New Year's Hit List

As some of you know, I don't believe in New Year's Resolutions.  Most people resolve to do things like lose weight or eat better or clean more.  Boring stuff.  I decided instead to make a list of things I want to learn and do this year.  These include:

• Build a loom.  I have the pattern to make it, but need to cut out the pieces and put them together.  I have the rigid heddle already.
• Make a garment, "sheep to shawl".  This means spin the yarn, weave it into cloth, full the cloth, then make a garment.  Maybe a hood or sleeves.
• Learn brocade card weaving.  I was taught once, but I forgot how to do it.  The weaving I do now is called threaded-in weaving and has some limited patterns that can be done.  Brocaded patterns are done by picking the threads, more like tapestry weaving.  
• Learn to make cheese.  There's a guy down in the Portland area that makes cheese at home using ingredients from the local grocery store.  I want to learn to do that!
• Make a Tudor outfit--all the pieces from shift to kirtle to gown to waistcoat.  This goes along with the Scholar rank in the Costumer's Guild...which is rather defunct now, but I'm sure that I can get a few judges locally to review the work and give me an honest opinion.  I suggested that our local costumers kind of take over the guild, but we'll have to see how things pan out.  I finished the Junior, Senior and Journeyman ranks, so I now want to go for the highest rank--Scholar.  You can do as many as you want, focusing on different cultures and time periods.  I'm going to start with Tudor England (1500s) and at the same time, do some clothes for 1300s Viking/Greenland.
• Make rush lights from sheep fat and reeds, the "candles" of the peasants in the Tudor era.  They don't provide a lot of light, but it was cheap lighting using leftover fats and grasses you find growing everywhere.  
• Try to make a wattle fence...probably just a little one.  Maybe around the garden I want to start.
• Plant a very small garden with peas, leeks, lettuce and carrots.  Maybe potatoes? 
• Teach more classes in the SCA.  Part of the scholar level costumer's thing requires teaching or writing.  I have one class that I taught on Pattern Drafting, so I have to do at least one more--up to 4 total can be applied to any one Scholar rank challenge--to complete the requirements.

Meanwhile I have to come to terms with the fact that I have, in fact, too much fabric.  I need to do something with it all.  Maybe not all this year, but I need to make a significant dent.  There is a UFO challenge in our guild and I would like to try to make a dent in that, at least.  I figure one a month would be a good start.  So, 12 UFOs that I want to finish:

1.   
This is a Civil War scrappy quilt I started ages ago.  Maybe even before we moved--so we're talking 7 years now.  It got buried for a long time, but it was unearthed when I mucked out the closet.  Blocks were sewn into fours, but now I need to sew them into a big top, add borders, quilting and binding.

2. 
Scrap Bin Jacob's Ladder--or a simple variation.  Maybe Jacob's Step-Stool.  It needs a simple border, quilting and binding.  Actually, I just was reminded, it's called Jewel Box.  Sharon made one similar to this about 15 years ago.

3. 
Children's Hospital quilt.  Now, before you get the wrong idea, this is not to be given to Children's, but was made there while I sat with Ben in the hospital room.  Well, technically, it was started when we spent a couple weeks in the RV before we moved here.  That was when we first put our house on the market.  We got it all cleaned and ready for show and left the house for two weeks for the real estate people to go in and out whenever they wanted and not have us do any last-minute cleaning--the stash-and-dash treatment--before a prospective buyer walked through.  It was a great idea...the people who ended up buying it came through during that time frame and made an offer a few days after we got back.  The kids and I spent two weeks in an RV park nearby hubby's work place (more than an hour away from the house being sold) so we could drive around and get familiar with the community and have a "vacation" away from the house.  I brought the sewing machine and one project with me to work on and I assembled a number of blocks.  When Ben was in the hospital in 2012, I brought this with me to finish.  I got the top done, which is the same size as the bed in the hospital.  I think it needs a small border, quilting and binding.

4.  
Pineapples.  I started these blocks forever ago and finally got enough blocks together, I think, to finish it.  Or at least finish enough of it.  It's so pretty and I just want to get it done, but I don't want to make any more of these blocks.  It was a PITA sewing them (paper piecing) and then removing all the paper.  Bleh.  Let's get 'er done!  Needs assembly, borders, quilting and binding.

5.  
Four-patches for charity.  This is one of the quilts I made that will be going to the guild's collection for Seattle Children's.  I needs one or two more rows of 4-patches, quilting and binding.

6.  
Little Civil War thing.  I wanted to make this bigger, but I lost the pattern.  I could draft it again, but I remember that it was a troublesome pattern, so I might just add a couple borders--a strip of something and a block border--and call it done.

7. 
Stack and Slash stars.  I started this around the time we moved here, I hung it up on the wall when I was finished.  Miss Rosie came to visit us that weekend, and a few weeks later, she passed away.  I had a hard time taking it down for a long time.  It's been 7 years, so I think I need to finish this now.  Maybe I'll give it to Emma.  Just needs quilting & binding.

8.  
Scrappy 9-patch.  I meant to finish this for another quilt show but didn't get it any further along than where it is in this photo.  Might need a small border, then quilting and binding.

9.  
Modern Racing Stripes.  This was a quick thing I did with the 2 1/2" pre-cut strips.  Simple throw quilt.  Needs quilting and binding.

10.  
Emma's Japanese one-block wonder.  Just needs a binding.

11.

Quilt is done on this purple pinwheel quilt--made with purple squares coupled with charm squares swapped from the Busy Bees guild.  Just needs binding.

12.  
Red, White & Blue Number.  I think this is a block that we made from a retreat I went on a few years ago.  It needs a small border, I think, then quilting & binding.

I got a bunch of Friendship Quilt blocks done yesterday and today.  One of them was so great, I want to make a billion of these blocks!  OK, maybe not a billion...but lots.  It's simple strips of fabric and white squares.  Apparently, one 2 1/2" strip of 44" wide fabric will make this one block, so you can make two or three from one fat quarter.

That's about it for today...tomorrow, I might need to make some historic-reproduction beads for the event next weekend.  I need to build a display for the event and have some pieces on display with dates and locations.  I have to find my book that has all the examples.

The week after...

So the Christmas holiday slipped on by.  When you last heard from me, we visited Uncle Don and Marjan, who had an open house.  We saw a few other rellies there, too, but went for the big visit with them on Boxing Day.  We spent the day there, exchanging gifts, eating turkey, and getting told to shove it...ah, happy memories!  The week following was spent kicking back, going to the movies, and working on some projects.

I don't really make resolutions anymore.  I usually break them within two days, so I make general guidelines for what I'd like to do this year.  My thought this year (not exactly a resolution) is to walk more and use more "whole" foods, especially for lunches.  I don't really like the little frozen meals, so I think I'll see if I can come up with a bunch of lunch recipes--fruit salads, chicken & feta salad, low-cal but filling sandwiches, etc.  More fruit and veggies, less crap.

On the business end of things, I got the new part for my long arm, a "roller encoder", part of the stitch regulator system, which was covered by the warranty (which I had to renew) but would have otherwise cost me...



...TWO HUNDRED FOURTEEN DOLLARS AND NINETY-NINE CENTS!  For a piece of plastic!  I was concerned because it's smaller and a different shape than the old one, but I was happy to see that it fits and works great!


To celebrate, or perhaps just to make sure it worked, I put this quilt on the frame and quilted it up.  This needs a binding on it and it's ready to pass on to its new owner, a young boy who isn't even hatched yet...whose name, according to rumor, is Malcolm.  "Mac."  I think I'll have to give him a nickname better than Mac.  Like Micky MacMaster.  My brother's name is Mike.  His wife's maiden name is Master.  Makes sense to me.

Here's the coat I finished a couple days ago.  It needs some button closures, and I need someone to help me fix the hem (the lining is longer than the outer part of the coat), but otherwise it's ready to wear!  I am happy with the pattern pieces, although I think I've proven that I need to adjust the length, so I'll have to put the muslin pattern back together again and have someone mark the length for me.

Today, Cammie and I went to a Geocache that I had visited once before.  We admired the frosty cobwebs on the greenery on the way.  She brought some swaps to trade for goodies in the bucket.  She chose a small kitty toy and left a yarn zombie behind.  There weren't many swaps in there.  Maybe next time I'll bring extra swaps to leave behind.

Two of the kids go back to school tomorrow--the older one doesn't go back until Monday--so after I drop them off, weather permitting, I'll see if I can find a couple more Geocaches.  I had gone to look before, but my GPS was so poor, it got me within 20 feet of it...not quite close enough to narrow it down.  I did find, however, if I enter the GPS coordinates into Googlemaps, it'll pinpoint it exactly on the map.  Or at least, I think so.  Tomorrow will be the test to see how close it really is!