Take 5

1) The daily fish sewing is slightly floundering at the moment, but I'm not beating myself up over it since it's because the fish seem to be spilling out into other projects right now. First up a simple little bag, that's part of a present for a little boy...

And the other side...

2) And on a larger scale, there's the beginnings of a new baby quilt for a little boy, who is already a couple of weeks old now, so I'd better get a move on with it!

These strips are sort of following the principles in this quilt-as-you-go Herringbone quilt. Here they are sewn together with some fishy additions...

This quilt is very much inspired by a comment from the lovely Carole at Fresh Off the Frame. She suggested that my daily sewing fish might end up on the end of a fishing line in her house. Although that's not my plan with my daily fish (poor things, I couldn't do that to my little babies!), I did really like the idea and it popped into my head when musing over baby boy quilt ideas. So thank you Carole! Although these fish are going to be caught in a net, as you can see...

I have a sky section almost pieced together and then a boat to create, hopefully it will all come together quite quickly now.

3) Another bag with some rainbow scraps, to be part of another present...

4) My friend Emma organised a craft evening recently to try and make white flowers for the charity North Devon Against Domestic Abuse.

Most of the flowers we made were fabric, and involved very basic hand sewing.

But some did not even require any sewing - these are made from milk bottle cartons with a button glue gunned on to them.

After being inspired by the poppies on display at the Tower of London, the charity decided to create their own version in Barnstaple town square to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the North Devon Women's Refuge being open. The white flowers are to symbolise peace, marriage and love, and they're aiming to have 4000 flowers to display by November (you can read a little more about their plan here). So if you're interested in contributing some flowers there's still plenty of time.

5) May has arrived with pretty horrible, wet, windy, cold weather. As I write I have a hot water bottle ready to take up to bed with me since my bare feet are icy! But the lilac tree is just coming into bloom and looking beautiful, and I couldn't resist this bright green vase the other day in a charity shop - it is making me feel Spring like even with my icy feet!