1st – 7th January. Blue Ridge Beauty & RSC.

It’s been a lovely week here, weather not too hot and I’m finally up and able to walk around again.  I’ve spent lots of time at the sewing machine and in my sewing room decluttering.

Rainbow Scrap Challenge. The colour for January is green. I had heaps of green 1.5″ strips so I have made little trees. I might make a Christmas wall hanging with these, not sure yet but having fun with this.

Back with a new blog

 After quite a long break I've decided to restart my blog on a custom domain as I have not been able to resolve the major problems I was having with Blogger.

My new blog address is:

https://justbaggageenough.com/

I won't be able to answer any comments on this blog and I'm still setting up the new site, mostly posting about sewing :)

I have been reading blogs on and off but unable to post so hopefully I can post now from my address. 

cheers, Jan xx

Homeward Bound

One of this years goals is to keep up with my BOM - Homeward Bound from The Quilt Show. Its a Sarah Fielke design and I had already signed up for her usual BOM and have a few others still waiting to be finished. But now that I'm retired I have no excuse!  I am using mostly Tula Pink fabrics  for this project.

I spent New Years day working on part of the first block, the little cabin in the centre of the quilt.

For Christmas I was given some lovely fabrics and a Spotlight card, I especially love the watercolour flowers. So a bit more added to the stash.

Karen Brown from Just Get it Done is one of my favourite YouTubers and she is doing a 21 day sewing room declutter challenge. Each day is a different task and I found it good last year so I am doing that again. Most of my sewing room is sorted so this years its going to be much less work. Having a scrap system has helped and I had already made lists of UFO's and WIPs that need attention. 

Like a lot of others my goal this year is to only buy fabric needed to complete a specific project and really sew down my stash and scraps this year. Right now I'm working on my RSC blocks - Januarys colour is blue which is good as I have heaps of it! 

Best wishes to you for the New Year and for 2023.

Winding up the year

 Before Christmas we had a few days away visiting DS and helping him get some new blinds installed. It's so nice to visit now and not having to rush back in time for work. We can take 3-4 days, relax, unwind and just enjoy the time together. I'm looking forward to visiting more often in 2023 as we make plans to update the kitchen and bathroom in his unit.

In the evenings I worked on my embroidery and I have only the bees left to do. 

I've already picked out my next embroidery project, a lovely Val Laird wallhanging which also uses quilt blocks. I just love her patterns and have a few more lined up in my wishlist.

Since we got back we've been busy with the decluttering, with a few more trips to the tip and I have more to go to the op-shop soon. We are going to move my sewing room into DS's old room. I have just the wardrobe left in DS's room left to move and then (fingers crossed) I can get DH to paint it - (he hates painting) before I move in. Once thats done we're going to expand DD's room to include my old sewing room. It's exciting to start seeing new spaces appear now that a lot of 'stuff' is gone.

So with my sewing, I've mostly been cutting down scraps and sorting out all my old, unfinished projects. This drawer sits on my sewing table and as I sew I add any scraps to it. I've already emptied it once and then refilled it with bags of scraps from years ago. I just work on it each day for 10 - 15 mins at a time.

I cut my scraps into strips and keep them in clear shoe boxes in the different sizes. Anything smaller than 1.5" or an odd shape that I think I might use for applique or collages I toss in the basket.

I've also been making lists and deciding on which projects I want to do in 2023. I have found lots of great 3 yard quilt patterns which are just the right size for donation quilts. I really need to use up some of my fabric stash so I plan on using the 3 yard pattens to make lap quilts for Comfort Quilts against Cancer as they accept tops and are looking for volunteers.  I used to be an oncology nurse so its a cause I can really get behind. At the moment I'm making the blocks for a Jacobs Ladder lap quilt in between the decluttering.

I'm excited about 2023. I remember this time last year. I was just so exhausted and knew I only had three months until retirement. This year feels so different and I feel so much happier and healthier with time to just enjoy myself. My plan is to actually finish some sewing projects in 2023 lol!

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Comments - I am still having problems commenting on many of the blogs I read regularly which is disappointing but it seems many others have the same problem and there isn't a solution that works. So unfortunately I just can't comment on a lot of your blogs anymore, those that I can I will. 

- Sluggy, Kim I have read your blogs every day for many years and I can't comment on either- I was so shocked and saddened to read about Joel, my condolences to you both and big hugs & prayers Kim xx