Distinct lack of Resolution

Oh dear, I had not realised it was such a long time since I last blogged...  I can only plead the usual pre- and post-Christmas and New Year rushing around but everybody has to deal with that and some people out there blog twice a week regardless.  So you won't be surprised that one of my rather belated New Year resolutions is to try and blog more regularly.

I have been keeping up with the sewing pretty much, though I did have to put everything away for about two weeks so we could actually all eat at the dining room table (no dedicated sewing room, alas, in this house - yet...) but a week or so ago I got out my stuff and got back into various projects.  So why didn't I blog last week, I hear you say?  Well, in truth it is the weather that has been letting me down.

We have had a shocking amount of rain over the last month and this has meant local flooding (sadly, several friends had to leave their homes on Christmas Eve) and very gloomy, grey days which make it difficult to get decent photos to post.  So today's pictures are of pieces I managed to finish last Friday but failed to post, and today's finish I haven't yet managed to photograph, so I will have to show you that one later...


This is my Envelope Quilt.  I am very glad indeed to have finished this one as I started it in a class with Carolyn Forster in October 2006!  It has been languishing in a cupboard as I ground to a halt once I had made all the 'envelopes' and had to handquilt - the fate of many of my projects: I love the look of handquilting and quite like doing it but it is so SLOW, and I have so many other quilts I want to piece and so much fabric I want/need to use.  Anyway in the autumn I needed a project I could take out and about and do while 'watching' child's sport and I found this.









The envelopes are reversible, made from a four-patch which is then twisted and stuffed with a square of wadding.  They measure 5 1/2" square and the quilt is 44" x 60 1/2" (8 blocks by 11).  Very clever and fun to do BUT then you have to quilt each square, then ladder stitch the squares together and quilt again over the joins to complete the design, before finally getting the binding on which I did last week - hooray!





I am pleased with it but if I were to make another I think I would join and quilt the envelopes with a zigzag or decorative machine stitch, both for strength and speed.  So thanks, Carolyn, for old times' sake, or should I say 'auld acquaintance, auld lang syne' as we are mid-way between Hogmanay and Burns' Night!