Bertie, subject of the wool appliqué project I wrote about here, has flown across the Atlantic Ocean and back.

The pieces above have all been whipstitched in place using single strands of embroidery floss. On the long flight back from Zurich to Newark, I intended to add the leaves and blueberries and maybe start embroidering Bertie’s legs. Instead I spend the 8½-hour flight binge-watching Season 4 of Downtown Abbey:

My husband and I decided to break up the jet lag by spending a few days in New York City before heading home to the west coast. That gave me a chance to visit a certain shop on W. 25th Street:

What did I buy, you ask? A couple pieces of “Grand Central,” a line from City Quilters that came out last year when Grand Central Station was celebrating its centennial:

The aqua fabric depicts constellations on the ceiling of Grand Central Station. I don’t know what I will make with these fabrics but I couldn’t resist them!