Happy New Year - UFO's and Stash Report

Aah, New Years Day. 🎆 Time for a reckoning.  I set some targets every year so there's an endpoint where I'd like to find myself.  I don't manage to fulfill ALL of my goals, but taking a few minutes early in the year to think about where I've been and where I'd like to go does help to give me some focus.

This is a quilt I started several (!) years ago.  It's a Bonnie Hunter leader & ender pattern TO THE NINES from one of her books.

Occasionally we have enough sleepover company that I need to put the sofabed to use, but I didn't have a quilt that looks nice in that room AND that fits properly.  So woohoo!  Problem solved!

My target for UFO completion in 2023 was finishing up any THREE ufo's.  I only managed to take two off the list but I'm still happy with that result. 👍 Especially considering that one of them was 25-ish years old.  Good Lord.

As for my stash, like many quilters I probably have more fabric than I will use in my lifetime.  I set a moratorium on purchasing but, well, that didn't work out for me this past year.  In 2022 I generally only purchased fabric that I needed for a specific project.  But in 2023 I got a bunch of stuff at the guild, either for free or dirt cheap.  I also bought some fabric just because it was pretty.  AND I bumped up my collection of reds.  When all that intake happens during a year when not many projects were finished, the numbers tell a sad story.  2023 target was net OUT 50 M.  What actually happened was net IN 1.8 M.

My targets for 2024 will remain the same - finish any three UFO's and a net stash OUT 50 M, along with a minimum of 5 donation quilts.  If you see me in a fabric shop, wandering around with a couple of bolts in my arms please make me put them back!

SLEEP AND DOGS

I used to be able to sleep like the dead.  My head hit the pillow and I'd be zonked out within about three minutes, falling into such a deep sleep that an atomic bomb wouldn't wake me up.  Now, I often DO manage to fall asleep in short order, and then within a half hour something...usually a hot flash, wakes me back up.  Aargh.  So frustrating.  Or, I fall asleep and then wake up in the middle of the night and can't get back to dreamland.  Today it was 4 am, so I stayed in bed for an hour, then gave up and got out of bed at 5.  It's a good thing I prep the coffee the night before and don't wake anyone up when I flick the coffee maker on.

This is the vision I took with me to la la land.  10 or 1030 at night is when playtime starts.  Again.

I think Nina was trying to do a Thread The Needle pose, maybe?

I have NO idea what anyone was trying to do here besides creep me out with the whites of her eyes.

I will be spending today sewing with a friend, then we're having Chinese food for supper.

And, speaking of UFO's, maybe I'll get something done with this in 2024.

I hope you have a healthy, happy, and productive year!

Very Simple Yet Very Effective and Some 2022 Plans

 Here are a couple of November quilt jobs.  Both of these are made with simple blocks, and the end results are great.  Both are also very scrappy - my favorite!

#1 - 9-Patch blocks

#2 - Half-Square Triangle blocks

This is my New Years Day project.  I've been stitching a bit on this every day.  The rows are ready to sew together.  Maybe tonight I'll start that?

Today was one of those days where I was having trouble getting motivated.  To be honest though, many days are like that.

In the past week there have been THREE mornings when I slept until 9:30, and NONE when I was up at 5.  Today was a 9:30 day, and a girly-bath day when I allow myself the luxury of soaking in a hot tub with epsom salts and some lovely fragrant oil.  Me, a coffee, and a good book. If you do a little ciphering you'd figure out that it was after 1:00 when I finally got dressed.  Today's book is  What Strange Paradise by Omar El Akkad .

With the province kind of locked down again the ennui is in full force.  And the weather has been rather unco-operative so I haven't gone for a walk for a couple of days.  Thank goodness a friend popped over yesterday - we had a nice visit on the front porch.  The Universe gave us some beautiful sunshine but it was a cold wind.  I brought a couple of quilts out for us to keep our legs warm.

What I DID manage to accomplish today:

• updated the Caledonia Guild blog
• downloaded a year's worth of bank statements and made my TFSA contribution for 2022
• put the new-to-me laptop from 1-800-LUKE into the gifted laptop case from neighbour Doug
• had breakfast, lunch, supper
• changed the sheets
• did a load of laundry
• did some admin work on the SOLO facebook group
• paid the internet bill
• called a Binbrook guild member about the block swap - what to do in January when we most likely won't have a meeting

CURRENTLY GRATEFUL FOR:

• DH, who has been doing a lot of cooking.  A HUGE batch of hamburger soup, Chicken Parmesan which was very good, a LARGE but not huge batch of vegetable soup, biscuits.
• hobbies to keep me occupied. 
• the friend who popped in and who ALSO brought me a loaf of her sourdough bread.  Yum!!!
• neighbour Doug, who is the world's best scavenger.  He happens to be married to my egg supplier, who I am also grateful for. 💕
• a good sized house with two t.v.s so I can watch the news while he watches his bang-bang-shoot-em-up shows.  The upstairs t.v. room is also a nice place to escape to for a nap.  Or when, in the midst of a pandemic, you feel like the sharp knives are too easily accessible during a conversation which is quickly degenerating into a domestic.

TARGET ACCOMPLISHMENTS FOR 2022 (we will NOT be referring to these as "resolutions")

• at least 5 donation quilts - I normally have no difficulty with this target.
• net stash reduction of at least 50 m.  Also not usually difficult.
• finish at least 3 ufo projects, another goal that should be easy to meet.  I need to do another ufo count - I don't think my sidebar list is accurate.
• find some floor space in the room I laughingly refer to as my office.  I need to sell the old floor speakers, clean then sell a nice toaster-oven, get rid of some boxes of junk, and OMG we have so much electronic stuff (cables, plugs, routers, thingies) that need to go...
• lose 5 pounds.  Ha ha ha ha... I said that last year too.  The year before I said 10 pounds!  Crazy woman. Pfftt.  Actual pounds lost is negative 2.  Yup, that's a double negative.

FALLING DOWN A RABBIT HOLE

1. at the niece's recommendation, I watched The Maid on netflix , which is very good.
2. I noticed that it's based on a book.
3. I looked for the book through my online library.
4. I FOUND the book, which has a wait list.
5. I noticed there was a recommendation for another book called The Maid and downloaded that instead.
6. I spent a week reading the story of Joan of Arc.  This was also a very good book, although a little more gory that what I'd normally read.  It is a war story, after all.

COVID 19

I can't seem to get away from this topic.  Someone I was talking to thinks it will be a major issue until 2023.  Dear God!  They are probably right, though.  It's quite difficult to get a test these days because the health system is overwhelmed.  The general guidance is that the Omicron variant has symptoms very much like a cold or seasonal flu.  Most reported symptoms are sore throat, cough, runny nose (also nausea, night sweats, lower back pain).

World:  Total cases 306,689,375.  Did you get that number?  306 Million.  Total deaths 5,488,000.

USA:  Total cases 60,062,000.  Total deaths 837,504.

Canada:  Total cases 2,532,885.  Total deaths 30,812.

Ontario:  Total cases 877,000.  Total deaths 10,398. 

Jelly Roll Heart Quilt & New Year's Happenings (1 UFO down...)

This is a lovely, modern Jelly Roll quilt.

I really like the way the pantograph echoes the heart shape.

On New Years Day I stuck with my traditional activity - a friend came over, we stitched the afternoon away, then had Chinese Food for supper.
I started the year off by putting these UFO blocks together - this was a Block of the Month project at the Caledonia guild in 2016/2017.  After I completed the blocks I decided I was tired of the colours - I think I have too much red/yellow/blue in my house these days.

I completed the quilting and the binding the first week of the year - a UFO knocked off the list and the start of a new box of Donation Quilts.

I am currently practicing Cathedral Windows blocks.  This is going to be a hands-on lesson for the Binbrook Guild on January 27th and I really don't want to make an ass of myself.  Today during the blizzard (which has now turned to rain, on top of the several inches of snow...tomorrow should be a doozy of a driving day!) I finished up the instructions.  I also washed and ironed the couple meters of white fabric for the kits.  Hands-on demos take a lot of work!

Here are two blocks stitched together with the additional two print squares added.  This is a good project if you like to do hand work - this whole thing is hand sewn.  The idea, if you want to make a large-ish project, is to make these four-sie units, which are nice and small and easy to maneuver.  Pile them up and eventually start stitching them together into larger units.  As you join these together, the additional print squares are added. 

NEW YEARS COMMITMENTS

Notice that I didn't say "resolutions"?  Not that it makes any difference. 
Anyhow, the story goes:
I'm part of an online forum with two groups.  One for weight loss and the other for exercise committments.  Foolishly, I stuck my nose into BOTH forums - I have committed to losing 10 pounds this year. Weigh-in day is Friday morning(s) and you have to report your weight change from one week to the next. What I like about that system is you know what you were eating for the past week, so you can tell very quickly if you are doing something stupid. Week 1 - up 0.8 (included the NY Chinese - bad!), week 2 - down 2.8 (lots of veggie soup & salads & few starches), week 3 up 1.6 (oh, way too much bad stuff).  This is looking like a roller coaster to me and I sure HOPE the trend goes downward.
In the exercise group I committed to doing three x 20-minute Youtube videos every week.  So far I've done yoga, Qui Gong, Over-50 Exercise, Classical Stretch Essentrics, a weird Asian (fun!) aerobics class, and African Dance.  The African Dance is my favorite so far.  Although the Over-50 Exercise is surprisingly strenuous, and I've had to pause it to go change from a t-shirt into a tank top. 
This past year I've been noticing that I often don't have the strength I used to have, so I'm trying to fight the clock and hang on to whatever pitiful bit of youth I have.  I can still do sit-ups, push-ups, and planks.  And I want to keep it that way.

New Years Day project and Year End Stash Report 2014

Here is the runner I made with my long-distance sewing enthusiasts the other day.  I'm really happy with the way it turned out.  A link to the Quick Curve Ruler is here.

Yesterday I started binding the Tumbler placemats, so I will finish those today.

Next, I will add a border to the sides of this quilt, then call it finished.  It's a weird (in my opinion) size right now at 90 x 101.  The 101 length is good for a queen size bed - allowing for a nice drop at the foot and enough for a wee pillowtuck.  A width of 90" gives a 15" drop on each side.  That will shrink up to probably 13" after quilting.  Then it will shrink more after it's washed (using 80/20 batting, eventually).  So... I think I'll add 5" to each side making this a square quilt.  Then I can FINALLY tick this off the 2014 UFO Challenge chart.  I asked Margaret for permission to tick it off after I found it and ironed it the other day.  Ha ha.

I also have to find a bit of time for some lovin' and playin'.  

And now... (insert very theatrical musical interlude.  Use your imagination.)

The 2014 STASH REPORT

Used December 20.1 m
Used YTD         89.05 m
Added December  6 m (totally not my fault - a ticket winner from guild)
Added YTD     125.75 m
NET 2014         36.7 m added

I'm also making a half-assed resolution, to get more fit this year.  There is a forum thread at Machine Quilters Resource for Plank exercises.  If I read (notice that lovely word "IF") the daily reminder I could (really, I could) get OFF my chair and do my plank.  That's what I did this morning although it didn't work yesterday and hopefully it's what I'll do tomorrow.  Geez, talk about setting myself up for failure. This comment is totally FULL of non-commitment (is that a word?).