Quilted to within an inch of its life

I've had my nose to the stitching grindstone this bank holiday weekend

Well to be honest although it's not rained too much the weather really hasn't been that great so what's a girl to do but stitch

I'm acutely aware that my Miniature Booty quilt needs to be in the post by the end of August so I've been busy on that - almost completing the quilting

This is what I mean by being quilted to within an inch of its life

It does make it quite stiff being this heavily machine quilted but as it's meant to be a wall hanging or a table topper I think that won't matter too much

Just got a little more of the cream microstippling to do on the churndashes and it'll be ready to bind in a nice blue check

Nice to get another one on the finished list

However before I sat down to quilt this I remembered I'd intended to make a baby quilt for one of the teachers at work who will finish to go on maternity leave a couple of weeks into the new term.

No amount of quizzing her would glean any colour clues - all she could say was 'Oh just do something with your scraps'

Anyway I fancied something clean and fresh and citrussy - I think green and yellow always work for a new baby

I even added little stars in the overall quilting pattern.............

.............because a starry little number is the quick and easy design I settled on

It just needs a label on the back and it's done!

Finally my own Miniature Booty arrived from Jeanette - a lovely quilt, my favourite mini swap quilt so far - but then each one has held that place in my affections when I've received it. I love the combination of the deep purple and the teal

We have a fair amount of wall space in the stairwell in this house which will be perfect for hanging lots of my swap mini quilts - it gets very little natural light so they won't be likely to fade. However at present the artificial lighting isn't great either but yesterday Nigel bought a set of spotlights to boost up the lighting on the landing - once fitted they will give my new quilt wall a great display capacity. What a hero!

Right back to that cream stippling - I must be a glutton for punishment!