A Year of Applique?

In 2011, I made a commitment to myself to try to finish 11 quilts that were "in progress" or needed to be made for one reason or another. I don't know if I'll get 11 done this year, but it's been a pretty good goal--at least it keeps me from drifting too far off the path. And I'm not saying quilting needs to be structured like a "chore"--just that for me, I have a habit of not finishing what I begin, and I wanted to make more of an effort to complete some projects that had been lingering long past their "best before" date, you know?

For some reason, though, I find myself yearning to do some applique. Yep, I know many of you don't enjoy applique or are just plain scared of it, but I find it a relaxing and creative pleasure.

I've been thinking that maybe 2012 will be my year of applique.

Remember when Gran and I went on that mini shop hop a couple weeks ago and I picked up some fabric for the Halloween quilt? Gran was looking for some fabrics to make this quilt:

Last Saturday, when my stitchery group got together, we started talking about it, and I was the only one of the six of us who didn't already have the book! So as soon as I got home that night, I remedied THAT little discrepancy by placing an order with Amazon.

Our group decided we would work on this quilt together at our monthly get togethers, and there are a couple of us who are willing to demonstrate our applique methods to the rest of the group, so we'll all learn something new in the process. Sounds like fun, doesn't it? (Well, maybe not, if you don't like applique, but that's okay too.)

I have a couple other applique projects I've started and not finished. At one point, I began designing a 12-block applique quilt--but I only finished the first two blocks and drew up the third before I put it aside. I think I'd like to get back to that one.

And I have an appliqued duck quilt that I'm designing--I only have two more blocks to applique before I can start to put it together, so I'm not that far from finishing it really.

Then there are all the wool projects I've been wanting to work on but have put off.

I've done a tutorial on using plastic template material in applique on my blog in the past, but I don't recall doing a tutorial to demonstrate the applique method I use for everything else--which is pretty basic, really. I'll try to do that before long so maybe those among you who are intimidated by applique can give it a try. And maybe you'll join me in adding a couple of applique projects to your quilt list for 2012. I hope so! It will be fun.