Back to Reality?

Happy New Year! It was a shock yesterday going back to work  after the Christmas and New Year break. The holiday was great fun but I'm ready now to get back into some kind of routine. Before I share my first project of 2011 here are some of the quilting goodies I received at Christmas. First the letters QUILT above came from my daughterand now have pride of place on a shelf in my sewing room - aren't they beautiful? She also found me a great desk calendar with a block a day and a quilt layout every week or so:

Santa was very generous with a smart new laptop for me! It will make life easier with it's card reader, built in camera and microphone ( for Skype!) and lots of memory for all my photos and video clips. He also bought some lovely new books from my Amazon wishlist:

 Sue's second book of appliqued flowers is gorgeous! I was so lucky to have Sue as my teacher when she lived in Harrogate.

 Stitched Postcards teaches techniques using mixed media.

 This Art Quilt Collection is great for browsing for inspiration.

I've been hankering after this book for a while. It has step by step projects to guide you through designing your own quilts. I've already made a start on one project - an abstract composition of circles and rectangles. I'll share my progress another day.

Amazon wishlists have transformed our gift giving in recent years. We can now choose a gift for far flung members of the family and buy something they really want! Isn't technology wonderful?

My sister recently tagged along on her husband's business trip to Boston USA and came back with a wonderful array of goodies for my Christmas box:

Two magazines which are impossible to buy in the shops here - I did drop hints about the Quiltlife as I'm a fan of Ricky and Alex! The beautiful calendar came with a seperate booklet with instructions for all the featured quilts. The Wooly Sheep is a complete kit with woolfelt applique. How did she know that I fancied having a go at a woolfelt project? Sisterly intuition really works!!

Some news on Facebook last weekend prompted me to start a new quilt for a gift. I picked out theHannah's Room batik jelly roll I bought last year from my stash and Kim Brackett's 'Scrap Basket Surprises' and started cutting and piecing. Here are some of the super easy blocks I've made so far:

It feels good to get back to some easy cutting and quick piecing and I love the way these are turning out. Here are some more cut units waiting to be sewn.

It's a good start to the year so far and for me it promises to be a very exciting and challenging one as I look forward to finishing work in March ( I'm a victim of local council cutbacks) and hopefully building on my quilting skills to offer classes and workshops in the local area - wish me luck!

Happy stitching!

Hazel