Rule Britannia Coasters

It's been harder than I thought to keep listing on Etsy while also planning my wedding, which is less than a week away! At least I made these coasters as a little thank you present for some family and friends who are coming for our wedding. My next plan is to make some for the shop in this design but also others as well, I think it's nice way to make cross stitch more functional.

New Cross Stitches

Finally moved and have most of my sewing bits around me again. I managed to knock out the first of my coaster designs, it was really fun to do. I plan to make 3 more add to the set.

Retail Therapy

Today I bit the bullet and went to the Birmingham Social Networking Cafe. I am not very good at these things, but met a lovely lady and we talked for ages, I should've thanked her for allowing me to latch on and dominate her attention.

After, as I was in the area, I went looking for supplies in the wonderful indoor market. Found a fab haberdashery stall, where I got tons of supplies. Also found a great fabric stall at the outdoor market where I bought some rather lovely floral cotton for 1 pound a metre. I rounded off my trip with a visit to the Fancy Silk Store where I continued to feed my fabric addiction.

When I got home I found the fabric I'd bought off Ebay had arrived!

I put the floral flavour down to Spring and the fact I am reading Proust - pretentious moi?

Crazy for Silk

Below is a picture of the first example from my crazy patchwork quilt. I am using vintage kimono silks. I love these silks, the patterns are stunning. I decided on crazy patchwork because silk is fiddly and I didn't feel ready to try and make them into accurate blocks, though I might try that next with fusible interfacing.

Next step is to embroider the patch.