Rays of Sunshine and Ice Crystals

 

Last week I mentioned I was doing a little practice for our class.  I always try out before asking others to make something new.  What a lovely block this is and so much fun to make, Lucie Wakefield who lives in Northumberland and blogs at   http://luciethehappyquilter.com  was my inspiration for this one.  I follow her blog regularly and she always seems to be doing something different with lots of projects going on at the same time.  She has time to teach at a local quilt shop and takes in longarm quilting for clients - a busy lady.  The pattern for this quilt block was printed in the January Quiltmaker magazine and called Midnight Snowfall and I thought I would do it with a twist.  Sunny yellow fabrics and icy blues as a variation for my class mates.    It will be interesting to see the group finishes in a couple of weeks time. I have asked everyone to bring along their finishes for the Show and Tell on the first Tuesday of the month.  Here is the process and some of my finished creations.

 

There have been a few comments and discussions on the world of blogging - I am not the only one who has noticed change.  It has been said by a few that it's a pointless task, you never know who's following - especially if you are a no comment blogger - which I must be as I never seem to get any comments.  I think there are settings you can change etc but as you know I am not that technical, and to be honest while I would love to get some feedback I'm afraid I just don't have time to reply to comments I may receive which I would feel obliged to do.  I'll just continue doing what I'm doing and hope there are some people out there who enjoy my ramblings.  I know there are some followers as I can tell from the statistics there are some hits on the pages.  Whether or not these people enjoy what I write or whether they just look as my pictures who knows.  I know of a few good friends who do follow along, in Canada, in Wales and a few much closer to home.  Thank you all for following I hope this makes you smile, and say ooh that's me! I hope you are all well and managing to do a little stitching now and again.

I will continue this week with the Rays of Sunshine - I appear to be producing more of these than the Ice Crystals.  Maybe I would just like to see some sunnier days, there have been enough enough icy snowflakes outside this past week.  I will continue to use up my scraps and smaller pieces of fabrics and I have another two projects in the planning and drifting around in my head.

Have a good week everyone and keep cosy hopefully under a quilt hand stitching, if you haven't tried hand stitching for a while give it a try this week, it's so relaxing!

No Finishes but Progress

I have been working on a few projects this week.  The main one being a demonstration/tutorial I am giving on Tuesday night at class.  I can't give too much away at the moment but I found this delightful block on a blog I follow and I will give credit where credit is due next week when I show you what we achieve.  I know I was a bit derogative about blogs last week however this lady manages to blog most days and has produced some lovely projects she designs herself, although this block is not one of her own designs.  I asked the class to bring along some 'icy' or 'sunny' scraps of fabrics for Tuesday so I am looking forward to seeing what arrives.  Here are mine

Do you remember the Farmers Wifey Blocks - I made another three this week - I am almost getting to the end of my layer cake so I think although I have only made just over 30 of these little blocks I might just be coming to the end of this project.  When the fabric finishes so will I.  I have fabric for the sashing already so no issues there.

Almost a year ago I said I would make quilts for two little doggies - my heart has a not really been in this project however the tops are done.  Need to get them sandwiched now.

I have also caught up with my BOM and have now completed block number 4 so all is good, I was unhappy I had fallen behind as I was the one who insisted we all try to keep this project moving each month.  This was a quick and easy block no wee moosie or small fiddley pieces, which takes up the time.  I have made a few purchases to help me will my applique - but that's for another day. Generally there is so much in each block and it will be difficult to complete within the time if we don't do a bit each month.  There is a lot in next month's block lots of wee pieces - I might suggest we do it over two months.  I was surprised to learn that one of our ladies is making two each month - this all started because she was not happy with her first block!!!  All I can say is well done!

So you see I have done some sewing this week.  A lot of time has been taken up with the preparation for Tuesday night however I hope the ladies will enjoy something different.

Have a good week and enjoy whatever's on your to do list.

I Haven't Disappeared - Honest!

I have started this post so many times now over the last week and have been debating with myself whether or not to post at all.  It is very difficult to blog when you have nothing of interest to say to your readers, which inevitably means your followers stop following along.  I have noticed over the last couple of months that a number of bloggers I have followed over the last year or so have fallen by the wayside and have either just stopped posting or have gone over to other things and Instagram.  Now I don't really intend to do either.  I have not been sewing very much recently and to be perfectly honest I think the main problem I have is lack of inspiration.

I usually read magazines, Internet sites and blogs looking out for new things to do.  Magazines can get expensive if there is nothing to catch your attention and in my opinion what I am seeing is repeats of blocks and quilts I have seen in the past just using new modern and brighter fabrics.  I was not greatly impressed by what I saw this year at our local quilt show in Edinburgh - again no inspiration or nothing that jumped out at me and said - sew me!  Is this just a stage in my quilting life that I'm going through,  a mid winter crisis or is this craft telling me to get off the boat and try something else?    Has quilting run its course like so many other crafts?

As you probably know I have been doing quite a lot of knitting over the last few months in preparation for the arrival of our new grandson, however this little lad has now more than enough cozy cardis to do him for about a year!  So the knitting needles are going away again until there is a request for a new jumpers rom his Mummy!  Well I might not put them away altogether I have enjoyed knitting again so will probably use up all the scraps and knit some baby blankets for the Linus Project.

Looking back over the last year I do realise I did achieve something.  How many quilts? 19!!  Check out the gallery.  There are two missing at the moment, both gifts for my grandson and his Mummy. I was so excited to give them to them I forgot to take photos.  One is the blue disappearing nine patch in baby boy fabrics and the other a pretty lemon and grey pinwheel spot for the nursery, hopefully to keep them both cozy and to snuggle under at feeding time.    A few were baby gifts, some donations to Marie Curie and Linus and I still have a few sitting in my display case waiting to be donated to a worth while cause.  

I tried a few new techniques too during the year, surprisingly I think the one I have discovered I like most is Applique. We are doing an on going Block of the Month project at class.  It's the Night Before Christmas quilt by Bunny Hill.  I have a little catching up to do for this month but so far I am really enjoying this project which is in the main hand stitching.  This is what I will be working on this week.

Looking forward into 2015 - what will I be doing?  Unless I get some real inspiration soon - not a lot!  I still have a few WIPs I really must finish.  Last year I bought very little fabric as I was determined to use up some of my stash.  I will continue to do this but I really think it's time to splash out and buy something new and interesting. 

I also hope this year to go back and try freemotion quilting again.  I was given this exciting book for my birthday, it has lots of lovely ideas and patterns, some of which look quite daunting however I intend to take this very slowly indeed.   Being a mainly straight line quilter which works well on some quilts, sometimes there is a need to have a more flowing quilting design.  If time allows that's what I'll be doing - I hate wasting fabrics and threads just for practice though!   I know there are lots of ideas out there to make panels and join them together like a quilt as you go method.

I hope you have been inspired to do something different this year and are not stuck in a rut like me.  If you have any ideas for me I would be delighted to hear them, just drop me a note.  Apologies for the lack of posts over the last few weeks - I will try to do better!