Monday, January 22, 2018

2017 is in the Bag, 2018 Here We Are!

I am not disappointed that 2017 is over. There was a lot to deal with, and my quilting time suffered.

I did tally just under 50 books read for the year, which surprised me since I felt like I was hardly reading.

My full time job has put a damper on the quilting and hiking time, my favorite past times.

But I am determined this year to keep juggling all the balls in the air.

Home Goals:
January started off with a complete room decoration. This was my son's room, and is now transformed to an official guest room. The only thing we didn't change was the wood trim paint and the ceiling light. The dresser and side table are from Wayfair!  They were cheap, and shipped fast, and were not that hard to assemble.  All good things when making up a new room!

I also intend to do some serious purging of STUFF.  De-cluttering is the go word I think people use these days, but that just doesn't do my project justice.

Quilting Goals:
I have been working really hard on my Grandmother's Flower garden hexies.
I have many more than this now, and they have moved away from my design board and into a plastic storage bin. My plan is 4 flowers a week.  That will get me 1/3 of the way, but steady I will go toward progress.  This shall one day turn into a full size guest room quilt for that bedroom pictured above.

I am taking a Craftsy Class on ruler quilting.  I hope to finish it by the end of February, and start quilting on 2 quilts that will be ready.

First I needed to figure out how to change my foot to the ruler foot:
Hubby and I managed to figure it out, but after seeing a YouTube video demonstating the new ruler foot, I see I have the old one!  This one is curved on the back side, which does not allow even contact with my ruler when I use it on that back side. Imagine that, It is already outdated, and it is the first time I opened the package.

Here is my Craftsy homework number one: testing the ruler on a square. It makes for nice even "straight" curved lines.  Just need to work on my length of stitch a bit more.  Poor George has had no usage since I bought him! But this year he will get to work.



Once I finish the class I will be quilting these two quilts:
This one completed over a year ago but the only finished QA project  not quilted.


and this one, my recent Quilt Academy Project, Log Cabin set on point.

Just this weekend, I attached all the sashing and setting triangles. All that is left are my corner triangles.  I think it will end up as a baby quilt, it is smaller than all that work seems!  I cannot even tell you how frustrating it is to attempt to pick up this project in the mid progress of squares. I have ripped more seams on this one quilt top than I have in my life time of projects.  Even considering I picked out an entire quilt worth of quilting!
This will put another project in the finished category, and it is only January!

I hope to finish the next 3 quilt projects in QA Sophmore Year. I think that is finishing through class 250. Turns out I will have been a Sophmore for 3 + years.  I know of only one other blogger that is working through the series that is further than I am. She is also working sequentially through and in Jr. Year, but has not posted anything in the last year.  Seems we both took off this past year.  I wonder if anyone is actually working through the 3 or 4th book yet? I suspect many people bought the books and pick projects they want to work on. But, I will continue to plod along at my turtle pace and actually finish the race someday!

Reading Goal:
I have managed to figure out how to keep up my reading list, so I am working loosely through the 2017 Young Wife's reading guide, based on Tim Challis' reading list template. She recently posted the 2018 Reading Challenge, but I will save that for next year!  My plan is 3 books per month plus a classic and any other reading assigned last minute through our small group participation.  I think there are 42 books on the Reading Challenge list, and 12 for the classics list.

Outdoor Goal:
We bought backpacking gear last year but didn't get to adventure out. The location we were going to use as our test hike was full of ash from fires.  This year I hope to take 2 weekend trips into the great wild outdoors, with a hike of about 10 miles in.

We also enjoy 4x4 with our FJ, and bicycling. I have one overnight bicycling trip planned on a Rails to Trails path about 3 hrs drive from home. It is short, about 12 miles each way, but the Teton Range is in full view and the path is flat.

Bible Study:
There are 3 book studies I have on my agenda, and I am half way through the first one!
I finally settled on reading through the Bible on a slow pace this year, using the Bible Project plan, and their Read Scripture App. I appreciate the video intros.  I've been reading from Horner's plan for so long, I really need to put things in order again.  I was planning on a chronological plan, but then this one came along, and I jumped with more enthusiasm.

Of course, I am not listing my many regular things I do, since those are habits that do not need a poke and reminder.

And, that is my plan for 2018.  Here is to being intentional and productive.






2 comments:

  1. Intentional and Productive ... such sweet words! I think I'm going to adopt your Grandmother's Flower Garden into my Counterpane 2022 challenge. The feat seems similar, and Christmas 2022 gives us both three years to do our respective projects, plus 2 years for wiggle room, balance, and unplanned life events.

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    1. Yes, sounds good! Not the unplanned life events, but 3 years plus wiggle room I like :) Of course, after I finish 540+ flowers, I still need to do all the white hexies that go around the flowers, and then attach them to each other, so 2 years for that is a great plan :)

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