Hatbox Collection For March

It’s the end of March already so it’s time to show and tell  the three hatbox blocks I’ve finished in time for this month as pledged to Kate over at Tall Tales from Chiconia.  Kate is making a full size quilt from her blocks so needs to make gazillions plus she has been battling Hurricane Debbie for the last couple of days over in Australia and has had other things on her mind so if she hasn’t made her three this time I won’t be casting aspersions –  even though we did have a bit of snow here the other day accompanied by thunder and lightening  which, to be fair,  only rendered me slightly perplexed rather than full on terrified.

Here’s a bit of Chinoiserie for you as a change from florals.  As you might remember, I’m using Liberty of London tana lawn for all the hatboxes and scraps of other fabric for the backgrounds.  I bought this when Liberty had a 50% off sale recently –  I did give you all a heads up at the time and apparently cost some of you money.

The book that this quilt pattern comes from – Passionate Patchwork by Kaffe Fassett – has been on my bookshelf for ages and seems to be quite hard to get hold of now (at a reasonable price) .  I had always fancied making this but was newly inspired when Kate started hers.

Some very art nouveau style flowers here – would they be fritillaria or some sort of poppy do you think? – or do you know?

These are definitely poppies – even I know that – and this one might be my favourite this month, although I do like the Chinoiserie one at the top just because there be dragons.

Unlike Kate, I’m only making a wallhanging 4 blocks across x 3 blocks high so I only need 12.  I’ve already made 9 but I’m not sure about one of them so there may be 4 still to go.

 Then I’ll have to think about how I’m going to quilt them – I’m not convinced about the suggestion in the book.  I’m going to do each block separately using the quilt as you go method.  If you quilt, how would you tackle it – something simple perhaps or something more squiggly?

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Somebody Stop Me!

If you are a Liberty fabric lover I just thought I’d give you the heads up that they have a lot of their tana lawns and silk satins online now for 50% off.

Here is my stash so far

(the top gold bit is the paper wrapping!)

I can’t promise I won’t go back again for more – somebody needs to help me out here!!  My excuse  reasoning is that I have a project in the wings for which I have decided to use Liberty tana lawns – it’s not that I haven’t got a stash of it already but I couldn’t resist a few more at that price.

If you fancy treating yourself , you can find it here but don’t say I didn’t warn you that the temptation is great .

 

Bunny Bentos

I don’t know whether you remember my post about making something from a Japanese craft book but, if you don’t, and you care , here  it is

Anyway, I have a Japanese speaking reader who not only offered to help me with the translation but also has now told me that these little rabbits can be used as bento which is an idea from Japan where lunch is packed into a divided box and is both nutritionally balanced and visually appealing.  I know these rabbits are not boxes but, apparently that is what they are being marketed as in the book and, because my Japanese is limited to what I hear coming out of the computer when Madamoiselle Tialys the younger is watching her interminable Manga, I hadn’t realised and thought they were just for storage.  Hoorah for helpful blog readers (thanks Jenn!).

I know that the Japanese are keen on ingeniously wrapping things in beautiful fabric so those long ears tied into a knotted handle for little children (or big ones with small lunches) to carry to school is a great idea.

Of course, bunnies being bunnies, they are multiplying and I am going to need to replenish my linen and Liberty cotton stocks soon.  I got some coloured linen last time I was in the U.K. and, as I am going to visit my family next month, I will stock up on some like this lavender colour which I matched up with some Liberty cotton in the Strawberry Thief design to make this one.

Now that I know they can be lunch bags for tinies, I might well replace the buttons with stitches – just in case.

Also, I can’t wait for the little Easter eggs to come in to the shops here in France (where they don’t jump the gun as much as they do in the U.K.) so that I can pose the buns with some eggs inside.

Almost a Coach Trip

I went to a craft and leisure exhibition on Saturday (a rare beast in these parts) but, instead of driving there on my own, I decided to go with my ‘atelier’ group (or craft group) as I thought it would be more sociable and also help in my ongoing battle with the French language.  Luckily, it is quite a small group anyway and there were only nine of us going so we didn’t have to resort to a coach and went in 2 cars instead.  Phew!  Not only do I get travel sick in coaches but it would have made me feel really old – I don’t know why, I suppose coach trips just have that reputation.   Not that the venue itself helped in the ‘feeling old’ respect as the vast majority were middle aged women  –  imagine the queues for the loo! 

It was a very early start and I had to concentrate extra hard on what everybody was saying all the time (because of the language, not because I’d forgotten my ear trumpet!) and, more to the point, I had taken a strong travel sickness pill so I was shattered by the time I got home and needed to be revived with food, wine and ‘Strictly Come Dancing’.

Anyway, I had asked everybody not to let me buy any more fabric  – as I could already stock a small shop – and also not to let me buy anything which would mean starting yet another new craft.

Some lovely Liberty cottons…

some gorgeous printed linen….

something with writing on it of course….

and something new to try!

My French must be worse than I thought – they obviously hadn’t understood my instructions 🙂