October November December

What is it about creativity versus determination? For five quarters now I've entered the finishalong hosted by A Quilter's Table (let's be honest, I piled a bunch of UFOs on the floor in the living room and took a picture of them) and have struggled to finish them. In the interim, I've started and finished lots of other projects, but since they weren't in the official beginning of quarter picture, either I don't want to work on the official entries or I'm perturbed that I can't count the in-betweens. Laugh out loud. Serves me right? In any case, I've found inspiration and ideas browsing the works of others, as well as a small increase in self-discipline, to follow through to the finish. I've also realized there are some roadblocks to finishing things for me, e.g. the realization that since I'm not free motion or longarm quilting (I've been quilting by hand) so it takes forever. Another insight - this is why there were quilting bees, once upon a time. They didn't have internet or email, they got together to finish hand pieced quilt tops and eat chocolate.

Last October I was visiting my brother and sister-in-law in Dallas, then friends near Syracuse; while on vacation I was working on this Cheerful Child blanket. The outside picture from late October just doesn't show the colors (Vanna's Choice). 

I bought the brightly colored "Backlights" (Red Heart) on impulse, visualizing it as a constant color stripe with many other colors, chosen from the range of colors in Backlights. It has earned many kudos and much admiration. Size J hook.

I've been admiring stripey blankets for a while now, even created a Pinterest board. I love their crazy quilt appeal - a real blast of random colors and variety of stitches. And it's so much better in person.

Early December I came across the blog of two salmon fishermen known as the "Salmon Sisters" and enjoyed their spirit, creativity and entrepreneurship. At the end of the month I purchased one of their grab bags, which has 3 items (a hoodie and 2 other items) which will be in the size you specify. I ended up purchasing enough items to get the free shipping (since the shipping alone was $21) and happiness day was Monday, January 9th when my grab bag box arrived. One of the blind items was "The Mermaid Life" which is a super incredibly comfy shirt with raglan sleeves, thick cotton with fleece on the inside. Retracting the raglan sleeves - the shoulders are extended and droop over like raglan sleeves.