A Retirement Gift

A dear colleague is retiring at the end of this term of school, so I wanted to make her something special. She has worked at the school for over 25 years, and when I found a whole bunch of scraps in the art room it gave me an idea. The fabrics used to be in a set of country dancing costumes (if you are not British or younger than 30 you won't know what I'm talking about! - kids at English schools used to be taught traditional dances in school a bit like square dances) so she should recognise them.

I asked another colleague who is a cross stitcher to make the centre panel, with her name and dates and the school. And I'm turning it into a mini wall quilt. I have a few more weeks to finish it, but the top is done now.


I have a lot of fabric left over, so now I'm thinking about making a big cushion for another long time colleague who's going, and maybe pin cushions for the short termers going elsewhere!

I'm linking up to Needle and Thread Thursday at  My Quilt Infatuation!

Steps quilt top completed

So this top is finished! I've even basted and begun the quilting. Not long to go until its a true finish.

I'm liking how its starting to look, even a tiny bit of quilting makes such a difference. It's quite a magical transformation!

And since its Friday, a little treat at the end of a busy week.

I love hexagons!

Who knew hexagons were so easy and fun? 

 And the endless possibilities of colour and pattern are, well, endless! I picked up a plastic hexagon from the shape box at school one day, found a scrap of fabric, needle and thread and I was away.

  Not sure what I'm going to do with my hexi flowers yet, but inspiration will strike. Each one is so pretty in its own right.

The only thing is I've found I haven't used my hand stitching muscles in a long time, been getting a sore arm and tingly fingers. 
 

In other news, my step quilt is basted and I've started quilting in the white zigzags, quite dense stippling, and I think I'll do a single wavy meandering trail through the middle of each coloured zig zag, just to anchor the layers together. Photos to follow.