Varieties of patchwork

I've been working steadily on my quilt, moving it to and fro under the evenly bobbing needle, twisting and folding to get the fabric where I need it to be, to stitch where I want to stitch. I have managed to do all of the "decorative" - for which read rather trembly, wavering, slightly rambling stitching. Here is the back, so you can see the patterns, as in front view they tend to get lost in the pattern of the fabric itself. The colour is all wrong as it was taken in artificial light; it could do with a good press as well, but you get the picture.

I'm really rather pleased with it, as I've not done any machine quilting before and only a tiny bit of hand stuff, I'll post a picture of the front once I've added the binding - the next big challenge. Before that I have all the loose ends to sew in and lose in the layers of the quilt, but that is rather pleasing to do when sitting down watching the TV of an evening.

Meanwhile another kind of patchwork is taking place, in our side yard, the one I mentioned as being destined to be a courtyard. Well, progress is taking place, though first you should see it's original incarnation to appreciate the change

Crikey! It's a bit of a jumble isn't it? Bits of quarry tile mixed with bits of crazy paving mixed with bits of shingle and the odd row of brick edging to catch the feet of the unwary. It's where my slow trees live for the most part, so I can appreciate their seasonal changes from the kitchen window. From the opposite end it looked like this when we first arrived, with a scruffy, but extremely useful shed that has been housing odds and sods.

It is part way through it's transformation now

further on than this, in fact, but you can see the patchwork analogy. My dear one has been acting as labourer, digging holes, filling them in again, moving vast quantities of earth and "stuff" into the skip out the front, salvaging topsoil and barrowing it down to the kitchen garden, cleaning off the black quarry tiles as I want them reused as part of the final design and generally being all round useful, while Ray has been doing the skilled work.
The scruffy looking wall will be painted eventually but before that happens, yet another type of patchwork is being done; pointing, to fill in all the gaps between the bricks where the old pug has fallen out. This, along with the pointing between the pavers, and eventually the painting, is being done by another expert

My daughter