It's all go here.......

How are you all recovering from Christmas and New Year? We had our older son and his girlfriend visiting, then we had a lovely catch-up with friends on their way back to the Big Smoke.

Since Christmas My Lovely New Bernina has been powering along like a little steam engine.......two new pairs of pyjamas are now gracing my wardrobe, a quilt block has been made because Kiera-Oona and I are making blocks to swap - we decided on Dresden Plate for our first block - a friendship block is finished for one of my quilt groups, and I took a look at this year's challenge for my other group. This 12in block is called "Lotus Flower" and is to be set three across by four down as shown below. I drew it out in EQ7 then started playing with it, because I have to say it didn't float my boat when I first saw it and I was hoping for Inspiration to strike. In fact, I was somewhat underwhelmed.

However......by some judicious use of colour, and by eliminating some of the lines inside the block, this is what it turned into.
Any resemblance to the eponymous Lotus Flower is purely coincidental.

I am thinking a small black-on-white print for the background....teeny stars or small dots, something like that.......with bright tone-on-tone fabrics for the large whirly stars and a slightly paler fabric for the pinwheels. Deep in my stash is a fabric printed with cheerfully bright narrow diagonal stripes, each edged with a fine black line. I think. It's been a while since I dove that deep into the stash, however it would make a great border for this quilt so I shall mount an expedition, pack a lunch and hunt for it. I was hovering between a black solid or black and white print with more black than white for a narrow border, but that looked somewhat gloomy on the screen, so I am thinking one or two bright narrow inner borders might be more suited. We're talking cheerful here, folks. Not gloomy.

This will be the year I will tackle quilting some of the tops in my cupboard. I am encouraged by my recent machine quilting efforts, so have decided that I will pin one together and have a go at quilting it. When that's done, I will pin another together and quilt that. I am not in a race to see how quickly they can get done because I still intend to be working on other piecing and clothing projects in the meantime. But if I feel like quilting then there will be a quilt waiting to be worked on.....if I want to piece, there will be a project to be done too. If I want to make clothing there is also plenty of fabric waiting to be used.

I am not making resolutions, just trying to set a few goals. By the end of this year I hope to have more things to show for my time.

"Idleness a source of misery.

Perhaps the greatest cause of misery and wretchedness in social life is idleness. The want of something to do is what makes people wicked and miserable. It breeds selfishness, mischief-making, envy, jealousy and vice, in all its most dreadful forms."

My goodness! Does this mean we are not allowed to go to bed and sleep? Because I don't know about you, but I think I'm quite idle when sleeping.

Enjoy your days!