On My Worktable

I had a great few days in the mountains last week, hiking, sewing and watching movies with my daughter.  It was lovely.  I put a note on my shop announcement saying I would be gone for a few days and oddly enough, I had a eight orders!  I got those all packaged up on Sunday and to the Post Office first thing Monday morning.  

After a few days away I have been doing all the usual catching up things around the house, laundry and cleaning etc which is all quite tedious!  I have also been doing some sewing.  I made some more antique clock pincushions last week while I was away but stuffed and finished them on Monday.

I also finished up some more of these little bird pincushions.  You can't see in this picture, but there is a little nest on a branch with another red bird nestled in it on the side of these pincushions.  

For a while now, I've wanted to make something with English pieced hexagons.  I decided to start with a needle book.  The fabrics I've used look like Liberty prints don't they?  In reality they are made by Moda and actually have a nicer feel than the Liberty quilting cotton fabrics I have in my stash.  They have the weight of quilting cotton but the softness of Liberty lawn fabric and they sew beautifully.  These hexagons are small, less than an inch across so they are a bit fiddly to work with!

I finished this needle book this afternoon but didn't have time to photograph it so I'll show you next time.  This evening after dinner I started on some cherry tree pincushions as I am currently sold out of those.  This is another project featuring hundreds of french knots!  I've mentioned before that french knots are my favorite embroidery stitch, I find them very soothing...... until the thread tangles....grrrrr.