My larger quilts get sent to the longarm quilter, but this small wall hanging will be easy enough for me to manage! I'd bought some pretty blue and cream fabric from KIS Quilting Ltd in Ipswich that was just perfect for the backing, and I made sure I'd bought enough for the quilt sleeve too! I tend to spray baste my smaller quilts rather than pin basting (except for baby quilt, obviously) and had bought this can of June Tailor quilt basting spray several months ago (also from KIS) - it seemed more powdery and not so "wet" as my usual one is, and I actually preferred it to my usual brand of 505. Now it's all ready for some machine quilting, I just need to delve into my thread boxes and decide which colours I'm going to use!

The Alice Bag is a new design by the Australian designer Gail Pan - and is a very simple design, combining applique, embroisdery and quilting. This pretty kit, that included the pattern, all the fabrics and the blue cord, was from Cross Patch, an online shop based in Wales, here in the UK. This was my first attempt at hand quilting, and I used a selection of Valdanini perle threads from the Welsh Summer collection, which worked perfectly with these pretty fabrics...

...I used two pretty green flower buttons from my button tin for embellishment, The pale blue linen background is lovely to quilt qwith, and looks fab combined with these pretty prints...

...the drawstring bag was quite simple to construct, and it's a really useful size for keeping sewing projects and bits and bobs in. I'll definately make another one of these, especially as my daughter Alice has alreadyy put in a request for a batik one!

Here is another little peek at my Hearts and Happy Flowers quilt, which is on the frame with the longarm quilter - J-Quilts is freehand custom quilting this one, and is doing some amazing work - it's so exciting seeing her progress! 

Month 9 of the Cottage Garden Threads Vintage Sewing Club arrived in the post from Cross Patch this morning. The colours of these threads - Golden Elm, Golden Gully, Roselle and Lyrebird Walk are absolutely gorgeous and these threads are really lovely for hand embroidery. There are only 3 more months of this particular thread club, and I shall be really disappointed to see it come to an end. 

Here's a little peek at my Hearts and Happy Flowers quilt loaded onto the longarm quilters frame, all ready for J-Quilts Longarm quilting to work her magic. This gorgeous pattern is by the Australian designer Leanne Beasley, and was bought as a BOM along with these pretty fabrics from Cross Patch. It was machine pieced, hand embroidered using Cosmo threads and hand appliqued. It was taken over to the longarm quilter several weeks ago, and now it's finally on her frame, I need to get the design for my quilt label finalised!

A few weeks ago I was asked to review some quilting tools by Precision Quilting Tools. It took a while for the products to arrive, but the wait has been well worth it! The first product I tried was the Wool Pressing Mat - this is a a 17" x 24" 100% New Zealand wool pressing mat, and it makes a perfect ironing station when you're quilting. I'd been using another brand of wool pressing mat for the past couple of months, so I was really keen to see if this was of a similar quality - well it's superb, and equally as good as the one I'd already got. This size makes it ideal for having in my sewing room as well as being portable enough to take to sewing classes too, as it will easily fit in the bag that I use for my cutting board which is the same size. Wool pressing mats retain heat, so when you press your fabric it's like pressing from both sides at the same time. The Precision Quilting Tools wool pressing mats are made from 100% New Zealand wool, and as they are 1/2" thick not only they also provide extra protection for any ironing surfaces, but they are perfect for pressing applique and embroidery projects too. If you press your project face down onto the wool pressing mat, the block can be pressed flat without the applique or embroidery being squashed or distorted. The thick wool pad will keep fabric stable when it's being pressed, and can also be used for blocking smaller yarn and embroidery proidery projects by simply pinning it to the mat. These mats are available in the UK from Amazon UK, and this size retails art £69.99 and really is well worth the investment. 
Precision Quilting Tools offers a 100% SATISFACTION GUARANTEE - If you're ever unsatisfied with the product they will refund your order. They stand behind their products and have a no-hassle return policy. I'd definitely give this product a 5 star rating - and you can't ask for better than that! 

A few weeks ago I was contacted by Precision Quilting Tools to see if I would be interested in giving some of their products a "road test" and write a review. Obviously, I was very keen to take part! These goodies arrived in the post, and over the next few days I'll be trying them out and keeping my followers updated with how these products perform. I'd already purchased a wool pressing mat a few weeks ago, so I'll be interested to see if this brand is as good as the one I've been using!