New Year, new quilt

 

As we embark upon another new year, and it seems like this story has played out so many, many times before, it is time to think about new quilting endeavors, not to mention completing some old ones. 

 

While I am not into New Year's Resolutions, I am rather excited about the upcoming year as it pertains to quilting. 

 

I'm looking forward to a new block of the month (BOM) quilt pattern that will begin Jan. 1 and continue throughout the next 11 months. As in the past several projects, Pick a Petal is hosted by The Quilt Show. Their offerings do not disappoint. 

 

These undertakings, in my view, offer an opportunity to grow as a quilter, often with new skills to learn and practice. Quilt Show BOMs are not easy, by any stretch, thereby providing me with the challenge I seem to crave in my quilting quest. 

 

This quilt will include some embroidery.

 

Sometimes I think I forget skills I just learned. I make the dumbest mistakes at times, which provides a little humor to my quilting life as well. After all, if you can't laugh at yourself when you bungle something when you know you know better, what is the point of trying? I see it as all part of the process. It is what seam rippers are for. I admit, I am getting pretty good at unsewing.

 

Case in point: My new quilting studio remains a bit stark with little, so far, to distinguish it as a quilting studio over simply a spare room.

 

So I decided to make a small table topper for a letter sorting case that my late husband used when he worked for the U.S. Postal Service.

I didn't want to fuss over anything, so I decided on a simple log cabin design. I even printed out a pattern, so as to not have to think much the size and number of strips I would needed for four blocks. 

 

I picked out fabrics and set out to follow the pattern. Well, that didn't work. The size was all wrong. 

 

I ended up measuring each strip and cutting it to fit. Then I realized I was sewing the strips in the wrong direction. I was on the third round when that occurred to me so I had to rip out all the seams and start again. Jeez! After all these years, screwing up a log cabin is pretty sad since it doesn't get much easier than this. 

 

But, I laughed at myself and persevered. I worked well after dark but got it done. It dawned on me, that my studio is a very pleasant place to hang out, even if it was a little longer time than I had intended.

 

About those old projects: I am hoping that this is the year I can get my act together and quilt one, two, or all three quilts I have yet to complete. The tops are done, and for one of them I have already decided on the backing fabric. I have purchased the batting and just need to get to it. I'm excited to get the past behind me and look forward to a new year and new projects.