It is a sad thing that since I began sewing for a living I have found less and less time to sew for myself, for friends and for family.
Once I head up to the house of an evening I rarely venture back down to sew for pleasure. I am much more likely to be working on a needlepoint or some knitting.
This weekend however I decided to make a present for my youngest niece's 1st birthday which is next week.
I settled on a playmat with a road and fields - partly because I think its really useful and fun - partly because this is the first time I had quilted anything and I wanted lots going on to hide the flaws.
First I appliqued the top with a cord road and linen fields and river - with a few embroidered fish swimming about.
Then I sandwiched in some wadding and a plain red linen back and basically drew with my freehand needle to keep it all together.
and give it some texture. I fashioned some bias binding out of more of the red linen and edged the whole thing neatly.
ready for the wooden animals which arrived today.
So now I have 3 whole days to play with it myself before handing it over . . .