Beige but not boring

I'm working on this gender neutral baby quilt for a colleague.  The baby shower is on the 17th of February, so its a good thing I'm done making the blocks.  Now I'm just trying to decide on a layout.

What do you think?  The top one, or the bottom one?

How far will you go? Not very!

Last year, Jess at The Elven Garden put together a great Quilt Along, the How Far Will You Go? Quilt Along.  I didn't exactly follow along, but I was very inspired by the Tippecanoe block, and particularly Jess' use of it to make this cushion.

I used elements of the tippecanoe block in the Dat Star block I designed, which I quilted lightly and turned into a cushion for my brother.

The Linky Party for finished quilts and quilted items is now open, and with Jess' encouragement am entering my cushion in the small quilted items category.  Head over and check out the lovely things people have made!

Blogtoberfest - the last day

Phew!  We have reached the end of October, and I am very happy that I managed to meet my goal of posting every day for the month of October.  In fact, this post will be #36 for October - more than double the number of posts I had done previously!

I'm glad I decided to participate in this exercise - I found having a set goal (and an end in sight) really helpful.  I don't plan to continue posting every day.  I have, however, decided to set myself a few goals for the blog for the next few months:

• I would like to blog three times a week - I am thinking Sundays, Wednesdays and Fridays.  If I have more to say, I will certainly blog more often, but otherwise, I think three days a week is manageable.

• I want to write a couple of tutorials.  One, a skills tutorial, for something I have done a lot of times and think maybe I have some tips that would be useful to others.  I know that seeing other bloggers' methods for doing things has helped me get started on projects I was otherwise intimidated by.  The other, a tutorial on how to make something I have designed myself, that doesn't require any special tools (other than the usual rotary cutter, mat, and straight ruler), and that uses fabric efficiently.  Yeah, gotta design that thing first...

• I have enjoyed getting to know more people out there in the quilt blogging world.  Thanks so much to everyone who has left me a comment - some of you feel like friends already (I think you know who you are).  I want to keep up with that, so will be looking to participate in more swaps, quilt-alongs, etc.  I am currently participating in the Scrappy Swap and am enjoying how active and positive the group is.

This is my selection of fabric for the handmade item for the Scrappy Swap.  I have started sewing, but I can't show what I have made yet, as it would totally give my partner away at this point.

Does anyone else set goals for their blog?  If you are happy to share, I would love to hear them.