In to 2014 we go.....

I'd planned on posting this earlier but I've been thwarted by a dodgy internet connection which keeps conking out. Very annoying!

So, firstly I hope you all had a lovely Christmas? We had a great time with friends and family and I was lucky enough to score a few crafty presents too: a quilty book, a 45mm rotary cutter and a sewing box.

Thinking back over 2013 it's been a real year of change with my Mum having a tough time with her treatments and me struggling to 'find' myself over the past few months with Littlest Boy going off to nursery, both of which meant that my crafting and blogging being fairly intermittent at times. I'd been really looking forward to having some time to craft in daylight hours once the Littlies were all at nursery/school but in reality it's thrown me into a bit of a spin about who I am, what should I do and the like. Anyway, enough of my internal debate. Here's a peek at all the things that I managed to make this year!!!!

There's a little bit of everything really - some clothes, lots of bags (I blame Sara for producing so many lovely patterns!) and a fair bit of patchwork too.

My highlights of 2013 have been;

Going to Fat Quarterly Retreat Managing to put faces to the names of so many people I already 'knew', going outside my comfort zone in Lu's Improv class and getting to meet Kerry (I really tried not to be star-struck!!!). It was such good fun and I'm hoping to be able to go again this year

Joining the Siblings Together Quilting Bee My first bee and I have so enjoyed it. I've got to know some fabulous ladies, had lots of fun and I think it's helped grow my patchwork skills no end!

Taking part in the Stamp It Up Swap I've always wanted to have a go at hand-stamping so when Nicky posted about this swap it was so good to have an excuse to finally try it!

Winning a couple of competitions It was so lovely to be one of the lucky winners of a Liberty Lifestyle competition and to be chosen by Minerva fabrics to make a dress. I was even lucky enough to win a fabulous giveaway and have my quilt planned already

The not so good bits;

Skill Builder BOM I started off with good intentions and then it all fell apart in April when there was lots of hand piecing. I managed to finish off one of the blocks over Christmas and am determined to do some more (either the whole thing/enough to make a good sized lap quilt) as I was really enjoying learning so many new techniques

Farmers Wife Quilt - I has such good intentions, cut out all of the templates and that's pretty much it! I've already got the fabric lined up so I'm hoping to make an actual start on it this year

Taking too long I've had some projects that I've meandered along with here and there and then got annoyed with because it's taken too long to complete. I started a quilt back in March/April last year, and after two hours sewing last night had a quilt top finished. It's frustrating that it's taken up so much brain space when it really didn't take much to finish!
Candle holder made by Mr f&f!

So looking forward to 2014, what do I hope to achieve? I've been pondering this a lot lately and I've seen lots of people on blogs/IG picking a word for the year. I really like this idea and have struggled to narrow it down to one but have finally managed it: Time-Management. Well, it's two words but hyphenated, so I think that's okay?! It probably sounds very worky but I think it encompasses the two main things that I've struggled with in the past few months, organisation and balance. If I can get my time management right I think (hope!) the rest will follow. There are things that I really want to do this year and I need to be organised to do it all and not feel guilty that I'm letting myself/family/friends down. So, in 2014 I really want to.....

Make more clothes! I'm in love with the Colette Albion Duffle coat and would really like to tackle that soon alongside some more everyday clothes

Do more patchwork! I've got lots of projects started, some I want to start and so many ideas floating around in my head of things I'd like to do that I have to make them because they're stopping me from sleeping at night! I'd also like to join another bee because I'm having such fun

Do more knitting/crochet! I don't think this will happen until later in the year when all the Littlies are at school, but I'd like to get to a point where I'm sewing during the day and then either hand-sewing/yarn-crafting in the evening so that I can be a bit more sociable with Mr f&f

Try hand-sewing! See above! I really enjoyed the hand embroidery class that I did at retreat and would like to incorporate it into my projects

And that's it! Plenty to be getting on with me thinks! Thanks for sticking with me on this post - you can probably tell I've been thinking about this a lot lately!

Sx

Todays sky ● beautiful blue sky. We even managed a walk!

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