Hello all, Mary Ellen here.

Beginning to get life back to normal in this household. Still will have to take down and put away the holiday decorations, but otherwise life is much calmer. I leave my decorations up until the Epiphany at least. We always had to wait to put the Magi near the creche on the 6th. I have seen lots of Christmas trees at the curb already. Even a few were out on the 26th. How about you? Are your holiday things already packed away, or do you stretch it out a bit?

I’ve got a few quilting resolutions for myself that I’ll share. And I’m asking you to share a resolution or two in a comment after you’re done reading. Okay? Last year I resolved to use more orange in my quilts and I think I accomplished that well. It was a reach for me since in the past I had always avoided orange. Fortunately many of the newer fabric lines included an orange or coral somewhere in the colorway so I was able to put small splashes of orange without too much trouble. I have to say it gave a more modern feel to some of the quilts. This year I’m going to include red more often. I love red in quilts, so this time the resolution is just for me.

I’ve been using Deb Tucker’s Wing Clipper ruler a lot lately. The quilt I am finishing up now has each pieced block in the center of a sawtooth star. I have been making lots of flying geese for those star points. I have to say that Deb’s ruler makes getting accurate geese so much easier. She uses a variation of the “4 at a time” technique. I know you can use a regular ruler for trimming the geese but hers makes it SOOOOO much easier-very little if any finagling is necessary to get all of the points perfect. I’m working on mastering the new Creative Grids Stripology ruler in 2016. I have long owned the June Tailor version of this strip cutting type ruler, and used it nearly everyday for every project. The Stripology ruler has several improvements that I love, and some newer features that I want to become comfortable with this year.

Finally I’m going to make more projects using selvages in unexpected ways. I’m sure you’ve all seen tote bags, etc. made using strips of selvage to form the fabric. I’ve been there and done that many times. I have so many selvages in the bin that I need to branch out a bit. I’ve been pulling out the Christmas and Halloween selvages into their own containers in preparation for “themed” projects. Here are some links to projects similar to what I have in mind. Skeleton quilt!  or a  Christmas tree!

Your turn now, share a quilting resolution with us. Happy New Year to all of you. I hope 2016 is a great year for you–maybe we’ll actually finish a UFO or two,…using fabric we already have! LOL