Happy New Year!

The end of the year is always a time for reflection on the year that has passed. Ours has been an eventful one again but hopefully our lives have settled down now. Having FINALLY agreed the terms of my divorce in January, it still took a further eight months to get everything sorted and we able to move into our own little house at the end of August - almost 3 years to the day after we left.

A year ago I was still getting over the heartache of breaking up with someone  I thought I was madly in love with. We were still having contact and continued to talk to each other every week or so, until I decided three months ago that it had to stop. And the longer I have no contact with him now, the more I start to think that my time with him was a mistake.

Although we shouldn't ever have regrets should we?

Sometimes people come into our lives for a reason and meeting him gave me the courage to leave my husband in a loveless marriage. While we were together, he encouraged and supported me to realise my dream of opening my own shop. With hindsight, it was the wrong time and the wrong place and I guess I should have listened to my parents as they were right, but if I hadn't have done it I would have always wondered "what if" and that's no way to live your life.
And I think those are the only positives I can take from my time with him

Love truly is blind.

So I start 2012 happier in my life; I have my own home and a job that I enjoy and that I can fit in with running my own business and all the commitments of being a single parent.
I guess all that is missing is someone to share it with but having been hurt so badly, its hard to know if I will ever be able to trust and love again at the moment. I don't mind being single most of the time. I think its when you experience the highs and lows of life that you wish you had someone to enjoy the good times with or who can provide support when times are hard.

So apart from my usual new year's resolutions of losing weight and being more productive in my quilting life, I guess I have to decide whether to be proactive in looking for someone by maybe joining a dating site or be content with what I have and enjoy living my life...........

 

Hmmm

So it would seem I have forgotten how to shop!

I think it stems from having absolutely no money a year or so ago and so I only bought what I needed AND what I could afford. But I think I have also got out of the habit of shopping. I have been out twice the last couple of days looking for new clothes and only come back with a t shirt. Ok I did find a dress to wear to my works do in a month's time but that was out of necessity. I just find it hard to work my way through all the sales racks, find something that I like and hope it is in my size.

I think the problem is also being too indecisive, particularly with things for the house. We are fairly settled now, so it is time to start putting our mark on our new home. I want to make my home unique and maybe its the creative person in me but I want to find things that are individually made, not massed produced.

If only I could make a decision on something!

Lists

I'm a list kind of person.

I like to make lists of things I need to do as there is a certain satisfaction in crossing things off a list when you have done them.

The next few days I am on my own as TK spends a few days with his father. I have lots of things I want to do while I have time completely to myself, and I know that if I don't make a list of all these things, I will end up accomplishing very little.

Below is my SBS block that I finished last night, C4 Sister's Choice.

I want to finish off some display quilts in the next day or so as well as work on my own things.

WIP

So my current work(s) in progress............and as a true quilter, I have more than one project on the go!

I haven't been very productive for a long time, usually getting bogged down in making display quilts to show off new fabrics that I have in stock. In fact it wasn't until I was featured in British Patchwork & Quilting's 'Meet a Quilter' article that I realised how long it has been since I made a 'proper' quilt! The last show quality quilt I made was in 2003!

Now that I have got my life back together, I think it is time to redress that.

I have two main projects that I am working on just now. The first is a quilt I must have started more than 10 years ago. Its not often that you go back to a quilt which you have been working on for such a long time, but I guess I have decided to finish this quilt because it is one that *should* be finished. I started it originally as an entry for the New Quilts from Old Favourites contest run by the National Quilt Museum in Paducah in America. I had been to America for the first time in 1998 when Quilt Market was in St. Louis and we stayed on afterwards so that we could visit the AQS show in Paducah. The theme for the following year was the kaleidoscope block and that was my starting point. I am also a fan of Paula Nadelstern's kaleidoscope quilts so my quilt is a combination of these themes - a large kaleidoscope with background fabrics which I hope when viewed from a distance will suggest the original block design. I hand dyed the background fabrics in two tones from the same colour story. From memory the fabric was a cotton lawn type fabric bought from Whaleys of Bradford.

This is the centre of the quilt:

I finally finished the quilt top a few weeks ago. I think the reason I had come to a halt on the quilt was because I was worried about running out of a couple of fabrics in the border. I managed to work around it and so the artist's block was lifted!

I am using Hobbs wool wadding and the backing is a lilac Hoffman batik #1895. I started the quilting a week ago using King Tut colour 918, Joseph's Coat. It will be a slow process though.

The second main project I am working on is a Sylvia's Bridal Sampler quilt. I am making it in peaches, pinks, lilacs and purple batiks. It's kind of a family thing as my mother and sister are making the quilt as well. My son was having a go too but has since lost interest..............so  I am making two quilts now!
I want to try and make an image showing all the blocks I have done so far so will post this shortly.

At the moment I am working on block C4 and will post a picture of this as soon as it is finished.

And Relax!

So that's the madness of Christmas Day done and dusted for another year, but saying that ours was actually quite calm and relaxed with just my parents over till late afternoon.

Christmas dinner went very well. We had a turkey crown for the first time seeing as there were only four of us and bizarrely you cooked it in a special bag which then kept all the juices in. Not too many leftovers so we will definitely be doing that again. Thank you Waitrose! And as usual the xmas pudding made by the ladies of St Ipps was as yummy as ever.

The afternoon was spent enjoying an animated film on BBC1while TK happily built his lego. It must have been a difficult one as he was working on it for hours!

Today sees us descending on my parents with my sister and her family for what we call tree presents. Originally these were smaller presents that were hidden in the Christmas tree for opening either in the evening on Christmas Day or on Boxing Day. In reality these days the gifts are too heavy or big to actually be hidden in the tree, but they are still little extra presents that make the giving of gifts last that little bit longer.
A walk should be part of the order of the day too. Will see if we can do a geocache and test out the geocaching app I just downloaded to my iPhone.

And then I think I need to post some pictures and maybe blog about my quilting!

Merry Christmas

This is my second Christmas as a single person. Its kind of hard being single at this time of year when you get together with friends and family, or maybe I have just forgotten how to relax and have fun?

It was my decision to leave my marriage but I wasn't leaving it 3 years ago to be alone. But because it was my decision, its not easy to tell family that you are lonely as I'm sure deep down they feel I have brought any loneliness I feel on myself.

So you carry on

And try to make sure your kid has a happy and joyous time

Which meant getting up before 7am this morning to open stocking presents!

I am cooking Christmas dinner today for the first time in a few years as my son and I celebrate our first Christmas in our new home. My parents are coming for part of the day as we keep to some of our family traditions...........they usually start with sausage rolls and tea or coffee mid morning but someone ie me forgot to buy sausage rolls so I am hoping to rustle up some cheese straws shortly!

Presents depending I may get some sewing done this evening and I think I will blog next about what i am working on

Happy Christmas to anyone who reads this!

Hello and Welcome

So I thought it was about time I put down in writing some of my thoughts and musings of my life as a quilter and as a single mum.

For my life as a quilter, I felt it was about time I made some kind of record of my quilt making process, my inspirations, a journal if you will.

As for my life as a single mum, well I guess this will just be an occasional moan about how difficult it can be at times dealing with everything on your own. Although of course being single also has the benefit of not having to defer to someone else all the time. I appreciate that in every relationship one of the partners has to have the final say in important decisions.............but why does it always have to be the guy? It is nice knowing I can decide what I want and when I want but on the other hand it can be incredibly lonely being on your own not having someone special to share the highs and lows of life with

And therein lies the rub of being single..............

Amazingly I have been quilting for 25 years now! I started making my first quilt when I was 18 after visiting a small quilt exhibition in London. That first quilt ended up being made for my ex husband........I got the quilt in the divorce!

Well I guess that's enough to say for now. Its Christmas Eve and its time I got the house ready for Santa's arrival

x