Delectable mountain

Well,  not exactly a mountain here, but Cape Palliser on the Wairarapa Coast - taken a few days ago because with the big storm chasing up the country, I'm sure it looks quite different now!

The delectable mountain I want to share is the block from my class, remember all these blocks are adapted to be made out of five inch squares and this one starts with the reliable half square triangles -

Then comes the slightly tricky part when these have to be sliced into three equal strips, and to do this I searched my memory for something I leant at school in the geometry class.  Is that still done? our mathematics class was taught in three separate sections, arithmetic, algebra and geometry - I'm sure my teacher would be delighted to know I retained something from the classes.

Anyway, here is my method:

The idea is to put the square onto the cutting board using the lines to ensure it is correctly oriented, use a ruler - but make sure the zero is right at the end or make an allowance if there is a 'margin' at the end of the ruler.  The example uses a five inch square, but of course this works with any size; with the six inch mark on the vertical edge mark at two and four inches - because of course it's easy dividing six into three equal pieces.  Use a dot not a line for marking the point, then with a square ruler draw the line through the dot - making sure this is done at right angles to the base and cut on this line.

It is then time to re-arrange the segments, like so -

I've seen this block used to make a whole quilt, or a border - remembering that it's a rectangle;  I put it around a feature fabric -

- slight pause here, the southerly has hit with a wallop so I dashed around pulling all the curtains & battening down the hatches; the forecast was spot on.

I've decided to forget about the many sides of the red pincushion - you've seen two, you've seen them all and no-one but a real fan of canvaswork is going to see anything different in them - however, you don't get away scot free, I have another pincushion, also canvaswork, but a little different.

It's about three inches square and the pattern is the result of a long, long session at the dentist!  As I lay back in the chair I looked right into the surround of the lamp; it had a sort of faceted look, so I reproduced it here.  I also used to collect hat pins, so it's a handy place to put some of the smaller ones.

I'll close this evening with another of son Phil's photos, taken on the same trip at the one at the top of the page, this guy looks fierce but I understand he was yawning.

And my quote for today is, "Personally I'm always ready to learn, although I do not always like being taught", Sir Winston Churchill 

Thanks for stopping by - take care in the storm, I'm going to check on the outside furniture - heard a few ominous bangs!

June