I should be quilting

As soon as I got back from the quilt show, I decided I had better make something from the loot I picked up, unlike last year where things got put away and nothing done with them.

My little pack of antique kimono strips, the cording and the book from my last post resulted in this needlecase that represents a leaf and cherries.

I first saw it on the Bearpaw blog post here and I vowed to make one for myself. It can hang on a knob of my light right next to where I sew.

I had to dig out my beads from the dark recesses in the sewing room. I've decided I have way too much stuff by the way.

It took me way back to BQ, (before quilting) when I was trying out different crafts. I made just a few teddy bears, nothing like the artisan bears you see now but this is one dear fellow I kept, all hand stitched. I had dreams of making the kids teddies back then.

I even dabbled in some crazy quilting and did a class to make Charlotte. She's not a particularly nice shaped bear but dressed up with lots of embroidery transformed her and she scrubbed up well.

This was going to be a ring cushion for my own wedding but never got finished due to the interruption of being evacuated with bush fires, that's another story.

I did dabble in ribbon embroidery for a short while so added some of that.

I'm not even slightly interested in this type of work anymore but you know how it is, you take classes in your own area depending on what's on offer. I couldn't even take a beginners quilting class as nobody taught it so I ended up joining a guild and winging my way through a few classes and taking lots of books out of the library.

After trying out all these other crafts, quilting is the one thing that has endured, I never get sick of it and I think since it's a cold drizzly day, I'm going to go do some hand quilting. If I keep going, I might even have a finish by next week.