It certainly doesn't seem like THAT much time had passed since I last blogged, but it's been almost a month. Gosh, time certainly does fly (although I feel like I say that all the time). So what has been happening around here... not a lot really. Busy over the Christmas and New Year period with family, friends and a little bit of work.

I think that after all of the year-end deadlines I just needed a little bit of a break. I finished up my last Island Batik ambassador project and decided that I wasn't going to participate again this year. It's a wonderful program with very generous supplies from Island Batik and industry partners, but I wasn't able to contribute as fully as I would have liked. I felt like I was rushing my projects to get finished, rather than have the time that I would have preferred. Who knows, I may apply again next year. It was a lot of fun and the monthly projects were quite diverse and often pushed me out of my comfort zone.

I am still an Aurifil Artisan and as you know, I love slow sewing and playing with their beautiful thread. Just before Christmas, Aurifil put a memo out to the artisan group about the new 8 weight cotton thread which they will be releasing at Quiltcon in February. The thread collection is a collaboration with Suzy Quilts and we could put our hand up to receive a few spools to "play with" and create a project by the end of January. I was very quick to put my hand up. 

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This new thread is lovely quality and sheen, like all Aurifil thread. It's slightly thicker than the 12wt thread which had always been my favourite for big stitch quilting.

I have some classes coming up at work in the next few months and one of them is a curve class. I need some class samples so I gathered some fabrics from my stash (that worked with the thread samples) and created this cushion using the drunkards path template. The green is quite "lime" but I think it looks kinda cool and certainly pops beside the calmer natural tones.

Last month, I had a project published in the latest issue of Homespun magazine. It's my Sea Cookies quilt - a simple design but quite effective with the different coordinating colours. As new issues are only available every two months, this issue is still on sale through until the end of the month.

Yesterday, I joined the Chookshed Chatters for a quick zoom in the afternoon. It was nice to join the group and listen to the chit-chat. I worked on my latest EPP project - the Ice Cream Soda quilt. Pattern by Tales of Cloth. I purchased the set as a gift to myself for Christmas. I really loved the sample that Jodi made with the pinks/purples and orange centres, so I'm going in that direction and choosing fabrics in these shades to make mine. And I'm only using fabrics from my stash. Gotta use it all up.

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I hadn't been online and reading blogs for a long while, but I'm back now. I've figured out my phone settings so that I can actually comment on blogs again (and not go around and around that annoying google loop that never went anywhere). I saw that the RSC colour is green this month, so I'd better make a start with my scraps. It's also a bird house challenge for the PQ group. So many things happening to get back into the sewing room.