Winter Stitching Update

With one day to spare, I squeeze my Winter Stitching Up-Date in and will be linking it up with our uber mama organiser, Sarah - to be found at FairyFace Designs (but you knew that already).

Unlike all those bloggy friends of mine who made lists a mile long, I kept mine relatively short so you would think that I had nothing but success to report. Ha! Chance would be a fine thing!

1. The first item was my Modern Christmas Tabelrunner Swap which I can report I am absolutely thrilled with - except for poor Annabella who seems to have had her tablerunner eaten by the postal service. I will be remedying the situation when I see her in June though so even this can be fixed, hopefully. My partner seemed to be very happy with the runner I made for her and I was pleased to have tried something new and have it come out as well as it did.

2. Finish Helen's Quilt - Success!! I am thrilled to report this, and it makes me smile every evening when I kiss her good night and the quilt is helping keep her warm. She loves it. I love it. Yea!

Within the same challenge for me was to then move on and work on Emily's. Well I would like to up the ante and say that before the Winter Sewing challenge is finished Emily's quilt will be too!



3. I was supposed to make 3,000,000 Christmas ornaments which might have been a slight exaggeration, but I can say that I made well over 100, sold some and gave lots as presents to friends and family. I would count item 3 as a success, as long as you ignore my tendency to exaggerate!

4. Make my Brit Bee Quilt. Um - no, this would still be at the stage of occasionally getting out my blocks and admiring them. No further work has been done.

5. Zips! Woohoo - this was a big, fat resounding success. So pleased that I no longer quiver in fear at the mere mention of zips.

6. This challenge was to start a new swap - with a bloggy friend or two. Well, seeing as how it is all I talk about half the time (swaps and birds!) then we all know that this is a success too. Mouthy Stitches was launched with more participants signing up than we could have imagined. Hopefully by the end of the Winter Stitching we will be able to report that it was a huge success - fingers crossed!

7. Try paper piecing. Not yet. Need to find the right project. Any suggestions?

8. Crochet a throw - something adult sized not baby size. I'm afraid that ambition and budget did not connect here. To make a throw the size I want is going to take a lot of yarn. And I want nice yarn. Soft, cuddly cotton yarn that is a joy to snuggle under. When I have the budget then this will happen, meanwhile it will just have to go on hold.


That was all there was on my list. It looks pretty pathetic unless I add in the things that I did make that never made it to the list. Here is a quick summary -

I made pouches of many sizes.

And went on a cushion making rampage.

There were fleece lined baby blankets.

Copious amounts of bunting.

A quilt for himself for his birthday.

I kept up with my Brit Bee blocks obligations.

A quilt for my brother and his family for Christmas.

One of the cushions I made.
They became a popular gift item for me to make this year.

My first attempt at a tote.
The reason people should use a pattern sometimes!

I started this,
soon to be finished.

I developed a bird obsession.

And an even bigger obsession with Heather Ross fabrics.

So all in all I don't think I did too badly. The worst I did was in my ability to predict what I was going to make, not in  my ability to actually make. (Does that make sense?)

For the remainder of the Stitchery list I want to finish the Terrain Quilt, finish Emily's quilt, keep up with Sarah's Stained Pink QAL when it starts (tomorrow rumour has it) but using my Favourite Fabrics in it, get the rest of the bird fussy cuts framed (only about 50 more to go) and then figure out how to go about piecing them together, and figure out a design for the Heather Ross Fan Club quilt. I need to finish making a pouch for my partner in Mouthy Stitches. Make a swap item for the FTLOS swap, and then do the hardest challenge of all - February's bee blocks.

Don't hold your breath that I will manage to get all that done. That would just be fanciful thinking on my part. But now I have focus I had best stop writing and get sewing!

Susan