The Kindness of Others

Today the kindness of another person freed me up to jump forward on a couple of projects and I really, really appreciated it. The girls swimming coach, who is also becoming a friend, invited them to go to the swimming pool in Leamington Spa with her, her daughter and two other friends of the girls. They were thrilled, and so was I!

This meant that while they were home this morning I could crack on and make a cushion for my mother. I completed it, don't like it much and shall present it with an option of a remake. The design just does not work in reality the way it did in my head.

I used practically every last scrap of my Etchings fabric. I pieced it together, then sliced it and created a monster. The more I look at it the less I like it. I may have to rethink giving it as a present.

At least it didn't take me absolutely ages to make it so I am not too bothered about this creative lapse. Better luck with the next cushion, I am telling myself.

As soon as I was rid of the girls I set to working on the other quilt. And I broke all sorts of quilting police rules. I had started the hand quilting process last night, staying up until midnight to make some headway. I am not generally a late night person! Today I did the hand stitching all around the periphery. 24 feet of it. I sewed like a mad woman. And when I was done, I trimmed the edges, made the binding and stitched it on the front. Tonight I will start the hand stitching it on the back job. And then in the remaining evenings I will try and get more of the quilting done.

I am using slightly brighter perle cotton than I might have usually picked for this quilt. I am doing so for two reasons, (a) I thought it could use the injection of colour without it being too obvious and (b) I am using thread I already own and didn't have time to get new stuff shipped to me. The green is the one that seems a bit bright when looked at close up, but when you step back it doesn't seem so bad. The pink works fine.

Applique done in the days when I had been trained to do it 'properly'.
I now know all about bond-a-web, etc and would do it differently.
Live and learn!

The first quilt has had all its binding hand sewn down on the back and is ready to be wrapped and placed under the tree Saturday evening.

Tomorrow morning I will pack away my sewing machine, all the fabric that still adorns the dining room, and all the other sundry items littered about to aid my sewing. It will be me and the perle cotton for the next little while. I feel so relieved about that. I have achieved the goals I set out to do. I always knew I wouldn't get one of the above quilts completely finished but hoped that if I could put it under the tree almost done the recipient would be more than happy with that.

My apologies to those who I have not managed to reply to their comments recently. I have kept up on my blog reading but not my emails. I do hope you understand.

Susan