Sick sewing machine & Almost Argyle

I have to admit it's beautiful, though I wish it were any colour but pink!

Now that I have had some awful weedy large shrubs taken out, the smaller camelia bushes are doing so well.

And the orange monsters, the rosemary, pineapple sage and the euphorbia I asked about recently ensure that the garden is not wholly pink.

I want to share with you another block that is part of my five inch squares class.  I found it in an old magazine, the method used was to make templates of each of the pieces, so I looked for another way.  Here are the steps I took -

The block is to the right at the top, the plan to the left - simple isn't it?  Just one point to remember, the five inch squares are put on top of one another with the right sides up; cut through both on the angle prescribed, swop pieces and resew - as shown at bottom left.

Then put the resewn pieces, again with right sides up, and light fabric over dark, cut again on the same angle, swop and resew.  Take care to ensure the pieces meet in the centre and then square off the block.

I decided to put mine inside another square so the pointy bits were up and down, then I looked for borders -

but I eventually decided on a stripey batik but I did drop the blocks, I thought it looked almost like argyle socks, hence the name.

I also tried joining four into a large block and like the effect -

When you make the first cut and resew, the resulting little block can be used, trimmed to a square, like this -

and this one goes together well, it's a good basic boy quilt -

though probably with a slightly less girly border.  If you use a sharper angle for the cut, you end up with a different effect -

I hd a great stitching day yesterday with friends, and have made good progress with the bag for my granddaughter - and then my machine gave an almighty crack and froze!  It is a little old Elna Lotus I bought years ago when I was an agent for a company making embroidery kit sets.  I used to pop the machine behind the driver's seat in the car, pile in my container of sewing supplies so that I was ready to get to work as soon as the shops closed.  I rearranged my motel room to accomodate the machine and iron and a space for cutting, and off I went!

I realised I hadn't had it serviced for years but my local repair man is quite sure he can fix it.

I did some tidying up recently and came across a receipt, so twenty five years ago - yoiks! - on October 10th 1987 I bought some embroidery threads at The Silver Thimble, in Oakville, Ontario, Canada.   I wonder if the shop is still there.

My quote today, so appropriate after the great time we had yesterday - "A friend is someone who sees through you and still enjoys the view.  Wilma Askinas

Nice talking with you, and welcome to my new follower
June