Setting goals and actually completing them

 I am in a different season in my life. My husband and I are now empty nesters. Which is wonderful and sometimes sad all rolled into one. I enjoyed raising our daughter, but never thought  the time would fly by so quickly. I miss her.

I decided I am chosing a season of my life. I want to set goals and actually meet them. I want to become a finisher. I do finish things,but not at the pace I'd like to. So to challenge myself, I set the goal of finishing 6 of my quilt tops by the end of the year. I hope it isn't too lofty a goal, but I sure am going to give it my all! So far I have gotten two close to being finished. They are both quilted but need the binding put on. As soon as they are officially finished, I'll post pictures of them and report them to my UFO Challenge group.

A few of the non-quilt related goals I am setting  are to gradually clean out my house. I have talked about doing this for years! It was mostly just talk though. This time I really am doing it. I have been watching the Minimalist Mom on Youtube. I love her thought process on becoming a minimalist. I'm not sure I will completely convert to minimalism, but I sure would like to head in that direction!

I look around our home and see so much stuff that is not used nor needed. Since watching the Minimalist Mom videos, I look at our stuff a bit differently. I see it as things I need to manage. It is overwhelming to think of tackling the whole house. But if I do little bits at a time, it doesn't seem like such a huge undertaking. So that is where I'm starting. I go around the house and see things I haven't used in a year or longer and it goes. I'm fortunate to have a Salvation Army box near where I work. I bag up the things and drop them off before I go to work. It's funny, I haven't missed any of the items I have dropped off yet.

I'll keep you posted on my progress!

Forever and a Baby

   I started this quilt when I was a beginner.  There are lots of mistakes in it! It's ok, I still love it. I wouldn't make another one because it took me so long to finish, but I still love it.  I used phone book as paper piecing. I cut out squares from the phone book pages and drew lines on them to sew my strings. I decided I wanted to have each torquoise piece framed by two white pieces. I love scrappy quilts so I used a bunch of strings that I had on hand. This quilt was a really good education in what not to do. I did the borders without measuring in 3 places. I didn't know any better. 

 When I put it on the machine to quilt it, it was pretty much an hour glass shape. Wide at the top and bottom and narrow in the middle. Not easy to quilt. It all came out at the bottom in tucks and waves. 

I'm not writing all this to be negative or put my work down, I  just want to be real. Some quilts are great educators. This one was mine. I know so many quilters who get so upset when their work isn't perfect. I would love for my work to be perfect,but that just isn't me. I'm never going to be perfect and it's ok.  

Even though it was a bit of a bugger to quilt, I still love it just the same. It is staying with me. I have been asking my husband to name my quilts. He usually is spot on with naming and this one couldn't be more true!  He suggested naming it Forever. Because it took me that long to finish the top and then longer to finally get it quilted and finished. 

"Forever' is 70"x 86"

Below is a baby quilt I made for a friend who had her third child 4 months ago. It was sewn with a Corey Yoder charm pack and Corey's fabric. I wish I could remember the name of the fabric line. All of Corey's fabrics are so pretty! I quilted it on the longarm at work. I used a floral pattern.
                                                    This baby quilt is 35" x 40".

 Her Mom sent me this picture after I gave it to her. That sweet little smile made my day!