2011 - A Year of Completions

Wow! Soooo many dream projects, sooooo many UFO's. . .

I got a pretty good start in 2010 on the massive number of unfinished objects that were hiding in various closets, boxes, baskets, cupboards, and shelves throughout the house. Everything is centralized now, and many quilt tops have been completed and are happily hanging from pants clips, awaiting their turn at Patty's or under my own machine's needle. I actually finished three significant quilts, complete with story labels and hanging sleeves! (Heather's graduation quilt, my Flying Needles BOM quilt, and Tilman's piano watercolor wallhanging with fancy quilting and scripted names around the border.)

For 2011, I am looking forward to working my way through many more UFO's as well as allowing myself to continue the fun of BOMs. I'm doing the 285th US anniversary patriotic stars thematic BOM that Sharon's running for Flying Needles, the Judy Niedermeyer Glacial Star BOM, the McKenna Ryan Beachwalk BOM, the Patriots in Petticoats BOM, and a really fun international swap through Linda's Swap Adventure group. Hmm. . . that's more BOMs than weeks, so I'l have to double up the first week of the month! By the end of the year I'll have 5 sets of blocks ready to be assembled into very cool tops.

Working up the BOM of the week doesn't take all my sewing time, so I'll use the rest of the week to finish piecing, quilting, and stitching bindings, labels, and sleeves on my UFO list. First up at the machines is to finish helping my friend's kids make her Irish chain quilt, and my long-time project Katie Loves Chris, which only needs outlining and stippling of the Sunbonnet Sues. These will be closely followed by the freemotion quilting of the NaGISA tops for Mr. Hernandez and Heather while Dad's quilt is at Katydid's Quilting studio. First up at the television is one of Kelly's quilts that only needs to be bound, followed by the last 15" of hand quilting on her almost finished 1930s reproduction quilt. I also keep an applique project in my purse that will take however long it takes as I pull it out whenever I find myself unexpectedly waiting on something (or watching a show with Scott when I don't have any quilt bindings to stitch on or quilting stencils to work up).

There are two other significant things for me to look forward to in 2011. First, I'm going to start learning how to do machine quilting in earnest. Gotta take advantage of Patty's close proximity while I have it! I'll still pay her to do my most important quilting, but I'm going to grab that bull by the horns and get comfortable with long-arm quilting as well as free-motion at my piecing machine.

The second item of anticipation is really exciting! As my second daughter wraps up her senior year and flies off on her own grand life adventure at a college far away, I'm going to treat myself to a first of hopefully many years of quilting retreats. In addition to our local guild's retreat, I'm going to take a Judy Neidermeyer class at Quilting by the Bay in Panama City, FL, in February. Both are near enough to attend from my home, so no travel expenses keep me from participating. Later in the year, though, after the Air Force has moved us to Kansas, I'll do my first travel retreat - which is to come right back to the region in October and take a three day course with Jacueline de Jonge (from the Netherlands!) at Quilting by the Bay. Can't wait for the fun!