Marching on

Finally, that's February over with. I think maybe I should have been a bear in winter, because I tend to go into a kind of hibernation.Once Christmas is over with I look around and find everything dark and dreary, I don't deal well with the cold, and although snow looks pretty on postcards, having to trudge through the wet and slushy stuff in town or trying to keep upright on icy pavements... nah, not my kind of thing.

I don't seem to get much sewing done, unless it's by hand and tend to end up snuggled under a blanket with a good book or some knitting.

Once March makes it's debut things start to lighten up again. There might still be snow and cold - "the beast from the east" is still causing trouble - but the days are getting longer, and with more daylight I also find my way into the sewing room. So I'm back in the saddle again and have spent a lot of this weekend by the sewing machine and made a lot of progress on this quilt. Just two borders left to quilt and I can add the binding.

With more daylight hours suddenly my head is full of ideas, but I have ambitions to finish three more quilts before I start a new one. And it's not just because I feel an obligation, I really want these to get finished soon.

And then I have plans to get to grips with all my scraps. I have them sorted by colour, and I have some ideas, but I bet they wont make more than a dent in my scrap pile... we'll see. at least the inspiration to sew seems to be coming back, and that feels good!

Waaaaay after the holidays

 

Better late than never, I suppose. I have some catching up to do, and it occurs to me that I never shared any of my Christmas makes. First of all this little tree of words. I found the pattern just before Christmas and stitched the whole thing in a matter of days. I also got a witchy pattern and one of a sewing machine, all from Imaginating. that I have yet to stitch up. Despite the colour variations the tree is in fact just stitched with two different skeins of hand dyed floss. The wonderful threads from Stef Francis are really lovely and I can never resist them when I come across them at The Festival of Quilts or The Knitting and Stitching Show. My biggest problem is actually using them, because then they will all be gone. But that's just an excuse to take another trip, isn't it?

Just before Christmas I fell in love with some Christmas ornaments in the shape of cars with trees on the roof, but by the time I got around to shopping they were all gone, so I made my own.

I bought some toy cars, covered the windows with masking tape and painted and decoupaged the hell out of them before I glued some miniature trees wrapped in baker's twine on the roofs. And there you are: my very own "Driving home for Christmas"-cars.

They turned out to be too heavy for the tree, but looked rather good on a shelf in my kitchen, if I may say so myself.

Looking back

 -or what I did last Christmas...
I thought I'd do a bit of summing up from these months of no blogging. My Christmas sewing was all about panels, it seems. I unearthed this old Santa panel from the depths of my stash and finally got around to doing something about it. I cut it apart and ended up with three items: a quilted cushion:

 A small wallhanging:

 And a larger wallhanging with a bit of a complcated log cabin/star thing going on. I didn't plan this one very well, so I had to wing it and ended up cutting the tips of the star off.

 -But you can always cheat a bit, right? A few strands of embroidery floss later and you wouldn't know if you were galloping past on a big horse...

 The best thing about this was that I got to use that panel that I had been procrastinating about making into something for ever. Yet another example of how you should just get in there and do something - it doesn't take as long as you think!

Proof in point: these fun panels from Laurie Wisbrun got made into cushions as soon as they arrived and it took no more than a Saturday afternoon.

White Christmas

Well, technically the White Christmas thing didn't happen until Boxing Day, but we woke up to a world wrapped in cotton wool today - all sound muffled by the heavy layer of snow that appeared magically during the night. It's not all that magical once you step outside, though - cold and heavy to wade around in. Due to the holiday the snow ploughs didn't get out all that early either, so I used that as an excuse to stay in and do a bit of catching up on Doctor Who and my knitting...

It was lovely to get a few quiet days after all the hustle and bustle of preparation: baking gingerbread and brownies and preparing the Christmas meal...

 .. decorating the tree...

... and finishing the home made presents. More details about the 241totes in the next post. The family gathered here at my place for the Christmas meal and opening of presents on Christmas Eve. We had a lovely evening and I got several nice presents, among theme some books to enjoy during the winter months. Well, enough relaxation now, I think - tomorrow I need to get out and about - too much leisure and I get restless... (and the sales begin tomorrow...)

Scatterbrained

 I seem to be all over the place these days, dabbling a little bit here, a little bit there, not accomplishing an awful lot. There is this little postcard quilt on my design wall, for instance. It wouldn't take long to quilt and bind and I might have just the perfect spot for it as well.

Then there is this beautiful panel by Laura Kemshall that I bought at the Festival of Quilts. Perfect for practicing my free motion quilting skills.

A pile of new fabric (this is only half of it...) awaits inspiration. I have plans for the turquoise one and some vague ideas for some of the others...

I did manage to finish something though; a Wide Open Pouch (the BIG one!) for my mother's birthday. She loved it and is now the envy of all her friends. Amazing what a pretty fabric can do!

I have made some mug rugs - I have even stitched the bindings since this picture was taken. I have knitted and done a bit of cross-stitch, but haven't got much to show you yet...

I have pondered a new EPP-project - this was only a mock-op of layout and colour placement, I wouldn't even consider making something with such tiny pieces, I'm not barking mad! Inspired by a quilt I saw at the Festival (and didn't get a full picture of, alas) I have been on my way to ordering 36- and 72-degree diamond templates and stopped myself in the nick of time several times recently, telling myself sternly that I hate EPP, but there's still something beckoning me...

But, wait - I have accomplished something! I have been busy quilting, frogging and requilting this baby and it's almost done! I can't wait to finish it and start using it - I just love the colours!  Next I get to start something new and fun before I quilt another one that's lying in wait. Come to think of it, that one will be rather fun too... It's just as well that the autumn storms have set in, I'll happily spend my evenings indoors, busy in my studio!

What happened?

One minute I was distracted and unsettled, preparing for my holiday and the next thing I know the holiday is over, the warmest summer I can remember has passed in a blur of lazy days and we're headed towards the end of September.

I had some lovely days in Bath and Birmingham, first visiting the Kaffe Fassett exhibition at the American Museum in Bath - a wonderful explosion of colours which no pictures can do justice. It left me with a lot of joyful inspiration.

The Festival of Quilts in Birmingham was wonderful as well with lots of quilts - both weird and wonderful! Lots of vendors and a great deal of inspiration from all the lectures I attended - I find that having some lectures sprinkled through my schedule gives me time to rest my weary feet while soaking up inspiration and recharging the batteries ready for more shopping makes for good days at the festival.
I did a fair bit of shopping, but not as much as earlier years. With everything so readily available online, I don't get the same urge to buy, buy, buy as I used to, but some unusual items like hand dyed thread, patterns and books did come home with me.

What with the sultry summer days and following lack of energy, there has been lots of reading and relaxing, and little sewing. With the cool crisp autumnal feel to the air lately I feel my sewing mojo coming back, though, so don't give up on me just yet!

On the wall today

I have been so good at working on my UFOs lately that I thought I might end up with too few of them.

I bet that's an excuse you've never heard before for starting a new quilt! Well, actually, it's more about not being able to stop myself. I have two quilts layered and ready for quilting, one finished top and backing prepared and two quilts I'm piecing, with a third waiting in the wings for the design wall to become available - that's April for you!
After cold winter months with very little going on, my creative spirit seems to unfurl itself like the buds of the crocus on the lawn outside. Suddenly the day has too few hours and my mind can't find rest - there are just so many quilts I need to make!

This one is based on a charm pack of Valorie Wells' Novella. I'm joining them with pieces of robin's egg blue and that wonderful text fabric from Madrona Road. I have used almost all of it now, and will be sad to see it go. Maybe I should get another yard, just in case...? The sashing will be a light grey. I'm still working on the details, but my mind has gone on to the quilting. I find quilting designs whirling through my mind while trying to sleep and my pen doodling furiously in the margins of my notebook during meetings at work - I think I'll have it all worked out by the time I finish the top, so I'll be ready to quilt right away - if I don't start piecing a new top first...

Such fun!

Flowers in December

I know I should have been concentrating on getting things ready for Christmas, but I have been struggling to get into that good old Christmas Spirit this year. I think it might have something to do with still being in the same place - I started househunting at the beginning of the year, and when I packed all the Christmas decorations away it was with the thought that the next time I opened those boxes it would be in a new home. Now that didn't happen, but I can't let that bring me down. I need to get into a more festive frame of mind and leave the househunting till after christmas. That new flat with my own studio will materialize in the beginning of 2013, right?

It hasn't helped that this last week has been freezing - me and cold weather are not made for each other. Everything grinds to a halt and all I want to do is huddle under a pile of quilts and wait for spring...

Enough moaning. Look what I got to help cheer me up! My mum just finished stitching this cushion for me. It needs to be blocked and backed, but then it will become a lovely hope of spring to grace my sofa. In the meantime, I'll get cracking with Christmas prep. My list is made, the first presents bought and tomorrow I'll get those boxes from up from the basement and start adding some holiday touches here. Christmas will arrive this year too, there's no doubt about it!

The tapestry kit, by the way, is called "Primrose Path" and was bought at the lovely Ehrman tapestry shop in Lancer Square, Kensington, London years ago. I never got around to starting it, so thank heaven for mums with time on their hands :-)

Working

I've been incredibly slack when it comes to blogging lately, but in case somebody's still out there - I'm alive and well. A blurry picture attests to the fact that I'm actually working on something as well, but more about that in my next post.
This morning has been given entirely over to housework - days and weeks of rain could have been spent doing all those chores instead of moping around wondering if this summer will ever start, but wouldn't you know it: today the sun is shining and here I am busy hoovering and washing... Well, doing the laundry makes sense on a day free of rain and with a gentle breeze to help the drying process, I suppose, and my energy levels are much higher on a bright day, which helps in getting the work done quickly.
I've still got two weeks left at work before my summer really starts, so now's the time to get everything in order so I can really enjoy it. I need to sort out some craft projects, some fabric is making it's way here through the mail and I have a pile of books to enjoy, so although I'm staying at home the entire three weeks, they will fly by in a blur once I get there, I believe. I can hardly wait! Now if I could only talk the sun into staying put for a while...

Signs of life

 Finally there are little shoots peeping up...

 Honeysuckle leaves are unfurling...

 A few tentative violets are showing up...

But still, it's quite chilly outside, so I'm enjoying a bunch of shop bought tulips indoors while stitching some miles of binding...

March mood

1. 026, 2. 031, 3. Purity, 4. march flowers, 5. Snowdrops, 6. Schneeglöckerln in der Sonne, 7. Snowdrops (Galanthus sp), 8. Snowdrops, 9. White and Green, 10. Carpet of Snowdrops, 11. Don't pick the Snowdrops. Where are your parents?, 12. Don't Walk on the Snowdrops, 13. Oh, they're behind you..., 14. Snowdrops, 15. Blue Tit Flight With Peanut. 2, 16. Day 294 8th March 2011 Twin Snowdrops
I am so ready for this, but instead, there is more of this:

1. Snow Drift, 2. Icestorm (15), 3. Icestorm (29), 4. Icestorm (6), 5. Icestorm (19), 6. Icestorm (24), 7. Icestorm (39), 8. Icestorm (31), 9. Taiga, 10. Weekend Snow, 11. Snow Abstract, 12. Drift Breakers, 13. Headlights, 14. Snowdrift, 15. Icestorm (10), 16. Winter Tree 5x7_horizontal

Rising temperature, the sound of melting icicles, green sprouts, flowers, sunshine - I'm ready, where are you?

Oh well, I'd better think of something else. Making Mug Rugs, for instance - I have just joined the Mug Rug Madness over at Two More Seconds and I'm looking forward to sharing some inspiration.

So that was it for now...

Luckily, this isn't the state of my living room floor, as I have been cheating for years now opting for an artificial tree, but as of today it is all basted and bound ans snug in it's box in the basement. The ornaments are packed and ready to go back to the attic, and all the stuff I had stored in my sewing area has been put back in it's right place, so there's room to sew again! A new year and new opportunities. Yay!

Happy new year!

Best wishes for the new year from my happy little village, which has grown this Christmas - the two towers were among the lovely gifts under the tree. Some good books, and other stuff (more about that later) were also among the thing I was blessed with.

We had a white Christmas, but the weather at the beginning of the year has not excactly been delightful - wind and sleet makes it more tempting to stay indoors and contemplate what I'm going to make in 2011.

I have a few plans lined up, so there's no reason to be idle in the coming weeks. The idea is to keep busy through January, finishing projects and hope the momentum carries me into February, avoiding the usual February Funk. Above are the eight projects I'm currently working on. I'm hoping to make some progress here, and finish some of them, if not all, but of course I have hundreds of ideas of new things I want to start, so we'll see if I get distracted along the way... (very likely!).

Harvest quilt

It's about time I showed my Harvest quilt, isn't it? Tada! I actually finished it a couple of weeks ago, but the weather has been awful, so I have been waiting for a clear day to be able to take some pictures, and today, being at home in the middle of the day I finally got the chance to hang it up and start snapping. In order to take the photos I have to move the sofas and the table out of the way, which led to quite a bit of dusting and hoovering as well, so what was meant to be a relaxed day by the sewing machine ended up quite busy, but tomorrow is another day...

Now, this is not a different quilt. It is the back of the Harvest quilt actually. I couldn't decide on what to use for the backing, and I had an idea in my head while I was working on the front that I would include some turquoise - like glimpses of water through autumn foliage, but I just couldn't make it work. So I made the background all "watery" instead. To create a bit of interest I made a few star blocks to blend into the background.

I have spent quite a lot of time quilting this thing. Inspired by Boo Dilly's lovely quilting I went with alternating lines of machine and hand quilting, dividing the quilt into quarters - two with horizontal lines and two with vertical lines. After washing the quilt got a lot of texture, and up close it looks like furrows in a field. Combined with the lovely fabrics with prints of onions, mushrooms, corn, cauliflower, leaves and chrysanthemums the name was obvious - this just has to be the Harvest Quilt! I just love the texture that the heavy quilting has added, and it is so soft and snuggly. Just right for cold autumn evenings. This one will definitely not leave the building ;-)

A glimpse of Spring

Yesterday was the warmest day we've had for ages, the snow has been gone for almost a week and the temperature was high enough to let one's shoulders down and fill one's lungs with sweet fresh air. The sun was out, and although I lovingly welcomed that old friend again, it sternly pointed out to me that I had been neglecting a few things. Oh well, cleaning windows is not so bad once you get started, and while I was out on the balcony I also enjoyed the first spring preparations in the various pots and planters out there, pruning, cleaning and tidying. My friend the sun pointed out to me that some dusting was required indoors too, but never mind, with the door open and all that fresh air filling my rooms, the job was almost pleasant... The ranunculus (or should that be ranunculi in plural?) I bought a week ago looked a bit peaky, with the lower half of their stems grown soft and mouldy so I took advantage of the clean windowsill with all the candleholders and vases on display, cut the stems of and distributed the flowers among them. How's that for a nice little Welcome Spring tableau? It turned out that Spring wasn't all that interested, so this morning I woke up to a world covered in white again. Most of it has melted by now, but there is still enough of it on the hillside to see our Mountain Man. Hopefully for the last time on this side of summer. Can you see him?

Oh well, I'll just stay in and make another quilt backing for now, and enjoy my new quilt books. More about those later.

A promise of spring?

A promise of spring?
Originally uploaded by crafty mathea

That's what finding tulips in the shops after Christmas is for me. Yes, the snow will go away, the days will be longer and flowers will bloom again.
Winter has seemed incessant this time around with a long period of cold weather and loads of snow. It seams to have hit the whole northern hemisphere at the same time as well, making us all ask: "What global warming?" But apparently those of you in Australia for instance are getting more than enough heat at the moment... Anyway. As I was saying: got some tulips in and I have been enjoying their pristine beauty. I love them at this stage, when the flowers have just begun to open, and they have this kind of waxy sheen to them. The cold weather will last for a while yet, and I know we have both February and March to get though before we can start preparing for Spring, but it's nice to get a little reminder of the changing of the seasons again. Off we go again on our little journey through the seasons, and before we know it, it will be Christmas again...
... which brings me to this:
My latest purchase. Two Honey Buns of the lovely Figgy Pudding line from Moda. Just in time so I can make a little log cabin quilt for Christmas 2010. Best be prepared ;-)