Ain't technology wonderful?

I am not a complete luddite, I did manage to figure out how to use the BluRay recorder I was given for my birthday - albeit with a little help from my granddaughter - but I feel I am being swamped.  The digital photo frame, another birthday present,  will be a doddle and I have the perfect spot to put it, just have to connect it to my Mac and put in the same photos that I have put on the iPad........

The GPS navigator for the car only needs to be actually put into the car, and there are diagrams with arrows so how hard can it be? then I simply find a satellite signal......


And a friend heard me complain that I can no longer play the music on my iPhone in the car because the tape player - yes, the car is that old! - is broken so he offered me a spare Jabra cruiser which doubles as a hands free; it will make a match pair with the GPS device..

Then I just had to buy a new camera; my old one has such a small screen it is difficult to compose photos and I saw this amazing Lumix with a huge touch screen - and it has an Intelligent Auto Mode - it looked so easy in the store but I think I need to print out the full instructions, make myself a cup of tea, and take things slowly.........

We can go back to an earlier time and enjoy looking at simpler things.
I have some more pictures of the tools I bought at the A&C Fair, a little wooden tube with needles in, a scissor sharpener - but I have my doubts about its efficiency - bottom left is a lovely little oil can and the odd shaped tool next to it is a needle threader!

There were also four boxes containing Zig-Zag attachments and two old tins full of odds and ends of bobbins etc.

And in the bottom of the box were two leaflets full of patterns on dressmaking.  The back page of one has a picture of Singer House in London.

Do you ever take part in swaps?  I haven't done so for a while; ages ago it was a good way, like doing the block of the month at club, to try other patterns and step out of one's comfort zone.
Those early swaps were all Half square triangles;  make twenty say and swap with a friend, or group of friends and prepared to be amazed at the different ways they were made up.  You know, why didn't I think of that? on a par with everyone else having nicer fabric than you in the class!!

I played with the squares on the floor and the black four just wanted to be together then all the other colours fell into place.  I had to resew the twenty squares from one friend, she thought she was still dressmaking and used  a large seam allowance!

Although I vowed once was enough, I did join in another time; again I followed the rainbow colours in the main part with the orange and red coming down the right side.  I love using Ikat plaids in my quilts, I used to scour the shops for them when I was travelling a lot.  Isn't this hidden stars? I like the way you get glimpses of stars.

Here is another quilt with Ikat fabric - when I lived in Whitby I quilted with some friends and we regularly issued ourselves a challenge, use this or that fabric and make this or that block etc.  This time it was the Contrary Wife block and you could use only three fabrics in each block and one had to be a plaid.  If you click on the picture you can see it slightly larger and it is easier to make out the pattern.

The three fabrics per block was a big challenge to me, so to use this Ikat was sort of cheating using my initiative as the colours moved over the fabric and it looked like dozens not just three.

This evening will be more hand quilting while I catch up on watching recorded programmes then an early night as I am feeling much better so I shall be off to the prison in the morning for more quilting!

Good talking with you, keep warm out there!
June  - shall have to see about getting a proper signature.......  more technology!