Gifts large and small

Gosh, two weeks since my last post; time to scroll through the camera and see what has been happening lately...
Mum came for a visit, which was lovely. She was on a mission and strange things started appearing around the house—

All for a good cause though and this is all I can share for now!

A friend had a birthday so I made this little hanging for her —

I got a little handful of these wire hangers
last year while on holiday - they are so cute,
an ideal size for sweet little gifts (about 3" wide).

Wool felt, yo-yos, buttons and Cottage Garden Threads.
A nice combination :-)

And I got it into my mind that I really needed to make a quilt for a recent birthday in the family, and I knew exactly what fabrics I wanted to use as well.... when you work in a quilt shop there are so many tempting fabrics, you walk past them constantly and they imprint into your mind; some flannels had been calling my name since they arrived, and finally I had an excuse to buy and use them. I haven't sewn with flannels before so was excited to give them a try.
I had hoped this would be a quilt in a day project - haha - not quite, but you could almost say it was a quilt in a week project though, those of you who know me well will know that this really is quite an achievement! Snuggly, simple and suitable for a man was what I wanted...

I achieved simple with a large central focus and simple squares around the outside —

I achieved snuggly - none of the pets could stay off it at any stage of the construction —

...when I was trying to plan...

...when I was trying to quilt...

...trying to sew binding on...

...trying desperately to finish while YD was cooking tea last night...
(the wee guy made himself a little hut out of the draped quilt!)

Suitable for a man - and big enough for a man's lap - um yes, achieved this, in fact I think several laps (and all the pets) will fit under this one.

It's raining and a last minute finish so this is the best photo I will get for now!
Flannel front, wool mix batting, flannel back (a good quality 'twill weave
flannelette' sheet - 50% off special)
84" square.

I've had several people asking lately about how I am getting on with my Sweet 16 - the short answer - LOVE IT!! I kept the quilting on this quilt very simple as I wanted it to be a) finished and b) a functional snuggly affair. (No free motion madness). I did want to make sure all the seams were well secured as I found the flannel fabric frayed a little (probably no more than a standard fabric but because the threads are thicker there are less of them in a quarter of an inch seam... if a couple of them fray away, there's only an eighth of a inch left.)

Stitching either side of the seamlines - I did this rather than SID to secure
down the seams and so there was some quilting to see.

I also practised a little ruler work.

With the size of this quilt you can see how much I enjoyed having the large throat space —

hehe, the MOML thinks I watch videos while quilting on this machine!

 The quilt goes off to its new home today, I"m hoping it will become a major part of the furniture :-)

This Friday, being the first Friday of the month, is Friday night with Friends..... If you want to join in, click *here* to take you to the lovely Cheryll's who is our hostess for these events. I'm going to sign up but I think we have to go out for a bit on Friday night - however if I sew Friday afternoon and over the weekend I am sure I will be keeping someone around the world company on their Friday night! I have a few projects from *this* post I want to carry on with.
Thanks so much for visiting and reading, hope you all have a happy creative weekend,