Goodbye 2011 (and a new WIP)

I really can't believe how fast this year has gone. We moved house in April, and with a whole sewing room (slash study - not much studying going on here though!) I caught the quilting bug. Hard. So from July onward, I have become progressively more and more obsessed with quilting. Since it seems to be obligatory in blogland, I've made a mosaic with (some of) my finishes from 2011.

1. Charmed prints QAL, 2. 1001 peeps quilt, 3. Willow Wren Baby Quilt, 4. Children at play doll quilt, 5. Boys at play front, 6. Children at Play Quilt, 7. Autumn forest quilt front, 8. Central Park Quilt, 9. It's a girl thing..., 10. 1001 Peeps Doll Quilt, 11. Owls and Spots Baby Quilt, 12. Silent Cinema baby quilt, 13. Lotus Garden Quilt, 14. Bird Tree Indigo Baby Quilt, 15. Beetle Bugs Quilt, 16. Urban Zoologie Quilt, 17. Love Quilt, 18. Magenta bird tree quilt

There are a couple missing from here - but still I think I've finished around 23 since July when I really started quilting. Which is kind of scary. And kind of says a lot about how obsessed I am...

I have a lot of plans for 2012 -
* Participate in some QALs - I've already signed up for two QALs, and will probably do more.
* Participate in a bee
* Finish writing up some of my designs into tutorial/patterns to put on my blog (I have one nearly finished).
* Learn some more difficult techniques (paper piecing and needle-turn applique in particular).
And some things I'd like to do but don't expect will actually happen this year:
* Be a guest blogger on some other blogs
* Get one of my designs in Moda Bakeshop
* Get published somehow

I know a lot of people have been madly trying to finish long term WIPs before the new year. I on the other hand have started another project, which I'm madly excited about. I really need to stick with quilts and finish them, rather than getting all excited about new projects and letting my WIP pile get even bigger (maybe that should go onto my plans for 2012 list?).

I received (read: bought myself) Lizzy House's Five Magical Projects book for Christmas, and have cut and started piecing High Seas. When I first started looking at quilty books, the block that most appealed to me was Snail Trail (or Monkey Wrench - it can be called either I've found) - and this quilt is made up of 42 of the buggers. By 'cut' I mean about 5 hours of cutting. Thankfully my lovely other half has (grudgingly) bought some huge pieces of MDF board to cover his 8-ball table, so I can use it as a cutting table (and its perfect for pin basting my quilts as well - yay!!) - which meant all the cutting was quite bearable. It was much better than using the dining table - plus I could leave all my fabric laid out in between cutting sessions.

This is a really dodgy photo of my squares, HSTs and QSTs ready to be sewn together:

I'm linking up to Fresh Sewing Day and Small Blog Meet over at Lily's quilts

Happy new year!
Jess