More and more of my doll loving friends are doing challenges again this year, like taking and posting one photo everyday day of one of their dolls or toys. I know that is not something that is anywhere near being possible for me; I found a doll a week photos in 2010 a challenge to keep up with! But, I wanted to do something more this year, and just didn't know what.
Then, a few days ago, I saw that one of my favorite quilt book authors, Kathleen Tracy, was doing another sort of challenge - one small quilt a month. I already have 3 or her 4 books, and have wanted the 4th one for a while. The January Quilt inspired me to take this on. I would love to be able to complete 12, but even if I can only do a few, I will be happy to have that much accomplished.
The January quilt is the Crosses Mourning Quilt. This seems like a good choice for this period of my life, as I am still adjusting to loosing my dad last October to radiation necrosis at the young age of only 67. He had an extremely strong faith, so I know that I will see him in Heaven some day, but at the same time, it is hard to see someone you love work very hard their entire lives, retire, and less than 2 months later find out that they have brain cancer. Dad's first loves were his LORD and his family, but he also enjoyed American History, boating, and politics. A quilt inspired by quilts and events in the mid-1800s that has crosses on it seems like a great way to begin this year-long challenge and work through the grieving process.
It seems like 2011 was a time for loss for many of my friends and co-workers. Since September, 2 people I know suddenly lost their young adult sons, another friend who lost her father and aunt, another friend lost her father-in-law, and several other people I know lost other relatives. I pray that they all knew Jesus and will be with their loved ones in Heaven.
I am determined that I want my life to be about more than working hard until I die. I want to enjoy time with my family and friends. I want to take time to do things that I enjoy now - not wait until I have the time, money, energy or opportunity - the perfect time never comes. I want to make a positive impact on other people's lives.
So, the day after I found out about this challenge, I picked out fabrics, dark blue and navy rather than black, since almost all of my blacks have pink floral prints! I wanted something more "Americana" for this one. I hope that in addition to working on this challenge that I will be ablet o post my progress here on this blog! Here is a photo of all the little bits and pieces cut out (except the binding that I still need to decide on). The fabric is all neat and organized for each of the 9 little blocks, but not laid out in proportion to how it will look. Yes, my compulsion for order can be seen in my need to have everything arranged just so - this is exactly how things were laid out when I was done - not arranged for a photo!
Anyone else want to join me in a quilting challenge? I'd love to follow your progress!
1 comment:
Jen, welcome to this group. I, too, am going to do this challenge, and, like you, try to keep up with my blog a bit more. Congratulations on your start.
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