April

April was a quick month - although I would normally have finished classes for the summer at this time of year, I am very conscious of the fact that I don't have projects to plan for the Autumn, unless they are personal......it's a bit weird, but I'm sure I'll get used to it.

I have spent a lot of time clearing out "stuff" in my sewing room although I must say the novelty of that has worn off a bit and there is much that could still be done, ............later.

I have been doing the BOM in Today's Quilter, by Jen Kingwell - I very much enjoyed making "My Small World", also one of her patterns, and developed quite a love for working with little scraps and pretty much throwing anything together - I know this is not for everybody but I rather like the scrappy, eclectic look.
So I caught up and completed all 8 (!) of April's blocks.

I have made all 8 but don't seem to have photos of them all. The blocks will finish at 6" x 7". I finished just as the May edition of Today's Quilter dropped on my doormat - and I see that there are another 8 blocks for this month.........sigh.

I like April, possibly because it's my birthday month. There was a time when I'd have hated a household item as a gift, but I have changed over the years and my family got together and got me this -

Cakes are possibly the last thing I should have in my life but hey, I don't have to eat them all do I?

I made these first......

and then I might have made myself a birthday cake - oh the time it took me to mould those carrots...(wink). My lovely daughter declared it "coffee shop quality" - I'll take that.

As a lovely finale to April, on Friday, I went with friends to the Knitting and Stitching Show, in Edinburgh, loads and loads of traders offering the usual temptations, not as many exhibits as I expected and lots of mini workshops which we did not realise would be there - next time we'll prepare ahead. I did go with the intentions of buying this kit, from Cool Crafting -

and I look forward to having a go at creating this sweet bunny.

And finally, this week, a friend lent me this book -

I have not read through in detail but I reckon it's a super book full of colour theory with practical projects to explain said theory. Sometimes I find the dedicated books on colour theory a little too much to absorb, but I think this is one you would return to again and again - my friend found it in The Works and told me they have a website - who knew? I always thought of them as the cheap bookshop on the High Street. This book is currently on sale at £4. They have several other quilting books available too. Worth a look.