There goes January!

Well, nothing to show for this week, folks. It's been a ridiculous start to the year for me in my 'real' job, which hasn't allowed for much creatve time or energy.

I have a lovely Moda Birdie jelly roll, bought from Pauline's Patchwork at the Autumn Quilt Show in Malvern, that I've taken apart and looked at, stroked and generally dribbled on. I spent nearly the entire day looking at my books and the Moda Bake Shop to try & decide what to do with these lovely fabrics.

I still didn't come to a conclusion, so I'm thinking that perhaps I should design my own???

I did help Mum with her pumpkin stems. Not sure whether it's very early or very late!

January Blues!

Well, so much for a post a week! I was so out of sorts last weekend, I couldn't settle to anything, so nothing much got done. But I've made up for it since.....

When I went to the Autumn Quilt Show at Malvern, I bought some flannels in squares and 2 1/2" strips. Lovely soft pastels and no small children to make it for! So it's for me, a complete self indulgence!

I've just quilted inside the squares. Unfortunately I don't have anything suitable to bind it with at the moment, so it'll have to stay as a UFO. A colleague at work gave me a card she had purchased in Paperchase as I waxed lyrical about the design possibilities (so much so, I think she felt obliged to let me have one!). This is my first attempt at taking the design and putting it into a different medium. What do you think?

I think the tree needs to be a stronger green. The outer fabric and the back is a sort of suede-style and a bit of a so-in-so to sew. It looked naked, so I added the flowers:

In the spirit of Valentine's Day, I decided to make a cushion for the shop. It's Kaffe Fassett fabric around the edge, with Michael Miller fabric for the heart, all purchased from Lexi Loves in Cirencester

I recently bought myself a copy of the book, and I tried the bowl pattern (just in front the book) Spurred on from this, I crocheted the flower with a 7mm hook and wool meant for felting. It started off about 4" square: and turned into a 3" square flower.

It's still rather larger than I had anticipated but at least now I know it will shrink approximately 25%!

Not bad for a grumpy week!

The disadvantage of a male brain....

.....is that you don't read instructions.

It has often been said that there is more than a little maleness in the way I think. I cannot deny that this is the case. Even less so now I have made this quilt.

Fortunately I am consistent in my errors. The diamond shapes should have formed a very pretty star radiating from the centres; instead I have an on-point square and a windmill-like formation. Fortunately an attractive windmill formation!

I know, had I not told you all, you would not have noticed the error, and the quilt is OK. Not what was expected but hey-ho! For those of you who like to know these kind of things, it was made using a Moda jelly roll called Northern Solitude and there is still lots left, including quite a few whole strips. I've decided that I'd like a thin sash to frame the blocks before the border goes on and (despite having several boxes of fabric) I don't have the right one in sufficient quantities to do this. So this on is on hold.

I enjoyed a couple of snow days this week, hence the completion of a whole quilt top. (I'd like a few more, although I'm aware that this may not be universally popular).

Cassie dog loves the snow and can even make her own snowballs. She had to be left in the kitchen to defrost when we came home

Next quilt started...but I can't post a picture as my laptop is refusing to play. Ho hum!

Well, hello again!

Well, hello!



A rather long absence, but a new year would be a good time for a new start, I thought. So here I am, back again! I hesitate to tag it with a New Years Resolution, as that seems to be a kiss of death, so I'll just say I'm trying to get my groove back!



Hard to explain the absence; I don't have a note from my mum or anything. Not even a really good excuse if I'm honest. I have been doing odds and ends - even managed to sell a few things, too. Probably more odds Maybe I'll add them to Flickr when I get the photos off the external hard drive that decided to fail just before Christmas. Or not.



Played with tin cans and felt today and this is what I came up with:


Flowers cut from felt and a Foster's can. Made quite a few and thought I should do something with them, so I tried a necklace

Changed the colour scheme to purple and cut a larger flower.

but it just wasn't big enough for a brooch on it's own; it definately needed bigging up

So here it is! It felt really good to be making things for the fun of it, with no deadline and the chance to play. Such a shame the time will disappear into my day job.

Here's hoping for a snow day or three!