A day full of quilting

Remember this? This is the nesting row robin which I've been working on which will be for Olivia for Christmas or therabouts. Each month I get an instruction, and I'm doing each row in a single colour (and black). The blue baskets waited a long time before being sewn in to a row because I was going to stitch the flowers down first (they are just fused, though the baskets themselves are pieced). I did one today, then decided that it would make more sense to stitch them down during the quilting process anyway, so went ahead and attached them.

The next instruction for was for Grandmother's Fan blocks - the purple row - so I am doing quite simple blades, just four per fan. Here they are shown laid out on the black background, not stitched down. I decided to get them ready, though, as I have a few days coming up at my MIL's house with no sewing machine (and no computer, so prepare for a few days' quiet from me!) - as the fan edges can easily be hand sewn, whether I do curved piecing or applique (haven't decided yet) I thought I'd take them with me.

I didn't do much sewing yesterday as we spent the day with friends, but I did do a little bit of quilting in the postcard holder - here's what I decided on in the end - I'm using a pale variegated thread within the postcard spaces. It won't actually show when they are cards in them, but I think it will look better than the quilting in the sashing, which I have almost finished removing. It just looked too busy, as the sashing is so narrow. I also did this little heart postcard, a one-off for someone on one of my lists who needs a little cheering up.

I did some other postcards, too - worked on the green and brown series - three of them are mostly done, as I've added a variety of hand stitches and a button each, the others I got ready to be worked on by hand, as that is another thing I will take up to my MIL's house, along with the green threads and some buttons. I will also take some beads & the flying geese - hopefully, that will keep me busy in the evening if I am watching telly.

And one more thing I did today:

worked on the London series of cards. I used a Big Ben fabric background (scraps, believe it or not - not even from my stash, but from a friend's), a piece of fabric printed with an aerial view of my house (ok, it's technically Greater London, but I think I can get away with it), some London icon stickers - taxis, beefeaters, Tower Bridge, postbox, telephone box - a stamp of an old London posting mark and a charm of a teabag. Only one has the charm sewn on so far, but I think they look pretty cute. Couldn't resist the chance to use my own house in something, though. These were fairly simple, and not as fibre-oriented as many of my cards (a lot of paper in these) but still pretty fun.

It probably sounds like I spent the whole day sewing - more or less, I did. It was a foul day today, cold and rainy and we were out all day yesterday, so we didn't really do anything. Geoff pretty much read and check on work stuff on the computer and the kids watched telly, played bizarre role-play games and did some sewing themselves. They all three worked on their quilts as well - Olivia finished the cross-hatching in her nine-patches and quilted around the first border, Alex pushed the pedal while I worked on his panda quilt, and Sarah did two more SITD rows on the log cabin - only a few more to go, and then the borders. Perhaps these quilts will be ready in time after all! Photos of the kids' quilts soon, I promise.