Sad sad sad! I have to go back to work next week : (

I know, those of you that work throughout the year,
as did I prior to April this year, will want to slap me lol
I quite understand!
I really must take stock and see if I could manage to live on just my 2 pensions, it seems really unlikely since they are very small, such bad planning on my part in my youth that.
sigh...

Anyway September 1st and Autumn is here, such an impressive full moon again last week too.
I guessed Autumn was creeping up on us, because the biggest bloody spiders around are queuing up outside my front and back doors to come in at night! Urghhhh

The nights are drawing in too, also a bummer.
Last night around 9pm there was such a clattering out back and much hysterical squeeking.
I looked out to see Harvey cat hurtling around outside the back door, diving through and under things, relentlessly chasing a small rat - again.
He didn't give in for well over an hour, after which all went very quiet and dog and I finally went outside to take stock.
Hilly cat chased in past me as I opened the back door, having had no part of the performance, she's way too dignified these days for that kind of caper.
Then Max the dog shot out past me to see what he'd missed out on.
Well there, laid near the back door was said rat, decently deceased thankfully and Harvey wandered in past me, his job done by the look on his face and yawned!
Yes yawned as he came indoors!
Tiring work hurtling round after rats clearly.
He's a very successful rat catcher, I just wish I knew where he was finding them and I'm none too happy that he ends up chasing them round my back garden!
All his finds have been youngsters, which gives me no confidence in that there must be the adults out there somewhere too!
Urghhhhhhhhhhh

I have been scrap busting and so far have made up these blocks, they are about 17" square-ish.
Apologies for my toes present there lol
That left big toe is the offending bunion removed one, that has been left stuck out and up, making balancing virtually impossible when walking now .............
it doesn't lay on the floor the top of it too ...........
 that's the NHS for you!

 Not altogether sure whether to piece these blocks at this size, or maybe chop them each into 4, still thinking about that.
I have quilted each block onto cotton wadding, very, very simple straight lines running round in squares, nothing fancy since I'm crap at machine quilting lol
I quite like this pretty random method of stitching scraps together and wish I could say it had made a huge reduction in my scraps bag, well, it has made very little difference at all.
So I will be making many more of these !

I have completed a cushion too, a gift for a friend, she's over from Australia and coming to me this weekend for a few days.
I screen printed my beach hut design, which you cant see properly because I used white paint on the blue fabric duhhhhh at our recent stitchy club weekend.

The blue fabric is some of Deb Ohara's delish painted fabric and I have had to stitch over the screen print design so it could be seen.
Mary used to go to Scarborough for a summer holiday with her Mum and siblings as a child and they'd hire one of the lovely old traditional beach huts for the duration of their stay.
Then when she was a Mum she took her own young children there , so this is meant to suggest a memory or two, of times past I hope.
If all else fails she can use the cushion to rest her head on, during the long flight back to Australia at least lol



Oh and I must tell you, I drove home the other day and before turning onto my drive, saw this small black ferret galloping happily along the centre of the road out front of my house!
Not what you expect to see mid morning in a suburban street.
I got out and watched but soon lost sight of it as it dashed under various cars, 3 of us stood out there, all taken aback at the sight lol
Since then a veterinary nurse friend has told me it was far more likely to have been a MINK!
They are far more common living wild now, since well meaning activists released them from captivity several years back and sad to say, they are a real danger to our indigenous wildlife!
To quote my old Gran.........

"Well, I never did!"

That was a term she used liberally and it was interchangeable, a sort of explain all phrase, feel free to make use of it too!