It's the final post of the year..

... and at least there have been quilty goings-on in this house again! I have been poorly with the dreaded lurgy since Christmas day and so haven't really felt up to very much at all.
Today DD, Bronnie and I have had the fabric and sewing machine out once more. The Stashbusters group are doing a Sudoku New Year quilt and , as Bronnie is a big fan of these puzzles, she was very keen to have a go. I had a packet of 30s fat quarters that I got from the Fat Quarter Shop sale, which Bronnie really liked. So we now have the puzzle completed, all the pieces cut and the first 2 blocks pieced already. Hopefully we should be able to get the top done between us by Saturday when we'll be off to the local quilt group.
As well as Bronnie's quilt, I have also been cutting into some more of those fabrics from my stash busting box. I have 2 more blocks cut out for the Planet Patchwork BOM. I'm really behind on this one, but it seemed like a good way to use up scraps when I started.

I hope that you all have a Happy and Peaceful New Year.

Merry Christmas!

Well, like many of us, Christmas preparations caught up on me, and I haven't sewn a stitch in almost 2 weeks! I don't have withdrawal symptoms just yet, but I'm looking forward to a bit of playtime at the end of the week.
For now, I have done all the wrapping, set the table and am now relaxing before the Santa bit.
Enjoy DD Bronnie's gingerbread house - she had a ball this afternoon decorating it!



Have a very merry Christmas!

Teresa

Stashbusting progress...

...
When I think about it, I've managed to quite a bit of stash this week. I have cut into 18 of the fat quarters in my box. From these I have cut a 10 inch square, which will be used for a pieced quilt backing, a stack of strips for the Crayon box blocks and some small squares from the remainder for leader/ender 4-patch blocks. There's still a bit of each of those FQs left, but I'm sure that I can find something to do with them.
I've got another 5 blocks for the Crayon box quilt and need about 5 more. I don't want it to be a bed quilt, a snuggly throw size will be OK for me.
We've got quite a busy week this week, with school concerts etc, but I hope that I can continue with this good start.

Oh and I nearly forgot the most important bit...

I didn't buy any fabric! I even went to my guild's Christmas party where there was a lovely quilt shop in attendance, the jelly rolls etc were all very tempting, but I resisted!

Still cutting, but a bit of stitching sneaked in!

I'm still cutting out pieces from my fat quarters box, I feel like I've done loads, but the box doesn't look any different. Perhaps the fabric is breeding in there - a new form of life that is known only to quilters! LOL!

I got a bit fed up with all of this cutting and nothing to show for it, so I have sneaked in a bit of stitching in-between times.
These blocks are from the Crayon box pattern on the Quiltville site. I had one completed already, and a few more in progress, but I've now got these and a (very) small stack of 4-patch leader/ender blocks. It feels good to be stitching after all that cutting. I've got a few more centre squares need to be done and then I can get going for real putting these blocks together



The weather is absolutely atrocious here, very windy and lots of heavy rain. We went out when it cleared a little to the medieval market at Caerphilly castle, which was a nice break in a dull day. But I did feel for the poor people there, i don't think they had many visitors on such a nasty day.

Still cutting......

I have been in and out of the house for the last few days and incredibly busy at work, so I have just been cutting out. I find it quite relaxing when I'm just cutting pieces like my strips/squares. I now have quite a decent pile of strips for the Crayon box blocks, although I will definitely need to cut more, and a goodly number of squares for a leader/ender project.
I'm ready to do some stitching now, although I have another dozen fat quarters ready for more cutting, so I think I'll do that tomorrow evening after I take Bronwen for her riding lesson

Monday and it's time to check in

I've not had a very quilty time in the last week. I managed to fall off the horse when I went riding last Wednesday, and ended up very stiff and sore for a few days. Silly me caught my heel on the saddle trying to dismount and ended up flat on my back beside my mount. Chess just looked at me with a puzzled look on his face!
This meant that I really haven't had much inclination to do any sewing ( haven't really been able to physically either).
Although I did have a nice time at the Cardiff Quilters Christmas party on Saturday. We had a couple of traders, but I resisted the fabrics despite the lady having some very nice rolls of Daiwabo fabrics. I did come home with the new Kaffe Fassett book though ( well I had been given a refund from a class that was cancelled so it was like it was free!). After lunch we had a lovely speaker, Bobby Britnell (her website is here). She brought along some lovely artworks, both quilts and drawings/paintings. I had seen some of them before at various Six exhibitions, but its always nice to re-acquaint oneself with great quilts. I particularly liked the daisy and bookcase quilts, and some little box frames filled with embellished squares that reminded me of the inchies I have seen on Kates blog. Perhaps after Christmas I'll have a go at making some.
Anyway, now that my back and neck are feeling much better, I have been cutting int some of the fat quarters in my challenge box. I've only started on about half a dozen so far, but from each of them I have cut a 10.5 inch square and some 2.5 inch strips. The squares I will piece to make a backing for a scrappy lap quilt, and the strips will go into further Crayon Box blocks.
When I've got a reasonable amount cut, I'll start piecing again. For now, I'll just have to make do with 'unsewing' the quilting I did on my Christmas table runner ( the decorative stitching I wanted to use just isn't working out, so it all needs to be unpicked again!)