Happy New Year!

This is how I spent New Year's Eve. It's a crappy iPad picture, but let's focus on the quilt and not the photo quality, mkay? Thanks.

Here's to wishing everyone a fantabulous 2012!! Cheers!

Oh Yea, Did I mention....

I GOT THE JUKI!!! Merry Christmas to me!!!

The last two weeks have been fabulous! I managed to maintain a somewhat clean house, I got all of my Christmas baking done, I managed to find time to sew most days and I actually got some sleep.

I'm looking forward to continuing on this path, but I'm nervous because I have to fit two more items into my life ~ homeschool & the gym. I know I can fit it all in, I just have to get myself super organized. If there's one thing I learned this summer with my testing is that I thrive on structure. My personality doesn't lend itself well to this, but my brain requires it.

I'm making myself little binders ~ one for quilting, one for workouts, one for chores & I already have one for homeschool. I have to learn to let go of perfection. Often times when I set out to get organized, I'm immediately paralyzed because I'm not sure exactly how I want everything. My brain doesn't seem to think I can start a project until I can see it completely finished in my mind's eye. Life isn't so cut and dry and I have to remember that.

When it comes to organization, evolution is the key. Just start. Eventually a system will evolve that works. I just have to repeat to myself (constantly) to just get started. The details will work themselves out.

2012 UFO List

~*~ This post is linked up at Judy's Patchwork Times UFO 2012 List Linky Party ~*~

This is my little shelf that holds my current projects. Should I be embarrassed to tell you that it hasn't changed in two years? And there are more WIPS/UFOs that this shelf can handle?

After taking about an 18 month hiatus from quilting, I'm so ready to jump back in full monty. Unfortunately all of the things that took me away from quilting (namely: LIFE) are still ever so present in my life. I'm learning to pace myself. BALANCE. BALANCE. BALANCE. If I say it often enough will it seep into my brain and actually stay there? Let's hope so!

Here's my current list of UFOs that I plan to work on in 2012. I have no delusions about finishing all of them this year. I plan to prioritize them and work on them accordingly ~ while throwing in a new project here and there ~ but 2012 is going to all about working through the WIPs and the stash. Wish me luck!

~*~ Edited to strike through first three ~*~

After actually reading the info on the UFO Challenge, (from last year) I realized I needed a list of 12 quilts. The first three are actually WIPs and have a deadline. So, okay, now I'm actually playing by the rules. Phew....I'm a rule follower.

Boys' Bed Quilts (one needs border, one is in blocks)

Irish Chain Quilt (still working on blocks)

Parker's Quilt (needs quilting)

1. Molly's Quilt (basted, needs quilting)

2. Barney's Blocks (partially quilted)

3. Christmas Lights (not even sure I'm going to keep going with this one....)

4. Ainsley's Quilt (in blocks, poor girl.....)

5. Bee Blocks from my Flickr Quilt Bee (collection of blocks, not even sure how many)

6. Mom's Quilt (blocks are done)

7. Figgy Pudding Charm Quilt (charms are sewn into rows)

8. Old Red Barn Quilt A long (this was from a few years ago, blocks are done)

9. Tranquiltity Charm Quilt (needs borders)

10. Asian Coins (top done, needs to be quilted)

11. RWB Strings Quilt (a swap I was in, need to sort through the blocks)

12. 30s Strings Quilt (same as above)

And then I have a box of UFOs that aren't quilts, just other projects that I'd worked on off and on...to be honest, most of them I don't even care about. I need to pull the box out and see what's in there and decide what to do with all of it.

Phew....that list made me tired just typing it out!! Let's keep our fingers crossed that I get that Juki just so I can get to work on this list!!

Design Wall Monday

~*~ This post is linked to Judy's Design Wall Monday ~*~

Well, I still don't have a design wall, but I'm working on that. Hubby and I are in charge of stuffing our own stockings this year and I think I'm going to put a twin sized flannel flat sheet in my stocking to hang on my bedroom wall. A design wall that can be taken down, washed and folded when it's not in use. Perfect.

For now, though, we'll have to deal with my kitchen table! This is the last quilt in my challenge, and it's pretty slow going. I have all of the units cut, 2/3 of them sewn and about half of them pressed. Now it's time to start building the blocks. I have until Jan 1 to make this a queen sized flimsy. Yowsers!!

As for progress on the other two ~ one is in a stack of blocks, will put them into rows tonight. One is in rows, needs to be pressed and sewn into a center. I have the borders purchased, but not cut yet.

Hubby leaves town Christmas night and is gone for five days. I'm praying that the new toys keep the kids occupied that week and I get to go into a sewing storm so I can get these finished by Jan 1. Pray for me!!! LOL!

Cheers!

Baby Bento

I used the leftovers from this quilt project to make a baby Bento quilt. It measures only 36" x 36"; I started getting sick of playing with these fabrics and having to keep a good variety in each block. That's why it's so small. My cousin is having a baby boy next month, so I think I'll do some simple straight line quilting and send this to her little bundle once he's born.

I haven't been to the quilt shop yet, so a lot of my sewing has come to a halt. I cut up some 2" squares yesterday ~ I need 600+ and I'm at about 450, so I still have plenty to keep me busy! I decided to tidy up my fabric space yesterday. I desperately need a new system for my scraps (and I really really need to start using them!). How do you handle your scraps? How do you organize them? What actually constitutes a scrap in your mind? I grab anything smaller than a FQ & separate them by color. How about you?

Show & Tell

I've been working hard to meet my goal. All of the blocks for the boys' beds are finished. I decided to play around with some of them tonight. This is about half a quilt's worth of blocks. These will be twin sized quilts, so the blocks will be 7 x 9, then borders (don't have the pattern in front of me, not sure of the border size). I'm loving these quilts! How fun!! But I'm seriously ready to work with some grown up fabric! HA!

**ETA, this post is linked up to Judy's Design Wall Monday**

Quilt Progress....

Look at me now! Blogging from a computer again! Whoot!! Ok, just to update you on my Juki challenge:

Quilt 1 ~ all blocks are done and should be stitched into a flimsy this evening (using a pattern from the book above)

Quilt 2 ~ all cut and ready to be stitched (same fabric/pattern as quilt 1). It'll go quick. My goal is to have two flimsies by bed time tomorrow.

Quilt 3 ~ I'm stuck until I get to the quilt shop (I also need borders for the first two quilts)

Quilt 4 ~ well, it's partially quilted and I've convinced DH that finishing the quilting would actually be much easier and simpler if I did it AFTER I have the Juki! LOL!! So, I'm going to try to add in a few more WIPs to this challenge....I gotta go through my stack and see what speaks to me!!

Monday, assuming everyone is healthy (boy 1 is sick), the boys go to PAL (our once a week "school" that our local public school offers to homeschool kids so that they can technically count them as public students), and I get to go to the quilt shop. ALONE. Pure Bliss!

Ok.....enough for now. I'm going to post some ideas that will hopefully keep me quilting (and blogging) throughout 2012.....stay tuned!

A new Juki

My computer died. New one should be here today, but until then I'm blogging from my iPad - please pardon the crudeness.
Anyway, I've figured it's high time I dusted off this blog. I'm quilting again. Yay!! So I'll have some eye candy soon, too (with my new computer!)

My husband challenged me that if I can get four (specific) quilts finished by the end of the year, he'd buy me a new Juki. Um, yes please!!
I think I negotiated him down to three quilt tops and one finished quilt...three of them I'll take to the long arm and rent time, and she's pretty much booked until after Christmas.
So, the four quilts are:
- boys' beds (they are cut, need to be pieced) Pattern: Snapshots from the Happy Hour book

- our bed quilt. (Partially pieced, mor fabric to purchase) Pattern: Scrappy Irish Chain from Bonnie Hunter's Leaders & Enters book

- "Barney's Quilt" (partially quilted, needs to be frogged and quilting started over). This was a Christmas gift to my husband in 2007. Whoops!!

So, anyway. That's where I am. I hope there are still some readers around here!!
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