Mid-Year Resolutions/Goals

OK, looking back in January I listed 3 goals.
One and a half isn’t bad.
First the success story. I said I would not start a new quilting project until I finished one of the WIPs/UFOs. This I did and I even finished a couple without starting new ones so my list of projects to finish did indeed shrink a little bit.
The half-success was the writing an article goal. I did not write an article but I did present at two professional conferences. So I still managed to add to my list of ‘scholarship’ but not the published variety.
And finally the non-success – the weight losing goal. It was a realistic goal, and I did go the gym twice a week and even joined a Zumba class, but all I managed to do was maintain my weight.

So that was my accounting for the first half of the year.
Now for the resolutions for July – December.
First, in the vein of “try, try again” I will once again attempt the elusive loss of 10 pounds.
Second, attempt to bring more balance and less stress into my life (this should help with the high blood pressure issues) through simplifying, and building positive rituals/habits into my life.
Third, as it looks like we will be having a new garage built next year I will get as much prep work and inquires/estimates done this year as possible.

Holiday Weekend

It was such a wet rainy spring and early summer that this weekend really was the first time I felt I could go out and start staining/sealing the gazebo. I got just over half done this morning and will do the rest tomorrow. I will have to wait till Damon is home before I attempt to climb up on the roof and work on the cupola.

My birthday flowers from mom and dad were delivered on Friday, still a few days to go till B-Day, but as it is a nice long weekend and its nice to have them when I will be most around the house to enjoy them. They are in the dining room and you can smell them as soon as you walk into the house.

Working on a W.I.P.

Now that the Mystery quilt is at the quilter's I can go back to working on my list of WIPS (Works In Progress). These are the New York Beauty blocks I have been making using Karen Stone's paper piecing blocks. I am not following any set pattern or setting, I just laid out the blocks till I liked the look of them. Originally I thought I needed to make more blocks, but I found a couple hidden in another part of my project box, so I have enough right now to put it all together. All the fabric is from scraps. The black and white fabric at the bottom will be used for the border. This will end up being a good sized wall hanging.

Borders

It is a cool rainy day - perfect for staying inside and sewing. I am putting borders on the mystery quilt. I put the black inner border on on Thursday, and pieced and attached the multi-color border today. Only one last black outer border and the top will be done. I stopped and bought the backing fabric yesterday so if all goes as planned this will get dropped off at the long arm quilters' this coming week.

Back from Vacation

Back from the Ohio and Vegas trips. A bit travel weary, and would be content to sit at home for a few weeks but regional quilt shows beckon for the next couple of weekends. The focus of the vacation was a family wedding in Ohio, but as we had a house and dog sitter (thanks dad!) so we took advantage and ran off to Las Vegas for a few days. Vegas was a welcome change - it was dry, warm and sunny. A very pleasant change from the apparently never ending rain we have here in the Adirondacks.

While in Ohio I had the chance to take a 2 hour introductory course in Hungarian Embroidery. So of course I needed to stock up on some supplies. Not sure when I will get started on a project (too many quilts to finish around here). Now back to unpacking!

Guest Speaker Bonnie Turner at Guild

Bonnie Turner was the guest speaker at the Champlain Valley Quilters' Guild of New York this past week. She spoke about her journey into crazy quilting and specifically into embroidery and embellishments on quilts. She was a good speaker and even better yet she sent around all the samples and works in progress that the brought to show us. It was wonderful to get to see her work close up and appreciate the details. Along with basic embroidery she includes ribbon work, pins, coins, beads, rhinestones and a variety of other embellishments. I asked to take some photos of her projects to use for inspiration. She has participated in embellishment round-robins that sound interesting, where blocks are passed around a group of sewers and everyone adds to the piece. The photos here are of pieces that were part of the round-robins.

Mysterious Choices

All the mystery blocks are done! Now I have to decide how to put the blocks together. As this is your Christmas gift Tammy please let me know your preference.



Option A - Not sure how to explain the pattern - but then again, this is why I take pictures.









Option B - Alternating surrounds of the two colors.





Option C - Alternating colors by diagonal row.

My personal choice is either option 1 or 3.

Of course I still have a lot of left over fabric so I could also sash blocks, divide blocks in rows or columns, add corner stones, and of course add borders.