Birthday Stash!

The end of January has arrived remarkably quickly don't you think?

So it is time to show you what I have made this month for my Birthday Stash!

Thank you Wendy for hosting this again this year.

So here we are - it's a clutch of thread catchers!

A couple of these have already gone to good homes. If you missed the link for the pattern for these last time I showed it then here it is again.

Wishing you all a great weekend.

Lin

FNSI

Friday night and time to join with Wendy and friends for another Sew In. Thank you Wendy for hosting.

The quilting on my Jack of Hearts mystery quilt is slowly coming along but finally I am on the border - one side complete, three to go. Was able to get quite a bit done yesterday evening.

And thanks to my new Fons and Porter white pencil I can mark a much finer line on my fabric. Highly recommended! I have been searching for the perfect white marker for years and have finally found it.

Hope you are having a good weekend and plenty of time to sew.

Lin

Crazy Quilt Along 2014

The closest I have come in the past to any crazy patchwork was when I made these two panels from a slection of hand dyed fabrics and threads.

For some reason I had never considered traditional crazy patchwork even though it combines the two things I love - patchwork and hand embroidery.

Some time last summer I came across Jennifer Clouston's blog Sew So Crazy!. I thought her work exquisite and enjoyed following her posts about her students work. In December Jennifer published her first book and I have treated myself to a copy of it. Her work is superb and there is so much inspiration in it.

Then in the autumn I was paired with Caroline Heinrich of Good Earth Quilting for a Christmas postcard swap. Carli is a great crazy quilter and sent me this beautiful postcard.

When she told me that she would be hosting a Crazy quiltalong starting in the New Year I signed up straight away!

And so finally to the point of this blog!

The Crazy Quilt  Along 2014 has started! We are going to make a wall hanging using four 12" blocks, one for each of the seasons. The first block, appropriately, is winter. I have chosen this picture of frosty cotoneaster as my inspiration.

Although I have to say there is very little frost around here this winter and this picture was taken last winter.

I have put together the patchwork background of my block.

And plan to do all the stitching in white or silver to make it look frosty.

I am a little unsure about the size of this - possibly a 9" block would suit me better - so I have marked a 9" square on the surface and will aim to fill that first and see how I feel about it!

I have been through all my threads and beads and have come up with this selection to work with.

So now it is all going in a box ready to take away to Spain with us in 10 days time when I hope to have some time for hand stitching.

I have another four new followers - welcome to Heather, Teresa and Linda from the Crazy Quilt Along and also to Karen. Thank you for dropping in.

Meanwhile I am looking forward to FNSI which is tomorrow.

Happy stitching

Lin

Ashamed to say....

.... that having just checked my followers list I find that I have four new followers that I have not said welcome to!
So a very big welcome and thank you to  Cheryll, Pippa, Marie Christine and Jenny.

Short post but there is more to come soon!
Have a great week.

Lin xx

Buttons!

Back in early December I mentioned here that Cathy of potterjotter blog was giving away some of her handmade buttons.
What a surprise I had just before Christmas to hear that I had won the second set of buttons in her give away! Due to some communication problems I did not receive them until today and it was so exciting opening the heavily padded envelope.
Here is what I found.

A pretty little tissue wrapped package. The tissue has been smoothed and stashed as it is very pretty.

Inside this is what I found

These are my lovely buttons

And Cathy very kindly slipped in this gorgeous little house.

A lovely package to receive - thank you so much Cathy.

The weather has been up and down since we have been back in France but always very mild. Sunny afternoons when I have been able to sit outside and wet blustery days. 

Have been catching up with a few projects which I will tell you about soon.

Have also joined in with  Carli's crazy quilting stitch along for this year. More about that later too.

Meanwhile I hope that 2014 is treating you kindly so far.

Happy stitching

Lin