2015, 2016

I hope you all had a wonderful holiday! Ours was crazy busy! We drove North to see the family -- ALL the family. We were very tightly scheduled -- if this is Wednesday, these people must be Shug's family & like that. We saw everyone, even had some bonus visits. Besides seeing family, we also saw a really magical light display.

I have to say I am kind of glad to see the backside of 2015. It wasn't really a bad year, just one with quite a lot of expensive maintenance & repairs needed for our home, our vehicles, our pets & ourselves. Let me repeat, there was nothing really bad or serious, just a continual squeezing of our wallets.

Making-wise, it was a pretty good year. Shug turned some really amazing pieces. This one is my especial favorite.

It wasn't a big production year for me. I spent quite a lot of time piecing & quilting a scrappy Arkansas Crossroads quilt -- which is still not finished -- it needs something more, I'm just not sure what it needs -- quilting? tying? something in the 16-patch squares. I made & gave away 6 quilts -- that is always satisfying. And 2 finishes remain in house: my version of last year's plus quilts made with my parents' shirts & Laura's Lightning. Both were long-time WIPs that I was glad to finish & I am quite pleased with both.

What do I hope for 2016? Firstly, fewer trips to the repair shop. Then there will be 2 milestone birthdays this year, for both I want to make quilts for the birthday girls. There are always a heap of WIPs that I want to see become finished quilts. Also as usual, I want to make a serious dent in my over-accumulation of fabric -- to give, to donate, to keep. And there are quilt blocks I want to explore -- more flying geese, more pluses, maybe baskets, log cabins/house tops? I've only ever made one of those, & how about something very different from anything I've ever done, like a big appliqued princess feather!

Please stay tuned!

2015

I began sketching out my Quilt Room Dreams & Aspirations & was quickly overwhelmed!

First off, I want to finish up some UFOs:

7 tops to quilt -- 4 nearly done, 1 basted, 2 ready to baste -- & 9 stacks of blocks & block parts that I want to get made into tops (then, of course, more tops to quilt)! YIKES! Looks like just clearing out the backlog will be a year's worth of work!

Then there are the things I want to start/explore anew:
more charitable sewing, more scrap & string sewing, medallions, improvisational piecing, a quilt or 2 for juried shows, a quilt for someone's milestone birthday, and a series project I've been calling "bed rugs".

Lastly, with my right hand held up in an oath-ish position -- I solemnly swear to attempt to buy less fabric this year. "Attempt"?, you say! "Buy less"?, you say! Why not vow to not buy any?!? Well, because I know myself & I know that 12 months of buying no fabric is simply not realistic. I don't want to set myself up for failure & I think a pledge to only buy solids, fabrics on sale & vintage fabrics just might be a promise I can keep. :-}



New Year's Day was cold & dreary -- a perfect day for staying warm & cozy with fabric & sewing machine, thoughtfully, methodically tackling my list.
But what did I do?
I began something new.

The Road to Too Many WIPs is paved with good intentions.

Resolutions and Aspirations

I'm old enough to know that making New Year's Resolutions is not always helpful, can be downright hurtful. You know, you resolve to do or don't do a long list of things. You write down your list, then at the end of the year (or in September or July or April) you check over your list to see how well -- or poorly -- you are doing. If you aren't doing or not doing what you resolved, then you feel like a failure when actually your Resolutions might have been a little unreasonable, maybe even unattainable.
So I'm only making a few Resolutions & a longer list of Aspirations.

1. I resolve to get healthy; I aspire to loose weight.
The years my Mom was in nursing care took their toll on me: I was away from home 2 to 3 months of each of those years; when I wasn't with her, I was trying to catch at work & at home; I self-medicated with over eating, drinking & shopping. So, I want to try to put myself at the top of my to-do list: exercise, eat healthfully, meditate, nap, laugh, read. If I lose a few pounds in the process, all the better!

2. I resolve to sew my stash & scraps; I aspire to buy less fabric.
During my puttering days last year, I was poking into the corners of my sewing room & discovered fabric & more fabric that I had forgotten I had; beautiful fabric, fabric I loved, or once loved, that deserved to be made into something. So fewer e-carts, fewer trips to quilt shops -- not none at all, mind you, just fewer.

3. I resolve to make at least 3 -- maybe 4 -- quilts using the shirts of my parents; I aspire to make many, many more quilts.
I want to make quilts for my brother & 2 nieces -- & maybe for myself -- with Mom & Dad's shirts. I think I've come up with a plan to make them all at once, they'll be similar but not alike & I'm really eager to get started on them! I always keep a long & growing list of quilts I would like to make: more HSTs, coin-stack strippy-s, maple leaves, text-y/letters, houndstooth, sailboats, bow ties, 16-patch, etc, etc, etc.

4. I aspire to make 2014 my Year of the Pompom!
I read the most charming quote by Maira Kalman:

I think it's nice to say the word "pompom" as often as you can.

At about the same time, one of my favorite quilters, Rachaeldaisy, was showing us a few of her pompom quilts. So Besides saying "pompom" (which *is* very nice!), I want to make add pompoms to my quilts, ala Rachaeldaisy!