Now where was I?

Mercury in Aries slipped unoticed into Retrograde at the end of March and has been doing a tapdance all over my Libra Sun. Librans aren't having a good month of it as many of the planets are passing through Aries, which is in the opposite sign to Libra. The Sun, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Uranus are currently in Aries, most of them in the later degrees where my Sun lives. Saturn is in Libra, but that can be just an added kick in the pants. No wonder I'm having a hard time getting out of bed these mornings.

Last week I finished a project for a friend that I've been working on forever. It left me wondering what I should do next. I have more projects that need finishing and dozens more I'd like to start, but I still couldn't decide. I'll blame it on Mercury Ret. When planets are retrograde, they come to a part of their orbit that makes them look like they're going backwards. Of course, they aren't, but astrologers have observed that during that time, the planet's energies also get backed up. In the case of Mercury, that means decision-making, any sort of communication (especially electronic) and short distance travel. It goes Direct on Apr. 23.

Now, where was I?

Right. I was wondering what to do next, so I found a paper-pieced star I've wanted to try for a long time. One of the things I thought I liked about paper piecing was that you get to use up those mountains of oddly shaped scraps you've accumulated. I gathered my scraps and struggled with the pattern for about a week before I gave up and admitted that I would have to sort and trim all of the pieces I needed because using scraps took a billion years and I often came up short of the seam allowance after sewing it on. So, a few minutes of trimming, a couple of days of sewing and my star was finished.

The star pattern is free, along with dozens of other great blocks, over at www.quilterscache.com

Until next time,