Resolutions, Shmesolutions!

Happy New Year! Everyone is so ambitious with all their resolutions and so brave for posting them for the whole world to see! I am not a big one for resolutions. I never keep them, plus I'm sort of a "fly by the seat of her pants" kind of gal, so I don't like to pin myself down... oh, ok, I'm just lazy and I like to start things and not finish them and I don't want to change.

I am not going to set any specific goals, except for one thing: I am going to start labeling my quilts. I have never labeled a quilt before, at least that I can remember, but I would like to start.

I am looking forward to keeping track of my quilting this year, basically through this blog. I have given away a lot of quilts that I don't have pictures of, so I am going to use this blog as a kind of way of keeping track of what I've done. I wish I had started keeping track when I first started quilting. Any newbies out there- TAKE PICTURES AND LABEL THEM (the pictures and the quilts)!!

I did find some pictures today in a box (cleaning- yay me!) so I scanned them in for your viewing pleasure. These quilts were mostly made about 3 or 4 years ago from what I can remember.

This was a wedding quilt/gift for a cousin. They were at seminary and this quilt is made with a missionary theme- there are Bible verses about missions written next to each appliqued square. The applique sort of illustrates the verse, the fish for the "fisher's of men" verse, the corn for the "harvest is plenty" verse and so on. The border blocks are just "cheater fabric", but they were so pretty I based the quilt around those colors. This quilt was sent to a long-arm quilter for quilting. This is the only picture I have of this quilt, but I remember the backing fabric was as pretty as the front of the quilt. I made up the applique designs, except for the corn, so they are pretty "rustic". I had quite a rough time with the world and have several (pretty awful) versions in my orphan block bag.

This was made for a baby boy belonging to one of my friends. I love the bright colors and polka dots. This is tied, so it's not really a quilt.

I have no clue who this one was for. I had totally forgotten making this quilt until today. The colors are much more vivid in real life- my son has a quilt made with a lot of the same fabrics. This is also tied with embroidery floss, so it's more of a comforter than a quilt. When I started out I tied everything, but now I have learned that those "quilts" fall apart a lot faster and I try to either quilt it myself or send it to a long-arm quilter.

This one was for one of my nieces and it was my first attempt at hand quilting. I meandered for most of it and attempted a leafy viney pattern in the borders. I now realize that most people don't meander when hand-quilting, but it did look pretty cool. The poem is hand embroidered.

It's gratifying to look back and see how much better I've gotten. I am hoping next year I will be able to look back through my blog and see a big change for the better. (Also, my picture taking skills have gotten better, along with my quilting skills.)