Around the World Blog Hop

Hello lovely people.  I am a little late with this, but here is my "Around the World Blog Hop" post.  The lovely Sarah at Mila + Cuatro tagged me to answer some questions.  Welcome, if you haven't visited before.  I am being all sensible in this post, because it's best not to act too crazy the first time you meet people.  Just saying.

What am I working on?

Well that is a little bit of everything at the moment.  I can't say too much because it includes Christmas sewing.  It also includes Gypsy Wife, Hubby's Zombie Quilt, and my Tula Pink Next hexie pillow (which you will have seen far too much of if you are on Instagram!).  I have also been putting together two little dumpling pouches for the lovely Deborah and Tanya, who linked up to show their ABC quilts in my last post.  Girls - I will need to get your addresses so I can get these in the post to you.

Dumpling puches - I love you so

Talking of which my ABC quilt nabbed me a prize at the local Spotlight Quilt Expo last weekend.  Yes it did!

For the avoidance of doubt, I was not the only entrant, okay!

I spent Saturday night making a Queen Elsa costume for Princess.  She had a Frozen party in the weekend, and needed to look her best!  I used the McCall's pattern (which seems to be the go to pattern for this costume).  It was relatively simple to make, although I do not recommend trying to get it finished in one night - it's doable, but very stressful. Sewing with all those stretch polyester fabrics was an unwelcome change after cotton.  And a 5/8" seam seems really wide and strange after getting used to a 1/4" seam in quilting!

The cape was definitely a success

And she loved the party too.

How does my work differ from others of its genre?

Well, to be honest it doesn't really.  I like modern fabrics, and other than that, a bit of pretty much anything.  I just sew what I feel like, which is very liberating, but also appropriate given that is my hobby, and what I do for relaxation.

Although I do make some things to order.  Like Hubby's Zombie Quilt.  I am sure I have shown you the post-apocalyptic anti-zombie army recruitment posters before?  I suspect this may be a relatively limited genre in quilting.  The next block I have planned for this quilt has stalled because Hubby needs to buy some cotton for printing on - these blocks maxed out my tolerance for text in quilts.

Why do I create what I do?

Well that is because I was lured into quilting and sewing by BQF (best quilty friend).  But now I do it because it is relaxing, and rewarding, and I like buying fabric.  Too much.  Heh.  Sewing is purely a hobby for me, and welcome downtime from work.  It is a real pleasure to make home made gifts as well - the difficulty if finding people who properly appreciate them!

How does my creating process work?

Sheesh - this one is tricky.  I don't really know.  I have spent so long on the interwebby and Instagram, that I think the ideas that I like just permeate my brain.  A quilt can be anything from carefully planned, to a spur of the moment thing, just because I feel like quilting.  Other projects start for other reasons - like Hydee sending me the Gypsy Wife pattern as a gift, or because I love a fabric line and I really want to make something with it!  I make quilts both from patterns and my own ideas.

I don't think I can be any more specific than that.  Of course I have told you before that I will try just about anything - so sometimes my process if driven by a sheer determination to prove I can do something, even if the end result wasn't something I was intending to create.

Eight of my granny squares were made by Sarah - we met through Charm About You's annual block swap (Sarah got some fabric in return!)

So that's it from me.  I'll be linking up to WIP Wednesday over at Freshly Pieced.  I haven't been organised enough to link up some more blog hoppers, but if you'd like to visit some cute blogs further afield than New Zealand, I can recommend visiting Tiina in Finland (who would you believe has her own Blog Hop post up this week - serendipitous), or the very lovely Jennifer from Glinda Quilts in Wales.