Every one probably says it every year, but how is it November already? It's nearly Christmas. It's nearly next year. I've got projects I planned to start at the start of the year that are still sitting as nothing more than a pile of fabric. I've got projects I haven't touched since last year. And it barely feels like it's been five minutes. I guess the flip side is I'll have plenty to work on for #sewmystash in 2017, as I'm pretty sure it counts as stash if it's sat in the cupboard for a year! Right?
Anyway. October. It was a good sewing month. The headline grabbing achievement is 137 blocks completed! Eighty-one of these were #100days100blocks - I'm working on five different projects for these blocks so there are a few duplicates. I've been posting updates every 10 days which you can find here, here and here.
Thirty-one blocks were #365quiltchallenge blocks - I'm about 10 days behind at the moment, but some of the blocks I have tackled have been little sods.
I've also made some Splendid Sampler blocks, a block for Mia's quilt, some Bee-utiful blocks, some log cabin blocks and some blocks for the Modern Building Blocks quilt. I really need to post some quilt-specific updates here - maybe next week...
It was also a good month for moving ahead on some of Finish Along projects. I had a weekend to myself last weekend. Michael had the girls and I set myself up in the conservatory with Linda's sewing machine and a radiator and I went for it: a cushion finished, another nearly finished, a lap quilt and a toddler quilt quilted, another toddler quilt sashed ready for quilting, a mini quilt quilted and another now ready for quilting, and some blocks made. I was knackered by the end of it, but if I follow through on the finishing touches for all these projects (i.e. binding) I'll already have more finishes this quarter than the rest of the year put together... planning is the key! And there will be some reveal posts in the near future!
I did have a couple of finishes: my Moccassin quilt was a late finish for Q3 of the Finish Along.
October was also a big month for our family: Jessica started on solid foods - and loves them. Thankfully. And we moved both of the girls into their new bedrooms: Mia moved into a room which started the summer as a motley mix of wallpaper, lining paper and the remnants of a bright red paint. We had it plastered, we painted it. We had new carpet fitted. We lifted the new carpet. We had the leaking radiator fixed. We had the carpet refitted. We raided Ikea for new furniture and Dunelm for bedding and curtains. But it was all worth it because Mia was so excited about her new room. The day the carpet was fitted she spent nearly an hour just running round and round. Jessica's move was more straight forward. She moved into the room that Mia vacated. We moved Mia's wardrobe with her and inherited a wardrobe from my brother- and sister-in-law for Jess. There was some swearing when we discovered that the first wardrobe had to be dismantled to get it out the room...
The same weekend that we did this move, we also celebrated Jessica's christening with all our family and friends. If we ignore my minor melt-down at the church, it was a very successful day. Our family may be a bunch of nutters, but they're a good bunch of nutters! A few guests hadn't experienced full-on Craigs family before...I don't think we scared them too much! My parents have been over 200 miles away when both their granddaughters were born. Despite living just 30 minutes from my brother and his wife, they were 200 miles away, celebrating Jessica's christening, when their Grandson was born too. I'm looking forward to meeting our new nephew at the start of December.
I don't have any pictures of Jessica in her christening dress yet, but here she is, desparate to be standing all the time now - she has the body strength to stay up, just not the balance!
Comments
* Mind, with a FAL list like yours, that's probably for the best ;o)