Blackbird singing in the dead of night

My parcel has landed, in Florida, and now Clare has seen what I sent her I can show you too! Mum and Dad gave me some gorgeous draw liners for my birthday which came in this fantastic rococo box. It just seemed perfect to pack the bird themed goodies in here.
Clare used to live in the U.K so I made sure there was some Cadbury's treasure in the box, and as Clare is a paper crafter I found some rubber stamp with birds and some little printed tags. I thought long and hard about what bird themed item to make and lay in bed one Sunday morning flicking through my memories of what I had seen on Clare's blog. There had been bright colours and reference to a collection of crosses on her wall.

By the time I had had my shower I was ready to draft my first ever mini-quilt. I used some 2" squares of fabric to build a cross and background, then I appliqued flowers, leaves and birds and did a little light embellishment. I quilted with very big stitches and a thread with some metallic to represent light shining from the cross. I loved working to this scale and really loved playing Sherlock to find clues as to what might appeal to Clare.

On another issue if anyone has any recommendations as to what a foot loose young couple might get up to in Amsterdam I'd be glad for any advice.....otherwise it might be all books, galleries, beer and .........well, we can't have that now can we? ;)