Plans, Projects and Peeks for 2018

It's the start of the New Year and my annual tradition of watching the Tournament of Roses Parade while planning my quilts/patchwork projects for the year was observed. The day was very productive and enjoyable and it's nice to start the new year with a plan in place which is the way all my New Year plans start but sometimes don't end because my plans are on paper and not set in stone. I've gotten to be very flexible in my later life and happy with what gets finished when it comes to quilting.  My green binder for my 2018 Quilting Life has been organized; the projects pages have been filled out, in pencil of course, calendar, log sheets and inventory sheets inserted, etc. and the jar of numbered wooden balls have been made which will be used for determining monthly projects when needed.  During the late afternoon when the TV was off and I was busy planning, Hubby walked into the kitchen to see why I was being quiet for so long and made a comment "this must be serious".  Yes, but also very energizing. These past four days felt like one of those videos where you plan and prepare meals for the entire week but only with fabric which to me is way more fun.  Here's a peek of my January projects which there was a lot of fabric pulling and die-cutting:

So far, for 2018, I am participating in two linky parties: Quilty Confessions, UFO Addition hosted by Tish's Adventure  in Wonderland and Scrap Attack hosted by Sarah of Confessions of a Fabric Addict. I will be working on these projects for January:

For my UFO Confessions project, (I previously wrote about my participating in this, you can read about it here, I will finish my Kaffe Fassett Zig Zag Patchwork Coverlet which involves a backing of wonderful royal purple Minkee.  I didn't pull a ball to work on this project, it's something I wanted to finish and it is one of my guidelines for this linky party that I can choose the project, plus I really want to be able to finally write a post about the Kaffe Fassett workshop from last October.

For my Scrap Attack projects, (you can read about it here) which I have listed twelve projects ranging from cleaning up scraps, misc. scrap projects to working on project from specific scrap stash, i.e, fabric lines or styles, I drew ball number #2 which are the scraps from my Gypsy Wife Quilt, the Wedding Quilt I made for my youngest son and his wife, a.k.a. Micah's parents and various other quilts.  I still love all of the fabrics in this sweet stash and didn't have any problems coming up with two quilts; one of these will be a version of the Ernie Quilt with the scraps on the right and the other will be a quilt for Micah from the wedding quilt, scraps on the left.  I know which one of these quilts will be saved for another month because it's been almost three weeks since I've made a quilt for the sweet granddaughter and I have to keep the Micah-jo going.

I've also been preparing for the three QALs I'm participating in and are starting in January:

Roseanne of Homesewn By Us is hosting Regatta (you can read about it here).  The fabrics have been chosen and the strips have been die-cut; all I have to do are the sub-cuttings and I will be ready to sew or should I say set sail.  I'm using my stash of dyed denim blue muslin with scraps of Amy Ellis' Modern Neutral and I'm thinking my quilt won't conjured up impressions of sailing in calm waters but more like wild river rafting in Colorado.  Unlike the meaning of regatta, this QAL will not involve racing or crossing a finish line by a certain time but rather to be done at a leisurely sail.  I'm pretty sure, this is a quilt that once all the parts are ready and sewing is started, it's going to be smooth sailing and you won't want to dock.  (Funny, how I'm using some nautical terms in this part of the post.)  What's even funnier and sort of ironic is that one blogger I know, Louise of My Quilt Odysses who actually makes beautiful quilts onboard a boat won't be sailing with us--don't worry about this comment, I let her know beforehand that I was throwing her in the water. Louise saids "I tend to do QALs way after the fact so I may very well sew up a Regatta quilt a year or two from now :).  I totally understand this timeline and have done this in the past also.  I am just amazed that she makes quilts on a boat and thought of her when I joined the QAL.

Kelly of My Quilt Infatuation is hosting the Classic Meets Modern QAL, (you can read about it here).   I've chosen to use my stash of Zen Chic's Figures fabrics with some reinforcement and very excited to be working with these colors and prints.  The fabrics have been on my shelf too long and it's nice to find a project which I can finally use them.  The QAL starts next Monday and I am ready.

Christa Watson is hosting Squiggly (you can read about it here)  A big hooray here because I'll be using my way too large stash of Blueberry Park fabrics which is really sweet since it's listed on my Fabric List for 2018--a check mark on two different lists--sweet.  The charm squares and additional squares have been die-cut and all I have to do is decide which white fabric I want to use, will it be just solid white or a tone-on-tone white or a patterned white.  I'm a little bit worry about using white fabric with some of these red fabrics which can't be prewashed since they are in a precut state.  Once I decide, I'll be using my corner cutter ruler rather than drawing lines on 2.5" squares to make the connecting corners.  And nothing beats sewing during these cold winter months than bright, happy colors and prints.  

And last but not least, I need to make a baby quilt for a very soon arrival and I have the strips sewn and squares sewn cut.  I just need to lay it out on my design board and hopefully will have the top made this weekend.  If I'm really good, it will also be machine quilted and bound.

Good Quilt Karma paid a nice visit to me this week and I am excited to be working on these projects for the month of January.  What's really great is that no new fabric was purchased in 2018 to make these quilts, all of it from my stash.  It would be interesting to see what I finish since we'll be going on vacation at the end of the month.  Too bad one of these projects couldn't be made on the road. 

I hope your year is getting off to a good start too. And if you're experiencing snow days, especially the Snow Bomb, I really hope it will involve time for good and happy sewing while being safe and warm -- be sure to drink lots of warm beverages and eat good cookies too.  And if you're fortunate enough to be enjoying sunny and hot weather, have a cold one for me and know that there are a lot of people who are envious of your part of the world.

Linking up with: Crazy Mom Quilts,  My Quilt Infatuation and Confessions of a Fabric Addict.