A couple of finishes

I don't seem to have made a great deal so far this year, I somehow can't seem to get motivated properly. I have made a couple of small things, a cover for my new laptop. This is a pattern from Bustle and Sew.

This morning I felt the need to get and sew and finish something, so I made a small pouch to keep my various cables and things in when we go away. This is a pattern I bought over a year ago from uHandbag.

And last , but certainly not least, a couple of recent photographs of Ruby. I swear her father must have been a Great Dane, the amount she's grown!

Scrappy Saturday

I've made a few things this month for the Rainbow Scrappy Challenge; this month's colour is red. Having used most of my smaller scraps last year I haven't too much left, so am cutting into my larger scraps, i.e. biggar than four inches but smaller than a fat quarter.

 One of my blocks still needs to be finished to bring it up to size.

 I'll make others as we go through the year to make a modern looking quilt.

 I tried making this block last year and didn't get it right, so I thought I'd have another go this year. Again, I'm going to make similar blocks of each colour.

These fabrics are more of a burgundy, pinkish red than scarlet. What I'm planning is a medallion quilt, with this as the centre. I'll make the outer rows with the colours as they come along and see where I end up.

Walking with Ruby

We're really lucky to live in the countryside, although the main road isn't too far away, which was lucky when we had all the snow in 2010. The lanes around our house are very narrow and very quiet, which is great; the downside is that they get very muddy, not so great when you have a rather low slung dog.

Each morning Ruby and I set off up Orchard Lane. Orchard Cottage is the first house we come to.

On the right is a shed in the ponies' field and on the left at the end of the road is the garage belonging to the next cottage along.

As you can see, it was a pretty dull day when we took this walk. At the end of the lane we have a choice of routes. Ruby's wondering where we'll go today, will we turn left to go down into the village, turn right to go up to the cricket field, or go straight ahead into the field or the path that runs alongside the field?

Oh good, into the muddy field today.

Not too muddy yet, but you wait!

Part way around the field we can choose to carry on or head towards the wind turbine and into the next field.

At the end of the field there's a gate leading out onto the road. More mud. Here's where we stop to put Ruby on the lead. Her road sense is still hopeless and she'd just rush straight out if I wasn't careful. There aren't that many cars around, but we need to be careful.

See the puddle just outside the field gate? Luckily Ruby isn't too keen on water yet, so avoids the puddle, but loves all the mud around it. Turn right here and we'd head back to the village, turn left and we'd go towards the next village. But we're going straight over to have a look at the lambs in the field.

Well, the sheep and their lambs were close to the gate when we arrived, but by the time I'd disentangled my camera from the lead the word had gone round - 'Dog!!!" and they'd taken themselves off, with a huge amount of fuss and noise, to the other side of the field.

Back down the aptly named Puppy Lane, heading homewards.

Ruby always investigates all the little tracks and trails in the hopes that one day I'll bend down and follow her.

Final stop on our way home, the cricket field. There's a tumble down pavilion on the far side and during the summer several local teams play here, but at the moment it's a grand place to play. During the late afternoon several of the local dogs and their owners meet there and Ruby loves to play with all the big dogs, who tolerate her.

And then it's home, to make yet another towel filthy and then have breakfast.

Resolved to Sew 2012

Ali at VeryBerryHandmade has a fabulous competition going on right now.  Blog about your 2012 resolutions linking back to her "Resolutions to Sew 2012" post which you can find here, leave a comment on her post to say you have done so and stand a chance of winning one of many fabulous fabric prizes. 

I don't really make many resolutions, but I have been thinking quite a lot about what I want to do this year.

Firstly, I really need to finish some of the things I started last year in the Rainbow Scrap Challenge. I hate having unfinished projects, they stop me thinking creatively about what I want to do next. So, they have to go.

This is one of the tops I finished that needs quilting and binding.

Secondly, I want to do more with designing my own quilts, rather than using published patterns. I've got lots of ideas swimming about in my head, but the UFOs are slowing me down as is a lack of confidence. Because I'm not certain about my ability to work out a design for myself I keep falling back on some of the wonderful patterns designed by other people.

This was a little quilt that I designed earlier this year, and I was rather pleased with it.

I may not have mentioned that I've started a City and Guilds course in Patchwork and Quilting, which I'm very much enjoying. So I need to keep on top of the work I'm doing there, and get on with the assignments.

And finally, though it's nothing to do with sewing, I want to do more writing. Last year I did a short course with the Open University on Creative Writing, something I haven't done since I was at school, and discovered that I really enjoy writing short stories. I've joined a local writing group now and had one story accepted for a local free magazine, so I hope to do more.

The other thing you have to do  for Ali's giveaway is to pick which of the fabulous fabric prizes  you would like to win the most.  I'm probably going to pick this wonderful bundle of Erin McMorris fabrics from Backstitch, though there's several others I like just as much.

After a really hectic Christmas - visitors for twelve days plus all the preparations beforehand - I was really looking forward to some peace and quiet after the last visitor left. I planned to get all the Christmas decorations down and put away, the house cleaned and then do some sewing. Instead I've been laid low with a stomach ache. It could be a bug, or it could be something I ate, but it's been going on for three days now and I'm exhausted and fed up. Christopher had to go away for a few days so it's been just me and the dog. And I still haven't done any sewing. 

So, if you know any funny jokes, do tell me, I need cheering up.

Gift certificate winner

I put the numbers of people who replied to my last post into a random number generator and the first number that came up was 4

Now this number belongs to my good friend Kay, who doesn't do quilting or much sewing, so I drew it again. This time it came up with number 1

And this number belongs to another good friend Lynn, so Lynn I will send you an email with the details of the gift certificate. I do hope it works out as I hope and that you enjoy The Quilt Show.