2009 Quilting Goals and Scenic BOM Series

I really didn't get to quilt as much as I would have liked to in 2008 because most of my free time was spent planning and doing a lot of DIY projects for our wedding last year.  Now that the wedding is behind us I can go back to my quilting.  I have set several goals for myself for 2009.  Here they are:

1. Machine quilt and finish all my unfinished quilt tops
2. Do all the Carol Doak Yahoo Group Scenic Block of the Months (more about this below)
3. Make a quilt for my mom (she's been asking for one for a while)
4. Teach my mom to quilt (she's been wanting to join us for a little while now and it's about time we get her going...)
5. Use as many fabrics and patterns from my stash as possible
6. Spend more attention to color tones and values and how I use them in my quilts
7. Finish our wedding guest book (we had people sign quilt squares instead of the traditional guest book)
8. Name and Label all of my quilts (I know, I know... this is something I should be doing anyway)

Anyways, I started working on the scenic BOM series today. I've never done a block of the month series before and I thought it would be fun to participate in one.  I've decided to do the Scenic BOM series being done in the Carol Doak Yahoo group.  It was started in October, but I'll catch up with it.  I did the January block in about 20 minutes, so I'm sure I'll be able to do the others relatively quickly.  I really enjoy paper piecing.  It's super easy and helps you get an accurate block. The most difficult part was actually choosing the fabric.  Here's a picture of it.  It's a snow covered mountain with a brook babbling through it if you couldn't tell!

I also finished piecing all the blocks of the bright quilt I was making in the previous quilts.  I really think it's a little too fat and could use a little more length.  I think I'm going to add an inner border of the swirl fabric and then add some of the four-patches in a row on the top and bottom to add more length.  I think it will look nice and will be something different that I haven't done before.  Here's the completed, pieced top.