wrapping up the year

No photos...no quilting. Before we dash out the door for a long weekend at the beach - playing with family and relaxing-I wanted to at least post what a wonderful year I have enjoyed being a blogger and part of the Stash Ring. I did more quilting this year of 2006 than any other year and finished more quilts as a result. Many were for charity and many were personal. A good balance for me-one I hope to continue into 2007. My life holds more changes ahead as family continues to go through some major upheavals and that probably will entail more traveling in my future. I have at the moment at least 5 must finish/make quilts that I will dedicate January to accomplishing.
Otherwise, I am declaring 2007 the year of sewing my way to a tidy and organized sewing room.
I won't be setting any monthly goals...I will list accomplishments instead. I want to focus on not so much what I want/need/must do as on results. I am doing another year of ufos challenge on a list I belong to-with one of those being a quilt I started in the only class this year I took. That really seems to be my habit-take a class and the quilt gets started and then put aside. I am signed up for another class in 2007- but it's a learning class for me...I want to learn a new techinque...which doesn't require starting a new quilt...so I should not end up with a potential ufo as a result of this class. I am also signed up for 2 quilt retreats so far. Those should really help me get power quilting time in.
I am going to get back into the morning 20 minutes of sewing again too this year. Less time on the computer if I am to really see a gain in my quilting results. However, I will not neglect this blog nor my fellow bloggers...reading your blogs really keeps me inspired and feeling connected when life is too busy to get together with my quilting friends in person.
I hope the coming year proves to be filled with all good things for all of you!
You can always reach me through my email if you think I am missing in action too much.

Ho, Ho, Cough, Cough

Tis the season to catch a rotten cold and still try and celebrate the holidays. I managed to stay up and finish this 2000 Christmas themed row robin a few days ago. I had a dead camera and finally this morning figured if I didn't revive it and take a photo..it would be into the new year! The second row in from the left is mine, with the row to the right of it, LindaJ's. We were all on another list and LindaJ and another gal moderated this row robin. It came back to me October 2000 and I worked on it until realizing I did not have the time/skills to "fix" it. It's been living in a bag ever since. It was on my ufo list and by gosh, I needed one more finish for this year and decided to tackle it. I repaired pulled apart seams ( I washed the top thinking it was a good idea NOT!, hey, I was a newbie...what did I know?) I added back fabric where it was needed and either whacked off or stitched in extra fullness on a few blocks. This is strictly a drag around quilt-I quilted all that fullness down or around...and bound it off. Yes, the sides are not straight, and yes...it is a sorry looking quilt. But, it's done and you know what? I am going to wash it again, and with the flannel backing on it, we will find it a warm and fun quilt to snuggle under in the living room. I chose the size with the idea of putting this along the back of our couch-and so it will live during the season. I can laugh at all the mistakes and wonkiness of it now.
Been reading blogs and have to admit...my sewing area is a total disaster...and likely to stay that way for a while longer too. There is wrapping presents, baking, cooking, and errands to finish this weekend-all for Monday. And, if I don't improve sore throat wise, I will spend Monday home sans family-no way do I want to pass along this yuckiness to the baby and elderly other set of grandparents-a gift no one would appreciate!
I finally fixed my profile-thanks Forest Jane for the reminder that beta doesn't keep that setting! so my email is once more available.
2007 will see me entering my third year of working on ufos. I think this year, I only added 2 new ones! A big improvement. If my energy permits-I have two last charity quilts to quilt and bind and that will wrap up 2006 for my group. We are out of town New Years weekend-so all my quilty stuff needs to be done by Friday night.
I hope everyone stays warm and has a lovely end of the year time.

the switch is made

thanks to a kind comment, I stuck with it this morning and made the switch-I need to make sure my email setting works...other than that...hurray for being able to remember my google account info!

I really need to get out the door, it's raining buckets outside...I think our usual rains have arrived with extra water to make up for starting so much later in the year!
I am supposed to drive about 20 miles to guild tonight...if this water pouring from the skies keeps up...I may cancel as they are warning of too much water on the highways causing ...yep, hyro-planing...I so don't want to play bumper cars out there!

Luckily my drive to work is all side streets. I have been reading up on holiday cookie recipes-will be baking this weekend for a work bake off on Monday. I may be doing weight watchers, but, I can still bake cookies and enjoy other folks gobbling them up. And a cookie or two or three will be ok with me too!

Rats!

Blogger is not inviting me to switch over-now that I am ready to deal with beta. And, it won't allow me to leave comments as it doesn't recognize my google account name either. So- it's frustrating to leave comments and have blogger not publish them because it won't recognize me! sheesh.

I really have read all the stash ring and maverick ring...I just can't leave any comments-and I know many of you really want us to leave comments...it's just so annoying.

Blogger says it's almost ready to move the rest of us laggarts over to beta...so, soon enough I will be joining the crowd-I sure hope they fix these annoying glitches however.

No quilting yet...babysiting Alice tonight...guild tomorrow night...Friday, yes, Friday could be quilting marathon time.

I am knitting again - and my scarf is coming out just the way I want it to-so at least something is getting worked on!

Boring!

No photos...so that is part of what makes this post boring. I am in the midst of quilting-many quilts among them, another 2000 ufo. It's a Christmas row robin that needed some creative repair work done-what a time consuming chore that was! I am playing with my new machine and having some challenge in getting comfortable using it in my cabinet...the height of the table, the height of the chair, it all seems not quite right! I am sure once I sort out this issue, I will be quilting up a storm. Along the same lines, I ripped out some knitting I had been doing and started over on that project. So, I am busy working on stuff with nothing finished yet to share. Love many of the ideas I am seeing on other blogs...and reading on what you are all doing as well.
Still need to decorate for Christmas-the boxes are now down from the attic...any minute now, right? It's a lovely busy time of the year.

Alice and Christmas socks

Spent the day playing with Alice while her parents went and got their Christmas tree and decorated-we had the very important job of supervising! I feel somewhat sad, that my mom did not live to share this first Christmas with Alice-in fact, she missed her birth all together. This is such a beloved child by all of us - we all feel so lucky she is such a happy baby and in our lives.
So- here is today's photo of miss Alice Wonderful...busy playing..and socks..the red one belongs to her...the others are now in the mail on their way to Texas. This week I will start decorating for Christmas and with luck may even finish a Christmas themed ufo. No, I don't mean I can finish it in a week, I mean I will work on it until Christmas! I have all the squares cut for my scrap project and that leaves many, many triangles still waiting-I think I will use the scrappy quilt project as a leaders/enders while working on the Christmas ufo...I need to feel some quilting progress being made! life has just been hectic with....life stuff.