biscuit: 2018

Friday, October 26, 2018

A Long Break

It's been a while, I know. The whole of 2018 has been pretty much of a washout so far sewing-wise. Mumple feel ill in January and she is really the driving force in all this quilting and sewing and making mallarky. It just didn't feel the same without her and I just felt too miserable to do anything.

After spending a week with her last week for half term, I am finally realising that she is getting back into sewing as much as she can post-injury and so I should too. It's been a rough year, so it's small steps but just watching her get her act back together has inspired me.

Plus she gave me this beautiful amish quilt she made, which has made me want to get back to sewing. I love the colours and the darkness of it. It's so lovely.

So I have unearthed my Smitten blocks and started on the smaller hexagons. It's slow going. They seem a bit bright and garish in comparison.

Friday, January 05, 2018

The Year Review

So, 2017, well, it was a break year for me really. There were many small reasons for this, nothing too major. Partly I just wasn't feeling it. I have such a pile of quilt tops to baste as no space to lay them out in. It's not my favourite part of the process and once I have them basted my quilting table area is just not big enough to work them through the machine without pulling it all out and making a mess.

A mess. The house is a huge mess. Just piled up to the brim with stuff that needs sorting out and throwing away. I didn't want to make a big quilt mess on top of this.

Time. We've started school here which has been great but has also meant that I have gone back to work full time. I get one afternoon off a week and that's taken up with a long standing playdate.

Then I decided to just read in the evenings as there was nothing much to watch on telly. So no hand quilting in front of Stranger Things anymore.

It all adds up to nothing much getting done! I did manage to do a few things.

I finished the quilt top just like mum's she made in her quilting group. It looks kind of gross I know. But it's excellent scrunched up on your lap. I can't explain it. And of course it reminds me of mum which makes it extra special. I think this is my batik phase over though. So I am going to use all the scraps to make up the back and use some 80/20 batting that mum was throwing out. Another quilt top to add to the pile! oh no!

Smitten update. So I have completed 13 blocks. I am really not sure how this quilt will look finished but I have decided to not think about it too much. Maybe the smaller blocks will help even things out. At the moment it's all a bit of a train crash.

I did manage to make it to Birmingham with mum and set myself up to make this Monkey Buttons pattern. I just need to get cutting.

So that's it. The sum of 2017. What's the plan for 2018? Well, I'd like to ease back into things a bit. I just want to finish off things. Here is my list of things to finish...