Monday 5 December 2016

Girl on a mission!

This is the book

This is the scrap quilt I want to make.

My extra squares and triangles.

A glimpse of the blocks I've managed to make so far.
Hello to all the beautiful people who still read my much neglected blog. Today's post is an appeal for help. A couple of weeks ago one of the Liverbirds brought in a bundle of books and we all got to help ourselves to any we wanted.  As soon as I saw the Scrap Quilts book I realised it had already been in my possession when I very first started quilting.  I even made Paige's Stary Night quilt from this very book, it took me quit sometime collecting various shades of blues for that particular quilt. This time round I have fell in love with the Lucky Stars scrap quilt, which requires 401 4 3/4 x 4 3/4 inch (four and three quarter inch) squares of dark, medium and light coloured fabrics. These four and three quarter inch fabrics are then cut in half diagonally making a total of 802 triangles.  You are then meant to swap half of your triangles with other quilters so you end up with 802 different fabrics. This means there are no two fabrics the same in the quilt top. I have exhausted my stash and have managed to make five of the 20 blocks I need for the quilt. I have even doubled up on a few of the triangles but I really want the quilt to be authentic and a true scrappy quilt. I was telling my beautiful friend Judith last week and she said I will cut you some squares. How kind it was of her to help and it got me thinking and I came up with the idea of appealing to all my quilter friends and ask if any of you would kindly help me collect 802 different fabrics . If anyone would like swap squares or kindly donate any scraps of fabric you have that are big enough for me to get a 4 3/4 square out of it that would be great. How to get any donations or swaps to me, email me if you have my email address and we will exchange addresses. You could leave a comment in the box below but DO NOT leave your address and I can private message you via email.  For those of you who may have me number ring or text me and I will arrange how we can do a trade.  Or find me on Face Book under Susan Pierce. Thank you and wish me luck X:)

Wednesday 30 November 2016

Liverbird Exhibition.

Some of you may recognise my Union Jack quilt.

Gwen's fab colouring book flowers Quilt

Two delightful member's of Liverbirds Marge And Michelle admiring all our handy work.

Sue Cogans amazing block of the month quilt.

Waterloo quilters signature quilt sporting iconic images so recognisable to Liverpool.

A row of some of the beautiful quilts on display.

Janet Keenan's awesome stripy log cabin quilt.
On Sunday 20th November we (the Liverbirds) held our second quilt exhibition at Sefton Palm House and once again it was a great day.  It was a bitterly cold day but the rain held off, despite the weather we had lots of visitors who oohed and arred over the quilts.  I have to say sorry to the people who's quilts I did not manage to take a photo of I was kept busy answering lots of questions and showing people around and the time flew by.  We are only a small group who meet every other Wednesday evening in West Derby for a bit of a natter and maybe a little bit of sewing gets done. I adore my Liverbirds family my life would be incomplete without them, I am truly blessed but I need to say a big thank you to Janet and Sue who organised this event which was a great success and I have already started making a quilt that I hope to exhibit at our next Palm house Exhibition in another few years.

Tuesday 15 November 2016

Inspired by.....

Dyan Reaveley art Journal page from a magazine.

My first attempt at creating a page based on her page above. This is in a sketchbook I made for collage journaling based on a tutoral by Dianne Fargo aka PackerDi.

My very first journal page in my Dylusion A4 journal book.
Today I wanted to create an art journal page but I am not very confident at journaling. However, it is something I absolutely love. I watch endless hours of videos on you tube and I have purchased books by various artist, as well as lots and lots and I mean lots of equipment. Sadly each time I have tried to have a go myself my attempts always rubish and end up in the bin.  Dyan Reaveley is one of my favourite artist when it comes to journaling. I adore her wacky off the wall sense of humour and how she uses colour. I have several of her ink sprays, stamps and a few stencils, enough to get one started shall we say. I even purchased her A4 journal sketch book months and months ago but I have never been brave or confident enough to make even the tiniest of marks in it, until today. I was rummaging in a draw and I came across a magazine page I had enlarged with an image of one of her art journal page.  I decided to have a go by copying her characters but adding my own little bit here and there such as, changing the quote and putting butterflies in Petunia's hair.  I also had to improvise with Petunia by drawing her on paper first and then cutting her out because I did not have the stamp. In doing this I realised I didn't need other artists stamps, I could draw my own images and make my very own art journal page. I  used the same quote, only this time I would be really really brave and do it in my Dylusions book!!! Scary or what? I have to say I love, love, love it and I am already thinking what I can do on the other side of this double page spread.  I have had such a fab afternoon, however, I now need to clear everything away and sadly that's the only bit I don't like because I make such a mess. X:)

Tuesday 8 November 2016

Just for Joan.


On Saturday I attended our local area day, the speaker was Tracy Fox, who's work I totally adore. Tracy told us all about her creative journey so far, it was really interesting and she followed it up with a great printing work shop in the afternoon.  My lovely friend Joan was there and she asked why I did not blog any more?  Well the reason being is I was so busy finishing my degree, then working full time I just didn't have any time to blog or be creative. I have missed being creative but over the last few weeks I have been making fabric post cards and I have even managed to make a quilt top. At the moment I am going through a very whimsical style of painting and drawing  after completing a free download from the wonderfully talented Deb Antonick. I have been doodling away lots of ideas in my sketchbook. So I thought I would share a couple of pages from my sketch book and the little wooden Christmas ornaments I have been painting. I will finish this post with a special thank you to Joan who after all these months still checks my blog in the hope that I have posted something new.  See you soon huni X:)



Sunday 21 August 2016

Graduation....

YES! I did it, I graduated.
I am sorry that I have not posted for such a long time but life has been very very busy to say the least. I finished my degree at the end of June. I gradutated on 12th July and I was awardered a 2.1 of which I was over the moon with. I am also pleased to say that I am now working as a plush toy designer for a company called 8th Wonder. I am really enjoying my new job which is full time and based in Wigan so involves a bit a travelling for me.  Sadly I have not managed to find any time to sew.  However, I did buy a pattern on a recent trip to Amsterdam, (Little Amsterdam) and last Sunday I made three of the houses in the pattern. It felt so strange but its a start and hopefully as I continue to adjust to working full-time I will fit in my sewing eventually. X

Monday 18 April 2016

Folk Bunny.

My folk bunny.
Image on the original pattern.
Yesterday I was surfing the web looking for further inspiration for my final uni project when I came across this adorable "Folk Bunny" pattern by CottonWood Country.  Well it doesn't take much to distract me at the minute and before I knew it I'd bought the pattern.  A few minutes later I was making my own Folk bunny.  She only took a few hours to make and I have to say I enjoyed every minute. I love her to bits, she is adorable.  However, it has been pointed out to me that my Folk Bunny looks like (to quote my sister) "she has the weight of the world on her shoulders" and bless her doesn't she just. DH said, "she looks very depressed and instead of putting the carrot seed tag on her I she should of put a perscription for diazapan on her"! Nothing like family to say it like it is. :) In my defence I did followed the pattern for her facial features but there is a big differnce. Oh well even with her very furlone face she is much loved and is sitting on my desk in my sewing room.

Sunday 6 March 2016

Hare today gone tomorrow....


After having a severe case of creative block for weeks, making myself ill and being very stressed I am pleased to say that I am once again enjoying being creative. Today I thought I would share one of the pieces I am currently working on and hoping to use as part of my final exhibition.  I decided my chosen topic, collections, was not working so I went back to the forest for inspiration and began looking at woodland animals. I picked several animals as a starting point gathered loads of imagery, a pencil and began to draw them.  Before I knew it I was off and running with lots of ideas and inspiration for new pieces of work.  This guy is from one of my drawings of Hares in my sketch book and I decided he just had to be transformed into fabric. I think he is great, ( I know, nothing like flying your own kite, which I don't often do) but on this occasion I love him.  I started him on Friday and he is now waiting to be layered and quilted. I have another piece in my minds eye based on an owl but for now, I need to get him and the other pieces I am working on finished before starting anything else.



Thursday 18 February 2016

Collection crash...

Oh dear I only managed 14 days of my blog a collection a day for the month of February. I had the delightful company of my beautiful grandson Cole on Sunday and we had an amazing creative and playful time that I completely forgot to post a collection. It was not until the next day I realised and the challenge was now broken. Normally I would get all upset and beat myself up over failing to complete a task but this time I thought, ok I didn't manage to post a collection every day for the month of February but it was fun for the two weeks that I did so its not a complete failure.  

So gone are the collection posts, its time to move on. I was stuck in a very bad creative block place with my last uni module but after spending a great creative day with Cole just doing things we love I have a completely new direction. I am rather excited as it is everything I love. Craft, soft toys, journaling, fabric, mixed media, play, play, play. So today I thought I'd share what Cole and I made on Sunday. Cole picked all the fabric, which we then cut into pieces and then he sat at the sewing machine and slowly with my guidance he sewed them all together. We then added the head pieces of fabric and cut out a wiggle shape. I did her face. Cole picked her button eyes and helped sew them on buy pulling the needle through and finally it was his idea to put a ribbon in he ear. He has named her Lucy. I think she is delightful and very special. I have to say, I was quite intrigued as to why he had decided to make a girl creature?  He told me he just wanted a girlie friend, Not a girl friend that's totally different :)! After we made Lucy it was back to the serious task of play with his wrestling figures and watching wrestling matches on the Ipad.
"LUCY"

Saturday 13 February 2016

Cat family.

Today's collection is my three ceramic cats they sit on the kitchen windowsill.  I am not a big ornament person but I love my little cat family. They where a Christmas gift from a friend many years ago. I adore them but when I took there photo I realised I have never given them names, which is unusual as I often name inanimate things.

Friday 12 February 2016

Beach Combing.

Today's collection is my beautiful beach finds.  These are things I have found on Crosby beach and Freshfield beach. However, three of the finds are precious gifts. The white whelk shell was given to me by my lovely friend Gill as was the spider crab. These two little gifts started me on my own beach combing journey. It was seeing Gills own displays of her forage collections, which I am in total awe of because they are amazing, inspired me to have a go at displaying my own finds.  The third gift is the big pinky stone above the spider crab, this was a gift from my adorable Grandson Cole.  Who picked it up from a pebble beach in Wales whilst on holiday in the summer with his other Nan and brought it home for me. He actually brought me three back the other two are displayed on the windowsill in my sewing room. 

Thursday 11 February 2016

Can't find a pen, will a pencil do?

Today's collection is my pencil collection. I have a 100+.  I am not 100% sure but I think this collection began when we went on our very first holiday abroad in 2001 to Spain. Whilst there we visited PortAventura (Universal Studios) and I bought a pencil with their mascot, the famous Woody Wood Pecker.  Back home I decided not to use said pencil and placed it in a jar, it became a keepsake and every time I looked at it I was reminded of our fantasic holiday.  This became my thing, to buy a pencil every time I visited somewhere. It enables me to have a little record of the place Iv'e visited and best of all it doesn't cost much. All the pencils are from places I have physically been to and bought on the spot. You would not believe how disapointed I am when I visit a place and the do not have a pencil with there brand or name on it.  In the early days, of this collection, Michaela went to Jamaica and brought me a pencil back with a little raster mans head on it. She was confused when I put it in the jar of pencils I use everyday, until I explained I didn't collect pencils for pencils sake, I collected them as a keepsake of places I've been.  However, it was lovely that she really thought of me when she was buying it. 

I would also like to share one more thing to today its not a collection but it is pencil related and it is one of my most treasured possession. 


It is my Flash pencil top, he is so cool, he swings around the pencil. I have had him a long, long time.  One day my dad just randomly said, "I've got something for you" and put it in my hand. It was in a plastic wrapper but I could see it was a little kids toy of some kind but I didn't know what it was until I took it out the wrapper.  He told me he got it in a his box of cereal, it brought back memorys from my childhood when it was a regular thing to get little gifts and toys in cereals. I can remember a few squables over these as we where not allowed to open the packet and rumage for the gift, sometimes it would not be on the top and we would have to wait a couple of days for said item to fall out. I thought he was giving it to me for one of the children but he said no it was for me. It was such a random thing and he never said why it was specifically for me. Flash has lived ontop of a pencil in the jar of pencils I have on my desk which I use everyday.  I can't help but twirl him if I use the pencil he is on and watch Flash fly round and round.  I will never tire of him, even my grandson Cole takes him out of the jar, spins him before he draws a picture. He always puts him back and has never asked if he can take him home I think he knows he belongs here with me for the moment. 


Wednesday 10 February 2016

Bingo!

Todays's collection is my bag of bingo pens and dabbers. I know how sad am I to have that many but in fairness I share the bag with my sister. The white dabber with the blue lid, on the top of the pile was a Wills and Kate freebie when they got married. I also have to say that we havn't been the bingo for months. We use to go on cheap nights or when we recieved vouchers in the post but sometimes life just gets to busy. I love going the bingo with my sister and occasionaly my daughter joins us which is a lovely bonus. Unfortunately we don't win very often but we always enjoy ourselves and thats what its all about.

Tuesday 9 February 2016

Parentage:

Today's collection is three treasured photographs and I apologise in advance because it is tinged with a little sadness, as all of these special people have passed away. However, they left me with very happy memmories of the time we shared whilst they where here on earth.
  1. Lillian Mulcahy (nee Gilbert): This is my nanna, my dads, mother. I don't know how old she is in the photograph, maybe late teens or very early twenties. There is an inscription in the right hand corner in her handwriting which reads "To Will love Lil" It is obviously a photograph she gave to my grandfather. I wonder if this was during there courtship? 
  2. William Mulcahy: This is my grandad, my dads, father. Again I don't know how old he is. I think he was in the Royal Army Veterinary Corps as I have tried to zoom in on his cap badge but I am not 100% sure. I have another photo of him mounted on a horse however they are not just photographs they are postcard, sadly without any writing on them. I remember him telling me something about looking after horses and being able to braid their manes and tails but I was only a little girl. Sadly he passed away when I was 8 years old. It was the first time my heart was broken he adored me and I adored him.
  3. Denis Mulcahy and Margaret Mulcahy (nee Johns): This is my mum and dad on a night out in the early sixties probably taken in the Wookey Hollow pub in Liverpool, apparently it was one of their favourite places when they where courting. 
I love these photographs I don't have many from the past. Sadly I don't have any photographs of my mums, mother and father but I know someone who might be able to help me complete my maternal photograph tree.

Monday 8 February 2016

S is for........

SUSAN. I was thinking what collection could I post today? Then I noticed I am surrounded by ephemera with my name on it. I have to admit I have a bit of a strange thing about my name, a kind of love, hate relationship.  I even have it tattoed on the bottom of my back.  Anyway, back to todays collection.
  1. Sewing Susan: Original vintage sewing needle pack that I purchased from eBay a few years ago.
  2. Initial Keyring: I think this was a gift but I can't for the life of me think who when where or why! Oops
  3. Quilters Guild Area Rep Badge: Kept as a memento from the three years I was area rep with my dear friend Janet.
  4. Area Day name badge: I accidentally came home with this badge from one of our Crosby area days and never gave it back. Oops! naughty, aren't I!
  5. Heart Badge: I had one exactly like this which I bought on a trip to Blackpool with my family to see the illuminations when I was 10 years old. A few years ago I was in Blackpool with my good friend Ray. We entered a souvenir shop and on a cork board where all the little name badges I related my memory to Ray and bless him he bought me. It is a treasured possession.
  6. Shoe cup cake money box. My gorgeous husband bought me this when we where holidaying in Wales several years ago. One because of my love of shoes, two I make cup cakes and three is had my name on.
  7. Green Costa. A gift from my lovely daughter Michaela.
  8. Pink Costa. A gift from my fab friend Janet.
  9. Postcard: From my lovely niece Paige.
  10. Dinosaur: This is the tag of another little money box a gift from my amazing sister, Natalie.
  11. Registration plate. I bought this on my first holiday abroad in 2000
I think its official I definitely have a thing for things with my name on. :P


Sunday 7 February 2016

Found Objects.

Today's collection are all the first objects I have found when out walking this week.
  1. Sunday: Plastic frog. 
  2. Monday: Lip balm with Disney's Cinderella on it. 
  3. Wednesday: Little Minion paint brush
  4. Thursday: Child's plastic fork.
  5. Friday: Christmas pom pom, bauble earring.
  6. Saturday: Plastic crotchet hook.
You will see Tuesday is missing the reason being is I did not go for a walk on that day.

I also want to share a fellow Bowerbird collection of found treasure. My lecturer Phoebe has a celebrations tub in her office where she keeps things she has found. On Thursday she allowed me to empty her treasure box and take a photo. It was so interesting looking at the things Phoebe has found. Here is her collection.

 I promised I would have a give away at the end of this week and seeing as only two people left me a comment I am going to send both Lin and Joan a little something each in the post. Thank you both for taking part, your little gifts will be on there way to you this week.

This bit of my post is especially for my friend Lin. This is the photo I took of one of the Anthony Gormely bronze statues on Crosby beach. It is for my friend Libby who's project is all about rust and decay.


Saturday 6 February 2016

Fancy a cuppa?


Firstly let me apologise for the poor quality of the photograph. Today's collection is my cup and saucers.  I have two early memory's of tea cups and saucers.  The first is my Grandma (my mums mother) is letting my baby sister drink tea from her saucer.  She use to pour the tea from her cup to the saucer and Natalie would sip it. My Grandma said the tea cooled down quicker  on the saucer  and she did this for all of us when we were little. My second memory is my Grandad (my dads father) he would save pennies all week in a little cup for me. I can still see the cup in my minds eye it was a little cottage. I never drank from it because it had been broken at some point and was glued together but I adored it.  Maybe this is where my love of tea cups began. The little blue cup was a gift from DH on a trip to Port Sun Light it is dinky and so cute. The one next to it was my little car bootie find and cost 30p it is hand painted. The pink spotty one is the most recent from Home Bargain just couldn't resist so pretty.  The other three are charity finds and again did not cost much. I do not use the little blue one or the car bootie because it has a hair line crack in it but all the others come out when I do the occasional afternoon tea party.

Friday 5 February 2016

Sea Shells

Today I decided to take a trip to Crosby beach. I have not been beach combing for quite some time and whilst the weather was bracing it was fine and dry. I adore the peace and tranquilty I get from  walking along the beach. Today's collection are the beautiful shells I found on the beach this morning. My favourite one is the big broken one that looks like a snails house shell. (top right hand corner) Its beauty is in the fact that it is not perfect, it is very sculptured and so interesting. Unfortunately I didn't have time to draw my collection today as I was busy drawing the entire contents of what was in my hand bag for my uni project. However, I am really looking forward to doing an observational drawing of my broken shell in the future. Sadly I might have to revert to just putting images of collections with the occasional drawing, if I am to achieve my goal of posting a collection a day for the month of February. 

Thursday 4 February 2016

Warning! contains scenes of nudity.


Today's collection link is characters.
  1. Minion: I found this little guy yesterday, just outside the block of flats. I just had to pick him up and take him home. When I picked him up I discovered he was a little paint brush, which made him even more of a treasured find.
  2. Clown: I have had this little clown for about twelve years. I did not find him my daughter Michaela did when she was in school. |She brought him home and gave him to me and I have treasured him ever since.
  3. Colin: This little nudist I found in a shop in Spain. I definitely had to buy him because his soul mate had been waiting for him back home for a long time.
  4. Susan: Again I did not personally find this sexy lady somebody else did, whilst working on a building site and gave it to me. (hmmm I can't imagine why???)  She was on her own for many many years and never in her wildest dreams did she expect to have a mate. Colin and Susan have been together now for eleven years and stand side by side on a shelf in my sewing room.
When I put the photo of the actual collection with my naive drawing of today's collection I noticed I have unconsciously slimmed down Colin and Susan. What can I say I have the power of artistic licence. hehehe :)

Wednesday 3 February 2016

Tag, your it!


Today's collection is labels or tags. I am very drawn to, what I term fancy tags & labels, on clothes or gifts. I have tendency to keep them and use them in my ATC's. A few days ago DH treated himself to a new outfit for his birthday and I just couldn't bring myself to throw the labels in the bin. I did however added two tags I already had on my desk that were waiting to be used in my next batch of ATC's to make up today's collection.
  1. Vintage floral tag. This was attached to a set of mini floral suit cases I received as a Christmas gift from my brother and his partner.
  2. Falmer Heritage: This was attached to his jacket.
  3. Easy: This was attached to his shirt.
  4. Large: This was also attached to his shirt together with the previous tag I loved the start black against the white together with the bar code. 
  5. Arizona Straight: Attached to his jeans.
  6. Slim Fit: Also attached to his jeans. I know get him SLIM FIT (he's lost weight I'm jealous :)
  7. Lee Cooper: This is an old tag that was attached to a hoodie Colin bought ages ago. 

Tuesday 2 February 2016

Day two and I'm feeling blue!


Yesterday I walked to my local shopping centre and decided to see how many things I could find that where blue for todays collection. Considering its only a 10 minute walk there and back I managed to find five objects that where blue.  So today's collection is the blue collection.

1. Lighter: Found in Marsh Lane park .
2. Scrunchy: Found on Marsh Lane. Possible belonging to a little girl who attends St James School which is just off March Lane. It is blue gingham and matches their summer dresses.
3. Plastic Fork. Again found on March Lane it was just sticking in a little grass embankment a bit like a mini shovel.
4. Inhaler: Found on Stanley Road. This is just the plastic outer casing of an inhaler and I think it is the most unusual find of things that are blue.
5. TSB WFI Long on card: I picked this up in the TSB branch in Bootle New Strand I was attracted to the simplicity of the graphic design on the card.  

Monday 1 February 2016

The Yellow Collection.

Yellow Collection

My illustrations of the yellow collection



  1.  Leaf: I found this leaf on st James Drive on my way to the Asda. It was a vibrant gold yellow and I was instinctively drawn to pick it up.  This was yesterday and sadly it is already loosing its colour. It is now a motley yellowish beige.
  2. Plastic Frog: Found on Peter MahonWay on my way to the Asda it made me smile, immediately stirring up memory's of Christmas. Its like one of the ones you get out of a cracker. He to just had to come home with me.
  3. Quilting Pins: Found on the floor in my sewing room. I rarely use these pins so I can't say how long they have been on the floor for.
  4. Camper Van: Found in our Natalie's house (probably belongs to one of the boys but I fell in love with is and took it home). It sits on the shelf in my sewing room.
  5. Truck: Found on Crosby beach. I was with Cole and Michaela when I found this little truck I offered it to Cole who turned his nose up at it but I just had to keep it. It sits next to the camper van on said shelf.
  6. Stamp: This came off an envelope that contained a Christmas card sent to me from America. I just loved the butterfly so I cut it off and kept it.
This is a project I am working on for uni but it is inspired by my love of finding little treasures that I have to take home and keep. As well as being inspired by the artist, Lisa Congdon's, a collection a day 365 days blog (2010).  I am hoping to post a collection everyday for the whole month of February, I will tell you about something about each of the objects in the collections and the common link to the collecion.  For a chance to win a little prize, please feel free to leave me a comment letting me know what you have found that you just had to pick up to take home and keep. I will pick the winner at the end of the month.

Saturday 30 January 2016

Imagery, food for the creative soul.

My inspiration board so far.

An isolated section in portrait.

Another isolated section in landscape.
A couple of post ago, I showed a photo of my inspiration board but I didn't elaborate on how it came about. I am a big fan of Linda and Laura Kemshalls work, I subscribe to their Design Matters TV channel.  In a recent video Laura introduce the concept of having a idea wall or inspiration board as a good starting point to create, generate or inspire new pieces of work.  The principle is to collect anything that grabs your attention, it can be very random or based on a theme but basically pretty much anything goes. I thought this was a great idea so I bought a big cork board, cleared a space on a wall that I had easy access to in my sewing room and TA-DA here is my board so far. I like to think of it as my visual food for thought board. Over the last few weeks I have done exactly what it says on the tin, pin random images that appeal to me. These images have come from magazines, books journals and pintrest and randomly pinned on the board. However, it is surprising that even though they were picked randomly and pinned randomly I can see patterns emerging. For example there is a lot of blues and greys on the board. Aswell as text and script, so I am discovering more about my subconscious creativity.  If someone asked me whats your colour I would have said red maybe pink and yet there are only tiny splash of pink and no red to be seen. I am finding it all very interesting.  I think I have embarked on a very exciting Journey with Laura as the tour guide and I am looking forward to the next destination.

Tuesday 19 January 2016

Exceeding ones goals.

Flower Basket
Northern Lights

Old Windmill
This morning I have managed to make three Farmers Wife quilt blocks.  I have been making my blocks by machine but the book is aimed at English paper piecing technique. So far I have picked out the blocks that could be converted to machine sewing. However, I think there will come a time that I have to revert to paper piecing.  I am not opposed to paper piecing I am just not very good at it. Mind you don't look to closely at my last block "Old Windmill" you might get the impression I am not very good at machine piecing either. :0

Monday 18 January 2016

Better late than never?

The two books I am currently working from.

Todays completed block "Big Dipper"

New inspiration board in my sewing room.
Firstly a very happy new year to those of you who still occasionally drop by the blog in the vague hope that I have posted.  The latter part of 2016 was a blur as I concentrated on getting all my work done for the hand in day which was 12 January.  That work is now in the process of being marked and whilst that is happening I am enjoying some very much needed time off until the madness begins again on the 26th January.  I read my friend Lin's post a few days ago in which she talks about finishing of projects she had started but then put aside, one being her Dear Jane blocks. Some of you may or may not remember I started a Farmers Wife quilt but I only managed to do a few blocks before they got shoved in a drawer and forgot about. Inspired by Lin's post and a good spring clean of my sewing room, I dug out said blocks of which I had 11. I decided to set my self a challenge to make a least two farmers wife blocks each day until I go back to uni.  However, before I did this I had already pulled out the book Anni Downs Book Some Kind of Wonderful and had raced a head and made two of the blocks for the quilt "My Favourite Things".  So the challenge now is at least two farmers wife blocks and one of my favourite thing blocks per day! Today is day two of my challenge and so far I have met my goal of two farmers wife blocks each day and have even managed to make 3 favourite things blocks with a fourth a work in progress. I hope to at least finish my favourite things quilt top before the 26th January. X:)