I don’t quite know what has happened over the past few months.  Life has been utter madness and my plans of doing a Postaday was just asking too much and something had to give.  My blog became completely neglected and I’ve barely even been reading any blogs either.  It’s so frustrating because I really enjoying creating this blog and reading others but I had to prioritise and blogging became the thing that took a back seat.  Unfortunately, creativity also has taken a bit of a back seat, it’s difficult to find five minutes when the sprog is otherwise engaged and I can lose myself in a sewing project.   These occasions are going to become even more rare in the near future as there’s another young sprog to  arrive in our family after Christmas (though hopefully this one won’t come as early as its brother!).

Fortunately there have been a few occasions recently where the grandparents have come to the rescue and I have managed a couple of afternoons hidden away in the sewing room.   I’m going to post the results of these snatched moments over the coming weeks.

This first project is one that I’m ashamed to say has taken 7 months to complete.  I bought this fabric from one of my favourite fabric shops, Quiltessential in Cromford, Derbyshire.  I knew I wanted to make my niece a quilt for her 1st birthday in April and I spotted these owl fabrics which I thought were suitably feminine but not overly so.  I managed to cut and sew the front of the quilt (the bit that takes all the time) in a couple of hours one rainy afternoon in March and then the sprog returned before I got a chance to sew on the back, add the wadding and quilt it through (the quick bit).

It sat and languished, looking sorry for itself until another rainy afternoon in October half term when I spotted it and thought to myself ‘I need to get it done otherwise winter will have passed and Olivia won’t need her quilt anymore because she’ll be moving into a bed.  Shift woman, shift!’

The motivational talk helped me get myself into gear and get it finished!  Unfortunately, my sewing machine didn’t want to play nicely, so I had to do the majority of the sewing on my overlocker with the quilting done by hand over a few evenings.  Granny and Grandpa hand delivered the quilt this week (I don’t trust the Royal Mail!) and hopefully she’s sleeping more snugly in her cot!