Yes, I know. I was too lazy to press it, so you get to see the wrinkly Pinwheel Party top! lol I am so glad to have it done. I don't know why I didn't finish it right away. That is so not me. It might take me forever to get something quilted, but I generally finish the tops fairly fast. It's only 2 in the afternoon, so I have more sewing time, now to just figure out what I want to work on!
I have a few ideas that have been thumping around in my head for the New Year. I am not as worried about ufo's as some are as I know me..I go through times where I get a bunch of them finished at one time. I completed at least 25 projects last year, so I am very pleased with that and not going to change anything about that. The only quilty thing I have planned for this year is doing something with the shirts that I have collected for quilting. I have 50 of them, I think! I think I am going to make myself a 10 shirt challenge and see how many projects I can complete using 10 shirts at a time. I will have to mull that one over and see what I can come up with.
Most of my goals for the new year are ones of being a better steward of what God has given me, I want to lead a simpler life, I want to be more frugal and live better on less. I still dream of the day when hub and I can live a life of supporting ourselves off our land and not living life in the rat race. I know we can do this. I also know that all my goals that I listed all tie in to each other. If I am more frugal with our money, I am being a better steward. The more money I save by doing these things, the closer we are to our ultimate goal of self sustainment. Changing ONE little thing won't do it, but changing LOTS of little things will.
I am also going to give myself a HUGE challenge for this month. I am going on a spending freeze for the month of January. I am not going to spend one cent. Period. End of conversation. Regular bills will be paid, of course, but no extraneous spending. Hmm..this will be interesting. I am a smoker. I have 6 cigarettes left. Looks like I am going to be doing a LOT of praying! No fabric, no batting, nothing sewing wise. I have plenty of fabric, but only one batting here, so that will prove interesting also. No lunches at work, no magazines, etc.
So, in addition to my quilting updates, I will also be posting a frugal tip each time I post and an update on how the non-spending is going. None of the tips are going to be mindblowing. We all know most of these things. These are just reminders to actually DO them! So, let the games begin and here is today's frugal tip:
Last year I bought a geranium for $4.99. This fall as it was dying down, I broke it apart and stuck the pieces in a seed tray to root. It is sitting ugly on my windowsill in the kitchen for now, but this spring I will have 25 geraniums for FREE. 25 x 4.99= $124.75 is what I saved by spending 15 minutes doing this plus my gardens will be beautiful!
Wow, way to go Maureen!! Patrice
ReplyDeleteI am going to pray daily for you to conquer the cigarette habit. I smoked for over 30 years and quit cold turkey. Was it easy? Nope, probably one of the hardest things I ever did. But it was also one of the best things I ever did. One thing I did was to keep some hand sewing with me. Every time I sat down I picked up the sewing.
ReplyDeleteThat is a great tip on saving the geraniums and starting new ones. I look forward to your frugal tips. We're on a very limited budget and every time we can save money it makes a big difference.
The quilt top looks great and good luck on the no spending!
ReplyDeleteGood luck with your non-spending month. I'm sure it's going to be difficult for you, but it'll be interesting to read your tips.
ReplyDeleteI love the idea of a no spending month! Hope you manage to give up smoking along the way. I have just done the same with my geraniums except cut the tops of and put them in water to grow the roots. We will have to have a show and tell in the summer :0D
ReplyDeleteI give you a lot of credit Reenie to not spend any money this month. I thought what a great idea but I was at the quilt shop today and spent $3.Wonder if I can keep the spending in check for the whole month? Not sure especially since I have two kids going back to school later this month and they need stuff-shoes,food etc.
ReplyDeleteI can't wait to read your tips though.
Congrats to you on no spending this month. I'm trying to STAY OUT OF QUILT SHOPS!! I have plenty of stash, patterns, kits and will be concentrating on those--not anything new.
ReplyDeleteOh my goodness, and my NY resolution was not to buy fabric until I finished all the projects I already have...the quilt shops around the county are going to go bankrupt. LOL Right I signed up for a Spring Snowball Swap (hmmm) and I will need fabric for that.....and it's only Jam 5th.
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