Messing around...

Things are tough around my home at the moment.  Ken is not in good health, and I'm "on call" 24/7.  He isn't bedridden, but isn't able to get around much, although he keeps up with our exercise routine 3 days a week when he feels up to it, as it does help his breathing somewhat.  Anyway, you don't need to hear all that, but I mentioned it to explain why I am making some 'silly little projects' instead of getting on with bigger projects that have been started.  Sometimes I just need to fiddle with small things that are a bit of fun - that or bury my nose in a book, which annoys Ken even more :-(
But I have to have my own space sometimes.  So here is what I have done this week:

I borrowed some magazines and books from the library, and because you only have them for a limited time, I am making some of the easy projects now, rather than photocopy the pages and never get around to doing them!  This issue of Homespun magazine

has several cute items in it that I want to make before it goes back to the library.  The cherry pie pincushion that I posted on this blog a few weeks ago was from this issue.  Now I'm working on a cushion cover featuring mushrooms and toadstools.

Not that I am a big fan of fungi, but the little faces on some of them appealed to me!

Here are mine pinned to the background, ready to applique (my first attempt at needleturn)

One of the library books is this one - "Scrappy Bits Applique".

I've seen lots of books on applique, but this one is quite different, and a lot of fun.  I find it so because the author makes the fabric pictures in the style of paper collage, which I have done in the past.

I am doing the project below, but I put my elephant on a plain background rather than make up a patchwork background like hers.

Finally, I've started a small patchwork runner for a friend of Ken's who is into bikes.   I copied photos of bikes from old calendars onto inkjet fabric, used some leftover bike fabric to fill in spaces, and will give this a border in black, then a wider border in another colour.