FAL Cushion #1

It's become a bit of a tradition for me to make cushions for my nieces and nephews (and its on my FAL list too), so when I got the phone call the other week, I went straight to the scrap pile to pull fabric.

I've been trying to be realistic about my aims,  so I decided to make the cushion out of economy blocks rather than adding an economy block quilt to my list of quilts-that'll-never-get-made.

As I was using scraps, I went with a paper pieced pattern so that I could use smaller pieces, especially as I wanted to add some pieces from her older cousin's first birthday quilt.  With quite a neat zip insertion (for me!) and a slightly dodgy bit of personalisation, this was ready for delivery before the little lady was two weeks old.

I might even get the second cushion completed by the Q1 deadline, as we've just got the phone call to say that our extended family has been extended even further!

Winner (and how not to wean your baby)

The boy was very helpful today and helped me choose a winner for my giveaway - he very nearly had his first taste of food too! I know that they say to avoid anything too sweet so that they don't get a sweet tooth, but I'm not sure that paper is a great choice...

He chose Kelly from http://www.aplaceofmyown.co.uk/

so I'm off to do some fabric shopping!

PS - still no sewing to share,  the house hunt is now on so my machine is hidden :-(

WIP Wednesday and a Birthday Giveaway

First things first - a progress report:

The first item on my WIP list, a cushion for my new niece, is complete, but I'll share that when I have access to a better computer and don't have to use the Blogger app...

I've also been working on my paper pieced star quilt. The blocks are finished, the quilt is basted and I'm working on a mix of hand and machine quilting. I was very well behaved and switched to hand quilting when I needed to do some paper piecing and didn't want to wreck my nice shiny new quilting needle :-) I was less well behaved (more like lazy) when I decided not to vac up before basting and managed to get avocado from lunch on my quilt - oops!

It's my birthday today, and I have to admit that I'm a big birthday person - I love birthdays whether it's mine or someone else's. My Mum's birthday is tomorrow, so I'm quite used to sharing celebrations.

On this note, and because I've not done it in ages, I thought I'd have a giveaway to celebrate. I love charm packs and haven't had much chance for fabric shopping recently (I wonder why!) so, I'd love it if you could tell me what charm pack you'd pick if you were buying yourself a little present. Next Wednesday at 8pm I'll randomly pick one comment and buy two packs, one for me and one for my winner. Happy birthday!