Sewing bonanza

Dear Laura,

Congratulations on your apartment! And blue, no less. How exciting! When do you move in? I can't believe there's even a hobby room. Sounds like our kind of people live there! Maybe you'll meet some crazy knitters and create a little knitting commune!

Well, I was pretty much a sloth today. I'm always torn about days like today: on one hand, they're very decadent and they're exactly what I'm wishing for when I'm really busy and have no time for myself. On the other hand, I always finish the day feeling about wistful about how much "I could have done" if I had got my butt in gear. Ah, well. The bottom line is, I had a day filled with sewing and watching The West Wing with Brad, and I can say for sure that it was relaxing!

So first, as promised -- the table runner! I started it two days after you gave it to me, and I've worked away at it since then. Today, I finished piecing the top. Now it just needs a back and binding - but the binding is scaring me, so I'm going to leave that until I get back. Here's the top.

It's so beautiful! I loved all those fabrics together when I first saw them, and they look even nicer than I had imagined now that they're all put together. I can't wait to finish the whole thing.

My next project of the day was a baby blanket. My fabric store tour yesterday yielded some flannel that was on super-duper sale. I had seen blankets like this on a few sewing blogs, and I decided to give it a whirl. It's not really a quilt, but it's a nice blanket, and it was good practice. There are a few babies on the way in my world, and I think this will go to one of them.


Check out the cute seahorse fabric! The yellow on the back is just about as blinding as it looks. I figure the baby will definitely be able to identify his or her blanket from outer space, should the need arise.

Seriously, though, it's pretty darn cute, if I do say so myself. I'm tempted to take it with me tomorrow - when I fly to northern Manitoba to have a wonderful experience in rural and remote medicine and enjoy the wonderful outdoors in my spare time. (Read: freeze my butt off for three weeks.) I'll do my best to update while I'm there, and I'll even take some pictures if my hands don't freeze and fall off when I take my mittens off to work the camera!

Love,
Nikki

p.s. Here's one more picture of my blanket....yes, I'm bragging! (Note beautiful zigzag edging. Mrs. Stitchy has all kinds of tricks up her sleeve.)