Bird quilt for Avicultural Society

This quilt was made specifically for the Avicultural Society of Australia, to raffle at their Convention Dinner in September.  We hadn't planned on going to the dinner, but have now booked in to go, as I am interested to see who wins the raffle, and will be buying tickets myself in the hope of winning it, lol!  I am really pleased with it, and of course I can always make another one, as I still have the bird photos on file, and it was easy enough to print them on to those inkjet fabric sheets (the person who invented those deserves a medal). I still have to put the label on the back, naming the photographer who allowed me to use his photos, and my name as the quilt maker.
I showed the quilt to the Society meeting this week, and got a very positive response from the members.  The editor of their magazine took photos and is going to publish them in the next issue.  Five minutes of fame, lol!

Vintage handkerchiefs

I have been given handkies since I was a child (we all got them for Xmas in the fifties), and I have also picked up some embroidered ones for my collection in recent years.  But apart from a few that are special to me, I am happy to offload them to other collectors, and some of the ladies on the Down To Earth forum have expressed interest in seeing what I have.  So grab a cup of tea and have a look at the following photos :-)
I have indicated which ones I want to keep and which I am willing to part with.  For the benefit of other readers of this blog, this offer is restricted to DTE members for now.
I will part with all the boxed sets except the men's handkies (my husband is in need of those, and I like the box!)

The photo below is of vintage handkie holders in my collection, which I will keep, but thought you might like to see them.  The Dolly Varden handkies weren't with the holder, but I keep them in there.

These handkies (below) are ones that I would prefer to keep.  I have a pattern for a quilt using handkies for the blocks, and I'm hanging on to these to choose from when the time comes.

Handkies free to good home (DTE members only)

Most of these are the printed handkies, and plain white with some embroidery or lace.

Piano fabric idea.

Remember that piano fabric I bought at the Quilt show, and posted a pic of here?  I think I know what I'm going to do with it, or part of it anyway.  I found the cutest photo on Pinterest, of a black cat sitting on a piano keyboard, and thought it would look great for a wallhanging to applique a black cat on to the piano fabric!   Watch this space....but don't hold your breath, lol ;-)

A.S.A. raffle Bird quilt

I've been working on my quilt for the Avicultural Society raffle.  After going through Ken's collection of monthly magazines from the society, I couldn't find any photos suitable for the quilt, so I hunted around on the internet and found some photos taken by a professional photographer who stated on his website that he was happy for people to use his photos, provided they ask for his permission.  So I emailed him to explain about using his photos on my quilt, and he replied the next day, giving me permission to use them.
I copied about 20 photos, went through them with Ken to select the best ones for the society (birds kept in aviculture) and once we made up our minds, I used the box of printing fabric that I bought at the Quilt Show, to print the photos.  (I put new ink cartridges in my printer first!).

Then I had to decide how to place the pictures on the quilt, and after much mind changing and suggestions from Ken, this is what I came up with:

The photos have been bordered with black, then put together with the green sashing.  It was too small on its own for a quilt, so I added some bird fabric to the top and bottom for extra length, but found it was too long and narrow.  I laid out the rest of the green fabric on the kitchen floor tonight, and put my unfinished top on top of it to see how it looked with a wide green border either side. 
As this has to be finished next Wednesday, I haven't got much time left to play around, so I'm going to add the wide green border either side of the length, and a shorter border at each end.  The backing will be a different bird fabric with a lot of reds, so I am going to use plain red for the binding, rather than more black.

Pin cushion and Needlecase completed.

I made this pair of sewing accessories for Joy, my swap partner on the Down To Earth forum craft thread. We were asked to make anything in blue or lavender/purple tones. It could be paper, knitting, sewing, or whatever, and I chose a combination of felt and fabric. I used a pattern called "Lilac Love", by Val Laird, who is one of my favourite needlecraft designers. I have heaps of her patterns earmarked in my magazine stash, but this is only the second one I've made. The pattern was for three items - the pincushion, needlecase and scissor fob, but I ran out of time before I got to the scissor fob. I don't think Joy will mind ;-)

Val's original design had little stitcheries in the centre of her items, but I was lazy, and just used a polka dot felt instead.  The dark purple is felt, and I stitched lazy daisies around the edge, and added beads in the centres on the pin cushion but not the needlecase (me  being lazy again), so to make up for my tardiness I added a little gold thimble button to the needlecase.