January NewFO Linky Party and Giveaway

It's here! It's the first NewFO Challenge of 2014! Time to show us what's new in the new year! If you're newby to this blog and you're wondering what the heck a NewFO is, just click on that image above to find out. As for you well-seasoned friends, you know what to do.

Everyone who links up today will have a chance to win. No finishes required...just link up with any new projects you started during the month of January, finished or not. Today we're playing for the first of the new quilt block lapel pins I found for this year's monthly parties. For January, we're playing for the Amish block:

So let's just get right to it. This must have been my new month because I have quite a few projects to show you. First off, I started my 2014 quilt for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge:

This year, I'm making another quilt by Barbara Welland Talbert, her Dream Machines pattern.

January's color was blue, and I made the first little blue sewing machine:

As the year progresses, I'll make a block each month, which means that my quilt will have 12 blocks rather than sixteen.

After that, I started on my "official" January NewFO...this "We're On A Roll" wallhanging. This is a pattern I've had hanging around my sewing room for quilt a while, and isn't that what the NewFO challenge is all about? Yes! It's about getting those projects off your to-do list and under the needle of your sewing machine. I finished the top for this, but it still needs quilting and binding.

Then a little later on in the month, I attended a workshop called "Transforming the Traditional". There, I started two projects. This first one didn't get very far, but I want to finish it eventually. In this first project that I'm going to call "Along the Quilt Trail" we took a traditional block and distorted it to make something else:

Also, this curved cutting and piecing technique to make free-form roses. My plan is to stack these vertically to make a wall-hanging. I'll add some curvy, wavy sashings and borders to sew it into a whole:

I probably won't wait too long on either of these because I want to do it while the technique is still fresh in my mind.

Finally, I started on my project for Sharon V's "Let's Book It" Challenge:

My project for January is this Outback Sunrise table runner. As I'm writing this post, I'm just beginning to work on the blocks:

So that's quite a bit for me this month. Rest assured that subsequent months will not be nearly as ambitious. 

And you don't have to do anything to link up here except to start one new project during the month of January. No finishes required...ever! Here are my simple and friendly requests before you link up:

1.  Please link-up with your newly started projects from January, finished or not.  If you feel like it, show us the progress you've made on any other previously posted NewFO projects.

2.  Please link back to this post from your blog.  Also, please link to your blog post, not your blog.  Links to entire blogs will be edited by the administrator.  Links provided for the sole purpose of promoting other events or shopping experiences will be deleted without apology. That means this is not the place to link up to your Etsy shops or other giveaways and/or promotions you have going on your own blog. To be clear, it is okay to link to other events, but I want to see your NewFO's as a part of your post. 

3.  Don't have a blog?  Upload an image to this FlickR group and link to that.  If you have questions about how to do that or about how to link up, please email me.  If you're having trouble posting your image, email it as an attachment, and I will be happy to post it for you.  Please know that it takes a bit for your thumbnail to appear, so don't despair.  It will appear eventually.  You might need to "refresh".

4.  Obviously, I need some way to contact you no matter how you link up.  No email address and no other way to contact you equals no entry in the giveaway.  Email me separately if you need to.

I'll leave this linky party open until one minute before midnight on Thursday, February 6, 2014. Winner of the Amish block lapel pin will be announced on Friday, February 7, 2014!  We will ship anywhere in the Milky Way Galaxy, so everyone is welcome!

Remember to "refresh" if you don't see your image right away. Here we go:

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