A little accountability....

I'm sure we've all seen the meme on Facebook or Instagram this New Year about a resolution to finish the things in 2019 that I started in 2018, having bought the fabric in 2017 and the pattern in 2016, and had the idea in 2015..... you get the picture.

Well, I have a confession - I am a starter of new shiny things....... and I know I am not alone in this. So this year, in an effort to get all the things I've started to a point where I might be able to a) call them finished and b) gift them to the people they've been promised to, I decided the 2019 #finishalong was exactly what I needed. 

So far I have 30 things on the list, but I have divided them up across the quarters. Here's the things for this first quarter:

1) Anna Maria Horner quilt

The top is finished, it needs backing, quilting and binding, and gifting to my sister.

2, 3, 4, 5, 6, & 7) Range backpacks

I have 6 of these in progress, which stalled for various reasons since the summer. They need to be finished and given to their intendeds.

8) Booklet Pouch

To be a Christmas present for my niece Emma - that's Christmas 2018! Due for delivery on 22nd Jan, this is the number one priority.

9) Sloth cushion

This has been a top for over a year, it is now at least quilted and now needs making into a cushion and gifting to my niece April.

10) Atomic Starburst quilt

Another 2018 Christmas gift, for my partner's brother's partner's daughter, Kacy-Leigh. I'm slowly working through quilting this, then just binding to go.

11) Aaaaaand another 2018 Christmas gift

I have the fabric and pattern for this but that's as far as I've got - this is for Kacy-Leigh's sister. (Before anyone thinks I'm a rubbish some kind of step-auntie-in-law, I gave both the girls a clue block for Christmas which I've done with another niece in the past and which worked well then. Not so well this time, neither of them could even remember seeing them this year..... )

12) And last but by no means least, wedding bunting. For my youngest sister who is getting married on 6th April, and I need to make 44m of bunting and around 100 napkins for her....

Now, I understand that may not seem many to those of you with 20+ items on your list, but I think this is a quarter for me to be realistic and focused as all of these HAVE to be finished before the end of March and I can't afford any other distractions.

Now, did I mention I was a starter of new shiny things? Well, in the interests of full disclosure, I started the FAL in 2014! I just checked that one post and luckily, none of the things on that list are on my list as it stands today. But only because I'd totally forgotten about one of them when I made my list last week, and it is still a WIP so will appear later in the year. What I'm trying to say is, you have my full permission to pull me up and slap my wrists if I let this slide again.

Super (tote) sewing day

Over the last 15 months, since we first met, I've been lucky enough to have several get-togethers with Aneela Hoey, ostensibly for sewing and chat, but in reality far too much chat happens and we rarely, if ever, end up sewing!  Since I went back to the world of full time employment, and with Aneela's hubby working shifts, it's been harder to meet up, but we planned a sewing day for today, and last night in a flash of insanity inspiration, decided to each make a Super Tote.

This is one of those patterns by Anna 'Noodlehead' that much like the 241 tote has taken the quilting world by storm, and is up there with the Aeroplane in the 'must make' stakes. Yesterday Aneela blogged that was planning to make one, and I was dithering between that and the Aeroplane, so it seemed fate that we work on them together.

As usual, distractions got in the way at the beginning - there were quilt tops and yummy fabric to be admired and coo-ed over, and gossip to catch up on.  I don't think my sewing machine even made it out of the bag, let alone be plugged in, until at least an hour and a half had passed.  Luckily, I did quite a lot of prep last night, cutting out all the bits, and working out which fabrics to use for which part of the bag.  In fact, that would be my one criticism so far of the pattern - although the picture shows it being made with different fabrics for the various external parts, the cutting layout (although only a suggested layout) shows the front, back and external pocket being cut out of one fabric, and it took me a while to get my head around which bits to cut from what.

I had decided to go with Melody Miller fabric, much as that made me feel incredibly disloyal in Aneela's house! I used the rich coloured heavier weight fabrics from Ruby Star Sparkle, including the fab roller boots. I managed to cut one piece wrong - not realising there was only an external pocket on the front - and so I used the wrongly cut cameras to line the front pocket, instead of just facing it.  I have to say I'm a bugger for cheating on straps, and I do like to use webbing, so I used some grey heavyweight webbing I already had in my stash for something else (which I will now need to replace - MORE shopping.... *sigh*....)  and I also decided to forego the piping (too much faffing for me!).  Just look at all that wonderful fabric stacked up behind the ironing board - with stuff like that to look at, is it no wonder I got little sewing done??  

Once we'd stopped for a scrummy lunch (thanks, M&S!) we got back to the sewing, and tried to get the gussets done without sniggering every time we said the word 'gusset'!

I went for some of Melody's vintage flowers - one thing I love about that fabric is the colours in it go sooooo well with other Melody fabrics.  I have to confess I was a bit unsure at this stage that it might be a tad OTT.  But I was really happy once I'd wrestled the gusset (hrumph!) into place and worked out how to topstitch it once the back was added - it actually looks great.  Now, wouldn't it be fab if I had a picture of that stage to show you?  

Well, the thing is, By the time we'd done all that bit, we'd run out of time, and so we've planned to go back again tomorrow for a couple of hours and get the bag finished - I'm hoping the lining, recessed zip and internal pockets are quicker to put together than the outside, or I'll be back on Monday too, and work might not be greatly pleased by that!

So you'll just have to wait until tomorrow to see that...

Those of you who read Aneela's blog will have seen yesterday that she said she'd been feeling a bit down in the dumps and to make herself feel better she'd decided to make a project pouch for a friend of hers, because making things for other people always made her feel better.  She'd used the puppy print from Sherbet Pips and I have a soft spot for that fabric as it reminds me of my titchy springer, Bella.  So imagine my squealy delight this morning to arrive at Annela's and find out the friend was me!  And here it is in all its puppy glory.  All ready to be stocked up for my EPP class at the Fat Quarterly retreat.  

And while we're on that subject, don't forget the lovely Annie is having a fantastic shopping event at the Village Haberdashery on Friday 19th July, with a special evening opening for retreat goers - there will be cupcakes and wine and evryfin'.  Oh and there's a 10% discount all day for in-store purchasers, so if you fancy on stopping off there en-route to South Kensington for retreat supplies, you'll get a great welcome.

A Summersville addiction....

So I think it's time I sought treatment for my Summersville problem.....

Having first not been sure about it, and then having been converted at FQ Retreat, where I bought some fat quarters from Lucie, the lovely Summersville has been sitting on my stash shelf winking at me occasionally while I totally lacked inspiration as to what to do with it.  

At the last LMQG meeting at Tricolette last month, however, I saw it in large quantities and it clicked - bags!  I've already blogged the go anywhere beauty and fabulousness that is the red wallet, and before I went into hospital I had cut out the makings of this Noodlehead tutorial.  

I'd used Scandi in black for the outside and pocket, and the same pattern in orange for the lining, and I had some natural webbing for the strap.

It was a bit of a faff to make, with the grommets, and I certainly realised I should have been much more circumspect with the interfacing - it made the fitting of the grommets a right to-do!  And I discovered I needed to stitch the strap to the bag as well, because unless you make a slouchy (non-interfaced) version, it seems to be too heavy for the grommets to hold it right.

But it's a bit quirky, and I like quirky!  I really like the orange lining!

I think for now I might have made enough bags!

I'm currently washing a new red sheet that I bought to be the backing of the raw circles quilt, and judging by the pink foam amassing in the machine's porthole, pre-washing it was a very good plan!  All I have to decide now is whether to machine or hand quilt it....

I'm linking up with TGIFF on Crafty Shenanigans today.

Great minds....

Isn't it funny how some patterns or tutorials just seem to capture the quilting community's imagination and suddenly versions are popping up everywhere?  Look at Anna's fantastic bag patterns over at Noodlehead - who hasn't tried a 241 yet?

I guess it's only natural that following on from the handbag theme would be purses and wallets - I've spent most of the summer in awe of the amazing frame purses springing up everywhere after the FQ Retreat in June.  I never plucked up the courage to try one of those, maybe one day.

However, wallets seem to be the next thing, and I very happily jumped on the bandwagon over the weekend with this tutorial from Confessions of a Fabricaholic.  I'd seen the one made by Charlotte not only on her blog but actually in the flesh as it were at our LMQG meet.  I decided it was just the thing to use some of my Summersville for, and I like a nice bright wallet.  

Charlotte's advice was to 'interface the heck out of it' and so I took her at her word and interfaced nearly every pattern piece!  I'd got some of the really stiff Pellon interfacing to use on the outside to give it some support, but I also wanted to use fusible fleece to give it a bit of a soft feel.  So I used both.... hmmm, I like the finished effect, but it meant some adaptation of the tutorial was necessary!  When I sewed around the outside and turned it through, it bowed!  Nothing was going to make it lie flat that way, so I undid it, sewed it wrong sides together and bound it instead.  It's given me a slightly bigger wallet, which I can also slip my mobile phone into when I nip into to the supermarket, almost like a mini clutch.  

This project was also my first attempt at a zip, and I'm not sure I got it entirely right, but for a first go, I'm pretty pleased!

All in all, this has already gone into daily use, and I love it.  I was going to have a got at making a folding wallet for the OH from another pattern by Angharad but I can only find images in flowery girly fabrics, not the rugged denim I was going to use for him, and so he's not keen!  No imagination, that one!

Anyway, it's a big day for me today as I go under the knife myself.  So I may be absent for a little while, depending how things go.  See you all soon.