I think I've forgotten how to blog, its been so long! I get so busy doing all these things that would make good posts, but never get time to sit down and compose a decent blog post.  Shame on me.

I've been spending every spare moment working on my cross-patch blocks, some would say obsessively..... 

But I did enjoy them, and used up such a lot of scraps that I was forced to cut more 1.5" strips.  I don't have all my fabric here, but I did have a tower of Elizabethtown, by Jo Morton, so I used that with gay abandon.  And to stop myself getting all precious about it, I gave the remains to Mereth afterwards, so she can cut some strips for herself.  I'm determined not to let fabric get to 'Holy' status around here, it's all there to be used, not hoarded.  I always think, I'll never be able to buy this again, so I must save it; which is bunkum.

Incidentally, I love using the Quiltshops site to track down older fabric; it takes me ages to discover that I really love some fabrics, or that they are perfect for a certain quilt.  On this site I can track down a stockist and buy what I need, sometimes many years after the fabric was released.  I've been introduced to some great shops this way, that I otherwise wouldn't have found.  Now when I cut fabric I make sure not to remove the selvage and it's identifying info, so I will be able to find it online if I need to.

I must have a low boredom threshold, because the simple cross-patch block started morphing into other blocks, and then I started having more fun with the variations than the original block. 

I'll do another post on them later, and I don't think I'm quite finished with this block layout.

I tried to make some interesting cornerstones, instead of having the blue sashing on it's own, but the quilt was having none of it.  Talk about stubborn!  I would have been finished days ago, except I was convinced I could find some magic little block to put in the cornerstones and bring the quilt to life.  Apparently not.   But the dark blue is going to be very serviceable, and with a dog on my bed at night I need a quilt that won't show every mark.  Dolly's a clean little girl, being so short-haired and having a bath every single day, but she's a dog after all. 
It will have 4" blue borders all the way around, but I don't have time to do that right way; soon.

 We are into the last days of summer, and it's been a remarkable season.  We haven't had much of the usual blisteringly hot weather that makes our summers such a misery, and almost none of the hot northerly winds, which can kill a garden in a single day.  Today is supposed to be over 100 degrees, but then the forecast is for cool weather for the next 9 days.  I'm so happy to see autumn roll around once again!!!  The dogs will appreciate the cooler weather too; after every walk out at Bowman's Park there's a scrummage to see who can fit into the wading pool; and who can drink the most of their bathwater too.

That was clean water before they got in there....

 These Staffies are just water buffalo in disguise.