A SINGLE STARLING

I've had a single starling come into the garden for a couple of weeks now. It has an unusual way of feeding, laying the side of its head along the ground and scooping up some seed. Another starling came down yesterday and one of those fluttering up in the air displays ensued then both flew away.
I've managed to get a photo of it showing the way its beak is both extra long and crossed. This is the reason, perhaps, for it being unwanted by the rest of the group. I wonder if it will survive.

MUG MAT

I wrote a blog last night but it disappeared...Having had a day of little things going awry I decided to leave it until this morning to have another go. Things are still going wrong...Ho hum.

I was looking on different patchworking sites and found a piece about Mug Mats, large enough to take a mug and a couple of biscuits. It was 6" x 10" but mine's larger at 6" x 12" because I've used two squares I made earlier, just like Blue Peter... It was meant to be a practise for machine quilting with the two reels of machine quilting cotton bought to scribble-quilt the Triangles quilt I made for me, so not too much of a problem if it's untidy. (More about that later!)

I thought this scribble looked a little bit like something from the Zodiac...

I like this material as it has gold in it, too.

After I'd taken the photo of the mat I realised that I'd not made a very good job of the bottom edge, so this morning, in the daylight, I unpicked about half of the edge and resewed it so it looks better now. Just being lazy and not taking another photo...

It's still tending to be a Sod's Law day- having done Must Do jobs before I went out I decided just to start the quilting on the quilt, having unblocked the jammed bobbin from last night - after about 3 stitches - and was sailing along, uneven stitches but what the heck, I was machine quilting. It's a bit like learning to hand quilt tidily, which I can do. I must have pulled the material too hard and the needle broke so I went out instead.

Called on a friend to take her some Excel How To sheets and as I left there were masses of starlings in a large tree outside her home, including others in an apple tree making a great noise as they pecked their way through the bonus of apples. I called to her to wait to pick up some windfalls for me but she didn't hear so the starlings left. Damn! There was my blog for today...