Spots, Project Life, and Patterns

So, a few things to talk about today. First up, here is a quilt top I finished on Thursday:

The two spots with low contrast bug me a little, but I'll get over it. The pattern is Spot On, from the book Simplify by Camille Roskelley. I changed a few things... First, I trimmed all the layer cake squares down to 9.875 inches, because they were not square straight from the pack, which makes it hard to sew an accurate quilt. Second, I made the sashing a little narrower, and third, I made the outside border wider. 

The fabric is all Etchings by 3 Sisters. I love their fabrics, wish I could buy them all! I ordered a 108" wide fabric for the backing, but ended up using a lot of it for the sashing and outside border, so will have to piece the back. The outside border is actually the back of the fabric. I just love the way it looks. 

Next up, some more Project Life. I tried something different this week, just one photo, some stamping and a freebie printable from Prima. The background is glimmer-misted too...

No days specified this time, no lengthy write-ups, just a list. I think I like doing it this way.

And finally, I am writing a pattern for my little Marmalade heart quilt. I'm calling it ZigZag Love. I have had some requests for a pattern, and started writing something by hand quite some time ago. That proved too laborious, so now I've done it all on computer. Nearly finished, just a little bit more to go then it is ready for testing and proof-reading.

Oh, I haven't actually blogged the quilt yet, so here it is:

I'll keep you posted, and be sure to tell you all about it when the pattern is ready. I want it to be just right, so bear with me. :)

Edit: ZigZag Love Pattern now available here or here. 

Project Life Week 2

I was very keen and eager to get my Project Life done this week. I had my photos all printed, except Sunday's, earlier in the week so was all set to go this morning.

I was wordy this time for some reason, and used four pages rather than two. It is very easy to be flexible when using a notebook though, so that was fine. Once again, simple and no-frills is the way I went, except this time I used some colour for the writing, just because.

Here are the first two pages:

And with the Craftsy card 'open':

Here are the last two pages: 

Nothing terribly exciting, but that is the way my life goes thank goodness. ;)

All done for another week. Roll on week three! I am ready to cut and stick and write some more!

Project Life Commences - Week 1

Helllo, long time no blog! I am going to be a bit wordy here, so be warned. ;)

I finished 2012 as I do a lot of years, struggling to think of what I had achieved over the previous 12 months. I couldn't think of a lot really, and as a solution to this problem (for surely I have done more than I thought) my friend Susan suggested, or rather insisted, that I should start doing Project Life.

And because we should always take the advice of our intelligent and insightful friends, I did! Instead of using the kits and page protectors and so forth that are available, I decided to do mine in a very no-frills way in my 'Scrapbook', an A4 size, hard cover notebook, properly bound with pages tied together, not just glued into the spine. I have had this book on the go since November 2000, filling it with everything from photos and letters to chocolate wrappers and movie tickets. It went overseas with me. I also put some thoughts in it which are quite amusing and slightly embarrassing to read back on. I stopped doing anything in it in 2008.

So, what better place to document the everyday and get all those blank pages filled? I have not done much at all in the way of embellishment, and it went quite quickly. I don't know what I was thinking with that bit of colour in the bottom right, but it's there now, so she'll be jake.

You can click on the picture if you'd like to read the words. It should come up big enough.

Because I am still in awe over those ice crystals I mention in the bottom right, here is a bigger picture so you can see. Aren't they amazing? Unfortunately it was so hot that the hexagon stack started to keel over through melting by the time I took the photo. Aren't the partial hexagons cool too? (No pun intended)

Well, there it is. My first week of Project Life. Already I am looking at things differently, and keeping a journal every day so I don't forget anything. I have always admired Susan's Project Life pages, and thought of how I'd love to do PL myself. I always thought I just wouldn't have enough to put in it though. Now I realise that they don't have to be 'important', or even particularly interesting or unusual things - it's about life. Life is made up of so many small details that really, we should never run out of things to document. And since it's being documented for me, not anyone else, there's no pressure.

Bye for now :)