Orange Birds in the Air

At least some of the kids slept a bit late today (this does not apply to a small cute boy who came into my room to chatter non-stop at me while I was trying to sleep a bit longer). To be fair to him, it wasn't very early (after 8) but I am still trying to kick this cough/sore throat, and it is still waking me up a few times in the night when I cough too much - last night I slept through from when I went to bed until about when Geoff got up (5.30) but then it took nearly an hour to properly fall back asleep, so I really wanted that extra little bit. Anyway. With the others only slowly stirring and doing anything more than watching telly, there's a little sewing time for me, so here's what I did. Two orange Birds in the Air blocks for a new swap over on the Quilt Shoppe Forum. I know I wasn't going to sign up for any new swaps, but this one promises to be fairly small. I think I will make a table runner from the blocks, or if I get too many, maybe two table runners, one for a gift. The theme is orange, so it will be lovely and autumnal.



I also made a big batch of these mini four patches - they measure 2.5 inches square at the moment and are made from some bits of hand-dyes and the mini-charms which Barbara sent me a little while ago. Not sure what I am going to do with them yet - doll quilt, maybe? Or a background for an art quilt? We'll see. I have a few more to make before I have to work that out. There won't be much blue, as I used those mini-charms to play with for the confetti swap - not sure I like the results, but I can't un-confetti the swatches...






And there was post, too. The first thing is something for a challenge with my surface embellishment group - our first swap/challenge when we formed the group (it's a spin-off of my dyeing group) was to each send an item to two different people, and then to incorporate both items we received into some sort of art quilt. So for our first anniversary of forming the group, we are repeating this swap. We have explored so many different materials and methods this year, that I'm sure what we send and receive this time around will be so much more esoteric than last year!

This is my first item received, from Cobi - it's two pieces of silk and one piece of synthetic fibre silk (the plain red), which she's never used before so she "has no clue what it will do" - me either, Cobi, but we shall see. My other goodies aren't here yet, but I will report on them when they arrive - they are coming from Wil, so shouldn't be too long crossing the channel.


Also got two postcards today - the above one for the Leaves swap, from Angie, and the one at left for the 1920's swap, a la Clarice Cliff, from Maureen, who says this is her first set of postcards - wow! I think these will be a hard act to follow...