I've been picking away, off and on, at doing more handsewing on the Grandmother's Flower Garden blocks.

This is one I finished a while back:



There are some darker spots because I use magazine "blow in cards" to cut the paper hexagons from, and in some cases dark printing on the card is showing through the fabric.

I also have part of another block completed. I think this is the first block I've done featuring orange:



I think of the color there as "marmalade." It's a three-bears pattern block (the little white figures are the three bears and Goldilocks). And bears makes me think of Paddington, who was fond of marmalade sandwiches.

(I wonder if Paddington Bear is still popular? I think I read all of the books that were available when I was a kid. I was remembering that Paddington was about the same "age" as I was, but this site says that he actually appeared some 11 years before I was born.

I liked Paddington more than Winnie-the-Pooh because he seemed "realer" (he was, after all, a REAL small bear, whereas Winnie was a toy come to life) and because the London setting was more interesting to me than the 100-Acre Wood.

I also liked that Paddington could be cranky at times (his "special hard stare" at people he disliked or whom he felt were behaving badly) and he sometimes got into trouble, even when he was trying to be good.)

Anyway. I find hand sewing to be restful, but the funny thing is, there's a lot of inertia to be overcome. I look at the project sitting there and think, "Meh, it takes a long time to get anywhere on that" (especially since I do so much of my sewing on a machine. I think it would be difficult, though, to do hexagonal piecing well using a machine). But then when I sit down and start working, I really enjoy it.