Hello – New year! I love new years. I love how bare the house looks after taking down Christmas decorations. I love new lists, new goals, big plans, optimism. A new year is a fresh sheet of paper.
For better or worse, I fill my pieces of paper with the same doodles every time. I am many things – many awesome things – but I still struggle to value, protect, and better my health. This year, this notebook, this page is not different.
I still am me in that I want to do everything. Dance, run, speak a new language, make new friends, give art tours, draw, sew, paint, weave, garden.
That is, I want to do everything until it comes time to actually do things. And here is the reality – all I really want to do is sew. After work, family, friend commitments are met, I just want to sew. I have successfully sewn a lot this year already. A LOT. I have not exercised once. Not once.
So the trick this year will be to let myself sew as much as I want to – set as many stitchy goals as I possibly can. But first, exercise. It is necessary for my resilience and health. So other than exercise goals, I am not going to push myself to do anything else. One distraction from exercise. One distraction from sewing.
But… man, the sewing be good… some of my recent endeavors…
This is a pattern from Purl Soho. I bought a whole kit, but ended up not liking the color or fabric, so went with a more French color palette. I love this more than words and really did improve my stitches working on this. I am not a fan of the circle at the top with all of the fly stitches. I am going to pull that out and put the word ADORE in the circle. This is going to be a bed parasite (pillow) in our bedroom, so taking the license to get a little romantic-y with it. Did I mention I love this?
Speaking of romantic, I made little felt hearts for this Valentine’s Day tree. Again, Purl Soho pattern. I cut them out on my Cricut Maker and whipped them together. They join some mini flowers and glitter hearts I picked up at Joann. The goal is to have this tree decorated year round as a festive little thing.
Did I mention I LOVE my Cricut Maker?? More on that in a later post.
I am trying to make peace with using regular felt. I have used wool felt for so many projects, that it is hard to not use it. But unless making a gift for a child, I think polyester felt is so fine. It is pennies on the dollar. So it is just fine. Really.
This baby quilt was the first draft of this quilt for a bestest friend’s baby. It was in a magazine and I feel in love with it. But it ended up not being up to snuff. I set it aside waiting just for the binding to be done. Last weekend I finished it and it is going into my donate to Project Linus pile. I hope to do 24 Project Linus quilts this year. #morethanicanchew
Oh, embroidery! I don’t know why it took me so long to get into embroidery. I am so in love with it. Can’t think about much else. I have so many projects I want to complete. I started this one and am so addicted. The pattern is from the Tula Pink book. Love love love.
Look at that brick stitch!! So in LOVE!!
So, I love stuff. And I am going to exercise. Happy 2018!
All your projects are so lovely! I really like the Purl Soho pattern and the baby quilt especially.
Thank you so much !! 😊
What a unique quilt design! Lucky baby!!
Thank you so much!! 🙂 that is so kind.