The Wool Palace

Snow days

Things have definitely taken a wintry turn around here.  We had one snow day last Friday and by yesterday morning most of that snow had gone.  Then, by this morning it had all come back again, with a vengeance - we've had twice as much as we had last week.  Another snow day today and probably tomorrow as well. 

The children were up early to inspect the situation.

I haven't been able to do much sewing as Toby has appropriated the dining room table to sort out his tax return.  I was in the middle of playing around with some of my Liberty Stile but that will have to wait.

Tonight I'm planning on some EPP by the fire.

Keep warm!

Winter days

Brrrr!  No snow here, but it's still pretty chilly.

I thought I'd better do a round up of my Christmas sewing before we get to Easter.  Round up is probably a bit of a grand term, as I only actually sewed one thing.

This was a gift for my sister.  I used the free pattern you can find here.  The pattern was very well written and it as a nice quick make.  My sister wasn't visiting until New Year so I actually made this in between Christmas and New Year.  I always like those days - all the bustle of Christmas is done but it's still holiday time and you've got New Year to look forward to. 

It was all done over the course of one day.  I used some Moda Cross Weave in Grey for the background and then some random green fabric I had in my stash - I bought it at Fabrics Galore, which is an absolute treasure trove of fabric - don't get me started on all the cut price Liberty they have...

Looking at the photo, I think I could have done a bit more quilting on it, but I'm still happy with how it turned out and my sister seemed happy with it, so that's the main thing.  I'll have to pay her a surprise visit to check she's using it.

So that was the sum total of my festive sewing.  Now I'm starting to think about what I want to do this year.  Top of my list is to start doing some FMQ.  I bought Angela Walters book a while ago so I think I need to start trying out some of the designs.  I have a quilt top almost done that I know I want to quilt with something other than straight lines - I know I'll have to do some practising before I can launch myself onto that.

Besides FMQ, I want to make a few larger quilts, something big enough for our double bed.  I've been mulling over a few designs but haven't finally decided on anything yet.  February is my month in the FQR Kinky Bee, so I might use that to jump start me into something reasonably large.

Lastly, I want to be a bit more mindful about how I buy fabric.  I have a bit of an aversion to fat quarters - they always look so small - so I end up buying half yards/meters instead.  That's all well and good, but I don't have the fabric budget to buy half yard bundles of everything I like.  So this year is the year when I accept that it's ok to buy fat quarters and to save the bigger cuts for absolute favourites or for blenders and solids. 

Hopefully I'll end the year with a diverse stash and some nice big quilts made up of all those lovely fat quarters, that won't all be quilted with straight lines.

So that's my plan for 2013.  What are your goals for the year?

 

Right through the night

So, December went by in a flash and now we're a week into January.  Happy New Year!

I did manage to sneak in a finish amongst all the madness of exchange students and preparing for Christmas.

Sam's quilt is finally done!  I blogged most of the details here  when I finished the top.  I backed it with some Kona in the same dark blue as the front - Windsor I think it is, plus a bit of light blue that I had lying around.

Binding is a Kei Honeycomb dot that I had originally earmarked for the back but changed my mind.  For the quilting I outlined each block with double lines and then just did random groups of straight lines vertically across the quilt.  Goal for 2013 - stop chickening out and using straight lines on all my quilts.

Now that it's been given to Sam, this is how it looks most of the time,

Accessorised with dirty clothes, muddy bag and random and unexplained bit of masking tape.  Ah, teenage boys' bedrooms.

Now term has started again I'm about to be swallowed up by work.  Tune in next time for a round up of my Christmas sewing (almost none - it will be a short round up) and some goals for 2013.