Regrouping

At long last, the Mayan Heron quilt is finished and delivered to my dear friend Barb.  I hope she uses it literally as a hug every time she needs one as she sorts out life without Dan.

It was my first quilt using wool batting, and I posted the details of what I thought about that as well as more pictures at Celebrate Hand Quilting.

I have been cooking a lot.  Not hot, sexy gourmet meals though.  I've been using my Nutrition Blog to post a series of recipe of Cheap, Fast, Healthy foods as well as ideas for batch cooking to save money.

I am sick and tired of people telling me it is too expensive to eat healthy.  These ideas are my rebuttal.

The most recent posts are breakfast ideas that are under 30g carbohydrate, a challenge for my clients who have Gestational Diabetes. (Hormones make them very resistant to their own insulin in the morning and most traditional breakfast foods skyrocket blood glucose.)

Take a peek and follow if you're interested.

  Although fabric is a line item in the budget, in 2014 I have pledged to stop all recreational fabric buying.  That means no shop hops.  No bike runs for fabric. (Which is really a shame since I duped a half dozen hard core bikers into stopping in front of the quilt shop in Joseph OR last year on the ruse we should stop at the brew pub across the street.)

In my quilt project binder, I have hand written lists of UFO, WIP and planned projects.  This series was dated 10-27-10 and have been updated a couple times.  There's also a list dated 8-2-2009 with 15 items. 3 of the existing UFOs are on that list and 4 have been abandoned.

Records have helped me to realize that I only finish 1-2 hand work quilts for every 6 machine projects. Which explains why my UFO list is so long.

 I am going public on my goal list in hopes it keeps me focused.

USA quilt.
* Needs corners and a border hand pieced on.
* Sandwich batting & baste
* Hand quilt.

Time frame: NOW -it's cold outside, perfect for hand quilting.  Still American Football playoffs then Winter Olympics.

Goal finish date: March

Bonus Quilt.

These are the leftover reds that people sent to help with the USA quilt.  I already picked the winner, then lost momentum.   This is a good evenings project since it is easy to work on an hour or 2 at a time without losing where I'm at.

Time frame: Nowish.  Putter away at it when there isn't anything interesting on TV
Goal finish date: March also.

Fall Strips.

This is a Quilt As You Go project that I planned to practice FMQ as well as use up some scraps.  I actually have an intended recipient.  Now that I have the Singer set up as a designated FMQ machine, I think I can work on this alternating with the Bonus Quilt over the next few months.   I mostly want to work out designs for the Ojibwe Applique.

Betty Jeanne

This quilt I started at the same time I started the USA quilt using the same size blocks, but a collection of blue and white blocks machine pieced to represent topics of my mom's life.  It was supposed to be a gift for her 80th b-day.  I missed it.

Time frame: as soon as bonus quilt is finished.  Blocks have to be designed as well as pieced so this will take some time.

Dewberry Star

I made this from some gifted Joel Dewberry fabrics.  Backing is also prepped.  Just needs to be sandwich based and FMQ.  Intended as a gift for a niece.

Jessica Rabbit

OK, by this point I will be going absolutely batty because I haven't gotten a chance to do any applique.  My reward will be starting my self portrait quilt for my hubby.  In case you missed that post, Jessica says "I'm not really bad, I'm just drawn that way." 

Puce Treuse Goose, on Spruce

There will come a point around here where I will need some straight, walking foot quilting and I will finish the Puce and Chartreuse, Flying Goose which has a Spruce backing.  (Technically it's a pine branch fabric but I dare you to call my bluff to my face.)

And to really drag one out of the archives, I might actually finish the QR code quilt.  Which I started years before I had a "smart phone" cuz I just thought it looked cool.

If I am still alive at this point, all efforts go into finishing Monet.

No wait, I need to finish the Terrece Beasley Popsicles Momsicles that I was granted executive permission to reproduce as a quilt. (or I could give up and just buy the $2000 original watercolor.)  Nope.  I'm moving the Terrece before Monet.

Interestingly, one of the most re-pinned and attributed to my blog is this Ojibwe inspired applique that I started in 2005 and finished in 2011.  I really wanted to highlight this with bold quilting and I'm glad that I waited as long as I did.  I think that my FMQ skill are improving to the point I would really do this justice.

Perhaps Alex Veronelli will be skulking the blogs and offer me some thick Aurifill thread to quilt this with.  Based on what I've seen on Google+, he's a total stalker and will show up if I post #Aurifil,  "I love Alex Veronelli"  #VeronelliRocksMyWorld #AurifilMakesMeBreatheHeavy #WindMeUpWithAurifil