Quilting - A Whole New Experience!

I have ended up having an extra day off this week thanks to a certain under the weather son. I spent the time wisely catching up on housework (yawn) but then sat patiently with him whilst he watched several DVD's - and what do I do in front of the telly? Sew.  I decided that as I was going to have a few uninterrupted hours on my hands (not least because the aforementioned child has lost his voice)  I would embark upon one of the fiddlier jobs on my "I want to do" list and therefore started to make a quilted purse. I have never done quilting before, so it seemed to take me ages just to mark up the grid pattern for the hand quilting but it looked like this

Have I done it correctly? I literally just chalked lines the specified distance apart (2.5cm) all over the fabric. If anyone with quilting experience can tell me if this was right or wrong, I'd love to know. I then sat and stitched the material to the wadding (which I really enjoyed) and now my pieces look like this

I'm quite pleased! I haven't had chance to actually sew them up into a purse yet (back to work today thanks to a kind friend who opened a sick bay for ill children) but I'm getting there. I will hopefully show you the completed article next week.

I also received the peacock fabric yesterday that I had ordered at the beginning of the week.

It's a beautiful colour, isn't it? I can't wait to turn it into.......did I say a bag? Make up bag? Both maybe? I shall have a little more time than I thought at the weekend because this awful weather seems to have put paid to my planned trip to the Ardingly Quilt Show - even if exhibitors can get there, I'm not sure that I can safely.

And to finish on a really positive note, when I was listing lots of old clothes on eBay last week I also listed my hanging heart decorated with buttons that you may remember from a few posts back. Although the description left something to be desired (I will put more effort in next time) I sold 1 yesterday! I was absolutely thrilled. In fact I was so pleased, I almost wasn't going to accept the payment. But it made me realise that people do want to buy homemade decorations and gifts and I have to value what I make a little bit more rather than always saying "it's just a little something I made".

Have a good weekend everyone, I hope we don't get snowed in again - although if we do, at least we can do some more crafting!

Love Natalie