Hoorah for traffic!

(I know, it's an odd title for a post - what happened was, we were going to go out this afternoon, but we got stuck in such bad traffic, we turned around and went home, which gave me several free hours in which I could do even more work than I had already done today - which turned today into a VERY productive day - a thing I've not had much of recently...)

This morning, I put together all the lovely hand-dyed pieces for Ursula's comfort quilt - in the end, I did 10" squares, as 12" squares, plus sashing, was getting a little large. This is still fairly large, but if she's going to be in a rehab unit for a long time, perhaps she can keep it on her bed there to brighten things up... Anyway, as expected, it's rather gorgeous, as the fabrics are so amazing. I'm glad I choose cream (over black, which was the other contender) - it's cheery and light and will show the quilting nicely. I pieced the back as well, from two pieces of hand-dyes - one of which was long enough but not wide enough, so I inserted a narrowish strip of a different hand-dye down the centre. Now just to pin together and quilt...



And here are the bonus things I got done - a little box, which I hope will be for a swap I'm doing, hosted by Carole, which is called "Something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue" - I say I hope, because it's a 3D item, and I need to check that's ok before I send it out. The elements are: old - the box, which used to have greeting cards in it and the grey fabric on top, which came from a pair of Olivia's school trousers which split in the seat and had a hole in the knee and were therefore in the bin in my sewing room; new - the dragonfly decorations on the top, which I bought at Hever yesterday; borrowed - the dragonfly picture on the top, which I borrowed from Carole's blog; blue - the paper I covered the bottom of the box with and the fibres on the top.

And the cards are my "U is for..." cards - U is for Umbel, in this case. These are a photo, printed onto fabric, with thread painting on top. I thought those were going to be late (they are due in the post tomorrow) but I have managed to sneak in just under the wire - provided I get to the post office tomorrow, of course!