Winter Project Link Party - February

Well, hello and welcome to the February Winter Project Link Party hosted by Jennifer at Thistlebear. Thank you Jennifer, it is always a joy to see what everybody makes.

At the off-chance of boring you to death, I am still working on Sam's quilt. It is taking rather a long time. I don't have nearly enough time to sit down with my needle and stitch as I'd like. I am telling you, I am almost missing the time when I was a stay at home mum and actually had the freedom to sit down for a few minutes at the time and do something immensely enjoyable whilst reflecting on the day. Don't get me wrong, I don't think for one minute that stay at home mums have a leisurely life. I know from experience that's not true. However, there is more flexibility to the day when you don't have set hours that must be spent in the office, or wherever work may be. This is what I miss most. I don't even have a job that is timetabled to the minute but believe me, it is relentless and doesn't stop when I get home.

Right, now that I got this off my chest, I can swiftly move on to more fun things. The quilt. I am amazed at how many lines I still have to stitch! I have wondered briefly if a naughty elf undoes a line or two every night but probably not. It is still enjoyable, very much so actually, but very very slow. My stitches are quite small, maybe four millimetres but I like it like that. Neat and small comes at a price, and the price is time.

Last Sunday, I went to the Stitchery for an afternoon of sewing in company. I wanted to make binding for the quilt. I have thought much about this binding, more than is probably healthy. At first, I wanted to make it all blue, a soft darkish blue, like washed out jeans. But then I thought I did not want to waste any of the precious fabrics of the quilt decided to make the binding from the scraps. It is Jo's fault, honestly, it is. She is so good at using stash and every last piece of scrap that I feel I need to up my game a bit and try to use up all I have.

I had lots of small pieces left, mostly 5.5  inch squares, some of them finished half square triangles. I spent ages and ages cutting these into 2.5 inch strips. It took less time to sew these into a continues 7 metre binding piece. I ended up with a small roll of binding. There is very little fabric left now and I am happy to add these scraps to my scrap collection for a future tiny scrap quilt. I imagine something like this. Anyway, I am going to finish the quilting and then I'll stitch on the binding.

In the meantime, I have plenty other projects I should be getting on with: unfinished jumper, half a sock and a crochet blanket. Actually, this last one is doomed, I no longer like it but I am not quite ready to frog it. I have also started cutting the triangles for Annie's quilt. I have practiced sewing triangles together with some pieces of calico. I think making this quilt will be fun.

And now you have to excuse me, I really need to get some stitching done before Sunday disappears into another week of work. Have a lovely week. xx