The Start of the New Year

Well tomorrow is back to the normal routine of things, the holiday season is at an end, the Christmas decorations came down today and are packed for another year. Sounds kind of sad, but there is hope soon, we leave for our vacation on the 19th. We are taking a cruise to the Mexican Riviera for a week. The weather there is in the 80s as opposed to 20s here in Minnesota. Can't wait to lay in the sun and cook for a few days. We are doing a "whale watching" excursion and are really looking forward to that. We will also spend a day with friends that winter in Mazatlan so that will be great too. So what am I going to do for my quilting this year, thinking "outside the box" I am going to try some new things, like foiling, silk fusion, different stamping, I am going to take a journaling class from Susan Stein that will teach all of these things and more. I have so many large bed quilts I am not sure what I would do with another one, (my kids say give it to them, not!) so I am going to do some wall hangings with a little more "artsy" flair to them. Susan has a new book, Fabric Art Workbook that shows a lot of fun ways to embellish your quilts. Yesterday I finished a project that I started in a class last June, Piping Hot Curves with Susan Cleveland. I tried her piping in the binding a few years ago so know how to make the piping, but using it for curves was fun. I call this Chinese Noodles, I used an oriental fabric as my focus and picked up the black, gold and orange from the print. It needs to be quilted yet and will then get more piping, in the binding. I think now I will go play with my Paintstiks. Have a great Day.