Not a Good Idea after all

When making the wall hanging shown on the last post, I had tons of trouble making the points match. So I thought, next time I use this pattern, I'm going to paper piece it. That will control those pesky corners!

Well, I got a chance to try it this past week. And sure enough, the points are easy to manage. Instead of a 4" square for the background, I needed only a 3" strip, and only a 2 1/4" strip for the corners. BUT what I discovered when the block was complete: ALL THE OUTSIDE EDGES ARE ON THE BIAS!!! Well, it sounded good, but didn't turn out to be such a hot idea after all. Now...maybe if I paper pieced it using a 4" square and 2 1/2" squares for the corners. I'll have to try that tonight.

On my last post I showed you the beautiful

sunrise. Well, here's the sunset from the same day. Just looking west instead of east, of course, but more breath-taking beauty to absorb at the other end of the day. It's so wonderful to have such open views all around us.

I celebrated my birthday last week. We tried to get tickets to Rosebud on Wednesday, but had to settle for Thursday. That worked out well, because Wednesday was a lovely weather and I was able to clean out the garage and go to the recycle centre, a long overdue trip. Then Thursday dawned dark, cold and snowy. So we went off to enjoy a great noon buffet and a very funny comedy at Rosebud (about 45 min drive). There was a nice surprise waiting for me there: Jim had mentioned when he made the reservations that it was my birthday celebration, and they had a small gift for me at the front counter, a lovely little silver necklace with a pendant that said, "Awesome". What a nice little surprise!

Friday we had good weather again, and the sheets were hung out on the line for the first time this year. I love the fresh smell of line-dried sheets.

On Saturday evening and Sunday afternoon we gave the performances of Faure's Requiem. It was a great performance, and much of the music was just transcendent. We had disappointingly small audiences, perhaps because the local people had not heard of Faure or his Requiem. It's a very gentle work, with very melodic passages, and little of the angst that is found in other requiems. He referred to it as a "lullaby of death," strange terms but maybe appropriate for such a gentle work.

On Friday I started cutting squares for a new

project, inspired by another gift of material from my friend Susan. I used the pattern Turning Twenty for the first time and was surprised how fast and easy it is. The materials are all bright children's prints. The top is finished, but is in two pieces yet, until I find out if I can borrow a Grace quilting frame or not. If I can't I'll quilt it in halves, and then sew the left and right sides together and finish quilting the center. I first tried that five years ago, and found it MUCH easier than trying the manage the entire quilt in my DSM. This quilt top measures 70" x 86".

Now I want to cut some more stash for another Turning Twenty, but in a different colour scheme and using one of the variations on this basic pattern. I have a lot of new projects from the batch of material Susan passed on to me. My plan is to make several projects and then ask Susan to pick one as a "Thank you" gift. She's given me material several times now, and I've garnered some lovely quilts (including that 30's Log Cabin), so it's time to return a gift to her.