Finish #6 of 7

 

I finished quilting and binding my lavender geese quilt. This quilt was made from a jelly roll that I won in a drawing as part of Log Cabin Loonies back in 2018. I had made this exact same quilt from a coffee-themed jelly roll for my Mom and after she died that quilt came back to me. I have been using Mom's coffee quilt at the foot of my bed (for decoration and naps) and decided I wanted a spring/summer variation. I used flannel on the back, the same flannel I used on my purple scrappy Irish chain, and like how it turned out.

This quilt was on the list of finish goals that I set back in September.

OMG October

Quilting in progress, Sept. 2021

My #onemonthlygoal for October (which ties into my goal of finishing 7 in-progress quilts) is to finish my blue string quilt. I started quilting it at my guild retreat in September and finished about 2/3 of it. I need to finish quilting it, then get it bound.

Finish #4 of 7

Flower Boxes Quilt

I am continuing to make progress on my goal of finishing 7 of my in-progress quilts by the end of the year. This quilt was made from a Moda jelly roll (Sew & Sew by Chloe's Closet) which I won as a door prize at a guild retreat a few years ago. I added the lavender fabric for the border but otherwise this is just the jelly roll. The pattern was super quick to put together, though as is often the case arranging the blocks in a way that I was happy with took longer than actually making the blocks. This quilt will be donated to my guild's charity quilt project. 

Goal for 2021

 

I have 9 quilts currently in progress, 6 of which are at the point of needing quilting. I have begun quilting a couple of them, but they all still have a good amount of work to be done. One (the house quilt, which was my June AND July OMG) is finally quilted and needs the binding finished.

I have set it as a goal for myself to complete as many of these 7 quilts as I can before the end of 2021. 

Completing all 7 of them is ambitious, but seems possible over the next 3 months as I have 2 quilt retreats coming up (September and November) and should also be able to spend a good amount of time at the sewing machine in the evenings after work.

I will post the finishes as I go along. Wish me luck!

Scrapping Goals

Goal #1: Process this basket
of scraps by the end of 2019

Inspired by Cut the Scraps by Joan Ford I am going to try to get the huge bag of scrap fabric that I have accumulated sorted out into usable pieces.
Ford recommends 5" squares, 3.5" squares, and 2" squares from your scraps as those sizes play well together when you're ready to make quilts. I am also going to add 1" strips to the mix as those are what I use for log cabin blocks. The 5" squares will also work for Nickel Quilts (from the Pat Speth books).
My first goal is to press, cut, and sort into plastic boxes (which I already have) one basket of scraps that I pulled out of the bag by the end of the year. The plan is to get as many 5" squares as possible out of each piece of fabric and then go to the smaller sizes until the fabric is gone. Anything too small for an inch-wide strip goes in the dog-bed-bag (to be used as pillow filler).
I am linking up this week with Oh Scrap!

Looking back and looking forward

Over the past 2 years I have made quite a bit of forward progress on my huge pile of ongoing projects. The Making Forward Progress Challenge was productive for me, and at various points for some of my friends, but I have decided that it is not going to continue after it wraps up the current year at the end of January 2019.
In 2016 I did an inventory of unfinished projects and identified 30 of what my Mom called "pigs" (projects in grocery sacks).  Looking back at the list there are only 7 left unfinished and significant progress has been made on 4 of the remaining 7.
Earlier this year I was not feeling especially inspired to sew anything and wasn't doing much. I think the focus on unfinished projects might have been part of the problem. I came across the Log Cabin Loonies project at JulieKQuilts and was inspired to jump in and start making blocks out of my huge pile of scraps. This new project, which I worked on nearly every day for a few weeks, reminded me of how fun creating new quilts can be.
For 2019 I am setting some goals that I hope will build on this lesson.

1. I want to focus on making quilts that use up my scraps. I may do some more log-cabins, I have an idea for a string quilt that I may try, and I will be keeping an eye on the Oh Scrap! linkup for additional inspiration.
   
2. I am going to start (today) participating in 15-minutes-to-stitch at Life in Pieces. The idea is to stitch for 15 minutes each day and track your success rate. I am going to define "stitching" as anything that involves a sewing or needlework project, selecting fabric, prepping scraps, actual sewing, or working out a design all count. There is a linkup for this each Sunday and I will try to update at least twice each month. My goal is to get this habit to at least a 50% success rate this year.
   15 minutes stitching 4 days/week = 57% success rate
   15 minutes stitching 16 days/month (assume 31 day months) = 51%
   15 minutes stitching 183 days/year = 50%
   
3. I want to participate in One-Monthly-Goal at Elm Street Quilts. Instead of mapping out the whole year's projects I will pick one thing each month and set a goal to work on that. I need to set each goal the first week of the month and then report on it the last week.
   
4. I want to make more quilts to give away. My quilt guild's A Quilted Gift project, the Carolina Hurricane Quilt Project, and the NHPTV Auction are all causes I want to support. 

2016: The Plan

In the spirit of New Years' here are a few goals I am setting for myself in 2016:

• Participate in the APQ UFO challenge
• Do a better job at posting a photo every week for Saturday Snapshot
• Post more photos on the blog of works in progress
• Research shows I might want to enter quilts in (suggestions welcome!)
• Learn more about the tools available for running my Etsy shop and implement what seems useful

I am linking this up with the Planning Linky Party at Quilting JetGirl

Retreat Next Weekend!

This coming weekend is the Amoskeag Quilt Guild's winter retreat. Once again I will be going along with several members of my bee. In addition to eating, drinking, making #timetoread, and lots of hanging out with my pals here is what I hope to get done at this retreat:

• Quilt the tessellation quilt which I got finished and basted this weekend. If I could get it bound as well that would be great, but space to square it up properly at retreat could be an issue.
• Paper piece at least one and maybe four circles for my Tropical Whimsey paper piecing project. 
• Quilt the Schnibble I pieced at the last retreat. I finished it up and basted it this weekend so it is ready to quilt. 

Retreat Weekend!

This coming weekend is the Amoskeag Quilt Guild's retreat. Several members of my bee are going and I am looking forward to hanging out with them and having several days for dedicated sewing.
Here is what I hope to get done this weekend:

• Quilt William's quilt--there are 3 basted sections of it to be machine quilted and I hope to get them all done so the quilt sections are ready to join.
• Make progress on the 2 purses left to be done for my Q3 Finish list. Ideally I would like to get everything finished but the hand sewing (which I can do at bee).
• Finish at least one Flag Quilt top

I am also bringing along my Tropical Whimsey paper piecing project and the stuff for a Schnibble I have had in my pile for quite a while and which would be great to hang in the dining room for fall. If the goals get accomplished, or I don't feel like working on them, I will have some other options.

Mountain into a Molehill

One of my goals for this week was to do something about the mountain of stuff that had developed under my drafting table.

Huge pile of I had no idea what

On Saturday I pulled everything out, sorted it and put things that weren't projects (like piles of misc. fabric and empty boxes) away where they belong. My husband hung out with me and provided moral support when the mess started to overwhelm both me and the room and I got it sorted out. It basically took all afternoon. Now the only things under there are projects, each one is in its own container with a note indicating what it is, and the projects I am ready to deal with are on my project list board so I know where I am with each one.

A pile of actual projects, each in its own container

The big blue bag hanging on the right is the dog bed bag for scraps from cutting. The pink striped bag on the floor to the left is the mending bag which will hopefully be gone by the end of the week.

DAGMT 2014 - Week 2

The Plan: Sew for at least 20 minutes each day in February.

Feb. 8 - I sewed for 30 minutes today. I was getting tired of cutting for my paper piecing project so I pulled out a totebag project that has been in my project pile for years and got the pieces sorted out and the pockets made. A trip to the fabric store earlier in the day (to get fabric for a baby quilt) included buying the fusible fleece I will need to finish this totebag, so I hope to do that this week.

Feb. 9 and 10 - Spent 20 minutes each day working on the tote bag.
Feb. 10 - Did not get any sewing time in at all.
Feb. 11 - Feb. 14 - Spent 20 minutes each day working on the tote bag which is now finished and ready to give to the person I made it for.

Ladybug Reversible Tote Bag

Goals: Next week I want to work on getting through the overflowing basket of mending projects during my daily 20 minutes. This won't be much fun to work on, but will be awesome to be done with. I also want to go through the mountain of projects/fabric/not-sure-what that is under my drafting table and see what can be done about it all. That won't be part of my 20 minutes a day as it will take a chunk of dedicated time and attention to get through it.