Fingers crossed !

I warn you now I'm feeling chatty - I think because I haven't managed to get to my quilt group for 3 weeks I'm having the urge to have a quilty chat with people who understand the lingo - lol ! My family - god bless them - don't really get it although they do their best. I can see their eyes glazing over ever so slightly - ha !

Anyway thanks for all the suggestions - the general concensus is for piano key border. A lot of you said I should finish off the edges with another goose to complete the sashing. You know what ? You're right ! That's exactly what I should do before I go any further. Only trouble was I knew I didn't have much of the dark purple left. I measured my meagre scrap and worked out I only had enough for 16 more flying geese instead of the 24 I needed. A visit to the fabric warehouse was called for. Now I was lucky a few weeks ago when I had run out of a particular fabric I needed so I was not optimistic this time. For those of you who don't know this place sells fabric by the piece and sometimes they only have ONE piece of a particular fabric. Off I traipsed and what do you know ? I found some more !!! YES ! It's about a yard and a half so I will have enough to use in borders as well. The quilting angel was smiling on me today - lol !

I also came away with these.

Look at that green print ! That will go great with the frog fabric I bought last week. I quite fancy a froggy bag although my kids will definitely disown me. Mereth had a fantastic old-fashioned bonnet on her blog recently. I jokingly commented that I must get one to mortify my kids. Now a frog bonnet would certainly do the trick - lol !! They already think I'm a few sandwiches short of a picnic :-) I really need to get out a bit more....

Enough being silly... Here is what I came up with by using my charm pack.

It is Moda Allspice Tapestry and all I added was the 2 setting fabrics. I used a light and dark cream for a bit of variety. I think some of these fabrics are a bit samey so it needed something plainer to break it up a bit.

I tried to pick 2 contrasting charms and from each pair got 2 9-patches, 2 strips and 2 end bits. Like so :- Each 5 inch charm was cut into 4 strips measuring 1.25 inches.

Once the main middle piece was done I used the plain fabrics in the pack for the little border and pieced together the end bits and strips for the side border. Any squares I had not used in the 9-patches were quartered and sewn together for top and bottom borders. I'm dead chuffed with this. Any scraps left will go into the back. It only measures 18 by 24 so will either go on the back of an armchair or if Jason is very lucky I will hang it up by his computer - what a good wife I am. I told him this and he looked a little baffled - lol ! I want to quilt this soon probably by hand as it is nice and small.

I have also been doing a bit for my ALQS hosted by the lovely Kate. Sometimes when you have so much fabric you can be a bit over-awed about what to use - I know I am. So I decided to use an old trick taught to new quilters. Pick a nice fabric and pick out colours from it to use in the quilt. I'm sure you all know about this. Heres what I picked

I love this as I have a great fondness for paisleys and I think the colours of this are nice and cheery. So this is what I'm using as inspiration.

Forget to mention my lovely chicken.

Every time I go shopping I chuck my loose change into my pottery chicken that sits on my windowsill. When she gets a bit heavy I count out the coins and change them at the bank. Today I had a little count and got £55 ( about $110 ) bagged up. So really my little trip for fabric cost nothing. I have been driving Jason mad all day talking about my "free money". I told him I was buying him lunch with my free money etc. I know it's not really free but I do like to wind him up now and then - lol !

If you've made it this far well done and you deserve a coffee or some chocolate or whatever your vice is.

Take care xx