2019 has arrived in all its glory, and with it a clean slate and a million opportunities! I love the feel of new beginnings, don't you? But before I jump into the new, I want to look back at the year gone by...
With the exception of the bottom left picture (and of course our little scrap monster in the center), these are just a few of the scrappy projects I finished this year, using scraps I gleaned out of the Tubs of Shame under my long arm machine. And you know what? I discovered that I like quilting with scraps! And that bottom left picture shows the fifty-one quilts we made using scraps at church for the teachers at our local elementary school - a project that was much-participated in by our members and well received by the teachers!
I also learned that keeping up with your scraps is much preferable to just stuffing them into tubs unattended (although that still happens with some of mine when I get too busy!) I learned that from June to December, it's usually too busy to keep up with a monthly goal, BUT that didn't mean that I wasn't motivated to sew with scraps - so I count that a win!
And now for this year. As I mentioned, July through December were pretty much busts as far as drawing out a goal from my Scrap Attack box, so I have six goals from 2018 that will carry over into 2019. They are:
Sort through scrap tub "A"and make a project using those scraps.
Sort through scrap tub "D" and make a project using those scraps.
Sort through the solids scrap tubs and make a project using them.
Use the green "bricks and blocks" to make another quilt.
Scrappy double wedding ring quilt, using my new templates.
Mail someone a large flat rate box full of scraps.
All of those are still worthy goals, so I'll keep them in the box, and add the following:
Finish my scrappy Gypsy Wife quilt.
Sort through, press, fold, and store my strings outside of the String Hamper of Shame.
Make a string quilt.
Using thrifted men's shirts, make a quilt.
Dig into the bonus HST's tub and make one or more projects.
That gives me eleven for the year, and since I didn't make it through all twelve last year, I should be good to go!
And speaking of the String Hamper of Shame, here it is - 3-5 years of strings stuffed into a hamper, and gleefully ignored for all that time. Oh the shame!
But I guess I've already started on one of my Scrap Attack 2019 goals, since I've been pressing, folding, and tubbing up some of these strings already since I got back from Hawaii. See how much I've accomplished already?
But I'm ashamed to show you just how full the hamper still is, even after several hours of work on it. I've gotten down at least as far as December 2017, as I recognize some of the scraps from Christmas projects that year. But it's still pretty solidly packed under that. It's rather like taking a core sample - you never know what you're going to find in there!
I'm also planning to dig through my solids tubs this month and next, since I need 7.5" solids squares for one of my QuiltCon classes and that's a good place to start. So I'll be working on two projects simultaneously (maybe even three if I start a string quilt with the fruits of my labors!)
So - - - are you going to set some scrappy goals for 2019? As you can see from my own performance, the idea is to motivate, not legislate - it's no big whoop if you don't make it through your goals. But I've found that the goals give me a place to start when I find myself at the end of a project with that empty feeling of "what will I work on next???" or if I have a small period of time to fill with no specific "have to's" on the books. Feel free to link up your list below if you are joining in - and I'll try to be better about putting a link up each month so we can show off our progress!
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| Hello there, little friend! |
Sarah
