Why I do what I do!

The lovely Mara from Secretly Stitching invited me to participate in the Around the World Blog Hop, and it has helped me reflect a little about this relatively new, but immensely important part of my life - sewing, quilting and blogging! 

What am I working on?

Although I would like to work on one project at a time I get bored and restless too easily! I am currently working on two baby quilts that I am making as gifts - one is scrappy and came together very easily (you can see it here). The other has taken me many months of embroidery but I have finally started piecing the blocks and hopefully will have the top finished soon.

I have also just last week started to teach myself Free Motion Quilting. Ten minutes practice every day (following the #dailyfmq hashtag on instagram) has been a great motivation for me and I can already see a tiny bit of progress. Happily though I can sense that this is a part of quilting that I will really enjoy and I am loving a new challenge.

How does my work differ from others in my genre?

I don't really think it does! I follow a lot of sewing blogs and friends on instagram and pull so much inspiration from them. I like to use bright colours and love adding embroidery or hand quilting to add a personal touch to what I make. I am a bit of a perfectionist and try to finish off what I create as well as possible.

Why do I write/create what I do?

I create because after 38 years of declaring myself a 'non-crafty person' I have finally found a creative side and a hobby that I can immerse myself in and enjoy. I create as a way of escaping from the harshness of life - as a means of relaxing and unwinding. I create because I love the joy that comes from creating for others - and I most easily express my love and appreciation of others by giving them home-made gifts.

I write as a way of contributing to the blogging community where I have made many friends - I love that I can connect so easily and readily with friends around the world who share my love for fabric and sewing.

How does my writing/creating process work?

I usually come up with who I want to make a gift for first, then search around until I find a pattern or idea that I think they will love.  My favourite part is then choosing the fabric before I sew it together.

Thanks for reading. Next week I have asked Jess from The Elven Garden to share with us. Jess is one of my favourite quilters. I cannot believe the awesome quilting she does on her home machine, and I love her style of improvised piecing. She is also really down-to-earth and has an obvious love for creating beautiful things. Thanks Jess!

Rainbows through the Rain

Maybe it is because I am back in Indonesia, trying to communicate in 3 different languages, or maybe it is because my kids have been on school holidays for 11 weeks, but I am finding it seriously hard to write anything that is comprehensible. So I will just show you some photos!

First up a scrappy baby quilt top, made entirely from my 'scraps box'. I actually love how it has turned out and am linking it up with 'The Purge' at Stitched in Color. I think I will make some more like this to get through my scraps!

I have also made a couple of cushion covers. One for a friend, from gorgeous Japanese vintage style fabrics, and a rainbow one for me.

 I have found it hard to express my emotions recently, especially over the many horrific and tragic events being reported on the news. When I made the rainbow cushion I was trying to express my belief that even though we grieve now in the midst of so much darkness and tragedy, there is always hope. There are glimpses of mercy shining through, like sunshine shining through the clouds and the storms. And every now and then we see a rainbow. This cushion now sits in my sewing room as a visual reminder to me of this.



Linking up with Sew Cute Tuesday, The Slow Bloggers Linky and The Purge.

Time to create

I've had a bit of time these last couple of weeks to think about what I want to sew next. I drew up a list: of commissioned projects (only a few, but it is a start!), of gifts that I want to make for people, and a wish list of things that I want to make just because I want to! I hope that over the next few months I can get a good balance of sewing from each of these categories, and keep the creative juices flowing while at the same time creating for others, which I love to do.

I started with a gift for a new baby boy who was born a month ago to some friends here.

I used a pattern by Fiona in the Love Patchwork and Quilting magazine. It took me a couple of days (unlike the half day suggested in the magazine!) and I managed to use scraps, which is one of my bigger aims at the moment, to get through that scrap box! 

It came together really easily and hopefully they will appreciate a hand made gift. 

I was about to start a scrappy baby quilt next but my eyes were drawn to some strips of fabric that I had ordered from Karen while I was in the UK. I love her hand printed fabric and had chosen these colours for something else. But in the end I just had to play with it. I ended up making three things. The first isn't finished yet, but the other two are thank you gifts for some sweet quilting friends.

A Mini Quilt

and a rainbow pencil case.

Linking up with Sew Cute Tuesday and the Purge!