A long list?

After reading a post last week where someone suggested using their planner to organise their sewing I decided to try and get a handle on everything I was attempting to do. That is the whole purpose of these posts. So being a true librarian I have tried to classify them as follows:
Blocks of the month/sew alongs
Craftsy block of the month 2013
Pile o fabric skill builder block of the month
Hello Moon by April Mae designs
Farmers wife sampler quilt
Papillon creations - Around the world embroidery
Online classes
Leah day craftsy class on free motion quilting
Quilt tops in progress
Cutting out material for curvy quilt for weekend with Irene
Jelly roll top in 30s repro fabrics
Black and white quilt top to be layered up & quilted
Silk quilt, totally stalled while I was ill last year, really need to get back to this one.
Sensory quilt I promised a lady on twitter, some fabrics bought, do I need more?
Little patchwork puppy I promised Miss Freya ...

Goodness that's quite a lot, especially for someone who claims to want to finish things ... But writing it all down here gives me a focus for this.

So here is my current wip, Black and white quilt top I have promised a nice lady on twitter, need to get layered up and quilted.

I hadn't realised the light was quite that rubbish ... Here is a close up And another

Looking forward to seeing what everyone else is working on.

My first work in progress ....

eeeeeppppp my very first WiP post. I have been following these for well over a year now and never plucked up the courage to join in. The resolution for the new year was to throw caution to the wind.
So here I am, and more to the point what is in progress?
This is one of the many things I have been working on. The pattern is from the book, Two from one Jelly Rolls:

I have never used a jelly roll before but had a lovely thirties repro jelly roll I bought in Birmingham a few years ago. I so wanted a pattern to use it and found the perfect one in this book.
You take four strips of the same colour, I chose red and add a white strip to either side. You then take the remaining jelly roll strips and sew two of them to either side of a white strip. These units are then subcut as follows:

You end up with a million or so of each, a slight exaggeration but not much ... these are then joined together to make a nine patch.

You then cut this up down the middle (twice) so you end up with a million teensy weensy little blocks like this:

Yep you get the picture. I am loving doing it but it is taking a long time. I took up patchwork because I had RSI and couldnt do the fine needle work i used too. This means I can't really do the marathon subcutting needed to speed this up.
I will just pick away at it though.

Flickr

I love Flickr I do :-), every time I hear one of the social media types I follow on twitter say that Flickr is on it's way out I whimper.
I've been hearing that for 2 years now, I won't get complacent but I think there is plenty life in the old girl yet.
If nothing else the quilting community will keep it going. Is there any other platform out there so perfect for online community events? Knitters have Ravelry which looks amazing but where is the equivalent for quilters? There is thread bias which I have dabbled in, it looks good but doesn't work fantastically with the iPad, also I don't feel it's got the momentum yet. Ok I should perhaps help give it the momentum but honestly it just hasn't grabbed me enough. I will give it another go though, promise :-)
Flickr though, to be honest thats the real reason I have joined so many quilt alongs. Flickr stores all my quilt images, from the initial fabric pick through individual blocks right up to the finished item. I can arrange them in sets, add to groups, pull different quilts together using tags, all in all a librarians dream.
The best thing about Flickr? Well for me it's the community aspect. The recent pile o fabric skill builder BOM already has hundreds of participants, I put up a pic of my fabric choices (bit wild) and already have had six comments.
When I had chemotherapy last year I spent a lot of time in isolation, the Internet & Flickr in particular was a lifesaver, seeing those notifications pop up that someone had commented on my pictures was a god send a link to the real world. I am stuck in bed just now, merely with the lurgy but am reminded yet again why I love Flickr.

Off to good homes

Well it's been a funny old start to the year. Totally over committing again but if I haven't overcome that character trait by the ripe old age of 49 then I never will.
I finished the baby quilt, really pleased with it.

I've given away quite a few quilts, this being one of the latest. It was from the sew happy geek quilt along from last year.

I love it when a quilt goes to a nice home.

Looking forward

I see lots of people posting about resolutions for the new year. I have been thinking a lot about mine. So I want to make a list of things I really want to achieve.
Free motion quilting - I have the Leah Day craftsy class I have no excuse, get going
Silk quilt - this was started very successfully, interrupted for treatment but no excuses now, knuckle under.
Farmers wife - sadly neglected, a few false starts, lets get this baby moving again.
A few reminders of silk quilt & favourite farmers wife blocks to get me going.

Resolutions

I know, it's not Hogmanay yet but I have been doing a lot of thinking about where I want to how with my quilting and the arrival of the last instalment of the Hello Sun block of the month reminded me of this.
I have so loved this BOM, every month it has literally added a bit of sunshine to my life, now my blocks are not perfect some are a bit *rustic* :-) but it's not something I normally do, has pushed my boundaries a bit and taught me a fair bit.
So next year, no indiscriminate signing up to any BOM which fleets past me but more targeted signing up for things which will challenge me and which I will actually enjoy!
Here are some of my blocks.

Black and white

I saw this pattern in a magazine months ago, me and my patchworking chum Irene decided to make it our project for one of our patchwork weekends. It's been a challenge finding just the right black and white fabrics, especially the white, some whites look too creamy placed alongside other more snowy whites. I was delighted to find the white and black versions of the number fabric going really cheap at the festival of quilts this year, I bought lots of yardage of both, they will do for many more quilts. I just eked out enough of the last border fabric, had to do a wee bit of frankensteining but I don't think it shows too much.
Once I master FMQ ing this will be one of the first babies to go under the machine!