Birthday and Blues

The title of this post is  not strictly accurate - I did have a great birthday yesterday the 26th.  Our daughter asked if we would all like to go to her place for a meal so it was a full house and we all had a great time, lovely to see our six grandchildren enjoying themselves. One really good bit was when  the lights were closed off and my lovely chocolate birthday cake lit with candles was brought into the dining room and put on the table and everyone launched into Happy Birthday to Mum/Grandma, our second youngest grandson (2 1/2 yrs)was delighted to see and hear all this and his little face was a delight to see - he thought this was all for him and when the singing stopped promptly made a dash to blow out the candles!

 The blues bit of the post covers the fact that I haven't achieved anywhere near the progress I intended with my quilting over the past week due to health issues. Still not feeling great but was able yesterday to finish part of the centre medallion for Midnight At The Oasis QAL.

There is a post on 1st November for the QAL and most everyone will probably be well on the way to completing the first border ready for the post - if I can get a move on I should catch up.

I have put together the four triangles and rough cut the set in triangles and the centre square, I have cut them larger and will reduce them down to the correct size when I put the centre medallion together.

If you click on the  button on the right hand side you can find out all about the QAL.

Threads need cutting and edges trimming but I have got them sewn together now and I am so over these small triangles! Don't get me wrong I enjoyed this bit but what a time consuming process, after a few false starts in-between bouts of illness I turned to my tried and true method of using tear away stabiliser for accuracy and piecing in strips, same procedure as using paper which some  have used for this quilt, I just prefer the stabiliser which tears away like a dream or can be left in, it's really fine. So many of these small triangles were cut to give me plenty of choice for placing, just a few below

I have a huge amount left over but for the moment they are heading for a plastic bag in a drawer!

My Fractured quilt is all sewn of course now and waiting to be quilted, quite a lot of the ladies are making second or third quilts, click the button on the side and you can read all about us and what we have been doing. Vicki has sponsored this QAL and I was lucky enough to win the draw on Monday for a piece of her beautiful dyed fabric which should be arriving in my mail box pretty soon.

So the week passed slowly for me and I have been reading a book with the title Quake Dogs. When the earthquakes hit Christchurch two years ago an awful lot of pets were in dire distress and this book tells their stories - very moving indeed, especially if you are a doggie person like me.

A quick wander in the garden this morning to see where my roses were up to with their flowering and a 

David Austin rose which was  a new one this season has a bloom open, this one is Eglantyne, as with all his roses a delicious scent.

So that's it from me for the moment, I have two days posts to read and there are heaps of them so the next little while will be spent sitting here at the computer.

Have a great week

Maureen