Hello all, Mary Ellen here.

It’s approaching that time again-the time for goals for the new year. In addition to the old standards-more exercise, less food, finish UFO’s, buy less fabric (actually this goal might be INSTEAD of the old standards!) I’m thinking about adding some new ones to my list.

One of them is going to be to start diving into my increasing collections of selvages and make a few projects. I love every project I’ve ever made with selvages and I always get such nice comments when folks see them. Perhaps I’ll take some photos of a couple of them to show you (the ones I still have in my possession). I want to make another big tote bag-I find that I organize my “stuff” for classes and demos by the totebag system (each class or demo gets its own bag) and I could use a few more BIG bags. I also want to try a “funky” selvage project. I have followed this blog for a while, interested mainly in her selvage creations. Don’t you love her snowman idea? Look around there if you like selvage quilts. You do know about the selvage blog, don’t you? She doesn’t feature selvage quilts exclusively, but there are quite a few to admire at her site too, both her own and from other quilters.

I also am resolving to do something with my Christmas scraps. I think I’m going to go back to the leaders and enders idea (from Bonnie Hunter’s site and book ) that I used a few years ago when I wanted to make a dent in the scraps. I’m doing scrappy 4 patches this time, and will make an Irish chain-maybe single, maybe double-depending on how many I get made before I go crazy. I will be sending the top to an Amish girl for hand quilting as an “audition” of her skills before I recommend her to anyone.

I hope you all had a safe, healthy happy holiday so far and that it will continue to be so through the rest of this holiday season. I must say that those of you who had been wishing for a white Christmas, can stop now! I love the snow but enough already!