Getting a very early start on Christmas?

On Sunday I made a start on my new Christmas quilt. I keep a quilt in our main room as you never know when you may need to snuggle up in one and I had planned to make a Christmas quilt for use next year but I hadn't planned on starting so early in the year. My current Christmas quilt wasn't planned, in fact it came about because I won a jelly roll of Christmas fabric.

I had to buy a little yardage to complete the quilt but it was well worth it as I love this quilt. It's on my bed at the moment and looks so pretty. It's a shame Christmas is over for another year.

So I started the new quilt because I was given several Christmas fat quarters as a present. What better way to use them up and New Year does mean it's OK to start a new quilt. I started by making the half square triangles I would need. I need 72  HST's to make the blocks for this quilt and at the moment I have 71  so I need to make 1 more. I'll do that later in the week. Today I decided to cut all the pieces I need to make the blocks. It seemed to take ages but was well worth it. 

I can't wait to start stitching it all together. In between I took some time to stew some plums. When I bought the plums they were very firm so I left them to finish ripening in the kitchen. I cut them up and put them in a saucepan with a little water and sugar. The colours were amazing.

They not only looked good but tasted really good and made a great dessert with some thick cream.

Kate from Life in Pieces has restarted her 15 minute challenge. For this challenge you have to spend at least 15 minutes each day on some form of stitching. I decided to join in as it is surprising how much you can do in just 15 minutes and it will help get some of my projects finished. She is having a link party every Sunday where we can check in and share how we are getting on.  

Results for week 1 of 2018.

7 out of 7 days of 15 minutes. 

Great result! Activities I did to achieve this included hand stitching on Earlene, sewing on badges to my camp blanket, making half square triangles and some repair sewing. I am determined to do more sewing this year and hopefully complete some of my UFO's

I got the results of my mammogram today and it was good news. Had a full check up and everything is going well. I have an appointment booked for July when the surgeon will start the system rolling for my reconstruction. So far 2018 is feeling a lot better than last year thank goodness.

Tomorrow and Wednesday I'm in work so not a lot of time for sewing but I'll try and complete my 15 minutes a day.

Lyndsey