2012 Wrap-Up and Plans for 2013

Well hello! Post #100, what a great way to start the new year. :)

I've been out a while, so there's plenty of catching up to do.  First, a huge thanks to SewCalGal who sent me the book "Accent on Angles: Easy Strip Set Quilts" as part of her Quilter's Christmas party.
This book has some really neat quilt ideas in it, and most of the patterns are designed to be compatible with jelly rolls. Pretty neat!



Next up is my 100 Day Hustle recap, too late for the linky party, but so it goes.

I really enjoyed the 100 Day Hustle because it really forced me to step back and think about my quilting priorities.  As a result of it I actually dropped a lot of projects (so yes, I have a bunch of UFOs now) but was able to spend the end of the year doing projects that I enjoyed.  Here was my list:


1. Monthly Guild Project - Actually I'm behind on this now.  I seriously need to get the Feb block done...
2. Jacket - bumped
3. Charity wholecloth - also bumped
4. Christmas presents. - Successfully completed! And now that Christmas has passed, I can share with you the two presents that I have not yet shown here.

First: A quilted clock! I am really happy with how this turned out and incredibly proud of it.  It was a really fun project to sew. Below are a bunch of close-ups.

Second: A beach bag!

 I designed the beach scenes for this myself.  There is a different one on each side of the tote. I made the designs by pasting together a bunch of free clipart in photoshop. Below you can see my designs next to the finished applique. Because this was for a tote I used the heat n bond ultra hold so no stitching was needed for the applique bits.

I was very happy with my choice of presents this year.  Through a little extra plotting I was able to make different gifts for everybody and thus have a lot of fun sewing all of these.

5. FMQ Challenge/placemats: Well I finished the placemats but not the FMQ challenge. Ah well. I'm still very happy with everything I learned during the challenge and I feel far more confident in my quilting skills now.  I still have trouble figuring out what stitch to put where, but at least I know I can make the stitches now.

Now admittedly this was a pretty pathetic list compared to many peoples', but I am a slowpoke and not planning to change that anytime soon. I have other hobbies (we just got a wiiu!) and a day job, so I'm not going to push myself to do any more than is fun at any given time, since this is a hobby!

Goals for 2013:
I have noticed a ton of blogs doing a variety of "finish-alongs."  I'm not too worried about finishes because I hate UFOs, so I rarely have many projects going at once.  I also don't want to set too many rigorous or over-ambitious goals.  So here are the few I have been mulling:

1. Finish my existing UFOs. These include that evil quilted jacket, and the charity wholecloth quilt.
2. Do some hand applique. I bought a pattern I want to try, and have a number of hand applique technique books. I am excited about this!
3. Bring my EPP travel kit to more places.  Last year I jsut brought this to football games, but it would be great for roadtrips.  The problem is I need to sit down and pick some fabrics and do the cutting at home so the kit is prepped for when I need it.
4. Join a BOM or quilt-along.  This was on my goal list, but I can already tell I am not going to get to it in January.  So if I do join an online project, I will be doing some catching up, but that's okay.

Well, that's all for now! I hope your New Years have been going well. :)