Stamp Book

This was another non-ornament present Amanda sent me for Christmas. She really thought ahead on this one! Each page includes a snippet of the image from every card or letter I sent her this year, along with the stamp. Fortunately I sent her a lot of postcards when we went on vacation or otherwise it might have been a little thin as there was a long drought of letters for a few months after we moved!

Ornament Exchange 2017

Because I made so many macarons last year, Amanda decided to make me a macaron ornament. It is adorable! The "feet" of the macaron are made out of a sponge; the shell and filling are clay. Originally they tried to seal a real macaron, but the cream center didn't seal and then the shell broke. It's probably better for longevity not to have a real macaron on the tree!

Ornament Exchange 2017

This "Christmas in Paradise" ornament includes glitter an various summer themed buttons, but the best one is the armadillo!

Ornament Exchange 2017

Amanda and Chris made us a sand couple instead of a snow couple. The base is wooden balls and the sand is from their yard. The noses are shells and the glasses and sandals are buttons. They are a bit too heavy to hang on a tree, but they stand on their own thanks to the little rubber bumpers you put on cupboard doors. It has been really cold even in Florida this year, but not quite cold enough for enough snow to build snow people!

Ornament Exchange 2017

Amanda actually bought this ornament for last year's ornament exchange. It ended up being more appropriate once I moved back to the cold north, and she decided to do a "warm thoughts" ornament theme this year. The frame was originally plain black, but the pink glitter really spruces it up!

Typewriter Cross Stitch

Amanda cross stitched this typewriter for me last Christmas and I didn't post it because it wasn't an ornament, but technically neither was the unicorn she sent me last year. Since neither of the "ornaments" I sent her this year were designed to hang on a tree, I decided to go ahead and post it. This was actually a notebook, but I decided to frame the cover rather than risk the stitching getting snagged.

2018 Goals

In 2017, I completed four of my six original goals, plus one add-on goal, for a total of four quilts. Not bad for a year which involved yet another interstate move. I don't anticipate a move this year, but our weekends are considerably busier now that we are in driving distance of family, so I'm not getting super ambitious with goals this year beyond what I already have in progress.

Goal 1: A quilt with these scraps of fabric:

Last year I made three Dresden plates out of these scraps. That's all the scraps I had, so now I just need to figure out what to do to fill in the rest of the top. Update: Completed! February 2018.

Goal 2: A scrappy granny square quilt out of my stash of 2.5" squares. I laid out the squares for these blocks before we moved, so they are all bagged and waiting. I'll just need to cut the squares for the sashing. Update: Completed! July 2018.

Potential projects:

• A string quilt 
• A second quilt using the abundance of fabric I have leftover from the Triangle baby quilt. Update: Completed! April 2018.

Should be manageable to finish two quilts, right?