Weekend Plans

Thanks goodness it is nearly the weekend, this weekend has been rather busy and it will be nice to have two days in which to slow down a little. Since getting out my fabric & sewing machine last weekend to make the tote bag my head has been full of things I would like to create. Luckily tomorrow I am off to a local quilting shop for a 'sit and sew' day. The only thing is I can not decide which of my current or even new sewing projects to take with me. I shall have fun this evening trying to make up my mind. I think I am in the mood to get something finished so I think I shall take along a couple of projects that are near completion and maybe a new start to reward myself with.

My plans for Sunday depend a little on the weather; if it is nice I shall be out in my garden getting it ready for planting later on if the weather is bad I will be in doors stitching, sewing or knitting. I have several things that close to being finished that I would like to get done. Having said that I shall probally end up starting a new project.

Mum's Tote Bag

Created as a gift for my Mother using fabric brought while on holiday with her in Florida last year. The bag is based on the reversible tote bag pattern on the Windham Fabric site with a few adjustment – the handles are a smidgen narrower and made from both fabrics as I made an error while cutting the fabric. I am really pleased with the way it turned out and think I may well make myself one.

Spring is in the air

I have been inspired by the sunshine and dug some fresh spring-like fabric out of my stash to create a tote bag for my mother. Now that I have made the first cut into the fabric my head is full of ideas of things to create; in fact I have already started a second bag and have plans for more bags or maybe a quilt. There are just far too many things I want to do with my time. Tonight I am going to start knitting a scarf for the March AC4C project and maybe stitch a little on Bluebirds Message.

Fabric; Fabric; Fabric

I have released that my fabric obsession has gotten worse; with Mothering Sunday just around the corner and a mother who loves presents but hates us spending money on her I thought I would put make a shopping tote for her. So last night I decided to get out all my fabric and see if I had anything suitable. After pulling fabric out of all the places I had stashed it I shocked myself with just how many meters of fabric I own. I knew I had a considerable stash of fabric and that I had trouble with resisting the urge to buy more but what I had not released is that I have a problem with using fabric. I kept picking up pieces of fabric which would make lovely bags and putting them down because they were too nice to use. After giving myself a sever talking to I think I have managed to convince myself to use some fabric to make the said bag but will not know for sure till I come to cut out the fabric this evening.

No more rotation (again!!)

While reading other peoples blogs this week I have been thinking (yet again) about my crafting and why I do the things I do or to be more precise why I stop doing the things I do as once again I find myself in stitching slump. I am still knitting and quilting but only a little bit of the first and the second only at class. What I think I have finally realised after a great many years is that although I love crafting for other people and I adore the thought of rotations & goals and all the thinking and planning that can go into creating rotations etc. once I set my self goals; targets or deadlines I immediately fall out of love with whatever it is I have decided I need to be doing. So from now on no more plans for me I shall just go withever what feels right in that moment - at least until I come up with a different plan of action that is.

Square Weekend

This weekend has been a mixture of housework and crafting. On Saturday spring was in the air as the weather was cold but dry and sunny so I spent the day getting the garden ready for the spring and then came indoors to spring clean the house. The rest of the weekend has been spent creating squares, some pathwork ones and some knitted ones.

The patchwork ones are for a quilt top that I am making in the quilting class that I attend; although I am making several changes from the original design as I just can not get my head around distored blocks and the orginal design includes several. I am having alter the design to make it work without the distored blocks, luckily I have a really good & understanding teacher who does not mind me making changes to her quilt designs.

The fabric for the quilt is a mixture of calicos and lovely faded linens in blues, greens & pinks. I really must try and remeber to take a photo of the fabric before it all gets cut up.

The knitted squares are to be sent out to be made into a lap blanket for this months project for the AC4C group. I do love knitting squares and sending them off to others to do the hard work of joining them into blankets as they require very littl thought, are a quick finish and are a great way of using up odds & ends of yarn that I can not bare to throw away but can not decide what to do with. Hopefully this week I will be posting a total of 18 squares to various recipients and I may even be able to close one of the crates of yarn properly with having to resort to putting heavy items on top of it to get it to stay closed.

At the moment feeling the need to up the anti on my current attempts to reduce my stash piles in general and my quilting stash in particular since I have recently become obsessed with the idea of starting a Dear Jane quilt. There are so many wonderful examples of this quilt and my mind is turning over several different ideas for colours / themes for making my version it may well be that one Dear Jane quilt will not be enough. I do however think this quilt will take many many years to finish and will be a learning journey as I am still very new to quilting.

February Biscornu

I can not believe it is over a month since I last posted. I had a great holiday, very relaxing but came home to no central heating and no hot water (and a large repair bill). I now have a warm house but for awhile things were rather cold. Work has also been a little frantic since getting home both in terms of the volume of work and also there are a few politcal things going on which makes things a little sensitive around the office.

I have decided not to bother with a February report since I have done almost no stitching, the only thing I have stitched is the little biscornu pictured above. I have been knitting but the only thing I have been knitting is squares. They are a great way of using up some of the large stash pile that I have and don't need too much thought or energy. Things have settled down a lot now so I hope that March will be a better month for crafting.