All kinds of everything

Well, it's a good thing I had the entire day today (mostly) to sew as I won't be getting anything done tomorrow - I had a call this afternoon from the school asking if I could go on the trip with the year 3&4's tomorrow (Olivia is going). As my only official plans were sewing and running the school uniform shop for half an hour in the afternoon (one of the school secretaries has said she'll cover that) I felt I could hardly say no. No one can say I'm not a good mum - sacrificing an entire day with no plans but me time to travel across London on a coach full of 7, 8 & 9 year olds to visit the RAF museum... I'm sure it will be fun, right? Of course it will!

So, it's a good thing I got lots done today. First thing I did was finish up a pencil roll for the party Alex is going to on Saturday - I had one about half done from before, so that was quick. I promise a tutorial on the pencil roll fairly soon - maybe next week - several people have asked, and it's not hard, but I just need to remember to take photos as I go along. I still have 3 more to do before this series of parties is finally finished.

Then I made a block for the birthday block swap on about.com - this block is for Debbie, who wanted stars in black and taupe on a cream background. It came out nicely, I think. And then, I rewarded myself by working on something not on my goal list - the blocks for the little spring Four Seasons Sampler I was planning yesterday. I knew I wouldn't be able to leave it alone. This is why I've been keeping goal lists lately - I tend to get distracted. I usually meet all my deadlines, but sometimes things get left behind until the last minute, especially if it's something which doesn't excite me quite as much as something new. So, by keeping lists of goals and deadlines, I'll hopefully be able to keep track a little better and not worry I'm leaving something out.

Anyway, I made up the blocks for the sampler and am very happy with them - they look nice and spring-like to me. Not sure how I will arrange them (though not like in the photo as I've just noticed the shoo-fly and the churn dash next to each other and that doesn't really work). I'm going to let them sit awhile and tell me how they want to be sashed. Maybe next week I will work on them - I've got more on my schedule next week, so my goals for the week will be fewer than this week.



And finally, here's some lovely post - two blocks from Rho as part of a group of blocks that were made for me as a comfort quilt back when my dad died. The blocks haven't been put together yet, partly because there was a shortage of blocks and partly because Sophie, whose lovely idea it was in the first place had been unable to work on it for health reasons. Anyway, Sophie is sending me the blocks she had (they're in the post now, actually, unless they got held up by the tons of snow it's been dumping on Michigan lately) and a few others are sending a few more blocks along to me - these are the first of those. Aren't the colours great? (Well, you know how I feel about brown!)

And on the right, a total surprise in the post from Penny in Australia - a whole bag of goodies. And lovely goodies they are. There's a card made from fabric paper with some cute chooks on it, a "danglie" which is now hanging in my sewing room with some of my other treasures (I decided not to put it onto a keyring or my bag for fear it would break), also a little painting/drawing - looks sort of like a watercolour but not quite - not sure what it was done with but it's lovely. And a bit of lace and an inchie. I think it was Susan who said I get the nicest things in the post - today it's definitely true!