A finished project and resolutions

Voila! The Diaper Clutch. I've made one before following another pattern, but it felt too small, so I decided to try and come-up with one on my own. Not rocket-science after making the first one, mostly just playing with size.
So now that I think I've figured it out, I'm going to give it a go with my very first tutorial. We'll see how this works out. My next available window for uninterrupted time and good picture taking light isn't until Wed during preschool time, so I plan to work on it then. We'll see if it's actually helpful to anyone else. 🙂

Time for those ubiquitous New Year's resolutions. I don't really make a lot of specific New Year's resolutions - mainly just short goals or deadlines throughout the year. This year I'm going to make a few and I figure if I do it publicly, then I can at least have blogger hold me accountable, if no one else.

Okay, here goes:

1. No buying fabric for at least 6 months. (With the only exception being some Japanese stuff for my birthday and a few pieces of Farmer's Market that I've had my eye on and I'm just waiting for it to go on sale at the place where I find good deals.)

I know this sounds crazy, especially because I work in a quilt store. I am actually a very disciplined fabric buyer - contrary to what you probably think about me with recent posts. 🙂

Before I worked at the quilt store I bought very little fabric - mostly raided my mom's ample stash - because money was tight. When I started working at the quilt store and had a little spending money and a fabric discount, I would buy a little here and there, but mainly started accumulating fabric in trade for making quilts. [The current system where I work is that if you make a quilt for the store, you can either make one just like it for yourself or take an equal amount of fabric in trade. Pretty awesome!]

By about the second year, I got really disciplined. I finally reached the conclusion that beautiful fabric would continuously appear on the market and I didn't need to keep buying more - there would always be more available when I needed it. I still got enough fabric in trade though, that I continued to accumulate. Now my problem is that I make quilts for the store, but haven't always got around to making one for myself. This has created quite a backlog of my own quilting projects.

The rest I blame on the recession. Suddenly I was finding GREAT fabric on sale for 40%-75% off! How can you pass up good stuff that you liked already when it's so much cheaper? So this past year I have accumulated a good pile of good stuff. Some of it I have already put to good use on nursing covers, etc., but the rest is sitting there staring at me. And as I was cleaning things out, I still really like it all! I just need to start cutting and sewing and finishing!

So, no more fabric buying - just using what I already have until a good chunk of it is used up! Believe it or not - I'm actually excited. I feel like such a pioneer. Kind of.

2. Open an ETSY store front by February.
This is a big one for me. I've been thinking and planning for a few months now, always with the vague deadline of "after Christmas." Well, that deadline has arrived. So time to buckle down.

3. Regulate my computer time. My sewing output has seriously decreased since I entered the blogging world. It's so much fun, but I'm still finding the right balance. Any suggestions?

4. Increase structured and creative time with my kids. Especially my #3. Including less TV time. Hard in the winter, but we are going to do it!

Okay, this has gone on long and I don't expect all of you to get this far down. 🙂 I wish you all a Happy 2009 and best of luck with your own goals