Good grief I have actually managed to post every day for nearly a week. Now I’m organised it will all come to a screaming halt on Friday darn it.  Never mind hopefully there has been enough eye candy to keep you going for a while.

I finished the last  two of the Baltimore Blues Blocks I had to make courtesy of Sindy’s web site Fat Cat Patterns.  Sindy has rearranged things a bit and it’s definitely a slicker site but with lots of fabulous patterns as always - do pop over and check it out.

Block 3 (or March as it is other wise known) was wonderful.

Simple, stylish and my kind of block.  While I love the Baltimore blocks I’m tending to lean towards the simplier variety as more my style if you know what I mean.  Not to mention the fact that they are easy to sew.  I used a wider and more open zig zag on these blocks and I’m far happier with the result than the satin stitch I had used on February’s block.

Block 4 - aka March - had lots of little tiny leaves that were a right royal pain even with the new improved zig zag I was doing. I was soooooo glad to get it done.  At first I thought I would leave them out - but the block didn’t look right without them - so in they went.

Now I’m all caught up on these blocks.  May’s block can wait until I am able to commence sewing again.

I also found time to make up James’s Guinea Pig Cushion that i had promised to do after Ben the Guinea Pig passed away.  It suddenly dawned on me last week that I had better get my butt into gear or poor James would be waiting for a while.  The pattern was another of Sindy’s fantastic patterns.  Check out her Hooty Toot Owl pattern while you are there (it’s on the same page) they are sooooo cute and very tempting to make….not that I need another project.

Now can you tell just how proud and pleased James is of his cushion??????

I used flanelette for the cushion front (check out the cute lady bugs I couldn’t resist…vbg) and checked green and white flanelette for the back. It was so easy to applique onto. I just ironed a bit of interfacing,  cut so it was just larger than the applique,  to the back of the cushion front which made it super easy to sew and gave a nice crisp finish to the guinea pig.  By not interfacing the entire cushion front means it has retained its softness and is really cuddly.

This morning it’s lovely and overcast but not looking like rain so I have pottered in the vegie garden for a little while weeding and putting in some seedlings that needed planting.  Not that there were many.  I also managed to pot up the Pigeon Pea plants that  I had successfully grown from seed - so they can now grow nice and strong in their little pots until next Spring when they will be planted out.

Pigeon pea is a a legume crop which provides shade and food for not only humans but also poultry which is one reason why I want to try them.  Where is some information here at Wikpedia and also some here.  I popped the seeds into boiling water for about a minute then planted them into seed raising mix with vermiculite over the top and had the most success I have ever had.  Out of 10 seeds 8 germinated.  Last year out of all I planted only two grew and they were poor specimens - but to be fair I just planted them in the potting mix and didn’t soak them in hot water first.

The pumpkins are nearly ready to pick - I couldn’t resist picking one the other night and we had it roasted - yum.  There are self sown lettuces by the bucket full but I’m not going to pull them out - they are the lovely crisp butter head type really delish in a sandwhich.  It’s a pity we get frost as there are also heaps of self sown tomatoes coming up - but they wouldn’t survive the winter unfortunately and I’m not about to start constructing hot houses for them.   The rest of the vegie garden is a jungle of weeds unfortunately but as there is a fence to go up down there I’m not too stressed about it at the moment.  Now Ashley has the post hole attachments to go on the Kanga plus a pile of wooden posts - there should be no excuse not to get moving on it.  What a pity I won’t be able to help other than to supervise……wickedly grinning at the thought.

Right I’m off to whip up something for lunch then to do a bit of paperwork - boring she cries - then a few more blocks in the Home Circle Quilt I’m making for Elise.  I’m going to try bribery. If I can get the blocks done before Friday I’m going to see if she will sew them together (pretty simple stuff) and if that’s done she can quilt it on the gammill.  What do you think my chances are????  Have a lovely day.