stitching and saving

If you didn't know already I am totally addicted to hand sewing and have made more progress on my green tea and sweet beans quilt. These blocks have all been hand pieced (no paper), apart from the odd bit of English Paper Piecing where I chose to change up the design.

My second tulip block:

Rather than use the appliqué shapes in the original pattern (they just look too egg like for me!?!) I decided to do English Paper Pieced shapes for the flowers in the appliqué blocks. So here's my first finished block:

I am working on the orange peel appliqué blocks now, I have been using trusty Aurifil 50wt #2600 to piece all the blocks and it works beautifully for the appliqué too:

Fancy seeing my progress so far? Obviously this isn't how they'll look together in the end and you can really tell that I've just been picking fabric and working on one block at a time. I might need to work more dark fabrics into it to balance it more:

It doesn't help that the light comes through the window at the top of this picture! I'm exciting to make more blocks and see how it progresses. I would like to think I could envision it as a whole but I really am just choosing fabrics that I love for each block. In the end I know I will adore it because of that, regardless of whether it 'works' in terms of value, colours etc. in the accepted theory sense.

I've joined the drop for 100 Wonder Clips at Massdrop, I use Wonder Clips so much and love a great saving:

If you use Wonder Clips you know how fabulous they are and if you haven't this is such a great way to get them at a brilliant price! I use them when I'm hand sewing binding, they really help stop my hands from aching and keep everything in place. They are super handy just to use like paper clips too, I keep my sewing organised by clipping my cut pieces together. I realise you could use bulldog clips or pegs or whatever but honestly Wonder Clips are one of those products that just work better. They are strong, don't damage your fabric and are perfect to hold things in place when you sew. Head over to Massdrop to get yours :)

While you are there also check out the quilting voting page, where we can all vote on what products we would like to see at Massdrop and even make suggestions!

Also I've been browsing Amazon a bit recently and there's so many fabulous quilt books out and coming soon, check my sidebar over on the right to see what I'm loving!

Oh and I noticed this the other day...

which I think calls for a giveaway! Thank you to everyone that's following my blog, stay tuned :)