Friendship Cushion

I am really proud of this little cushion because it is a joint project between me and some of the girls in my class. 10 year old girls don't always see eye to eye, so to encourage friendships I ran a girls craft club this term. We did some hand sewing, made friendship bracelets, loom bands - they showed me how to do that- and finally I brought in my hand crank sewing machine and they all had a little turn. They just got to pick 2 fabrics, cut patches and piece them together. Then I took them home, and put them all together. 

I quilted it with orange thread, mettler silk finish cotton, and it looks like the stitching on jeans- really cool. 

I backed it with scraps, stuffed it really well and stitched it shut. 

I gave it to the girls today- they loved it! It will live in the class reading corner for everyone to chill out with.  What I love are the colour combos they chose- I wouldn't have picked them, but they really pop!

Now I want one of my own for my home!

Going to link up to another quilty teacher -  Kelly! 

An English country garden

I am sending a little snippet of my English (city) garden to China, tucked away inside this little Hexie flower. 

A friend from Shanghai has been staying with me, and I made her a little lavender bag with lavender from my garden. I used the free paper pieces from Love Patchwork and Quilting  magazine- 1 inch- I love them. So cute, so quick. 

Other projects just inching along at a snail's pace are my mini quilts, tops completed, (to give away) and two matching blocks that I'm going to put into a sampler quilt for me.

Summer holidays are close enough to see now... Lovely sewing time awaits!