Projects for 2017

It is hard to ponder ongoing projects while away from home.  Since I am in North Carolina for a few more days with plenty of time to spare, I'll do the best that I can from memory.
I feel that I have a lot of projects in the works.  I'd like to focus on finishing some of them off this year rather than starting new projects.  The pictures are not necessarily representative of the current state of the projects, but they are what is available away from home.  

I think I'm about halfway done with the New York Beauty Blocks.  I was experimenting with designing my own blocks for paper piecing.  I learned a lot working on these blocks.  I did all the prep work ahead of time, so finishing them off should not be too time consuming.

I started this Mizzou Puzzle block last year.  I think I only got about 4 months worth done?  They are really big blocks, so I shouldn't need too many more to have enough for a nice quilt.

 I've been having a lot of fun with these string blocks. Maybe because my main sewing machine needs to go in to the shop and these work well on my back up machine.  In any case, I'm not out of strings yet, so these will keep going for a while longer.

This design wall shot shows two of my ongoing projects.  The Dear Jane triangles in the background are for the border to the already completed center section.  I pulled these out at the begining of last year and made very little progress.  Will this be the year I finally complete the entire quilt?

The circles are all all prepped, but there is still more hand sewing to be done.  I finished 15 on the trip here, so that is a start.  

I think these framed nine patches are almost done, I just need to pull them out and put them all together.  

The OMG It's a Churn Dash top is done, I just need to press the heck out of it and decide on borders. 

And finally, the row by row.  Again, all the blocks should be done.  Now to put it all together.

Yet another quilt with all the blocks done.  They just need to be sewn together as well.  I am sensing a recurring theme.  I like to make blocks, but should take the time to put them all together when they are done.

Oops, almost forgot about these postage stamp stars.  There are enough blocks finished for two quilts.  I even cut out sashing and cornerstones. Better get those all sewn up into quilts.  

So, I think that is the list for the new year.  There are a couple of other possible projects in the quilting closet, but I think this is plenty to start with.  

January Goals

Judy L. over at patchworktimes has come up with a new variation on the traditional UFO challenge for 2013.  Rather than picking 12 projects at the beginning of the year and working on one each month, she is encouraging everyone to choose 4 new goals for each month.  So in the spirit of the new year, I am pondering 4 quilt related goals for January.

1. To prepare the Midget flimsy for quilting by either hand or machine
2. To finish the back for Shoot for the Moon
3. To quilt Shoot for the Moon
4. To put the blocks together for Jamestown Landing

And 4 non quilt related goals for January
1. To excercise every day for at least 15 minutes
2. To spend 15 minutes each day decluttering or organizing
3. To update school files and binders
4. To eat breakfast everyday

Crazy Person

It's been crazy busy around here, and any sane person would have buckled down and started working on the list of things that must be done now. Instead I'm puttering away on this and that, as if I had no deadlines ahead. My school (for the first time ever) is taking a winter break next week. Just like spring break, but this year we get both. My husband and I scheduled a cruise, and my mother-in-law has been wonderful enough to volunteer to come and stay with my kids who don't get the week off. Vacations should be relaxing, but instead, I'm trying to get everything finished off before we leave --thinking that the house should be in some sort of reasonable shape before I hand it over for the week. The guest bedroom has started collecting everything, not just my quilting, but now the OM junk as well. I had it all beatiful, and then we started doing stuff again. That's always the problem. The doing stuff makes the house a wreck.

I've been plowing steadily through my scrap basket during the odd down moments this week. I got a bunch of stuff ironed last weekend and started slicing it. I was lucky enough to inherit bunches of scraps from our neighbor who moved away recently. I'm focusing on 2 inch strips to go into my scrappy irish chain. I've picked this one as my February project. I think I will make it into a twin size quilt because I'm contemplating a new charity project. Another Girl Scout troop is working on their gold award and helping to get a local shelter ready to open again after a recent transformation. They are cleaning and painting and decorating. Before I even knew what I was thinking, the first thing that popped out of my mouth was, "Do they need quilts?" We made 40 lap sized quilts for Christmas, how hard could 23 twin sized quilts be? This one is still in the planning stages, but I've been turning it around in my head for a couple of days now. I have some vauge idea about kitting up a bunch of happy square blocks and hosting an intermediate quiltmaking session for the girls who enjoyed the first quilt making experience.

I am seriously a crazy person. I've just lost a girl scout leader at my school, another troop is having a crisis, my own cookie mom dropped out on me, so I'm frantically arranging all of that while trying to get ready for a cruise and a visit from my mother-in-law. I'm giving two tests tomorrow and I'd better get those written or my students will be seriously disappionted. So how did I spend my evening? Any reasonable person would have been handlling the urgent list. I was peacefully ironing some yardage so that I could get it put away before the weekend. I'm not just crazy, I'm also oblivious. Not exactly an effective way to deal with stress, but I guess it's better than freaking out.

Weekend Fun

Boy does buying a new car take a long time! It's not like you can just walk into the dealer and say, "Give me one of these in blue, I'll take it to go." It took two days of driving and testing and debating, but in the end, I got a new Kia in blue. I got everything squared away yesterday and just had to send Kurt in today to sign so his name could be on the title too. It had 14 miles on it, but then I used it today and it is already at 34 miles. I'm sure eventually I'll stop checking. I haven't got everything all set up yet, but there is a plug for my I-pod and plenty of nooks and crannies for things to fit in. I did some cleaning and organizing in the garage today to make sure it doesn't get dinged up when people get in and out.

Yesterday morning was the Girl Scout rock climbing. The bigger girls seemed to spend more time worrying about whether or not they could do it than the little ones on Wednesday. They started with a lot of being scared, but soon got over that and worked on getting up the walls. I saw one of my girls this morning already and she couldn't wait to tell me how much fun she had and that she wants to go again.

Today was spent trying to get the house recovered from me being gone the past two weekends. Kurt did a good job trying to stay caught up with everything, but it was feeling a little neglected from the general activity level lately. One of my cleaning tasks was getting OHR finished so that I could get it up off the floor and turn the dining room back into a dining room again. I got carried away with car shopping yesterday and missed my January deadline by one day. It is almost done now though. The binding is on and ready to get some hand stitching during the superbowl tonight.
I need to find the list of my UFO's so I can pick a project for February. I also need to get a border for Double Delight and for The Inaguration Quilt.
The kitchen got a little extra attention this month, although I still have couple of small projects I'd like to take on as time allows. I think the garage will be the room of the month for February. We are in need of a garage sale followed by a trip to goodwill. I've amassed quite a collection of stuff, and I don't care what happens to it, as long as it can disappear. I'll also have to spend some time turning the study back into a guest bedroom before my mother-in-law shows up in two weeks. The Old Hurricane Road quilt is meant for that bed, so that works out well.

Running Update for February:
Miles this week: 16.5
Miles this year: 80.92
Average per week: 16.2
One week to the marathon

Taking Stock

I was tossing and turning in my sleep last night. Painting the house has started the never ending "t0 do" list running in high gear in my head. Something about having the outside all shiny and clean makes me think the inside should match. We've been collecting stuff for a garage sale for a while now, so when I couldn't sleep I started a list of things to be collected and put into the sale. Then I made a list of home improvements to work on and I could be busy for quite a while.
The end of the year is also an opportunity to inventory accomplishments and goals. Since this is a quilt blog, I'll start with quilty things. I see in my side bar that I finished 18 quilts last year. I stopped counting in the heat of the nursing home lap quilt frenzy, but 8 of the 18 belong to that group. I know I made up others from the kits, but those were part of the project, so I won't bother to add all that up. I also see from the side bar that I have 13 WIPs listed (works in progress for non quilt people). I'm thinking that finishing one UFO a month is a good goal for the year. That still gives me wiggle room for new projects if I work on current pace.
It isn't quite as easy to quantify the non-quilty goals. All of the home improvement and upkeep is such a never ending cycle that I'm not sure where to start. I suppose I could break the house down into rooms and try to focus on one each month. I'll have to start thinking about how that could work. I think I'm on track for the excerscise and health arena. Losing wieght is a also a never ending goal, so I won't even bother to list that one. How about you guys, is anyone else thinking about resolutions for the new year?