There is lots of exciting things happening this year that I want to participate in, but I am not sure I can do them all and I don't want to decide between them so for right now I will try to do everything and see what is working for me in a couple of months! (can you see me setting myself up for frustration here?) The Diva hopefully will continue her weekly zentangle challenges on her blog - those are short and sweet and fun. I joined another zentangle-ish group on Yahoo that seems very active with the challenges and swaps and things and I hope to get more involved over there as well, although, to date I have joined, but not even managed to introduce myself yet!
On the quilting front I have 'pledged' to keep up with SewCalGal's Free Motion Quilt Challenge this year. I watched the tutorial for January today and think I can handle it. What I really need to do is make a little introspective journey through some of my old FMQ stuff and write a "before" post complete with photos so I can see next December where my skills started out this January. I also ran across Leah Day's Free Motion Quilt Along ... she is awesome and so talented... I may have to follow along over there as well. I may not fully participate as much, but I WILL be following along. I hope to also keep up with Design Wall Mondays over at Patchwork Times and WIP Wednesday's over at Freshly Pieced. There are also the UFO Challenge at Patchwork Times... I have to look at that since the goal this year is to FINISH a few things!
Speaking of which...a few things I am determined to finish...They are really works in progress and not technically UFOS yet since I am still currently working on them right? The first is my crumb quilt from the Crumb Along which just needs bordering and quilting (that part always comes later for me!). The "reveal" over at Jo's Country Junction is later this month on the 31st and I really need to get a move on if I am to finish the top by then. The next thing I need to keep working on is my Modern Workshop Moda quilt that I am appliqueing a border for... man is that slow but I am making progress... I am on border #3, have the vines and flowers basted on and that makes one border and about 80 leaves to go! I also need to decide how many more Tweets blocks to applique and how I want to set them, and if I can get acceptable matching Kona background fabric since I didn't buy enough to begin with. I don't think I will do all of them and I may be crazy enough to try to add at least some of the applique border, although that could stretch the project out by a year or two (and I guess I should buy enough of the Kona if I find it to use as the border)! I refuse to even look at Erin's BOM 2012... I just can't get myself into another one right now! There are sundry other quilt tops I would like to actually QUILT this year. Hopefully I can plug away at the current applique projects and crank out some actual FINISHED tops this year. I MUST shift my focus away from piecing and onto quilting unless I win the lottery and can pay to have my tops finished. I can satisfy my yen for peicing by making pieced backs with the leftovers from the tops if I still have them.
OK, I know, dull post with no photos. I will do better once the kids are back in school. In the meantime... I will thrill you with a small finish I managed... I have finally gotten sleeves on my heavily embellished Debbie Mumm seasonal wall hangings that were made...umm, in 2007? They are hanging on my wall as I type! All have trapunto stuffing in the house and the border elements are embroidered with floss, and in one case the 'apple' buttons were added. The details of the pictures are also embroidered... silver icicles, herringbone pine cones, french knot wool on the sheep, silk ribbon apples on the trees and lots of beads for flowers and leaves. Then they were all free motion quilted around the picture elements and I made up FMQ border designs appropriate to the season. For panels they are pretty cute and I am relieved to be able to actually hang the on the wall! I may bite the bullet and make three sets of little button tabs and sew buttons on the back so I can hang one on top and button the rest to the bottom so they hang in a row. Right now the Winter and Spring are pinned together and they look nice in a column. However, I am considering them finished!
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Very Cute!
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