There's A First Time for Everything

I've never been one to make New Year's resolutions. I've avoided goal-setting like the plague (or more accurately, the dentist). This year however, I find myself planning and plotting in a way that closely resembles goal setting behavior. I don't know whether to be shocked or pleased. (Actually, I'm a bit of both. Maybe this is a sign of personal growth?)

I want to continue participating in the Rainbow Scrap Challenge this year. I think I'm going to use it again to reduce the quantity of older prints in my stash. I have quite the menu of block patterns I've been making on a regular basis now. I can start by cutting the larger patches for 10" basket and Churn Dash blocks and work my way down to the 1.5" strips for postage stamp stars. I don't have a specific plan for a rainbow quilt but will probably end up using these blocks in my Parts Dept. quilts throughout the year. Of course having said that, I'll probably not use one block in a quilt until the end of the year and then make a rainbow quilt!

I'm going to continue to post every three weeks for the Stitch Along too, or at least try to. I'm reserving that for the needlepoint and embroidery I like to do on occasion. I haven't made a lot of progress since the last post but there will be a little to show on the 8th of January.

Originally I was using Granny Maud's Girl's Bee, Myself & I challenge/sew along to insure progress on my needlepoint and embroidery. When I became involved with the stitch along the BM&I sort of dropped out of my life. Granny Maud's Girl created the challenge to give herself an excuse to make blocks she wanted for a quilt for herself. Following her example, my intention this year is to make Scrappy Trip blocks in my delicious batiks. I will probably follow the color prompts from the RSC but restrict myself to one or two blocks per month. Unless, of course, that project takes over and becomes undeniable. That's been known to happen a time or two. ;- )

I plan to continue to post on the 15th of each month for Kate and Gun's ScrapHappy Day. I don't have any specific plans for those posts at this point. Last year I made potholders out of some of my orphan blocks from the Parts Dept. Most recently I made some string blocks on scraps of batting. I might continue to do that for a while.

I have the binding on my F2F quilt finally and have begun hand sewing it down. I'm having to take that more slowly than I usually do because of some mysterious pain in my left hand. It feels like a sprain, I just don't know how or when it occurred. That will will be finished before the end of January I hope. At that time I'll have to get a good picture of it for you. It was too big for the design wall and is now heavier and bulkier! I still need to figure out how I want to set the dramatic blocks I received during my turn in the second round of the Foot Square Freestyle block swap.

Kate and I have decided there will not be a third round unless someone else wants to step up to oversee the swap.

There's the baby quilt to complete (see previous post), and later on I expect to participate in the Hands2Help quilt along. There's a relatively short list of UFO's to tackle eventually. I shouldn't have any trouble keeping busy this year!