A New Year, (another) New Start

Since I last posted, 10 weeks or so ago, things have been busy, both at work and at home.

But about 10 days ago, there seems to have been a change (although knowing my luck, it's just the eye of the storm, and the hecticness will restart any day now...).

I made a last ditch attmept to get my red and white snowballs together for the deadline of January 31st, but it didn't work out.




This is where I'm was at last weekend , with squilions of half triangles and squares waiting to be sewn together. With some intense sewing, I've got quite a lot of the blocks assembled, and hope to get the rest done today.

However, I'm determined to get it pieced as soon as I can - by taking part in the challenge, I've been forced out of my creative comfort zone. I like my things to look as geometric and as symmetrical as possible - and making a scrapppy quilt is, for me at least, very uncomfortable. I found I could only relax when I told myself that I HAD to take the next scrap from the pile of cut triangles or squares, and use it there and them without dithering about whether it balanced or not, or whether it was a duplicate of one of the other fabrics already in the block. I allowed myself the chance to reject it if it meant having 2 identical fabrics next to each other, but otherwise I was ruthless.

And as I come to the end of making the 99 blocks neded, I find that it wasn't that hard after all, and that I have enjoyed doing it!! If I were to make one again, I think the key is really to have as many different fabrics in as possible.

Of the 40 of us to initially started, 7 managed to complete on time in terms of having their tops pieced, and of those, I think only 1 or 2 managed to get theirs quilted - so I feel a lot better about my own slower attempts!!!

Allyson has posted pictures of the completed works on her blog - go and have a look. I particularly like the green one, and at some point I'd like to have a go at a blue one. That would be when I've got the others out of the way - so in a few years time, I guess.

Buoyed up by my new confidence, I ventured out to the Quilter's Guild Regional Day at Epperstone yesterday.

At every Regional Day, there are always a couple of traders, as well as the Bring and Buy stall, where quilters can get rid of their excess stash / books / patterns, and raise money for the Guild at the same time.

THIS is where the real bargains are to be found. Quilting isn't a cheap hobby, with fabric now costing about £11 or so a metre on average.

And this is what I came home with:

2 packs of fabric. The one on the left is Liberty, and the one on the right is Kaffe Fassett;

4 books - the New Sampler Quilt book is brand new!!;

a Moda jelly Roll;

2 months of a BOM - I'll use these for friend's birthdays;

some foundation papers - a whole brand-new packet in fact - for the Kaffe Fassett design above. I have the book that the pattern is in, but this was up for £2 - which is less than it would have cost me to photocopy the necessary pages.
The whole pile came to less than £40. That's the equivalent of 3.5 - 4 metres of fabric, or 2 new quilting books.

Mind you, I then went to one of the other traders, selling goods at full price, and picked up this rather bizarre - but somehow irresitible kit;


and these three patterns for £4 apiece.

.... And finally - and luckily - I won a raffle prize of a new bag. It's sturdy (well, I managed to cram all my purchases in it!). It made it SO much easier to get my new purchases through the door when I got home.

The speaker was Louise Presley, of Hope and Elvis. Somewhat different to the usual speakers, and a different perspective on quilting, seeing it more from an artist's viewpoint than a crafter's.

I also made it to my LQS two weeks ago, for a day of sewing - my first such of the year, and Jo had brought these along to show what she'd managed to get done over Christmas....

For this quilt, she bought a Layer Cake, and used the fabrics to make hexagons, These were then appliquéd onto the backing fabric. I'm not a great fan of hexagons, but I do like thw way in which this has turned out.

And this is her 'flimsy' it's a sampler, and what you can't see in the photo are the little embellishments that she's added on some of the blocks. What I really like in this are the colours - not ones that I would ever choose - and the stars that she's put into the sashing.