Goals and the like

I had a real muddly day yesterday, not settling to anything much so I have decided it's time to Stop, Plan and Focus.
And I'm nearly too late to sign up for Patty D's One Monthly Goal over at Elm Street Quilts. Signing up and 'pledging' to finish something is great motivation to actually getting it done!
After my efforts last month getting my Buggy Barn Tractors quilt together, it (probably) goes without saying that quilting this needs to be top of my agenda for this month so that is what my goal will be.

To quilt, bind, label and gift the Tractors quilt!!!

Backing purchased. No excuses now.

Thank you, as always, Patty, for hosting OMG. It really is helpful in making progress :-)

I also have some other goals for the month - to focus on doing some winter sewing for all the kiddies. I made a start by overlocking the edges of some brushed cotton so I could wash and pre-shrink it. This will be for some more cot sheets and a kiddie jacket lining.
Then I tidied the spare room downstairs. Climbed up into the top of the wardrobe and found all my old patterns for children sewing. They went onto the downstairs bed —

Did anyone else collect and drool over the Topkids Magazines?
I used to love these and made some wonderfully creative clothes from them for
my kids.
There's also patterns in the boxes for basic things like trackpants, tights, etc which I want
to find.

Most of those patterns have sat there in those boxes since we moved here in 2004!!!

This old sewing cabinet contains all sorts of fabrics for kiddie sewing. I'll use it as my base for the sewing and it will be lucky dip, that's for real!! There's some lovely pieces in there that I bought to make things for my kids but didn't get them done - now's my chance!!

This cabinet was actually one Dad built from a kitset when he and Mum
were first married. Most of the kitset furniture he made then is still going
strong - not like kitset furniture these days!

(I had to do all this downstairs as if I try to sort this amongst my quilting stuff in The Palace it would be bedlam!! A separate clear space was needed!)

Oh and I will be pulling out my knitting for the kiddies too. Yesterday I started a vest for wee Odie who is no longer very wee and is outgrowing the vests I made the other kiddies. Not only is he a big boy but was also born in a completely different season than all the other kids. Who knows what will fit him when!

In other news — Since finishing a needle case over the weekend, I've made a pouch to go with it. I enlarged the stitchery from the Anni Downs pouch made last month—

I made a vinyl fronted zippy pouch (pattern available *here*) —

And sewed the stitchery to the other side.

It was a bit odd in a way as usually the vinyl side is displayed as the front, but when it's all filled with a messy array of project and notions, I sometimes think the 'back' is a nice option to look at!

I intend the needlecase and pouch to be used as a set...because the needlecase was a kit I didn't have the same felts and fabrics but oh well.

And speaking of pouches, this was a project from the Tilda FB page I joined. This pouch is a lot smaller than the one above so won't fit an A4 page/pattern but will be useful for storing threads, etc. It was designed by Fee, of Fee's Little Craft Studio, who runs the Facebook group.

I used fabrics to match the pincushion I've made previously.

It's probably pinkier and girlier than what I usually make but it's pretty cute all the same!

The conditions of our Lockdown Level Two were released today - we will have a lot more freedom which is great.....now we just have to wait and see when we go into it.

'til next time

safe and happy stitches,