I rather like the idea of a monthly report, looking back at what I’ve done and more importantly, making plans for the next month. I think it could be quite a positive thing, sometimes when you’ve lots of projects on the go, as I invariably seem to do, it’s easy to lose sight of what you have achieved. I’ll be looking at what I’ve achieved rather than just how  my stash is still going up instead of down, though that could be seen in a positive light as well!

I got back into dressmaking this month, I made a coatigan which I think I have worn every day since, it’s so warm and snuggly! I’m half through a skirt too, so hopefully I’ll be showing you that in the next few days. The coatigan neatly covered two challenges which I’m trying to keep up with, one is on facebook, the  Dressmakers Bloggers Challenge for January was something snuggly. The Coatigan was also one of my patterns listed in my 2017 Sew Nine challenge.

Another challenge was on the Monthly Stitch, to sew something from fabric not yet stashed! As I got a pretty length of Ikea fabric from my Secreat Santa, I made it up straight away into a Great Getaway Bag.

I’ve done quite a lot of embroidery this month, I finished a very pretty sampler I got for Christmas, in fact I’ve just got it back from the framers.

My flower lattice which is part of the Stitch-a-long is progressing slowly but steadily, I’ve completed two diamonds now, there’s twelve all together.It’s been a pretty steep learning curve so I’m happy with my progress so far.

Two projects have come out of my Embroiderers Guild, we had a workshop on rolling landscapes, I carried on with my piece when I got home and made it into a record of my favrourite walk. I’m just waiting for a handmade bobbin to arrive from a woodcarver, then I can finish this project.

We also launched a Travelling Sketchbook, just within our Guild. I’ve covered my book, just got to make the first entry!

My Splendid Sampler journey is almost at an end, I stitched six blocks altogether over the month, four of them I’ve shown you already, two I only finished last night! I’ve made 93, so I’ve three blocks outstanding and then there’s just four blocks waiting to be released.

So, February is upon us already! This month is where one BOM finishes and another starts, By the end of the month I will hopefully have at least finished all the one hundred blocks for my Spendid Sampler quilt, fingers croosed I will get them all quilted and be well on the way to stitching them all together. This years BOM is Sarah Fielkes Down the Rabbit Hole, which looks gorgeous, there’s alot of applique and other new techniques so I’m hoping to learn alot. The first block was released today so…watch this space!

Embroidery-wise, I need to do at least one piece of embroidery for my Travelling Sketchbook and ideally cover my second sketchbook which is just going to be a personal workbook. My flower lattice needs concentrating on, hopefully at Embroiderers Guild we’ll have a morning of private stitching, it’s amazing what you can get done in three hours of concentrated sewing!

The challenge in February for the Monthly Stitch is to sew something from the decade you were born…that’ll be the 1960’s then! I’m thinking that this may be the month I finally make a pair of jeans! I’ve also got a pattern of a 1940’s top, so I might make that as well. The challenge for the Dressmaking Bloggers hasn’t been released yet, it would be quite useful if I could use my new skirt for that! I’m really pleased with it so far, it’s a gorgeous Donegal Tweed herringbone tweed in peacock blue, made by Avoca, I bought it from the Fabworks stall at an Embroiderers Guild meeting last year. Here’s a sneak peek…

Stash Report

I know some of you quite enjoy my monthly stash reports! I’ve changed the format slightly in that I’m counting lengths, not metres. Not only is it slightly less daunting (in my bid to reduce it!) it also means psychologically I can choose what I want to sew without thinking in terms of how much I’m reducing my stash by! I only bought one length of fabric this month, a complete  impulse buy from an ad on facebook by Croft Mill! Next month is likely to be bad as we’ve got another Dewsbury meet up! So, here goes, my first stash report of 2017;

Stash at end on December 2016      54 lengths

Lengths used          1

Lengths bought      1

Stash on 31st January 2017            54 lengths

Hopefully next months stash report might be a bit more exciting, though I’ve just  arranged for some new flooring in my sewing room (carpet doesn’t work for me in a sewing room!!) so I’ve got to empty the room completely!! Wish me luck!!!