It's been a week of travel and chores and furniture shifting, and now there's only one day left. I can't believe how quickly the time goes. and I don't seem to get a lot achieved. I'm sure the answer is to get up earlier, work longer and not go near the computer.

I have been determined to finish this tumbling blocks quilt, started in 2000. Several times I thought it was done, but decided I would like it wider, and longer and bigger and.... Enough! I made one final row of blocks, which necessitated finding my gear that I use for marking pieces for hand piecing. I had to collect it from places all over the house, which motivated me to set up an area just for handwork. Now I don't have any excuse not to finish my hand pieced projects.

The top is now finished except for the borders, which I will put on tomorrow. It took me three hours to press all those seams; I was under the impression that I had been pressing as I went along, but I hadn't. It seemed like I would never get to the end of it, and every time I pressed one bit some other seam would bend back the wrong way. AGGHH! I have made three Tumbling Block quilts, and I've done the same with each one, left the pressing till the end. You'd think I would learn. With the first one I watched a Doris Day movie while I ironed it (It Happened to Jane) and I still think of that movie when I see that quilt! Interestingly I found the perfect border fabric for this only a month ago, so it seems it was a good thing I never finished piecingit earlier; it was just biding it's time till the right material came along.

We went for a drive to another town on Tuesday, to deliver a quilt to a customer. After we had accomplished that we had a little outing of our own, visiting a quilt shop, antique shops and a wool shop. I seem to have acquired a wool stash, and the sock wool is building up faster than I can knit it. For the first time in years I'm knitting a garment, a casual cardigan coat, from the blue green wool at the left of the picture. It's knitting up quickly, probably a 12 ply, but there is anxiety when you knit clothing. All that work, and will it fit? Socks are pretty easy to knit, not a lot of thinking involved. I just hope the coat works out, because it is lovely wool.

And there was a small amount of material buying; several pieces of that deep blue that I need a lot of, and some pieces that I just liked the look of. Someone had to give it a home.




And my latest machine, one I didn't expect to get. It was on Ebay and I missed out on it, but the bidder who beat me reneged on the payment and I got it after all. Lucky Me! It's a dear machine, the decals are just lovely and the chrome on it sparkles. I think I can stop buying machines for a while, I'll just admire the ones I have.
I also bought a pair of hiking boots that I'd been wanting for a long time, and there are photos to show tomorrow of our first hike; this post is long enough already.