A New Year, without resolutions

Y'all know how I am about resolutions... I don't make them because they only become a tool I use to hurt myself with later on if I fail to keep them. I am perfectly willing to make a few goals for January, however.

The Tiny Stitches retreat in Amicalola Falls is coming up in a couple of weeks. I will be making the mystery quilt again. In complete keeping with my nature, I got right on the shopping and got my fabrics chosen back when they first published the requirements. All of those fabrics have been sitting in a neat pile in a bag while the cutting instructions got wadded up in my handbag for a month. I cleaned out that bag this weekend (because while I won't make resolutions, I am superstitious about not carrying old trash into the new year) and decided I would get serious and cut the fabric this week. Pictures of the fabric selection are forthcoming, I promise.

I also need to decide about what ELSE to work on during the retreat because the mystery by itself isn't really enough to keep me busy. It's not like I don't have a hundred UFO's to choose from. Two projects are speaking louder than the others at this point. I should make more blocks for my hunter's star quilt. Yes, I still have not finished that quilt, even though I sewed the blocks together into a quilt top! After getting it sewed together I decided it was not really large enough to be practical for use and I love it too much to not be able to use it. I hate it too much to make more blocks, apparently. I really SHOULD bring more browns and tans and get those blocks made. It would be a nice thing if I could get them all made. The other thing I'm thinking about working on is a sampler quilt I want to make after taking a class with Mary Kay Mouton earlier this year. I made several blocks from her "Flip Flop Paper Piece" book and would like to make a whole quilt out of batiks. It was a fun class and her technique is also fun. Stay posted to find out what I actually do. :)

The Mavens will be having a sew-in on Monday next week, so if I were smart, I'd get serious about my projects and have something ready to work on that will make my time at the retreat productive.

The good news items are these: Christmas in my house has been packed up and put away (got it all down on the 1st, thank you), the Gators won their bowl game, my husband has joined the gym, my daughter has decided to try out for the swim team and I am finding my footing after feeling as if I was simply moving from event to event without a moment of planning for where I want to be in the future.

Happy 2012 !!!