Crumbs, I’m feeling very pleased with myself. This weekend, whilst watching the Olympic track cycling (Go Chris, Go Brad, Go Vicky), I made a new apron. I used Sew Liberated’s Emmeline Apron pattern and fabric from Makower’s Hungry Caterpillar range. I love the fabric and the pattern was lots of fun. I learnt how to make and used bias binding and how to make my ladder stitch neater.

Please note the strawberries, somehow the overall cuteness is helping me cope with their presence.

In other news, I skipped work and went to the Festival of Quilts at the NEC on Friday. Katie and Liz have both made eloquent posts about it. Surprisingly, considering my current reputation, I didn’t buy lots of fabric, just some very cute fat quarters. I did buy various bits of kit though, such as a small cutting mat and ruler, inkjet printer fabric and some iron on plastic called Lamifix, all of which I’m very eager to start playing with.

I think the favourite stall for most of us was The Button Company who were selling some very cute Japanese fabrics including the green version of the robot fabric I used to make my messenger bag. I got chatting about the fabric to one of the ladies running the stall and showed her my bag; oh crumbs, there was lots of fondling of the fabric and cooing at the bag. The lady was pleased with how the fabric had softened up. When we went back to the stall later in the day (to buy pretty ribbons and lovely wool felt) I was called the “robot bag lady” and the bag was shown about and fondled all over again, it was lots of fun. I was grinning from ear to ear.