First Blogging Anniversary, 200th Post, New Year's Resolutions, and Progress on Projects

Today is the anniversary of my arrival to the world of blogging. One year ago today, I wrote my first post. Today--1 year later--I find myself writing my 200th post!

Linda J. and I have challenged ourselves to finish some of our UFOs this year. I guess you could call our challenge a New Year's resolution. Linda has already made her list of top 10 projects that she wants to finish this year and she has added them to the side bar of her blog. I have made a list of my 12 projects -- one project for each month--but I have not yet made my list public as each time I read it I make further changes. I will work on narrowing down my choices and then I will follow Linda's lead and add my list to the side bar of my blog.

I started two projects in December after commitments to customer quilts were out of the way. The first project was inspired by Finn in a post that she wrote in December. This pattern is called Patience Corners and following Finn's lead is made from nickel squares of Christmas fabrics that were in my stash. My plan is to make this quilt lap size - approximately 4 ft. x 6 ft. This is the progress that I have made on my Christmas Nickel quilt so far.

When I was cleaning up the cuttings on the flor of my studio after the making of my Christmas projects, I cut up the scrap pieces into nickels ans strips. I used the leftover bits that were not suitable for either of these two categories to make Christmas crumb blocks. When I was looking for a setting for these blocks I came across a piture of Jeanne's quilt that was pasted into my inspiration notebook. My crumb blocks were 8" square--the perfect size for the center of the blocks in Jeanne's gratitute quilt. So, the second project I started was inspired by Jeanne's quilt. This quilt was later featured on Judy L.'s blog as her gift to us in the November Hour-A-Day Quilt project. This is the progress that I have made on my Gratitude quilt so far.


I attended a sale at our local quilt shop during Boxing week. There were so many fabulous Christmas quilting fabrics on half price. I exercised discipline and did not purchase any--not even a single fat quarter! When I came home and took a look at the Christmas fabrics in my stash, I decided I was no longer going to save them. I am going to use them up so that next year when the new Christmas fabrics come out, I will be able to purchase them with a clear conscience knowing that I don't have any Christmas fabric in my stash! In order to totally bust my Christmas fabric stash, I am going to be piecing the backs for the two quilts shown above out of 10 1/2" squares of stash Christmas fabric.

Although 2006 has been a year of adding more UFO's to my every growing list of projects to complete, it has also been a year of new friendships. The friends I have made in the world of quilt blogging have been both inspirational and supportive to me and demonstrate just how small a world we really live in!

Cheers to a new year and another chance for us to get it right. ~Oprah Winfrey