Lots Of News

Life has been pretty hectic over Christmas and New Year and I realised I was probably trying to cram too much into the little spare time I had so....I have made a decision.

As of early January I stopped being self-employed and removed everything from the Etsy shop. I've taken a while to announce it on here because there were a few other people I needed to let know before publicly announcing it.

I will still be doing the crochet & felting workshops but I'll be doing them as a volunteer. It just wasn't worthwhile doing as a business for so few days (too busy to do more) with the associated costs (business insurance, business use on car insurance, etc.) and I just haven't found the time to do any dyeing for a few months now. I didn't really want to give it up altogether because it's nice to have a day sharing my skills with other crafty people. We haven't got any family near us so no babysitting and the little breaks I get from doing workshops and classes are really nice and relaxing for me.

I'm also doing Level 3 study with the OU and have delayed one module until October when both kids will be at school full time and I'll have 5 days a week to dedicate to studying so can overlap a couple of modules. I still have one module on the go (well, technically it hasn't quite started yet but I have the books already). It's been good to get really organised and feel like everything is sorted and have plenty of time to give it my best, rather than trying to squash it into too few hours a week and doing a stressed late night to get stuff finished in time.

It also allows me time to craft so I can relax a bit. Shh, don't tell anyone but I'm making a surprise blanket for my Mum. I've made a few blankets for our house and my kids and I made one for my aunty for Christmas. My Mum keeps mentioning them so I'm making one as a surprise for her. I had planned to do 12 large squares surrounded by smaller squares (82 of them) and got them all made.

Yes, the ends need sewn in!

However I used my new hook and my tension is very different from usual so it's not quite big enough. I'm now trying to decide how to make it bigger. I have a few options:
1. Put a full round of small squares around the edge
2. Put a big border round
3. Make 3 more large squares and the necessary number of small squares to add another 'row' to the pattern.

I think I might need to lay it out before deciding.

Also, I have started going to a monthly quilting class. I've been quilting for a couple of years now but I've tended to stick to basic designs. In the class I'm going to we're making a sampler quilt and in January's class I made the first 3 blocks:

They need ironed again after being crushed in my bag!

I'm really looking forward to the next one.

In the Monday night class I go to I'm planning on making a simple skirt pattern to use with some of the bargain fabric I got at New Year. I needed some dressmaking paper so nipped into Hobbycraft at the weekend and managed to come out with 2 Cloth Kits children's dress kits as well. They were one sale at £10 each. I was planning on making one for each child when I bought them but am wondering whether to just make the largest size in both to get the most wear out of them.

So, still very busy but without much of the stress!

New Year Resolutions and New Fabric!

Happy (Belated) New Year!

As most crafters will know there are always 2 resolutions on our lists. One is to finish the UFO's and the other is to reduce the yarn/fabric/craft items stash (i.e. Make more, buy less).

I can definitively announce that the latter resolution has failed miserably! What can I say, there were too many tempting bargains.

It started on Boxing Day, with reductions at Fatquartershop.com where I just couldn't resist buying a Dr Seuss The Lorax pack, made up of a panel and 9 fat quarters. Of course, some Christmas fat quarters slipped into my basket too "to make it worth paying the postage from the US".

This was shortly followed by a trip to The Viking Loom in York. The shop has a small front but as you wander through there are two further rooms and an upstairs. I couldn't resist the 2 Moda Christmas jelly rolls for £25. I chose Blitzen and Joy.

I also picked out 10 fat quarters with 20% off. These are going to be used for a sampler quilt I'm starting shortly.

Ever year there's a fantastic sale at The Skep, with fabrics starting at £1 a metre. Last year I wasn't able to go until the weekend as the kids get bored and want to run riot, so this year Al had the day off work so I could browse in relative peace. I say that because it was BUSY! I'm not surprised though because there was loads of great stuff. I picked up loads of fabrics at great prices.

As well as the ones above that I plan to use for quilts/quilt backings, I picked up a couple of pieces to make myself two skirts with.

I just love these prints!

Now I thought I'd done well, thought I'd got a lot of fabric at a decent price. You can imagine my surprise when, instead of a bit of eye rolling and a "More fabric?" comment from my husband, I got "Oh, did you only get one metre of that? I thought you'd have got more than that." I don't think there was any sarcasm in his voice ;-)

He might be regretting that now because a new blog post went up saying that they were adding more fabric on the Saturday so I decided to nip back to get a little more. I ended up spending more than I did the first visit! No photos of that atm but I'll try to get some before my next post.

Anyone else broken their resolutions yet?

FO: Purses

Both kids were at school yesterday and I managed to do some sewing in the afternoon. I wanted to make something that I would get finished so had a little look for a quick project online. I decided to follow this Lil Cutie Pouches tutorial by Noodlehead after seeing a link to the tutorial on the Red Pepper Quilts blog.

I made two. The second one was better than the first and I think the reason for this was that I used a zip that was 'too long'. When I made the first one with a zip that happened to be the right size it made the ends a bit bulky but I didn't have the same effect with the second one where I had to use a long zip.

And, yes, the first one (the grey) I did manage to get my fabric upside down. Duh!

I'm also working on some Christmas quilting. I started making these at sewing group the other night. Basically it's 9 charm squares sewn in a 3x3 block. Then you cut down the centre in both directions and rotate two opposite squares by 180 degrees. Then sew it back together.

I haven't really decided what I'm doing with these. I was planning on just making simple mats with the but they're quite big on our fairly small table so I might end up making cushion covers with them. Whatever I decide on, I don't expect them done for this christmas!

Busy, busy. busy

Blimey, you can tell it's nearly Christmas by the amount of stuff there has been/is to do. I realised on Friday that I'd forgotten half the Chrostmas decorations. We'd done the tree and all the stuff that's packed in with the baubles but I'd totally forgotten about the quilted things that live in the wardrobe, including the advent calendar and the new wallhanging.

Both the kids wanted to write their own cards this year. Erin is doing really well with her writing so we basically made a list of who she wanted to write a card for and let her get on with it. Orla took a bit more supervision as she really wanted to write everything herself.

The baubles and stars they'd made using marbling inks finally dried so I added ribbon to the baubles and packed them into bags as presents.

Tonight is the fuddle for my sewing class. Basically everyone brings a bit of food to share. We're also doing secret santa so I'm looking forward to that.

It's the school fair tomorrow and donations of baking, etc are always appreciated so I've done some fudge hoping to use some for the fuddle and some for the fair. At the moment only one of the 3 trays is fully set but fingers crossed it'll be ok for tomorrow.

Then next week Erin has a party on Monday at school and Orla has one on Wednesday so that'll be more baking required.