Block-a-Day Project and a very Pretty Finish

Janurary is over. That was fast. But I feel like I had a good go at all the projects I have to tackle.

First up my 365 Day Project: Block-a-Day

Pheww!!! That was no easy task! Jumping into making myself make a block a day, even if I was nice and didn't really give myself too many rules, was hard! I need to practice making it routine. Pick a time of day. This month I found myself doing well in the first two weeks, then I'd slack and have to play catch up. I played catch up for the rest of the month! Not to far behind, only usually a day or two. And proudly, they were all finished by the last day of the month.

Here they are.....randomly placed on the design wall.

I'm still unsure about the end results. Originally I thought I'd put the months worth of blocks all together in one quilt, ending up with 12 quilts at the end of the year. Now that I see them all together, I want more to play with!

So for now I will keep them in a nice gift box, and keep pondering. I could put Jan-June together and split it into two quilts also. I just can't decide as of yet.

I have made a page (see menu above) to keep all the blocks as I go. I'm still not happy with the layout of the page either, so be patient as I change it around until I like it.

January was fun! I put my arse to work and joined in with some BOM's mentioned in this post.

I got two of my four BOM's done, which is not too bad since I started mid-way through the month. Some more catch up to do indeed!

For Pat Sloan's Globetrotter, here's my center block for January.

MMmmmmm!! I am so in love with my color choices for this block. I also stumbled across some quilting inspiration for this block here. Now I can't decide if I was to quilt-as-i-go or wait. Hmmmm. Check out the Flickr group for the Mystery BOM, so many different variations!

Happy Febuary Everyone! 

For the first of the month....

I'm linking up with Lily's quilts! Check these out!!! What a great opportunity for small scale bloggers to meet and greet! Spread the love people!

'Participation' & 2014 Goals

Last year I had some pretty nice finishes, but overall, I don't feel like I accomplished a lot sewing wise. I jotted down a list of achievables for this year and damn it, I'm going to do it!

'Flamingo Me' self-portrait quilt 04-2013

Creative Goals for 2014

• Get all UFO's finished or repurposed ( two bins worth spanning over 7 years eek!)
• Frequent Blogging + Blog rejuvenation
• Participate (actively) in online QAL/BOM's
• Regular photo uploads to Flickr
• Etsy shop up and running again
• 365 day project (successfully underway!)
• Design/sell quilting and sewing patterns 
• Develop my branding style "Mammal Chupie"
• Be published in quilting world
• Join my first "swap" online
• Write out my Artist CV
• Design/dye fabrics
• Make a stash book to document fabrics
• Teach more classes!
• Have a table during monthly Downtown Art Walk
• Have previous blog printed into a book
• Do more creative writing
• Make more books
• Restore my 69' VW Bus

It's not a huge list. But The activities on it will sure keep me busy! And seeing as it's already half way through January, it's good that I've started on some of these!

If you can't tell, my word for this year is "Participate". I find myself spending hours, days, months, years just staring into the creative abyss of the online quiliting world. I'm tired of just staring. Time to do!

Scrap Heaps & New Year Leaps

Hello! New Year is here! Welcoming 2014!
I wanted to share New Years goals um, days ago. But I was relaxing and procrastinating for the holidays.
Anyhow, I'm going to try a 365 project this year. I couldn't make up my mind until the other night when I realized it was time to take a break from my quilt pattern designing (which was successful, but is tideous in its fine tuning!) and dive into organizing the mountain of scraps I've been ignoring.

And this is just a wee bit!

First I had the pleasure of sorting the current mountain by colors!

( I also have many pre-sorted bags stuffed to the brims)

Followed by HOURS which has turning into DAYS of ironing. I find this to be the most relaxing activity oddly enough. Not ironing clothing, but fabrics and scraps. I get very excited to have a freshly pressed stack of color sorted scraps.

Just like doing dishes or coloring book pages, the slow methodical actions are meditative for me. I get to sort out my plans, come up with new ideas, listen to the sounds around me. Daydream. 

I'm about half way through my color bags that I assembled and in the midst of pondering my 365 day project I've been able to come up with fantastic ideas involving all these organized scraps.

I have a bit more ironing to do and some cleaning because clearing out a scrap bin is never tidy, but I'll return soon to share some creations!