Barn Dance at FNwF

Firstly, thank you very much to Cheryll for hosting another FNwF - 

and here we are in February.

Is it really nearly a year since this whole Covid madness started? Still in another lockdown here in UK, without any ending in sight. We are thankful for our crafting keeping us going through it.

So, what is this Barn Dance?

 No, we did not dance at Cheryll's, although the thought is quite appealing 😁, 

we all could do with a little jig!

The "Barn Dance" is a name of my new large quilt project for this year. The "Manor House" quilt is yet to be quilted, but I really need something new to get my teeth into.

I found this pattern in one of the old issues of Quiltmania magazine; designed by Robyn Fallon, it has all the elements of applique I like - needleturn applique, flowers, birds, and even pears.

I stared working on this last weekend,

and it didn't take me long to finish the centre motif.

And this where I got to on Friday night, having fun with small brown berries. That's when I realized how difficult it is to make perfect small circles which are only 1/2 inch in diametr! 

Still, I am not worried, nothing is really that perfect in the nature.

  Today I added a border, which frames the centre panel quite nicely. 

We are spending lots of time indoors of course, the weather hasn't been nice enough for long walks; January was very, very wet and there was even some of this:

At the moment it is very cold, coming the the east, it could mean more snow 😒

Last week I finished the Lockdown quilt, with very quick hand quilting. I washed it to remove all the makings.

To be honest, I just wanted to get it out of the way, before I started on the Barn Dance quilt.

But the highlight of my last week was of course my first Covid jab!

It made me slightly ill just for a short time, so I allowed myself a day in bed!!!

Enjoy your week and take care!

©pleasureinstitching.blogspot.co.uk 2010-2021

It is nearly the end of January and I am only now writing the first post of the year.

I have absolutely no excuse, the weeks seem to fly by, but I am finding hard to get motivated. 

December was a very strange month - first the coffee machine gave up, followed by my craft iron, and the weekend before Christmas our freezer decided to give up also!

In the third lockdown now - the most difficult yet. 

During the first lockdown we had wonderful weather and we just hid away in the sanctuary of our garden. It is very different this time; it has either been too cold and mainly icy for walking, or too wet, for most of this month.

But it is not all bad news - my husband had his first dose of Covid19 vaccination last week, and has now at last got a date for his operation, which he was supposed to have last March. I had a call from our doctor's surgery yesterday, inviting me to have my vaccination next week. It is not going to make a huge difference to our lives for a long time yet, but it is a small light at the end of a very long tunnel, as they say. And the first snowdrops are out in our garden.

I have been trying to sort out my sewing room, because as we all know, thing can get our of hand very quickly; I have a terrible habit of pulling things out when looking for something, but very rarely put everything back.  And very often I get distracted by old and forgotten projects.

I am probably not alone in that.

This one is not so old - my 10" "lockdown" blocks, which I made last spring, during the first lockdown. I managed to find some fabric in my stash and at last put it all together, and yes, I am actually quilting it! It should not take long, this is not a large quilt.

It will probably be always known as the "Lockdown Quilt".

After some break I am also reading again; I just finished this lovely book by Richard Osman, his first novel. "The Thursday Murder Club" is a group of friends living in a retirement home, who get together every Thursday, to try to solve old unsolved murder cases. It's a really nice book, funny and touching - "never underestimate the power of the elderly!"                 

Am I looking for that next large applique project?       Yes, always! 😉 

I promise I will do the rounds shortly and come to check out what you have been up to!

©pleasureinstitching.blogspot.co.uk 2010-2020