Very belated Fresh Sewing Day

Went to blog about my cushion finish this lunchtime to find I never blogged about January last week.

January was a tough month - I was ill for a lot of it, work was very busy - January is always the toughest month but this was particularly tough, Nick went away with work, there was lots going on with theatre and Guiding stuff and consequently my crafting productivity wasn't that great.

It started well - the centre of my Leeds MQG Round Robin Rainbow nested stars, the first thing sewn on my new machine.

I then attempted to finish my Aragon bag - it's finished but the finish is bag so it needs to be unpicked and the lining put in properly rather than just attached to the panels - when I have the time and inclination.

At the Leeds MQG meeting I finished off a cushion from my FAL list which I've just blogged about here

I've also been making progress on my Simply Solids Wonky Stars Quilt - not quite as much as I'd hoped but  it should be done this month (the picture was from the start of the month when I was playing with layout)

I had my first play with foundation paper piecing making the borders for round 1 of the Leeds MQG Round Robin I was inspired by Kelly from Jeliquilts exactly what I've done is a secret though.

I did a fair bit of crochet in the second half of January - after a long days at work flopping on the sofa worked well for me. I made a square for Heather @ ThePatchworkHeart's 1st Community Crochet Project and I started my Dedri @ Look At What I Made's Sophie's Universe CAL - the bottom right photo shows the first 3 parts. I'm going to try hard to keep up with this each week - there are 18 parts in total.  

I thought I hadn't done too much but actually that's not bad. I've taken Friday off as a flexi day this week as I worked so many hours in January so I can hopefully get cracking with some quilting on my new machine.

Belatedly linking up with:

A Finish-Along Finish - Floral Cushion

When I got my Sizzix machine in July 2013 I grabbed a pile of matching half yards from my stash and cut some hst pieces.

I was going to give it to my sister in law for her birthday, I did the sewing and quilting pretty quickly, then had binding issues, I remember trying to finish it in the car on the way to Whitby on my wedding anniversary, which is 2 days before my SiL's birthday. Needless to say another gift was found but the cushion was gifted to her and my brother for Christmas that year.

I'd planned to make another one to go with it and by Christmas this second one was pieced and had fusible fleece attached and one single tiny line of quilting of quilting (why?!) but no more.

Last summer when I made my first FAL list I had this is a likely contender but no it sat like this for another six months.

Then I took it to Leeds MQG in January, I managed to find just enough Sketch in grey to take with me to make the backing and I'd already got the binding cut and ready to go. I even remembered I'd used Aurifil 2600 in 40wt for the first one so grabbed that too. I got the quilting done quickly and then got the envelope back cut, bound, attached to the front and the binding attached to the front too whilst in Leeds, and had time to move onto another project too.

Then the next day I sat at home and hand sewed the binding onto the back to match the first one and done. 

That wasn't so hard was it?! It took 3 weeks to put a pillow form in it and another week to blog about it but still...

So one down nine to go. My list can be found here: 2015 Finish-Along Quarter 1

Linking up with Adrianne for: