Reflecting and pondering

As noted in my previous post, I have been reflecting on my quilt accomplishments of the past year. I made a bunch! Most of them have new homes and I hope the are loved. 

I have also been reflecting on previous quilting goals and where I stand in achieving those goals. 

Previous goals included entering quilt shows (accomplished), selling quilts(done), having an exhibit (did it), publishing a pattern (not done), teaching (yep), taking classes (yes, but want more), joining a guild (took a while but finally did it), learning paper piecing (need to work on this!).

For 2012 here are my tentative goals:

1. Make more quilts for charity

2. Really learn paper piecing

3. Make 1 more Christmas quilt

4. "Do" my studio: paint, decorate, arrange (in process!)

5. Make another King-sized quilt for my bed

6. Make more scrappy quilts

Not a long list, not intimidating. I have been folding my fabrics, as the hubby and I painted my studio, so another goal is: SHOP MY STASH! 

I resolve to refrain from buying any more fabric until I make at least 3 quilts/quilted projects. The only purchases I am allowing myself are backings and batting!


Care to share your quilting goals?

And what is a post without a photo? Here is a cute pic of my 2 Mals:

Sarge & Pepper

Happy New Year!!! All the best to you in the coming year!

Dog update

If you have been reading this humble blog for long, you know I adore my hounds.

We had adopted Sarge in May 2009. At that time, he was quite traumatized from his life "before". 

Almost 2 years later, this Belgian Malinois has rehabilitated nicely. He is still a bit timid, but has a sweet disposition and is begining to play games with my husband (he was terrified of men!). 

On the sofa, watching TV, he loves "Buffy, the Vampire Slayer"

He sleeps with us, and our other Mal-mix, Pepper. They enjoy playing together and are great companions. We took them both to PetSmart last Friday evening for the very first time. They were so well-behaved! We are planning on beginning formal training with both of them in February. Should be fun!

Adding to our family

Please allow me to introduce Sarge.



He joined our family yesterday after being bailed out of an animal shelter. He is quite obviously a Belgian Malinois, and we are guessing about 15-18 months old. Now if you are new to this blog, you may not realize our love for dogs and prior to yesterday we were a 2 dog family. Our first Belgian, Pepper, joined us in September. We were struck by her beauty, intelligence and amazing humor. My hubby spotted this handsome fellow at a local animal shelter (and not the "no-kill" kind either) and let the animal control officer know that we wanted him if no one claimed him.

He is quite thin and currently has scars on his nose and ears. He is also quite skittish, but that has lessened dramatically in the past 12 hours. We named him Sarge after a long, drawn-out discussion of names. Sarge is totally taken with Pepper. They ran and played last night, but he wouldn't come in the house to sleep. He slept in our back yard (which is fenced). When we got up this morning, he greeted me at the door with that gorgeous, expectant Belgian Malinois expression on his face. It immediately changed to joy when Pepper ran out to greet him!



They seem to have such fun and having Sarge to run with Pepper gives our elderly hound, Murray, much needed rest. This will be a long road of establishing trust in an abandoned animal, but it is already rewarding to see him begin to flourish. We keep telling him that this is his home, his forever home.