Saturday, January 9, 2010

New Year, New Direction

This week when I went to pay our credit card bill, I just about hit the roof. Between renovating our home, paying off the quilting machine, and living expenses; we've gone into what I consider rediculous debt and it has to stop. So we've come up with a bare-bones-only spending goal, which means absolutely no extras.
I've been amazed at how good it feels to buy nothing except the bare necessities, and we're taking charge of our debt so we can get rid of it!  I am usually quite frugal, but I definately have a large enough stash from the last 10yrs. or so that I should be able to finish quite a few projects at no cost.  I also bought a 40yd. roll of batting on extreme sale a week ago, and I have quite a bit of quilting thread, so I should be set. 
My goal this year, is to finish up projects and make new projects; without spending a penny.  I went through my photos of quilts and found quite a few that were made from scraps or leftovers, and think it will be a very fun challenge; and very possible.  Here are some of them:


This fun & bright quilt is baby size and went to Leilyn when she was born.


This queen-sized spiderweb quilt in blues and yellows won third place at the state fair.


This table-runner with cherries went to my friend Trisha.

This cheerful lap-size quilt went to my friend Katie.


This sweet quilt was baby-size and went to Samantha when she was born.


This Americana quilt with Teddy Bears is still here, and is very-large lap size; I'm planning on hanging it in the kids room.


This doll-size quilt with dolls on it, went to Isabella for her birthday.


This quilt of reds is still here also, it is lap size.

This doll quilt went to my niece, Orianna, on her first birthday.



A couple of the recent quilts I've blogged about are from scraps also, and I'm excited to see what the new year brings. I need to take inventory on my WIP's, they are usually very fun because they don't need much to be finished!

3 comments:

Evan and Clover and Co. said...

Your scrap quilts are gorgeous, so I'm sure you'll be able to do lots of great projects without spending money! We're in the other phase of debt right now-- running it up while Evan doesn't have work! :-)

Shay said...

Lisa, your work is so beautiful. I was just completely blown away seeing them one after the other like that!

I only quilted with re-purposed materials last year. I lasted until November and went to the quilt show/fair here in Adelaide and I appear to have gone crazy mad with fabric buying again since.

I'm sure your 2010 quilts will be stunning!

Lisa said...

Thanks ladies; I'm having fun so far, even just getting ideas from looking at my fabric. I'm excited about this too, as it will get the stuff used up that may soon be outdated.... and then I can buy new! =) Knowing my personality, once this year is up I'll be restocking at the New Years sales!! =) I'm hoping to buy project-by-project, tho, and not have so much to store. But when you're addicted to fabric..... ;)