it goes in and out like anything

There is something very satisfying about things that fit exactly- maybe I've been influenced by reading Winnie the Pooh at an impressionable age, the part where Piglit gives Eeyore a deflated balloon for his birthday and Eeyore is pleased to find that it exactly fits the empty honey jar that Pooh has given him. "It goes in and out like anything!"

I am slightly obsessed with making hexagons from all my leftover bits of fabric. I've just worked out that I've been making them for a year, and if I keep going I might have enough for a king-sized quilt by the time I'm about 94!
It's very satisfying to use up all those little bits (the hexagons use pieces two and a half inches square), and of course they fit together 'like anything'..... but really the best bit is my little hexagon-making tin:

... exactly the right size for taking my hexagon production line with me anywhere- scissors, cotton, fabric, paper templates and tiny eggcup pincushion...

and pleasingly, exactly the right size to fit a finished hexie flower:

.. so a big thank you to whoever makes tins of 'Delicious Tivoli Cookies'!

Not to mention whoever makes Scottish shortbread in tartan tins:

for the finished individual hexies.

And here are two more extremely lovely things whose contents fit perfectly:

how could anyone resist these two lovely needlework 'housewives'?

The tiny one is only about two inches long! 

Maybe that's enough about my obsessions, but then there's the one about teeny tiny things that are just like big things, but smaller.......

blocks, blocks, blocks

Some blocks from the black/navy quilt which is growing on the design wall:

I am including some ladies from this wonderful Matisse paintings fabric- I wonder what Matisse would think of being part of a quilt? Actually his later paper cutout works did have a quilty feel to them..

... and on a slightly different theme, the first blocks for a quilt for a friend's husband. When I made a quilt for her he was apparently unimpressed, but she keeps finding him curled up asleep under it!

His interest is in all things steam powered, and he is renovating a steam car, so she wants Stanley steam cars on the quilt. Amazingly I have tracked down some likely fabric:

I also have some pictures of the man himself driving his car, so I might have a go at jamming the printer by printing them onto fabric using freezer paper as a support..

I think he might be doubly surprised to receive a quilt with his own car on it!

small blog meet

I have been wading through the back passages of the internet to try to add the 'small blog meet' link from Lily's Quilts:
http://lilysquilts.blogspot.com/ 
to my blog, and I hope I have succeeded..

Looking forward to linking up with other quilty bloggers!

what the well-dressed bear is wearing

Who knew that if you take your teddy to a wedding he MUST have a new suit?

No I didn't either, but this week I have been creating a pin-striped suit for a friend's bear, complete with silk waistcoat... and then I got rather carried away and went on to make the country suit for the bear who likes to go huntin' shootin' and fishin'......

and then I couldn't resist covering his modesty with some snappy hippo-patterned underpants.

Hmm, I think I may have started something! I found it rather addictive being able to run up a whole wardrobe for someone who obligingly doesn't fidget, and who doesn't need to be able to move in the outfit.. 

...and I got to use some of the teeny tiny buttons in my button box, and to discover that my sewing machine can indeed make teeny tiny buttonholes for them, not to mention the teeny tiny pegs! (the bear is about 9 inches tall).

What next- swimming trunks? bermuda shorts? scuba diving outfit? The world's my lobster!