New Year...

New Year, and I have some new resolutions!

1. Must blog more.  The latter half of last year became very difficult due to some major health issues for my family.  I'm already quite isolated, and retreating into a little lonely world of worry only exacerbates that.  So this year, I resolve to put myself out there a bit more, and blogging is a part of that. 

2. Sew more.  Partly due to circumstances beyond my control, I didn't sew as much last year, and I missed it!  So if I'm not going to be at home, or if I'm in the car, I need handsewing.  Those difficult circumstances will be continuing for some time yet, so I need to get prepping!

3. Try more.  I want to stretch and try new things.  New techniques, new colours.  I also promised myself that I would try some dressmaking; I put it off until I had lost some weight.  Now that I have, no excuse!  I've been dabbling in crochet, so that's included.

There's more, but I'm mentally able to sort them under these categories.  Keep it simple!  I want to try to not take things so personally, but I'm categorising that under putting myself out there.

Bah.

So much for my big plans to get lots done this week.  I've spent most of it doing go-for - "Go for a new ballcock", "go for something for the tractor" - despite the fact we prepare all the fields as much as possible for the cattle to go out, there's always things turn up, and it's just been a week of it.  All I've got done is this:

many many nine patches and whatever the other block is called.  You may remember this quilt

I've been asked to make another for Megan's sister, so as many of the same fabrics as I could find, and some of the appliques will be the same.  I have a fortnight to get it finished, and some stuffed letters too.  Erp....

*feeling sheepish*

Well, turns out this thing is still working...  I've been very neglectful.  It's very bad of me!  I genuinely didn't realise it had been so long.

I hurt my shoulder again, so sewing anything was out for months.  Add that working on the farm (which is great for painful shoulders...) which just had me exhausted.

So what has been going on?

New cat:

 

This is Tiggy Woo (technically Tiggy Woo III - my very first cat was the original; I intended Trixie Woo after All Creatures Great And Small but 6 year-old me couldn't pronounce it).  Tiggy came here with his sisters when he was very small, the latest in a long long line of strays that find their way here.  We had a neighbour who wanted to adopt his sisters, so he stayed with us!  He and Perdie don't exactly get along but have developed a rather feline way of ignoring each others.

And in other rather exciting news, I have started a little business!  Very, very scary times.  My beautiful sewing shed has been like this 

for a few months.  All is now re-located and shelves are erected (photos to come) and the website is finally live.  I'm so looking forward to being able to sew again, having now time, space and a relative lack of pain.  This is the only thing (other than panels, which didn't really feel blog-worthy) I've done since last blogging:

I hadn't tried this particular pattern of quilting before, and I think it's mostly came out ok.  This was a commission, so hoping the recipient likes it!  I have another couple of orders to meet, and then it will be play time again!

Off to catch up,

Eleanor

Edit: I forgot to mention website.  Whoops...  justsewnow.com

Fabri-Quilt Block blog hop

Hi,

it's my turn on the Fabri-Quilt Blog Hop - a little late due to a delay in my computer getting fixed and some software issues when it returned!  Anyway, here's my block

Simple Scrappy Block

I wanted to make a block that would tessellate, and be as suitable with lots and lots of colours as with just 6!  Put this together with some more blocks, and it will form pinwheels, and also some little Broken Dish units to give structure to all the scrappy mayhem!

Firstly, pick out two colours for the half square triangles - I chose the darkest (dark blue) and lightest (white).  From these fabrics cut 2 x 3”7/8 squares. On the light fabric, draw a diagonal line on the back of each square.

 Offset the ruler slightly so that when you draw your line, it will go exactly from corner to corner!

Put this right sides together with your dark fabric and sew a quarter of an inch away from the line:

on each side of the drawn line:

See how I have something sewn just before feeding this in?  This will stop the machine from munching on the corner that you are feeding in.

When sewn, cut on the drawn line:

 set your seam (so press it as is)

 then press open.

 Setting the seam means it will then open (or indeed press to either side) without having to pull at it.
Trim off the dog ears:

 And that's the corners made! 

Now, the block requires 36 2" squares.  As I have 4 other fabrics, I can cut 9 of each.  If you are doing a scrappy block, they could be all different!  In addition to the 2" squares, you will also need 6 x 2”3/8 squares, as well as 3 x 2" 3/8 squares of both the white and the dark blue fabrics. Make 12 half square triangle units.

Now it's time to arrange them!  Take care with the orientation of the small half square triangles on the edge - you want these to combine with other blocks to make a Broken Dish - that's the same as what's in the very centre.

Starting with the short rows between the corner units, sew into rows.

 Press the seams on one row towards the left, and the other row towards the right.  Sew the rows together, nesting the seams.  This is what I mean:

 making sure the squares meet in the middle.  You can use your fingers to gently push them together until they butt up against each other.  Pin (I always pin on the side that feeds into the machine last; this helps to keep them meeting.  On a bulky seam, I pin both sides) and sew.

Press this seam open to reduce bulk, and sew a corner unit to each end.  Repeat for the other end of the block.  Sew all remaining rows together, and press open.  Hey presto, a really easy block!

I hope you like this little block and this Blog Hop!  Thank you so much to Fabri-Quilt, our sponsors, and the lovely lovely ladies at the 2015 New Bloggers who have arranged this and spent so much time and effort on it.  I'm off now to catch up on all the other blocks that have been posted!

A quick little post

Between the laptop acting up, and insomnia and other things, I've not been posting and now feel like I have a mountain of stuff to post!  So I'm going to break it up into some smaller posts...

Firstly, here's the results of my little giveaway!

 Giveaway 1: Sarah@123quilt

Giveaway 2: thebiasedge.  I'll be in contact soon for addresses!  Thanks to everyone who entered, I really appreciate it.

Here's my recent FGV blocks:

Pumpkin (I'm not American, we don't do pumpkins, I hope this looks more like an apple)

 Furrows

 Milking Day

 From my Window (I think that's the right name from memory)

 Mama Hen

 Old Red Barn

 Out to Pasture

 Haystack

 Kettle's On

Grandma's Quilt Block.  I think this is my favourite of this lot!

I've also made two of these:

one for my dad,  one for me!

This:

And finally this:

for my Aunt's birthday.  None are finished as yet though...

So, I'll be back with a monstrous Sunday Stash post tomorrow!

A flyby post...

I aten't dead!

I've been having problems - either food poisoning and insomnia making me computer-incompatible, or me fine and computer throwing hissy fits.  I haven't even been able to reply to comments, sorry!  I've been a bit busy, but tomorrow (in 6 hours time, yeah...) I'm off to the Festival of Quilts for a few days!  So I'll update you then, possibly with an epic Sunday Stash!  What have I missed?  I've been totally out of the loop!

ETA: Giveaway sorted, will include that in next post.

Giveaway!

As promised, here's my little giveaway to celebrate the end of this week on the New Bloggers!  As I said earlier, I discovered I had duplicates of these magazines, so thought why not!

The first giveaway is for these two magazines!  Both Love Patchwork and Quilting, issues 12 and 22.  Both free gifts are included, everything is in good condition.

 Here are some of the things in these magazines I particularly like:

 I'm making this soon!

 Love this rabbit, have made it a couple of times!

 The second giveaway is for issue 12 of Love Patchwork and Quilting and for this book:

 The first book by the Quilt Room featuring pre-cuts, there's loads of good patterns in this.

 This is the jelly roll pattern I've been working at recently.

I made this a few years ago and loved it!

So there we go.  This will be open for a week, finishing next Sunday 26th.  Please comment whether you would like giveaway 1 or 2 (or both, why not!).  If you are following me on blogger or bloglovin, you get another entry, just mention that in your comment.  No need to comment again!  I may be including a little extra surprise too!  Entries are available world-wide.