Blocks and blockheads

These photos show the product of a nice relaxing night last night. I lowered the ironing board and used it as a worktable by the sofa as I vegged out on front of TV ( taped episode of New Street Law, Channel 4 News, Relocation Relocation and a programme about a barking mad man who took a crumbling castle, a listed ancient monument- part of which later fell down- and made it into a beautiful house, of which I would be very jealous of, if the narrator hadn't helpfully told us that they had more than doubled their intended mortgage and had to make it interest only to achieve it. How will his wife afford her fabric stash now?!)

The ladies, to answer Diana's question, are raw edged machine appliqued. Or at least they will be - these six are just bondawebbed at the moment. I am thinking that having enlarged the centre oblong frome the sample they might now take a beaded inner border... but I will see what it looks like when the connector blocks are made and what Lesley, who is making this with me, thinks.

This block ( made partly on a train to London on Tuesday) is very different to my usual style and is my first hand applique. It is for my gift quilt.

And finally, just for Brenda and all others who love consumer tales......

I discovered, last Friday, hidden under a pile of papers, £28 worth of rail vouchers. Inevitably they ran out that very day. I decided that we had to book a journey - to anywhere. At Easter we go to Bath and I am working one day so I asked Dennis if he wanted a free day trip to London. Of course he did. We checked online - singles could be had for just £9. Yeah. Enough left over to get two returns Bath to Bristol. (Cricket for him, shops for me)

The snag is that the vouchers need to be used at a ticket office so I dispatched him to the station. He was told that the single back from London would be £13.50. He said, no its £9 I saw it on the website and was told to go and buy it on line! When he explained why he couldn't and asked for an explanation as to why he was being charged a different price he was told that he would not be served if he was abusive. So the manager was called and Dennis explained that asking, without a single swear word, threat or raised voice for a price explanation was not abuse. It was customer service. The man asked what the problem was and then suggested he went and bought the tickets on line.

He gave up and paid £13.50 ( its not the money, its the principle.....). He then got one Bristol return, total £28.10 and the woman told him she could not accept a mixture of cash and vouchers. He told her that he was not entering into a discussion because that was patently ridiculous and that she could either take the mix or charge him £28. The manager was called again who decided to take the £0.10.

Dennis then said that when asked to fill in the back of the vouchers with his journey details he put in the wrong date and wrote that he was to travel from Southhampton to Inverness....... its the rebellious little boy in him, but I do think that they deserved it. Not, of course that the noticed.....