Happy New Year

I hope everyone had happy holidays. Ours were wonderful, time spent in the hospital aside and even that had a good result.

I had one late 2008 finish yesterday--my first of two Love Quilt Squares. Please forgive the scan--I'm still working out the kinks on the new computer. I just realized that the scanner and camera wizard I depended on and the Adobe Photoshop I loved are not on the new computer. The charts were taken from parts of patterns at Ludivine's blog. I used DMC 153, 340, 341, 553, 554, 600, 603, 604, 963 and 3689. I hope it makes the recipient happy. Angie thought it was pretty so I'll need to make her something similar someday.

2008 was not as productive as 2007. I didn't finish a single humbug although I started many. I had a few nice finishes, but my volume was down as I tried to juggle work, home and hobbies.

I think 2009 will be the year of the quilt as I focus on Angie's school project for the first three months. I will take some time for SALs at the Chatelaine and HAED message boards, but I have lots of lovely fabric to make quilts. I've seen lots of lovely modern quilts that I am itching to try. My hope for the future is that I finish one quilt per year in addition to my other hobbies.

As for cross stitch, I'm doing the new Challenge at HAED, with the hopes that the finished design will go to a charity project. I'd like to start the new Chatelaine Hanging Gardens of Semiramis (since it was my suggestion) and the new mini mandala non-mystery (it has trees--a favorite motif of mine). I still have one more Love Quilt Square, but that isn't due until May, so it will be a lunch and travel project. I'd like to finish the Wedding Present and the skulls projects. I'm not sure what else 2009 has in store for me cross-stitch-wise. I'd like to get back to the Spanish Sampler, Polar Lights, and start Paradigm Lost.

More than anything, I'd like to find and buy a new, slightly larger, home in 2009. We have truly outgrown our cozy little gray house, but it is incredibly difficult to get loans in the current economy. Hopefully, 2009 will be our year. as long as we can stay together, mostly happy and healthy, I guess it is all good.

I hope 2009 is good to all of you.