Sashing Disaster!

With 1 block to go I laid them all out on the bed to get an idea of how it was going to look and I quite liked the idea of dark pink background.....

Unfortunately I had already chosen the sashing fabric - a green / pink / blue splodgy pattern. So I laid all this out....

.....and HATED it! The green did nothing for the beautiful background fabric in the blocks, it was far too busy and totally lacking in contrast. What was worse was that it was Saturday night and Busy Bees is closed on Sundays and Mondays - so I had 48 hours to stress over it!
So first chance I got I whizzed over and got Sue and Sandra working hard pulling bolt after bolt of fabric from the shelves to find the PERFECT sashing fabric. We tried everything, green, pink, red, blue but finally decided on black with streaks of blue which looks navy from a distance - PERFECT! I raced home like a woman possessed and sewed until my fingers looked like pincushions.

And heres a glimpse of how it will look when the borders are added (they aren't actually added yet, its just laid out on the bed). I don't want to bang my own drum but I think it looks superb for a first attempt at hand patchworking.

Loads-a-Blocks!

Well I've now completed all 12 blocks so heres a look at them. I'm really pleased with how well the colours work together. The final block is one I designed myself because I wasn't very keen on the pinwheel block we were supposed to do.
I think my fav blocks are the Tumbling blocks, the Applique flowers and Dresden plate..... mmm I think I love them all!!

Churndash

Double 9

Windmill

Dresden plate

Bow Ties

Flying Geese

Frienship Star

Big T

Applique

Tumbling Blocks

8 pointed star

Jo's Block!

The only good dummy is a dead one!

We I haven't had much time to do any shooting recently as we only seem to get 1 in 10 days free of rain in cardiff! but Tuesday was a nice day in the end so managed to shoot a few arrows and test my new target dummy that I have made!

I filled cardboard boxes with this foam for the main body and head

I put a wooden pole in the head so it can be taken out of the body

 The target dummy took the arrows quite well even in the head as well which I'm pleased with. I also managed to break another arrow when I missed and hit the wall behind grr I really must get an archery net as this will cost me a fortune. I will be making some more arrows soon anyway as winter months give me less chance to shoot, i'm looking to get some turkey feathers to make some bigger fletchings.

Leather arm bracer

Leather Quiver (back quiver)

Unstrung Longbow

Grip with a horn passing plate

Strung bow shown near door for size

Quiver of arrows (getting smaller as i keep breaking them)

Archery Range!

One dead dummy!

Update On Patchwork
Sorry for the delay in posting but I've got so into my patchwork I haven't had a chance! Anyway here are some pics of when I started, I've got much further than this but haven't taken the pics yet!