m.i.a.

Yep, I seem to have been missing in action. Not really sure why, only that sometimes life kind of just.... happens. A few things have been worked on -

the cushion for my niece now finished (and she loved it) -

a few more of the windmill blocks -

a new scrap quilt in pinks and greens, just cut into simple squares -

the centre medallion block for the Round Robin challenge -

and some more of my crochet blanket -

I have also been working on an Irish Chain style of quilt, done in mostly William Morris fabrics.  Looking forward to posting piccies of that soon.

monday musings.....

You may know, if you have read older posts on my blog, that I had a part time job at one of my local quilt shops, one of the two in my town. Sadly, the shop has now closed down, closing it's doors for the last time yesterday. I am happy to have my weekends free again, but I will also miss the fun I had with my wonderful co-workers, the lovely customers, and of course playing with all the beautiful, colourful, much coveted fabrics that I loved each week!

Strangely, although I still work 3.5 days at my office job, I feel like I am actually on holidays - suddenly it seems as though I have so much free time. The reality is that I will need to try and pick up some extra hours somewhere but in the meantime, I mean to enjoy my weekends. Free weekends = lots of sewing time = a very excited Tania!

And Ollie is very excited to have his Mum home on weekends too, instead of being left at home on his own.

So, where to start with my sewing?? There is SOOOO much I want to do, but for the moment my priorities are my Round Robin centre medallion block, and my niece's birthday quilt - her 'Americana' quilt. Watch this space for some new sewing soon!

a bit of kaffe love

sewing for gifts.....

a certain special someone in my life has a birthday coming up very soon, so a little gift sewing is in order.

Ssshhhh, don't tell........

a farmer's wife, sort of..... and other sewing projects

Finally, I have got back to some sewing. As I am determined to get quite a lot done this year with my quilting, I am trying to 'start as I mean to go on' - to make the time and just do it!

This year's sewing journey has begun by revisiting my French Braid quilt. I had four braids completed, and another two partly done. Turns out I had cut enough pieces to do almost 9 braids, so I got stuck in, cut a few extra, and finished all nine of them.


These will get temporarily put aside now, as I am in a quandary as to what I am going to use for the sashing. I think I'll need to take it to the quilt shop and try a few things out.

I also started a gift for a friend. So far I have this -


These blocks are from a fabric panel from the 'Full Circle' range by Kathy Schmitz. It was quite difficult trying to get it to square up as the printing of each square was quite uneven. Anyway, it's on the list to finish in the next week.

Although the plan for this year is to work on my "12 in '12" list i.e. not start anything new that isn't already ON the list, I have for quite a while wanted to do the Farmer's Wife quilt which has of course been so popular in the blogosphere, so in January I started the blocks for that - although I am sort of doing my own version of it. So, a farmer's wife, sort of. For quick and easy cutting, I have matched up many of the blocks in 'A Farmer's Wife' to blocks in '501 Rotary Cut Quilt Blocks' by Judy Hopkins. For those that are not an exact match, I have found blocks that are very similar, often almost the same.

My progress so far -


Most of the fabrics are 'Maison de Garance' by French General, with a couple of other coordinating fabrics added in. I must admit I am really loving how the blocks are turning out. I want it to be a quilt for the cold weather, and the warm reds and browns are perfect. I am thinking that I may sash it in dark brown, particularly so that the blocks really stand out, but I will see when the time comes.

Another quick project was these placemats for one of my family, made particularly to coordinate with some new furniture they have bought. The fabric is 'Metro Goes Au Naturale' by, I think, Benartex, and the brown colour is from the 'Morris Workshop' range from a couple of years ago. The colours matched perfectly, and they were much appreciated by the recipient. (The colour of the photo looks a bit odd, but was taken at night.)


This weekend I am planning to start a quilt for my niece's birthday in March. A bit of a challenge, as she has drawn me a rough sketch and it has lots of borders to try and fit.... It is going to be in red, white and blue and she described it to me as an 'American style quilt', so the obvious choice is stars and stripes. Hopefully there will be photos to come soon!

where does the time go?!?

Firstly, a belated Happy New Year!! I hope it is a wonderful year for you all.

Doesn't the time just seem to be flying by again! One of my personal challenges/goals for this year is to build some routines into my days so that things - such as my blog - don't get left behind. Hopefully my neglected little blog will get a lot more attention from now on!

On the subject of goals, have you read the book 'The Happiness Project' by Gretchen Rubin? I read this for a second time over the holidays. I love this book; obviously it is about Gretchen working on her own level of happiness, and I love the way she listed her resolutions/goals which she believed would create a happier life, and then broke each one down into smaller steps to achieve them. It's something I am trying to do myself more often so that some aspects of life (even the enjoyable ones sometimes!) don't seem so overwhelming.

Gretchen has a great blog, and you can sign up to do your own 'Happiness Project' for the year, if you are so inclined. I have signed up, as I have some very definite goals that I want to achieve for this year. Nothing the least bit lofty mind you; just homey, crafty, health and financial goals - just kind of going back to basics in a lot of things and building routines and plans into my everyday life, and just being a LOT more organised and focused.

I guess I feel like I just didn't achieve very much last year. In fact, I felt like I achieved very little at all, and I don't want to finish 2012 with the same feelings of discontent and disappointment, and such an overwhelming feeling of being disorganised with so many things.

So, onward and upward!

Firstly, just a quick Christmas run down. Here is Ollie with a pressie he got from his 'aunty' & 'canine stylist' (my sister) - a box full of yummy doggy treats. Lucky Ollie. His 'mum' was very remiss and didn't get him anything (except lots of kisses and cuddles of course; he is a very cuddly little doggie)!



I received some beautiful gifts, and it was 'Cath Kidston' time again - see my previous post here. This time, a Cath Kidston purse which I love from my gorgeous niece, some really pretty CK soaps from her boyfriend, and some CK mugs from a friend.



I also received, among other things, some cute tartan slippers (have always had a thing for tartan and all things Scottish), some movie tickets, yummy chocolates, a cute little Christmas wreath made by my niece, a diary, and some money to buy - you guessed it - fabric! Lucky Tania too!!

I also did make some Christmas gifts which were given away to friends, but in the Christmas rush neglected to take any photos, although my gift to Ms Kylie, a cushion cover, is here.

Now, onto 2012. You may recall my list below, and my plan to complete "12 in '12".

:: Machine pieced sampler quilt - to be quilted and bound
:: Hand pieced sampler quilt - to be quilted and bound
:: 'Persian Tiles' quilt - to be quilted and bound
:: A quilt for my niece's birthday in March - not yet started
:: A quilt for my nephew's birthday in May - not yet started
:: Finishing my 'French Braid' quilt - currently a WIP
:: 'Pinwheel' sampler quilt - a 2012 challenge
:: 'BBQ' quilt - a 2012 challenge
:: Round Robin - a 2012 challenge/quilt-along
:: Irish Chain quilt - currently a UFO
:: my Lori Smith applique - currently a WIP
:: Lumiere de Noel charm square quilt - not yet started

I might tweak this list yet - my 'Persian Tiles' quilt is not really a priority at the moment - but the goal remains to complete 12 quilts in 2012. Pushing it? Possibly; but even half that many would be more than I completed last year! Still, it is a goal I would love to achieve and I will be doing my best to rise to the challenge!

In my next post, sewing so far for 2012.

Love
Ollie & T xxx

catching up.....

Where have the last few weeks gone??? The time has just flown by as it always does, particularly at this time of the year, but just lately it seems to have done a complete vanishing act.

So, time for a bit of a catch up.

Firstly, our Sunday mini-challenge. Mini-challenge #1 done - our cute little bag.

Pop on over here to have a look at Ms Kylie's too.

Our second mini-challenge, now already finished, was a pincushion. My choice, as I needed a new one, and a bigger one too, 'cos I kept poking my self with pins that were coming through to the bottom of my old one!. Our lovely friend Gabbie also joined in too.


Kylie's and Gabbie's lovely pincushions are here.

We are now up to our third challenge - a little felty, christmassy something - a cute plum pudding perhaps? Piccies of my soon-to-be-completed mini-challenge #3 soon!

Now, Gabbie's turn to choose next week!

Speaking of felty, christmassy somethings, it was our Wednesday night group break-up this week and we had a Kris Kringle. We were all very remiss, as none of us remembered to take any photos, but I made a little felty, christmassy something for it - a little Christmas garland with hearts, holly leaves, red 'berries' and some little crocheted flowers. I do have a little confession though; I did put it off until the last minute and so it was a bit thrown together, but kind of cute I hope.


I was the very lucky recipient of my lovely friend Sue's gift, a gorgeous little decoration with a lovely vintage-y feel to it, very sweet. (photo to follow later - thank you Sue, I love it!)

Christmas is looming frighteningly quickly (do you all feel like that too??) and I still have several gifts to make, so it will be head down at the sewing machine over the next few days between work hours and christmas functions.

Of course, 2012 will follow very soon after, and already I have managed to put my hand up for three quilt-alongs/challenges! More about those soon.

Another challenge I have set just for myself (and anyone who wants to join in) is a "12 in '12" challenge - to have 12 quilts completed in 2012. Not an original plan of course, but I hope it will motivate me to get some quilts finished, particularly as I (STILL!!) have three quilt tops waiting to be quilted apart from the WIPs/UFOs currently still hiding at home!

Currently the "12 in '12" list is -

:: Sampler quilt - to be quilted and bound
:: Hand pieced sampler quilt - to be quilted and bound
:: 'Persian Tiles' quilt - to be quilted and bound
:: A quilt for my niece's birthday in March - not yet started
:: A quilt for my nephew's birthday in May - not yet started
:: Finishing my 'French Braid' quilt - currently a WIP
:: 'Pinwheel' sampler quilt - a 2012 challenge
:: 'BBQ' quilt - a 2012 challenge
:: Round Robin - a 2012 challenge/quilt-along
:: Irish Chain quilt - currently a UFO
:: my Lori Smith applique - currently a WIP
:: Lumiere de Noel charm square quilt - not yet started

There are others I want to finish too, but I think I will be pretty happy if I can just get those above completed!

So, I am very happy that I have finally now caught up! More again very soon.