Happy Sunday!

I love the colours of the setting sun at an angle through a break in the clouds, taken by Phil at Wainui Beach recently - as it's three weeks since I last posted, I have so many photos of his to share with you  - maybe not as much stitching, but some progress :)

I was uncertain about the border of a pastel baby quilt, so I tried out a few options -

This was the main border I chose, so I tried various narrow strips to set it off, first a darkish green, then

a slightly more subtle green/yellow - then more yellow/green

then pale green with yellow -

then I had another big think, tidied up some baskets and chose this -

which I love!  Moral of the story, remember to listen to the quilt!

The garden is looking great, thanks to my h-a-h [hire a hubby] - it's amazing what a difference weeding and feeding makes.  The orange and red flowers are pretty strong now,

so I'm quite happy to welcome the first of the winter pinks -

I've always loved books and reading - think I might have mentioned that before - had another long look at a couple of golden oldies - maybe I won't tell Customs that when I brought one of these books into the country in 1958, I was pressing leaves.......

You'll notice they each have a brown paper dust jacket and I used to colour in the pictures - that's The Adventurous Four at the top and the Magic Faraway Tree both read and re-read many times.   Birds, Trees & Flowers was illustrated so no need for my pencils.  There were many great walks around where I lived in Sussex, family myth is that one day we saw an adder!? but who could resist plants with such names as Greater Knapweed and Woolly-headed thistle - and the Way-faring tree, Ladies' bedstraw or the Bog Pimpernel?

There's another piece of fabric pinned on my design wall, it's crying out for me to turn it into a quilt but I have promised myself to finish at least one - i.e. quilted and bound, before I start piecing anything else - still, there's no harm in auditioning some of my scraps, is there?

Can you make out the label at the top? a click on it will enlarge,

What do you think? kitchen curtains? and the reverse of the label -

but my mind boggles at actually wearing this, much as I love the fabric......

I'm pressing ahead with quilting the blocks of pictures my granddaughters drew onto calico, great for the evenings watching a DVD - though not the one I have at present which is in Danish or Swedish with sub titles, very complicated so I have to really watch, a series called The Bridge - very european with smoking and nudity - educational too, it made me check on Google earth to find out where these places are, my memory of school geography has faded!

Did you know in 1984 classes were being offered in NZ on String Patchwork, Cathedral Window, Machine quilting, Christmas Decorations, Padded photo albums, round boxes, folded patchwork techniques and machine applique - plus there was an exhibition in Whangarei of Wearable Art and the first edition of Quiltalk, the New Zealand newsletter for Quilters was published - and of course, it was the year of the first National Symposium - I remember it well.  With a past like that, the future can only be fantastic!!

I must share another photo from Phil, on a beautifully calm day in the Wairarapa a low cloud drifted over the lake -

and how's this for a spookily apt quotation, "The past is a course of knowledge, and the future is a source of hope.  Love of the past implies faith in the future." Stephen Ambrose

Nice chatting with you, thanks for being there.
June