Quiltfest! (And resolutions)

[neadods]

Yesterday I headed down to the annual Quiltfest, with a stop off at Colonial Williamsburg along the way. Driving there and back sucked; going down it was clumps of flakes as big as butterflies plastering on the windshield, while coming back things were fine until I hit unending slush 40 miles out of DC. "Let's Guess Where the Lane Is!" is not the best party game.

When I got there, I was a little disappointed in the venders. Brother didn't have a thing I could buy for Poohcifer, and Starr quilts didn't show up at all.

Still, I'm glad I went. I got my annual cup of peanut soup, about 2 dozen pictures of gorgeous art quilts, and the fixin's for some art of my own. tchwrtr, I found a kit called "Butter and Blue" that made me think of you instantly, so it turns out that you will have a sunny beach quilt after all!

And me - I got my silks. Ever since fabric.com started selling fat quarters of dupioni silk, I've been thinking about making a rainbow-colored silk crazy quilt, with embroidery and fancy stitching and all. I found someone selling a whole range of quarter-yard cuts, and came home with 42 different shades and hues. Whee!

Now to find the time to actually DO anything - although I am staying ahead of the resolution list:

JANUARY
Hang grandmother's quilt in hall
Go through and reorganize cookbooks
Create personal cookbook of favorite recipes
Bonus craft project: learn to make bread by hand from scratch
Bonus exercise/diet: begin shift to polydiet and start Tai Chi classes
TBR: 238

FEBRUARY
Declutter basement
Donate excess fabrics or make quilt kits for PfF III
Organize all fabric by project in neat containers
Clean up Library (dumping ground for things that didn't belong in basement)
Bonus vacation: Go to VA quilt show and make a stop in Colonial Williamsburg
TBR: 259 (oops! That number's heading in the wrong direction!)

MARCH
Start asking for TW donations for MS walk
Shore Leave Masquerade:
- recruit crew
- set up dedicated database (with help of programmers)
learn how to make my own patterns for embroidery machine
?create fabric masquerade banner?
Make baby quilt
TBR:

APRIL
Mend or donate all mundane clothes
Sew at least 3 chemises (heavy white, light white, light black)
Make/buy & embroider Team Wench bodice
TBR:

MAY
Finish mending Renfair clothes
- Embroider
- - green Irish dress
- - blue Irish dress
- - black Irish dress
- Take in black skirt
- Fit flat caps (black, green, tapestry)
- Convert drawstring skirts to elastic
?embroider cloak?
TBR:

JUNE
Embroider Young Fan awards for Shore Leave
Order Shore Leave awards
Start ebay sales
TBR:

JULY
Run Shore Leave Masquerade
Buy Harry Potter & reread entire series
TBR:

AUGUST
Read through the appropriate chapters of:
- - Born for Liberty
- - Captain Ahab Had a Wife
- - Eyewitness to America/Eyewitness to History
- - Hen Frigates
- - Stove by a Whale
- - Letters of a Nation
- - Petticoat Whalers
- - She Captains
- - 9 Doctors and God (too romanticized to be useful)
- - Let Us Go (too romanticized to be useful)
- - Missionary Album
- - Paths of Duty
- - Pilgrim Path
- - Rebuilding the Christian Commonwealth
Scan and add to timeline Hiram Bingham's diary (1819-1826)
TBRs on break this month to make way for missionary reading

SEPTEMBER
Soapmaking:
- test recipes, find a favorite
- make one batch milk soap & one batch beer soap, maybe also one batch eggnog soap
TBR:

OCTOBER
finish 3 quilts
- rainbow braid
- embroidered denim patches
- scrap pineapple foundation-pieced
TBR:

NOVEMBER
General catch-up of unfinished projects
Make holiday-recipe cookbook of tried and trusted recipes
Begin work on cross-stitched Christmas stockings for self and roommate
TBR:

DECEMBER
Finish cross stitched stockings
Learn to make 3 kinds of candy (molded chocolates, eggnog fudge, press cookies)
Clean new candlemold and make 1/2 dozen winterfest-style candles.
TBR: n/a because I read dedicated Christmas books all month.