Little by little...

...I am getting closer to my machine again. In fact - I think it might be like going on holiday and coming home to your own bed. There's just something so nice about it and I'm get that vibe from the sewing machine. Thank heavens. I have had - in the past - a real January aversion to sewing. Fortunately not this year :-]
So I have been visiting blog land and found this Barbara Brackman Civil War Quilt Block-a-week. Every Saturday a new block appears. There will be 52 different blocks with a repeat of 4 to give 56 in total. I HOPE I can keep up and end up with lovely blocks at the end. The historical information on the blog is fascinating and makes the quilt even more "want-able", maybe I made that word up...

So far I have made NOs.1 and 2, No.3 is applique, and in keeping with the theme and feeling of the quilt, I will needle turn applique. No Bondaweb and machine buttonhole stitch here.
These are my favourite fabrics to use and there was a day when I would have been very snooty about anything different, but I do find I have mellowed over the years and am quite happy to go for a huge variety of brights, pastels, batiks... haven't quite got to the black and white path yet but who knows.

Last weeks Amy Butler £3 strips ended up giving me 16 blocks in the end. Well, that's absolutely fine, 4x4 is perfectly acceptable. So today sashed them with red.

I'm going to get some more Amy Butler or equivalent strong patterned blue for side borders, with lime-y green cornerstones, again sashed and bound in the red.

And lastly but by no means leastly - in fact - quite the opposite, my No2 D made pudding for her big sister on saturday (part of a guide badge), it was Chocolate Fondants. The kind of pudding that is cooked sponge on the outside but when you cut it gooey chocolate oozes out. It was delicious, esp. with caramel sauce and ice cream.