A Mariner’s Compass – in lambskin. Yes, these lambskiin rugs, for bed or floor, are a specialty in Uruguay and downtown on the Plaza Independencia near the Old City/Ciudad Vieja is a group of tourist souvenir shops that carry them. Locals are always amazed saying ‘where did you get this?’ but of course, locals rarely thoroughly explore their own back yards as a rule, right? We have a nice rug on our bed here – heavy to sleep under, though – and have had them on floors in US and Aus and worn out several over the past 16 years. Only recently have they been doing the optional square infilling around the compass points. When the one in the sitting room here wears out …. there will no doubt be other splendid options. this size, about 2mx2m, would be about US80-100.

With quilting resolved, and only 127 more squares to go… there is plenty of time to think of a title for this piece, most recent in the Ebb and Flow series 

In a flurry of activity today, I scanned and sent images of 4 recently photographed and recently finished quilts to the exhibition organisers in DC, partly to reassure myself and them that there IS plenty of work gathering for the show, and hopefully one of these recent ones will produce THE image needed to put on the invites etc. Then sent them my May-June itinerary – arrival date from Montevideo, 18th, and the flying in and out of DC as I attend our son’s graduation over on the Eastern Shore MD, with attendant family reunion in Easton MD. Then it’s off to the SAQA conference in OH coinciding with the opening weekend of QN ( what a treat that will be – long forgone) then back to DC for the hanging and opening of my show on the 1st June, and then west again out to the Rooted in Traditon art quilt symposium at Golden, in CO. Another set of treats there – a Front Range Contemporary Quilters show will be on ( I’m a former member, miss them a lot) and there will be the opening exhibiton of the Rocky Mountain Quilt Museum’s collection of 67 art quilts ( one of them my ‘Ora Banda’ ) and I am on one of the discussion panels scheduled during the symposium. It should all be fun, plus catching up with some old friends from way back, some not seen in years, but often heard of. If I survive all that, I will be returning to Montevideo around 13th June.

So, that all took several hours. At this point the easy one tenth of the quilting on my latest (browns, creams, alternating squares – blog, march 28th) ie the easy, constructional, in the ditch, clear nylon filament, has been completed. I experienced a bit of dithering last night on which threads to use for contrasting hand quilting within each square. In the morning light the threads themselves had made the decision, but I haven’t got back to start that yet – today’s admin exercises/excesses have drained me – time for a walk and then a cuppa, then cook dinner. No, it’s later than I thought, so instead of a cuppa I might have a g&t – which reminds me – SIL gave me a frig magnet featuring a pic of a clear drink with the following caption – “I’m on a gin and tonic diet… and, so far, I’ve lost 2 days !”

This wonderful art deco house we found near the British hospital when visiting a friend there on saturday. Close inspection revealed brasslettering near the front door reading “Residencia Geriatrica” . As a result of being very wealthy during the first half of the twentieth century, Montevideo contains some beautiful art deco buildings. One of my friends here says though that people on the street hardly ever look up, and don’t appreciate what is all around them. Isn’t it the same everywhere, though?

Ivan and Tara’s wedding quilt, completed late last century. They chose purples and golds, and although the pic is not great, you can see other fabrics were added that gave extremely broad interpretation of those colour groups. within the fabrics themselves were many prints which contain dashes of other colours, so the whole look is very modern and scrappy.