The Large Box - Outline Plans

In the quiet time between Christmas and New Year when I try to catch my breath after the busyness of Christmas, I like to start making outline plans for the year yet to come.  This coming year I intend to try and make more of the time that I do have with what I have available to me.  I did not do too badly this past year, but can always do better.

There is a large plastic box in my back room, which I have allocated to store handmade items  It is just an ordinary plastic box with a lid and it is empty at the moment.  

Come New Year, it will be no ordinary box as I intend to start to slowly fill it with crafted items either for my home, myself, as presents for family and friends.  It is somewhere safe to put things so that I can locate them when I need them.  The size of the box indeed helps with that as it is one of the largest ones I have to hand.  As I recover space elsewhere, the things for myself and my home will go to "new storage homes" and this will then mainly be a present box.  That is the outline plan in any event.

I intend early on in the New Year, to  start making some home made Christmas cards, Christmas Tags/Labels etc.  I am in the fortunate position where I do have many crafting items to hand including CDs with colourful images that can be printed off for either cards or other mediums. I do however before I can use these have to buy some new colour cartridges as I have a colour printer, and have to save up the pennies for that so I can get stuck in on this aspect. However, I also have a Big Shot Cutting and Embossing machine and plenty of cutters and embossers. So some work could go ahead in making certain types of card.  Then when the printer is available I can set too and add images if I choose to. Then there are the ink stamps of various subjects and considerations and lots of punches.  In the past I have invested heavily in crafting items.  It is now time to really start using them I think.  In the longer term, I will probably need more cards and papers to add to the stash. I am eager to start on this utilising decoupage and painting. Decoupage in particular I love doing however painting will be a completely new aspect for me.  I was never very good at it at school, so it will be very much a learning curve and playing session to see what I can come up with.

I have managed over Christmas to do some more on my blanket. So in small increments it is gradually growing.  I had also hoped to get to some other projects that are unfinished in order to complete them. However, this has not quite happened as yet. I hope once this particular throw/blanket is completed to also pop another one on the needles, so that there is always some knitting for me to pick up and put down so that I can make the most of miniscule amounts of time and produce something. I have a fear of not making the most of my time.  I have a lot of Aran wool to use up as well as possibly buy some new; I will concentrate on what I have to hand to start with though.

My cross stitch quilt is very much on the cards to finish, as I want that completed for next Christmas no matter what. Yes, I am planning already as I am a lot slower in getting things done than I used to be and am therefore being realistic and trying to give myself plenty of time.   Once all the cross stitch is completed I then have the task of adding wadding and backing and then quilting the quilt. I am going to have to get back into the habit of doing some of this each night or at least where I can in quite largish blocks of time so that I can focus that much more on getting it completed.  This also works well when I am preserving by doing one or a couple of items per night and so that I do get some time to sit down and craft as well.

Then there is the old men's shirts which are being recycled into various items.  Waxed cloths and covers, hot pads, and a couple of quilts.  I thought it would be a good way of getting projects accomplished and give me sewing, cutting and patchwork practice without spending the earth.  I am a big one for throws, covers, quilts anything cosy for when it is cold for use both in the everyday life and for bedding.  I try and buy large men's shirts, as I get at least a metre of fabric out of each. I then strip them down into usable pieces and recycle the buttons as well. I am even considering making a couple of Christmas coloured quilts with reds, greens and creams probably checks, stripes and a few plains to give a "country traditional feel" to Christmas for next year.  My search for suitable shirts will continue in order to try and achieve this.

There are then two Modha jelly roll Christmas quilts in Christmas prints to stitch and assemble. The jelly rolls have been waiting for me to get myself into gear for a little while. The quilts will then  have to be wadded and a backing fabric for each and then quilted.

I have a host of other Christmas style kits that I also want to get completed as well which includes a lot of fiddly embroidery, hand stitching, beading and cross stitch as well as some new to me projects. These ones will not be started just yet though as existing projects or UFOs are taking precedence to start with; however some of them do need to be ready for next year.

There are lots of projects I have in mind and I am keen to achieve quite a lot early on in the year so that I can progress to other hobbies like gardening and going away in the van without impacting and delaying certain projects with the time away from home and without also impacting on my preserving schedule.

I also want to get stuck in on the sewing machines and making different stuff.  I definitely need time on my own though to do this perhaps this will happen when OH goes fishing again, so possibly not for a couple of months yet; but we will see.

Therefore there are a lot of plans and dreams for this big old empty box and the projects I wish to achieve. So many lovely projects available to me, and the scope and promise of so much more.  I need to manage my time more efficiently though so that is very much going to be on the agenda.  We will see how we get on, however in reality and quite frequently I start doing something and then get dragged off of it for one reason or another and usually by someone else.  Very frustrating.  That box is going to be filled though by the end of the year.

Catch you soon.

Pattypan

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