A bear, a bag and some blocks

But first, this glorious euphorbia!

I do hope it will enlarge ok because I am astonished by the intricacy of the flowers.  Aren't they amazing?

And an apology for letting the days gallop by without taking myself in hand and just sitting down at the computer to write!

Anyway, I'm here now on this sunny Sunday afternoon; I went into the garden to put some cardboard boxes into the boot of the car ready to take to the recyclers tomorrow, noticed a whole lot of weeds in between the stones where the rain had flooded last week, so stopped to pull out a couple........

Several broken nails later and an aching back I have come inside to enjoy a cup of tea and decided now would be a good time to chat with you.

I now share my bed - with a large bear!

He is very soft and cuddly, even has a squeak in one paw and was shared by my granddaughters when they were little.  He has an interesting history; when my late husband was in the Mary Potter Hospice for the final week of his life, they allowed me to room with him....... and one night one of the wonderful nurses suggested I have a lavender bath before bed and when I returned to the room, there on the bed was Aloysius!  She said they kept him for the family when they needed special comfort.

Then some weeks later I visited a friend's house and was amazed to see "Aloysius" on her couch - well this bear was waiting for an operation on the stitching and a friend of my friend owned the shop where these bears lived before being adopted out!!

When Sharon [the shop owner] heard the story she insisted that Aloysius just had to come home with me, wasn't that a lovely thing to do.  And why is he now back on my bed you may ask? well I am tidying the spare bedroom, always known as "The girls' room" and with help from these same girls, now young ladies, I am having a clear out - many soft toys were  passed on to the Op Shop, but Aloysius just moved rooms.

Among the toys to be tidied - and what a trip down memory lane that is turning into - was a set of wooden blocks.  You know the kind where there is a different picture on each of the six sides.  This particular set must be fifty years old and was used for building blocks when the novelty of the pictures, and some of the paper, wore off.

And the bag - well I mentioned I was making one for Molly, the younger of my two granddaughters and she chose the fabric from my stash.

Real street art!  She didn't want a pocket on the outside, there are several inside - the the little notebook cover was made by Jan who recently taught this bag for Pinestream Quilters - I made one for myself as her guinea pig and when Molly admired it, we have made one for her too.  I have to say 'we' because Jan gave me a great deal of help and I will give Molly her bag tomorrow.

And now, just to prove that I am still stitching, I finished the Mountain Garden and took it along to the Wellington Guild meeting and today I made a sandwich of the top my granddaughters made by drawing onto calico - thought I'd better get a move on before too much time passes!  I intend to use it as a curtain over the back door, not for warmth  as it's double glazed, but for privacy as the bathroom door is opposite.

Here's another block from my Five Inch Squares class to share with you.  The quilt was called Give and Take and was in a rather old Quilters' Newsletter Magazine, I made some changes and the block is perfect for the squares.

It's the usual method of putting the two strips right sides together, mark the diagonal, sew two seams for the extra half square triangle, but it's the large one that goes into the quilt.  As it's quite chunky, I tried slicing it down the centre and rejoining - that's the bit at the bottom.  I think it could make an interesting border......

And the quilt - the pattern is all in the placement of the colour values of this one simple block.

I love the dragonfly border - chosen by - who else, my granddaughters!

This is so true - "Those truly linked don't need correspondence, when they meet again after many years apart, their friendship is as true as ever:" by Deng Ming-Dao

Or am I feeling guilty because I haven't contacted my family for ages.....

Nice chatting with you
June