Oh dear

As I said in my previous post 2012 is going to be the year of using up my scraps as well as trying to master paper piecing. After watching numerous you-tube clips and reading books and magazines I felt that I was ready to tackle this head on today.

Take one

Somehow this does not look like anything that I saw on you-tube or in the books.

Take two

This is definitely nothing like what I saw on you-tube or in the books. I think I had best go and have another look to see why I have something back to front and a side missing. How hard can it be to sew fabric in numerical order I ask you. Obviously very hard for me.

Take three

Looking a little better but certainly room for improvement.

Take four

Now that is looking a whole lot better. By the time I work my way through that pile of scraps I may have worked out what all this paper piecing is about - hopefully.

Hang on - where have all these new scraps come from - I am supposed to be reducing the pile not adding to it.

New Year's Resolution (s)

I like most people at the beginning of a new year make one or two resolutions and in time break them but this year I am going to make 2012 the year of using only what I have in my stash and adding a piece should I not have it for a particular project that I am working on.

Now I know that there are going to be lots of "tempters" out there but I am going to try and be strong and ignore them - see how I go!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I have also given myself a couple of challenges and one is to use up most of the scraps that I have hoarded over the years - some quite sizeable pieces and others could only be described as "crumbs" . As you can see by the piccy below I have collected quite a few and

after an hour I have gotten some sort of order into them - plains, black and whites, novelty, greens, blues etc. I have also decided that it is time that I learnt a new technique and paper piecing is something that I tried in the past and not had any success so 2012 is the year to master this - well at least give it a go. I think that I have enough scraps to try my hand at paper piecing and also have some left over to actually make a small quilt with them. I will keep you posted on my efforts.

I was a very lucky girl on Christmas Day and was given 8 gorgeous embroidered blocks from my DS and DDIL and they just screamed out cushions to me so on Boxing Day I trimmed them up to 7 1/2 " blocks and joined them together put a contrasting border around them and now I am the owner of these two lovely cushions which sit proudly on our bed.

A New Year also calls for a new bag and I was lucky enough to win 9 fq's at my quilt groups Christmas party and I used three of them to make the bag below. I had bought the handles sometime ago and I feel that they go so well with the gorgeous bird fabric.

Lastly I wish you a happy and healthy 2012 and may it bring good things for us all.

Happy sewing.