Tuesday, November 29, 2011

2012 Quilting Goals

The first Sunday of Advent has come and gone, which means the start of a new year in the Christian calendar. Since most of what I plan to knit or quilt this year is already finished or in the works for Christmas gift-giving, it's time to think about next year.

Next year looks like it's going to be a transition year for me, at least for the first half, so I'm being cautious about setting lofty goals. My main objective is to downsize the stash and the pile of UFO's. I realized as I looked over last year's goals that they were pretty vague, so I'm trying to be more specific this year, as well as realistic.

The two main goals are 1) to finish Devan and Theresa's double wedding ring quilt and 2) to make six baby quilts from scraps. The DWR is a major project, and may not actually get finished, but it should at least be in the quilting phase by the end of the year. I will probably visit Amy again this summer, and will first work at getting the top finished and the quilt basted in time to take it with me so we can work on it together. This seems to have become an annual event, and I'm looking forward to it. The baby quilts will be stashbusters and will also replenish my cache of quilts available for donation following a disaster.

The rest of the goals are steps toward moving projects from UFO boxes to finished quilts. They are 3) quilt and bind two already basted tops; 4) baste two already completed tops so they are ready for quilting; and 5) turn four unfinished tops into finished tops. I haven't chosen specific projects yet; I may do that at some point. My thought in breaking it down this way was to move things along without getting hooked into anything too big and time-consuming.

If I get this much done, I'll be happy. Next it's time to make knitting resolutions.