April Goals

Spring is finally here, with lots of blossom on the trees, spring bulbs and lambs in the fields. Easter is nearly upon us and last Wednesday we had Easter egg hunts at our Rainbow, Brownie and Guide meetings. I know it's a little early but the girls are on school holidays and we wont see them again until after Easter. John and I have been enjoying trips out in the sunshine and yesterday we visited Rochester Cathedral in Kent. I took lots of photos and I tell you about it tomorrow. For now I need to sort out my April goals.

In March I hoped to finish my bird quilt and the quilt for Lucy's friend Jennifer. The bird quilt is all made, quilted and bound. I just need to add a label. I took the finished quilt to the park near where I work to take the photo.

I had such fun with the quilting. I used a variegated thread for the bark and the leaves and a plain white for the clouds. It took much longer than I had anticipated but I'm really pleased with the result.  I've also decided that finishing off all the ends is my least favourite job but it is very satisfying once done. Finishing this quilt was not only my goal for the lovely year of finishes but also for Lynne's Something old , something new challenge. This is my something old as I started it early last year.

Jennifer's quilt needs the border quilting and the binding adding. Lucy took it with her to Jenny's birthday party to show her and we plan to have it in the post this week.

I've also been working on the row along being run by Sherry at Quilts, Fabric and Thread Tales. Three of the rows have been posted and I've made two. I have yet to make the February row but I will have it done by the time Sherry posts the next row. The photo shows two of the four blocks in the row. The other two are a repeat of these ones. Yep it is a little busy but it looks OK next to the other row.

My NewFO this month is another baby quilt. This one is being made for a friend of Lucy's boyfriend. He plays football with the new father who supports Chelsea football club. The quilt is supposed to be in their colours but I have gone a slightly different colourway. However the back will be in Chelsea colours with the baby's name on it. The baby, called Thomas, is a boy but only time will tell if he'll like football. This quilt was my something new challenge for March

So far I've pieced together two of the nine blocks but these are all cut out. I have sewing days on Tuesday and Wednesday so the top should be finished then. The solid blue looks quite dark in the photo but is much brighter in person.

Goals for April are;

1. Complete the quilt for Jennifer.

2. Complete the top of the Votes for Women quilt. I have a couple more blocks to make and then all the sashing to add. I've been busy cutting out all the sashing. I've never noticed before how tiring it is cutting out and how much it makes my back ache. I think my usual system of cutting as I go along rather than all at once suits me better.

3. Complete my super power blog hop project. My day is 18th April.

4. Make my blocks for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge. This month the colour is purple. I have a fair amount of purple scraps so this shouldn't cause any problems.

5. My NewFO challenge. I have several possibles for this challenge but I can't quite decide between them at the moment.

I'm linking up with Melissa at Sew Bittersweet Designs for the goal setting link party, Lynne at Never too hot to Stitch for her Something Old, Something New party and Barbara at Cat Patches for her NewFO link party.

I hope you've had a good weekend with a little 'me' time. I'll be back tomorrow with photos of my trip to Rochester Cathedral but for now I need to decide what I'm wearing to work tomorrow and get myself organised.

Lyndsey