A quickie before I say, 'Au revoir!'

My little niece is 13 tomorrow so I've made her a handbag and purse (and put a little shopping money for her in the purse!) I have used this tutorial before from Missouri Star Quilters, each time I love the way the bags turn out. This time I used a different stitch on my Juki to quilt it:

And my new thing this week? I made Bread and Butter pudding for the first time - it was yum-meeeeeeeeeee!

And tomorrow we go on our annual ski holiday to France with DH's sis and hubby. In 2011, I broke my ankle skiing. In 2014, I broke my shoulder shopping  - my colleagues and all who love me have made me promise to be careful! 

I will x

Linking up with Amanda Jean @ Crazy Mom Quilts and Sarah @ Confessions of a Fabric Addict.

New Year ... new challenges :)

After reading my friend Carla's post @ creatin in the sticks, I was drawn to respond with this quote by Albert Einstein:

A person who never made a mistake, never tried anything new

I'm not really one for making resolutions (years of disappointment after no success!) but this year, I'm making two :)

My personal one is simply - GET FITTER! After breaking my shoulder last March, I have let my fitness go and I will have to do a running test at work soon so that'll be my motivation. 

My quilting one is - TRY NEW STUFF! I'm in a rut and my sewing time is limited compared to last year which puts me in a rush and tends to have me repeating myself, whilst not trying anything new.

In the spirit of it all, here are my 3 little finishes - zipped make-up/toiletries bags for my best friend's 3 daughters who came to stay with us for the New Year. We wrapped up well (yes that's me in the silly red hat) and went for a 2 hour country walk:

And here is my something new - for me - the start of a Dresden Plate cushion for a friend at work who retires this month. I can't remember when I bought the ruler but it was still in its packaging!

I'm pressing the seams open and joining in quarters:

And taking my time quilting it:

Hope to finish this tomorrow! I'd love to hear about your resolutions :)

Linking up to Amanda Jean @ Crazy Mom Quilts and Sarah @ Confessions of a Fabric Addict. So thankful these ladies still host these linky parties so that little blogs like mine get read! And that I can find inspiration by reading others' blogs. 

Happy New Year to you all x

Still sick = Sunday scrappy sewing :)

It's only a cold but it's a cold that won't shift - after 8 days :( probably didn't help that I had a busy week at work so had no chance to rest up. But yesterday was a duvet day, I rested, recharged and dear hubby brought me soup and FAB ice lollies ... exactly what I felt like eating. 

Woke up late this morning, cold still here so didn't make it to Church but showered and felt like a bit of sewing after lunch so climbed into the loft to see what I could muster up the enthusiasm to make. I looked at this (Aunty G's lapquilt - front all pieced and the back needs finishing) but felt it was beyond me for today (sorry, Aunty G - promise you'll have it soon!):

So I looked around my sewing room and my eye was drawn to this plastic bag (allbeit a Cath Kidston plastic bag!) hanging off the end of my ironing board which my general rubbish and cuttings get put into:

I had previously made my sewing machine cover and sewing machine mat out of leftover fabric from a 1/2 log cabin quilt I made in 2011 and still had lots left so I set about replacing that CK plastic bin. Half way through, looking at all these seams, I did think perhaps this was a lot of work for a bin, but I was really relaxed, listening to the radio and having fun:

and after a bit more cutting, piecing, ironing and joining together, I had made this loveliness: 

and that really should have been enough for one day but my eye then glanced to the right and saw this plastic bag (allbeit a House of Fraser PINK plastic bag!) which I use for holding my little 'leader' and 'finisher' scrap pieces:

and I still had all of this left:

it took MINUTES (seriously) to have these 3 parts ready to join together:

and then there was this:

and all that was left of the scraps was this:

and this is how they all look together:

I'm back in my bed (it's only 8pm!), I've had some more soup and a cup of tea and have a new blog post to share. Life is good, even with a cold :)