be more creative

Well, I’ve almost finished my UFO … only about one foot more worth of stitching, and then I’m done. I purchased some homespun today to make an counting quilt for my class, from a design of my own. As we are to be known as “The Pond” this year, I’m going to applique frogs on it, as well as numbers. If it turns out well enough, I’m thinking about attempting to sell patterns/kits. Watch this space!

I floundered with this goal a little bit last week. The icing on the apple charlotte looked fly-blown (passionfruit seeds), and I had no money to spend on creative endeavours. As a result, I fell back on a patchwork UFO that I started nearly two years ago. I now only have one more section of border to sew on, and the top of the quilt will be finished. Whilst it looks good, I’m not really all that happy with the finished result – my taste has changed a great deal in the past two years. I might have to fob this one off on someone else ;-)

The three most valuable tools I own in terms of my creativity are, in preferential order: my mind; my eyes; my hands. Without any one or all of these, I would be lost.

I’ve currently got a few things on the boil. I’m working on an English-pieced Hexagon Medallion quilt for my mum, using the Chocolate range of fabrics. I have finished the central panel, and am now considering what sort of borders I am going to put on it to make it more interesting. I like using the hexagons – it’s a great way to showcase a fabric range.

I also want to start making quilts to put in my classroom next year, including a numbers quilt, an alphabet quilt, and a farm quilt (with rather freaky animals, including a pig with wings).

In terms of scrapbooking, I’m working on two albums. One is a family album, with a scrapbooked page about each member on one side, and an about me page on the other. The second album I’m working on is highlights from my two trips to the United Kingdom last year.

In addition to all this, I’ve started to pretend that I’m Nigella Lawson (sans all that sticking my finger in my mouth crap), and have actually been baking. I started with a coconut cake last week, which turned out a treat, and am going to have a stab at Apple Charlotte this week. I’m a bit nervous about how that’s going to turn out, because last week’s effort looked so perfect that I’ve now got a reputation to uphold.

Speaking of which, check out the photograph of said cake!