The Sewing Bee

I've been as busy as a bee working on an idea for a Christmas gift.  This year, the only Christmas gifts are homemade ones and I'm more than a little behind in Santa's workshop.  

The inspiration for this came from a picture, or more precisely, a vintage railway poster from the 1940s.  I got as far as tracing the design a couple of weeks ago, but then work ground to a halt, so now I'm busy in the sewing room (actually the dining table, but a girl can dream...), trying to get it finished in time.

I spent all day yesterday sticking Bondaweb to fabric and cutting out my design (all of the fabrics used came from my small fabric stash).  I then started to assemble it on the fabric backing.  Little did I realise that this process would take me the better part of eight hours.

Here, I'm trying to work out exactly what that little scrap of funny-shaped fabric is...a bit like doing a jigsaw puzzle.

As the light was fading, I added the final piece.  The next stage is to finish all of the raw edges.