:: march :: in a nutshell...part i

hey there! where has March gone?! 

it started with a birthday just a week after my sister's. here i am with one of my oldest friends...her birthday is 2 days before mine we have a lot of life to live this year as it's our last before the big one. what big one i hear you say? well let's put it this way, it was my sister's 50th the week before and she is a year and a week older than me...you do the maths.

amongst other things this month...which i promise to come back before march actually ends to tell you about...there was the great british studio clean up. this place was a mess. actually a mess is what a teenager's room looks like. this was a war zone.

it took me many many hours of sorting, decluttering, chucking, more sorting, more decluttering, more chucking...you get the picture, but finally i have a studio that i am proud of and delighted to be in. it has made my other resolutions of not hoarding and of finishing started projects much easier to carry out because i can see them. there is no hiding in this space any more.

these are just a couple of peaks of pretty corners in my studio, but i won't show you any more as all will be revealed in a mag coming to you in the near future and i would hate to ruin your mag flicking fun.

the tidy up uncovered all sorts of things including this gorgeous kei geodots that i had bought from the lovely aussie lasses, Danielle and Jeanetter at polka dot tea fabrics. 

if you haven't come across kei fabrics before, they have that similar buttery feel to liberty lawns and voiles. divine and a joy to sew with.

when i bought the fabric i wasn't quite sure what i was going to make with it. i bought it in the winter and being definite spring/summer fabric i put it to one side (hence getting lost in the mayhem) until warmer climes and inspiration hit.

it is very unlike me to wait patiently to decide what to do but i was determined to with this fabric, as it needed to be right. it was a treat purchase so i didn't want to mess up.

when i found the fabric and had tidied my sewing books to be on view i knew i wanted to make something out of the japanese stylish sewing book which i had never actually used, despite wanting to several times.

thanks to a translation from Kerry i set to work with a bit more confidence. it was a relatively easy make...once i was reading the instructions in english rather than japanese...and was wearing my new top a day later.

i'm really really pleased with it. the fabric was a pleasure to sew with and feels lovely to wear and i would definitely sew this pattern again...with a couple of alterations the next time, but all in all it has the tick of success. i will also definitely be heading back to Polka Dot Tea Fabrics for more of their delightful Keis and other fabrics.

so that's a little bit of what i have been up to this month and i promise to be back before the end of the month to give you a run down of what else i have been up to in march...there i've said it...i had better keep my word.

x

resolutions...

 well hello...

how the hell are ya?

i'm thinking that there goes my first new year's resolution that isn't doing too well...the one where i said i would blog more.

let's see how i'm getting on with the others...

there was the one about not starting any new quilts until the unfinished ones on the pile were completed...

actually i'll have you know i'm not doing too badly on that front...if you ignore the  second from bottom one...that is next on the list.

i know i started this vintage giant star quilt before the other couple were finished, but there are good reasons for that...

first off, the very very lovely Cathi from down under sent me the hugest bundle of scraps and it would have been rude to not have shown my gratitude by creating with them straight away...

secondly, i needed a project to try out some of Lotta Jansdotter's Little Blomster fabric from her new collection Mormor coming out very soon. I am completely in love with this fabric and knew it would be the perfect background for the vintage fabrics.

and thirdly, having now started this quilt top it needs finishing as it is due to be heading inside the pages of a mag very soon. so you see, i had to play work on this one.

making a quilt as a gift is always a really really good excuse to start a new project, so it wasn't a completely altruistic gesture for me to ask my sis if she would like a quilt for her impending big birthday, but we will gloss over my needs and point out why i really must crack on with this quilt. after all a promise is a promise...

i actually feel guilty that i have never made her a quilt before and so i am obviously lavishing a lot of love and attention on making this for her now, by using up my most favouritest fabric pieces, coupled with beautiful oakshott fabrics.

sis chose the colour scheme but i hope she will love the quilt...i know she'll tell me if she doesn't...she's like that.

so this next quilt...

where does it fit in the new year's resolution let's-not-start-anything-new-until-old-things-are-finished-first line up?

it doesn't, but hey, a girl is only human and one little blip is quite frankly not at all bad going for someone who has a BIG problem with not starting anything new.

besides, hubs is still waiting patiently for a quilt for our bed having seen everyone else get one...yeh right and if you believe that you'll believe anything.

my excuse really was wanting to see how these little vintage scraps from cathi would look pieced with some of my fabrics and some of my favourite low volume bits n bobs...and it just so happened that it would be a perfect quilt for our bed...

my next resolution, like so many of us, is all about the fabric mountain that i regularly and unnecessarily buy and how i am determined to keep control on that.

now this resolution isn't about not buying any more fabric, because let's face it i would be destined to fail that even more than not starting anything new.

no, this resolution is all about not being seduced by pretty fabric that will just sit on my shelf without a use. i am only buying fabric for particular projects.

one such impending project is a liberty project. i haven't made a quilt solely in liberty and i would really like to rectify that and if i am going to do that then i really need to buy more liberties...all makes perfect sense doesn't it?

i did a trade with one of my IG buddies kate during the #greatukfabrcidestash at the weekend (boy that was fun!) and came out of it with this pile of beauties above.

earlier in the week i bought a couple of delicious reds from jo including this one below on the top. boy oh boy am i going to be needing more of that. i can actually visualise it in a dress...

keeping to my not buying any unneeded fabrics resolution, let me introduce you to 2 very much needed fabrics (did i mention that sometimes need and want can be intertwined and get in a right old muddle?)

both these are from the fab girls in aus who recently set up polkdotteafabrics. i am a bit of a sucker for japanese keis. they have a feel of tana lawns, you know all soft and buttery. the floral on the bottom is such a fantastic staple in neutral piecing and i bought it to piece some of the squares in my sister's quilt. ok so i only needed maybe a 10 x 10" square piece in total, but let's face it when you are buying from aus you really wouldn't to have to keep going back, so 2 yards later...

and the top green fabric?

i really needed that...as i say need? want? fine balance.

so that's me and my resolutions...how are yours coming along?