On Friday, I got an uncontrollable urge to stitch up a cute little witch on a broomstick....

I don't know why this happens but from time to time, an image will appear in my head and continually whisper ".....stitch me.....".  Eventually the whispering increases to a shout and I give in.

I get out my sketch book (this is actually the lined paper book you see in the bottom right hand corner) and sketch, draw and doodle a few practise imagess.  

Then I go for it on a nice clean sheet of A4 paper and draw the whispering/shouting picture I see in my brain and finally the whispering/shouty stuff stops, phew!

Then comes the nice, calm exciting bit where I transfer the image to fabric, hoop up and pretend to be an edwardian lady, gently stitching my way serenely through the day (except edwardian ladies most likely didn't stitch girly whispering/shouting/ girly witches.......or did they?)

A few details.

I couldn't bear to give my little witch a green face or a wart or a cackle, instead she sleeps on her broom with hair gently flying in the breeze...

With dangly legs....

and a cute little mouse for company.  I thought I would ring the changes instead of the more usual kitty as that is what imagination is for! 

.......is a different way of describing the above than just calling it a hexagon pillow, which is too obvious a description for me.

This is what I mean by lots of stitches.......

Can you see all the trillions of little hand stitches holding these six siders together?  lots and lots of hours and hours spent stitching and sewing.......

Which is a puzzle to me.  Sometimes hexagon projects take hours and hours and sometimes they seem to come together so quickly you wonder why you don't make them all the time. 

I always worry about the hand stitching ravelling over time, so as an insurance policy I quilted a 1" square grid pattern over the pillow front to clamp it down securely for the foreseeable future.

The back and binding is made out of a beige Ikea sheet (again! but I bought 10 of the super largest fit for a king and his courtyard size - so get used to those words cropping up!!).  I added a machine embroidered cross stitch pattern down one of the over lapping back flaps, must use these stitches more.  

I think I'll be laying off the hexagons for a while, I just might have over dosed on them for now!!!

xxx until next week!

Hello!!!!!  I am very hAppY today!!  Because I am now offically a quilting chef over at the Moda Bake Shop! How exciting is that!!

On the menu today is my 'Around the corner' quilt pattern.

Fabric is from the new 'Punctuation' line by American Jane for Moda and is made from a layer cake plus backing and binding fabric.

Finished quilt size is 55 x 64"

I had a lot of fun making this quilt and I hope some of you might be inspired to make one too!!  The pattern is a good introduction to curved seams and comes together pretty quickly.  

Have fun with those corners!!