Hello!

I'm very excited to be starting this blog! Back in March of this year, I found myself getting worried that my creative side was languishing, all my time used up with the important - but nonetheless pretty monotonous - job of rearing three kids.  I made up my mind then to strive to do at least one creative thing per day.

In the past, I've got quite proficient with baking and gardening, but the outputs of those hobbies always end up disappearing, one way or another.  I wanted to do something with results.

So, after this belated New Years' resolution, I tried out lots of crafts: card-making, water-colour painting, drawing, tapestry, knitting... and I enjoyed all of them.  But above all, sewing was the one that was calling out to me.  I'd barely used the Toyota Quiltmaster that I'd purchased years before with lots of good intentions.  It was time to change all that.

I've achieved a few half-decent 'makes' over the past few months (I didn't dare start a blog until I'd at least done that much!).  This was the first thing I ever made, a peg bear, pattern from 101 Great Ways to Sew a Metre by Rebecca Yaker and Patricia Hoskins:

A bit rubbish, but a start!! And here's my most recent completed project, dress 'D' from Stylish Dress Book - Volume 2 by Yoshiko Tsukiori:

But I'm still very much a newbie, and I hope by keeping a blog of how I'm getting on, I can reach out to other people who are similarly just starting out, and - if nothing else - give them some tips on what not to do!