A New Year

There's just something about January... a whole new year stretching out in front of me.  Do you make New Year Resolutions?   I used to, years ago.  Now, I simply think of things I want to accomplish and how to go about getting them done.  And I always do some reorganizing and clearing out/cleaning out.  I really love that part.  So far this new month and year, I've reorganized and cleaned out my kitchen pantry.  I'm surprised at how long it took me and how much out of date food was lurking in there!  Ugh!! I also added a new LED light strip in there that charges via USB.  I added one a few years ago in our coat closet and it is sooooo helpful!
In my sewing room, I had five full old really big - 5" wide, three ring binders full of designs and patterns I saved from 15 years of quilt magazines sitting in my cupboard.  They were so big and heavy and unwieldy with my non-existent hand grip, that I never dug them out and used them.  My friend Suzanne told me she took all her big binders and broke them out and switched them out into smaller ones.  GREAT IDEA!!!  I got a bunch of 1.5" wide binders from Amazon, and spent a few days going through all my old binders and reorganized them into smaller ones that now fit on my open book shelves, where they are in easy reach!!  I threw out over half the stuff I had collected over the years.  Sometimes our likes change over time... haven't you found that to be true with you, too?  Do you reorganize stuff in your home and sewing room in January?
I have some things to share that I made the last bit of 2018!  Most were gifts that I couldn't share before Christmas!  I'm in two bees, so I made some small things for gifts for these dear fiends...and of course, I forgot to take photos of some of them.  But I did take a photo of some little embroidered needle minders...designed by Kathy Schmitz.

I bought an old oak secretary desk that had some water damage on the front to put downstairs in my library. 

I took out all the insides so my featherweight machine would fit in it. Now, if I want to sew downstairs,  I can!!  

I made a wool stitchery for the slant front to cover the water damage and am so pleased how it turned out!

I made a fun stoplight quilt, from an old jelly roll. It was quick to cut and sew together!!  I named it Italian Flower Market.  I would definitely make this design again! As I HATE the cutting part of quilting, this was a breeze with precut strips!!

I finally made the big Moda Swell Santa panel quilt.

I used a jelly roll cut into rail fence strips for the background, and put fusible around the edge of the Santa applique then stitched the edges with black zigzag stitches.  I free motion quilted it on my Bernina 790.  It was fun to make!!  I gave it to my grandson, Neal, for Christmas.  He seems to like it!!  It's a good place to play with his trucks!!

Speaking of Neal, we were blessed to watch him a few times for my son and his wife over the holidays.  He is such a delight in every way!  Cute and smart and kind!  It's so wonderful to see your grown children bringing up their own children the best way possible!

So, what did you all do these last few weeks?  Hope your Christmas was the best ever!!