Hello all, Mary Ellen here.

Wow-It’s been much longer than I thought since I last posted here. I’m going to make a goal to post much more regularly this year. I won’t be specific as to how often or on what days because life gets in the way some times–I’m sure you all know how that is. Despite one’s best laid plans for quilting, there are some things/people in our lives who will always take precedence.

Have you made any quilting goals for yourself for this upcoming year? I hesitate to call them resolutions. Somehow for me that means failure when they aren’t met. On the other hand any progress toward a goal, no matter how small, feels like a success to me. Each year I set a small goal for myself related to my quilting–a color to incorporate more often, a new technique to try and/or master, a pattern to complete.

I know myself well now. Making a goal to complete my UFO’s is not going to happen. I read somewhere not long ago that many of those UFO’s are incomplete because we have gotten everything from them that we are going to get. We have learned the technique, or we have had fun with the colors, or we didn’t. In any event in our brains we are DONE! with those. I know that fits me. I have some kits that I started a while back that I have absolutely no interest in finishing. I’m going to donate them to our guild’s annual auction. It will feel great that they are gone out of the pile, and as far as I’m concerned–I finished them.

Here’s my goal for this year–to label every piece I complete no matter how small. Some pieces will get a fancy label, some will just get signed. I’ve been noticing that whenever I switch out my quilts I think about the when, and why of each piece. So I will be including in the label my name and the date at the very least, and any other pertinent information so as my quilting road gets longer and longer I won’t forget all of the stops along the way. And I hope that the owners of those quilted pieces that I pass along will appreciate knowing a bit of the “story” of the piece.

Here’s a link to a pretty thorough explanation of basic quilt labels that might be helpful if you don’t know where to begin. Click here.

BTW my favorite pen for quilt labels is the Gel Roller for Fabric by Pentel. It comes in black, blue and red inks and writes very smoothly on fabric. I much prefer this one to the Pigma pens that are often recommended. Since I don’t add a lot of art work to my labels in general, the basic 3 colors work fine for me. Available from Jet Pens, Amazon (of course!) and the local shop where I teach. Contact me if you want more infor.