Saturday 10 January 2015

Endings and beginings

I had a quiet, restful end of year with time to reflect on 2014. This year I want to practice my mindfulness, be grateful for each day, help others, learn, relax, be brave, enjoy more creativity and walk a lot.
Hopefully 2015 will be full of good health, fun and new experiences; happy times spent with family and friends.
I was pleased to finish my shawl which was a challenge for me!!
It has proved useful on chilly evenings and is a lovely soft wool. I was missing the therapeutic qualities of knitting so started on this hat. 
Another new beginning is a patchwork quilt for my little William in limey greens and greys; I bought some at the Festival of quilts in 2013 and as William is still in a cot I knew I had plenty of time before it was needed. Over Christmas I needed a change and this has been ideal. 
I knew I wanted to base this quilt on the flying geese pattern and finally decided on this
design. I made up 2 blocks using fabrics I liked and then made up 2 small blocks the same. I remembered how difficult it was rearranging the blocks of Barney's quilt on the floor; this way by the time I'd made enough blocks I could play around with the little ones (just pieces of fabric stuck on paper) to see how I wanted to arrange them. I tried out lots of combinations. I like working this way, planning block as I go and making changes. 
Of course you don't get the scale of the fabrics but it helps to see the balance of light and dark and patterns and although fiddly to do beats crawling around on the floor moving blocks. There are so many possibilities. 
With each pair of blocks I tried to link the fabrics I chose, however loosely! Here we have 2 methods of transport, bicycles. I've finished the blocks and am putting it all together with plain grey strips inbetween each block, 'a bit tricky' as Barney would say.
Meanwhile to relax I'm enjoying the new books that appeared over Christmas. The other morning Louise said she, Barney and William were in bed until 10am reading books (14!) - I think a love of books runs in the family! Here are some I'm enjoying, the Quilt history one is fascinating, I'm very lucky to have some quilts from my family in Cumberland, more of that another time.