Success and failure

You win some, and you lose some, generally. I have been putting my Dresden plates together to make a Linus quilt, and am quite pleased with the result. I wanted to put corner squares of pink, to link it all together, but didn't have enough. I had the bright idea of making a four-patch for each corner instead, which saves fabric and gives a similar effect. When it's been quilted I'll probably bind it with the yellow.

Then at our Flutterwheels meeting, I was inspired by Chris's gorgeous January wall-hanging. She had made it by following some instructions by Kandy Newton on the British Quilt List. Kandy has posted a challenge for the last few years, and this one is to make a perpetual calendar. I decided that for me, January was a dull, grey month, with some frost and silvery sparlke, and a bit of sitting by the fireside.

I have embellished it with beads and sequins to get a frosty look, although they aren't too evident in this photo. If anyone fancies a go, you have to join Yahoo Groups, and BQL, but the instructions are freely available. There are going to be different projects for each month's calendar page.

So far, so good. Then I tackled a charity bag which Nik has designed for our local Leukemia shop to sell. She gave out free kits and patterns at the last meeting of Rocheberie Quilters. Here is my finished bag.

Looks OK, until you look on the other side

which is inside out! This is what you get for leaving things to the last minute! Luckily DD has unpicked it for me, so it'll only take a few minutes to resew. Never mind - you can't be perfect all the time!