My partner and I went to see the movie of the live satellite broadcast of The Met's performance of Gounod's Romeo et Juliette at our local theatre. Anna Netrebko and Roberto Alagna played the roles of Juliette and Romeo and were spectacular! It was the first opera I've seen, but it definitely won't be the last. The Met is sharing some of it's operas live via satellite in HD in theatres around the world. The technology we have now is mind-bogling. One of the many things that caught my eye were the costumes, especially Roberto's. I was not crazy about the powder blue velvet tights he wore, or the matching cowboy boots (were they really cowboy boots?), but his jackets were lovely and put me in mind of soft, lacey crazy quilts . They were also powder blue, with satin ribons lined with beige lace sewed in diagonal stripes. I have looked and looked online to find pictures of beautiful cream or powder blue or pink or any other lightly tinted colour of crazy quilt, but without success. The closest I can come is a picture in The Rings That Bind of such a quilt made by Cheryl Phillips for her daughter. If you know of any pictures, let me know! Meanwhile, here is a lesson on how to make a crazy quilt. I have yet to attempt one of these spectacular quilts, but will at some point. I have a million different quilt ideas that I would like to get to, don't we all? My problem is in making the choice - what do I start on? And should I start another when I have unfinished ones?

UFOs are a fact of a quilter's life. This is a quilt top that I inherited from my mother - it was her mother's - Grandma Dede. The patches are hand pieced and the blocks are hand and machine pieced. Her stitches are so tiny!

And this is a top I picked up at a local used clothing store. The fabrics are wonderful, but I'm not sure from what time period - I'm thinking 40s or 50s. If anyone knows, let me know!

Again the stitches are tiny - it is all hand-pieced. I know that I would not have had the patience to make this top as the maker did - tracing out the patterns, cutting the little pieces, sewing each little piece to its neighbour. And both this top and my grandmother's tops have 1/8" seam allowance. How did they do it? It's amazing to me. I love my Olfa cutter, my Fiskars cutter, my Olfa mats and all my rulers and tools.

These are blocks of a quilt-as-you-go quilt that my mom began. She loved red. She hand quilted the blocks, but sewed them together on her father's Bernina (now my Bernina). She had congestive heart failure and found sitting at the machine sewing them together too tasking, so she wasn't able to finish. Now I have the blocks, and I read somewhere of an antique quilt whose blocks were bound then sewn together (have you heard of this method?). It sounded like the perfect way to finish my mom's quilt, so that's what I've been doing. I don't work at it often - I should, I know I should, but I just don't. Perhaps I'll start. It will be a lovely quilt to have on our bed for Christmas.

And finally, these are pieces of a lap-quilt top I began 20 years ago for my ex-MIL. She loved miniature daschunds and I was thrilled to find this blue fabric for her. Obviously, she never got it - never even knew I had begun this for her. Oh well. I still love the little dogs.

Those are some of the "unfinished" pieces I have. I don't know if I'll finish the top I bought, it needs some repairs as well, but I'll probably finish my grandmother's and my mother's. I'll never finish the doggie quilt - what's the point? But hopefully I'll find a new quilt-home for the fabric - it's so fun.

But I'd also like to start on a double wedding ring quilt and I've been plugging away at creating a whole series of blocks based on Canadian themes so I'd like to incorporate those into a quilt, too. Then there's the idea that came to me while looking out the window at work at the chain link fence across the street. Once you start being inspired by things around you, it begins to happen more and more frequently, until everywhere you look, you see a potential quilt pattern. Where to begin?

Until next time, keep your foot on the dogs.