12 WIP's in 2012

Just came across AJ's blog with her 12 WIP's for 2012, what an excellent idea and just up my street at the moment, so I am signing in! We will, hopefully, be moving back home sometime this year so this is a great incentive to get things finished before the move. The WIP's are in two parts, six should be projects that have already been started and put aside (abandoned!) and six should be projects that I have the materials for but have never started and I have lots of these! To take part I need to send AJ a fat quarter of fabric and at the end of the year she will have a draw and the winner will get the donated fabrics, which is quite neat.

By typing these projects I am committing myself to finishing them, so here goes -  the first 6 of my WIP's are to:

• Back, quilt and bind the sunflowers quilt I have been working on for a couple of years. The quilt is pieced but hasn't got any further
• Back, quilt and bind the Irish Chain quilt I started last winter. Again the quilt is pieced but I mucked up the measurements so it didn't work as an Irish Chain and was consigned to the cupboard
• Make the final block for the Quilt As You Go sampler quilt I started a few years ago at my first ever patchwork and quilting class. The block is meant for the centre of the quilt and is a folded star block but I have lost the instructions on how to finish it, so it has been gathering dust for ages. It can't be that difficult to find instructions on how to finish it off, can it?

These are the three big WIP's hanging over me, the next three are less daunting but that hasn't stopped me putting off finishing them!

• To make buttons and buttonhole loops for my winter cushion to finish off the back. I cut the envelope backing a bit neat on this cushion so it really needs a button closure to stop it from gaping and I have seen instructions on how to make your own buttons with modelling clay, so that is what I plan to do

 

Reindeer Cushion

• To finish the Shades of Green cushion I have hand pieced and quilted but not backed and, hopefully, I will have learned my lesson from the cushion above and will cut the back to the correct size this time!
• To either finish (again) or recycle the material from the Dragon Bag I made to carry at my son's wedding. I did finish the bag before the wedding but never got to use it as the first time I carried it with belongings inside the bag came away from the frame! I have made several other bags with glued-on frames and it had never happened before, but none were as big as this bag so that might have been part of the problem.

Big Betty Bag pattern from u-handbag.com

That is a daunting list, but maybe if I start off slowly and work up, who knows, by the end of the year I could finally have some quilts on beds and space in cupboards! Fingers crossed.

The second half of the challenge is maybe not so daunting, although time will no doubt tell whether I am being overly optimistic again. My list for this only has two largish quilts in it, so is hopefully eminently doable even with the challenges I have set myself in the first half. So here is my list:

• To complete the quilt for my son and daughter-in-law that I have signed up for with Sew Happy Geek's QAL
• To complete the quilt I have signed up for at In Color Order's HST BOM
• To finally make the Days to Santa Countdown from Nancy Halverson's 12 Days of Christmas booklet. I have had the fabric for this for a couple of years now and promise myself every year that I will start it in time to have it completed for December 1st, and every year the time passes and I have missed the opportunity to get it done in time again!
• To sew for myself, or possibly my daughter-in-law or son's girlfriend, one of the bags from Amy Butler's Style Stitches, the book will turn out to be an expensive indulgence if I don't make at least one handbag from it
• To make for myself a fashionista bag from Lisa Lam's Bag Making Bible, I have made two of them already both for my daughter-in-law, but despite buying some lovely pink wool fabric in Tallinn especially for this bag and having all the hardware needed it hasn't even been started

• The final WIP for this challenge is another bag, a patchwork bag I bought the pattern and fabric for on a quick stop in the Scottish borders whilst we were taking our youngest son to University. The purchase was probably as much about being able to have my pick of quilting fabric and notions as about the pattern, as quilting cottons are not popular here in Latvia, so I am like a child in a sweet shop when I get in a quilt shop in the UK :)

I think that is probably enough to be going on with for now. Coming up with the list itself was an interesting exercise though as it did concentrate my mind on what was achievable and, in some cases, how little I actually had to do to finally finish something. No doubt I will be diverted in the coming months but having this in black and white will make sure I get back on track, at least that is the plan.

Let me know what your plans are for the coming year, so that I don't feel so bad about having so many unfinished projects cluttering up my cupboards!