Planning on Reading More in 2018!

I wonder, even as I am writing this, why take on a reading challenge for 2018 when I am struggling to keep up with requirements for my first year in a new job. AND my husband and I are planning to make an investment in a long-arm machine for me to start a quilting business this summer. BUT I love reading and all things related to New Year's lists and resolutions, so here I am planning my list of 12 classic books to read for 2018.

 To be fair (or reasonable), it is a manageable number of books---only 12 for the entire year---and I do have a 25-minute drive to and from work every day, so I can plan to use this time for listening to audiobook versions of books on my list. Yay! I've convinced myself I can do it, so here is my first attempt at filling in the categories with my planned books to read . . .

1. A 19th century classic – any book published between 1800 and 1899. 

    My choice: Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriett Beecher Stowe

2. A 20th century classic – any book published between 1900 and 1968. 
    My choice: The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

3.  A classic by a woman author.  '
    My choice: Little Women by Louisa May Alcott

4. A classic in translation.
    My Choice: All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque

5. A children’s classic.
    My Choice: A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle

6. A classic crime story, fiction or non-fiction.
    My Choice: The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson

7. A classic travel or journey narrative, fiction or non-fiction. 
     My Choice: Around the World in 80 Days by Jules Verne

8. A classic with a single-word title. 
    My Choice: Walden by Henry David Thoreau

9. A classic with a color in the title.
    My Choice: White Fang by Jack London

10. A classic by an author that’s new to you.
     My Choice: 

11. A classic that scares you.
     My Choice: Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

12. Re-read a favorite classic. 
      My Choice: Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

For a complete list of requirements for drawings for prizes, please visit Books and Chocolate who is hosting the challenge. Happy reading!

More Splendid Sampler Blocks

Still busy catching up! Here are the newest additions . . .

Splendid Sampler Updates

I have several new blocks finished for the Splendid Sampler! I am trying hard to stay current with new blocks as they come along, but I also have MANY to catch up on from the past months! This week I was able to finish Blocks 1-3 and Blocks 54, 61-64. Here they are:

Hopefully, I will be back tomorrow with a few more!

Snapshots Quilt-Along Update

Like many other quilters last year, I started 2015 off with a bang, working diligently on the quilting projects I had set as goals for the year. One of them was the Snapshots Quilt-Along from the Jolly Jabber blog. I progressed fairly nicely until around April when I fell off the wagon and left the project untouched until I started using my fabric selections for Snapshots for my Splendid Sampler project. Worried that I might run out of my fabric for this unfinished project, I vowed not to touch the stash for any new projects until I finished piecing the Snapshots blocks, so off I started. Finally I finished all twelve blocks for the quilt front. Here they are, along my original four blocks finished last year:

Splendid Sampler Blocks

I have had a hard time keeping my goal of working on these blocks every day, but I was able to get two of them completed today. The first was a redo of Block 57, because I really wasn't happy with the way the stripe fabric dominated the block. I like my second block much better. My second block is Block 59, and I really love it!

The Splendid Sampler Quilt Project

I have dozens of UFOs (unfinished objects) lying around and packed in boxes in my sewing room, but I am always interested in the quilt-along and block-of-the-month programs I see going on. Usually I don't come across them until they are in the last stages of completion, so I seldom take part, but today I took the plunge and joined the Splendid Sampler project that is underway. True, it is halfway through (currently on block 58 out of 100), but I'm optimistic that I can catch up on past blocks while staying current with new blocks as they are posted on the website. I completed three blocks today and here they are:

I also posted them on the website links for each block. You can go here, here, and here to see them along with dozens of other versions of the same blocks made by quilters all over the world!

Welcome to my blog!

I have tried over the years to start a blog but got so caught up with designing the blog that I never wrote anything! This time I am vowing to post regularly even if the blog doesn't look "pretty" and even if I do things wrong the first time. Some wise person has said that "perfection is the enemy of the good" (or something like that), and I believe it. In order for me to make my blog useful, I just have to writing it. Period. So here I go!