It's been HOW long?????

I can't believe I only had a handful of posts in the last year. But then, since August it has been a bit crazy. We moved my Mom up from MI to live with us, my daughter, SIL and grandson can to visit in September, Mom and I celebrated our joint birthday in October and then the holidays hit in November and December. Oh, I think about posting something new, but then it seems time just gets away from me. My goal this year is to be a bit more active with my blog ... both this one and my professional blog (www.quiltsfromthetrail.com/blog).

I took off the weeks before and after Christmas from my quilting business -- the week "before" so I could enjoy the holiday with my family; the week "after" to get my quilting studio cleaned up and organized. Part of the organization included going through bins that I have stacked in a room that I call "The Fabric Room". Not only do I have a closet full of fabric, neatly folded and organized by color, but STACKS of plastic bins lining the room that contain even more fabric.

Here's a look at my fabric stash in the closet.  I've been collecting fabric since the early '90s so I have quite a bit as you can see.  The top shelf has primarily novelty fabrics -- seasonal, kids, etc.   I don't know if I'll ever sew it all up in my lifetime.  I told my daughter that it is her inheritance.  She said, "Just leave me instructions!"  My response, "Oh, that's not a problem -- it's called books and patterns, honey!"

 Here are the multitude of bins -- they contain fat quarters, yardage -- all categorized by either designer (Robyn Pandolph, 3 Sisters, Amy Butler, etc.) or size (three of the bins are just assorted fat quarters.

Then there are the "project" bins .... I've had the bins sorted by "Kits" (2), "To Be Quilted"(3), "To Be Bound", "Handquilting", etc.  for a while but never really went through them to see what I had in each ... until recently.  I decided to go through the "Kits" and "To Be Quilted" bins and see exactly what each bin contained.

Here's what I found:

Kits:  1 baby quilt, 1 pillowcase, 2 pincushions, 1 Queen quilt, 2 table runners, 7 throws/lap quilts, 4 table toppers, 4 tote bags, 1 Twin quilt, 1 wall hanging, and a Merry Beary stuffed bear kit (this one is from around 1992).

To Be Quilted:  These are projects for which I have a backing  -- 1 baby quilt, 1 queen quilt, 9 throw/lap quilts, 3 twin quilts, and 2 wall hangings.  There are also another 25 or so projects that I don't have backs for yet.

Projects To Be Bound:  Here's the sad thing on these -- most of them have bindings already made and ready to sew on...one just needs to be sewn to the back.  In this bin we have -- 3 baby quilts, 2 table runners, 3 throws, 2 table toppers, and 8 wall hangings.

Projects in Progress:  These are projects I started but either got bored with them or was too anxious to start a new project and set them aside.  In this category we have -- 6 baby quilts, 2 twin quilts, 2 double/full quilts, 3 queen quilts, 6 table runners, 6 table toppers, 6 pillows (Folded Pillows by Patchworks of Sayville, NY -- www.patchworks.com), 1 tote bag, 5 wall hangings and -- drumroll, please -- 27 throws!!!

So, this year's goal is not only to blog more but to get all of these projects done .... pieced, quilted and bound!!!  I should be able to do pretty well on both of these goals as I'll be posting the projects as I complete them.

Oh ... and then there are my knitting projects .... we won't go there right now!

Enjoy what's left of your weekend!

Patti