2020 and beyond ....

Is 16 January too late to say Happy New Year?!  It feels I have been playing catch up since the start of the year having only arrived back in the UK form New Zealand at lunchtime on New Year's Day.  The subsequent jet lag and return to work and school and the time has just flown by.  Anyway .... I hope that you all had a wonderful holiday season however you chose to celebrate it.  Ours was a low key, summer Kiwi, Christmas, in fact I kept forgetting Christmas was around the corner!

Pohutukawa, aka the New Zealand Christmas Tree

Due to our trip, I had very little time to reflect on the year just past or plan for the year ahead.  It is only now that I am beginning to get plans in place.  One thing I had decided on, before we returned, was to increase my fitness levels and so I have signed up for #walk1000miles, having been totally inspired by Fiona from The Sewing Directory.  I have made a good start but the weather, oh my don't get me started on how wet it is, is not playing nicely!!

I wish to build on my teaching and speaking this year, which I really enjoyed last year.  There will soon be a tab up there at the top of the page that will have all the details on it.  I do still have some space left in 2020 for talks and workshops so please do get in touch if that would be something you would be interested in for your group, Guild or Retreat.

I have updated my Calendar of Events, click here, where you can see where I am teaching, talking and which shows I am working at.  It would be lovely to see you at any event so do please say hi!

I have a LOT of fabric.  Now I know that's no great confession for a quilter, but when we moved 15 months I gave away approximately 20 bin bags full of fabric yet my studio is still bursting at the seams!!  I've realised that it's making me very unproductive in the sewing department and I need to do something about it.  Am I going to use it all?  That's what I have to really ask myself.  Some of the fabric has been back and forth across the world  a couple of times and I love it but ......... am I really going to use it?  My sewing has taken a totally different path from when I first started quilting and so decisions have to be made.  Watch this space maybe there will soon be a destash ....

One thing I have already started to do is to gather together all my WIPS, as and when I find them whilst I am sorting out the studio (and house and boxes!)  I am going to list them on a new page just for accountability and hopefully share progress with you over the coming weeks and months.  If I find that there has been no progress then maybe that will be the time to pass them on.

I also have set myself a challenge to not buy any more fabric, unless it is required to finish a project already started.  Oh that's made me a bit nervous now!!!  Isn't it funny that that should happen just because I stated an intention here?!!

My favoured drink for staff meetings for one!

Well let's hope that there's not so long between drinks until I am here again!

#BraveQuilter for June

Having completed my challenge for May, I have decided to link up again in June to be a #BraveQuilter over with Julie at Pink Doxies.

 

My challenge:

 

I would like to try using a pantograph for quilting on my longarm quilting machine.  My goal is to quilt a Project Linus top, I have ready pieced, with the pantograph design that came with my machine (that is still in its plastic wrap!!) 

 

In other news .....

  

 

We have been collecting elderflowers to make cordial.  I love how it makes our kitchen smell of summer whilst it's steeping.  We generally have a bottle in the fridge straight away and then the rest gets frozen.  It's wonderful in the depths of winter to get a jar from the freezer and be reminded of these long summer days.  It's also a lovely drink to have a warm in winter.

 

I have had some lovely walks this week, whilst the girls are at various activities and yesterday I explored a part of the River Avon I have never visited.  I will definitely go back because I now need to know where the path leads ......

 

Last month I bought you ducklings, this month it is cygnets!

 

Sunday morning walk ...

Everything was crunching under my feet as I set off into the mist .....

and spotted this amazing fungus growing on the tree.  

There were two locations and they were tiny ....

I have no idea what they were but they certainly made me stop a while.

This tree always catches my eye with its extensive root system covered in moss and algae ....

and in the light this morning it seemed to glow.

The mist was lifting and gave way to clear blue skies which was the perfect backdrop for these winter trees.  It always amazes me how these empty trees burst into life each spring.

Blue skies one way ....

still misty the other.

The Welcombe Hills obelisk standing proud in all its glory.

All in all a beautiful walk and a wonderful way to start the day! xx