This is the wonderful Wairarapa - I can understand sun worship when you get such clouds!  Lake Ferry  in front and a glimpse of the ocean over to the left.

Nothing to do with the shoe store, but a great photograph I think....

I need new shoes, anyone who wears orthotics as I do knows full well that you can't wear shoes that are worn down, so I went to the Mall, walked around a shoe shop and saw so many ugly, ugly shoes then into another and the same thing, but I spied a book shop and went there for some relief.

I spied a book that beckoned to me -

It's been ages since I bought a cookery book but this one reminded me that my meals are becoming very predictable and unimaginative and just plain boring, and already I have book marks in -

Asparagus - doesn't that say spring is here? - well, I shall wait until it is in the shops and spring will be here - my mouth is watering at the prospect of crisp beautiful asparagus.

Once more I have spoken too soon - remember the squares I am knitting and my blithe comment that at least knitting diagonally means I shall stop at the correct size?

Should have been eight inches, somehow I managed to make it nine and a half!  So I ripped it down and have redone it and another.  So easy to do while "watching" TV because I really can do it without looking.

There was some discussion at a recent club meeting about hand quilting and marking patterns, this is one of my hand quilted quilts -

I named it Floribunda Stellata [my take on lots of stars] and it was as a result of a swap amongst some friends.  I have told you about it before, a year ago yesterday - how spooky is that, 23 July 2011 was the post, but this time I am more interested in the actual quilting.

The beauty of the design is that I didn't need to actually mark the fabric - and I remember quilting it in 1994 after I'd had an operation on my ankle that led to me giving up golf - being stuck in plaster for eight weeks I had plenty of time to hand sew.  I used a little ruler and marked the line going from the edge of the nine patch in the alternate block, bouncing it around the plain square - just by dragging the needle across the fabric.  I could clearly see the line.

 And again through the calico which was the paving around the garden.  Don't know that my stitches are that small these days!

So a visit to a shoe store will have to be made soon, but I won't be coming home with a pair like this!!

Thanks for stopping by - and remember as  Betty Talmadge said, "Life is what happens to you when you're making other plans."


June