Hi honey, I'm home......

A lot of packing and 3 trips in the car means that I am now officially home from university. My mum's away visiting my Aunt which means I've been able to just dump everything for now. So the house looks a bit like this everywhere

(note: bewildered looking cat!) I know I should be unpacking but it's such a lovely day outside and big sister has presented me with a large pile of fabric triangles,

It's the nieces' birthday party on Sunday and big sister wanted a lot of bunting to decorate the garden with. She got as far as buying the fabric, cutting out the triangles and then realised a) she has a full time job and three kids under 5 to look after, and b) she doesn't own a sewing machine.

Since it was a lovely day I set up a little sewing station at the end of the garden. A short time and a little sunburn later (when sewing outside you must remember sunblock!) I have 35 metres of bunting. 

This was only half the fabric so I need to go on a ribbon hunt tomorrow to finish up. I'll try and take some pictures of the party at the weekend so you can see it in all its glory.

Finally managed to complete something!

Exams are over (kind of). I was too ill to attend them so I have no idea what's going to happen. Since there's no work left to do I've been catching up on some sewing. I finally finished quilting the Rural Jardin bear paw quilt and I love the way it turned out.

I was unsure about the thread choice when I started but I'm glad I stuck with it because, once I'd quilted all the "paws", it all blended really well. 

I echo quilted a quarter inch inside each paw and then repeated another quarter inch. I love the way that it has brought the bear paw pattern through to the back.

I still love the woven fabric I used for the back. It is so silky I'd love to make a quilt using all these woven fabrics, I'm sure it would drape beautifully. I used a bamboo/cotton blended batting and it has given it a gorgeous weight.

It's taken me an awfully long time to finish this quilt but it was worth it (many threads to bury when you do each paw separately). I think I'm going to free-motion quilt the second bear paw to see how different it looks.