2012 Goals and Progress

I’ve decided that I will strive for these three quilting goals for each month of 2012:

• start (and finish!) one NEWFO [see button on sidebar]
• finish one old UFO
• create two new blocks from Craftsy’s BOM – use the appropriate colors for submission to my group’s block lottery

That seems like a manageable set of goals and right now I’m on track for January.  If I stick to the first two, I will have 12 children’s quilts for Wrap-a-Smile and 12 quilts for Wrap-Them-in-Love, the two groups that my Sunshine On-line Quilt Guild supports.

So what is my progress so far?  These are the four Craftsy BOMs for January that I worked up – the topic was Slashed Blocks (two designs):

They are in the mail already to my group's quilt block lottery.
 
And, this is my most recent finished UFO.

You know that some quilts just don’t appeal to you until they are quilted and then they look just fine.  That was the way it was with this scrappy quilt that used leftover Dora the Explorer fabric.  I think scrappy quilts look best when they use tons of small pieces and tons of different fabrics.  I much prefer “controlled scrappy” for larger size blocks and strips, but I tried not to be so particular with this top.  I wanted to have a bin of lights and darks and just pull strips and use them, so that’s what I did.  I wasn’t happy about the look, but I think it looks OK quilted with just fanciful swirls.  It was an interesting learning experience and used up some scraps, so it was worthwhile!

I also had an exercise goal for 2012 that I have already implemented.  I’m taking a class in Yoga.  This is me:

Credit: Free photos from acobox.com

Not!  I’ve NEVER been able to touch my toes, even when I was a stringy, 87 lb teenager – and splits are purely a laughing matter for me.  My goals in this beginner Yoga class are to learn correct breathing and posture and hopefully begin to develop some flexibility. We’ll see!