Hidden Wells Start

 I've been seeing 'Hidden Wells' quilt blocks everywhere recently.

I decided to join in and cut some strips - a mix of grey and aqua prints.

 Sewed them into strip sets.  Joined one more time after this shot.

 Then sliced into squares

Then two squares facing each other at ninety degrees to each other.

Then sewn around on all four sides.

 Then the fun bit of cutting them on the diagonals, so that you can open them out to see what you have.

 Opened out my blocks looked like this.

 A little re-arrangement and this was the layout that I chose.

Repeat until the blocks are all made, and I've ended up with this.

From six 2.5" wof strips of four colours, I've ended up with a flimsy that is 50" x 30".

I need to decide whether to keep the top this size, add borders to it, or make more blocks.

Thought required!

Tidy Shelves, Tidy Mind?

 The shelves in my sewing room where getting overwhelmed.  I forgot to take a 'before' photo, but the lower shelf had books so tight that I couldn't remove them, and stacked across the top of the ones that were standing up too.

 My DH helped to move them to a table so I could start sorting them out.

 Which also made me get to work on the top shelf too, especially after I'd caused a minor paper avalanche getting a couple of items out!

These are the books that didn't make the cut.  It's going to be a few heavy armfuls for my DH to take to the charity shop for me, and always hard to 'release' books,  but it feels good to be able to access everything else more easily!

Aah!  That looks better!

Happiness in Small Things

 I felt the need to make something just for me!

This fitted the bill.  Finishing at 6 1/2" square, it really is a small size to give big happiness.  The bird house blocks (or perhaps kennels, as they look as though they are on grass rather than a branch due to my lack of thought!) are just 1 1/2" square, and didn't really make a dent in my 'miniature prints' mini stash!

Natural calico seemed a good fit for the sashing and border.

My hand sewing project over the last couple of weeks has been this fun guy.  It's a pattern by Jodie at Vintage RicRac.   He's designed to be a sewing caddy - this side of the blanket is a needle book, the other side has a scissors holder.  There were pins designed too, which I didn't make.

Another fun pattern, but not quite fast enough for me to suggest to my gal pals for a single evening of crafting activity!

Domestic Sewing

 First there was the prom - and sewing the skirt to suit the requirements of DD1.

I'm pleased that 1) she loved it and 2) I shall not have to sew slippery satin fabric again in the near future!

 Then it was down to the business of sorting out the uniform items that will never be worn again.

Most items passed on to DD2 or back into the school system, but the t-shirts which have seen sterling service for a number of years had another destiny.

 The main parts of the front and back were cut away.

The buttons were removed and put into the button tin.

The three raw edges were hemmed.

A clutch of dusters / cloths to keep us clean have emerged!

Lovely and soft, and perfect for their new job!