Fair Squares

It's about time I showed off what I received from Julie in the Fair & Square exchange and the squares that I sent her.

Here are the squares I received from Julie. I really love the lavender colour - it's one of my favourites. Julie also included some fabric and a quilting magazine with some gorgeous designs in it.


Strangely enough, we both chose a quilting theme as I stitched some quilt blocks for her, using some of my favourite stitches.



On the first square the stitches are, from top left to bottom right, Satin stitch, Rhodes stitch, Rice stitch, Algerian eyelets. The eyelets were a bit of a nuisance, but I think the special stitches look good!

A tragedy

It was a great shock to I hear on Sunday of the deaths of Colin McRae, Johnny McRae, Ben Porcelli and Graeme Duncan. All came from Lanark, the same small town in Scotland where I was born and grew up. Although I did not know Colin very well, I am fairly sure that I have known members of all the families affected by this tragic accident.

My heartfelt sympathy goes out to all the families concerned. I know that the entire town will be deeply affected and that the shock has been felt worldwide. None of their names will be forgotten in a hurry.

I was briefly amused that, unusually, this was the second time in a week that Lanark had made the national news here in the UK. Only a few days earlier, a sheep at Lanark Market was tested for foot and mouth disease. The results of the test were fortunately negative.

A few changes

I'm making a few changes to the template I'm using here, so things may look a bit odd until I sort it out. I still love the old template, especially Stephanie Law's artwork, I just need a change of colour scheme.

What a surprise!

I had a wonderful surprise waiting for me when I came home from work last Friday. Look what the postman had brought me!


Isn't it beautiful? Thank you so much to Cheryl who made it for me, the reason being that I suggested the new name for her blog. I was so chuffed when she chose my suggestion and I'm even more chuffed to receive such a beautiful pin cushion!

I made a good bit of stitchy progress last week. Firstly, I posted my squares to Julie in the Fair & Square exchange. I seem to have made really heavy going of stitching my blocks and it was quite a relief to get them into the post. I hope Julie likes them!

For a bit of light relief, I then stitched a few more blocks on Nova and was really pleased to complete row B and start on Row C. I really enjoyed stitching on Nova - it's my project with absolutely no deadlines attached to it at all and it's such a relief to be able to pick it up and put it down as and when I feel like it.

I've now cut my WIPs back to a minimum. I think that over the last few months, I've just been trying to do far too much all at once, even if the deadlines are mainly self inflicted. I'm even considering putting St. Petersburg on hold long term as I just can't face it.

The only bit of deadline related stitching I will be doing is in the Heartfelt Friends RR. I even made a small start on Cheryl's RR at the weekend. However, if I keep to the deadlines on the RR, then I should have plenty of time for each piece. At least today I'm feeling a bit more in control!

I also want to say a really big THANK YOU to everyone for all their good wishes after my last post. I'm still feeling a bit rough, but dealing with it better and promising to take the odd day off work (like yesterday) to give myself a bit more relaxing 'me time'. So thanks again to all of you.