Things that are finished and things that are not

It's grey, dank and gloomy here today and I think I made it rain in direct contradiction of no less than three weather reports by hanging a load of laundry out on the line so Kitty and I have spent the day snoozing, cuddling, singing silly songs and going to Sainsburys.  It's been a bit of a non-day in terms of tangible achievements, but happily I did manage to take a few pictures of a few finished things for February.

So, let me see; I think my number one aim for February was to make the handprint quilt with the immovable deadline.  We organised babies, painted their tiny little fingers, giggled at their slightly bemused expressions, and every now and then I sewed a seam.

I finished sewing the binding down after Kitty went to sleep on Friday, which turns out to be a good thing as the party that was going to be a week on Thursday has been rearranged for tomorrow, and incidentally is the reason why my fridge is currently hard at work setting jellies in a sancastle bucket and seashell sand moulds.

I know I've given some details of this quilt before, but just for completeness it's nine 12.5 x 12.5 inch blocks made to this tutorial using four Heather Bailey fabrics; Swing Toss in pink and green, Lindy Leaf in green, and Mod Bead in pinkyppurple. The sashing is just 2.5 inch wide strips and squares.

We painted the babies hands with green or pink fabric paint and printed them onto the centre square (before it was joined as a block) and then wrote their names underneath (that's the smudgy bit in the photos).  We've got one square blank for the little girl whose quilt this will be, and the ninth square is the names of all the mummies.

For the backing I chose a Tanya Whelan print from the Dolce collection called Marilyn, and the binding is just strips of leftovers.

The quilting just follows the sashing and then outlines each of the stars.

I have to admit I'm a little nervous about giving away a quilt.  I think she'll like it, and hopefully she'll be too distracted by the handprints to look too closely at how matchy the points are.

Task number two also made it onto the finished rostrum; I finished the Phoenix socks on Saturday.

Have I written up the pattern? Only if 'cast on 70 stitches' is all you need to complete these socks.

Oh well, better to aim high.

And the Christmas tree decorations ...?

Let me distract you with more of the socks:

I'm still percolating my aims for March but I've got another 3 hours so that should be plenty.