Happy New Year everyone and God’s blessings on your lives for the new decade!
I have a lot of fun plans for 2020. As I usually do, I have almost certainly planned more than I can accomplish, but there is always the offhand chance I will actually get them all done and that would be grand.
As many of you may remember I made big plans for clothes making in November. Read all about it here in my past blog. But November was basically eaten up with my making of my son David’s “leather” coat, which, albeit successful in the end, required a lot of unexpected time while I polished up my rusty tailoring skills from decades ago, fixing several big mistakes, and taking my time doing a good job on the coat with the great feet and machine I had to sew it with. If you missed it, you can see the end results in this blog.
But I still need some new clothes for myself. Fortunately, most of the fabric I have for this update is four season fabric. So I am going to scatter this sewing across the year. Besides, I am hoping to lose some more weight so it would be a good idea to go kind of slowly in this wardrobe revamp project.
In the meantime, I hunted through some of the older jackets and shirts I had stored away I used for work that I haven’t worn for a while because they got too tight, but now they are nice and lose. Some even require taking in. The first thing I did last week was take a tan faux suede jacket I had but never wore much because it was just too boring, and embroidered the back and fronts with some really pretty steam punk designs in blues. The designs include an old style sewing machine, an owl, and a bunch of gears and swirls. They came from this OREA set of designs. It really improved it and I will be using these designs elsewhere. I also found the long dress that goes with it. I don’t really wear dresses anymore, but it is also made from the same nice faux suede and I might make a bag or something to go with the jacket or I might just wear it as is, adding maybe some embroidery on it too, but I doubt I will do that. In any event, I am not planning on buying new clothes in 2020, because I can make the ones I have work and can make some new ones while I continue to lose weight.
I think I have what I need ready to go now for my trip to California to see my brother, sister-in-law, and the Road to California show we are going to together. It was a wonderful gift from my SIL. We have a lovely relationship and I really am thrilled with this trip. I will also get to see my nephew and his family.
Sew once I get back to my studio what are my plans? Since I usually work on two quilts at a time, this year I will work on one quilt and one garment at a time for a while. I like working two projects to give me some changes in muscle and eye activities periodically without losing a lot of time.
Sew in addition to my clothing plans I have an exciting plan for show quilts, books, and maybe some additional items for sale. Right now, I am quilting my Mom’s memory quilt. I have made a significant start in the quilting, but I have a long ways to go. I really enjoyed returning to quilting this past week.
I made a list to pick from the other day for 2020 show quilts. I was thinking four quilts, and ended up with nine on the list to choose from. I am fairly certain I won’t get nine show quilts made this year…hahahahaha. Here’s a short list of some of the ones I am considering making.
- Mom’s memory quilt already well along the way
- A strata landscape quilt with embroidered and beaded fossils
- A steam locomotive train scene using the fabric I digitized and had printed for the background
- A new ancient manuscript quilt (probably Excalibur)
- A new deep space quilt
- An ancient map with a ragged edge
- A deep ancient forest that shows off my couching and thread painting
- Several landscape quilts based on my daughter-in-law’s beautiful travel and flower pictures
- A wool applique quilt with interesting decorative stitches and heavily beaded.
Plus I am writing two books, which require samples. I am about halfway through the one on embellishments and have the one on quilting for art quilters outlined and started.
I will do what I can and not try to push myself too hard this year…just sew along and enjoy myself along the way. But I would really love to get it all done. Great fun in my studio.
Sew happy everyone! I would love to know what your plans for the new year are, at least to begin the year. Enjoy your New Year’s Eve and Day!