Sewing in March was limited to evenings as the days off were filled with workmen and decorating, the workmen have pretty much gone, but I still feel knee deep in painting, there’s a faint glimmer at the end of the tunnel though! My sewing room has become my refuge at the end of the day…

My sewing has been limited to quilting and embroidery this month, mainly because I was determined to finish my Splendid Sampler quilt before I started anything else major. Having worked on it for over a year I didn’t want it to end up as a UFO in the corner. It took me longer than I thought to stitch all the blocks together but I’m so proud of it, it’s definitely my biggest achievement in quilting!

I also managed to make a secondblock for Kate Chiconi’s Tealed with a Kiss quilt and got both blocks posted off. She’s just started quilting all the blocks before stitching them together.

My Down the Rabbit Hole quilt has gone untouched this month so I need to get cracking on that one, month three instructions have just been released and I’ve not quite finished month one yet!

Faby Reilly Design

It was our 10th wedding anniversary this month, I stitched a lovely card by Faby Reilly called Sweet Roses, I really like the message on it and my OH was really touched. We had a lovely weekend away in Matterdale near Ullswater in the Lakes, it rained, but it still looked beautiful. The little white cottage on the side of the fell is where we stayed, a lovely, cosy, welcoming B&B, some of it dates back to about 1670, so the walls are very thick!!

It was also Mothers Day here in the UK, I decided to stitch another of Faby’s cards, a lavender one, together with  the coordinating lavender bag. She loved it, as a needlewoman herself she could appreciate the work that went into it!

Another present was a surprise for Kate of Tall Tales from Chiconia, I made a little pincushion that looks like a vintage caravan. She sounds really pleased with it and it hasn’t even arrived yet!

It was our first month for swopping our Travelling Sketchbooks at Skipton Embroiderers Guild, so it was with some trepidation that I started stitching my first entry. The book’s theme was garden birds, so I did an embroidery of a wren, having coloured the background with silkpaints. As this was definitely out of my comfort zone, to design and then stitch something, I was well chuffed with the result.

My lattice embroidery that I’m stitching for the three-weekly SAL group is progressing slowly. I still haven’t quite worked out a slot for this, I enjoy working on it when I do get it out to do (usually about two days before I’m due to post!) but I rarely think to get it out before. I don’t think it helps that it’s on quite a big frame and I’m trying to keep it tidied away in a bag to help it stay clean as this one is definitely not washable!!

This month I want to get some clothes made, I need some trousers, but I also want to make a dress. The Skipton Travelling book continues but I’m also anticipating the Sisterhood of the Travelling Sketchbook will arrive. Having spent the last twelve months travelling from Australia, to America and now Europe, it has finally arrived in England, so it will be my turn soon!

Stash Report

My stash is unchanged this month, this is good and bad…it’s good as it means I haven’t been tempted by any more dressmaking lengths (I don’t count quilting fabric!), but it also means I haven’t made any clothes!

Stash at end of March    54 lengths.

I have to finish with the photo of a gorgeous piece of embroidery my daughter stitched me for Mother’s Day. I love it, it’s hanging in my sewing room so I see it every day and smile 🙂