Pretty Liberty and Hand Quilting

While we were on our travels I did manage to get some hand stitching done (not much admittedly, but there was the occassional evening when I was able to just sit and sew!).

First up was this little Liberty table runner. The hexies are tiny (less than an inch I think) but I used EPP to stitch them together and then appliqued them onto the Essex Linen. I hand quilted around each flower, first in a pale blue Aurifil 28wt thread, and then in a pale pink Gutermann quilting thread. I wanted something subtle and pretty, but I think this may have been just a bit too subtle! Because I didn't have access to my fabric stash I ordered some premade Bias binding from The Polished Button which I thought would add to the prettiness of the Liberty fabric, and for the backing I used some Klona cotton which I bought when I visited the lovely Backstitch shop in Cambridge. I finally finished stitching the binding down yesterday, and I have to say, I like this small finish!

 The second project I worked on was a mini quilt for the Schnitzel and Boo Mini Quilt Swap Round 2.  My partner didn't have a blog, but from what I could tell from her Instagram feed anything Bonnie and Camille was the way to go. I was lucky that I had a mini charm pack of the April Showers fabric range in my stash, so I paired this with other similar coloured fabrics and made a 'Mini-dwell' quilt. Cutting out all those tiny pieces nearly got the better of me, but I did it in the end and managed to get the top pieced before we left Indonesia. I then hand quilted it and hand stitched on the binding while we were travelling. Thankfully my partner liked it, along with the other 'extra's' that I included!

Linking up with TGIFF and Finish it Up Friday today!