oh my ears and whiskers...

So many interesting things to do, so little time...

I think I can honestly say I don't know what it is to be bored, here at home anyway (plenty of that in the day job, but that's another story. If I could take my sewing to work with me I could fill in the boring bits quite easily!).

Its probably because its the start of a new year that I've been taking stock of my many different projects...

Next month my hexagon obsession will celebrate its second birthday- joining the bits together takes AGES, as I only do it in the evenings while half asleep in front of the fire, but one day I'll have a quilt big enough for our bed, once these:

have been attached to these:

Then I'd like to make another one with GREAT BIG hexies, just for the joy of finishing it at faster-than-glacial-speed..

(and maybe have a go at machine-pieced hexies too...)

Then there's this quilt:

... (with lovely Daisy!) which has been up on the wall for months now. I think its finally ready to be joined together which is just as well because next week I'm going with a friend to choose fabric to make her a quilt, which will of course take priority.

Meanwhile, I have a piece of lovely soft double voile which I am dithering about cutting into. I'm thinking of a simple tunic-shaped dress, but I want to try out the pattern with a piece of old sheet first.

I've also promised to make some more little purses and phone cases for Jenny at Handmade Happiness, 
http://jenny-handmadehappiness.blogspot.co.uk/

and I want to experiment with more fabric bead jewellery....


And one day these pieces from an upholstery sample book will magically transform themselves into new covers for the kitchen dining chairs- I've bought the big dangerous stapler, so there's really no excuse (except fear of stapling myself to a chair) for not getting on with it.

Now its getting slightly lighter in the evenings, and it will soon be time for sowing seeds for the garden (if it EVER stops raining). At least when the weather is so awful there's no better place than indoors surrounded by bits of fabric.

I'm hoping that now I've publicly declared a few of my various unfinished things I'll actually finish some of them before being distracted by more!

Just as well I've always said I'd prefer to have on my gravestone "she made exciting things and ate a lot of CAKE" and not "she had a nice tidy (beige) house and cleaned her grouting weekly with a toothbrush"...

back from the dark ages

There has been a bit of a pause on the blogging front, I blame the dark and wet Christmas holiday, amongst other things!

Our electricity was off for three and a half days, leaving us bumbling around the house by the light of battery-powered fairy lights and candles. Luckily we are quite used to losing power in bad weather here in the countryside, and we have a log burner and an open fire so we are warm and cosy (if we can get near the fires for cats..).

The garden fruit in the freezer was starting to defrost after three days though, so I ended up making gallons of jam by candlelight. Happily the hob is powered by calor gas! Blackout jam (blackcurrant, raspberry and blackberry) turns out to be delicious, and we have plenty to give away to friends.

We were with friends on Christmas day, and on boxing day we visited the Weald and Downland Museum, where the historic buildings were all decorated in period festive style. Very atmospheric, with the candlelight, the holly and ivy and the tables set for the feast... not so very different from chez Molebags (apart from the stuffed pigs head)..

Living by candlelight, even for just a few days, made me think of all the (mostly) women who made beautiful patchwork or lace, or even just darned their husband's woolly underwear in very low light, and probably after a day spent in the fields or bashing the washing on a rock. How spoilt we are, with our modern conveniences. Mr P was as happy as a dog with two tails, pedalling away on his pole lathe in the gloom, and chopping the logs in the rain- he says he was born into the wrong century, and I wouldn't mind going back a few hundred years too, although I'd like to take modern medical advances with me to the dark ages!

So as I'm not used to medieval light levels there was not as much time for creativity as I would have liked, although I am still slightly obsessed with making fabric beads. You can see some of them, and some of my zipped purses too, in the lovely shop 'Handmade Happiness' in Petersfield:

http://jenny-handmadehappiness.blogspot.co.uk/

a happy and soggy new year