More Bits and Bobs

 Still not much of anything happening this week, apart from (even more) name tag sewing onto new items of uniform for DD1.

Still, I managed to make the Monday evening deadline to participate in the next challenge that my quilting group are running - a round robin.

This is my fabric pull (yes, it looks just like the fabrics that I used for my C&G samples - what can I say, I like the colours and they were to hand!).

My theme is the lyrics from the Military Wives song 'Wherever my Heart'.  I'm hoping for lots of
hearts and stars, perhaps a bridge..... Who can tell what I will actually get!  All good fun.  This is my own block strip (6" x 36") combining applique hearts, improv stars and foundation pieced flying geese (and no, there are no geese in the song, but they refer, in my mind, to Chivenor which is an air base that I drive past once a year....!).  I hope that people understand I am happy with any style of patchwork in this piece!

I have also bought myself an early birthday present -  some rubbing plates and Markel paint sticks.  I spent a happy 10 minutes yesterday transforming this scrap of muslin (and no, I didn't bother to iron it, it was play time, not laundry time!).

I love the look of the rubbings, and I'm thinking that I'd like to transform a plain t-shirt with them (hoping that I can manage the stretch without it looking too gruesome).  HOWEVER, not one site that I've seen has talked about the powerful smell that emanates when you use these paint sticks!  Crikey, what a smell!

I know that it's recommended that you leave the paint to 'cure' for three days before ironing it, but I'm really thinking that I shall have to leave anything I colour in the shed rather than in the house, as I'm not at all fond of the strong aroma.  Of course, before I actually commit to a t-shirt I will also need to think about how to overlap the patterns (like they show in the ads!).  Its going to be a bit of a learning curve, foreshortened only by my reluctance to buy any more of the paint sticks until I can prove reasonable results with the ones that I have (three minis, one full size) as they are pretty expensive.

I'm off to contemplate the Round Robin that I have to make a block for this month - a theme of 'tea', which does have lots of scope to it, I'm pleased to say!