Hello everyone – this is a little nerve-wracking!

A little bit of information about myself:

Name: Cheryl

Occupation: Retired after 36 years in the computer industry (I am so old in computer terms that my first professional program was typed on punch cards, for those who know about these things!)

Age: Old enough to know better.

I confess, I’m a serial crafter – like many of us. I have knitted, crocheted, done polymer clay work, metalwork, beadwork, chain maille, upholstery and anything else I can get my hands on. I have always owned a sewing machine but never sewed much.

Patchwork. Hmmm. I admit, I was one of those people who couldn’t work out why you would cut fabric up into tiny pieces just to sew them back together again. Then I went on a course locally to make a table runner in disappearing 9 patch and I got it!

The table runner. Simple I know – but I loved it!

I count myself as a relatively new quilter with a million ideas flying around in my butterfly brain. I made that table runner about 18 months ago, but I have done little since unless I attend a class. I completed a king size Welsh style quilt in class, based on the Brecon design in ‘Making Welsh Quilts: The Textile Tradition that Inspired the Amish?’ by Mary Jenkins and Clare Claridge. (Fab book.) Nobody told me a king size quilt was awkward!

My quilt on display

Outside class, it has been difficult to find time to sew. Frustration sets in when I can’t sew, and recently life has got in the way. This week, for the first time in months, I finally got to use my new (to me) sewing machine.

First job – familiarization. It’s a (to me) super-duper computerized embroidery machine (Janome 12000), but I need to get used to sewing straight stitches first! I found an old experiment that had been hanging around and quilted this. What a joy to use! Once I started to get my bearings, I found it so smooth and easy to use – a revelation when you are used to more basic machines. I haven’t loaded up the walking foot yet though, so that’s this week’s mission.

Things I am good at:

• Collecting fabric

• Collecting gadgets – sorry, I mean essential equipment!

• Procrastinating

Things I want to do (this list keeps growing!)

• A Half Square Triangle quilt using some beautiful Moda Shibori II charm squares I have had for ages.

• Some log cabin and other precut kits that I have. Some think a precut kit takes the fun out of it, because someone else chooses the fabric, but when you are as time poor as I have been recently, a precut kit allows you to get on with the sewing and provides instant satisfaction!

• Free motion quilting. (Gulp. I’m told it is all practice…)

• Foundation paper piecing – this seems within my reach, so this is likely to get bumped up the list!

• Learn to use the embroidery functions on my machine – a long term project!

• Ice dyeing

• Use my stash instead of adding to it …..

• Getting on with the Beast …. but that is a story for another time.

Now you know a little bit about me. I’m looking forward to the next time we meet. xx

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