To Do in 2011

Elizabeth, over at Don't Call Me Betsy posted her list of things she wanted to accomplish this year.

I'm a little late, but I thought I'd post my list anyway, and see how it pans out over this next year.

In no particular order:

a Christmas quilt - I was going to follow a pattern that I saw in the Holiday Issue of Fat Quartly, but I had some totally random inspiration hit me the other day, and I sketched up something that, if I execute it properly, could be great.

Nathaniel's quilt - one of my husband's roommates from college is getting married soon, so I wanted to make him and his future wife a quilt. I searched his website for inspiration and I found it! He posted a picture of him with this painting that he had apparently been wanting for a while. Doesn't this just scream, "QUILT!"?

He's kind of a minimalist, so that's the approach I'm taking with this quilt. After all, I don't want an exact duplicate of the artwork, because that would just be too much. So here's my blocks laid out on the background fabric, just to give me an idea of what it would all look like. Now I just need to put it all together!

Daiquiri's baby quilt - one of my really good friends who I met when we were stationed in Ohio is having her first baby soon. I need to get with her and find out what colors she'd like.

Emily's baby quilt - another good friend just had her second baby. I need to get crackin' on this one!

Kendall's quilt - I need to finish this - it was the quilt I had in mind when I started the "my first quilt" blog! All that's left is the quilting and binding. Although, I have to finish taking out the quilting that I already started, because I don't like what I did. But I've had time to really think about how I want to quilt it, and I'm thinking a mix of stippling and hand quilting. We'll see.

Cami's quilt - I joined Amanda Jean's "Round and Round" quilt along...guess I didn't do the "along" part so good. Oh well. I really need to finish it! I'm still stuck on week 8, I think?

Birdie Stitches BOM - so far, so good on this one! We do one block a month. What I really need to do to stay ahead of the game is go ahead and make all the blocks, that way when each month comes up, I'll be ready to embroider!

Christmas tree skirt - I've had a few ideas for this one, but I haven't exactly settled on what to do. This is probably the one thing on this list that I don't feel like I really need to do. We have a tree skirt, a store-bought one. I just like the idea of having a handmade one.

join a bee - my dear friend Melissa has talked me into it. I don't know if I'm ready, but I've jumped into everything else...why not a bee, too? So if there's room in her bee when they start their new year (and if they'll have me), hopefully I'll be a part of it.

There's a few things that I can't list, because the people who they're for read this blog. So I'll just keep those to myself.

One of my really big goals for this year is to not take on too much. So I'm opting to not join a few swaps that I had really wanted to join. I need to focus, and also I need to not just spend every waking moment sewing, kind of like I did in the days and weeks leading up to Christmas in 2010.

And of course, all things are subject to be put on hold if/when we move this year.