Out with the old in with the new!

Happy New Year to one and all, I hope you have a happy, healthy and prosperous 2013.

New Year is so important to we Scots that we have an extra day's Bank Holiday to enjoy (or recover from!) the festivities. So, although I don't live in Scotland (yet, I am ever hopeful!) I am maintaining the tradition and having a day off from the clearing-up involved with having all of the family home for the holidays.

Fortunately I wasn't responsible for the clearing up involved after this visitor departed :)

Bam-Bam checking out the kitchen!

Another tradition, this time local instead of national, that I also enjoy at this time of year is the Annual New Year's Day wheelbarrow race held in the village. The race starts and ends at the local pub, which is also I think partially responsible for many of the entrants, who decide on New Year's Eve that pushing a friend round the village in a wheelbarrow sounds like a great idea!

These competitors racing towards the finish line look remarkably fresh, so probably didn't indulge themselves too heartily the night before. A very fit friend and his wife, who were watching with us, took part several years ago, and couldn't believe how painful running around with a fully-loaded wheelbarrow could be. Definitely an activity that is better watched than participated in I think, and as you can see so do most of the village :)

With the beginning of the New Year comes new challenges to sign up for and the completion of others, well that is the theory anyway. As someone who is prone to signing up for new things when I still haven't completed existing commitments, one of my resolutions for 2013 is to finish an existing project before starting a new one.

So, with this in mind I have been stitching away at the five remaining blocks from In Color Order's HST BOM. This was the first BOM I ever signed up for, with grandiose notions of having a completed quilt to give as a Christmas present, but that lofty ambition was reduced several months ago. Still, I am delighted to now have all 12 of the blocks completed.

I still have the sashing and borders to add, but I can't decide what to do with them, so if you have any suggestions please pass them on. I have enough of the gold background fabric for the borders, but don't really have anything suitable for sashing, was thinking of a mottled cream/ fawn for that but if you have a better suggestion I would be delighted to hear it.

Now that the HST BOM is out of the way in terms of a monthly commitment I reckon that means I can take on a new one! As it happens the paper-piecing queen, Quiet Play, has just (yesterday) started a monthly paper-piecing BOM, And Sew On, with a sewing theme. The first pattern, Measure Twice, is available for free in January from her Craftsy store so I will be heading off there soon. Having only learnt to paper piece in 2012 thanks to Katy's FPPFTTcourse, I am hoping that during this BOM I will finally crack the puzzle of cutting and piecing shapes at strange angles, which has eluded me so far.

I have just seen that The Littlest Thistle has also announced a new SAL today, called Everything and the Kitchen Sink, which I would really like to do. Looks like I will have to get another project out of the way before the 15th when the first block is posted!

Buttons, Blocks and Bows

On my recent visit North I managed to have a rummage around in my mum's button box. There were buttons in there that had belonged to her mum. So with a bit of encouragement on my part I "acquired" some of them to add to my own button stash :)

They came in very handy when I had a go at making some Origami Fabric Flower brooches from Knotted Cotton. I was lucky enough to be the recipient of a kit for three flower brooches from the lovely Catherine, but they were so quick to make that I whipped up another one in no time.

If you are looking for a really quick, last-minute make these definitely fit the bill. You can find Knotted Cotton's tutorial here.

This month sees the final blocks of the Sunday Morning Quilts Bee and this month's colour is pink. I discovered that pink is not a colour that features heavily in either my stash or scraps, so all I can say is thank goodness for fabric swaps!

This was the first Bee I ever joined and it seems like ages since I nervously put together my first blocks, although it was only 6 months. Round 2 kicks off next month when we are making blocks for specific quilts from the book. As my book is still somewhere in storage I will need to get a move on and find the box soon.

The first Bee request for Round 2 is for low-value fabrics, which I have discovered I do not possess, so some fabric shopping will be called for in the New Year sales!

In the meantime I am planning to get some last-minute sewing done before my son comes home and reclaims his room :)

Hope you are all having a relaxed run-up to the Big Day, or if not that you are at least enjoying some festive spirit!

Handmade gifts and Happy Post

I haven't been having much luck lately with swaps and Bees. I still haven't received anything from the HoopLaLa swap although the deadline was November 9th! My Sunday Morning Quilts Bee blocks for October and November haven't been seen either, so there has been a lot of anticipation when the postman rings but not much in the way of realisation. Until today!!




This lovely package of goodies arrived this morning from my partner, uberstitch, in the Modern Scrappy Bits swap. Apparently this is Pam's first attempt at a zipped pouch, I would never have guessed it is absolutely lovely.




It was even lovelier when I unzipped the pouch to discover that it was packed with more scraps. On a miserable, wet and windy day this was a real ray of sunshine, thanks Pam!

We had a quick trip up to Scotland this week but only had a short glimpse of this



and this





before delivering the doll quilt and heading South.

I have, though, managed to make another couple of Christmas presents and even roped in my OH on the handmade gifts front.

Last year I made Christmas snowman earrings for my DIL, son's girlfriend and myself using kits from Jillybeads but this year I decided to have a go at making my own. I discovered some seasonal charms at a local bead store and it took me all of 5 minutes to make this year's earrings.



So another two presents can be ticked off the list. My OH has even got in on the act by making these CD clocks, which again took him all of 5 minutes each.



For eldest son


For middle son

For youngest son

The clock mechanisms were just over a pound each and we used their own Cd's so all in all it was not only quick but inexpensive too. The clock parts were sourced from here

Actually they don't know that we have used their Cd's, but as we are constantly telling them anything that has been left behind when they moved out is fair game!

That Christmas gift list is gradually being whittled down, next up is toiletries and jewellery rolls.

Hope you are having a productive, handmade time this year too.

Linking up to Do Something Crafty and Happy Hour Friday and