Last day of January

 I don't know whether January has gone fast or slow... probably a bit of both.  I finished my January goals with 10 days to spare, which is always a bit scary because you never know what I might start in the meantime.

January in Northland New Zealand has been hot.  I think many places in NZ have been hot... but its been hot hot!  It has meant that some days it has even been too hot to sew!  I know... terrible!!

One of my "in the back of my mind" tasks was to sew up the Devon Pouch by Sotak Patterns, and today was the day.  I had bought the zips and fusible interfacing last year in preparation... only to discover yesterday that the fusible was not so fusible... I'm not even sure it's interfacing.  Luckily I discovered some left overs from the previous project... so it was all systems go and I just had to decide what fabric to use.

Some left over scraps of Essex Linen were just the right size for the panels on the front, and when I remembered this cute little hedgehog print left over from my Meadowland quilt it was decision made.

 

I used a couple of different coordinating fabrics for the pouch lining...

Although I have a bit of a bag phobia... I carefully followed the instructions one by one and ended up with a successful pouch.  The instructions were thorough and easy to understand so I recommend this pattern, although I'm not in a rush to make a second one just yet :o)

I signed up for a different sew along (they are my downfall) - this one through Farmhouse Quilts blog, Monique has designed a quilt combining churn dash blocks and applique blocks called Winterberries.

The first step was to make 9 churn dash blocks.  I'm almost there.

I have had a starter pack from Treehouse Textiles in Australia for several years... after deciding it was unlikely that I would make the project it was designed for, I thought this might be a good replacement project.  There are some beautiful prints in the pack... the large floral in the foreground is 💙💙💙

And a great range of backgrounds/low volumes.

 I have signed up for a different sewalong for the Aviatrix Quilt by Elizabeth Hartman... this is one that has been on my list for ages, I have the kit and pattern... just needed the kick up the pants to get it started.  The sewalong starts on Valentines Day with choosing fabrics, then getting templates ready.  The first block is an odd shaped star and this has not been conducive to getting it started.  Hopefully the sewalong factor and encouragement will help in getting this started at least... even if I don't keep up with the whole programme.

In other news, I decided earlier this year that I needed to be more active and more involved in things other than quilting.  So the vege garden was resurrected... this is the view from my bedroom window.

 

It's a bit of a mixture on the right... a couple of zucchini plants, beans, silverbeet, lettuce, cucumber, beetroot and sweetcorn (I'm not holding my breath about the sweetcorn).

Then a couple of smaller beds on the left.  The top bed has tomatos, a second lot of beans and some new lettuce seedlings... and the bottom bed has some kumara shoots which have been struggling along.

Although the garden is definitely a work in progress it has been an enjoyable change to be out in the evenings watering and weeding.  I'm not a natural gardener... things have to fend for themselves a lot but that is the way it is.  I always feel that anything that comes in to be eaten is a bonus.  The garden is fully fenced to keep the bunnies out and I need to balance the watering with conserving our water tank water supply.

My other goal this year was to be more mindful of housework and to try to keep to some kind of routine.  That has been going well so far... it constantly surprises me that I can be very structured about so much of my life... school/work/sewing and yet housework has never fallen into any kind of routine.  And I do mean never.  I have always been a reactive cleaner - oh my gosh that's filthy... better clean it/as opposed to proactive... I'll just give this a little clean even though it doesn't really look dirty.  I also procrastinate about it, and often don't even notice how bad things are.  So I am really my own worst enemy.  

I am following a basic programme through @cleanmama on Instagram.  The basic cleaning schedule is:

Monday - Bathrooms

Tuesday - dusting

Wednesday - vaccuming

Thursday - washing hard flooring

Friday - catch up day

Saturday - change sheets/towels

Sunday - rest

In addition, on each day you aim to make beds, keep on top of  keeping the table and benchtop clear and wiped down, clearing general clutter, doing spot vacuuming of the floor as necessary and keeping up to date with laundry.  I am definitely not getting ahead of the laundry but I am slowly chipping away at a couple of clutter areas and they are finally looking clear and tidy, and I can see improvement in all areas.  I'm feeling quite chuffed!!  I'm just starting the 5th weekly rotation and hopefully at some stage it will have become routine.

And I think that's just about it for today.  Tomorrow is the first of February (and a holiday) so I will need to think about my new monthly goals.