Some Serious Progress for the New Year!

Guess what! Christmas is all packed away except the quilts and poinsettias. I'm going to enjoy those a few days (weeks?) longer. All the candy cans are ready to go into storage in the garage; I've already bought the new ones for next year! That nasty crud made me feel really bad for about 10 days, but I did a little each day, and finally finished!

I had such a mess in the big closet in the sunroom that I just had to do something about it. So I went to the store and bought three shelf units, and my son helped me put them together last Friday. I spent all day Saturday just sorting all my quilt magazines and getting them on the shelves. I'm almost afraid to show them to you, but I'm proud of how nice they look. I think I still have every quilting magazine I've ever bought or subscribed to; I just love to look at them for inspiration! (Be honest! I bet you have yours too!) So don't fuss at me too much, but....what do you think?

They fit very well underneath the built-in shelves that go to the ceiling; you see the bottom shelf and braces for those between the new units. By turning the one at the back on its side, it left more room for a large box on top, and also the three units then almost filled one wall of the closet! Can you believe that closet is just three inches short of my being able to turn all three on the side, thus giving another shelf the whole nine feet! The space above the upright two is only about six inches, but I can put magazines there until I file them in order, or other small items can store there also. Even so, it's the best $100 I've spent in a long time! I think I'm going to love it!

Of course, I didn't take time to look at all those magazines other than sort them and line them up in date order. Somehow I missed one of the older ones, so I decided to look at it before I put it in its proper place. It is "Country Quilts - #31" from February, 2007. On page 50-53 is Quilt Lab Ann's "Neat 'n Nifty Nines" little quilt! Glad I saw that one again! I know there are several others of hers in those stacks!

Today I made these two Civil War blocks: (#13-Little Blue Basket, and #14-Fox and Geese, which really is square though it doesn't look like it in the picture)

I hope to continue working on that project as often as possible. I've also pomised myelf that this year I'm going to make a real effort to learn to free-motion quilt on my machine. I'm going to be following Leah Day's freemotion project, quietly and on my own; it's just a personal commitment. So I probably won't be sharing much of it, except my verbal frustrations! I fear there will be a lot of that! I'll also be looking into several others, but she gives such detailed instructions, and so calmly, that I think maybe I can do it, if I will just make the time to practice, practice, practice! Hopefully by the end of the year, I can see enough progress to share a bit. If not, I'll give up, and pay the pros!

Tomorrow I will begin that practice on the first lesson; say a little prayer for me that I won't lose my temper! *wink* Maybe I'll make another Civil War block too, and I definitely want to plan another little throw quilt, or maybe two, that I want to get made in the near future, more on the style of the Comfort of the Psalms quilts I made a couple of years ago.

So that's my plan for this year! Of course, I'm bad at veering from my plans, so don't be shocked when I change my mind --- again!

By the way, thanks for all your well-wishes and nice comments on my last blog! They cheered me up!

Happy quilting, everyone!

---"Love"