New Year’s Eve Mystery Quilt

I’ve spent much of my “spare” time since about Thanksgiving in preparations for a New Year’s Eve Mystery quilt that is being hosted on one of the Yahoo Groups to which I belong. It’s been a while since I’ve really done any crafting, until I started my Christmas prep (and after the reaction I got from some of the Christmas gifts with which I felt “so connected,” it may be a while before I bother with that again!)… Anyway, I’ve been trying to figure out if this is like a writer’s block or what – and think that I may be, as Bonnie Hunter from Quiltville calls it, ’paralyzed by the stash!”

When I look at the progress I made in getting my sewing/guest room organized earlier this year, with the wonderful Ikea cabinets my DH gathered and assembled for me, it seems like I just ground to a halt when I started getting to the point where I’d have no excuse NOT to sew anymore, so I never finished with the reorganziation project. Then vacation visits came around, and I hurriedly stuffed things in the cabinets with doors, before our wonderful DD came to visit. I now realize that I have more room in the cabinets than I thought, and I need to get off my duff, and get things put away properly so that I can find things.

In the meanwhile, I’m trying to finish the prep for the NYE mystery quilt by trimming a zillion (well, at least 104) half-square triangles with my BIG rotary cutter, because I can’t find the small one. So… once more, it would seem that my resolution will be to try to get my crafting stuff more organized – and perhaps, I’ll buy another small rotary cutter. The original one is likely to turn up as soon as I do! And I’m finding that making little decisions, like which fabrics to use to coordinate with the chickens and roosters fabrics my RPLOTN buddies gave me for housewarming gifts, are easier than figuring out which patterns I want to start because I want to make them all – NOW – and I just don’t have time. So, I’ll quit stalling, and go trim some more HST’s, and get READY, SET, GO for quilt making, mystery style!

Here are the fabrics that I chose for the coordinates – along with the lovely chickens and roosters. With any degree of stick-to-it-iveness, tomorrow I’ll have the picture of some lovely progress to share, on the quilt top!

As The Needle Bends

Technorati Tags: Quilting and Hobbies (wishing I had ’spare’ time), New Year’s Eve Mystery Quilt, Chicken and Rooster fabric, Bonnie Hunter, “paralyzed by the stash”, New Year’s Resolutions

Merry Christmas, Ya’ll!

As I was perusing the Van Horn Advocate for any updates on “Eyes on the Border,” since Edd Hendee delivered the plane to the Border Sheriff’s Association this past week, I ran across an article from which I am excerpting:

A woman was doing her last-minute Christmas shopping at a crowded mall. She was tired of fighting the crowds. She was tired of standing in lines. She was tired of fighting her way down long aisles looking for a gift that had sold out days before.
Her arms were full of bulky packages when the elevator door opened. It was full. The occupants of the elevator grudgingly tightened ranks to allow a small space for her and her load. As the doors closed she blurted out, “Whoever is responsible for this whole Christmas thing ought to be arrested, strung up, and shot!”
A few others nodded their heads or grunted in agreement. Then, from somewhere in the back of the elevator came a single voice that said,

“Don’t worry. They already crucified him.”

Phil McCraw, San Antonio, Texas

This article reminded me that so many people lose sight of the "reason for the season," in all the hustle and bustle of preparations for Christmas. I, myself, am caught up in last minute preparations for family gift giving, as I began a tradition, many years ago, of making most of my Christmas gifts. The reason for this is not parsimony, but a feeling of connection with the person for whom I am creating a gift during the creative process. Unbeknownst to many of the recipients (teenagers, in particular) this tradition is often more expensive, both in time and materials, than simply going to the local discount house and picking up a half dozen what-ever-the-fad-is’s for the teens, and half a dozen something-else’s for the adults. However, when I have had to resort to doing that, I felt empty and the holiday seemed much less meaningful. So I will take this opportunity to wish all of you a very Merry Christmas, and go chain myself back to my sewing machine to finish my gifts, while remembering that celebrating Jesus’s birth is still the Reason for the Season… Eternal life is still the gift He gave by coming to dwell on Earth as a mortal, and dying to pay the price for our sins, if only we will accept that gift.

May you find Him now, and may He bless you at this time and throughout the coming year!

Merry Christmas, ya’ll! See ya after the holiday hustle and bustle dies down to a dull roar!

As The Needle Bends

Technorati Tags: Life and Ramblings, Christmas, Eyes on the Border, Edd Hendee, Van Horn Advocate, Phil McCraw, Christ, Salvation, Gift giving, Teens, Creative process