Sunday Stitching Post #12

I sewed for at least 15 minutes on 20 days in October  which is 64% for the month and 52% for the year for my 15-minutes-to-stitch goal. 
November is only at 7/23 days as of yesterday.
In the past month or so I have mostly I worked on my scrappy purple Irish chain quilt (which I am happy with so far) and on the scrapping goals basket.  

Scrappy Irish Chain in Progress

I finished the new purse I was planning. 
I have some things I want to sew for Christmas gifts, and the black dress from my last post is still only a concept.  It is cold and grey and bleak around here which contributes to a lack of motivation. 
Curated Quilts has a really interesting mini quilt challenge at the moment: faces. It is due in early December which may be too soon for me to get anything done, but I am playing with an idea. 

Sunday Stitching Post #11

I sewed 14/30 days in September, so a little short of 50%. In October so far I am at 17/27 (62% or my 15-minutes-to-stitch goal ). Mostly I have been working on my scrappy purple Irish chain quilt. At my September quilt retreat I also made some log-cabin blocks. I got fabric recently for a new purse which I plan to work on soon. I might also start on a black dress in the near future. Motivation has been a problem lately, so will have to see how that goes.

Sunday Stitching Post #10

July and August were not big sewing months and I only sewed 15 minutes on 21 days out of 62. I finished the T shirt quilt for my friend's daughter and got all the 4-patch blocks done for my Happy Scrappy Irish Chain. It is a new month and I am going to try to get in more sewing. So far I have sewed 3 out of 7 days in September. I have a quilt retreat at the end of the month so that should help. I am at 51% for my 15-minutes-to-stitch goal for the year which is on track, but just barely.

Sunday Stitching Post #9

June was a good month for my 15-minutes-to-stitch goal. Out of 30 days I sewed for at least 15 minutes on 21 one them (70%). Most of the ones I missed were over a long weekend when I was away. That puts me at 57% for the year so far. 
Most of my sewing time has been spend on the Happy Scrappy Irish Chain quilt. I have all the purple squares cut and 360 pairs of light/dark squares assembled to turn into 4-patches. I will need to cut the neutral background pieces next.
Looking ahead to next month I will be working on a T-Shirt quilt for the daughter of a friend, hopefully making the skirts I didn't get to in June, and continuing to move forward on my Irish chain.

Sunday Stitching Post #8

So far I am doing well on my 15-minutes-to-stitch goal this month. In the first 15 days of the month I sewed for at least 15 minutes on all but one day.  
I didn't get a post written in time to officially set a one-monthly-goal, but still hope to get a couple of skirts made. I have made progress on the Happy Scrappy Irish Chain quilt. I have cut all the purple squares for it (1,060) and started sewing the 4-patches from them. The gardening isn't getting a lot of time because it seems like it is always raining when I am not at work.
I have been listening to podcasts while I sew and if you are a lover of classic mysteries I highly recommend http://shedunnitshow.com/ 

Sunday Stitching Post #7

May went better than April both generally and as far as my 15-minutes-to-stitch goal. I managed to sew 17 out of the 31 days in May which was 55% for the month. For the year I am also at 55% (83/151) so am just making the goal of sewing on half the days.
Since my last Sunday Stitching post I finished binding my Carolina Hurricane Quilt and got it sent off to its new home. I also exceeded my one monthly goal for May which was to make 6 grain-bag totes (I finished 10). I also figured out how to get the mariners compass blocks for my Tropical Whimsey quilt attached to the backgrounds in a way that I am happy with. Two of those blocks are done and several more are pinned and ready for hand-applique. 
My plans for June include making a couple of skirts for this summer and cutting hundreds of 2" squares for a Happy Scrappy Irish Chain quilt that I am planning. At this point I'm thinking it will be all purples with assorted white/cream background fabrics. I will have to see how my supply of purple scraps holds up. I might throw in some reds as well. There are also several finished tops in my pile ready for basting so I should consider working on those as well. 
This time of year there is also the challenge of balancing sewing time with gardening time so will have to see how that goes. 

Sunday Stitching Post #6

April was an almost total washout as far as my 15-minutes-to-stitch goal. I only managed to sew 5 out of the 30 days in April. I finished March with 23/31 days of sewing (74%). So far May is going well. I have sewed for at least 15 minutes each of the first 4 days of the month and sewing for 15-minutes today should not be a problem. At the end of April I was at 71/120 days so I am still on track for my goal of sewing 50% of the days. It is a good thing I didn't set a very ambitious goal.

My last Sunday Stiching post was on St. Patrick's Day and since then I have finished putting together the top for my scrappy purple wheel-chair lap quilt (finishing the blocks was my March OMG), and I got the quilt back from the quilter that I made for the Carolina Hurricane Quilt Project and added the binding which I am now in the process of hand-sewing to the back. I should be able to ship the finished quilt to NC before the end of the month. I finished the bargello wall hanging and got it sent off in time for the NHPBS spring auction. So despite April being a tough month I did get some stuff accomplished and am hopeful that May will be better. 

Sunday Stitching Post #5

I have stitched for at least 15 minutes per day on 11 out of 16 days so far this month (68%) so I am on track with my 15-minutes-to-stitch goal. As of yesterday I am at  54/75 days for the year which is 72%. Since the goal I set was to stitch 50% of the days I am doing well. 

I finished the T shirt quilt and the binding on the log cabin wheel-chair quilt. Since it is super-scrappy I am linking up today with Oh Scrap. I have been working on quilting a bargello wall hanging that I want to donate to the NHPBS spring auction this month. Not a lot of progress so far on my OMG, but there is still time this month. 

Finished log cabin wheel-chair lap quilt

Sunday Stitching Post #4

I stitched for at least 15 minutes per day on 73% of the days in January and February. (43/59 days) so am doing well with my15-minutes-to-stitch goal.  
I completed the top for the streak of lightning quilt and found backing fabric for it so it can go to MK for quilting hopefully this week. I started quilting the T shirt quilt but decided after 1 block that I didn't like how the variegated thread looked so that got pulled out and I need to start quilting again with different thread. 
I finished quilting the log cabin wheel-chair quilt and have more hand-sewing to do on the binding. I finished quilting and binding my NY Beauty wall hanging and just need to add a sleeve for it. The Wisc. Beauty I made it for was very pleased with it.

Sunday Stitching Post #3

I have been doing well so far this month with my 15-minutes-to-stitch goal.  As of today I have stitched 31/41 days for the year (75%). January ended up at 22/31 days (70%) and I have stitched at least 15 minutes on all but one day so far in February (90%).
My streak of lightning quilt is coming along well (30 blocks are finished and I have started assembling them into rows) and the T-shirt quilt is on track. I was visiting blogs and came across a beautiful scrap quilt at Treadlestitches that I might want to make next. It is Bonnie Hunter's Happily Scrappily Irish and is apparently in the book Adventures with Leaders and Enders which I have requested from the library. I also restocked my Etsy shop this month which it has been needing. So far February has been a good month for sewing.

Sunday Stitching Post #1

One of my plans for 2019 is to participate 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 have defined "stitching" as anything that involves a sewing or needlework project, selecting fabric, prepping scraps, actual sewing, or working out a design all count.  My goal is to get this habit to at least a 50% success rate this year. I plan to do a check-in post every few Sundays. 
So far I have managed to stitch at least 15 minutes on 9 out of 12 days in January (75%).
I have worked on the T-shirt quilt, my January OMG which is the Carolina Streak of Lightning Quilt, and basting tops for several charity quilts. I am going on retreat with my Quilt Guild at the end of the month and would love to have the charity quilts done by then so I can deliver them to the project coordinator at retreat. 
I have also been visiting quilting/sewing blogs this month including all the posts for the Strip Quilt Secrets Blog Hop. I got an email yesterday telling me that I won a copy of the book from Val's Quilting Studio which was wonderful news as I really wanted a copy of this book.

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.