First To-Do List for 2023

All I can say is, it's a good thing I have a sense of humour and paid the extra for the warranty for my newly replaced keyboard and mouse. How is a girl supposed to play games and scroll and copy and paste without a mouse??? But, good thing I have a touch screen. I am so spoiled. 

I started an elaborate to-do list for the first 6 months of this new year, but I guess I should just do it week by week. The kids do not go back to school until Jan 9 so we still have a whole week of holidays and the grandkids are away doing wintery things elsewhere. The major blizzard that crippled our part of the world over Christmas has melted into mushy puddles and I think I can go out and plant a few more tulip bulbs. Yup. I can do that in January. 

My first to-do list of 2023:

1. Charge the camera batteries so I can take pictures of my quilt progress.
2. Remember to take pictures.
3. Get the mouse and keyboard exchanged at Staples.
4. Set my January OMG goal. It needs to be simple. I have a lot going on this month.
5. Organize my new 2023 Desk Calendar for January so I can see at a glance all that I have going on this month. 
6.  Clear the big work tables in the quilt room to get ready to be busy.
7. Put away all the pretty fabrics I pulled out to fussy cut a few more Lucy blocks. I could show pictures, but my camera battery is being charged. 
8. Stitch for 15 Minutes a Day. This includes hand stitching, machine sewing, cutting, gluing prep work, ironing, unstitching. Yes. I do some of that occasionally. 
9. Meeting with my local quilting friends on messenger this Sat afternoon so need to have the Lucy one inch squares, papers and glue sticks ready for a marathon.
10. Complete the 3 Palm Leaf blocks for the Wedding Quilt. I stopped ignoring it. 
11. Locate the Di Ford-Hall fabrics and see what I have on hand to possibly consider maybe starting Windermere in the next year or two. I ordered EPP papers when I ordered more Lucy papers. Shipping was outrageous.  
12. Play with some of the 23 ufos. This is where my organizing started to take over my fun time, so I think I will report what I played with and progress, if any. with pictures. I don't have to revisit them all this week now do I? The battery should soon be charged. 

I have decided that I need to get some routines established instead of being all over the place. I have lists of what that could look like also. I think my OMG goal for the month should be to complete this week's to-do list. That should keep me out of trouble for a few days. 

blessings,

Chris

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Revisiting 23 UFOs

  Some thoughts on revisiting 23 unfinished projects.

1. There should be at least 23.
2. These do not have be unfinished quilts. I'm sure I have something else unfinished to work on. 
3. I think 2 weeks on each project should be just enough time to have some fun without creating unnecessary stress to complete. 
4. Completion is not the goal.
5. Having fun is. 
6. And if I liked the project enough to have invested that kind of money and time in the first place, then I should enjoy myself playing with it again. 
7. No pressure to finish anything. 
8. Playing is the goal. 
9. Linking up with some of the encouragement parties in blogland is a great idea if that will keep me motivated. 
10. Okay, I like to make lists and could spend the first month just writing and re-writing my goals and to-do lists, but I already did that. 
11. That is not the goal.
12. Having fun working on the projects is the goal.
13. Two weeks per project times 23 projects does not equal 52 weeks.
14. I guess that's like working on 2 projects each month.  
15. Working on more than one at a time is okay.
16. As long as I am having fun. 
17. Starting new projects is not forbidden. 
18. This is for revisiting ufos. 
19. Unless I start a new project early in the year and it becomes a ufo by year's end, then it counts.  
20. Writing up an elaborate list of ufos is a great idea.
21. Checking it twice is nice and so is colour coding. 
22. But completion is not the goal.
23. Having fun is. 

Blessings,

Chris

23 Plans for 2023

 

I like planning. There is something about writing them down and seeing them in black and white. 

I woke up this morning around 4 am coughing for about an hour. My thoughts bouncing back and forth with ideas for writing blog posts. So I got up to get a drink of water and crawled back into bed. Could not get back to sleep so considered just getting up. The house was quiet with all the family guests gone. But 5 in the morning? That's the time farmers get up to start morning chores and we are retired. And I had not gotten to sleep until after midnight. 

My Sweetie slept on after I exited the bedroom and I went to my desk and took up a pen and wrote for the next hour. It was so satisfying considering I had laid down my pen nearly a month ago. After a while, I started to write down a to-do list. That is not the same as a goals list. To-do is to remember to do some banking, water the plants, change the bedsheets. That kind of thing. But this is a Planning Party. 

Here we go:

1. Revisit 23 ufos in 2023. I have 33 on the list on my sidebar. More on this later.
2. Build a Son Room onto the house. It has been a dream of mine for like most of my life. The contractor is supposed to be here this week to make plans.
3. Take part in To-Do Tuesday because I have to be writing to-do lists. 
   
4. Stitch for at least 15 Minutes a Day. 
5. Blog weekly. I have so many ideas. 
6. Meet with my writing accountability partner. This time remember to pray for each other as we share our writing goals each week.
7. Take part in monthly Virtual Writing Retreats with Christian Book Academy.
8. Write some simple words (profound eludes me most times I try). Maybe the most profound words really are the simple ones. I have 3 unfinished manuscripts. 
9. Launch the How to Stay Married for 50 Years blog. It is set up and ready to go but I still have to finish editing the posts. Cannot do that with a house full of guests and while I am on an airplane. Maybe for April? But then what do I do about comments while out of the country? 
10. Lead my Women's Small Group well. We will be doing a workbook called Hearing God this winter. 
11. Keep a Gratitude Journal. This will be the homework for my women.
12. Participate in an online 34 Day Rhema and Movement Challenge from Rhythms of Colour in January. 
13. Take Ava to Garmisch Germany for a Christian Women's ReAlign Retreat in March. How exciting that it is during her spring break. Still have to book the plane tickets. 
14. Go to Scrub Stitching in Baradine Australia with my Sweetie in April. Still have to book plane tickets.
15. Visit the Royal Easter Show in Sydney as guests of the Guernsey Cattle Society of Australia. My Sweetie agreed to go to the quilt retreat after he had been invited to judge the cattle. I plan to find some quilts to look at.
16. Cataract surgery in May. Have to wait until after our flights. Then cannot fly for 2-3 months after. 
17. Women's Retreat in June on the shores of Lake Erie. I am the group leader and organizer. I have ideas and plans. It is going to be amazing. I anticipate using ideas from the Retreat in March.
18. Vermont Quilt Festival in June. That will be a road trip with sisters, meeting friends, workshops, and shopping.
19. Take 3 for our 50th Wedding Anniversary celebration. The date is set for July 1-4, 2023 long weekend. The venue is here at the Farm. We are planning a tent, a bouncy castle, a live band, an open house for neighbours and friends, a BBQ for family, games and adventures. 
20. Launch Bertha's Flowerpots SAL possibly in July after the houseguests are gone.
21. Take Devan to visit family in Poland in August when it is safe to fly again after my eye surgery.
22. Shipshewana Quilt Retreat in November.
23. Ministry trip to India for Christmas.

I am looking forward to 2023 as a year of amazing adventures with God and family and friends. A year of celebration and travel and quilting.  

Blessings,

Chris

Lucy One Year Later

 I have been reading Nina's posts on composition in art work. Now I get a glimpse of why Lucy Boston's Patchwork Of the Crosses so appeals to this left-brain thinking quilter. Lucy is totally and completely symmetrical, balanced and straight - sort of. The initial elongate hexagon shapes had me challenged as I did not then know how to approach putting them together. But putting them together I have been doing for an entire year. And loving every minute of it!

We were home alone Christmas Day 2021 and Chooky challenged me to gather my papers and the book and start. So I did. Nearly every blog post for 2022 made mention of that journey. I have loved it. The same kind of love I had for working on the Cherries Quilt for 6 years. I will get that one quilted some day. 

I will soon be cutting out the next 12 sets of elongated hexies to continue on into the new year. But I told myself that I had to complete the Wedding Quilt first. That hasn't happened yet but progress has. Until we had a family wedding, surprise 60th birthday party, 18 for an impromptu sleepover during the pre-Christmas blizzard and then Christmas Eve dinner for 22 was here instead of at our daughter's since their town was shutdown because of 3-4 feet of snow during the same blizzard and 100 mile and hour winds, and we had most of the family here anyway in their Christmas jammies. It was awesome. And both my Sweetie and I were sick so it was nice that there were other adult people here to make sure no one starved. Power flickered off a few times, but stayed on, even though the washer and dryer almost never slept but the hot tub did get accidentally put on sleep mode so was about 60F when we dressed up in our swim suits to go in. So Christmas Day was rather quiet since there were only 13 of us. Oh, and I had no Wi-Fi in the upstairs quilt room where we had relocated the desktop computer since my nephew and his family from Saskatchewan were occupying the parlour. Actually, the Wi-Fi was rather sketchy the whole time. Cannot imagine why with all those cell phones being engaged all at the same time. I had also taken all the lego creations in progress up to my sewing tables to protect them for the toddlers who were here all week. 

The goal will be to get those sewn together then make more corner squares after fussy cutting out more 2 inch squares for the centers. 

But wait! I ran out of papers!!! So I start sewing units together so I can remove some papers to re-use. I do like how this is coming together. I did meet my Dec OMG goal and then some. 

So my Jan OMG goal will have to be determined. 

Blessings,

Chris

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23 UFOs for 2023

Call me crazy if you like. Or join me in the New Year as I set my quilting goals. Meredith had a challenge back in 2017 to revisit 17 ufos for 3 weeks each. The goal was to move projects forward. If a completion took place, well that was a bonus. That year I completed about 5. Probably the most I ever completed in a year. I did, however, pull out 17 old projects and took photos, and wrote up 17 blog posts. It was great fun, and I even added a few stitches to some of them. But that year I did quite a bit of traveling (I was in Poland and Rwanda and Indiana) then the little boys showed up 4 days a week for a year with diaper bags in tow while there mama went back to school, so little got accomplished in the quilting area.

I do not like the stress of a deadline to finish something. Never have. Probably never will. Well, I do like to finish the food on my plate. Except the pumpkin soup when I was 9. I did not finish it. Although I sat in front of it all day. I don't care for pumpkin anything, especially pumpkin spice. Give me chocolate and caramel any day. 

I have been participating in WIPS-B-GONE this fall, and I set my goal really low. To complete 2 smaller quilts that had minimal work left to do. And then there was the Wedding Quilt. The pressure I put on myself, with a bit of help from my Sweetie, kept me from enjoying working on it. Okay. Family commitments, health issues, and house guests kept me busy. This one is still a work in progress with progress. 

I have had several other crazy quilt-related ideas, like going to Australia for Scrub Stitching In April. Wait! I am going to Scrub Stitching in Australia in April! And my Sweetie is going too! It should be great fun. We have made a few short road trips together, but it's been about 14 years since we both got on a plane together and flew off somewhere for the fun of it. And since he is retired and has no cows to milk, we can stay away as long as we want. It's not that he is afraid of flying. We had to plan that trip a year in advance to breed cows to not calve while we were gone. That was my ingenious idea, and it worked. 

I will be back with more thoughts on this Crazy Goal to revisit 23 Quilts in 2023. And, no. I am not setting up a linky party. That is too much like work, and I want to quilt. Making comments would be n ice if anyone wants to participate. 

Blessings,

Chris

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Morrell Revisited

I first read about the Sarah Morrell quilt in Sept 2013 then ordered the pattern Nov 2013. The pattern arrived Feb 2014. Then I bought several French General fat quarter bundles on a ridiculous sale from Craftys Nov 2014 and prewashed fabric Oct 2015. Can you tell I had been planning the thing for a while? I officially started Nov 2015 at the Shipshewana retreat and have taken blocks with me every single one of the 6 retreats I attended over the years. I actually thought I might make some progress during the 2017 challenge. 

This pattern was reproduced from a 1842 sampler quilt by the late Di Ford-Hall. 

As I look at what I have accomplished so far on these blocks, I get excited to consider continuing the journey. But, there are only 24 hours, 1440 minutes, 86,400 seconds in a day. Tara of Tazzie Quilts has the pattern and is planning to start hers. We can work on them together. 

Since my discovery of EPP, I have decided to make block #55 next. I just happened to have a thousand 3/4 inch hexie papers and I only need 19 to make it. I will do the fussy cutting thing and see how I like sewing together hexagon shapes. There are 3 radiant star blocks, but I am in no hurry to attempt  those just yet. The 3 Saw Toothed framed blocks each need to have some Broderie Perse arrangements added. There are still a lot of Broderie Perse blocks to do. I think I will do a blitz of prepping and arranging. 

But. alas, Christmas is coming and so are a lot of houseguests for my brother's wedding next week. But first, the bookkeeper is due again today and then the accountant to do the year end books for the farm. Since we sold the milk quota earlier this year, that is more complicated than most farming years. 

Freezing rain yesterday warmed up the soil in the flower beds and the rest of the tulips finally got planted. Well, all but the few I decided to give to the grandchildren to plant in pots. 

Blessings,

Chris

On Putting My Pen Down

 December 1st I was meeting with my writing accountability partner, and as I was about to identify my writing goal for the coming week, the words, "I am putting down my pen until after the New Year" came out of my mouth. What does that mean? To literally put down my pen or to stop writing altogether?? 

I do have a lot going on this month of December. 

1. Women's small group Racklette potluck tomorrow.
2. Pre-op then surgery to remove a polyp from my uterus next week.
3. Pre-op for cataract surgery the following week.
4. Houseguest for 2-3 weeks after that.
5. Family wedding - why the houseguests are coming.
6. Christmas.
7. Ignoring the Wedding Quilt - as if I could.
8. Plant the rest of the bulbs.
9. Have fun stitching on Lucy. 
10. Oops - I forgot all about the Churn Dash blocks.

I have been writing Morning Pages almost daily for nearly 2 years now. It is a part of my life. As I have been decluttering and rearranging stuff, I have come across more journals and notebooks I have kept over the years. This is fascinating! I have been doing morning pages for years and years. It just wasn't called that, and it wasn't every day, and it wasn't 3 full pages of stream of consciousness writing, but it was pretty much of what I do now. 

Seriously, writing is what I do. I process thoughts and intents by writing them out. It often looks like a to-do list but only if I do it point form and maybe write a number in front of it. I have stacks and stacks of notes for the books I have been writing. And now, I have insights how to bring all that together. But I am laying down my pen.

So, instead of handwriting this morning, I spent several hours on the computer booking travel arrangements for a women's retreat to The Black Forest in a Baravian Alpine resort for me and Ava for March. It just happens to be her spring break week. Retreat venue is included, and I booked 2 nights in a chalet place with a balcony and now to get flights for the correct days. Did I mention this is in Germany? I thrive on stuff like this. 

My Sweetie and I are going to Australia in April, but I have to wait until after the next Visa statement is processed before booking our flights and rooms. Most of that trip is already pre-booked. Just need to fill in the gaps between international flights. Oh, I am excited. 

I have 2 other overseas trips later in the year figured out in my head but have to wait for a bit. And the Vermont Quilt Festival in June and Shipshewana Retreat in November.

But putting my pen down. I will not be writing Pages, nor will I be journaling which is what I have been doing while online with a writing group. Do you think I like writing? Some Decembers I have blogged every day for the whole month. Not going to happen this year. The writing part is easy and fun, but it takes time to respond to blogger's comments and that is what it is all about. Connecting with readers around the world. And I do have a lot going on this month. And I have several posts already written up. I guess my 23 UFOs for 2023 will have to wait to be announced. And my Bertha's Flowerpots BOM will also have to wait. But that is okay because, you see, I have a lot going on this month.

My Sweetie just drove off to pick up a carload of Caesar Salad kits that got dropped off at our son-in-law-the-pastor's church so we could share them with folk around here. I have a dozen ladies coming for lunch tomorrow and they could all use a gift. 

Blessings until the New Year,

Chris