A couple of FO's

Austy wore his Zoe Mellor Star Jumper for the first time today... it's a little big but made from DK Jo Sharp cotton so will last a while and he can wear it in the spring/summer nights as well. Not the best shot (sorry about the "dink" in front of his face - he wouldn't remove it without tears) but here it is anyway.... tired Austy after childcare.

And I found a toggle for the ITE4 bag:

Just thought I'd upload pictures of my progress on the International Tote Exchange bag. Just waiting on a pair of bamboo handles and some lining fabric to finish it off.

Before felting

After felting

I am so amazed at the loopy fuzziness that comes out of the washing machine after 20mins of hot swooshing with a pair of jeans. I can't stop looking at it and feeling it's fuzzy texture. The bag actually stands up nicely by itself, but wasn't very dry in the pics so needed some help.

I also made my first set of stitch markers to go with my first knitted bag. My exchange pal likes green, so hopefully these go down well.

I have begun quilting the BOL quilt, but it has to come out again as the colour is too revealing. I chose a varigated green cotton but the dark bits are too dark, and not the best for a beginner like me! It will show up all my slip ups!!! I am going to buy some camoflaged thread tomorrow so it's all ready for an all nighter sewing session on Friday night.

For some reason I can't click in the title bar to give this post a name, but it is the progress on my BOL quilt. Excuse the ugly tacking - I can't find my quilting pins so a contrast coloured tacking will have to do while I quilt it. Thought I'd better take a pic before I uglied it up with more tacking. Still not sure what I am going to do on the quilting side of things, but the top is finished and the backing fabric chosen. Here is my quilt sandwich, all ready to quilt.

I decided to do a scrap strip border to frame it a bit more, and managed to use up all but about 1/4" strip of the fat quarter that I got in the mail - the green fossil fern background. I used to have a real thing for Jinny Beyer and would gravitate straight for that rack at the local quilt shop, but now I'm not so sure. I love her colours and tiny print designs, but the fabric doesn't seam to be as good quality as the others. It freys reeeeeeeally quickly and is much thinner, as you can see by all the loose ends on the outside border. Good thing the quilt is only small and I'm quilting it up ASAP, to close it over and protect it from freying away. I love the green backing fabric I found yesterday, perfect for the blankets of love theme.