As I moved a half-done project out of the way on my work table, I thought that perhaps if I just made the effort to finish it, in the long run it would save me time, not having to keep moving it (I hope you followed that!) So that's what I did. I had stitched the sashiko some time ago, so all I had to do was assemble the bag
the lining is a very pretty Japanese fabric
I have to admit that I am very good at starting things, but not so good at finishing them, so spurred on by the pleasure of finishing the little bag, I looked out my Baltimore blocks which were waiting to be made up into a scarf/runner for across the bottom of our bed. I found the perfect fabric for the sashing in my stash and soon had the blocks stitched together. It is too long to show you in one go, so you will see the centre block in both photos as I rotated it to show both ends. When I go to patch'n'chat on Friday I wil get wadding and backing fabric , so that I can quilt it
woo hoo, two things done, what can I do next? When I did the beginners class at the college, the last thing they made was a little bag. Of course I had prepared several bags, taking each one a stage further. I got them all out, finished them, and now instead of tatty polythene bags stuck to the edge of my work tables with masking tape, I now have very smart fabric to collect rubbish in. I made five - one of them is in the house and the other four are pinned to the table edges - here are two of them
some time ago, along with a lot of others, I got caught up in the "Farmer's Wife" quilt fever. However I soon recovered, as I didn't enjoy putting the blocks together - they were "non-standard" sizes and some of them had so many pieces it was hard to be accurate. When I unearthed them, I found that I had actually made sixteen blocks, enough for a small quilt. However some of them were decidedly undersized, so I needed to have a bit of a pochle* to get them all to fit. I stitched borders round all the blocks, then trimmed them all to the same size. I like the way the inner border makes the blocks "float" on the quilt. Now all I have to do is quilt it
next up was an ongoing, rather than an unfinished, project. In the evenings I had appliqued the hexie flowers to their background squares, and I have now stitched them together, ready to go on after I have made the next section
I have also been stitching away on the hexie pyramids, and have finished another nine
I have also made something using these two orphan blocks, but as it is connected to the Aunts' Quilt, you will have to wait until my next Auntlet's report ot see what it is!
when Malcolm brought me my afternoon fix of hot chocolate, he also brought me a piece of Christmas cake ....... bliss!!
to finish - a little oops! I had been using this plastic template the other day, and hadn't put it away when I finished with it. I then was cutting something with the rotary cutter and didn't notice the template on the cutting mat ....... oh dear!
* pochle can mean to cheat in a criminal way, but we quilters use it simply to mean adjusting or manipulating bits so that they fit together.