Having worked out how much fabric I was going to need for this project, I decided it was time to go shopping! I had my heart set on a black & white colour scheme but I soon changed my mind when I found this gorgeous fleur-de-lys fabric in cream and gold…..perfect! For contrast I’m using crushed faux silk – it’s shot and the colour on this is amazing.  Finally I chose gold satin for the border. I’m really looking forward to making a start on this now I have the fabric, I just need to find some spare time! I’ll post pictures as I’m going along for anyone who’s interested in seeing the process.

I thought I would share the new project I’m working on….well actually it’s a very old project! I stitched this set of blackwork pictures many years ago (the patterns are from very early issues of New Stitches) with the intention of framing them. After finishing the 7th I realised I wasn’t going to have the space – or the cash – to frame them all so they just got stored away.

Flash forward to last week when I decided I was going to make a patchwork quilt. I’ve made three quilts in the past, the first about 20 years ago and they’re all still in use and going strong. On one of them I included small panels of cross-stitched flowers amongst the fabric squares and I got the idea that maybe I could do something along the same lines with these blackwork panels.

I was disappointed when I found them, some had gone yellow around the edges which I know would be really hard to remove by handwashing. So I took a deep breath and bunged them in the washing machine! I’ve always washed my cross stitching by hand so I was very nervous about doing this, but they came out fine and at least I now know they’ll survive the machine when the quilt needs a wash!

So now they’re all washed and pressed, step two is to decide on the size of my quilt and work out how much fabric and wadding I’m going to need. Step three is the best part – shopping!  I’m going for a black & white colour scheme with maybe a little gold. Ok, enough with the gassing, here are the pictures…..

Here’s a simple little purse I made to keep my contact cards safe and tidy in my bag. There’s nothing worse than having to get out a tatty card to give to someone! I love this Goth Girl fabric I bought on Ebay a while back and I found some plain red in my stash which matches perfectly for the lining. I finished it off with a little bit of dotty ribbon and a heart button.