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Scrappy patchwork and Katherine Parr

It's the weekend already, and the central heating's kicked in because of a cold, frosty but bright morning.  I've succumbed - yet again - to buying a book online.  It's 'Embroidered Purses' by Linda Tudor, the library book I featured on my blog the other day.  Decided I needed my own copy and - ooops! - I seem to have purchased it.  How on earth did that happen?  Oh well, it was a bargain price from the ever-reliable World of Books.  
On the subject of books, I recently finished 'The Casual Vacancy' by J.K. Rowling, a terrific read, I really enjoyed it.  Last night I got to the end of this Philippa Gregory, 'The Taming of the Queen'.  The queen in question is Katherine Parr, the last of Henry VIII's many wives and thankfully a woman who survived the terror of being married to him.  I'd read Elizabeth Fremantle's 'Firebrand', another novel about Katherine Parr, but I think 'The Taming of the Queen' is the first book that really, really portrays just how vile a creature Henry Tudor was.  He was a killer.  Not only of wives, but of so many men and women in his Court and in the country as a whole.  Childhood friends of his, the young, the old, anyone he considered a heretic, even though that definition appeared to change from year to year, month to month.  He had the power of life and death over people and appeared to enjoy exercising that.  It's a chilling read, especially when Henry tires of marriage to Katherine and even goes so far as signing her death warrant, though obviously that's never actioned.  I don't want to put you off though.  It's a very good book, as you'd expect from Philippa Gregory.  She rarely lets the reader down.  
Okay, on to crafty matters.  I've been sewing lots of scrappy patchwork, to use up what I've got.  I like the sharpness that comes from using almost exclusively black, white and grey.  Though there's something to be said for simply throwing every colour and pattern into the mix and enjoying the eccentric jumble that emerges.  
Any scraps that're too tiny to be used for patchwork, plus bits of thread and wool, are thrown into this bag and used for cushion filling.  I'd got a bag full so I made a very simple cushion pad from two squares of material.  
I'm not keen on either of these fabrics, meaning they're ideal for using up in this way.  The cushion pad was stuffed and sewn closed, and inserted into the cushion cover.  I reckon this hexagonal patchwork was originally intended to form part of a quilt, but it's been repurposed.  Better to use it for something than have endless half-finished quilts lying around, don't you think?  
Okay, I need to get ready for my day-out in Leeds, the last of my fabric covered book classes.  Let's see if I can avoid taking a detour into Hobbycraft again.  Too many temptations in that shop, especially as I'm coveting DMC cotton perle threads at the moment.  Can I resist buying a handful of 'em?  Let's wait and see.  

Enjoy your weekend.  





 

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