2013 Goals and Plans

I started making my list of things I want to accomplish on the quilting/piecing front last night....  I feel like I must be nuts.  Crazy, even.



BMF



On the "dear heaven I need to finish quilting this!" front, my goals for the year are:

1. finish quilting Boston Molasses Flood

2. finish quilting BST

3. quilt Crazy Diamonds

4. quilt my Dead Me quilt

5. My sister's quilt (need to do this one quick, too!)

Not too bad, except two are bed-sized quilts, and being done by hand.  *sigh*

On the "piece piece piece" front....

1. Molten Glass (currently in progress)

2. Wonky Sun Runner

3. Gatchaquilt (a brand new one that has leapt madly to the front of the line.  very pushy, it is).

4. Sun Phoenix (applique... why do I do this to myself??)

5. Hex Bird-Tree

And on the smaller scale list....

1. Complete all my block swaps in a timely manner

2. at least 2 more AAQI quilts.  (1 already planned....)

Now, looking at it, it doesn't seem like much.  12 items, 12 months.  But... I know me.  It won't work like that.  Even if it did only take me a month to hand-quilt a king-sized quilt (which is NOT going to happen).  We'll see if I can reach my goals.  If not, so be it, but I wanted to get it down in black and white so I can refer to it when needed.  And... it will keep me honest, I think.  I know other things will get added to the list, but this is my first of the year working list.

And of course, faire will be starting up soon.  The show starts in April, but we prep earlier than that.  And I will probably make a new bodice this year.  Nothing else garb-wise, but at least a new bodice.  And yarn things.  Because Penelope Weaver must have yarn things. 

So, we'll see how I fair on my goals.  Tonight - work on BST - it's smaller! and maybe on the Molten Glass.  We shall see.... (unless I pull greens and browns for the Hex Bird-Tree... See?  This is my problem.  Too many ideas, too little focus!)

Shay

Work Wonky Star Runner

Finally.  I finished the Wonky Star Runner.  It's all of 15' long, and about 17" wide.  Yeah.  It's long.  I don't think I ever want to bind another one like it.  :)

But I am pleased with the overall effect.

It makes things much calmer looking in my cube.  (Please ignore the tub up front in the picture).  The Wonky Star was easy to make up and piece together, and it only took a few days to put together.  The binding was the longest part!  I will admit, that was the case because I opted to hand stitch the back of the binding.  And it takes FOREVER to hand stitch 30+ feet of binding.  Wheeeeee!!!

 Here's the other half... It currently bunches up a little behind the computer, but I can fix that tomorrow morning before I clock in!

Now all I have to do is bring in blue, silver, and white deocrations, and I am all set for Christmas at work.  Whaddya think?

I have a few battery-operated candles that I will light up for December, and so on... but I am so far quite pleased!

In looking at the pictures, I am a little weirded out.  Not because of the state of my cube - it's actually pretty tidy (which IS weird, but that's not what's got me).  I have never made a holiday-themed decorative piece for myself.  It just doesn't happen.  And I have certainly NEVER made a Christmassy-winter quilted project.  Things like that have always smacked of... well... my grandmother and my great-aunt.  Not that there's anything wrong with that (she says hastily, forestalling the glares).  It just wasn't me.  It was them - quilted ducks with wreaths around their necks.  Pillows that said NOEL in appliqued red and green letters.  I don't know why I developed an allergy to those things, but I did.  "Not for me!" I'd say to myself.  "I won't be making Christmas crafts for ME."

And yet... there it is.  It isn't screamingly Christmas.  But it's holiday quilted decorations.  For me.  I don't know what it says about me.  Maybe I'm getting lax in my 'old age.'  Maybe it's just different enough that it doesn't somehow break my self-imposed ban on holiday quilting crafts.  Maybe I'm just branching out.  I don't really know.
What I do know it that it's still not my grandmother's/great-aunt's Christmas craft. 

Now.... for the rest of the projects in progress!!!  It might be a little tough to get things roaring along again, because we're having massive house-cleaning for the rest of the week.  The woman we bought the house from last year is coming to see what we've done.  We invited her last year, but she wasn't able to make it.  She finally is, and so we're going to be doing a nice hard clean-up to get things perfect!  Vacuuming, mopping, the whole shebang. 

I still hope to get a little time in to finish up a few things - namely, BST and my second AAQI quilt.  I am getting close on the AAQI, and have plans for a third.  Hopefully my skills are improving with each one (I think they are), and will raise at least a little for AAQI.  Oh, yeah... I made a tunic-style shirt Sunday.  I should post a picture of it (on my mannequin). 

We shall seeeeeee.......  tonight, there will be a ridiculous amount of cleaning.  And maybe tracking down a basket for all the cat toys.  (I have a smart cat.  This is not always a good thing).  She's getting bigger all the time, and while I know every cat owner thinks their cat is smart (okay, not ALL cat owners... because let's be honest, some cats are just NOT smart), but Joji is.  She's figured out where the cat food is, and is working on trying to learn how to open it.  (It's stored in a trash can with a step-on lid lift thing).  She's a problem-solver.  Should continue to make life interesting!

Shay

More pics

So whilst sorting through the vacation pics and so forth, I found this one... the close up of a flower.  It's not too bad, considering that I am NOT a photographer.  I tend to rely more on my mind for memories instead of pictures.  *shrug*  But for whatever reason, this set of flowers stood out for me.  They were pretty, and the only color standing out from the myriad shades of green and brown.

I am considering using the colors as a quilt... but I am still hashing out the pattern.  (Naturally... too many patterns, not enough time!)  But right now... I am mostly working on the other one inspired by the trip.

While wandering across Arkansas, we drove through yet more mountains.  We came around a mountain and down (wheeeeee! like a roller coaster) and all of a sudden there was gorge and bridge.  Normally, no big deal.  Except that this bridge (and how I wish I had a picture, but I was driving, so THAT would have been a bad idea) was all patches.  It must have been old and/or well-traveled, because there were so many patches on that bridge it looked entirely unstable!  It was fine, but the crossing was a little nerve-wracking.  When we were safely over, I thought "hm... a patchwork bridge...."  So now in my head I have a picture of a quilted bridge with trees rising all around.  If I can translate that to fabric, I shall be quite happy!

But first....
1. Stained Glass pattern (in black and white) to be quilted.
2. Baby Quilt to be quilted
3. finish quilting Little Moo
4. finish quilting Boston Molasses Flood
5. finish piecing Crazy Diamonds
6. finish testing Diamond border

Gosh... there's a lot to do!

Shay