A Pleasant Day's "Work"

My latest bestest friend, Rabbity, (purchased at the Country Living Fair), is bemused by the Den.

Quite frankly, there's old embroidered stuff everywhere! Rather a lot, mostly chopped into or awaiting the same, is on this bamboo rack which used to be in the ultra chic bathroom in my single-girl pad way back when. How times change!

Yet more lives on a thrifty car-boot-bought towel rail. Most items are on here because they fall into one or more of the following Hen's Den vintage embroidered categories: they're larger cloths; they're beautifully worked; they're in good condition. As such, they're keepers I won't be cutting into.

The other day when I was searching for something in my Den, I discovered my stash of embroidered tea cosies in a basket under piles of large pieces of fabric, presumably now too large to be housed with the toppling piles on the towel rails. Today, with a few luxurious hours ahead of me waiting supplies for other projects and with the Munchy at his drama club, it was time to get patching.

Of all the things I make and create, chop and sew, this sort of thing I was indulging in today is my most favourite. Before long, I had a pretty little pile. Oooh exciting!

I decided a 4" square would be best. I used flourescent quilters' tape to mark out the size on my 6.5" square ruler. This makes it much easier when you have a lot of patches to cut. You can see through the ruler enabling you to fussy cut your fabric. Oooh, I do like a spot of fussy cutting (if it's not too wasteful). I keep all the leftover bits of linen and use them to embroider words for brooches, notebooks, dolls' clothes and the like.

To pair with the yummy embroidered squares, I turned to The Stash.

Most specifically, the bestest bit, my vintage stash. I decided on a colour scheme of mainly pink and blue, with touches of green.

Much pleasurable patching later, my creation is starting to take shape. I decided to hand quilt, as the two pieces I've patchworked for this project are relatively small.

But oh my little fingers are bearing the scars already! It could be a while (well a few days) until this one is finished...