watching movies and quilting

I'm definately still on holiday (AKA spent the day in my jammies) mode, and spent another relaxing day ... well ... relaxing! I finished piecing a table-topper ...
... and discovered, or perhaps remembered, how much I enjoy sitting and piecing bits of fabric together by hand. I tried an English paper-piecing project some thirty or thirty-five years ago, and wasn't terribly enamoured with the technique at the time. However, piecing together these "daisies" was quite relaxing.
I used a variety of red scraps already residing in my fabric bins in order to go with those nice red suede chair pads I bought recently for my dining room chairs. This table topper is my own invention ... no pattern. I was envisioning these appliqued "daisies" opposite quilted "echoes" of daisies ...
... if you can see the faint blue lines marked on the lighter fabric to the right (above), you might get my drift. Sort of. It's hard to explain one's mental vision!

Anyway, tomorrow I shall tackle sandwiching backing and batting to this top layer and start the actual quilting. I had originally planned to machine quilt (as it would be faster) but considering how much I've enjoyed hand-piecing, I might carry on with that theme.

In addition, I managed to NOT nap through two excellent movies today. First was Arn the Knight Templar:
This 2007 movie was in Swedish with (extremely poor) English subtitles. However, I found myself so caught up in the excellence of the movie that I kept forgetting to read the subtitles! Arn is the son of Swedish nobility who is raised by monks, then later banished to a monastery for 20 years for making whoopee with an innocent village maiden (who totally came on to him, but that's okay as she also got banished to a nunnery for 20 years ... apparently those medieval Swedes were quite opposed to pre-marital whoopee). The head monk gets Arn's sentence transmuted to a trip to the Holy Lands to fight with the Knights Templar. Once in the Holy Lands, Arn meets the infamous Muslim (enemy) leader Saladin, and the action really heats up from there. I LOVE well-done medieval movies, and this one probably ranks right up there with a 9 out of 10 despite the poor subtitles.

The second movie, Avatar ...
... was truly a delight to the senses. I can only imagine how fabulous this nearly 3 hour long movie would be on a big theatre screen instead of my little laptop screen! I loved the message that we only "borrow energy" and that eventually it must be returned. As this movie is currently playing in local theatres, I won't spoil it for anyone by revealing the story. However, I think I shall take myself out on a movie date tomorrow! Anyone care to join me?