Sneaking in at the last minute - a Q1 finish

Last minute finish here - teething, a horrible cold and moving the boy to his own room has halted the productivity recently. I'll come back later with better photos and more detail, but here's the overview:

Paper piecing template - Six White Horses

Fabric - various Kona solids from the Simply Solids Stash Crew,  Kona Bone and a range of different charm squares from swaps. (Plus premade binding, because sometimes you have to cheat)

Quilting - a mix of straight line quilting to echo the stars and a bit of hand quilting in the white stripe of the stars.

This is finish number 2 of a possible 4 - although I'm not really counting one of the cushions as it's owner has only just made his entrance into the world, so it's not too bad!

FAL Cushion #1

It's become a bit of a tradition for me to make cushions for my nieces and nephews (and its on my FAL list too), so when I got the phone call the other week, I went straight to the scrap pile to pull fabric.

I've been trying to be realistic about my aims,  so I decided to make the cushion out of economy blocks rather than adding an economy block quilt to my list of quilts-that'll-never-get-made.

As I was using scraps, I went with a paper pieced pattern so that I could use smaller pieces, especially as I wanted to add some pieces from her older cousin's first birthday quilt.  With quite a neat zip insertion (for me!) and a slightly dodgy bit of personalisation, this was ready for delivery before the little lady was two weeks old.

I might even get the second cushion completed by the Q1 deadline, as we've just got the phone call to say that our extended family has been extended even further!

Winner (and how not to wean your baby)

The boy was very helpful today and helped me choose a winner for my giveaway - he very nearly had his first taste of food too! I know that they say to avoid anything too sweet so that they don't get a sweet tooth, but I'm not sure that paper is a great choice...

He chose Kelly from http://www.aplaceofmyown.co.uk/

so I'm off to do some fabric shopping!

PS - still no sewing to share,  the house hunt is now on so my machine is hidden :-(

WIP Wednesday and a Birthday Giveaway

First things first - a progress report:

The first item on my WIP list, a cushion for my new niece, is complete, but I'll share that when I have access to a better computer and don't have to use the Blogger app...

I've also been working on my paper pieced star quilt. The blocks are finished, the quilt is basted and I'm working on a mix of hand and machine quilting. I was very well behaved and switched to hand quilting when I needed to do some paper piecing and didn't want to wreck my nice shiny new quilting needle :-) I was less well behaved (more like lazy) when I decided not to vac up before basting and managed to get avocado from lunch on my quilt - oops!

It's my birthday today, and I have to admit that I'm a big birthday person - I love birthdays whether it's mine or someone else's. My Mum's birthday is tomorrow, so I'm quite used to sharing celebrations.

On this note, and because I've not done it in ages, I thought I'd have a giveaway to celebrate. I love charm packs and haven't had much chance for fabric shopping recently (I wonder why!) so, I'd love it if you could tell me what charm pack you'd pick if you were buying yourself a little present. Next Wednesday at 8pm I'll randomly pick one comment and buy two packs, one for me and one for my winner. Happy birthday!

Progress on the WIP list in January

January has proved to be a more productive month than expected - it's amazing how much more you can do when Bedtime suddenly jumps forward 2 hours!

The paper pieced Lonestar blocks are now all finished bar one (ignoring the fix required on the orange block after I stuck my finger through the one place where the seam allowance was too small....)

I've also nearly finished the Seaside St Louis 16 patch quilt top, all this needs is an additional border of Kona Snow to bring it up to perfect snuggling size. I'm too uptight for a random quilt, and I'm trying to use my Dashwood Studios winnings wisely,  so I had to improvise the centre block to avoid an odd number of different blocks. There is more contrast on the middle block than appears here! I'm regretting not putting this on my WIP list,  as I think that it may well be finished before the end of the quarter.

Please ignore the horrific photos,  our camera is in Manchester and my mobile won't switch on :-(

Linking up to Lily's Quilts and Kristy @ Quiet Play

WIP - an optimistic list!

After yesterday's post,  I thought I would share some of the plans....  I'm not linking up the bits that I have absolutely no hope of finishing, so this list is a lot shorter than the one  in my head!

Item 1 (and possibly 2): cushions for the new nieces/nephews
I can't start these until the wee ones are born - they'll be cousins,  not siblings - but the plan is to use the fabric I bought last week for their quilts,  and to make 4 x economy blocks (jumping on the bandwagon in a manageable way!

Item 2: Wall hanging
I made 4 of these lonestar blocks last year with my Simply Solids Stash Club fabric. I was aiming to make 12 blocks,  but let's face it,  that's not going to happen! I'm thinking about adding a red and navy pair to finish it off.

Item 3: crocheted blanket
This was originally started for the boy,  but he has a million and one blankets,  so it's going to my BFF's baby - we really are having a bit of a baby boom!

The WIP list is much,  much longer,  but I'm trying to be realistic! Linking up with Katy at The Littlest Thistle

NB - Sorry for the crappy IG screen shots - can't figure out how to get Flickr to work on the new tablet!

Obstacles to creativity - or Embracing the Slow

The lovely Catherine at Knotted Cotton runs the Slow Bloggers linky once a month, and I try to link up when I can. This month's post has really got my brain going...

At the minute, I have one major obstacle to my creativity - his name begins with O and he's 14 weeks old! I love him to bits, and thought I was well prepared for motherhood - but nothing could prepare me for just how big the shift in my life would be. Yes, I worked full time (and damn hard) before he was born, but that was a stroll in the park compared to this full time job!  I was beginning to wonder if I'd ever sew or crochet or read ever again.

But if I think about it, he isn't actually an obstacle - if anything, I'm more creative than before. Yes, I've done very little sewing, but I've planned out a number of things to make him, and have really enjoyed thinking about what he, with his little emerging personality, will like. I've become so much more efficient with my time, and have used quick naps to prep for the next opportunity to be creative.

This feels like a very personal post, but I think it'll help me focus on making the most of this new creativity (even if it is just making up new verses of The Wheels On The Bus!) and help me enjoy the many hours spent staring at his little face. I guess he's the one "make"  that I'll never top!