One finished, one not sure!

Well, after a fortnight of very little sewing, and concentrating on work/family or family/work, depending on what day of the week it is, I did retreat to my sewing room (aka Stu's bedroom), and finished the baby quilt for my cousin's first born.

I am quite pleased with it, although I had to make a couple of fabric compromises in order to not to buy extra. however, overall, it is quite pleasing. The block arrangement came from Mary Hickey's Sweet and Simple Baby Quilts http://store.martingale-pub.com/catalog/index.cfm?fuseaction=product&theParentId=33&id=533. I changed the border to give it more oomph, as my fabric compromise reduced the contrast in the middle! The quilting is mostly in the ditch for the blocks, with some free quilted hearts on the triangles. The border is free quilted with stars, spirals and meanders.

I have also got a picture of the fully finished Chinese wallhanging:

Finally, I'm not sure whether I have finished this last one or not. The appliqued fish are foundation pieced and are my own invention. However, now that I have quilted and beaded the border, I think they look a little plain. The dark blue centre has been hand-sashiko quilted, but I think the fish need a little more something. What does everybody else think? Sorry it is sideways. On the right hand picture, the left is the top!

Back from London

Well, I'm back from London. 14 hours on the train has left me with a sore back. Dear old GNER - the 125 High Speed Train was wonderful once (nice big seats), but it was so rickety and noisy this time. Not to mention scruffy.

My visit to the V&A was wonderful, if short (two of my favourite items shown above courtesy of pictures on the V&A website - link to all the fashion/textile resources on the right) - I went round a fashion exhibition quite thoroughly, and went up the textile galleries, which were interesting, but a little disappointing - a rather skimpy and partial look at the richness of world textiles. I guess they have far more in storage than they can hope to display, and I suppose it is not their flagship collection.

The shop is great, although I didn't have the time or the energy to examine the books properly. Probably a good thing, as I must have saved heaps of money that way!

Back to sewing tonight.