Love making progress

It often takes a retreat weekend or a very determined effort to carve out 30 minutes here and there over a week or so to see me make progress. I had the former although the weekend was a tad short. Couldn't get there until 5:00 on Friday evening, and left early on Sunday to get home before a winter storm worsened with high winds. But I'll take what I can get.

Friday night I warmed up with some small projects, like laying out and pressing the Celtic Cat hanging. Alas not enough black fusible 'leading' to do the seams, and the store adjoining the retreat center did not have the plain black.  Saturday I put the major elements together for my Gaggy 30's bed top. Here it is so far:

There are white panels to each side of the center 'window' and I may add more white all around to get it to twin bed size. Then I'll add some of those rose type of flowers with vines and leaves going up each side of white and overlapping some of the top arch window. This is the design I wanted, and now it will serve double duty in hiding some of the piecing patching I had to do to get that arch to fit level on the body.

I am really liking this. While it is the dreaded 30's fabric, at least they aren't the overly sweet prints.

Then my other big project I did on retreat focused on the Tom's t's quilts. One I machine quilted with 'e's and o's' and the other I pin basted. Now to tackle the binding on the former (with label) and the quilting on the latter. Good thing there is a holiday vacation in the offing.

Photos are here

I finally snapped some photos of the two UFOs I finished in November. Here is the final Kitty in the Corner wall quilt, about 35" square. I took the time to try some freehand feathering in the center and border. I didn't like the way the corners turn on the small white outer border. I see these kinds of projects I do for myself as times to experiment. Sometimes I'm pleased (the quilting) but other times not so much.

Sorry for the funky angle. It's on my wall at work and it doesn't hang the best floating away from the wall.

Then here are two pictures of the purse I did. I'll need to post the pattern source later. I love the light weight feel, and no I didn't jettison extra stuff when I switched from my canvas purse to this one. It has the necessary outside pocket for my phone and everyday key, and look-there is an interior zippered pocket too! Not shown are a series of smaller open pockets on the other side of the interior. I'm going to like this purse. Now that it is done, I'll use if for a couple of months and then decide how to tailor it for a spring look. Another outside pocket? Sturdier handles? Firmer bottom (can I have that on the purse and myself please)?

Ok-that's it for now. I'll take an in-progress photo of the Celtic Cat quilt soon and report back. Sometime in here I need to attend to holiday decorations. It is December 1 and we have a couple of items to hang that count down the days. And then there are cookies to plan for and bake! Not to mention making time to satisfy the quilt muse in me. Sure will be good to have my DD on holiday break in just 16 days because then my evening homework on-call time will be suspended. Unfortunately that is just too late if we want to get in the holiday spirit.

Another month gone by-where are the photos!

Yes, it is the end of November, and while I've carved out time to finish two UFOs, I still don't have the photos to prove it. The kitty in the corner quilt is done. Then I made a new purse, from great pinkish/brown fabrics that look a bit wild for me. This mostly accomplished before Thanksgiving, which has come and gone. That long weekend allowed me to get the easy tree up and decorated in the foyer, but then I chose to ignore the family tree job. Just preferred to escape to sewing.

What was done was the selection of fabrics for the Celtic Cat wallhanging, and I've gotten most of that laid out with fusible. Need to still add some border leaves. I'll give that a good press in coming days and it will go with me for a Danville retreat on the 10th. I'll add the fusible 'leading' to it while there and see if I can get it layered and quilted on the leading strips.

The other overdue task was to spray baste one of the t-shirt quilts. I thought this type of basting would be a breeze and simplify the basting. It did not, and I think I'll leave that type of basting to small projects only in the future. I'll go ahead and pin baste the second t-shirt quilt I want to do when I get to Danville.

So far my retreat projects will be the Celtic cat project (till I'm tired of that), then some t-shirt quilt quilting (till I'm tired of that), and then I'll also bring that batik bubbles on strips quilt that needs the bubbles sewn down. For added interest I'll also bring those two mystery round robbin blocks that require the overdue 3" border and the corner set pieces. I'll see if I can catch up on those projects.

Of course this may change if I get the chance to look through other UFOs to see if there are any holiday themed projects that should demand my attention. Maybe put together some poster board photo ornaments? I'm years behind on those. Guess that would require me getting some photos printed too. I'll see.

I plan to take that day off from work, pack, and then travel first to Paris to shop at the LQS. Then I can head north to Danville by dinner time and check into the center. Maybe grab the chance to shop a bit there too?

I'm looking forward to the time away. December will fly by at the rate this year has gon.e

Blog inspiration

So I'm following about a dozen blogs and getting inspiration from all, especially the non-quilting ones. I'm realizing that even without a photo, it is good to post more often to this blog. I'm also on facebook, but I don't like to post there-my thoughts of the moment seem too personal to put there, and I'm so conscious of the wide variety of possible viewers-quilt buddies, daughters, family....

Yet, I need to keep my posting semi-quilt related here, right?

So tonight is our guild's business meeting, and a board meeting before that, so I need to go home early to make sure a dinner is at least planned for DD and DH. Plus I need to gather up my guild bag and nametag since I didn't remember to do that last night. I don't have much business to present and intend to have others on my program committee do the talking tonight. That's kind of nice.

Laziness or really busy? Which excuse to use when I admit here, now, that no quilting related progress made this week, since Sunday that is. At least I worked on some projects Sunday with my small group. So this weekend I wish to:

Cut all the remaining parts for that purse

1. Hand applique the circles I have pinned in place
2. Machine quilt the borders on Kitty in the Corner
3. Perchance, even cut and sew on the binding for #3?

Non-quilting tasks?

1. Trouble shoot (and repair?) the non-functioning closet light for DD
2. Trouble shoot (and repair?) the broken garage side door jamb
3. Shop for a new chest freezer and get that installed. I'll leave dealing with the old freezer for Monday

That's it for now.

How to get back into the quilting swing of things

I really have been sewing-more than the blog or I recognize. The new school year started about six weeks back, and I knew there would be homework nights with my DD. So I visited my quilting space and located the UFOs I wanted to work on as part of a guild challenge for the next year, through August 2011. Then I figured out the baby steps those projects have that would need smaller time chunks. It helped that I've set up an old DVD player in my sewing space, and I'm working my way through the Harry Potter movies in advance of movie #7 coming out soon.

So here's my progress so far:

• The kitty in the corner hanging from a previous post: the center is quilted (two 1 hour evenings) and the background around the kitties is quilted (two 1 hour evenings).
• I have cut and pieced the backgrounds for the Tom's t-shirt quilts-I even have the batting bought. (four 30 minute evenings) Layering comes once I have the kitty cat quilt done. I'll use fusible spray.
• The paper pieced flowers for the gaggy 30s quilt are done (two Saturday afternoons-including that recent retreat)
• The black yo-yo flower centers were done (three 30 minute evening sessions)
• Took a Becky Goldsmith class (spent two days as her hostess and pupil), and finished 3 of the 4 class projects. I'll get the circles done soon.

So in the past 6 weeks, I've worked through 15 separate sewing room visits, not to mention making great strides with an antique needlepoint project I'm determined to have done by next summer's end. I have set aside Sunday afternoon to go sew with buddies, so that will be productive time. If the weather is good, I may take one of those t-shirt quilts outside and do the spray basting. We suspect the spray bothers my DD, even though I don't think the smell is overwhelming. So that is better done outside.


I'll need to get the gaggy 30's quilt back on the wall soon to make sure I'm making that flower section and side panels the correct sizes. I'll take pics and post soon. (Yeah, famous last words!)

Weekend here I come

I've been so tired all week. This is greatly due to the retreat last week, when I delighted in shorting myself on restful sleep so I could sew more. I did get to bed around 11:30 at night, but then chose to read a murder mystery till way too late in the morning. Such a treat, only because I could do this without the guilt of keeping DH awake. Then there was no rest for the weary, since once I was home, DD has needed some support all week in the evening with writing, math, or physics. Often until 11:30. And then up again by 6:30. Yikes, this boils down to no chance of me sewing now for FIVE whole days. This is serious withdrawal after that intensive retreat.

So DD has a cross country meet out of town tomorrow. She is out by 6:30 am. I will see her out the door, and then nap. Yipee!! Maybe I'll have a four hour stretch after said nap where I can make it to the machine and put together the backing for one or two of the Tom's t's quilts. Maybe even get one spray basted.

I put together a rather long UFO list for myself as part of our guild challenge. I would need to quilt a quilt every 6-8 weeks for the next year to do half of what I want to do. I'm going to make a serious effort to see if this is possible.

How wonderful it was to retreat!

My guild, the Illini Country Stitchers, held a retreat at the Threads of Time Danville IL retreat center over the 3 day weekend. About fifteen people came, some for all the time, some for just a day. I spent three nights and 2 full days there and got so much done. I thought I packed too ambitiously, with way too many tasks to do, but ended up getting all done to the point I wanted. Today I'm tired, but happy.

Here is the second Tom R. t-shirt quilt, made a bit smaller than twin bed sized. The first one is posted in January 2010. The piecework was done on retreat, but all the t's were precut, stabilized, and had a designated spot mapped out in advance.

 Now my next task is to applique a couple of items to fill dead space in two spots (navy gap on top right and in the blue space below in the bottom angled piece). Then I'm ready to layer and quilt these two puppies. Can they get done by next spring? Depends on how much homework help my high school daughter needs.

Then I owe myself the posting of this little wall hanging, Kitty Corner. I just love the golds it it. The top was finished at the May guild retreat. I'll have to look up the pattern designer later.

That's it for now. I'll get the other September retreat projects out for photos and post them soon.

Great start to July

I love having a small sewing group to keep me on task. While my guild is also great, there is nothing like a set of friends to remind me that I quilt for my peace of mind, and that when I'm not quilting, other parts of my life start wearing on me.

So one friend in my group issued a challenge to look for the reason(s) we felt we weren't making better progress on our quilting projects, and tackle one or more for the next 3 weeks. This in response to many of us saying we hadn't even unpacked our machines or projects between the times we gathered to sew together.

So my response was to challenge myself to three tasks before we leave on a July 25 vacation:

1. Finish machine quilting my Dad's t-shirt quilt (about 25% done) as I’d like to take it to Colorado to bind.

2. Finish scanning my father’s collection of slides and get the indexes for the carousels scanned and labeled. This set of his photos from about 1960-1979 will go on DVDs as gifts to my family, and it’s been hanging over my head now for about 4 years. I’d estimate I’ll have about 800-900 slides scanned when this little project is done. After last night, I have 1 more carousel to do; about 90 slides.

3. Make my basement feel like it’s a living space, and not a storage space. This is probably my biggest obstacle to sewing, as I hate facing the junk on my way to my sewing area. To this end, I spent most of the weekend working on this. DH and I bought big storage cabinets with doors and they’ve been filled with the excess household and keepsake items. I’ve tossed another 3 trash bags of stuff, and reorganized all the books, scrapbooks, gift wrap, and my family photo albums and books we love to read and reread onto dedicated book shelves. I’ve freed up two plastic shelves that are going into the furnace room, and they’ll help me when it’s time for that annual space cleaning. I need to move a 4 drawer file cabinet across the room, and then I can consolidate all the paperwork that I think I need to keep in one space. I mostly cleared off my cutting table. I’ll continue to putter in the basement in the evenings, with my goal of having the cleaning done by next Sunday.

I'll take some photos of the spaces and post them soon.

Great end to June

Nothing ends a month on a better note for me than to spend the last weekend getting some serious sewing done. So I got about 8 hours in on Saturday with my small quilt group at my house, and then another 3 hours in on Sunday with the same group at a fabric store meeting room. I chose to devote my time on 2 relatively new projects. Neither got done, but both moved along considerably. Photos still to come.

Then my DD gave me the push to clear out a bunch of clutter in the basement that is now in my van, ready for a charity drop off. This gives me a much better first impression when going down there to reach the sewing area. I decided I need to get back to the quilting on my t-shirt quilt. I need those quilting pins for other projects. Friend Dorothy is empowering me to get my quilting butt in gear and layer and quilt some of the backlog of tops I have. Can it really be as easy as she makes it sound?

Oh, June is almost gone too!

And still no photos posted. I looked at my April project list, and only a couple have been touched. My guild had their big retreat in May, and I got away for 3 nights/3 days. I got Mitchell's cat ironed down, and that was enough. I took some cheap batik jelly rolls and got those strip pieced for an impromptu quilt. It still needs black strips between the 8" panels. I also put the components together for the wall quilt that had the cute striped cats in the corners, but left it as a top.

I did get that Project Linus quilt bound. I have bought the materials I need for the outline stitched cat blocks, and transferred the patterns to the muslin.

So I invited my small group to come over this Saturday, as my incentive for some housecleaning, and to restart some of these projects. I'll also help Amanda take a small horse wall hanging to the next level, with her getting the fusible on the fabric, and the pieces to a foundation for fusing.

Plus we have a Sunday afternoon booked for sewing at a local fabric store. So for Saturday, my focus will be on
1. stripping the batik panels, and maybe fusing the applique details so that top is done;
2. layering the kitty in the corner wall hanging for quilting (on Sunday?);
3. quilting a few blocks on the t-shirt quilt (need those pins for #2;
4. work with Amanda here and there

If there is additional time, I'll make myself quilt a few more t-shirt blocks.

Can April 2010 really be coming to an end?

It's mid spring around here. Where did January through March go? I had 3 hours of time spent on Mitchel's Cat yesterday-I have 2 more colors to get cut out and put on the collage-like foundation. Then I need to do my trimming so I have the right edges on top. Soon I'll be pressing it all down. I need this to be stuck together before I go on retreat May 13 as I don't want to possibly get another person's iron all sticky, but can't use a personal iron there (we start blowing fuses). This I will definitely show here when the pressing is done.

Retreat projects I propose to do so far include (which may change):
1. quilting my Dad's t-shirt quilt
2. stitching down Mitchel's cat quilt edges-maybe layering and quilting this too
3. creating gaggy 30's paper pieced flowers for below the window
4. binding a Linus quilt
5. something with jelly roll strips from the Chicago show
6. preparing the blocks for that cat pattern with the design done in outline stiches

Chicago Show coming up

My quilt guild is making an annual bus trip to the big Chicago International Quilt show this weekend. Looks like it may be the last for a while as they announced they would be in Cincinnati in future years. So I'm doubly glad I talked my DD into coming along with us this year. It will be her first big show, and I need to take care to let her see the quilts as much as she wants and not expect her to enjoy the vendors as much as I do. I'll bring my shopping wish list, so a good excuse to take stock of my stash to see if there are colors I'm short on, or items needed to finish a project or two. No laughing-I really mean 'finish'. Ok, it may be safer to say 'make progress'. Then I'm hoping I'm not too tired come Sunday to do some house work, yard work and/or quilt work.

Behind on quilting, catching up on the little things

So it's been almost two weeks since the Kimberly Einmo class, and I still haven't posted photos of my project. I finished all 16 of the blocks, but they aren't set. They are stunning when laid out in her original set, but I got to playing and I like another minor variation of the layout. Now I'm trying to clear my design wall to see if there are other possibilities for the block set. I'll get photos of those variations soon.

My time drags were: painting a large bathroom and helping my DD paint her bedroom, weekend travel for Easter, and doing taxes. Somewhere in there 2 books distracted me too.

I'm working on the gaggy 30's project again. I am finishing the arcs that would go above the framed flower vases. I'll get that section done this weekend (really I will) and post a picture. Next on that project is cutting side panels for some vine appliques-thinking the buttonhole stitching would be good handwork to have ready when we make a trip this summer to CO. Then that project can come down for a bit and the Einmo variations can go up.

I'm still working in fits and starts on Mitchel's cat. The fusible is cut and ready to go on fabric backs. That I'd like to have pieces fused to the background before the May 14th retreat so I can layer and quilt that. Yes, it's time to dream of retreat projects. So far it may be a lot of quilting, which is not good for my shoulders and back. I'll have to find some piecing to bring along too.

Now on to readying photos of my back yard to send to my brother-in-law so he can advise me on what can be done to spruce it up. Hopefully I can get him and my brother to come up from St. Louis to do the work-he does fantastic stonework and landscaping.

Quilt class here I come

I'm taking a vacation day tomorrow so I can take a class being taught by Kimberly Einmo. I've got my fabrics chosen, from my stash, and the necessary strips cut. I don't have a fabric for the outer border, but think I'll be lucky to get that far. I've learned to sign up for these opportunities, even if the project to be done doesn't jazz me (but this is a nice pattern-Bohemian Crystal, which is the top row, fourth from the left), simply because by the time I've heard the lecture the night before, the speaker has me hooked, and I'll then want to take the class. Then every speaker has some nugget(s) of great information to share-a technique, tool use, inspiration. So I'll post pictures of what I get done tomorrow.

Just an update

No cool photos to show off; no big news on making progress on anything. My girls are now big enough I don't have a reason to take off spring break time to be with them, so no excuses to stay home next week and secretly get some sewing in. I will take a day off to indulge in a Friday class with a guild hosted teacher, Kimberly Einmo. Should be good.

I expect I'll get some quilt stuff done this weekend. I'll have a break from homework help next week too, so maybe some evening projects?

What! Another project?

Yes, I'm jumping all over the place with quilt projects. I think it's the time of year (yeah, sure), but I seem to want to drift my attention here and there on things. So I got the t's off the design wall, after measuring and mapping their layout. I didn't pack them away; otherwise I don't know when I'd dig them out to make into a top. I used the design wall to put up the center medallion of gaggy 30's flower vases; I really need a different name for this quilt or it will go down in history as the gaggy 30's quilt. Somehow 'gaggy' may make it onto the label. Then I laid out the paper piecing templates above the medallion. I have my birthday Friday off, and I want to see how many of those elements I can get done. Then I pulled out this fantastic copy of an original piece of work my nephew Mitchell made. Here it is:

My plan for this was to use Cynthia England's technique to paper piece this in fabric. After working with her technique though, I'm reverting back to using Sharon Malec's technique of gluing together pieces. So I stopped the straight line drafting and converted it to the more fluid lines below:

You can see the black and white, gridded version of the photo above, and how I've put the major lines of the picture in the larger draft. Here it is a bit clearer:

 

Since taking this photo, I've added some colored pencil shadings to help me see how the fabrics may go on. Since I can't shade this with fabric as well as Mitchell did with his medium, I worry the transitions will be too harsh. I won't know until I've tried a section of the picture. If the sections end too abruptly, my plan is to then abandon the Malec style and go with raw edge fusible. Then I can clip furry edges. Plus I know I can quilt in some of the light or shaded details later. 

More t-shirt progress

I did the cropping of the stabilized t-shirts from Tom R. This is the layout below. I'm not sure if this is the final version. Next I measure the length and width of the layout and decide if it needs to be longer and narrower. Then I'll measure each piece and do a rough map. At that stage I decide how the top can be broken up into 5-6 units that will go together with the minimum (or no) set-in pieces. I've already set myself up for some set-in of the blocks with that large black piece in the upper right. I think it will be worth it to be able to keep that piece in the top. Soon I'll be at the fun stage of picking fabrics to use to border each piece. I'll be sure to use some that were in the first Tom R. t-shirt quilt-don't know why. It just seems right to make them have something in common.

T'shirt progress

Well, I'm actually posting two days in a row! I often find that post-retreat I make reasons to get downstairs for quilt work, and this is so this time. I still haven't totally unpacked the retreat goodies, because I really wanted to get the t-shirts off the design wall. So last night I carved out an hour to press the stabilizer to the cut t's. I'll see if tonight I can make myself continue the trend. I'd like to cut them to size. If time allows, I'll do my measurements and draw the schematic layout to use as a guide for the piecework. If not, I'll aim for Wednesday night. It would also be good to unpack the machine and supplies soon.

We had snow last night, and expect more this afternoon/evening. Plus winds will keep it interesting. So school was out for my daughter today, and that means less homework for her tonight. Less homework for her = less homework for me. I'll probably make up a sample math test for her to work on to prepare for a test she has Wednesday or Thursday (this snow day will complicate the schedule). Otherwise I think she can spare me for at least an hour tonight. Some day in the future, my daughters and I will appreciate these times together :)

The retreat high

Just returned from 3 days (about 26 hours actual quilting time and 2 1/2 hours quilt store time) retreating at a B&B in Chrisman IL with 5 quilting buddies. I worked on 3 projects. I did nine more units on the Cynthia England cat-on-a-quilt wallhanging (so 13 done, 19 more to go), and these two mini quilts from  Laura Wasilowski patterns. Sunday I did one paper pieced unit from an original design that will eventually frame the flower vase blocks done in gaggy 30s I posted earlier. Really wish I had another retreat day, but I always say that.

The shopping netted the fabrics for the wall hangings, and two fabrics needed to complete a 17 year old baby quilt project for my 16 year old daughter. More on that when I get it further along. It's a quilt-as-you-go project that now will mean more work than I anticipated to get the finished blocks set with sashing. I also did some consideration of just how to create a mini-ruler tote/case. I think I'll work that project into the larger guild retreat I'll go to in May.

Finally, I can't resist posting a photo of our cat Alice, who recently found the bed with the down comforter to be just to her liking. I''m hoping to adapt the England quilt to reflect her cool split face coloring. I'll get a picture of her buddy George posted soon.

Looking on the bright side

I really need to stop posting what I think I'll accomplish. I rarely meet the mark. So all I've done with t-shirt projects below is cut the stabilizer pieces for the rough cut t's on the wall. No more machine quilting done on Dad's t-shirt quilt. I did instead finish stripping and repainting a small table, and got that out of the center of the workspace, and upstairs where it belonged. I also had a Sunday sewing time with friends at the local quilt store, but I took along my detailed Cynthia England cat quilt kit to work on. Now there are 4 of the 30+ units done.

Last night I dug out a 17 year old project that was to be a baby quilt for my youngest DD. Found 12 quilt blocks ready to be set, all hand quilted in the quilt as you go method. I'll get her blessing on how to do the setting squares and triangles (it's set on point), and take that to the retreat in 9 days (9 DAYS ONLY!)

I'll also pack along the t-shirt quilt I'm quilting (no way it will be completed though), the England cat project, and my Mitchell's cat drawing I'm still drafting for piecework. For fun I'm also bringing a project for developing a kit that will hold all the mini rulers most quilters get.

Maybe I'll get the t's on the wall stabilized soon. Maybe not. I'm enjoying just sitting on the comfy couch down there, wrapped in a quilt with cat Alice, and perusing patterns and books that inspire me. Lately I've considered trying my hands at dying fabrics with cool surface designs. Not sure if I'll really take the plunge.

First, some photos of the first Tom R. t-shirt quilt top, next on my list of things to quilt.

It's just a bit larger than twin bed sized I think. 

I started laying out the second set of t-shirts from Tom R. This is how they look so far. Next step (this coming weekend?) will be to trim and stabilize them with fusible interfacing. Then they go back on the wall and I draw a diagram of the quilt with rough measurements of each piece, with space for block borders. Then I audition border fabrics, and come up with at least a dozen I'll add to each block. Next, I start adding borders and fitting blocks into chunks that are self contained sections of the top that will hopefully be put together with no set-ins.

For next weekend, I'll settle with stabilizing the blocks. Perhaps by the 3 day weekend I'll take a day and get the top assembled.

I have a retreat coming up Feb. 5-7, and I'd love to have this t-shirt quilt top pieced, and much of my Dad's t-shirt quilt quilted, by then, so I don't feel obligated to bring those projects with me. I'd love to bring other quilts that require large chunks of uninterupted sewing time to the retreat.

This is a quilt finished in 2009 that is usually done with black and white and a pop of color. I tried that at the class with the quilt designer (pattern is Slap Happy by Kay Capps Cross) but didn't like it, so tried my color preferences. Added a border to get it large enough for snuggling, and put a flannel on the back. Because of the foundation layers, lots of seams with the skinny strips, and the flannel, it was hard to quilt and keep puckers off the back, so used strategically placed labels to mask such mishaps.

This was the initial layout on the design wall of the first set of T-shirts from Tom R. It changed a little bit once the shirt borders were put on, but this is the second stage of my process. The first was just the folded shirts, not stabilized yet, to get the general size and color layout into a pleasing set. Here the shirts have been stabilized and trimmed to close to the size I used. I'll need to post a photo of the shirts set in the top next.

So these aren't that 'new' but these are the pictures of the baby quilt finished for Jackson W., the gorgeous baby of Jan and Rusty born September 2009. The corner close up may show the stipple quilting done throughout the quilt.

OK, it's 2010. I spent time over the holidays clearing out stuff from my basement, where I have my quilting workspace. It was depressing heading down those stairs, after months of accumulated junk had been deposited there in 2009. As my mom headed towards selling our family's home, I kept bringing back more mementos-often lots of mementos.

Now I have places to store them. I should have taken some before and after photos. Drat.

What I did since my long ago last post:

1. Layered and quilted Jackson's quilt. It took a blue ribbon at my guild's quilt show in the child/crib quilt category.
2. Made 30+ show ribbons for the quilt show (with help of a wonderful committee). I'll get some photos of those posted soon.
3. Assembled a top of t-shirts from my brother-in-law Tom, for a memory quilt. Only used half of his shirts, so there is enough to make a second one. One will be for my sister (his wife) Jeanne, and the other for his daughter Jan. Projects to finish in 2010. (photo to come)
   
4. Layered my Dad's t-shirt top. First I made the back covered with his famous sayings. This is my quilting project to finish by my February birthday.
5. Made all the brightly colored Jacob's Ladder and 16 patch blocks (with a black background) for a future dd Amanda quilt. (photo to come)
6. And of course, cleaned out my sewing space. Got reacquainted with UFO's, projects I dream of doing, purged fabrics, and made room for a hand-me-down couch for relaxing breaks from the machine quilting to come in the upcoming weeks. Best of all, I can use my cutting table again, and know where all my supplies are.

Now for my list of things to do in the first half of 2010:

1. Quilt my t-shirt quilt
2. Piece the second Tom t-shirt quilt top
3. Assemble the black and colorful quilt blocks into a twin bed top
4. Work on the paper pieced components of my gaggy 30's quilt top
5. Make progress on the complicated pieced cat wall hanging (I'll get the designer's name soon). Also, hopefully find the first 2 pieced sections I did last year! Now where did I put them?
   
6. Draft the Mitchell's cat wall hanging (will use the piecing technique I'm mastering in Item 5 project)

No promise these will get done, or in what order I'll feel like working. Just good to put my ideas down for now.