Bindings and Pom Poms

This week has been very busy. In between working and the usual round of housework I set out to finish my Happy Anniversary quilt. This is a large quilt (80 x 80) and I've used my home sewing machine which makes the job rather tiring but I have really enjoyed working on it. The quilt is now finished and I added the final stitches to the binding this morning. The quilt is currently in the wash and will go to it's new home on Wednesday evening. I'll post the pictures after  I've given it to my friends. I've now got to decide what to work on next.

As today is Sunday and a slower pace is called for I decided I needed to finish making the pom poms for the little hats I've knitted. These will go on the tops of Innocent Smoothie bottles during November and for each bottle with a hat sold the company donate 25p to Age UK. They were aiming to have 1 million hats this year.  I've knitted 50 and they now all have pom poms. These will go in the post tomorrow.

I took some time this morning to finish up the second block for my 'It's a dogs life' quilt. 

I love these embroidered blocks, the dogs are so cute. I'm using fabri solvy instead of marking up the pattern myself and I'm finding it works really well. I read on several posts around blogland that people have found it leaves a sticky residue but I haven't had this problem. Once I've finished the stitching I cut all the excess transfer sheet from around the stitching. I then rinse well with two or three changes of water before I put it to dry. This has been rinsed and dried. Once all the stitching is done and the quilt blocks are made the embroidery will need to be pressed. I'm not bothering now as it will be folded for storage  purposes until then.

Back in September I took part in the 'Crazy about wool' blog hop run by Denise at Pieced Brain. This was such a fun hop and was even more wonderful when my name was pulled for the participants prize. I have now received all the goodies and I can't wait to use them.

The wool thread chart is really useful as I love using wool for appliqué and I really like Aurifil thread. The 50 felt balls from Handbehg Felts are such fun and great colours. I am going to be making some jewellery with some of these. My daughter also wants to use some. The five charms squares are hand dyed and are by Woolin Rouge Designs. I'm taking part in a quilt swap and some of these will be used for my project. Finally a $10 gift certificate from Fat Quarter Shop.  Thank you Denise for inviting me to join the hop it was great fun.

Having finished up several jobs today I'm going to work on my millennium sampler as I seem to have lost momentum with it again. I'm linking up with Kathy from Kathy's Quilts for her Slow Stitching Sunday.

I hope you've had a good Sunday which has included some time for stitching.

Lyndsey.