Some finishes

I haven't felt much like blogging lately and I haven't been doing as much sewing as I did a few months ago, so there hasn't been that much to blog.

I have finished a few things recently though, including the quilt I was making for my friend.

I had intended to do the white quilting by hand and the rest by machine, but my piecing and sandwiching wasn't great so, after outlining each of the flower blocks in white, I was worried that machine quilting would produce puckers.  Plus I was enjoying sitting on the couch in the evenings with my husband watching TV, so I decided to hand quilt through all the squares.  It was a lot quicker than I had expected!  I machine quilted the border and hand sewed sashiko style flowers on the corners.

All in all I'm very pleased, even though it was a bit of a rush job and not my finest work, and the recipient appreciated it greatly, which was the main point!

Next I think I should finish my Birdie Stitches quilt and work out what I'm going to do with my Civil War blocks before I embark on any new quilts.

Also in the week since I finished that quilt, I have caught up on my (very late) January and February hexagons.

Back in January I received some more hexagons too, but appear to have forgotten to post about them

My current sewing project is going back to garment making for a little while.  We're having a birthday party next month and the theme is Steampunk so some costumes have to be made.  My husband's and my birthdays are a few weeks apart and this year is a divisible-by-five-year (I don't know that I'd call it a milestone, and I can't call it a round number) so we decided to do something a bit fun!  Of course I have to go all out so I need to make a jacket, skirt and bustier.  My husband is a bit more willing to work with what he's got so he only needs a pair of trousers.  I've left it up to him to make all the 'gadgets'.