A Different Approach to Hexagons

I have always avoided Y seams (those angled seams you get such as when you join three hexagons together). At some point in the last month though I seem to have decided the time had come, and so I started cutting out fabric for a runner to go along the top of my chest of drawers.

I started with the trusty free online Hexagon Calculator to work out how many I'd need of which size. Then I drew one and made a cardboard template. My template showed both the outer edge AND the line I was going to sew along. I know you can buy things like this but making your own means it's available to you the instant you want it. Having cut out my hexagons and drawn the sewing lines on the wrong side, I was ready to go!

It was slow work but I've finished the assembly and am now ready to move on to making the sandwich and quilting it!

Last weekend I was once again cat sitting and Luna was on fine form.

Pooch had given me some Godiva chocolates for my birthday and Luna adored the ribbon from the box. Once she'd done with playing we both had a lie down on the sofa.

This was on my birthday, before Pooch and I went out for dinner, and it really was a perfect way to spend an afternoon. Having a zizz with a cat similarly sleeping on top of you on a lazy afternoon with some nonsense on the telly is really my idea of perfection. I *so* want a cat of my own!

Diamante Delight

I have a fairly good collection of diamante or costume jewellery dating back a century or so. I first started acquiring necklaces for £2 or £3 a time during my A-levels when an antique shop next to the bus stop I got off at when coming back from school started regularly displaying it in its window. Back then I bought pretty much anything they got that was old and sparkly. Now I'm a bit more discerning.

One of those side-effects of working is that they do pay you, so having a fair whack of disposable income for the first time in 18 months I've started occasionally looking at ebay to see what's out there. And I've made two purchases.

I prefer silver metal but this one caught my eye as, in colour, it resembles another one I wear quite frequently (I collect to wear, not to preserve) and it was a design I hadn't seen before. That upside down horseshoe shape and the triple baguettes where the chain attaches made me think of Art Deco and Fred Astair and Ginger Rogers in Top Hat. Ah, to be Ginger Rogers in that film. Her grace of movement, those dresses, the settings, the romance....ahhhhh. Anyway. The second were being sold as a set but are mismatched and the necklace is actually slightly broken with half the clasp being missing.

Often jewellery like this is sold as being for repair or repurposing because it can break quite easily. Catches and clasps are usually quite easy to repair with some wire or, as a last resort, glue. I haven't done that yet with this necklace but I did wear the brooch and bracelet when we went out for my birthday dinner last night. Actually they paled into insignificance when compared with my most blingy accessory.

Yesterday was my 37th birthday and, since it just so happens that it falls on one of America's biggest celebrations, Pooch and I ventured out for dinner and fireworks. Fog managed to dull the fireworks but not the flashing of my headwear!