UFO Challenge - July

I wonder how many new UFOs I've managed to create since last time I checked in with Vicki's monthly UFO challenge.  Despite not spending a lot of time in the sewing room, I'm pretty sure there are some new projects that didn't show up last time I reported.  I think my biggest problem is that nothing on the "in progress" list is inspiring me.  I need a fun project, that will keep me going back there, because my longarm is pretty much full up with customer quilts, so getting my own off the 'to be quilted' list is not happening these days.

It's time for this month's UFO roundup, so here goes.  The pictures are two of the new starts, which are ready for quilting. They'll be heading off to Victoria's Quilts in the fall, so that should ensure they get some time on the longarm over the summer.

At the beginning of April I had the following projects:
12 in progress (oops, that's a step backwards)
7 planned but not started
18 to be quilted
5 to be bound

I did manage 4 finishes, despite my lack of entry into the sewing room (year to date - 20 finishes).  And also created a few more UFOs in training.  Now I seem to have:
12 in progress
7 planned but not started
21 to be quilted
3 to be bound


The detailed list for the past 2 months, so I can keep track of where I am :)

In progress:

1. Scrappy pineapple
2. Row by row 2015
3. Edge of 17 shop hop quilt
4. Kaffe stripes
5. Patchwork Year 
6. Gardener's Alphabet
7. Merry Mayhem
8. Stars 
9. WindingWays
10. Blackford's Beauty (Block Party)
11. baby giraffe (mini Giraffe Abstractions)
12. dashes (Block of the Month win)

Planned (fabric bought and/or collected)

1. recipe wall hanging
2. drunkards path variation
3. Christmas wreath
4. Christmas reindeer
5. two cityscapes/panels
6. ombre flying geese (leftovers from Spectrum) 
7. Jeans quilt

to be quilted

1. Building Blocks - 2012
2. Easy Street - Bonnie Hunter 2012 mystery
3. Turquoise Trails - 2013
4. Labyrinth - 2013
5. Rainbow Explosion - 2014
6. Brights baby quilt - April 2014
7. Tell it to the Stars - Judy Laquidara 2014 mystery
8. Block of the Week
9. turquoise &; brown rectangles
10. turquoise & brown diamonds 
11. One Block Wonder #2
12. Border Creek Station mystery (started Oct 2014)
13. one-fabric quilt
14. baby reflections 
15. giant scrappy swoon
16. Disappearing hour glass #3 
17. 2.5" plus quilt
18. 5" plus quilt
19. Modern plus quilt
20. Houses
21. Reflections of the North

to be bound

1. turquoise & brown baby quilt
2. 2 disappearing hour glass quilties
3. Kaffe stripes quilty

Finished since last report

1. Ascension 
2. Allietare - Bonnie Hunter 2015
3. Missouri Star drunkard's path
4. Glorious and Free

 

Post-retreat collapse

This always happens to me. I go to a retreat, and I sew my fingers off. And visit with people, make new friends, have tons of laughs.  But I always manage to sew myself right to the edge of exhaustion (ok, only getting 5 hours sleep a night doesn't help).  So now I'm back from retreat, and avoiding my sewing room for a little while.

However, I had a fantastic time, and got a ton of stuff done.  I challenged myself before I left to do all the workshop projects while I was there - piled my scraps into a bag so I was ready for that.  And I did it!  One little quilty, made from 1.5" squares.

And a placemat, made from 2.5" strips and leftover batting strips (cool, I have LOTS of leftover batting)

I finished a top - only the borders were left to do, but I've been avoiding it for quite some time. This is Reflections of the North (Winter) by Sherry Hisey.

And I finished paper piecing all of my houses and stars for Downtown.  I knew from the beginning that I didn't want this to be a single quilt - I could not get my head around the combination. So now  I have a star quilt.

And a house quilt.

They both still need borders. I cut most of my scraps into 2.5x5" bricks for a piano key border around the stars. I think I need something in between the cornerstones and piano keys however, and I'm a bit short on bricks (I'll know how much too short once I figure out what the filler piece is).

The house quilt will get a 2" grey border, and then something more to finish it off. Again I'm not sure, but the hope is that everything comes out of the leftovers from the original kit.

April UFO Challenge

This is my "retreat bag". I've been keeping a couple of projects in here, and dragging them with me to each retreat I go on, in an effort to make some progress on these.  In there are Northern Reflections, which just needs borders, Kaffe stripes, which has a ton of cutting left to do (and my hand hurts just thinking about it), and at least one piece of Merry Mayhem's mystery I see lying on top.   Next week, when I head out to my retreat, I'll pack this bag up along with my sewing machine, and I'm set for projects for the weekend.  Maybe I'll toss in houses & stars (a paper piecing project) just to round out the package. It helps me avoid starting a new project at the retreat because I can't figure out what to take :)

It's time for this month's UFO roundup, so here goes.

At the beginning of March I had the following projects:
10 in progress
7 planned but not started
20 to be quilted
7 to be bound

I finished 5, started 3 new, and moved a number through the process this past month.  I also realized that I overestimated how many of my disappearing hour-glass quilties actually got quilted. One has been bumped back into the "to be quilted" list, since I found the flimsy today. As of today, I now have:

12 in progress (oops, that's a step backwards)
7 planned but not started
18 to be quilted
5 to be bound

5 completed this past month (year to date - 16 finishes)

I seem to keep making new "UFOs in training", but so far this year the finishes outstrip the starts, so progress is being made in the right direction.

The detailed list for this month, so I can keep track of where I am :)

In progress:

1. Reflections of the North
2. Scrappy pineapple
3. Row by row 2015
4. Edge of 17 shop hop quilt
5. Kaffe stripes
6. Patchwork Year 
7. Gardener's Alphabet
8. Merry Mayhem
9. Houses & Stars 

started this month

1. WindingWays
2. Ascension - to be quilted
3. Blackford's Beauty (Block Party)

Planned (fabric bought and/or collected)

1. recipe wall hanging
2. drunkards path variation
3. Christmas wreath
4. Christmas reindeer
5. two cityscapes/panels
6. ombre flying geese (leftovers from Spectrum) 
7. Jeans quilt

to be quilted

1. Building Blocks - 2012
2. Easy Street - Bonnie Hunter 2012 mystery
3. Turquoise Trails - 2013
4. Labyrinth - 2013
5. Rainbow Explosion - 2014
6. Brights baby quilt - April 2014
7. Tell it to the Stars - Judy Laquidara 2014 mystery
8. Block of the Week
9. turquoise &; brown rectangles
10. turquoise & brown diamonds 
11. turquoise & brown baby quilt
12. One Block Wonder #2
13. Border Creek Station mystery (started Oct 2014)
14. one-fabric quilt
15. baby reflections 
16. Glorious and Free
17. giant scrappy swoon
18. Disappearing hour glass #3

to be bound

1. Stonehenge 
2. 2 disappearing hour glass quilties
3. Kaffe stripes quilty
4. Allietare - Bonnie Hunter 2015 - quilted march 26, 2016

Done this month

1. disappearing 9-patch quilty - Done March 9
2. quiltbug.com mystery - Done march 9
3. Mexican star - Done March 12
4. Giraffe Abstractions by Violet Craft - Done march 22, 2016
5. Flowers in my Windows - 2014 New Year's Eve mystery - Done March 26, 2016

Design Wall Monday - March 7

I worked on my giraffe quilt over the weekend, and made some pretty good progress.  Poor headless little thing.  But there's hope that I will actually get this done this month :)  Looking at this picture now I see where I got the colour of 2 background pieces complete wrong.  For some reasons I'm having a heck of a time keeping the greens straight between reading the pattern and cutting the piece.  Not sure if I'll disassemble enough to fix the mistake - unfortunately it's jumping out at me so I probably will.

On a happier note, I finished quilting a UFO today.  I started this quilt back in 2012, and it's been sitting on a shelf ever since. Finally finished the hand sttitching a few weeks ago, and quilted it yesterday.  Now if I can get the binding on it, I'll have another finish for my Q1 UFO goals.

Here's a closeup of some of the quilting.  I wanted the red sections to stand out, so I quilted the background pretty densely, and simply outlined all the red areas in the middle.

I wasn't planning to put a border on this, but now I'm wondering if it needs something to frame it, or if I can leave it floating (was planning to bind in the background fabric - but maybe red instead?)

I'm linking up with Patchwork Times and WIPs be Gone today.

UFO Challenge - March

It's UFO link-up time over at Field Trips in Fibre. The stack is getting smaller, although it's hard to tell sometimes.  My UFO closet still has a lot in it, and I know there are a few missing which are in stacks in various locations around my house.


As of beginning of February, I had
10 in progress
7 planned but not started
30 to be quilted
3 to be bound

This month, I remembered a missing project, so added one to the in-progress list, and noticed a completed one that I forgot to remove from the "to be quilted" list.  A number of finishes this month and several quilts that moved up the progress chain leaves me with these stats now:

10 in progress
7 planned but not started
20 to be quilted
7 to be bound
7 completed this past month (year to date - 11 finishes)

That takes me down to 37 from 43 quilts in some stage of progress, so I am definitely calling that a good month. And the only new start for the month was a shop sample which is done, so skipped right over the whole UFO process :)

I don't know how many UFOs I'll get done this month, since Giraffe Abstractions needs to be my focus. But I'll probably need a break from that and send a couple through the longarm, anyway.  In the meantime, I'm paper piecing up a storm - look I have a tail!

And once again, the details for anyone interested (feel free to stop reading here :) )

In progress:

1. Reflections of the North
2. Scrappy pineapple
3. Row by row 2015
4. Edge of 17 shop hop quilt
5. Kaffe stripes
6. Patchwork Year 
7. Gardener's Alphabet
8. Merry Mayhem
9. Giraffe Abstractions by Violet Craft 
10. Houses & Stars

Planned (fabric bought and/or collected)

1. recipe wall hanging
2. drunkards path variation
3. Christmas wreath
4. Christmas reindeer
5. two cityscapes/panels
6. ombre flying geese (leftovers from Spectrum) 
7. Jeans quilt

to be quilted

1. Building Blocks - 2012
2. Easy Street - Bonnie Hunter 2012 mystery
3. Turquoise Trails - 2013
4. Labyrinth - 2013
5. Rainbow Explosion - 2014
6. Brights baby quilt - April 2014
7. Tell it to the Stars - Judy Laquidara 2014 mystery
8. Flowers in my Windows - 2014 New Year's Eve mystery
9. Block of the Week
10. turquoise &; brown rectangles
11. turquoise & brown diamonds 
12. turquoise & brown baby quilt
13. One Block Wonder #2
14. Border Creek Station mystery (started Oct 2014)
15. one-fabric quilt
16. baby reflections 
17. Mexican star
18. Allietare - Bonnie Hunter 2015
19. Glorious and Free
20. giant scrappy swoon

to be bound

1. Stonehenge 
2. quiltbug.com mystery
3. 3 disappearing hour glass quilties
4. disappearing 9-patch quilty
5. Kaffe stripes quilty

Finished this month

1. Yahoo group mystery
2. Yahoo group #2
3. About.com  mystery
4. Starburst - Done Feb 21
5. Paris - Done Feb 24
6. Double Plus quilt (store sample) - Done Feb 26 
7. baby twister - Done Feb 29 

One Monthly Goal Finished

Back at the beginning of February I made the grand promise that I would finish my giant scrappy swoon top for this month's "One Monthly Goal".  Not much has happened all month, so I took advantage of a sew-in day today, to power through the borders on this quilt.  It took a lot longer than I expected, but I got it done!

This quilt started as a quilt-along back in March of 2015. So it only took a year to make it to this stage :) Maybe the next step will be a bit quicker.

The gold is really bright in that photo - it's not quilt so vivid in real life.  I added a few borders to the basic swoon block - the quilt finishes at about 91x104", which should fit my queen size bed nicely.

And as a bonus, I get to count some significant fabric usage for my stash report today. 9 1/4 yards for this quilt, and 3/4 yard binding for Paris quilt.  10 yards out this week, nothing in.

2016 totals:
65.25 yards in
78.25 yards out
Total: 13 yards out
Head over to Patchworks Times today for more stash reports.

Off to Paris!

Well, in spirit, anyway :)  Paris fabric is the theme of today's quilty finish.

I think I'm doing a pretty good job crunching through my UFOs. This quilt was started in November at a retreat - in fact, the top was finished there, so it's been in my "to be quilted" pile ever since.  The block pattern seems to be floating around the internet, but I didn't like the way it was put together. So I redesigned the instructions to make the block simpler to assemble, with fewer small pieces to mange. And then I realized that there was a big patch of open space in the corner, just crying for something to fill it. One of the original treatments I saw put applique there but I wasn't interested in doing that.

However, I had a lovely Paris-themed fabric that I picked up earlier lastsummer, and some coordinating solids to go with it. So I decided that this was the perfect project to highlight those fabrics.  I had only bought a little - 1 yard of the print, and 1/4 yard of each of 6 coordinating colours. So I had to get a bit creative with the colour placement, in order to stretch the fabric as far as possible. Twenty-four 12" blocks turned out to be the answer. And with careful placement, all of the Paris scenes are upright.

When I pulled this quitl out a couple of weeks ago to finish it, I needed a backing for it.  I didn't have quite enough of any of my white fabrics, and I was completely out of the solids I used on the top.  But I decided that I could make a giant block for the back of the quilt, if I could find some suitable pieced in my stash. Luck was with me - I found a very similar shade of each of the 6 colours, in tone-on-tone in my stash.

Happy to have one more UFO off my list, but that doesn't mean I'm not starting anything new. I was asked to make a sample for a local shop, so I put aside some other projects and  put this together this week.  It just needs binding and it's off to the shop on Saturday.

WIPs be Gone

I have a finish this week, of a fairly old UFO.  I made this quilt a couple of years ago.  I originally designed this pattern back in June of 2011 and made my first top from it.  Eventually, I decided that I wanted to publish the pattern, and that of course required making it a couple of more times, to test the instructions. Two tops were finished in May of 2012. I finished the second quilt in Feb of 2013, but the third has been hanging out in the "to be quilted" pile since it was completed.

Finally last weekend I got it on the longarm. I wanted to play with some new feather techniques, and it seemed like a really good choice for that.  Finished binding it this week, and now it's done!

I particularly love the way the back turned out - almost like a wholecloth quilt in two colours.

And the center of the star came out better than I expected.  It's one of the few places I did not feather - the segments were too small for that to work. So I did a simple curved design following the piecing, and this is what the back ended up like.  A (happy) surprise).

Here's a closeup of some of the feathers around the borders.  And the backside of that. Again, no feathers in the blue sections, but I love what came out. All of this quilt was freehand quilted, with no marking at all.

 My stash report for this week is pretty simple. 
4 yards - backing for Paris
1/2 yard binding for star quilt

4 1/2 yards out this week.  A little bit came in, because I won the draw at guild when I showed this very quilt.  The prize was a little bucket of 6 fat quarters.  So that's 1 1/2 yards in.

2016 totals:
65.25 yards in
68.25 yards out
Total: 3 yards out

And would you look at that - I'm officially in the black!
Head over to Patchworks Times today for more stash reports.

I'm also linking up at WIPs be Gone today.

UFO Challenge, February

It's time to own up to our progress (or lack thereof) on Vicki's UFO challenge this year. I'll start with the summary, for those who don't want to read the nitty gritty details at the end of this post.


At the beginning of January, I had these projects in the works:
16 in progress
7 planned but not started
20 to be quilted
4 to be bound

As of today, I have
10 in progress
7 planned but not started
30 to be quilted
3 to be bound
4 completed this past month

I'm not sure whether to consider that progress or not :)  Fewer in progress quilts, but a pile more to be quilted. Fortunately, 5 of them are tiny so I should be able to get them all quilted in one go before my next guild meeting, I hope.

This is one of my completed quilts for this month. It started as a side project with a block party group about a year and a half ago.  I provided fabric to anyone interested and promised that the finished project would go to a charity. Well, it's finally finished, and will be donated to Victoria's Quilts next week, assuming I get the presentation bag made before then.

I'll be linking up with the 2016 Finish Along when the time comes, as this quilt is from that list as well as Vicki's UFO challenge. My Q1 plans for the Finish Along can be found here. 

The details from the above list:
4 to be bound were completed
4 in progress moved to "to be quilted" and
3 in progress moved to "to be bound"
5 new quilties to be quilted (3 disappearing hour glass, 1 disappearing 9-patch, 1 Kaffe stripes)
1 new quilt to be quilted - Glorious and Free
One new "in progress" project, for a class I'll be teaching in the spring.

The current list:

In progress:

1. Reflections of the North
2. Scrappy pineapple
3. giant scrappy swoon
4. Row by row 2015
5. Edge of 17 shop hop quilt
6. Kaffe stripes
7. Patchwork Year 
8. Gardener's Alphabet
9. Merry Mayhem
10. Giraffe Abstractions by Violet Craft

Planned (fabric bought and/or collected)

1. recipe wall hanging
2. drunkards path variation
3. Christmas wreath
4. Christmas reindeer
5. two cityscapes/panels
6. ombre flying geese (leftovers from Spectrum) 
7. Jeans quilt

to be quilted

1. Building Blocks - 2012
2. Easy Street - Bonnie Hunter 2012 mystery
3. Turquoise Trails - 2013
4. Labyrinth - 2013
5. Starburst - 2013
6. Rainbow Explosion - 2014
7. Brights baby quilt - April 2014
8. Tell it to the Stars - Judy Laquidara 2014 mystery
9. Flowers in my Windows - 2014 New Year's Eve mystery
10. Block of the Week
11. turquoise &; brown rectangles
12. turquoise & brown diamonds 
13. turquoise & brown baby quilt
14. One Block Wonder #2
15. Border Creek Station mystery (started Oct 2014)
16. one-fabric quilt
17. Houses - Done
18. Paris
19. baby twister
20. baby reflections 
21. Mexican star
22. Allietare - Bonnie Hunter 2015
23. About.com  mystery
24. quiltbug.com mystery
25. Glorious and Free
26. 3 disappearing hour glass quilties
27. disappearing 9-patch quilty
28. Kaffe stripes quilty

to be bound

1. Stonehenge
2. Yahoo group mystery
3. Yahoo group #2 

Done this month

1. Chain Reaction - Done
2. snowball/9-patch - Done
3. scrappy quilt - 2013 - Done
4. Disappearing hour glass- Done

Design Wall Monday - Jan 18

Update - Jan 31
My "One Monthly Goal" for January was to finish my Allietare top, and here it is!
 ------


It's done!  I put the borders on Allietare last night, and now it's all ready for quilting (except for the fact that I don't have a backing for it yet). The pictures aren't great, as they were taken at 11pm, but hopefully you get the idea.

The outer border is black - it doesn't show up too well against the floor in this picture, but it's the only location in my house big enough to spread a quilt out.

Here's a corner, on a lighter floor so you can see the border better.  I haven't decided yet whether I'll make the scalloped border that Bonnie had, or take the easy way out.

And to celebrate the completion of one top, I pulled out another UFO to work on next.  This is my giant scrappy swoon. One more round of 9-patches to make for the outer section, and then I'll decide if it's going to get borders or not.

Notice my restraint in not starting a new project.  I put black thread in my machine for the last border on Allietare, and told myself that I have to work on this quilt, since it needs dark thread for the final round.  See, I'll do almost anything to avoid cutting/changing the thread on my machine :)

Linking up at Patchwork Times today.

Stash Report - Jan 17

I still don't have Allietare finished. Distractions abound, but I did get the latest customer quilt off the machine, and have one of my own queued up to go.  That accounts for most of my usage this week - the finished top (which I can't show, unfortunately) and the backing.  Plus binding for the couple of finsihed quilts I showed earlier this week.

I also put the last stitches in binding on my house quilt, in time to take it to guild this past week. The fabric isn't counted (never counted in, because it came as a kit I won at retreat), but the quilt is a finish for this year.

It's time to stay focused. Let's see if I can get Allietare finished this week, and the binding on the 2 quilts piled in my sewing room.

Bindings - 3/4 yards
backing - 5 1/2 yards
top - 8 1/2 yards
total: 14 3/4 yards out

2016 totals:
62 yards in
36.25 yards out
Total: 25.75 yards in

Head over to Patchworks Times today for more stash reports. 

I'll be linking up with the 2016 Finish Along when the time comes. My Q1 plans can be found here. 

Another finish

My second finished quilt for 2016!  This one just needed binding, so I took care of that during my binding blitz over the past few days.

The pattern is "Chain Reaction" by Jen Kingswell. There are a TON of Y-seams in this thing, and it is a really busy pattern, which isn't really my style. I had thought by using a single fabric for the triangles and hexagons that it would calm down, but I guess using a busy print in those sections kind of defeated that purpose :)  And proof that scrappy is not my thing - there is actually a plan/pattern to the placement of the green and purple 9-patch blocks.

I'll be linking up with the 2016 Finish Along when the time comes. My Q1 plans can be found here. 

Design Wall Monday - Jan 11

My design wall today is still my design floor with borders for Allietare.  I think this combination is the final decision. 

The borders haven't been attached because I decided I needed to get some of the binding UFOs out of the way. Particularly since one of them is due on Thursday.

Of course , the one which is actually finished isn't the one which is due :)  I did get the binding attached to that one, but I'll be hand sewing it down to the back this week.  This quilt got a machine binding so that I can avoid having a growing stack of bindings to attach by hand.

The good news is, one quilt off my UFO list and the first quilt towards my Finish Along Q1 goals is complete.



Drop by Judy's blog for more design wall inspiration today.

2016 plans

At the end of this post are all my UFOs for this year. Lots of projects to choose from, for my next quilt.  But when I was looking at this list yesterday, none of them jumped out at me.  Bad sign - I'll be starting a new quilt if I don't get a plan in place soon.

Realistically, the 2 embroidery quilts are long term projects, and don't count as "quilting" until I get the embroidery done.  So they will just putter along at the bottom of the list.  Mexican star is also a handquilting project. I should add that to my handquilting bag, and get it done at the next couple of Poole Creek meetings.

Scrappy pineapple is going to remain my leader/ender project for the foreseeable future - it's nice in that I can do one seam and not lose track of where I am and what's next on it.  20 blocks done of 35 planned, so that should keep me in leaders/enders for most of the year.

Stonehenge needs to be finished - it's a submission for a magazine, so I'd better make that top of the list for now, although you won't be able to see it.  And finishing up Reflections and giant swoon are good projects to take along to quilting/sew days.

That should keep me busy for a bit.  I'll get the Kaffe Stripes going before I start anything new. I'd like to get the 2 applique quilts past the lick & stick stage ASAP, but that needs a certain mindset that I just don't have going on right now.  Maybe once my sewing room is cleaned up a bit.

I thought it might also be interesting to take a picture of my stash closet, as a reference so I can see the change over the year. Of course, I'm hoping to have that whole thing moved to a new location soon, but lets put it out there anyway.

Here's the mains stash, in my current closet - crammed full and needing some straightening desperately.

Then we have the storage under my cutting table. This mostly holds backings and flannel. I see now that I made a decent dent in this part of the stash this year. I new that 100 yards must have come from somewhere :)

And, my newly cleaned out closet. I relegated all my kids' stuff into my son's bedroom, including some shelving. Then moved the big white shelf from the main sewing room into the closet. Lots more room in the sewing area now.  This shelf has most of my scraps, fat quarters, and a bunch more flannel on it. Most of my "to be quilted" projects are hanging in here too now.



My project list, as of the end of December.

In progress:

1. Reflections of the North
2. Scrappy pineapple
3. Stonehenge
4. giant scrappy swoon
5. Row by row 2015
6. Edge of 17 shop hop quilt
7. Mexican star (really a UFO)
8. Kaffe stripes
9. Patchwork Year 
10. Gardener's Alphabet

Planned (fabric bought and/or collected)

1. recipe wall hanging
2. drunkards path variation
3. Christmas wreath
4. Christmas reindeer
5. two cityscapes/panels
6. ombre flying geese (leftovers from Spectrum) 
7. Jeans quilt

Mysteries

1. Bonnie Hunter
2. Merry Mayhem
3. About.com
4. Yahoo group (2 versions)
5. quiltbug.com

to be quilted

1. Building Blocks - 2012
2. Easy Street - Bonnie Hunter 2012 mystery
3. Turquoise Trails - 2013
4. Labyrinth - 2013
5. Starburst - 2013
6. Rainbow Explosion - 2014
7. Brights baby quilt - April 2014
8. Tell it to the Stars - Judy Laquidara 2014 mystery
9. Flowers in my Windows - 2014 New Year's Eve mystery
10. Block of the Week
11. turquoise &; brown rectangles
12. turquoise & brown diamonds 
13. turquoise & brown baby quilt
14. One Block Wonder #2
15. Border Creek Station mystery (started Oct 2014)
16. one-fabric quilt
17. Houses
18. Paris
19. baby twister
20. baby reflections

to be bound

1. Chain Reaction
2. snowball/9-patch
3. scrappy quilt - 2013
4. Disappearing hour glass

December's Get it Done!

Last month I set these goals for myself.  And I made quite good progress, if I do say so myself

1. finish binding labyrinth - Done
2. quilt and bind Living in Harmony - Done
3. bind bear paw - not done
4. catch up on BOM - Downtwon, Toes in the Sand, and Block party. - Done

Poor old bear paw has been on the list two or three months in a row now, and I keep ignoring it.  Maybe next month.  But, in addition to all those lovely finishes, I started and finished my diamond star quilt, pieced my labyrinth quilt (hmm, just noticed the name conflict with my "other" labyrinth - I guess I'll be renaming this one.  Maybe "A-maze-ing Effects"), and made a Christmas wall hanging.

For December, I'd like to continue my finishing streak.

Urban Candy

1. quilt & bind swoon
2. quilt & bind Urban Candy
3. extend "challenge" top from retreat
4. quilt & bind christmas wall hanging

The first 3 of those are "due" December 14.  That might be a stretch, but hopefully the quilting can be done on two of them, and the piecing on #3.

That's not to say I won't be working on the Bonnie Hunter mystery, and the Border Creek Station mystery, and another diamond star quilt.  Just not making any promises about those :)

Drop by Judy's blog to see what everyone else is up to in December.

April goals

The quilt retreat was wonderful! but a full report will have to wait.  First, I need to catch up on some goals, before time runs out.

A Lovely Year of Finishes challenges us to finish one project every month - and checkin before midnight on the last day with our progress.  I'd better get this done.

My goal was to make baby quilts out of my jelly roll race.  I have all 5 tops done.  The binding and final handstitching on them is May's goal.

And, Judy's "Get it Done" update is due today too.  Here were my goals for April, with progress noted

1. make 2 quilties for guild - not done.  I have 3 tops quilted but not bound, and 5 quilt as you go just waiting to be handstitched.
2. Quilt one more top (to be chosen) - not done. Nothing got quilted this month except the 3 baby quilts.
3. Finish binding 3 quilts (checkerboard, ugly fabric challenge, and green geese) - 2 done, ugly fabric challenge is still waiting. 
4. Gardener's Alphabet - complete 3 more blocks - this month's blocks (K, L) plus E - not done.

 Not such great progress this month.  And May is looking busy, so it's not promising either.  But let's try for these goals:

1. finish 3 quilties for guild
2. quilt a commission quit
3. bind ugly fabric challenge in time for guild
4. quilt the guild mystery before guild meeting

Hmm, all those goals are for early in the month.  Which is probably just as well, since the last 2 weekends of the month are already spoken for.

UFO Parade

Judy wants to know how many UFOs we have hanging around.  And ideally, she's going to encourage us to move forward on some of these projects.  So I sorted my sewing room, and hung all my UFOs along with backing, ready to quilt.  Here's what I have:

1. Bear Paw
2. August colour challenge (2012)
3. Hunter's star
4. Blue starburst
5. Colin's quilt
6. Building Blocks
7. Easy Street
8. Mexican Star

And two half-bound - checkerboard and my ugly fabric challenge.

If you click on the links, you'll see a photo of the project.  Apparently I have no picture of my Mexican Star, so I'll have to remedy that soon.

April UFO plans

I've been pondering my April UFO for a week or so.  I'm not feeling inspired to quilt any of the 8 projects hanging in my closet, although I probably should tackle one of them. But, I have decided, in the interest of cleaning my sewing room a bit, to do something with this quilt.  It's a jelly roll race from a retreat last November.  I realized when it came home that I really didn't love it, and have no interest in keeping it around.  Rather than just bind it and send it out, I decided to turn it into several baby quilts, which I can donate through my guild.

Here is the first one, cut and ready to assemble. The only sticking point with this plan is - I hate doing quilt-as-you-go, which is essentially what this project turned into.  I had already quilted it before deciding I didn't like it as a large quilt.  So my cut pieces are already quilted and will have to be assembled with sashing.  Hopefully I'll be able to stick with it and complete these quilts in time for donating at guild this month.

I'm linking up my plans at A Lovely Year of Finishes

March goals/April plans

In March I had planned these goals:

1. I'll quilt 2 of my tops (specific quilts to be determined).  
2. Sticking with my goal to make quilties every month, I'll make 2 quilties for guild (I have 2 tops, so I'll get them quilted and bound by mid-month).  
3. And finally, I want to finish the Hunter's Star quilt that I just started.  Maybe actually get it done before it adds to my pile of UFOs waiting for time on the long arm.
4. 2 more Gardener's Alphabet blocks - finish H, plus 2 more - no cheating next month :)

So, how did I do?

1. Quilted and bound - Dancing with the Stars.  Quilted and half the binding done - green geese. So not quite complete, but almost.
2. three quilties delivered to guild - goal complete (over achieved, even)
3. Hunter star top pieced (but not quilted)
4. Gardener's Alphabet H, I, J complete and E started - goal complete!

Not too bad.  I got almost all of my goals done, and it's feeling really good.  I'm glad Judy setup this challenge - no way I'd be as far on the Gardener's Alphabet or my monthly finishes, without this push every month.  I just hate to see a goal sit unfinished :)

For April, my goals continue to trend along the same lines.

1. make 2 quilties for guild
2. Quilt one more top (to be chosen)
3. Finish binding 3 quilts (checkerboard, ugly fabric challenge, and green geese)
4. Gardener's Alphabet - complete 3 more blocks - this month's blocks (K, L) plus E

Drop by Judy's blog to see how everyone else did with their goals this month.

March Finish

My UFO for March is officially complete! I guess this quilt wasn't really a UFO, since the block of the month just ended in February.  But, without some goal to get it done this month I'm sure it would have ended up as a UFO - and it is just too pretty to do that. 

Feathers quilted in the outer border (and one disaster, caused by careless unsewing, repaired).  Diamonds in the yellow border. And the rest of the blocks are done with stitch in the ditch, because I didn't want to mask the stars themselves. 

I'm linking up at Sew Bitter Sweet March finishing party.