Monday, right?

I woke up this morning unsure of what day it was.  That doesn't happen very often, and maybe it was because I was coming down out of a whopper of a dream, wherein I had discovered I had a head tattoo in the shape of a red multi-line zigzag pattern underneath my hair.  When I mentioned it to someone, they informed me I also had a matching tattoo on my back, which I was unaware of.  Why didn't anyone inform me of this before?  Oh right, because it happened during the time I was kidnapped and lost my memory; I forgot.

Yeah, that made sense.

So as the dream faded, I was glad to realize today was Monday, not Saturday, not Sunday, and also that my scalp was tattoo-free.  Not that there's anything wrong with head tattoos, if that's your thing.  I would only hope you remember why they're there.

Perhaps I was dreaming about patterns because I've been binge-watching Vikings, in which there are indeed head tattoos, but more interesting to me are the beautifully simple and colorful patterns on their shields.  I am not much into the battle scenes and ensuing gore, but am happy to zone out during the mayhem whilst admiring the variety of shields.  I am counting it as quilt inspiration.

I had my ancestry DNA analyzed this past summer and was surprised to find in the motley mix a portion of Scandinavian ancestry.  Having known next to nothing, until recently, about Viking history, how far and wide they ranged (to put it politely), it now kind of makes more sense.  

What does not make sense, in terms of the Vikings TV series, is why—why-oh-why—can they not BATHE?!  I mean, they live on the coast of the sea (water).  They pilot great ships to distant lands (in the middle of copious amounts of water).  It rains a lot (more water).  So why does the main character have to constantly look like he just emerged from a coal mine and rolled downhill, past the slaughterhouse, and into a pig sty?  

Granted, Travis Fimmel is quite pretty in real life, so maybe they feel they have to muss him up to look Ragnar Lothbrok tough. 

I said to my husband as we embarked on Season 2, "It's like the makeup department on set has a vat of stuff called 'Viking Grunge' which they apply liberally."  I don't know, but it makes me want to take a long soak in a hot tub on his behalf.

Well, I didn't intend to get so carried away by the Viking theme, but there it is.  And one more thing:  The Last Kingdom.  Netflix it.  That is all.

But wait, there's more:  I finished the Hunter's Star quilt top.

And put together a backing and binding.

The backing is a vintage thrift store find I've had in the stash for years.  Burnt orange and pea green were all the rage in the mid-to-late 1970s.  My first car was a used 1976 Pontiac Ventura muscle car in burnt orange (with genuine rust accents).  Can't say I've seen too many tulips or whatnot in burnt orange/rust, but I love the funky print and am glad to have found a use for a big ole swath of it on the back of this quilt.

I used up a lot of the batik scraps and stash.  It measures about 56 inches square.  A nice throw or lap quilt size, for sure.  I might have liked it a little bigger, and the outer border in the blue batik versus the green, but when you're using up what you have, it is what it is.  Anyway, I like the surprise of green.