lovely, lovely post

Look what I received in the post this morning - squee!

Carefully wrapped with a nice note:

And the lovely contents:

Good enough to eat I reckon!  Some of this is destined for more hens, some of it for unknown loveliness :-) 

Thanks Alice at Backstitch Shop!

Patchwork quilt progress report

Just thought I would post some pics of the first section of my patchwork quilt, as I managed to get the whole top portion of it finished last night.  Sorry if the pics are a bit crummy, the light isn't very good in the bedroom - I'll try and take some better ones at the weekend.

The structure of the whole quilt will be the same throughout - 9 sections of three 6 cm 60 degree diamonds fitted together, but the pattern will change in each section.  This one is tumbling boxes:

I have all the material cut for this section now, and have been stolidly sewing the pieces around stiff paper on the train to work - I tried machine sewing pieces together, but it was actually less stressful to hand sew the lot...

I blogged about the fabric I received for some of the other sections yesterday, but here is one I got a while back.  I only bought a small piece because it was *very* expensive (gulp), but hopefully I can work it in somewhere.  It reminds me of Japanese kimonos.

Happy sewing!

Fabric delivery

Just received my next lot of fabric for the patchwork quilt I'm making.  I'm making it in 9 sections, with a border in between them all.  One of sections uses the Amy Butler Martini fabric I used for the passport covers I blogged yesterday, along with a soft solid green oxford cotton.

These are the fabrics I received today:

Two by Alexander Henry:

This one is Spotted owl and I think is my favourite.

Then there is Starling:

And finally Charm Bracelet Flowers by Windham Fabrics:

Not sure if I will use them all together yet, or mix them with more solid colour fabrics.  Excited though!

Weekend sewing

It was a good weekend, this weekend, lots of time in the garden, and an equal amount of time at the sewing machine.

This is what I came up with for my swap item - a passport holder/cover in Amy Butler's Martini fabric.

And the inside:

Hopefully the recipient will like it!  I have still had no takers for my part of the swap - so if you fancy receiving some random crafty goodness (you only have to make one item to send off) then please contact me.  It would be a nice to keep the thing going :-)

I made a couple of other passport covers too, one for me (the trial version) in my japanese rooster and tulips fabric:

And another in the reverse colorway of the Amy Butler material, which is destined for my Etsy shop.

The other job I managed to get done, which has been hanging around for a while, was to make a bag to transport my clothes in to work (I cycle part of the way).  I had been using cotton shop bags, but wanted something a bit more personal and a bit more cheerful to hang up in my office.  I got some lovely striped material from John Lewis:

And simply made a lined version of the bag I had been using - much prettier though :-)

And with the rather dramatic black lining:

All in all, a good weekend I think!

gorgeous new fabric

My gorgeous new fabric arrived from Etsy yesterday and I can't wait to get started on the project I have in mind for it - a roll to keep my errant and escapist knitting needles in!  Its Japanese fabric - the yellow will be for the outside and the green with the roosters on for the lining - should be funky :)

The roll I am planning to make can be found here.