January's goal and Christmas presents

Running late with picking my goal for this month but finally decided that I would endeavour to quilt the 'It's a dog's life' quilt. The sewing room / office / guest room is almost finished and has already fulfilled its role as a guest room when Katy and Olly stayed over Christmas. The quilt is going to be hung on the wall in this room once the quilt and the room are fully completed. My bobbins have been filled and the machine is clean and 'fluff' free so all ready to go.

It's such fun to see both the changes and decorating in the house and a long standing projects nearing completion. The embroidery on the quilt was started in July 2013 as a NewFO project for Barbara's monthly challenge at Cat Patches. This challenge is no longer running but several of my UFO's are from this time.

This week has been an exciting week for post. First, this month's goodie box arrived from The Bramble Patch. It's always fun to see what's inside . It's only a small subscription box which works well for me as I have a chance of using the contents within a reasonable time frame. A larger box with more fabric and notions would stress me a bit as I would end up having to find storage room and that's in short supply here.

Another parcel also arrived for me, this time my Christmas present from John (I love the posting label).

He couldn't think what to get me and asked for some ideas in the run up to Christmas. When he asked I was holding my recently delivered copy of Quilting Today which contained a booklet made in association with the Quilter's Guild to celebrate their Elizabeth's Dowry fabric collection. I had been drooling over the photos of the fabric but also the pattern to make a quilt using it. So I suggested he might like to part fund the purchase of the fabric to make the quilt. I didn't suggest him buying the whole lot as a quilts worth of fabric comes up pricey but he said he'd buy whatever I needed to make the top. I ordered it after Christmas and it arrived this week. I'm hoping to make a start on the centre of the quilt later today or tomorrow but first I need to identify the fabrics I'm using for which pieces so I don't cut it wrong.

The pattern is designed by Sally Ablett and I just love it. There's a lot of information about the mariner's compass design in the booklet which I have yet to read. 

Yesterday evening John and I watched the first film in the Hobbit series. Tonight we plan on watching part 2 and I want to get some stitching done on my cross stitch or maybe a bit of knitting. 

Now what shall I do first, the ironing, some sewing or just some interesting reading? The only thing I'm not going to do is go outside as it is cold and wet.  I'm linking this post with Patty from Elm Street Quilts for One Monthly goal  - January goal setting party.

Lyndsey