Shelly's Quilting Blog: When did 2009 get here?

Seriously-when did 2008 end and how did I miss it? Oh yeah-I was out cold that night by 9:30! I must say I that I have barely checked emails in 3 weeks much less post a blog. I have made sure to keep track of my favorite bloggers: Cre8tive Quilter, Sister's Choice Quilts and Life is a Stitch - BlogHoster. There are plenty more I lurk on but these are the ones I am obsessed with reading. They are great quilters, wives, sisters, daughters, friends, bloggers, and some mothers whose wit and sense of humor makes it to the pages of their blog offering me an escape from the daily grind and my house full of testosterone!

So here we are in 2009 and I have grand plans for my WIP's and UFO's this year-the same as I did last year. I think all in all I did fairly well. Considering the ones I chose to finish were at least a decade old! I am committing to print my must do quilt projects for 2009-here we go:

Quilt Todd and Summer's 6 year old Wedding Gift-after all it was the reason for buying Grace!
Quilt my beloved Round Log Cabin-this to date is one of my favorites. I am not a fan of blue but I LOVE the movement and perceived circles.
The Stain glass-esque wall hanging for my very bare, very white dining room wall.
Quilt Mom's 9-patch wall hanging!

Ok so this is all I am committing too, there are about 1/2 dozen other things that should be here but I cannot commit because you know what will happen-the quilt shop will get some amazing kits in or a new line of fabric and bam I am off track. OMG! I just figured out I have QADD-Quilt Attention Deficit Disorder~Hmmm I wonder if Fabric Pills exist for therapy??

I have not allowed myself much time at the sewing machine lately-a self inflicted "NO SEW ZONE" is in place. My SPHR exam in on the 26th so I am forcing myself to study. I did however break the zone and forwarned the hubby that I was going to-he has been enlisted to help enforce the new policy. I HAD to de-stress and I have been dutifully studing daily. This brief reprieve had some rules-whatever I chose had to be something already started or if something new I had to be able to finish it-so as to not tease me into a longer furlough- and I only had the length of Mama Mia movie! I planned prior to starting the movie to be able to get the most out of the break.

I chose a Cup Cozy! My co-worker and I love our post lunch Lattes (decaf for me!) but our favorite spot is new age, organic-y, recycle....and does not offer a cardboard finger protector. SO unless we are wearing longer sleeves than necessary or gloves, we burn our fingers holding our beloved mid afternoon snacks. I saw a pattern/kit in the Connecting Threads catalog for $22-WHAT!! $22 bucks? Are you nuts? I don't mind spending money on fabric or patterns but PAHLEEZE let's make it reasonable. I scoured the treasure trove of free patterns on the Internet and

discovered lots of versions and for a mere $8 bucks the pattern could be mine-nope not good enough-I want free! Kind of like Jill at Ramblings of a Fabric Obsessor with the Yo-Yo maker. I gave up on the free and set out searching the cars because I knew there had to be at least one of the Starbucky ones tucked in a side/seat pocket. Eureka!

I took apart the cardboard one and worked up a muslin prototype that is perfect, choose a great Kaffe print and VIOLA! Here is the result-Cool huh? All done within the allotted time! Now not only are our fingers cool but we are COOL with our Kaffe Cup Cozies! The Cherry Alley Cafe should be very proud as they will fit with their new age views in that they are reusable!