well, and it's nice to be reacquainted with them. I collected embroidery for a while, anything that depicted a house. I think I want to make a Log Cabin quilt with the embroideries as the centres. That idea will have to grow a little before I start to do something with it, but it's nice to have this lot waiting.

Every year I take a two week virtual holiday while Wimbledon is on. I sit up late at night, sewing or knitting, watching the world's tennis players slog it out. I don't play, having been forced to when I was young and I hated it; in fact I blame my current wrist problems on those wretched games. But I love watching tennis. Everyone else goes off to bed and leaves me to it. I drink hot mocha, and sleep on the couch and enjoy myself mightily. And get a lot of sewing done.

Two hand piecing projects are at the top of my list of things to do this year. The Tumbling Blocks I started in 1998, to take with me on a family Christmas holiday. I've thought this was finished several times, and then decided to make it bigger, but it now fits our queen-size bed, and that's quite big enough. It needs a few pieces around the edges and it's done.

The Inner City I cut out at the same time as the Tumbling Blocks, and it is intended to be a wall-hanging to match. It keeps getting larger too, and I was shocked to realise when I spread it out that it is finished bar the border. So nothing is stopping me from getting this little

baby into the pile of finished tops, except for the lack of the perfect border fabric. I think I will go shopping for a reproduction border stripe fabric this afternoon.