A Challenge to Begin the New Year

Happy New Year, Quilting Friends!

Whew! What a whirlwind couple of weeks we've had around here!

We had 29 here for dinner on Christmas Day - my mother, siblings, their spouses and children and grandchildren. And a few extras, too - boyfriends, brother's in-laws, etc. Christmas with family - a blessing beyond measure!

Just after Christmas, we traveled a couple of hours across the state for a 2-day visit to my father-in-law's and got a chance to see very nearly everyone on hubby's side of the family. Again, it was a wonderful opportunity to visit with family.

On Friday, I hosted the Frankfort girls here for our regularly scheduled get-together.

Then we had our annual New Year's Eve party with 2 other couples. Those 2 couples have been doing New Year's together for 25 or 26 years; we have been a part of it for the last 18 years. The three families rotate homes each year for hosting duties, which makes it nice.

In between all those functions, there was the usual hustle and bustle of preparations - fixing special dishes; wrapping; decorating, and then keeping up with the cleaning and laundry of having extra family in the house - these sure can keep a gal hopping!! But NOT sewing, doggone it!

I will make up for the lack of sewing and quilting by getting right to work now in the new year! Oh, the promise of a new year!!

Now, let's talk about that challenge I mentioned in my title, shall we? Last fall, my blogging friend Sue Abrey at Quilt Times shared a UFO that she had a hankering to finish. I chimed in with a comment that I, too, had the same quilt in UFO condition that I would love to finish. So we've cooked up a little quilt-along. Read about it here.

Step into my sewing room and take a look at my shelves with project bins (and other stuff) lined up there on the wall.

Locate this bin on the top shelf.

The stuff on the top shelf is the really old stuff. My Lone Star UFO is around 20 years old. I was spurred to make it when my then-ten(ish)-year-old son admired the quilt in a book I had, and told me I could make that quilt for him. I began it in the summer time, possibly at a quilt camp at CHS.

As you can see, I have made some progress on this. I remember that I was running into trouble with the bias edges. I think I have improved in my abilities in 20 years, so those biases won't intimidate me as much as they did back then.

Here's the inspiration photo from that long-ago book (still on my shelves).

So, the quilt-along is on! Thanks to Sue for the prod I needed for getting this UFO out after all these years! I hope others out there will join us! There are no complicated instructions to follow; just sew along with Sue and me! Here is what Sue has on her blog:

1. We will not be providing patterns or instructions, but we will try to suggest places where patterns are available;
2. You can write posts about your progress on your blog, and then sign in to a Linky on one of our blogs on the first Saturday of the month, so we can see each other's progress (or not);
3. There are no other rules/timescales/competitions/etc. except Rule 4 below;
4. You have to encourage me cos I think I might struggle with this quilt.

Sue is putting an awful lot of confidence in me that I will be able to do things like Linkys - I'm not at all sure that's such a good idea, Sue!! My computer skills are not as advanced as yours! :-)

I have added the Lone Star QuiltAlong button to my sidebar; feel free to grab it and join us, won't you?

Happy Quilting, Friends!