Reflecting...

Is it too early for a roundup post of 2014?

I remember starting this year feeling a bit low about quilting in general... remember the Fabric and Project Diet? - and the angst of how I was going to cope, but prepared to just manage and do my best.  This year turned into the year of doing things for others... quilts made for school fundraising, gifts for parents, a magazine submission that needed to be finished to a deadline, and a commissioned baby quilt, plus the quilting for Imogen's quilt that I've had for months and for a variety of reasons have only just started.  I tried to remain focused on just a few WIP's and have made terrific progress.  I also feel I have curbed my compulsive fabric buying tendencies... no, I'm not a saint and am not totally reformed.  I've bought things I've loved, but I've also not bought things that I've loved.  It is progress.

I start these holidays with another successful magazine submission that requires both construction and pattern writing, two more commissioned baby quilts and a toddler quilt, plus all the other ideas that are bouncing around in my head that have been waiting for the selfish ME side to return.  My WIP list is probably just as long as it was at the start of the year, and it is probably unrealistic to expect it to get any smaller.  After all, I do tend to start new projects :o)


Last week disappeared in a blast of school activities.  Dylan had his Year 6 graduation dinner as they celebrated their last year at Primary School.  He is now 11, and will start next year at college which runs from Yr 7 - Yr13.

The men in the family... I'm sure Dylan will get to be as tall as his father one day.

We also attended the school Prizegiving, where both Dylan and Nadia won Achievement Awards, which was a nice surprise.

I have really felt this year has been quite exhausting, and I am only just now (after almost a whole week off work) feeling like doing much, other than relaxing reading books.  I have quilt designs dancing through my head... and a solid list of things that need to be cleaned, which I am slowly psyching myself up to start.

For the boys baby quilt using just twelve charm squares plus additional yardage...

And the girls baby quilt... using the rest of the charm squares...

Plus pulling fabrics for the magazine submission...

And the quilting for Imogen's quilt continues.  I've got three applique blocks completely finished now and am working on the 4th...

I finished up the fourth Feathered Star block...

... and started compiling the rest of the components for the other five blocks.  In my head this project has progressed from an occasional filler project into something that I would like to get finished.

I would also like to get cracking with the Modern Wedding Ring project now that I have all the fabric to continue.  So once again - so many projects, so little time.  I am almost at that stage where I have so much going on in my head that I don't know what to do next, and consequently do nothing.  But I also know that quilting, like many things in life, is a matter of starting, having patience, working diligently, with the knowledge that one day it will be finished.

And on that cherry note... time for get lunch started for the bottomless pits that I call children.