The First Full Finish of 2019

Here we are at mid-January already.

Son #1 is back up at Creighton, son #2 is off on a
trip to DC and the house is really quiet.  Time to tackle
some of these quilting plans I have for the year.

Instead of buying my usual journal/planner for the year, I decided
to go rogue and customize my own.  I love the color and the feel
of this one.  It's limited on space but, like my sewing room, that just
helps me keep things simple.

  Even so, I decided to try out some free printable printable pages

but found that most, if not all, are not for me.  The jury is
still out on the quilt project planning pages.  They're in there and they
have their own little file-tab; they're all filled out...but I just don't see
the point when the real life projects are sitting in my sewing room
staring at me so that I can't forget about them.  I'm leaving the pages
in for the year to see if sometime I need to refer to them and track
their progress....for some strange reason.  Well, we'll see.

All those trendy "bullet" journals, habit tracking and doodling?  Meh.
I just like my weekly goals, and my yearly ones.  And of all the
calendar options out there, I've settled on some simple undated
weekly pages that I pulled out of a Target dollar-bin binder.
Who'd have thought?

Well anyway, on to some of those weekly goals:
 I did finish last week's even if I ran over into this one a bit. 

Some sort of celebrating and rejoicing was taking place
(my son's Official Appointment to West Point!)
so I got a little "behind"...but no biggie.

First, I got those January and February banners done.

Off-schedule, I toyed a bit with that Icy Window Panes 
quilt (Hoffman) that I'm contemplating.

I'm thinking of making the background of each block red
(keeping the white sashing) and the snowflake white.
My fabrics are all silvery-grays, reds and whites.
Any thoughts there?

I decided to do a trial block.
It's a good thing, too, because I've discovered that if I cut
my pieces according to directions, they don't seem to fit,

no matter how much I rip out and reposition.  Still trying
to figure that one out.  I've not done a lot of this method but
I think I've done enough to be pretty sure I'm doing it right.

Since I'll be making 12 blocks, that got me thinking:
I wasn't going to do a block-of-the-month quilt this year
but what if I turn this into a BOM of my own?
One slooow block a month doesn't seem so bad.

And lastly, here's my big finish!

The flowers in the fabric, the stars and the pinwheels all made me think
of Kansas mornings in June.  If you get up early enough you can
head outside to enjoy those first cool breezes before the sun rises.

Later it's going to be hot, maybe even brutal hot, but at this time
you kind of soak it up just like the flowers are doing because they
know they'll be wilting later!  Maybe I should've called it
"The Early Flower Catches the Breeze"??
Ha!  Who am I kidding?  This is Kansas.  We'll all catch
that breeze whether we want to or not.

First Breath of Dawn
91x102
"Stars and Pinwheels" pattern from Missouri Star
Fabrics:  Nature's Glory by Kansas Troubles

I guess my name is a little "overly poetic" but I wanted
it to contain what I was thinking as I worked on it.

I was so happy to finally get this on our bed last night!
Due to the holidays and all, it took me a whole month to
complete the quilting.  I never did get fully comfortable
with that pantograph pattern but it got a little better as

I progressed and, like always, as a "whole" it looks fine.

And to the week ahead, what's left of it?

Work more on that snowflake.

Make the backing, load on frame and quilt Cozy Christmas.

Finish planning son's West Point Quilt

And coming up next week?  Another trip to Missouri Star
to hunt for fabrics for my son's quilt.  Will post my ideas soon...

Happy Quilting!

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