This week I have................

In a recent post I showed you the first ever effort of Miss Bridie at the sewing machine and now I have turned her sewing into a pencil case, ...................

..............and used this bird fabric for the lining.............

........and then used the Alphabet stitches to sew her name, which I then coloured in.

It will go into the post tomorrow, and will be a surprise for her when she opens the mail.

This week I have also finished sewing her Paper Doll quilt together and even loaded it onto Max for quilting!! This BOM is still ongoing, and will continue to be released for months yet, but as the birthday is this month, I made do with the first 20 blocks and added frames and sashes to make it larger. 

This was how I had planned the layout, and in the process of adding the spot frame to each block.......

.......and then added sashing strips of 2" finished squares between the blocks

................... and the first row is done............

                                          .......... and then 2 rows together............

                             ............until there were 4 rows of 5 blocks.................and then I started to rethink                                       the whole process, as it was going to be used on a single bed!!

.......so up to the spare room and laid it out on the bed........... and I knew that it should be one row longer, and less blocks across, as there was still a border to be put on.............

It was back to the drawing board then, and one row came off the side and went onto the bottom to get it to a better shape..................( which then made my balanced layout of the different block colours very unbalanced!!) But I was not going to unpick the whole lot, so hope Miss Bridie won't notice it.
In this photo, I still had to add the squares to 3 borders.............

........as in this picture..........

                ......................and now the final 2 borders, which were chosen by DIL, are on!!

                            A backing was chosen, and it is loaded onto Max, all ready to go!!

.........and then I found this!! A leg that has not been stitched. Whoopsie, too late now, perhaps I will need to hand applique it after the quilting. (Note to self, hope I remember.)

I was debating about how to do the eyes, and after consultation with Bridie's mum, I have gone with buttons. And this non hand sewer, decided that after sewing all those eyes on, I have drawn the mouths with a pen. There are 18 blocks that needed mouths!! And because of the buttons, it had to be custom quilted. But I really would not have wanted to do allover quilting onto the little people anyway.

It's done, and time for binding, which is the spot fabric again. 

I thought this mottled coloured button would be great for the eyes, but in hindsight I wonder if it makes him look more like an alien?? Next time, I turned this button upside down.

This block is the nurse, wearing her mask, so is probably very appropriate for the year we are having. I shall make mention of this on the label that I make for the back of the quilt.

There is still a binding to be hand sewn, and I have almost 2 weeks to get that done, but I am very happy to have got this far. I still have the border to get onto the Piggy quilt for Billie. I have also managed to get another 2 of my quilts to the binding stage this week, so will be back later with a report on those. It sure feels good to be getting some projects on my list crossed off as done.

I have commenced work in my garden this week, while the sun has been shining. I kept looking out the window and seeing a blue sky, and decided go outside and spend time in it. We had good rains again last weekend, and there is more forecast this weekend, so making the most of the sun in between. I also took time out for my first visit to the hairdresser after 5 months, so the locks have been trimmed and the grey is gone again for now!!

That's all the newsfromjude for now. Will be back another day with more. I am rather behind in reading blogs also, so hope to catch up with a few of you soon. Stay safe, and stay warm, or cool if you are in the north of our world!

Blessings, From Jude