Finished item, in progress item, experimental item.

...and more in the pile waiting to be started!
I bought this kit at the Eltham Quilt Shop about a month ago but only found time to make it up last week.  It will be great to take one of my many colouring books and a few pencils out somewhere and be able to sit and  'colour in' when I feel like veging out :-)

The kit came complete with all the fabrics and a zip, but I made a couple of modifications.  Instead of decorating the front with stars, I fussy cut a cat from some patchwork fabric and used that instead.

I didn't need a zip pocket (and I hate sewing zips into anything), so I just made a large pocket to hold the book without the extra zipped pocket.

The In Progress Item is my little batik ocean wallhanging.
I have added a mermaid to it, and have a little seahorse brooch which I will pin on when I have done all the stitching.

Finally, the experiment is something I saw in a library book, and wanted to try before the book was due back.  Stitching on velvet.  I never thought about doing that before I saw the instructions in the book, which had advice on putting velvet in an embroidery hoop, and how to mark the velvet with the stitching lines.  I based my stitching on one of the designs that was in the book, but used some colours that I had on hand.

Cross stitched parrot on a doiley

One of my lovely friends on the Down To Earth forum found this in an op shop in the country town where she lives, and thought of me.  Don't you love little surprise packages in the mail!  She also sent me a page from an old issue of Patchwork & Stitching Magazine, which featured a letter from me with two photos of projects I had made from P & S mags.  I remember emailing them, but never knew they had published it!

Japanese Cranes quilt finished.

Can't believe it is nearly a month since I've posted anything here!  Probably because I haven't had much to post, but I have been busy.  Sorting out my late friend's linens took a long, long time, and I have given some of them to her other friend to distribute to mutual friends.  I still have two boxes to sort out which ones I want to keep, and think about what to do with the rest.  A call to the Olivia Newton-John Cancer Centre resulted in a lukewarm response, but I guess they didn't know what to make of my call.  So I've decided that I will just go ahead and make a doiley quilt, and when it is finished, I'll take it in there and ask if they would like to keep it to display, or raffle it to raise funds.

In the meantime, I've been working on my Cranes quilt.  I got the attic windows effect done, and planned to hand quilt each section, stitching the outline of the cranes and the landscape.  I bought the special quilting hoop, put one corner of the quilt in, and started stitching.  After about 20 minutes and 8 inches of stitching, I decided this was not for me!  My neck and back hurt, and the thought of doing the whole quilt did my head in :-(  

So I removed it from the hoop, threaded up the machine, and an hour later, all done.  I only stitched along the landscape borders, and left the cranes alone.  This quilt is not for show, it is just for my own satisfaction, and the Quilt Police will not be inspecting it, lol!

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The back is some fabric that I had in  my stash.