New Pincushions

I'm still enjoying making these, using small scraps of cotton and linen and lace.

Pincushions

I've been making pincushions for a week or so, they are definitely addictive. Every time i tidy up some more of my stash I think of making another batch.
There are ones made with Linen and old lace or ribbon:

 One inspired by a bee button

Some bright ones with lots of buttons and Linen again... I like Linen.

And my current favourites, patches with Bunting! Some of these will be on sale at Winterton Quilters Christmas Fair on December 7th.

Patchwork Chair

Found today in TKMax this wonderful patchwork chair, all covered in hand stitched parallel lines of running stitch in blue thread! About £250. If I had any spare room I would have bought it!

I've been working on some more strippy things today, but nothing sufficiently finished to put up yet.
I tried to go over the Reedham Ferry today to see a friend who lives 5 miles across the river and the tide was so low that the ferry couldn't run so I had to drive about 45 miles further round to find a bridge, which was very frustrating!

Serpentine Curves

Here is Ruth's quilt, she has said I can show it, it should help my thinking as to the direction I want mine to go in. I bought another piece of batik today to add some sparkle to my Serpentine Curves Quilt, or maybe just add to my boxful!

Meanderings, by Ruth

Meanderings is an apt name!
I've got a long way to go before mine is this big, but as before I love Ruth's colour combinations and unusual fabrics - lots of stripes in here.

I had an excellent day at April's house printing fabrics, a follow-up to last Wednesday when I went on a course  with Yvonne Brown, printing with thermofax screens. I used Decolourant discharge with screens for the first time and got some interesting results.
I'll add some pictures later.

The Raffle Bag

Here is the result of three days work! It is a bag to give away!!

It is made from a pattern by Elaine Aitken of Button Angel Designs. This was a birthday gift from a friend some time ago and I wanted to try it out. It suggests using an interlining instead of wadding, and I tried some of the canvas left over from my other bags, but put some wadding in under the little flower panel. It is rather stiffer than I intended and seems to have taken ages as I had to stitch loads of french knots round the flowers! There are 4 pockets around the outside and a fairly wide strap. I am pleased now that it is finished.

I have made this for a raffle that the Fleggburgh group, Pennyloaf Patchers, are holding during their exhibition next month, at Fleggburgh Village Hall. Saturday, April 13th and Sunday 14th.
I'll be there on Sunday so come and say hello! There will be bags to win, and a cushion raffle too and lots of lovely quilts.

Side view

Front View

Out of Africa

Three postcards

The postcard swap I intermittently join in had "Out of Africa" as a theme for this month, giving me a great excuse to use some of my collection of African fabric from The African Fabric shop. (This is where I got my beautiful basket the other day.)

The postcards are strips patch-worked together and the lovely hand block printed Guinea fowl added as appliquéd patches.
Note the two tone one made from two half birds cut from the end of the strip that I didn't like to throw away!

The girls at the Creative Machine Embroidery class in Norwich have done a great job and between us we have 50 Bookwraps to send in on Thursday. Yee Hah!
Check out the Bookwrap gems site here

Patchwork Journals

I've had a nice day making more Bookwraps. These are two more stitch and flip covers, and I have written up the instructions for them, partly so I can remember! No hand sewing except for the button and using left-overs from the quilt I made for my daughter's friend Jacky.