A new Year starts on Sunday - Happy New Year

A couple of the blogs I read have looked back on what they have made over the past year, or like Ann on Everythingsewing the goals she set herself for 2011 and what she did or didn't achieve.

Meeting new friends from cyberspace and other sewing related activities.

January last year I went on a speed tailoring course and met a lovely lady Viv who has wowed the members of the Stitcher's Guild Sewing Forum with some of her beautiful work since I introduced her to the site.  We had a lovely day a few weeks ago when we cycled around London collecting fabric and notions from various markets and shops, followed by lunch while discussing our 2012 sewing plans/goals.

My frequent trips to Houston allowed me to meet up with Anita who I met via another site Perfect Sew and Fit where Patricia Schoeman helps sewers with their fitting problems.  This site is also responsible for the occasional exchanges of emails with a lovely lady called Marisa, and last but not least when one of the PSF members visited the UK, I met up with Linda in London.

Earlier this year I met up with Elizabeth aka ejvc from Stitcher's Guild Sewing Forum and she was kind enough to show me all the best places to go to for sewing supplies close to where I live in London.   This month I had the pleasure of meeting Sigrid who has a fabulous blog with wonderful tutorials, who wowed me with her amazing talent for lingerie sewing, and beautiful tailored garments.

The Stitcher's Guild Sewing Forum has also introduced me to some very talented sewers, who are fantastic at sharing their knowledge, by providing useful tips be it links to some great free downloads from Pina. or wonderful sewing tutorials from Ann Rowley, inspirational work from Kathryn  , Bunny  from lasewist who does the most amazing work, or Ann on Everythingsewing produces some fantastic embroidered dresses for the rodeo community while sharing the progress her "Spousal Unit" is making on the house (that term always makes me laugh), or some of her gifts that she makes to sell or give away. Art Attack in Houston, Gosh there are so many talented people on that site, most of them have great blogs too.  If I haven't mentioned your name it's probably because there are too many to mention but they all give so much inspiration.

Back in January Viv and I had a sort of goal to try and make ALL our work wear - I am pleased to say that the majority of outfits I take on my business trips have been made by me so I am close.  I have bought very few RTW but when I have they have been jeans, bras and cardigans.

So what are my plans for 2012?

I have some denim to try out two jeans patterns I have bought - the Jalie 2908 and McCall's Palmer Pletsch 5412, both of which have received quite good reviews.

I am definitely adding bra making to my list for next year and will take some advice from Sigrid on this subject - her lingerie work is stunning.

The two Jalie patterns I tried out this year were very successful so I will definitely be looking at more of their patterns.

I would like to say I will enter some of the sewing plans initiated by Stitcher's Guild Sewing Forum such as  SWAP 2012 (Sewing with a plan), TAM (top a month), PAM (pants a month) SAM (Shirt a month), etc, but I am not very good at this - I said I was interested in the SAM because I do wear a few shirts for work - but to be honest I get so easily distracted, for example, at the drop of a hat I decide to make a rag doll and just have to do it.......  I will see how I get on.  I know it would be good to plan out my sewing projects but................

I have read lots of different threads on sewing rooms, pattern storage, fabric stash storage that all inspire me to do something similar.  The one thing that I think I may change is the way I store my fabric.  I purchased some clear very large containers to put my fabric in, but to be honest I more or less have to unpack the whole container to find the piece I am looking for - so there may be a little job for my son to make me some shelves for my sewing room where I can both store and access the fabric I want much easier than I do now.

I have booked myself on a quilt making course so I am sure that will have me return with many ideas.

Anyway - just in case I don't get a chance to post again between now and Sunday, first let me thank all the visitors to my blog for stopping by, and thank all of you that post comments here - they are ALWAYS appreciated, and

I would like to WISH YOU A HAPPY NEW YEAR and look forward to sharing my news and reading about what everyone else is doing in the sewing/crafting world.

More soon........................................