New Year, New Goals

Happy New Year!  May 2014 be happy and productive for each of you who brighten my days by stopping by my little corner of the internet!

Bonnie Hunter gave us Celtic Solstice mystery sewers a gift on New Year's Day - early release of the final layout clue!  It's going to be gorgeous, but I have been slower than some and only have about 30% of the blocks assembled so far.  Can you believe there are quilters out there who already have a finished top?

The beginning of the year is a good time to set goals for the year.  Since this blog is primarily about sewing and knitting, that's what I list.  (Other goals, personal goals or reading goals for example, I may share as they come up but that's a bit more than I want to keep track of publicly!)  I enjoy having a master list of goals for the year and selecting a few each month to focus on.  I rarely meet all those goals each month, but one of the fun things about blogging is talking about the ups and downs of my favorite hobbies.  It surprises people I know in real life when I tell them that there are actually people on the internet who are interested in reading about other peoples' quilting and knitting projects.  Sometimes it surprises me too!

I participated in Judy L's UFO challenge for the last two years, but I don't think she's running it the same way this year.  I liked the way it existed last year and the things I was able to get accomplished, so what I'm going to do is compile a list of all my known sewing projects as of now.  I will categorize them by WIP's - things I'm actively working on as of the last few weeks/months; UFO's - projects started but in a state of long-term neglect; and USO's - Un-Started Objects, projects I want to start but haven't yet.  Today's post will list all of these in one long list, and then each month I will pick 4 projects I want to tick off the list for that month.  Ideally it will be one UFO, one current WIP, another project in any of the three categories of my choice, and a knitting project of my choice.  To make things interesting, I'll select the UFO project randomly.  I'm going to leave the knitting category undefined because I like to follow my whimsy there, and my whimsy changes.  I may or may not find a place to link up my progress on a regular basis, but that's not as important to me.  To give myself an incentive... maybe if I finish all 4 monthly goals, I will allow myself a trip to a yarn or fabric store or online shop.  Otherwise I will be crafting from stash exclusively except for necessary batting and thread.  I will be tracking my stash usage of both yarn and yardage, but that will be on a different schedule.  Last year I allowed bonus points for projects above and beyond the stated goals.  Bonus points mean absolutely nothing, but for a slightly obsessive personality like mine, they are also part of the fun.  And I can use them to "atone" for a monthly goal that I didn't meet, so it builds in some flexibility.

UFO's

1. 1996 Piecemaker's Calendar Quilt: finish hand applique and embellishments
2. " " (enough to make 2 months' worth of work)
3. 1996 Piecemaker's Calendar Quilt: complete top.
4. Scrappy Trip Around the World
5. Classical themed tote bag
6. Felted wool blanket(s)
7. wool hooked rug in Mariner's Compass design
8. knitting: On your Toes gray sweater
9. knitting: Carnaby Street skirt
10. knitting: Rosalind sweater

WIP's

1. Farmer's Wife Quilt - machine quilting and binding 
2. Celtic Solstice mystery quilt top
3. Thoroughly clean and organize sewing area (I need to do this at least 3 times a year!)
4. Conversion to Bonnie Hunter's Scrap User system is still ongoing.
5. String Star
6. Not All Who Wander are Lost quilt - a good month's progress would be 6 small blocks
7. APQ low-volume quiltalong

USO's

1. Bowling-style knitting bag (I can't believe I haven't started this YET!)
2. three-quarters bag kit from Connecting Threads
3. heirloom linen blouse
4. wool stuffed toy cat
5. Frugal Patch quilt top
6. Celtic Solstice quilting and binding
7. Country Stars quilting and binding
8. Clean out the flannels - make 3 or 4 baby quilt tops
9. knitting: design stranded colorwork forest sweater
10. knitting: socks for Daniel
11. knitting: socks for Steve
12. knitting: socks for me
13. unravelling thrift store sweaters
14. New York Beauty quilt top
15. a quilt with 1930's fabrics
16. maybe another Double Wedding Ring quilt
17. Of course I reserve the right to start a new project at any time of the year
18. I owe my mother-in-law the machine quilting on at least one quilt... soon!

Whew!  Well, it's not really too bad.  I have fewer UFO's than in previous years, and my stash is better organized.  Here are two of Grandma's quilts that I pinned for her, just to break up the length of this post:

 Elephants and Donkeys.

And a patriotic lap quilt from a free pattern she got.

Now, on to January's goals:

1. UFO: #8 came up, knitting the On Your Toes gray sweater.  I will at least dig it out of the pile and evaluate.  It has been hibernating a long time.  

2. WIP: Celtic Solstice mystery quilt top.  That could actually happen.

3. another WIP: Farmer's Wife quilting... binding can wait, but it would be great to free up the machine.

4. Knitting: finish the argyle socks for Secundus.

If making decent progress on UFO#8 is impractical, I will substitute one of the other knitting projects.  Bonus points for finishing a thorough tidy-up of the sewing area, making a bag, or any of the other projects really.  See how easy I'm making this for myself?  A monthly, modest shopping excursion is a good prize to work towards.  If I finish all the UFO's and WIP's listed here, I think I should get a new sewing machine next year.  (Just kidding, Steve... I know it may have to wait until after Secundus is through college).

Book Review: Mossflower

Mossflower, by Brian Jacques, was the book that introduced me to the Redwall world, and is still my favorite.  I was initially drawn to the paperback in my senior year of college by its lovely cover art, reminiscent of medieval illuminated manuscripts:

Source: routeduvin.typepad.com via Katherine on Pinterest

I bought it for the cover, and because it sounded like the kind of fantasy I loved: childlike, innocent, yet fiercely fought and with timeless themes.  And I was amazed that it followed through on the promise of the cover.  Several years ago I was able to take my children to a book-signing with Brian Jacques, where he talked about his inspirations for writing these stories... chiefly The Iliad and The Odyssey.  It's hard to go wrong with that kind of inspiration!

Source: google.com via Katherine on Pinterest

So there is a bit of a Redwall race/ reading challenge going on in our family.  Some of us are reading through the books in chronological order.  I've reviewed Lord Brocktree and Martin the Warrior.  Now Mossflower.  I had originally intended just to quickly review the characters, but I ended up doing a full re-read.  Martin is a returning heroic character if you've read Martin the Warrior, but he shows up in this book with no hint of the self-doubt that was explored in the prequel.  He is the heroic freedom-fighter who unites the woodlanders, oppressed by the evil Tsarmina, a wildcat who rules from the dark fortress of Kotir.  Joining Martin are Gonff the mousethief, a jolly and cheeky creature whose thievery is mostly confined to food; Lady Amber, chieftainess of the woodland squirrels; Dinny the mole; Bella of Brockhall, the wise badger lady who wishes to protect the small creatures of Mossflower wood.  Of course there are many other characters, both good and evil.  No Redwall epic tale is complete without a multitude of characters, a quest, a mysterious riddle, adorable woodland babies who must escape right under the nose of the enemy, infighting among the enemy, and at least two battles with vermin.  This story delivers all of those items and much more.  Don't forget the wonderful descriptions of the feasts!

In my opinion, this or Redwall is the best choice to introduce your children to these fantasies, preferably as a read-aloud.  Good times and good memories await.

UFO to FO - Log Cabin

This wasn't the UFO I was supposed to finish for October.  Finishing the top was my UFO goal for... I forget which month, but I did it.  The individual blocks were all made and I just needed to join them up.  And then it sat in my quilting queue.  And I finally finished quilting it, about a month ago, and then it sat, half-bound, for almost a month.  I finally finished the binding last week and it is an official FO!  Hanging up in the dining room for now, because I think it has a good wintry/ Christmas feel to it with all those red centers.  It's a lap size quilt at 48"x60".  Now I really need to get some other tops quilted.  My Feathered Star is on the machine now but I'm scared of all those feathers I want to free-motion quilt.

I'm linking up to Judy L's UFO challenge.  The number for November is one I've already done -- Jack's Chain, which I had broken down into two halves, but once I got started on it back in the Spring I just kept going until I had a finished top.  It's in the quilting queue too.  So that gives me a little freedom in November to work on a different UFO number, one of the four things I've blown off when their number was called.  The trend seems for me to not make bags or felted projects, but it would be nice to have at least one of those 4 finished so it won't have to go on next year's list.  I'm being sucked in by Bonnie K. Hunter's mystery quilt again this year, I think.  I really enjoyed Orca Bay last year and I'm always up for a challenge.  I'm thinking of colors already.  Does this quilting insanity ever stop?

Cosmology: Creatio ex Foedo



I decided to enter this quilt in the Blogger's Quilt Festival over at Amy's Creative Side.  I made it about 3 years ago as a challenge to use some really, really ugly fabric that my friend Joyce had bought and then thought better of.  It's called "Cosmology: Creatio ex Foedo"  Cosmology is a play on the fabric line Cosmos from Connecting Threads which I used to complete the quilt, and which is not ugly; and Creatio ex Foedo is Latin for "creation out of the ugly."

You can see the ugly fabric in the center of each block and in the cornerstones.  It is this wacky combination of grass green, magenta pink, yellow and orangey-green.  But!  If you combine the ugly fabric with a bunch of pretty fabric and make sure the ugly fabric is cut up in smallish pieces, it works. 

I used a pattern called Glory Bee from a book by Evelyn Sloppy.  The original quilt is in patriotic red-white-blue colors, but I decided to pull fabric in magentas, greens, and golds, including a lot of light greens and yellows as well as darker greens.  I used my collection of fat quarters in the "Cosmos" line and another collection of shot cottons by Kaffe Fassett, plus a whole bunch of other fabrics, and the pretty fabrics took the ugly right out of the theme fabric.  The quilt has an interesting effect of looking like dappled light in a vineyard or a garden because of all the variations of value, and it's now hanging in my dining room.  I think it's funny that the more quilts I make, the less "planned" and the more scrappy I tend to go.  I loved both of those fabric collections, but could never get inspired to use them until I had an ugly fabric to combine them with.

It's quilted in an allover squiggle pattern with variegated green thread.  It measures 60"x74", so would be a twin-size quilt if put on a bed. 

 

Be sure to check out some of the other quilts in the Festival!  It's a great chance twice-yearly for quilt bloggers to show and tell.

 



 

Sweater Triathlon - finish line!

It was a squeaker... but it's done, just in time for closing ceremonies if I had watched them live.  Which I didn't.  I have several hours of Olympics still tivo'd to watch and really, no time to do it in.

See, it really is done.  Except for the buttons, the reinforcing tape on the button band, and washing and blocking.  I love it.  Orange is the best color ever.  It's not my size, or I'd be tempted to keep it even though I own its twin.  Because you can never have enough orange.  It's a bit heavy to wear in August though.  I'll calculate tomorrow exactly how much yarn it used.  I spent a total of about 13 days knitting it, with not much else getting done on those days other than necessary stuff like cooking 3 meals a day and blogging.

Rhinebeck goes Ravellenic on Ravelry.

Randomday - Only the Collar Left

That's right, friends, only the collar is left of my orange Rhinebeck.  And the collar is negligible.  I can knit that up tonight and make the photo finish line before closing ceremonies.  No pictures because, well, I've been knitting all day!

I started this morning at 6:00 (9:00 EST), with some nice energetic knitting to the accompaniment of the political coverage.  I knit faster when the promise of a solid Republican victory is in the air.  And isn't it nice that Paul Ryan is considered young by all the commentators?  He's just two years younger than me, so that makes me... not old.  I finished the second sleeve midmorning, about the time I finished watching the Olympic coverage from last night.  I took a break midway through the buttonband to go pick as many plums as I could from our tree. 

There was also a break to go pick up the car from the shop in the early afternoon, and a trip to the library in mid-afternoon.  And then I made a strawberry-rhubarb pie and a blueberry-plum pie.  I also took a break for dinner and two breaks to do my two Latinstudy assignments (Caesar and Bede... Bede is in one of those dreadful papal letters, from Honorius.  The popes would have done so much better if they had stuck to the simple Latin of the Vulgate from which they all-too-seldom quote, and just dropped the pretentious efforts to impress the yokels with their erudition).

Daniel is working his way through Deep Space Nine, which he considers the quintessential Star Trek.  I finished the buttonhole band and cast on the collar through two key episodes dealing with the beginning of the Dominion war.  It's all clear sailing from here.  Yay!  I have fulfilled the Olympic code: Knit Faster, Aim Higher, Compete Stronger, and Stay Up Later watching television until you finish your sweater!  Unfortunately I have not finished my ironing, or made plum jam, or helped Daniel pack for college, or cleaned the house.  But there may be time for those things next week.

More of the random: at the Fair last week Steve and I saw a baby Barbary Lion, a species which is extinct in the wild.  It was asleep the first time we went by, but then awake right before we left the fair, and frisky.  I've never seen anything more adorable than a frisky kitten-lion trying to gnaw the head off its stuffed penguin toy.  And it was posing in people's laps, for photographs!

Recently I had an occasion where I contemplated the changes that twelve years of immersion in ancient language have made in my brain.  I was trying to explain the difference between a mystery gourd, which I think is a pumpkin, growing in our compost pile, and the watermelon which Daniel was hoping it was.  "Pumpkins have different leaves than ...." and there I paused.  Because I had to be sure the correct plural was "watermelons" and not "watermela."

In it to Win it

Forget all that "It's just an honor to be here" nonsense.  I want that Ravellenic medal!  I've worked hard and overcome a lot of setbacks, and I'm determined.  So.  After watching the Ravellenic Games live while furiously knitting on the right sleeve of Rhinebeck, I've come to some realizations about myself.  1. I'm stubborn.  2. I'm more competitive when I set myself a personal challenge than you'd think (see #1).  3. I take pride in my work and I want to see others appreciate it. 4. I honor the efforts of all participants in these games, but if baby sweaters, hexipuffs and water-bottle cozies can medal, I'm going to make darn sure my adult size sweater, knit with at least 1400 yards of my own handspun, is going to get a medal.  I will just have to be strategic.

So, like Aly Raisman making the shrewd call to drop a certain element from her floor program in the team final, I'm going to change the terms on which I will claim a medal, if necessary, after a last-minute evaluation.  From the beginning I knew that I would consider the sweater "done" even without buttons sewn on or blocking.  Now, I'm going to say that as long as I finish both sleeves, I will claim victory.  Buttonbands and collar, while they will certainly be added to the sweater before it finds its recipient this fall, are not strictly necessary elements of an adult garment.  I can claim victory without them, and I will, if necessary.  I'll be finished with the first sleeve in a few hours, and starting on the second sometime this evening.  I can DO this!  Anybody want to cook dinner for me?

Yarn-along Wednesday - Olympic Hopes

For every Olympic athlete who seizes the limelight with inspiring stories of pre-dawn practices and impossible comebacks, there are several who don't ever get a medal.  And that's okay.  You can tell the story of a person's character by how they react to -- not disaster, but a less than perfect performance.  I'm so proud of the ones who say "I'm just so happy to be here" instead of crying when they get a silver or pouting when they get a bronze (Russian gymnasts, I'm looking at you!)  Even when the announcer intones, "his Olympics are over" ... and they are, as far as NBC is concerned.  But I have to say those are the stories I enjoy the most.  I'm just sorry I don't have enough time in my life to watch more than the pre-packaged primetime coverage, taped for the next morning.

Here's where I stand on my Ravelympic Rhinebeck.  I lost almost two entire days of knitting, Saturday when I went blueberry picking, and Monday when I had a migraine.  But yesterday was quite productive.  Both right and left front yoke were completed yesterday, and I picked up stitches for the right sleeve.  Still, I'm seriously doubting that I'll be able to finish the whole thing by closing ceremonies.  That's basically three days for two sleeves and a day and a half for the collar and buttonbands.  I've never knit sleeves that fast.  But it's an honor just to be here.

I'm reading the latest #1 Ladies' Detective Agency novel - The Limpopo Academy of Private Detection.  I'm not reading it very fast because I keep trying to finish Olympic knitting, but it's just as delightful as all the others.  I'm linking up to Ginny's yarn-along today.

Blueberries have been a bit of a distraction this week also; first they had to be cleaned and picked over, then they had to be processed.  There have been many gallons -- 8? -- frozen for future use, and with the ones in the container I've made jam and syrup.  I'm trying to get to another batch of jam and a much-requested blueberry pie.  And then, just when we were preparing to drive away from church Sunday, friends come running up and saying, "Wait!  You can't go home without a zucchini!  Take two!"  They measure 11" and 12".  I like zucchini, but these are almost the size of kayaks.  I'll need to get creative to use them before people give me more! 

Steve and I are going on a date to the fair this evening; I'll be able to see the knitting and quilts without kids pulling several different directions, so it'll be fun.

Division Day

I've made lots of progress knitting over the last few days: Wednesday I spent 2 hours in the Vancouver DMV and Thursday it was about 2 hours altogether with Daniel driving to the Kelso DMV, and waiting for him to take his drive test and get his license (whoo hoo!) and driving back.  The Kelso DMV is totally the way to go.  Only about 5 minutes wait time from the time you take your number.  And Daniel is a licensed driver now!

Daniel drove the girls and me to the fair this morning... we got in with our free admission tickets for the pancake breakfast, but we'd already eaten at home.  We parked way out in the far G section and were already tired after looking at the animal exhibit (baby lion who slept in people's arms, a wallaby that hopped obligingly the lenthg of his cage, giganto pythons, a wise old tortoise) and some of the animal barns (Tertia is still terrified of cows, or any animal significantly larger than herself.  She probably doesn't remember the close encounter she had with an unruly bull as a toddler at the fair, but her subconscious sure does!)

Quarta's quilt had a blue ribbon, and my 2 quilts had red.  My 2 knitted items had blues and my yarn had a red.  Of course, it does seem that just about everything gets a ribbon.  Everyone's a winner at the fair!  Not a bad way to celebrate the summer, really.

Olympic knitting continues.  I celebrated Division Day today.  That means I completed the 15 inches of the "lower body pattern," which I affectionately think of as the waffle stitch, and divided the right front, back, and left front.  The left and right fronts are hanging out on holders or scrap yarn while I continue in plain stockinette stitch on the back.  Yay for no more ribbing, it's going to go a lot faster from here on, even though it's bulkier and harder to maneuver.

From the cast-on at the bottom edge, here are the skeins/colorways I've used so far:

145 (copper/bronze/embers) - 96 yds.
345 (flame/bronze/embers) - 98 yds.
135 (copper/flame/embers) - 118 yds.
134 (copper/flame/bronze) - 96 yds.
113 (double copper/flame) - 106 yds.  This was a little finer than the gauge I wanted so I started alternating every other row with
553 (double embers/flame) - 82 yds, and finished the waffle stitch section to divide for the 3 sections; the back started with 553 and continues with
235 (caution/flame/embers) - 108 yds., about 2 inches so far this evening.

Still to blend in on the yoke are 123, 225, 125, and 115, plus any others I might need.  I've caught up with where I wanted to be if I hadn't had to frog my first 2 days' work.  It would be nice to speed through some of these stockinette sections and actually pull ahead of my goal.  So I suppose I better sign off and actually knit, right?

Randomday: Olympic Cast-On

The Ravelympic, er, RAVELLENIC Games are on!  It's a total coincidence that the mass cast-on was at the same time as the Olympic Games opening ceremonies.  And that our goal is to finish whatever project we cast on by the closing ceremonies.  And that most of us are watching the Olympics at all... are we even allowed to say we watch the Olympics?

The challenge: complete Rhinebeck Goes Ravellenic before the end of closing ceremonies.  By complete: all knitting and seaming finished; buttons and blocking optional.  The materials: 22 skeins of orange superwash yarn, handspun during the Tour de Fleece, in 5 colorways: Classical Copper, Trademark Infringement Caution, Olympic Torch Flame, Bronze Age with Mycaenaean Patina, Ancient Embers.  I have about 1800 yards total of a worsted weight 3-ply.  The needles: size 6 KnitPicks Harmony tips on a 40" cable.  I went down a size because I'm generally a loose knitter and I'm trying to achieve an accurate 5 stitches/inch gauge to get the right amount of positive ease and not bagginess.

I managed about 2 inches of knitting and one skein of orange yarn (96 yards, colorway 145-copper/bronze/embers) before going to bed last night.  I'm on my second skein midway through the day (98 yards, colorway 345-flame/bronze/embers) and may finish about a skein a day.  It could happen!  When I did my 12 sweaters in 2009 challenge I used to aim for one inch of body knitting per day, which is roughly equivalent to 4 inches of sleeve knitting.  That can be hard to achieve with fingering or sport weight, but this is worsted and I think I can, I think I can.  Keep up the 2 inches per day pace, I mean.

Citius, Altius, Fortius!

Random observations: The Vatican did not field an Olympic team this year.  I don't know if they ever did, but it would make an interesting story.

My daughters had never watched Chariots of Fire, but now that they've seen Mr. Bean's version they may think it is the authentic one.

QEII as a Bond girl.  Now I've seen everything!

Tour de Fleece! Prologue

The goal: Spin at least 30 minutes every day the Tour de France rides, from June 30 (today!) through July 22.  Rest days are July 10 and 17.

The challenge: Spin the 2.5 pounds of orange-dyed superwash wool from Sheep Shed Studios into singles and ply them into a 3-ply, worsted-weight yarn for my Ravelympics project (another Orange Rhinebeck sweater).  I have no idea if this is even possible, but I like a challenge.

The bonus: If I spin all the orange I will choose one of the other fibers pictured and work on that.  Or if I am away from home for an extensive time, I will take my Kuchulu along and work on the top left Dicentra Salt Marsh fiber.

Another bonus: So far, no trademark complaints from the Tour de France people.  And I might even get to watch the segments that are broadcast here.

The host: Ravelry, of course!

The teams: I have signed up for Peloton, Stashbusters, Team Ashford, and Team SSS.  If I spin on my Kuchulu I will link up with Team Jenkins Turkish Spindles.  I can't commit to a photo every day, but I'll certainly do my best.  Most of the photos will be orange, of course!

I had a great time as a rookie TDF spinner last year and made a big dent in the stash, as well as learning to Navajo-ply.  Now it's time to get it to the point where I won't feel guilty if I buy more!

Knitting Goals for the New Year

Knitting and quilting are both something of an obsession with me.  I do approach the two crafts in different ways: I think I am basically a process quilter who loves the end product; while I am a product knitter who loves the process of getting there. I tend to go on jags in both knitting and quilting; but because knitting takes so much longer, it's a bigger deal if I commit to trying to carry out some insane challenge in one year... like the year 2009, when I made 12 sweaters (well, 11 sweaters and one dress)in 12 months.  There was a Ravelry group to enable me, and I was too stubborn to quit.  Besides, I really needed a bunch of new sweaters.  I still wear the April, June, October, and December sweaters a lot.  But there is no denying that the National Knit a Sweater a Month Dodecathon (NaKniSweMoDo09) was pretty all-consuming while it was going on, and I haven't managed to meet a challenge like that since, either in knitting or quilting.  I've pretty much decided to knit (and spin) what makes me happy and try to maintain a balance of making garments that I or family members need/want with the relaxing process knitting that I also enjoy.

Last week I posted about my quilting UFOs and WIPs and goals for 2012. I'm pretty sure that if I manage to finish all 12 of those sewing UFOs I'll be doing really well.  But there is a small chance that I will jump into one or more knitting challenges as well.  I've been queuing lace shawl patterns like a madwoman for over a year.  And there is a 12 shawls in 2012 group, as well as the 12 sweaters in 2012 group.  I will probably try to finish at least 3 shawls.  I've done fairly well, all things considered, at meeting my goals for 2011 as listed last New Years' Eve.  I did make the things I wanted to make (socks, sweaters, shawls) and I'm happy with them.  And in the process, I've had a lot of fun blogging about them.

Knitting goals for 2012, spelled out:

• argyle socks.  I am becoming seriously obsessed with making argyle socks right now.
• 3 or more shawls.  Should I go for the big 12 in 12 challenge?
• finish the On Your Toes sweater, and make at least one more. Preferably the twin of the orange Rhinebeck by Proxy pictured in the collage, for my sister Beth. 
• (fill in the blank with whatever strikes my fancy at the time)

Sewing UFOs and WIPs: Goals for the New Year

Back in June when I last took stock of the situation, I described the difference, at least in my mind, between a UFO and a WIP.  An UnFinished Object is something that languishes, almost forgotten and possibly unloved, for 6 months, a year, or even longer, producing disproportionate amounts of guilt and other negative emotions in the process.  A Work In Progress can be anything that you are currently working on ("currently" meaning that it easily springs to mind as something you are working on without having to sort through layers of unpleasant repressed memories), and is usually characterized by a fair amount of creative agitation, mess, and occasional bad temper.  Still, WIPs by definition are things that a crafter is interested in and thus have an obvious advantage.  There are WIP Wednesday linkup parties to monitor their progression, and crafters really LIKE to talk about them.  UFOs, not so much.  I listed 11 UFOs, all of them quilt-related, without batting an eye, and resolved to finish a few of them.  I actually did: the Shirt-Stripe Boxes quilt and the quilting for my MIL's Japanese Lanterns quilt.  But that's still a drop in the bucket, and new UFOs have sprung up since then.

Now, at the close of the old year, I have discovered Patchwork Times, where Judy Laquidara hosts a yearly challenge to finish up some of those long-term UFOs.  This really appeals to me.  I think the way it works is, I post my list of 12 UFOs that I would like to get finished in 2012.  Then, every month Judy will draw a random number and we work on that numbered project.  I had no trouble coming up with 12 UFOs by splitting some of my bigger challenges into parts and counting projects for which I've bought patterns and fabric but not even started.  So here's my list:

1. Aunt Maggie's Quilt: finished top, needs machine quilting and binding
2. Framed in Quilt (pictured above): finished top, needs machine quilting and binding
3. Log cabin... more blocks? Sew blocks together into quilt top
4. 1996 Piecemaker's Calendar quilt (pictured at top): prepare half of applique for setting triangles
5. " "
6. Classical-themed tote bag
7. Feathered Star (pictured above): make a decision and finish top
8. Bowling-style knitting bag (was a sew-along in a Ravelry group over a year ago)
9. Jack's Chain: piece half of remaining blocks
10. " "
11. Kit for three-quarters bag from Connecting Threads in Whirlwind Romance
12. Pieced blanket of felted wool squares from old sweaters

If I don't make it on any of these 12 goals, there's no penalty of course, but at least I have blog fodder and camaraderie while I'm trying.  I reserve the right to go on an obsessive finishing streak and work on something out of order, too.  That COULD happen.  If it does, here are a few extra projects to throw in for a bonus:

1. Hooked Rug in Mariner's Compass design
2. heirloom linen blouse
3. wool stuffed toy cat
4. boxers in 3 different fabrics (I was supposed to make them for Christmas. Ha!)

In addition to working on those long-term UFOs, here are my current WIPs that will probably be in play for at least the first 3 months of 2012:

1. Farmer's Wife Quilt (79 of 111  blocks complete)
2. Orca Bay mystery quilt (halfway through clue 4)
3. Sports quilt for Cedar Tree auction (This is really a UFO but I'm giving myself a March deadline)
4. Crumb-along quilt for auction
5. conversion to Bonnie Hunter's Scrap-User's system... ongoing

And then, of course I will probably start any number of new quilts.  I have some ideas but I'll wait to share them, lest they be counted as UFOs and start to produce guilt.

I'll do another post sometime soon about my knitting goals for the new year, because I approach knitting UFOs and WIPs in a completely different way than sewing ones.