Day One of 365

Today is day one of a year of days.  I don't know about you, but I like the promise that a new year brings. Kind of like an author starting a new book, a lot of pages to fill, perhaps a bit of trepidation about what twists and turns may lay ahead in the plot. 
I spent the day doing some house cleaning, mostly in my sewing space and working on projects that I wanted to get off my UFO list.  Did I mention that some of my UFO projects are from 2000?  The shame of it.  So to get out of the hall of shame, I thought I would make a to do list and hold my feet to the metaphorical fire. 
I also took some time to think about what goals I would hold myself too.  Last year I had some (that I actually completed) which kind of suprised me when I did a bit of a reckoning of where things stood at the end of the 2011.   
     For 2012 I want to:

• finish off at least 3 UFO's
• join a virtual bee
• get the etsy shop up and running
• complete two more Single Girl quilts, baby and king size
• make two garments

My first quilt top of the new year is Dr Seuss Revisited.  I had a bunch of Seuss fabrics left from previous projects that I wanted to use up, so I made a baby quilt.  Here is a picture of one of the blocks that is left over. I will show the finished top later.

Dr Seuss Revisited block

Happy New Year

Happy New Year to all.  May the New Year be full of laughter, hope and joy. 

Sliding into the New Year

Well I don't know about anyone else, but at our house we slid into the New Year on a wave of weddings, spa visits and nightly quilting marathons.  Christmas leave was not as relaxing as I had hoped, having to go into work to perform some year end weddings.  It was almost as if I didn't want to get too relaxed in case I couldn't rev myself up again to do these tasks before jumping into the rest of Christmas leave. I found that I was pretty tired working up to Christmas. 

Christmas table center piece using Dresden Plates

a block designed by Oh Fransson for do.Good Stitches. 

Its been a busy time quilting.  I have completed a few tops as well as some cute clutches, coasters and napkins. I even have finished two Christmas presents for later this year!!!! I know, I'm a keener.  But I thought if I made this really useful gift for everyone in different fabrics, then it would make my gift giving a bit easier.  Not to mention by # 12 I should be able to do it in my sleep! 

I have intentionally been trying to whittle down the scrap pile along with the fat quarter bunch  and am making some progress.  So far I have used up 6 meters in the first week of Jan.  If I can keep on using about that every few weeks, then I will be able to move some fabric into the closet.  This block designed by Oh Fransson on the do.Good Stitches on Flickr for January and is a great way to use scraps in a variety of color ways.  http://www.flickr.com/groups/dogoodstitches/discuss/72157625590791581/

If you aren't into modern quilting, you might want to give it a whirl just to say you've tried it!

Happy New Year- Get back to Work

Well its back to work for me. I have to say a week and a few days is not enough down time for me. I am so pooped out I need a holiday to recover from my holiday. I eased into the work week, organizing my day-timer for the new year, finishing off a few pesky reports that were hang overs from the year past. Now I am ready to start on the really hard stuff - taking down the Christmas trees at work. All 4 of them... So here are the photos I promised last year, all done up nice and pretty.








The first LO is of Craig and I in front of our tree decorated with ornaments that are all kid themed. They are pretty cute if I do say so myself. The other one is page 2 of our Christmas card/letter and Christmas day photos.





This one is of Kitsu the day I took her to my chapel. She was so cute, she would come up to the dias and stop and look at the altar. She did it so many times with out me telling her to stop that I wondered if she was someone at the altar telling her to stop. Then when I wanted her to pose for a photo she would turn her head this way and that making me think of the models from Top Models show.