2012 Quilting Accomplishments and True Confessions

As I prepare to go into 2013, I was taking some time this evening to see "where I am" in relationship to quilting. It's been a busy year! I am part of a scrap group at Jo Jo's Quilt Shop in Chesterfield, VA. In 2011, we started working on acknowledging our UFO's and completing them.

In 2011, I made my list of UFO's and I did work on some of them but I think it took a year to get over the shock of how many I had. I look back at the paperwork and I can tell I didn't get it all listed so my beginning numbers were not right - something like 45 UFO's and then I started 55 more projects in 2011 and finished 26 of them. I'm not saying those 2011 numbers are right at all! It was truly a shock to realize how unorganized I was!

So I enter 2012 with a better grasp on reality. I had 67 listed unfinished projects. I say listed because I think I still have some hiding from me. I added one to that list just this week that I will be quilting in early 2013. Of those, 40 are still not completed. I'll talk about that later. I started 55 projects in 2012 - interesting that the number for 2011 and 2012 are the same! The difference is I finished all but 5 of those projects in 2012. What a difference!

So as I enter 2013, I have 45 known UFO's. I think I will make an effort to post once a month how it is coming along. I don't expect to get my 45 UFO's to 0 in 2013.

A lot of the UFO's are tops that need to be quilted. I just don't have the funds to send my quilt tops out to be quilted by those wonderful long arm people. We have several talented people in the area that I would love to have do my quilts but funds are limited for that type of activity. I can spend $200 on batting and have enough to do my own quilts for a while. If I spent that same money on long armer's, I might get 2 larger quilts done or 1 king size. So the question to me in 2012 was what to do - stop sewing or learn to quilt on my Baby Lock Espire.

Not sewing is not an option so learn to quilt it was! I have a love / hate relationship with the quilting. I have ended the year with mostly a love relationship. Thanks to people like Leah Day and their wonderful lessons in quilting, I have improved on my skills. I will keep improving as I keep quilting. I take more risk and am quilting bigger and bigger quilts.

Bring on 2013!! Can't wait for the new projects from clubs I'm in and for what strikes my fancy to start on my own. I hope to share more with you as I go into the year.