Patchy patience and a prompt work of patch!

If there's one essential characteristic needed for teaching, it's patience! I used to think I had pretty much mastered the art of patience - with people and when it comes to solving problems and learning stuff. When I started sewing just over a year ago, I was really intrigued by the English Paper Piecing method for creating patchwork, so I painstakingly cut out shapes from paper, cut and pinned the material to the the paper and sewed the pieces together by hand.

This project took me about 20 hours in total and was mainly created at stupid-o'clock, in between T.'s night feeds:

I wanted to create a 30s inspired vintage cushion cover. The white broderie anglaise patches are made from my old, favourite summer skirt which I ruined by sitting on a dirty old bench and getting rust stains on it which wouldn't wash out:

And I was so anal, that I even sewed the tiniest piece of yellow fabric into the corner to create a perfectly rounded edge. Can you see the piece in the top, right-hand corner?:

 I hand-stitched a bag for a little friend of mine:

And didn't cheat by making the back plain, that's also patchwork:

I then went on to hand-piece and hand sew this bag from Cath Kidson fabric scraps as I really wanted a CK bag, but I was less enthusiastic about the cost of them:

Plus this hand-stitched cushion, which became one of a pair:

I even created the odd dribble bib by hand:

But something has ruined me, has stripped me of my patience and created an impetuous sewing freak who just wants to get the project finished and move on to the next exciting adventure in patchy land: 

THE SEWING MACHINE!!!!!!


My first ever sewing machine which I bought in June and now don't know how I ever sewed without it!

During this half term break we're decorating the nursery and I wanted to create my first wall hanging. It was to be lilac in tone and hand-stitched to show love, care and attention to detail but the temptation of the machine was too much and apart from hand-sewing the hexagons (as this is the neatest way I can do them!), I wipped the lines of patchwork up mechanically and quilted it in no time. 

I'm really loving hexagons at the moment and planned  to create the whole quilt from 7 patch hexagons stitched together, but again, this seemed like an arduous process that I just don't have the patience for anymore. Can you spot the broderie anglais? These are the last pieces from my old, beloved summer skirt. I need a new skirt like that:

What do you think to my colour/ material choices? I've tried a completely different type of layout, do you like it? And do you think it will work as a wall hanging? (Photos to follow once the nursery is all painted up!)