January........ And Ta DA .........

We are Off and Running!!  Deana  picked out Number 6 on our Chookshed Stitchers Challenge ..... as
you know I have 3 lists running and I had firstly to locate the said stitchery ..... hence the declutting list  came into play (Number 6 having to do with the sewing room lol) ....... 3 days later I can move in the room, I've found the stitchery and organised all my yarns! 

 Yesterday ..... thanks to Cheryll who hosts Friday Night With Friends the first Friday of the month I worked on what I was going to do with this stitchery designed by Jennifer from Elephanz.  I decided not to do the rest of the blocks at this stage as I don't have room for a wall hanging ....... instead, it would make the perfect cushion cover for my reading chair :)  How wonderful to have a finish for the year already!!!  I'm super excited and love the way it has turned out!

Today I was able to show it off during our chookshed Stitchers Zoom meet up ....... but something else happened ...... during the cleaning up of the sewing/office room I came upon the lovely blogger mini quilt that I was gifted in a blog swap back in 2012!  Anorina happened to be on the zoom and it was Anorina who had organised the swap back then!  I was able to show it to her and we all had a bit of time going down memory lane as she found the blog posts from way back then!!  Shannon of Colorsquiltscrafts.blogspot.com had made this for me (thank goodness she had it written on the back) .... As you can see there were only a few of us online at that time of the morning lol - Thanks Janice for taking the screen shot for me!  Check out some of the others from this Name Game Swap

As we chatted I shared I had also located a quilting pattern for birds that I hoped to make.  I had decided last year I'd love to make this block up into a quilt using my stash lots of colours ...... Enter 

Now don't go rolling your eyes ....... just because I'm taking on 101 challenges for the year (currently having a few days off before back to work and reality hits me on Monday and I'm suddenly overwhelmed again ....... can't imagine why lol).   Anyhow ...... anyone who knows me really well, knows that triangles have never come into play unless I've really had to do them (Down the Rabbit Hole - kill me now houses!!!) ........ I had no idea about half square triangles so I mentioned this to the talented bunch of quilters online ....... and they very kindly pushed me out and over my comfort zone getting me to actually start making one of the blocks whilst on zoom so I could have help as needed ......luckily, cause my head was tested with another little bit as well ......however - definately a TA DA MOMENT!!!!!

The colour for this challenge for January is Green ..... so I've made a start on that today as well!!

For number 6 on my yarn list under the chookshed challenge I have "any item" which is super lucky as I have  a blanket to finish this month and I also need to begin working on something yellow .....

Hmmmm ...... well, you see, I'm a moderator in one of the Ravelry groups and we have a colour stash busting challenge going on there for which January is YELLOW ....... I've not got a whole lot of yellow so your going to have to wait to see more about that one!  For now, I'm just happy that 6 days in, I have a finish, I've learnt a new skill, caught up from something fun from the past, have a sewing room that is soooooo much better than a week ago when I could barely get into it and I've had a fun and productive 6 days ........ even blogging again!!!!!   Now if somebody will just get a pin to pop my head so I can exit the doorway ..........

xo

Sharm

Welcome 2024

I'm opening my arms to Welcome 2024!!!  While 2023 wasn't all bad, it certainly was full of many challenges - (Pete with a quadruple bypass, valve repair and ligation taking months to recover and still back to his previous self; me with health issues which came down to Burn out and stress )  It's nice to move onto a new year!   With that I decided I also needed to have a fresh picture for the blog ..... I'm not sure this will be what stays, but it's a nice change.

I have quite a bit planned for this year so buckle your seat belt lol  I'm looking forward to working on lots of sewing, knitting and crochet (lots of WIP's to get finished!)........ and getting the house decluttered !   I've had 4 days without going around to Dads and its been soooo refreshing (he's a bit of a negative Nelly and listening to everything that is wrong gets a little depressing so I've realised with this very short break of just 4 days that its important for my own mental health to get that break!)  I've been making good progress on my "Down the Rabbit Hole" panels and its very close to the last panel being finished!

As you know from the last post, at some stage today Deana will be randomly picking a number and according to my list on the side bar - that will be the project that I'll be working on for January - although I do have a priority to get the ripple baby crochet blanket completed by the 1st of Feb!  Meantime I've managed to get the self striping socks finished!! Hooray!!  That now gives me 3 pairs come winter ............  I've used the same pattern each time and I'm really happy with how they fit and also how easy it was to follow the pattern.  They are knit from the toe up which means it's quite easy to measure as you go which I found very helpful having never knitted socks before these 3 pairs - Here is the link to the pattern Amy's Favorite Toe-Up Socks  

I also have my decluttering list (on a separate page - see up the top on the headers) which I'll be working on ........ although I started yesterday in the sewing room when I decided I needed to see what fabrics I have!!!!  Oh boy .........  One thing leads to another lol  - what a mess in the meantime lol

I'll also be continuing my walking ......Lucy is well into that routine now and I'll fill you on that in another post ........ yes, blogging will become more of a priority again for me this year ...... blogland seems to help more with reducing stress than Facebook every does ....... I love Simple, Uncluttered, Home and Heart, the basics .......... I'm hoping to use 2024 to return to those days where life was a little simpler and less complicated than life seems to have become over the past years!  For now ... enjoy your day my friends