Happy New Year!

Wishing everybody a Happy and Healthy New Year.

I have been fairly productive in the last few days. Still exploring my new camera...started working on making a new banner for my little Etsy shop which now also adorns my blog. I thought it was time for a change. Well, that little idea went from one to the next thing to the next...before I knew it I was working on several other things. So far I 

- updated my Etsy banner

- cleaned up the site (still heaps more to do), and

- made a new button for the Etsy shop which also serves as my new blog button.

Was particularly impressed with the button as I literally started with nothing.

 

...and all of the sudden everything fell into place. Decided on my colour scheme, kept my font the same as the banner and then started playing with shapes. I did this in the Canva program which made this fairly easy.

Getting to know the new camera (Panasonic Lumix)

 

This shows some of the elements of a new pattern that I am working on. Really like those colours together which gave me the idea of using these elements for my banner.

Apart from this I finally picked up the quilt for the Natalia Bonner 'A Year of the Stars' quiltalong. Have been dreading this a bit as all my blocks are slightly different. I think none of them is exactly 12 1/2in. However, this is going to start today and I definitely want to participate. Worked on the sashings today and even managed to put on some borders. Was amazed as it went without a hitch. Points got cut off and I dare say it may not be entirely straight, but it looks great! 

Chose a dusty pink colour for the sashing as I could not see very well on my white sashing last time when I participated in the 9 Patchalong. Still got a fair bit of work to do as I will have to baste this and then do all the ditch quilting before I can go into the blocks for some ruler work. Should be caught up by the end of the month. Looking forward to this. This quiltalong goes for the entire year, so plenty of time if you are thinking of joining in.

Also started something new once again. Don't know about you but I get fairly grumpy if I do not have something to freemotion quilt on. There is only so much doodling I can do...so I rummaged around and found the leftover fabric from my pastel baby quilt. There was enough to do another one, so I cut all of the fabric into a stack of charm squares and spent some time arranging them on the floor.

It's so pastel that it is hard to see...planning to just stitch this together and maybe put some applique shapes on top...we'll see. In any case it will be great for a nice easygoing allover design.

Good start to the New Year.

 

Karin