Diary of a Chain Stitcher

After my little stint of sewing quick jersey palate cleansers I was up for a more challenging project but still wanted to make something cosy, comfortable and appropriate for our current lockdown lifestyle. I've had this amazing cloudy quilted fabric from The Fabric Store stashed away awaiting the perfect project for a while and decided it was time for me to get my head down and put it to good use. It is so beautifully soft and spongy that I was tempted just to hem it and use it as a throw but in the end I kept coming back to the idea of turning it into a (hopefully!) sophisticated quilted jacket.

It's finally finished!! This is the  DIY Constellation Quilt  from  Haptic Lab  and it has to be my longest WIP to date. My mum bought it for me more than three years ago. It hasn't taken me this long through lack of enjoyment but more being overwhelmed by other projects to complete in the mean time. Speedier projects seem to feel much more urgent than this slow paced labour of love. I made good progress when I first began it years ago then work got busy and it languished in a corner. A week on the sofa with a sprained ankle a year later saw another burst of progress but work ground to a halt when all I had left was the Milky Way of hundreds of french knots. I haven't done a huge amount of embroidery but have always enjoyed a bit of cross stitch and french knots were my nemesis. I couldn't muster up the enthusiasm to pick this quilt back up when all that was left waiting for me was hours of french knotting but lockdown gave me the final kick up the bum I nee...

It seems very late in the day to be showing you guys some gifts I made for Christmas but I'm so proud of them I can't skip sharing! Despite deciding that trying to make too many gifts each year wasn't worth the panic during the run up to Christmas, I expected to have a fair bit of time in December and knew my family deserved some treats so went all out with the sewing this year. Of course I then ended up working some fairly crazy hours and with much less time to sew than I hoped it all became quite the rush! Some late nights were involved but it was worth it to see the looks on their faces on Christmas Day. I've sworn I'll cut down this year but I doubt that will happen again...partly because it's too difficult to resist the opportunity to sew some things which I'd never make myself! First up are my Mum's and Sister's which have a New York theme as both of them love the Big Apple. If you follow me on Instagram you may have spotted that I've just ...