One last rescue

 Remember in my last post I showed you a picture of some tiny cross stitch pieces I had made into cards for for my Mum?  I was touched that she had kept them and delighted that I had the fortune to find them. They are wonderful mementos of both my Mum and also my very early days of cross stitching. I had done quite a bit of tapestry and needlepoint as a child and teen. Kits were often received as Christmas and birthday gifts. Sadly all of those pieces are now gone. Then there was a break until my second child was due in 1992. There was a new cross stitch magazine on the market and it was advertised on tv while I was pregnant. I went out to look for a copy. I didn't really like that one, but noticed others on the shelf beside it. One had a freebie on the front!  I was hooked!

I didn't have to wait long before the next issue and another freebie came along.

While I can't tell you the exact dates these pieces were stitched, I can confidently say they were all freebies, from magazine fronts.

Sew anyway, I had a look through my scrap bin and tried out a few different fabrics, the original thinking was this layout but all bordered with the same fabric. Nothing seemed to feel right though. Then as I continued to mine through the scraps I came upon a seam of batiks.

Now we're talking. And as they were off cuts from charm squares, I didn't even have to trim much away.

Unfortunately one piece required a little addition! But I can live with that.

 Then I wondered what to do next and remembered a neutral Bali pop that Tony had gifted to me a few Christmases ago. When I pulled it out I discovered some off cuts tucked into the back of the open packet. (I cannot for the life of me think where I used these fabrics). and again, there was just enough to add a little to each side of the colourful pieces and three pieces to join them all top to bottom.

Then back into my pop I went and found the same design but in a slightly darker colour way. 

 Enough to border the whole thing and a final two very similar slices to add binding. 

The back is just a piece of boring beige fabric.

I quilted it using my walking foot and some of the pretty vine stitches on my sewing machine. 

I didn't want anything too much, just simple stitches to show case the tiny designs I had stitched for my Mum. 

The addition of the hanger and it is almost complete. One day I'll make a hand sewn label  that explains the piece.  It is a little too big to hang with my other recent rescue and refinish jobs.

So has a space of its very own in my quilting room.

I'm delighted with it. Sweet but simple.

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For those of you who are waiting.......

A froggie update.

This first picture was taken on Sunday morning. 

I did get to stitch on Sunday evening for a while.

Then after I had finished with the wall hanging on Monday, I stitched until Tony came home and then again after dinner.

Sometimes a cross stitch project can seem to drag on and on. So it's nice to take and date progress pictures then I can see the difference made in a session or two. The first half of this piece did seem to draw out a little, not so this second half! 

Today, after I do the domestics, that middle frog will get his eye!

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Maybe today I'll make another row of the bitty quilt too. But if I'm going to do that I need to put the lap top down and get on with my day!

Have fun today, what ever you choose or have to do.