Good Things, Not Such Good Things and Better Things

I forgot to post my Good Things for last week:



Pema Chodron's quote of the week reminded me of the reasons why I started keeping the good things journal:

CHERISH ORDINARY MOMENTS

In our most ordinary days we have moments of happiness, moments of comfort and enjoyment, moments of seeing something that pleased us, something that touched us, moments of contacting the tenderness of our hearts. We can take joy in that. I find that it’s essential during the day to actually note when I feel happiness or when something positive happens, and to begin to cherish those moments as precious. Gradually we can begin to cherish the preciousness of our whole life just as it is, with its ups and downs, its failures and successes, its roughness and smoothness.

I needed reminding of the good things when I managed to do this:



Yep, I sewed my star together back to front. Grrrrrrrr. And after doing the neatest whip stitches I had ever managed too :-(. I was so ready to just throw it out and stamp my feet, but in the end I decided to unpick the stitches and sew it together the right way round and here's how it turned out:



Not so bad, but as you can see, the points don't quite meet in the middle, meaning there's an itty bitty hole there. Ho-hum.

The day after this sewing disaster, my copy of Jinny Beyer's Quiltmaking by Hand book was delivered. Wow, what an amazingly beautiful and thorough book!



I was interested that Jinny more or less totally dismisses English Paper Piecing as a cumbersome waste of time when hand piecing cottons. That, coupled with seeing Gayle's amazing point-to-point sewn hexagons, has made me think about reconsidering paper piecing. I will definitely continue with the hexagon charm quilt (I have over 300 hexies already basted lol!) but am wondering whether to abandom EPP diamonds in favour of learning point-to-point sewing techniques. Oooh, I dunno.

In non-sewing news, I have continued with the ICAD Challenge. This week I have mostly been playing with Sharpies. I just love the saturated colours. Not so much the smell though!