Starting the New Year

Wow, what a wild and windy day I woke up to here in Lincolnshire and it seems to be even worse in Scotland and Wales, not a day to leave the house unless it was absolutely necessary.  The sky is a sort of grey/green tinge, really weird.
We made a good start to 2012 with a lovely walk at Gibraltar Point, it was windy then too but not cold or threatening.  Sam loved having the wind blow through his hair:

I went to visit GS Wills yesterday and he got a corn snake for Christmas.  He's called Speedy (I would have got a female and called her Maisie but that's a little corny, ouch).  He was quite lively and really beautifully patterned.  DH was happy to take a photo from a safe distance!

Today I can share the production line project that I teased you with before Christmas.  I must credit two people with the inspiration for this little shopping list holder.  Melanie Plummer taught a workshop on beach huts which I really enjoyed - it was when I used Angelina fibres for the first time.  Village Fabrics kindly allowed the pattern for an apron shaped list holder to be copied for the Dayspring Quilters' Day for International Quilt Day last year.  My little pieces have developed from these starting points.

Today I am looking at two exciting new projects.  The QGBI Region 9 BOM designed by Jacquie Harvey started on 1st January with the first block being emailed to members.  It's not to late to sign up, look at the QGBI website or Jacquie's own website. I have joined but I'm not going to start this project immediately, I have one or two (ha ha) other things to finish first!  Sharon B's TAST2012 project started on PinTangle yesterday, click on the button on the right to see what it's all about.  I'm hoping to build up a library of embroidery stitches to use in my quilting projects, this week's stitch is Fly Stitch and Sharon has lots of embroidered eye candy to inspire us.
Of course I also have a pile of works in progress....but let's be positive, I've tidied my sewing room so I can at least see what I'm doing and, drum roll, it's 2012 and this is the year I go to Japan with Nat and Bryan on the inaugural Japanese Textile Study Tour and I'm very excited about it.  What are your textile plans for 2012?

Japanese Beach Huts?

Here are my beach huts, all finished and ready to hang on the wall of my bach in Norfolk.  Carin - can you spot any of the kimono silk pieces you gave me?  Although the workshop was in Norfolk and beach huts are traditional there I couldn't quite get away from my leanings towards all things Japanese and so my beach huts are all made in Japanese fabrics (and there are pieces of kimono in the sea too).  If they have beach huts in Japan maybe this is how they'd look!
A quick Google led me to these....
http://www.housingjapan.com/real-estate-tokyo/resort-property/chiba-beach-houses/

Beach Huts Workshop

Here I am with my friend Ros at the end of a great day at a workshop with Melanie Plummer yesterday.  The workshop was a lot of fun, I don't think I've ever heard so much laughter during a quilting day, and we all learned new techniques, produced something we were happy with and nearly finished it too.
Melanie was a relaxed tutor and brought loads of examples of her work with her as well as lots of lovely organza and fabrics that she allowed us to buy from her if we needed them (and didn't charge much either).  Here are two of her "beach hut" pieces, I'm going to use her notebook idea to make a visitor book for my bach.

Once we got started with our sky, sand and water fabrics 505ed onto wadding and backing fabric it was time to audition all the organzas, nets and threads that would build up the texture of the piece.  This was fun and it was interesting to see that from the same starting point we all created our own designs, just as it should be.

I think the wall hangings have a lovely naivety.  This is not a good photograph (I would have needed to hang from the ceiling...) but it reminds me of children's paintings laid out to try at the end of an art lesson, such bold colours and effective designs.

They all became individual.  One lady added stilts to her beach huts as that is the design of the ones she is familiar with, a gentleman added deckchairs and seagulls and I made my beach huts from Japanese fabrics, including some wonderful kimono silk pieces that I was given by my friend Cara when she visited UK in August.
It's always good to pick up new skills as well as have fun on a workshop and I was pleased to learn to create marram grass and beach plantlife using FMQ but the greatest combination of fun and learning came with the discovery of angelina.  Who knew something that looks like glittery candyfloss could be such a delight?  I'll certainly be using it again.
Tomorrow is the first meeting of the new quilting group I'm starting with my friend Tina.  We're hoping to have a good turnout and already know of several lovely blogging friends who will be there.  I'm taking my beach huts piece to work on - it's time to embellish with relish!  We're having a trader, a raffle and show and tell as well as a chat about what people want from the group.  I'm very excited about it - please check back here to see how it goes, and what the group is to be called!