Paper Work Conquered

For the past few weeks I have been battling with a mountain of paperwork. Somehow over Christmas I let everything slip and creative things have had to take a back seat. I'm now back and have a list of UFO's that I am determined to complete this year. As I wanted a small project I joined the Mug Rug Swap and have been sent my swap partner. This is a tiny part of what I have made. I will have to read the rules and see if I can show it all, until then a peek..

DS keeps moaning that he hasn't a quilt that is big enough to cover his body (he is now taller than me). Anyway he has made me feel so guilty that this week I cut up a stack of brown and red fat quarters which will become a turning twenty quilt. The idea is very simple if you haven't heard about these quilts. You cut up the fat quarters in the same way, stitch together and fairly quickly you have a decent sized quilt. The monkey fabric you can see will be in every block. I will post progress soon. When he was younger he loved anything to do with monkeys so they have got to be in his "big" quilt. As he won a prize at FoQ last year I should really get him to make one for himself but he is already starting his FoQ 2011 one. I do have a sneaky plan though that he will help to machine quilt it once complete.

I managed a day out yesterday with Sweetpie to visit Trudi at Quilt Prolifically to see her new Quilt Studio. It is a fantastic space and I know she will be even more creative with her quilts. We have been invited for a sewing day soon and I can't wait. Here she is in her new home. Pop over to her blog and you will be able to see just how quickly it went up.

New Year Update

Happy New Year to you all. I'm not sure where the past 10 days have gone really. At least everything has slowly begun to get back to normal after the Christmas holidays. DS got some jump stilts for Christmas but it has been too snowy and icy for him to use them. In the end he had a little try at home inside. It was tricky as he couldn't really stand up straight due to the low ceiling.  Since this photo was taken we have managed to get outside with them. He was born at 29 weeks and is now taller then I am, on these silts I come up to about his waist!!!

Smocking started back last week and we moved onto using smocking dots rather than checked fabric.

This was a sample that someone did at home over the holidays to try out different stitches.

I have some exciting news. Last Saturday I went to visit an incredibly talented group of textile artists known as Textile Lincs. They are a small group who regularly stage exhibitions of their work. After showing and talking about my work I was later invited to join the group. I was so excited as I haven't really exhibited any of my work before. 

Whilst out and about this weekend I also saw an exhibition by Peter Moss called "Past, present and Future" at "The Hub" in Sleaford. This is only on until 16th January but is well worth a journey if you are near.

Didn't mean to upload these parsnips. DH "found" them in the veggie plot so we had to eat them for Sunday lunch. The theme for the Sketchbook challenge 2011 is "highly prized" and I have done some pages in my sketchbook, I just haven't taken any photos! I did wonder whether or not these parsnips could be considered highly prized as they had been sown last March (ish). They have been in the ground through all the snow and ice yet still were intact when dug up and were very tasty when roasted.