New Ideas for the New Year

Last year, I didn't join Barbara's NewFO Challenge because I wanted to focus on OLD projects and thought NewFO would make it way too easy to keep starting new ones ... but, of course, quite a few new projects happened anyway. This year, I gladly accept that fact that I am happiest when working on a combination of old and new quilts and am joining the 2014 NewFO Challenge. I am currently thinking about all the quilts and other projects I'd love to be working on–whether I finish them or not–in 2014.  I'll share some of my existing UFO's and on-going projects as well as my plans for the 2014 Block Lotto in future posts, but here's a look inside my brain at some new ideas I'd like to explore.

Two secret projects to start the year

• A small quilt for Kate's Another Little Quilt Swap 8. The deadline is January 20. I've known what I want to make for a while ... but haven't yet made it. Must get busy soon.
• Another round of Julie's Cotton Robin. Our centers will be due February 1, so this is another January project that, like my quilt for Another Little Quilt Swap, I won't be able to share my quilt nor my contribution to other quilts until sometime after it's all done.

(If you are intrigued, there's still time to join me on either/both of those :-)

Tea Towel Challenge 2014

This challenge has an end of March deadline ... and since it was my idea, I suggested the timeline and I have compelled a dozen or so quilters to join me, it will be a priority for me for the first quarter.

FYI, it's not too late to decide to grab a tea towel and play along with us–you can find all the details and see what some others have planned from this page:  Tea Towel Challenge 2014.

The Block Lotto

The Block Lotto continues and begins anew in 2014. There will be a new direction, new blocks, new block patterns, some quilts made from some of the blocks through-out the year and a sampler quilt (and sampler quilt pattern) that uses all the blocks.  For the curious, look for more information in the future.

New Series ideas

• The Chinese Year of the Horse begins near the end of January.  I have had a idea for a series of fabric horses since first seeing Ann Wood's cardboard stampede (photo from her site) and it would seem the time is right to begin, especially since I am one of the horse people, born during another year of the horse.
• Sometimes, I cannot believe it myself, but I will turn 60 in 2014 and I have some ideas about new art quilts on the theme of Facing 60.

Continuing Series 

• While I failed miserably at producing a Daily Feather, I plan to pick it up again and continue making new blocks for ongoing feather projects and new feathers.  There will be more of these and some new, not-yet-defined feather and bird projects.
  
  
  
  
  
  1. 14 - Aunt Betty's (Feathered) Star, 2. 007 - Bird in Flight Quilt Block, 3. Detail of 007 - Stenciled Feather, 4. 020 - Yankee Doodle, 5. 025 - Sea Gull in the Sun Set, 6. 024 - Feathered Edge Star, 7. 002 Feathered Star Quilt Block, 8. 051 -Large Appliqué Feather, 9. 026 - House with Feather Stitch Tree 

Some Fully Formed Quilt Ideas

• I'd like to (finally) move forward on using up all those leftover bonus triangle squares I've collected over the years and creating the big scrappy quilt that has been living in my head for too long.
• I rarely make a quilt from a pattern, but I love Ann Marie Horner's Featherbed quilt and plan to make it (and count those feathers on my way to 365, too :-) I found this lovely example, made by Meredith Daniels, on Flickr.
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Two giveaways won combine: Provencial fabrics + Japanese Garden pattern and a not-yet-used set of acrylic templates (an impulse buy at a quilt show long, long ago) will become Jardin Provençal
  
  
  
  
  
  
• After the holidays last year, I found this book on sale and planned to dye fabrics and make a wall quilt for this Christmas ... then I promptly misplaced it and soon forgot about it.  It turned up when I moved the bookshelves to the other side of the studio. I still love it and would love to make Melinda Bula's Candy Cane Lane Christmas quilt for Christmas 2014.
  
  
  

Following Along

• Esther Aliu's Love Entwined is the most incredible pattern.  I've been lurking, thinking about fabrics (and changing my mind about fabrics) and planning to start in 2014.  She has published 6 steps of the pattern so far–they make up this center square.
  
  
  
  
  
  
• I love Leah Day's new plan of using a quilt made of pieced blocks for her free motion quilt-along next year.  I have an idea for playing along with a liberated twist, if this one doesn't fall off my list.
  
  
  
  
  
  
• After taking a year (or was it two) off, I plan to rejoin Angela's Rainbow Scraps Challenge.  There will likely be other projects, but I definitely want to finish the blocks needed for this one.
  
  
  

I tend to avoid making lists like this one, of quilts I will make or UFOs I will finish because I know myself too well and I will always end up working on whatever idea catches my imagination at any given time no matter what I plan or say I'm going to do. I don't stress about it because quilting is something I do for fun.

I also know that any wish list in my head (or on the page) far exceeds the time and space needed to complete it.  In case you've read this far and think I'm more than a little bit crazy, rest assured, I have no expectation of finishing all of these, but I do expect to spend some time on most of them and make some forward progress.