Crafty resolutions

2013 is almost over, and I'm not the least bit sorry to see it go. I guess every year has a certain amount of sucky things happen, but it seems like this year had a lot. Hm. Anyway, I've been thinking about new year's resolutions. A friend of mine makes odd resolutions. One year, she resolved to only use chopsticks when she ate Chinese food, stuff like that, rather than the usual "lose x pounds." My one non-crafty resolution is to use my Fitbit for the whole year, barring technical difficulty. My Mom has a Jawbone, and she loves it, but she's had to send it off to be fixed/have battery replaced a couple of times. Sadly, I did not keep my resolution from this year, which was to finish the whole-cloth quilt I started back in...2011? I did finish the quilting in the center, though, so that's something. Now, my crafty resolutions are to put in some time with my drop-spindle, to use at least one of the skeins of pretty yarn I have in my stash, and to work on my quilting skills. Here is my plan for the last one: I'm going to make a sampler quilt. I went shopping this weekend, and bought my fabric. I've spend weeks looking at books and websites, and I picked 12 blocks. I got Quilter's Academy, Vol. 3 for Christmas, and I picked up Volume 4 as well, so I'll be using those. I want to work on triangles and diamonds, and get comfortable with them. I would like to be able to say "I want to make a Cut Glass Dish quilt" and actually do it without losing my sanity. So the plan is to make at least one block a month, and to get all of the blocks completed by the end of the year.

Well, things are looking up since my last post. My husband has a new job! In fact, tonight we went to his office Christmas party, and I got to meet some of his co-workers and see his office. This past week, we had an ice storm. There is still ice on the ground! It rained today, so by now, most of the frozen stuff that's left are dirty sleet balls along the sides of the roads. I spent four days, Friday-Monday at home. I got the Sea Snails quilt finished! Woo hoo! It's washed and dry. I have a few more loose threads to snip, and I think it will be ready to go. My next quilt is going to be for me! I realized that my husband has a quilt, but the only quilt I've made for myself and finished that I still have is one with no batting that I made about 10 or 12 years ago. It's great, it's nice and soft, and the flannel on the back is pretty warm, but it's not as warm as a quilt with batting would be. I've got two Honeycombs of Honeysweet, by Fig Tree. I think I'm going to modify a pattern on Moda bakeshop. Here's a link to the original: http://www.modabakeshop.com/2013/10/sweet-as-honey-quilt.html#more It's a nice quilt, and I like the idea, but it seems like kind of a waste of fabric, I mean, there are a lot of hexagon pieces that get cut off to make those blocks, and what's the point of making a nice hexagon rosette if you can't see the flower pattern? So my idea is to make a full 7-hex rosette, and then cut hexagons out of some tea-dyed muslin specifically to cut them in half to fill out the block shape. So that's the idea, we'll see how it goes. I made some progress on my whole-cloth quilt. The center is now completely quilted! Now, I have to do the border. First, though, I have to even it up. I think when I made the quilt sandwich, the layers weren't quite even, OR, when I made the backing, I turned the center panel the wrong way when I made the back, or but it a little short. Either way, the border needs to be evened out, and possibly trimmed all the way around. The original border pattern I was going to use has squares set on point. Half had a grid pattern in the middle, half had a flower, and in the spaces in between blocks, there were three leaf shapes. I think I'm going to use a design from another quilt from the same book, Quilts of Provence. I think I want to use a curved vine with leaves, and large daisies in the corners and in the middle of the border. I'll fill with slanting lines, like I've seen in a lot of feather patterns.