It's been a while....

So what have I been up to in the past five months? Well, I would have said not much, but having put some thought into this post, actually there's quite a bit. I won't cram it all in here, but it includes 3 baby quilts; 1 wedding quilt; a lot of dressmaking; some lovely days spent working in The Village Haberdashery; a class with the awe-inspiring Luke Haynes; some quality time with friends and family; and a very special quilt made with some lovely friends for someone who's had a much worse summer than I have. There's been some pattern testing, and, I can't deny it, a LOT of fabric buying!

There's also been a job resignation; a lot of job applications; some hyperventilating about whether I'll ever find a job again; but mainly a lot of happiness and relief that I've taken myself out of such a toxic environment. In the words of Yazz, "the only way is up!"

I look forward to bringing you up to speed in more detail over the next few days!

 

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Is it a stork? No, it's a flamingo.

My neighbours have just had their first baby, a beautiful girl called Evie. After the excitement of the hexagon elephant for my friend's yet to be born baby boy, I decided the imminent new arrival (as Evie was when I hatched the plan) was the perfect reason to create a pink version, and what better pink animal than a flamingo.

After the saga of the patchwork borders with the elephant I actually sat and drew this one out and did calculations and everything. And it paid off, so it was worth the headache!

I love the bright pink sketch skinny border round the centre, it really frames the appliqué. The quilting of the centre piece caused more head scratching. I'd originally wanted to do FMQ pebbles, but my skills are just not up to it, so I went with overlapping circles, which ended up looking like bubbles.

I joined the ranks of the IKEA number fabric fans for the backing, which gives a good contrast to the colours on the front.

And this evening, I rolled it up, tied it with a pink ribbon and delivered it to it's new owner. She didn't cry, so I'm taking that as that she liked it - at 16 days old, you can't really hope for a better verdict than that!

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