One of my little mantras that run through my head is "When things get back to normal......" and you'd think by now that I would have realised there IS no 'normal'. There just seems to be a succession of upheavals and events and my mythical 'normal' existance retreats into the distance. Oh well, what am I gonna do, cry about it?

As Keryn mentioned on her blog Mum is in hospital, and will be there for some time. She's comfortable and seems happy enough, and it's a lovely little place. The nurses are kind and familiar and the kitchen staff remember she doesn't like chicken so they've got to have something else for Marj. I go up at five every evening to help her with tea, and we watch the sunset over the trees at the

end of the drive. A comforting little ritual.

But in protest at my disrupted existence I decided to start a "good" quilt, one that I've had drawn up in my ideas book for some time. I had a picture of an antique one , and I wanted nothing but gorgeous reproductions for this. The loot I got from Keryn's trip finally made me realise that (a), they are going to keep on making ever more beautiful fabric and (b), I'm going to keep on owning at least some of it. Therefore I have to start using my most precious bits or risk being inundated with these pristine fat quarters, some of which have not even been nibbled at in 5 or 6 years.

So I've started the process I really like the best, working out the trial block, deciding the pressing order (remember I'm a bit obsessive about pressing seams?), cutting strips and stacking them with military precision. I love the organising part of a new project, and the control of my fabric makes up for the things in my life I can't change. The world can be falling apart but at least my seams are pressed the right way!

Yes, a 'good' quilt. A 'nice' quilt. Not the usual scraps and castoffs thing I've been doing , but one that I can take care over. I want to make sure that each block is a creation I've thought about and not just slapped together.

Not that I haven't enjoyed my 'slung together' quilts, I have. But like my heroine Talula, I sometimes feel the need to put a bit more effort into what I'm doing, be a bit more precise about the final result. And I daresay if this ends up as a pile of blocks in a drawer I'll at least have made a dent in the gorgeous reproductions that I have so many of.

And there are always socks to be knitted.....