Friday, April 1, 2022

Goals for April 2022

 I often set lofty goals for myself. Not just in the quilt room. In every place in my life. Do I accomplish them? Sometimes. After all, this senior citizen completed a doctorate last year. But in order to do that, I had to lay aside some of the more fun things like quilting. 

My goals for this April include:

  1. Complete the Biblical Blocks Ufo. I completed one back in November. I actually spend a whole 4 days finishing it. This time, I have a few more blocks to make and the center medallion is not complete. Ten years ago, I loaned the pattern book to a friend who has moved several times. I have a picture of the completed top and a lot of the hard work is already done. For example, in the class I took when I made my first one 20 years ago, she had us cut ALL the borders and setting triangles first, then we used the rest of the fabric for the blocks. I have most of the borders hand applique done and I have most of the rest of the block foundation patterns drafted up and printed off ready to start the sewing marathon. 
  2. Blog my book ABCs of How to Stay Married for 50 Years. I had intended to join up with the A-Z Challenge but just realized that registrations closed last week. Oops. I guess I will just have to blog each of the 26 chapters here. It should be fun. No. It will be fun to read some of the perspectives we old folk have on a long life together. Stay tuned. Not sure just when they will begin or if they will be every day. But, HARK! I have started a brand new blog just for this. 
  3. Family coming for Easter dinner at the Farm. There may be up to 25 of us. It will be simple. I like simple. The grand thing will be the outdoor garden wedding here at the Farm later in May. My responsibility is the flowers outside. I planted hundreds of bulbs back in October. But first, we have a gazillion pine cones to rake off the lawn as soon as the rains this week warm up the ground. 
  4. Learn to chew again. I finally bit the bullet and got partial dentures. Actually, I bit a piece of hard bacon and a front tooth broke off. Completely. But a year before that, I foolishly tried to open a marker with my teeth. The dentist put in a new tooth, but it only lasted a year, just as we went into a 4-month lockdown. So I finally found a denturist and a new dentist who is next door to him, and last week I got the things. I have been pureeing soups and eating mush as chewing is not happening just yet. No hot drinks or hot food. No eating junk since that has to be chewed. I am down 6 lbs. Wonder why? 
  5. Shipshewana Quilt Retreat. It has been 3 years since we last went. I am only taking one project box and it is packed already. It has 4 projects in it. I have taken along Bright Jane and some Morrell blocks to every one of the 5 retreats I went to in the past. Why stop now? I plan to take along the Macaron Mystery to complete also. I had all the cutting done a couple of months ago but did not get the pieces sewn together. And the whole thing packs quite compactly. There are 3 of us going. Want to make sure we have enough room. I will pack Lucy to go with us. I am thinking about taking all the small squares I cut and getting them hand-basted. That should fill in a lot of the time cracks and keep me from doing too much shopping, as well as packing very compactly. 
  6. Virtual Writing Retreat. What about doing a retreat at the retreat? The Virtual Writing Retreat I often join is at the end of the month. I plan to take along my laptop and join in online. It should be easy to find a quiet spot and plug in my earbuds. I am writing the curriculum for the Mentoring at the Farm small group I will be leading this summer. It was suggested that I get it done ahead of time and publish a pdf file and print off copies instead of handing out sheets each week. I like the idea. I have it outlined already. It will be exactly 80 pages long since the summer group will run for 80 days. One page a day for homework. I like that. 
So my April OMG goal will be completing the Biblical Blocks top and booking the longarm for early May. The rest is just stuff I will be doing. I suppose I could add spring cleaning but that will be a goal for May. 
Blessings,
Chris
linking with: katiemaequilts.boms-away