I am still doing the other quilt but this one took my fancy. I bought Karen Styles Star a day pattern and templates but I just could get the precision I get with English paper piecing. I like the idea of committing to making a star a day however so I am doing mine in English paper piecing, from here on in called EPP. There are 66 pieces in each block unless I have miscalculated so it's quite an undertaking. Each 60 degree diamond measures one inch long the sides. So the finished block has five inch sides. There are many ways to assemble these Seven Sisters blocks. I am slow at produc ..read more

 This is block 9 of 25, 8 inches square. I stopped stitching quite early in lockdown and only finished it last night.  I would sit down in my chair ready to go, but couldn't. I have been trying to fathom out why and the only thing I came up with is my stitching is my thinking time and it is all so overwhelming. We were lucky to have our daughter up to stay. We rented a holiday cottage in the village for her to isolate in for two weeks. During that time she came over in the evenings for a socially distanced glass or two of wine in the garden.  Sometimes it rained, sometimes ..read more

I have appliqued a few more vases. Somehow although I sit down to sew, it doesn't happen. My mind is on other things. Things like at the time of writing 30,000 of our countrymen have died. The figure is more likely to be at least 50,000 as only those who were tested have been counted. We are in Lockdown, or more precisely we are Shielding which is one stage up from Lockdown. We don't go out to buy food, in fact we don't go out for anything at all except a little exercise, and to walk the dogs. We are so lucky to live in an area where we can do this without coming across others. In fact if ..read more

And still this quilt is a long way from finished..... The paper pieced outer border is done. Ignore the jazzy pink red rug it's laid out on. In this smaller house, the dressing room is the only space large enough to lay it out and even it is limited. I have started the border of vases of flowers which shall go between the hexagons and the outer border. Nineteen more vases of flowers to go.... On our lives, I don't think too much happened in 2019. Fliss and I didn't go to the Festival of Quilts this year but had a very nice few days down in Cornwall doing an applique course with Margaret Mew ..read more