Happy New Year

Yes, Yes I know I’m late wishing you but I do hope everyone had a merry and jolly holiday season and your 2016 is off to a great start!

I closed my Etsy shop for 2 1/2 weeks and traveled to sunny Florida with my hubby. I had such a hard time wrapping my head around 80 degree weather on Christmas Day! We spent most of our time narrowing down neighborhood selections – our plan is to move to Florida when he retires next year.

Once we returned home I had to do inventory for the shop and wrote down my 2016 goals for both the shop and my quilting journey.  I love the beginning of a new year – embracing fresh starts!  I tried to be more realistic with my quilting goals for 2016. With my main job being sewing I find it hard making time to sew for pleasure.

Many of the blogs that I follow are taking part in the 2016 UFO (unfinished objects) challenge at All People Quilt. They have a nice chart that you can download for your own use.  I did take the time to fill out one for myself. Because I’m still a newbie my UFO list is short and the bulk of the items are completely pieced — most need  machine quilting or binding.

My biggest problem isn’t finishing projects — it’s deciding what to make. I’ve mentioned before I’m a pre-cut junkie — if it’s a good price and I like it I buy it

While organizing my sewing room I created a spreadsheet listing all of my precuts – I’m sad and ashamed to admit I found more than one duplicate purchase😦. All of my rambling here leads me to my #1 goal for 2016 which is NO Purchasing Fabric on a Whim – I can only add to my pre-cut stash after I’ve started a new project and it is at least half completed.

Of course I can’t do this cold turkey!! I celebrated a birthday and Christmas in December – I convinced my 3 wonderful and generous kids to get/give gift cards to my favorite online fabric shops. Will I be cheating on my goal when I spend their money?

Another item on my 2016 quilting goals is making and donating baby quilts. Son #1 owns a daycare in Indianapolis — so he will be the benefactor of those quilts.

Another goal for 2016 is continuing my aim for accuracy with my quilting skills. I hope to accomplish this by completing a mini quilt each month.

For this month January I am starting with the bow tie quilt block -using a tutorial written by Caroline from SewCanShe. She has several classic quilt block tutorials on her site; I hope to make most of them.

My bow tie mini measures 29 x 29 inches. I created 9 blocks using the 8 inch measurements from the tutorial. I added a 1 1/2 inch inside border and a 3 inch outside border. I used scraps from a  polka dot fat quarter bundle in bright colors I purchased from JoAnn’s and Kona cotton solid in white as the background. Mini quilts are good for my soul — my need for instant gratification. It took me approximately two hours to cut, stitch, and baste.

As usual I’m stuck on how to quilt it!

My January project from the 2016 UFO list is my Winter Trees wall hanging. I pieced this sometime in 2015 – It needs quilting, basting, and binding. I hope to have finished by end of this month.

Until next time — live love and sew!