January 16, 2016

I have been binge reading.  My living room is sunny and I have a quilt and a comfortable chair that I love.  When the temperature is below zero, it is the perfect place to be. I have read 8 books in these first 16 days.  This is my first year that I didn't set some goals.  Nevertheless, I am committed to eating healthy and exercising.

I have finished the top of Bonnie Hunter's mystery quilt, En Provence, inspired by her trip to France. I started on Friday, November 25,2016.  She revealed what it would look like on January 1, 2017.

I like it and used everything from my own fabric stash except for some lavenders that my friend, Marge Laferriere gave me.

I don't have a big enough space to lay it out to photograph it.  It's 90" x 90".  I bought 2 yards of fabric for the back with bicycles in a garden.  I will use other pieces from what is leftover from the front.

January 2, 2017

I always start the year out with a few blog posts and then they dwindle off as the year goes on.  We'll see how it all goes in 2017.  I  need a more efficient way of doing it all.  I want to spend less time on the computer and more time doing other things, so that is my excuse.

I started these cross stitch pictures many many years ago.  I bought the frames and suede mats when I was working at Deck the Walls, so I am thinking it was about 20 years ago.

This has been hanging on my living room wall off and on for the last 20 years.  I got it out for Christmas this year. It is called Angel of Freedom.

Angel of  Freedom

I have decided to finish its mate this year and have decided to keep track of my progress monthly as a motivator. These cold snowy days are perfect for working on it.  It look a great deal of time to find a hoop and needles to say nothing of the floss needed.  My floss is a huge tangled mess.  I started to organize it, but then quit because I don't see more hand cross stitch in my future.  I will continue to do hand stitching, but not cross stitch.   I will leave tat kind of embroidery to my embroidery machine.

One of the quilts I finished in 2016 is this split nine patch.  I tried some new things with the machine quilting and I am happy with it.  I had kind of forgotten until Mom came for Christmas and raved about it.

split nine patch

Bonnie Hunter's leaders and enders project for 2013-2014

I really admire people who can take such nice pictures of their quilts. I think I will try to improve my photo taking skills this year.  Once again another thing that will take time from my quilting.  :)  I will also try to take pictures of the things that I make, so I can look back at the year and see what I have accomplished.  I tried a spreadsheet like some of the ladies on stashbusters, but once again I was spending more time documenting my progress than making progress.