A Sewing Day (68)

I've had one of those rare days where I was able to settle down in front of my sewing machine and just keep going, no interruptions, no phone calls, no domestic jobs. I stitched the top for my niece's quillow this morning. We have booked a few days in Bath (in Somerset) next week and I realised I'd better get a bit of a wiggle on or I'll never get it finished for her birthday on the 27th. It's a pretty basic pattern, 9 inch pinwheels alternated with plain blocks, so it went together pretty quickly. It's a good opportunity to use some fun focus fabric in the plain blocks too.

This afternoon I completed the cushion/pocket, though not without its own little drama. Having read Amy's enthusiastic account of her machine quilting I thought I'd use some of the stitches available on my new machine and do the same. However, in my usual way, I went off half-cocked and didn't bother to baste it first - it was stitched together round the sides for pete's sake, and it's only little, so what was the need! Well, of course, I didn't check as I was going and then, when I'd finished, I realised that it had gone wrong, not laying flat, all bunched up in places. I cursed a bit (only a little bit, honest) and then set to unpicking the whole lot. Two hours later and it was done. It's difficult to see here, but I've used several different cat fabrics for the pocket.

I spent an hour or so this evening hand quilting it with big stitch embroidery and tying. Then Rosie gave it her seal of approval, so that's okay.

I mentioned earlier in this posting that we are going to Bath next week. We haven't been there for over three years now, and it's a beautiful city. We're going to look round the area a bit more, with a view to moving in that direction (we hope) and also have a break. We've not planned a holiday this year, because of our potential move, so will settle for a few days here and there. We've booked into Pratt's Hotel, right in the city centre, and I will of course take my camera and laptop and try to keep blogging and posting pictures of Bath.