The 2013 NewFO Challenge

So, being a relatively new blogger this will be my first NewFO post, just in time for the grand opening of the 2013 NewFO Challenge, brought to us by Barbara at Cat Patches, just up the road a piece from yours truly.  Barbara's Linky Party is going on right now and you can also find more information by clicking on the cute link just to the right of this post.

So, just what do I really want to accomplish in 2013??  In 2012 I signed up for SewCalGal's Free Motion Quilting Challenge, which was enormously rewarding, not to mention a lot of work!  But now that the FMQ Challenge is drawing to a close, what's next?  I also resolved that 2012 would be the year I would complete a bed size quilt for each of the six grandchildren, and thanks to the FMQ Challenge, managed to get them all completed in time to mail off for Christmas!

For the most part I'm thinking 2013 will be a year of smaller projects, with the exception of a queen size wedding quilt for step-daughter which has been pieced for nearly two years now, and "just" needs to be FMQ'd and bound.  Deadline August.  That will need to come before too many other projects are started, since I suspect it will take at least 3 or 4 weeks to quilt this monster, that has over 1200 pieced HST's.  Photos will follow when I have some progress to show on the quilting.

So, smaller projects:

I've had this gorgeous fabric for at least two years now, several yards of it, plus coordinating prints.  This will be turned into place mats and napkins, first a set for the upcoming wedding shower; then another set or two for other gifting later in the year.

Then there is this box of squares and squares-to-be:

I'm counting this as a NewFO since these squares were cut in a fit of boredom some nine or ten months ago, and now I have to figure out exactly where I am in getting this pattern ready to stitch up.  The pattern is called Checkered Past 1862 and that one page you see in the photo is the entirety of the directions I have for making this quilt.  I believe I found it on Barbara Brackman's blog, but at this point I can't be positive ...  There's a combination of reproduction Civil War era fabrics and others that just appealed to me.  I think the quilt will turn out to be lap-sized.  Time will tell.

I'd really like to make a quilt for our bed this year.   You know the old story, the shoemaker's children have no shoes, and the quiltmaker etc. etc.   I've had my eye on a pattern called French Country Strippy from the Fons and Porter book Fat Quarter Friendly.  I'm looking at two possibilities as far as fabrics:

 or:

In either case other fabrics would be added to round out the basket variety.  At the moment I'm leaning toward the second set.

I'd also like to make at least two more baby quilts to keep in the event of another hoped for grandbaby.   And several more baby quilts for donation to the local hospital and social services layette projects for needy families.  And a small angel wallhanging for a young "Mom of an Angel."

Whew, that sounds like a lot right now.  Notice I'm not committing to what month I might start any or all of these projects! 

Changing subjects rapidly, what would YOU do if you needed to reclaim the guest room bed to get bedding defurred and washed for human occupancy, and the queen of country cats refused to give up her territory?

She's never let me do THIS to her before!  She barely lets hubby brush her occasionally, and tries to bite me every time I try!  But, rather than giving up her coveted spot, she just let me vac her back for at least 10 minutes!  And believe me, she needed it - she sheds more than any three other cats we've ever had.  I pulled wads of loose fur out of the brush about every 30 seconds.  She's really mellowing in her old age; she's nearly 16 years old now near as we can tell, and has called this home for about five years.   She and our aging Aussie-Sheltie mix get along famously.

Linking up with the 2013 NewFO Challenge and hope you'll check it out and link up too!