End of March, start of April

After what felt like a pretty poor showing in February I was determined to have a bit more to show you this
Fresh Sewing Day and so I set myself quite an ambitious March to do list. I'm pretty pleased with how productive I've been.

My STQB blocks, a lot of quilted blocks for Soy amado, a cushion, baby boy bibs, a staple dress, a baby blanket (not on the list) and an (also not actually on the list) Travel Duffle which I just finished on Monday night. I'll write a full blog post and pattern review in the next few days in case anyone else likes making luggage!

Ooh and a new pin cushion has been needed for quite some time and so I whipped up the freebie from this month's Love Patchwork and Quilting magazine, with a couple of tweaks. A couple of my pieces were a bit short so I substituted them with some scraps and I just couldn't face the self covered button. I am very happy with it though.

I have also basted and quilted both my playground quilt and my voile Sparkling Cider, the binding is attached and just needs to be hand sewn to the back so they will end up as April finishes. I do enjoy hand sewing binding and did a little on Sunday while snuggled watching The Little Mermaid with my biggest girl. I do struggle to sit still though and got a bit consumed by the Travel Duffle so I will either finish these during our upcoming Leeds Modern Quilt Guild sit and sew day or in the car on an Easter visit to the parents.


So looking ahead to April, as I do like a plan.

• Finish binding both quilts, of course.

• Blocks for the Siblings Together quilting bee. Hadley is in charge this month and wants some super simple St Louis 16 patch blocks so they are next up.

• Also Susy and Mary have put a call out for blocks for Siblings Together. They are planning to make a wonky cross quilt (or 2?!) And want 9" blocks in blues and greys. Full details on the Flickr group. This is a fantastic charity which aims to reunite and build relationships between Siblings seperated by the UK care system. As part of this they run yearly Summer camps, and every child attending those camps is given their very own quilt to keep. Anyone can donate, maybe you would like to contribute to this fantastic charity but don't have the capacity to make or spare a full quilt? Why not whip up a couple of these simple blocks instead? Or even just donate some fabric for someone else to do so. I'm definitely going to do a few, just need to raid my scrap stash. I sold all my scraps at the start of the year so it is rather depleted (hurrah!) But I'm sure I'll find something suitable. And as a self proclaimed Siblings Together Quilt Ambassador expect to hear more about this over the coming months.

• Another travel duffle. I am mad, seriously. But it is such a great size. I have fabric all pulled.

• A cargo duffle. I have pattern and zip ready for this. It is smaller than the travel duffle but I still want one.  I hope I don't burn myself out with bags!

• Knickers. This is a roll over from last month, they are waiting on my sewing table.

• And a Parisian top. Again all pre-washed and ready to go. Once I've taped together the pattern ...

Hmm, no piecing on that list. Will I get through the month without starting a quilt?! Something off the bucket list, perhaps? Or maybe I should attempt to finish the 3 Skill Builder BOM blocks that are in various stages of completion.

Linking up with Lynne's Fresh Sewing Day.

And since I know there are still only a few of you out there also linking up with the Small Blog Meet.

Off to catch up with what everyone else has been up to now!