Wednesday, January 14, 2009

cross one off the list!

I really want to make a legitimate try at this blogging thing. Besides the obvious new and exciting things, like the new president and the ever-present economic crisis, it should very well be an interesting year on a personal note. This is the year that me and Matt both turn 22, graduate college, move out of San Francisco and (hopefully) get real jobs. I just signed up for not 1 or 2 but SIX terrible upper division business classes and I'm counting on it being pretty rough. When thinking about this upcoming semester, I am not worried about the time spent studying or the $800 I'm about to spend on books or how in the world I am going to stay awake for corporate accounting...I'm thinking 'when will I have time to do crafts?'

I want to do the 50 projects craft-a-long that I saw on craftster, but instead I just made a list of goals/projects that I'd like to work on for this year. So far there are 31 and I've gotten to cross one of them off the list! On this list are several quilt tops that I'd like to finish, quilting said quilt tops, finally learning to knit, making some clothes from the Built By Wendy patterns I bought years ago, and sewing about 15 buttons off of various shirts and coats. The latter is not really a craft project, but I get satisfaction from crossing things off of lists and if I put it on the list I might actually do it.

Anyway, the first thing on the list and amazingly, the first thing crossed off the list is a quilt top for my mom and dad. I started this quilt about 3 years ago when I took a class by the pattern designer, Tracy Brookshier. I worked really hard that day...and then didn't touch it until this December when I decided I wanted to finish it for Christmas. I put it about 30 hours on it during the last week before Christmas and intended to finish it up at their house on Christmas Eve, only to find out that the sewing machine at their house has been stipped of all of it's feet! The sad part is, I think I was the one who did it. Anyway, I gave the top to them unfinished and finished it this week before I left back to the city. My mom seemed to really love it. She and I picked out the fabrics together over several months and at several shops, so she better like it! The pattern is called 'Japanese jigsaw' and like I said, is written by Tracy Brookshier. It's not a hard quilt to make, but it is assembled on the diagonal and requires a bit of planning ahead. Oh, and this one is over 86" on each side. Ouch! This will be sent out for professional quilting some time in the next month, I hope.

Anyway, here it is. Ignore the jagged edges as they will but trimmed off before adding a border. It's on the king sized bed.



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