Thanks for all the kind words about my Orphans and Siblings quilt. I can assure you that it will be promptly quilted and on my bed by autumn, which is only 2 weeks away now. Not that I am counting or anything.

Summer is having a last spiteful fling, and we've had two days of gruelling heat. On days like this there is nothing to do but endure it as best you can, but some of my plants may have given up the ghost. We'll see how many I can coax back from the edge of expiry.

The pattern for my Delectable Mountains blocks came from this 1986 Ladies Circle magazine, and I made them as soon as I bought it. So it feels good to finally put those 22 yo blocks to good use.

For the border I used up the scraps from my Double Anvil border, and because there wasn't enough I went to the brown stash drawers and found this piece that has been waiting for 6 years for the right project. I think the children work in very well with the orphan and sibling theme.
Mereth and I were a bit concerned about how neglected our respective homes were becoming, what with us spending so much time working with the Statler. So we decided to devote a day each week to Powerhouse Cleaning. Over the years there have been several times when we've had cleaning jobs, and we work well together. Our new regime is to spend a whole day going through our two houses as if we were being paid to clean; we tried it out last Thursday, and to put it bluntly, we were knackered by nightfall! We not be young no more. However, it was a raging success; I love seeing polished wood gleaming in the afternoon light, and knowing that there aren't any household chores that I should be doing. I just hope we've recovered by next Thursday, so we can do it all again.

It helped that I had stopped at the Post Office on my way to Mereth's house and picked up three fat parcels from Hancocks and Judy Rothermel's Schoolhouse Quilts. I wouldn't open them until we had accomplished major cleaning goals, and it certainly helped spur us on. Fabric is the best bribe!

Aren't these wonderful swatches of Judie's fabric? Mereth will have to order her own set, because I"m putting these into a scrap quilt.....
I joined Judie's fabric club and received her latest collection of shirtings; I can finally feel as if the shirting drought has broken. I made this sample block up in my new fabrics, and can't wait till the work slows down a bit and I can kit up a whole lot more.

I'm still designing, and amassing a lot of quilting patterns that I will put into packs. It helps to rummage through the antique shops and find little treasures like this Victorian paper clamp. That feather at the top is the same as a traditional English quilting pattern called Goose Wing, and I love that shell shape at the base.
I found these two buds of Julia's Rose in Mereth's garden today and rescued them from the heat. They are famed for their odd brown colour which I don't like, but they are the only roses we've had for weeks, and I appreciate them anyway.
Honestly, it could rain couldn't it? We have clouds for heaven's sakes! These look portentious and a bit surreal, as if they are a fleet of podships from the planet KottonWool.
And finally a picture of puppy great-nephew Curtis, who brought his Mum and Dad to visit me on the weekend. He's such a droob, into everything. I have grubby pawprints on the top of my china cabinet now, but seeing how tall he's become it's not surprising