Dearie me, where do I start. It's been a long, long time since I posted here; way too much time to do a proper catch up on all the things that happened in the last year and a half. Suffice to say that my health is steadily declining, (chronic lung disease) and it's limiting a lot of what I enjoyed so much. No more gardening, or long walks, limited get togethers with friends. But at least I can still sew to my heart's content; I don't know what my state of mind would be if I didn't have patchwork and sewing. I don't even quilt as much as I used to, can't stand for long at the machine, and even more annoying, I can't see all that well either. But I can sit and sew, and I hope to document a lot of what I've done since I last posted.

I finished the Housetop blocks.

The top is waiting for it's turn on the longarm. It will probably be Baptist Fans, I intend to keep this, so I can choose whatever I want for it, and take my time with it.

I started working on this Twirl Around block from Bonnie Hunter's Addicted To Scraps book, and absolutely loved the clear colours and the vibrance of purple and green.  I'm being drawn more and more to modern, pretty fabrics and white as a neutral. I've been fixated on cream and stone and bone as my neutrals with 1800 repros, and it all feels much lighter and brighter with a modern palette. There's room for both in the sewing room.

And there's more time for jigsaws now too. Last Christmas our family had a jigsaw-a-thon. Photos flew back and forth between the various branches as each puzzle was finished. The kids got stuck in and did at least one a day, the oldest ones have graduated to 500 piece ones now. It was all great fun and stopped that post Christmas day slump that sometimes happens. We are collecting puzzles now for this years attempt. And it's not far away.