I am on "house arrest" at the moment.  Australia is on fire at the moment (well at least parts of it), and the big fire to the east of us, is blowing a massive smoke cloud over the city.  My asthma is particularly sensitive to smoke, and so I am on some sick leave, and confined indoors. 

Initially, I was going to do some bowl cosies, but I ran out of cotton thread.  A friend plans to drop some off for me, but in the meantime, I had to switch projects.  I was given a big length of these cushion panels from a freebie site.  They are a very fine lawn/muslin fabric, and certainly not strong enough on their own to cope with being a cushion cover.  I backed the panel with a nice firm quilting cotton in white (gosh it made the colours pop), and then used some random quilting cotton for the back.  I put a dress zip in the back, while an overlap is easier, working out the maths for that, is more tiresome than putting a zip in.   Hubby saw the first two, and has now requested a pair for his mother, so I will be making another set today I assume. 

cushion covers by Dani, on Flickr

The colours are intense!

cushion covers by Dani, on Flickr

The back is boring by comparison, but then who ever says "oh my gosh I love what you did with the back of the cushion"

cushion covers by Dani, on Flickr

Finished my cards tonight as well apart from a couple of letters to go with them. We were away all yesterday so I seem to have been playing catch up all day. Tomorrow the new gas fire is being fitted, I'm just hoping all will go smoothly with that. It will be nice to have a fire that works once again!

Lovely job and another pattern bookmarked 

Nearly all the cards are all written and those that need posting have stamps on them ready for tomorrow morning.  There are just two that need letters included and a couple that Terry sends to people I don't know.  I refuse to write those and if the recipients are lucky they will go out before Christmas.

I did a bit more Christmas shopping today including some foodstuffs that will keep.  It feels as though I am horribly behind, but actually there isn't that much more to buy because the GC mostly want money.

Now to start making a trifle.  I have three bring-and-share parties this year and I have decided to make a trifle for each one.  The first is on Wed evening but as I'll be out for much of tomorrow and most of Wed as well the jelly layer needs to be done tonight, the custard tomorrow morning and then just whip the cream before I leave on Wednesday.

My parcel arrived today

The printed fleece at £3.95 is fine, the jersey at £2 is fine and a bundle of 3x3m stretch/jersey for £9 so £1 per metre which consists of :
Mixed animal fur/acanthus leaves print in browns and black.  Sounds odd but it's actually quite nice.
Peach and white blotchy diagonal stripes.  Ok-ish, might get used for a summer top.
Beige polka dots on navy printed onto a stretchy fabric with squiggley, slightly see-through, lines incorprated onto the knit.  Definitely not my colours but nothing wrong with the actual fabric.