International flavour

No sewing today, as I went up to town to have lunch with DH (Turkish restaurant), whose birthday is tomorrow (but he had two meetings tomorrow, poor thing, so we decided to do lunch today). As he works right around the corner from the British Museum, I ducked in there for a little while before meeting him - it was so nice out in the late morning that I left earlier than planned to go sit on a park bench and read my book for a little while as well. Anyway, while there, I browsed around the Islamic section - lots of interesting tiles, pottery, glass - as well as a few other bits and pieces - went through the section that used to have manuscripts and stuff in it before they got moved to the British Library. Tried to avoid the major tourist bits. And stopped in the bookshop and picked up this book on Islamic Art, as I thought there might be some quilt & fibre art inspiration there (plus, it's just nice to look at).




When I got home, this was waiting for me in the post - very quick service as I only ordered it the other day after seeing it on Tonya's blog (a completed version, that is). I have some friends who are very into Hallowe'en and thought this would make a nice gift for them. I love cross-stitch but tend to over-reach myself in size and scope (not that I'm not capable, I just get bored) so I am now only buying quite small, finishable projects. Obviously, this is not intended for Hallowe'en this year - maybe next year.

Also in the post, these two lovely items from Karol Ann, one being a block for our African block swap, and the other being a small tote bag (good size, really) made from African fabrics - just what a girl needs in these green days (and I do like a bag where the handles won't take your hand off, even if it has some heavy stuff in it).