Preparing for the Winter Solstice

December 21 is a Solstice Day in 2010


"The December solstice will occur at 23:38 (or 11.38pm) Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) on December 21, 2010. It is also known as the winter solstice in the northern hemisphere and the summer solstice in the southern hemisphere due to the seasonal differences. Its date varies from December 20 to December 23 depending on the year in the Gregorian calendar."

This is the time of year when I ponder my (usually meager and sometimes even dubious) achievements of the past year and start planning for the next year.  I ask myself how many quilts have I finished?  how many are quilted and waiting to be finished (3)  How many tops are waiting on the line to be quilted (14) How many quilt tops are partly sewn together, waiting for me to figure out how to finish them, find 'just the right fabric' or the hardest part... figure out the math?  (too many to count!)

I have also achieved a few intermediate creations.... small projects that give me the gratification I need so that I can go back and continue working on the more 'monumental' projects.  If you have followed my blogs, you will have seen most of those.

Here is a photo gallery of the 'Ladies in Waiting' on my clothesline:

 these are little 'table toppers' waiting for me to find backs, decide on thread, quilt designs, etc...

 this is a wall hanging I made in a class a couple of decades ago... still waiting for my free motion quilting skills to catch up with my imagination.....

this wall hanging was started at a retreat a couple of years ago....

this was a class sample.....now on the frame being quilted...  almost twin size!

another little quilt done for a class sample....

a Mexican Star made at a retreat.... still pondering how to quilt this one, too!

this is a 'block of the month' that I won back when I lived in California, added applique to it for a couple of years, took another 6 months to find this perfect back/border fabric, and even though you can't see the quilt top in this picture, believe me - it will be worth it!  and 2011 WILL BE the year it gets completed!

This next one is a little scrap quilt I made using pages from a phone book and piles of scraps - surprisingly, I didn't have a 'just right' backing fabric!  Go figure!  I think I have one now, though, so this will be finished soon, too!



Strippy Scrap Quilt

 So that's some of what's waiting to be quilted - there are a couple more - but they are to be surprises, so I don't want to spoil it...
 
I also enjoyed a short visit with son, Jason, recently - we went to Meyer's Dairy for ice cream, of course!

They had such a nice tree, we just had to use it as a backdrop!
 
So there will be Winter soon, and I am starting to think I have bear dna in me somewhere because I have such an urge to hybernate, but I won't. 
I'll get up, get dressed, put my shoes on, and sew....
and dream of warmer weather, flowers, birds chirping and the coming of Spring.
 
What do you do to help you survive the cold season?  Aside from covering up with quilts?