yo-yo sample pillow

There hasn’t been much time for sewing during what I am calling ‘Mental March’.
I have hardly drawn breath since I came back from QuiltCon, what with 2 ‘Fairs’ on consecutive weekends, lovely Karen Lewis staying with me last weekend, 2 magazine commission deadlines (so I have been sewing but nothing I can show you!), and now I really should be packing as I am off on the train to London tomorrow in time for teaching at The Village Haberdashery on Saturday (sold out!) – phew!
At least I can have a nap on the train!

At the first of the craft fairs, the Sewing, Quilting and Stitching show at Glasgow’s SECC at the start on the month, I gave demos on our stand to make a yo-yo and then applique it to a circle of felt and add a little hand quilting.
At the end of 4 days I had quite a pile of these that I had made along with my attendees.

I had bought a lovely piece of Irish wool Tweed at the show and the little yo-yo discs looked charming against this.
So, during a short ‘rest period’ I enjoyed a little hand sewing whilst blanket-stitching them to the wool.

Earlier today I had just enough time to make them into this cushion. That’s a zip under that neat little flap on the back. I used a method Fiona had shown in a copy of Love Patchwork and Quilting from over a year ago.
I then used left-overs from a recent project to make a scrappy binding.

I am totally in love with the result and even more because it is made out of left-overs!!

The only other non-secret sewing I have done is make 3 (yes 3!) Japanese Origami Bags!
The very talented Tatyana (most exotic member of our Edinburgh Modern Quilt Guild and awesome long-arm quilter) showed us how to make these at our March meeting.

They are now spreading like a terrible virus, inflicting everyone who sees them! They take about half an hour and here is a tutorial.
The one above is the first I made, at the meeting. It was so fun sewing these together in a group! I used some Indelible that I brought back from QuiltCon. I have since given this away, and also the next one that I made.

I have also got a new phone and, through a process way too boring to describe, I’ve lost all my photos (or rather hidden them safely away…), so I can only show you these from our EMQG blog. These are all the bags made at our meeting.

Today I made one more, featuring gorgeous re-printed Anna Maria Horner ‘Folksong’ (I had this year’s ago on voile – so happy to see it again!) and one of the amazing new Denyse Schmidt line ‘Franklin’ peeping through (we have a bundle of this available at our online store).