Slip sliding away....

July seems to have flitted past in the blink of an eye - wedding anniversary, birthday x 2, end of term all seem to have conspired to limit my time and inclination to sew and blog.

Apologies to anyone who has emailed me in the last few weeks - I really appreciate all your comments but I'm probably not going to get round to replying.  But hopefully things will be back on track from now on.

I have managed to do a bit of sewing - I made three cushion covers (for the wee chap's teacher and two teaching assistants).  I hope they liked them, hey have done such a fantastic job that I wanted to do something more than flowers or chocolates.

I had a Summersville charm pack that I got on sale so I was looking for designs that would use it up with minimal waste.

I had some wonderful suggestions but in the end here is what I went for:

It is a granny square with an extra ring of squares which I've been calling the Super Gran (yes I am a child of the 80s!) but is also known as a Great Granny (I had fun making this and seriously thought about joining in the quilt along).

This is a mini version of Made in Cherry which I spotted by The Girl Who Quilts.  It is probably my personal favourite.

The last one is a simpler design, partly as I ran out of ideas that would work with the available charms because I had decided to limit the number of colours in each cushion.  But it turned out well and I liked the colour combo.

I backed them with coordinating brushstroke prints.

And I was brave and went for zip closures - not 100% perfect but I'm glad I tried it as I really prefer the look to an envelope closure (probably as mine always seem to gape a bit).

In other news I have started my Brit Quilt Swap 3 mini quilt.  When I signed up I kind of thought it would be fun to try out a new block or a different colour combo but after seeing my partner's inspiration mosaic I almost immediately decided that I wanted to do something more pictorial with appliqué and embroidery - neither of which I have done much of.

But I did mini trials at both techniques and they turned out really well so I went for it.  The appliqué is done and embroidery motifs chosen - I'll get the embroidery done while I'm in Scotland later this week (inadvertent good timing!) 

Not my typical project but I'm loving it so much I might have to make one for myself!

Bye for now

Sarah