Herbst

Yes, Herbst (Autumn) is on its way. I can smell it in the air. Just walked Logan round the lakes in the park and there was that lovely mulchy scent. I get sad when the evenings get dark earlier and that summer is going out with a whimper but looking forward to all the pleasures of Autumn.

I think my crescent and star quilt for Olivia will eventually get finished but it has been going like a long-running tv. series, i.e. in episodes with breaks in between and no end in sight. I just finished all the inner quilting and had started on the inset triangles (in the hope of perhaps doing the binding this week before quilting the border) when my daughter spotted one of the big white bits that hadn't been done - how did I miss it?

Our quilt group had a lovely visit yesterday from our founder member, Renate, who had left Germany to live in the US. Her husband now has a new job and they have returned to Germany but to Bremen in the north. She came for the day yesterday and we had such a jolly session (thank you, Nancy!) all talking at once as usual. Afterwards, Renate came back to me for a dogwalk by the river and a long quilty chat and a pot of tea. Although we can't see her often, it is so lovely to know that she's only a train journey away and not an expensive flight, and that we can see each other reasonably regularly. We are all looking forward to visiting her in Bremen and also making a trip to the island of Sylt, where another former group member is now living and running a hotel.

Before Renate left South Carolina, I ordered loads of fabric online from US stores to be delivered to her. She has incorporated this with the family's house contents, which will be shipped over in October. It will be like Christmas when I receive those packages because I will have forgotten a lot of what I ordered. I do know I've got quite a lot of civil war reproduction prints coming and some French provencal fabric, so I need to plan what I do with those. Apart from opening them, sniffing them and stroking them - it seems I'm not alone in this, having talked to other quilters.

Well, I must do an hour's ironing and then sew madly before I go to the hairdresser's for a much-needed trim. I never quite know how my haircut is going to go or how I will look when I come out - does anyone else live with this uncertainty, I wonder?