10 Things This Summer

Sherri and Anna have made a list of their goals for the summer and encouraged their readers to do the same. Sounds like fun, so here goes!

1. Number one on my list is to continue on my ultimate lifetime quilting quest, which is to make a quilt for every member of my family. My immediate family comes first, then I will start on in-laws, nephews, and nieces. My grandmother made quilts for all of us, and I want to continue that tradition.

2. Finish my daughter's quilt. I've had the original fabric that she chose since 2010! I have added to that stash and subtracted from it, found a pattern I liked and modified it, then was unhappy with the result, started my own version of the pattern, and was unhappy with that result. Then I arranged the blocks in a different way on my design board, and I can finally say I am pleased with the result. I have put way too much pressure on myself for this quilt that will grace her guest bed. I want to finish it so I can start on the king-sized quilt for her bedroom.

3. Finish my niece's quilt top. My niece (at my insistence) sent me the quilt her grandmother (my SIL's mother) pieced for her but never completed. Unfortunately someone washed it along the way, and now the edges are tattered, frayed, and separated. I took it to my LQS where I was advised to press it carefully, repair as much as I could on the edges before I sandwich, quilt, and bind it. I found some glorious reproduction fabric to back it - a pretty blue print from the Aunt Grace Garden Party collection.

4. Make a quilt for my youngest granddaughter's birthday - in August! I have the main fabrics, in periwinkle prints and a Honey Honey dessert roll, and I will soon choose a pattern for her lap-sized quilt.

5. Design and quilt a wall hanging in a star pattern for my husband. My number one fan was so taken with my first quilt that he asked me to make a quilt to hang in our entry. Sadly he is still waiting. I have looked at several patterns and not found one I like yet, but I did purchase fabric to begin my stash - in cream, blues, teals, and golds. He would like some sort of Texas lone star.

6. Repair my daughter's fiance's blanket. I made Chris a warm blanket for Christmas with Texas Tech-themed fleece. He was so proud of it! His big sweet dog decided to tear out a piece of it, so I need to patch it.

7. Break down and sell or give away some of my yarn. I love to crochet, but I got out of practice the last 10 years. Since I started quilting, I spend far too much time trying to refresh my memory on crochet stitches and not enough time practicing. Even though I whittled down my collection before we moved, I have collected more yarn for patterns I have yet to use them in. The groupings are so lovely and alluring to me, but I need more space for fabric. Notice I said "some" of the yarn; I'm not sure I can give it all up, so I might just pack it up and put it high on a shelf.

8. Clean out the old family photos. Since I am the last of my family of five, there is no one left to remind me who many of the people are in the vintage photographs that I inherited from my Mom. They are taking up storage space in a large guest closet. No one has even opened the boxes since Mom died in 2010, and they have remained exactly where they were placed when we moved into our house last year. Some boxes were labeled and roughly organized by my daughter several years ago, but a big bunch remain loose in boxes.


9. Refinish our fireplace screen. We inherited the black metal screen from my daughter, and it disappears in front of our dark green marble fireplace. I will use copper metallic wax rub on the decorative vines and edges of it to make it stand out a bit.

10. Organize and brighten up my sewing space. I share space with a guest bedroom, with its beautiful white comfort-ed bed with black wrought iron headboard and black beadboard nightstand. When I moved in, I brought a repurposed kitchen table as my cutting table, covered it with a mega-sized cutting mat, added a clamp-on magnifying lamp, put a big Xerox printer underneath it, and put my sewing machine on an old computer table next to it. I added a vintage nightstand to hold my quilting books and sewing machine paraphernalia and made a design board to cover one of the walls. I have an old 23rd Psalm that my Mom embroidered, and it needs to be reframed and hung. Although I love my space, it looks cluttered, and I want it to reflect my bliss, not my disorganization.