Sunshine and shadows

This is Kath from Windy Bay’s favourite quilt pattern and oddly enough it’s mine too, along with the humble nine patch. Yet surprisingly, when I came to look for a pattern to show you, I realised that what I know as ‘Trip Round the World’ is widely listed as Sunshine and Shadows.

Here’s what I mean https://www.rockymountainquilts.com/files/antiquequilt_conje18.php The top picture shows what I think of as a sunshine and shadows block, which is lovely and easy to make with those oh so tempting fat quarter packs. If you adjust it a bit then you get a ‘Trip Round the World.’ As I know it.

That got me thinking about how what we think we know is often not wrong, but not definitively right either. The quilt in the top picture is one I love, often with one of the squares being white to show off quilting or embroidery. So too is the humble 9 patch, which I know as being the third quilt down on the display here https://www.allpeoplequilt.com/quilt-patterns/nine-patch-quilts

I know and love and have made all of these, including the chequerboard which I know as a one patch and just looking at them brightens up a grey day when I’m not doing so well physically because it fills my head with ideas and dreams and ways to make my own sunshine.

Don’t feel sorry for me because it’s my own silly fault. I pushed the limits and they’d decided to push back. The flaming weather keeps shifting which annoys my joints and it’s been the worst winter since I was diagnosed back when I was sixteen.

So that’s the shadows. But there has been sunshine and there still is because I’ve been marking the seaside embroidery for my organised crazy quilt, of the sort that Stacy made in ‘Crazy for Death.’ It’s going to be anchors and life belts and I’ve had my boxes of threads out and chosen colours. A few years back I reorganised all of them so they were in colour groups not thread numbers and I can strongly recommend doing that if, like me, you like surface embroidery.

I had a gorgeous walk yesterday along the Harbourside and the day before I saw the first ducklings of the year. How can a world with ducklings in it be bad? Especially the sort who are zipping around like old-fashioned pull back and go toys? Or a sunny day by the harbour. Or a wicker basket that’s gradually filling up with ironed embroidered cotton pillowcases because I love the feeling of a fresh pillowcase against my face.

So I’ll share my ducklings and my finished embroidered bag with you and hope that you get sunshine till we meet again.