Goals

Well, I've still been a bit under the weather which is why I haven't been posting much.  It's so much easier some nights to sit like a lump and watch TV than to sew.  But...I have made some progress.  I've come to realize that this year might not be a great year for getting things done, so while I wanted to add some goals to my list I won't be.  I wanted to add several baby quilts for friends, to do reverse applique, and to learn to do curves.  Instead I will just be adding one quilt and apologizing to most friends.  And I'll plug along, getting done what I get done.

But since this list shows up so often, I thought I'd try to get a few more pictures than normal.  My plan was to take these this morning, but in order to do that my son had to take pictures of them at the same time...so he ended up in several.

1. Finish quilt #1 for Sarah.  I only have a few more threads to deal with and than this will be done!  My first finish in quite a while. 

2. Quilt #2 for Sarah.  I'm hoping to finish this by March...and with spring break in the middle of March I'm hoping it will happen.

3. Baby girl daisy quilt.  This is for my new niece.  She's been here several weeks, so it's overdue.  But the quilt I was planning on giving her is too boyish.  

4. Finish the picture quilt.  This was a Christmas present.  It is partially quilted, but isn't quite square so I'm having some trouble with it and am not feeling excited to finish it.  It might also end up being a father's day present at this rate. :s

5. Baby paper airplane quilt.  This is for a baby that's been around a while too.  I think I will see her in August, so that would be a good time to have it finished.

6. Baby quilt.    Not started or planned.  No fabric purchased.  But ideas are running through my head.

7. Work on the T-shirt quilt.  I messed up one of the shirts but am getting another.  It'll be finished sometime.

8. Quilt a doll quilt This shouldn't take much time, I just need to do it sometime.

9. Aunt's throw.   I'd like to lay this out now that I have pairs and make sure the values are still ok.  Then continue to sew them together.

10. Baby quilt - urban cabins I was so close to finishing and ran out of blue.  Then I decided it was more of a boy quilt than a girl quilt.  (I had been hoping the navy would act as a neutral but might not be dark enough.)  So I got fabric but now it is just sitting again as there is no person to give it to at this point.

11. Quilt mint green baby quilt.  Yup, it's all ready just needs to be quilted.

12. Quilt nautical quilt  All ready just needs to be quilted

13. Quilt Christmas quilt  All ready just needs to be quilted. :)

14. Pillow for family room.  I ran out of scraps before it was big enough for the pillow.  So now I either need to make scraps which seems ridiculous or wait until I use the fabrics again or something.  It's been a leader-ender project that I periodically plug away at.

15. make the wall hanging for office.  I won this bundle a (long) while ago but since it's for me it doesn't always get priority.  The purple matches the office perfectly though, so I still want to get it done.

16. Simply solids bee quilt.  I still love this layout and want to get it finished, but since I only sort of have an idea of whom to give it to it has stayed on the back burner.

17. {pretend to} work on scrap quilt.  I actually worked on this a little bit!  It was fairly mindless.  I don't have many red scraps, but they're now all in a roll and I'm working on orange.  The final layout keeps changing, but I figure I'll make something work with whatever I have done.

18. Orphan rocket block  This would probably take less than an hour to finish, but I have no real motivation to work on it.

19. finish green coasters.  These also would finish up pretty quickly, but due to the very lumpy middles they are impractical for use so I've been putting them off.

20. Jeweled floors.  I have some of the fabric for this, but it's been put on the back burner
21. Lost piece (almost whole cloth quilt).  I've thought about this a lot but haven't done anything.
22. Winter quilt.  I have fabric but haven't done anything.

Fractured 2

I gave my dad a fractured quilt for Christmas (originally created by Charlotte at Displacement Activity).  I managed to finish it before Thanksgiving, and I was pretty proud of that.

He often mentioned how much he liked my green fractured quilt.  It was a lot of fun to make, so I made one for him too.

I made it in our college colors, expecting that he would put it up in his office.  He ended up putting it in his house. :)

 

I quilted it the same way I did the first one...with flames of different colored thread. 

The colors in where mostly of Kona: tangerine, orange, appx. Mango, lt. Parfait, snow, cloud, candy blue, appx. Surf, royal, nightfall

Still alive!

I'm still alive!  I haven't done much sewing or quilting (or really, anything) for the last month due to illness.  So if you left me a comment and I didn't respond I apologize.

This past weekend I had a few times when I felt better so I got some stuff done!  I quilted a row on the picture quilt.  I started making a red stripe out of my red scraps.  I organized my scraps into bins.  Not a lot of progress, but it's a beginning.

Hooray!

A Christmas Quilt

I finished quilting the Christmas quilt for my Grandma.  (Although the quilt is from my mother-in-law.  It's fun to work on family quilts.)

I did spirals on the outside, swirl scrolls in the inside borders (per Angela Walters), and copied the quilting for the inside squares...I thought of them as leaves. I thought the leaves would be a ton harder than what they ended up being.  There are so many lines that needed to look straight...but they do!  I did mark the center of each block and I think that helped a lot.

It's rather snowy right now, but I enjoyed the lighting that the snow gave.  When the snow isn't directly in the picture everything is illuminated nicely, but when it is in the picture everything else looks dark.

The quilt pattern is Rosemary and Thyme by It's Sew Emma.

Curves

I sewed curves for the first time with December's Bee block.

Tutorial from here.


It only turned out ok.  It's a bit wavy, but that should disappear in the quilting.  I hope.  I had been thinking about trying to conquer curves in 2014 and I still think I might try it, but I'm a little more scared of them now.

November accomplishments, December goals

For November, my top goals where
1.  Finish quilting the pony quilt.  Done!  Cupcakes, rainbows, and hearts, oh my!

2. Finish the surprise mini (bind) Done!  With the smallest sneak-peak ever - the back corner in B&W.

3. Finish the top of the picture quilt. I didn't finish it.  I ended up using Spoonflower to print the pictures.  It took a little longer because of the queue time, but so far I'm really happy with how they turned out.  I was rather nervous since I wouldn't be able to check the pictures as they came out and pretty much got one shot at it, but the quality is good and I'm hoping the quality will stay that way longer than the ink jet fabric.  They're slightly on the dark side, but still look good.  I have one row of three done, but all of the framing is finished.

And the other things that are still on the list, hanging out:

7. Aunt's throw.  The blocks are now in pairs.  I want to lay it out again and double check the values before I put them together in 4s.

8. Pillow for family room.  Progress!  Although I still need to add quite a bit to have it cover the pillow.

13. Baby quilt - Urban Cabins.  I ran out of blue for the sashing, but made a lot of progress on it this month while waiting for the picture fabric to arrive.

14. Christen's T-shirt quilt.  I did get a few more squares finished.  I ruined one of the T-shirts and am trying not to think about it.  It doesn't look like a super special one and I could do some creative stuff with it, but in the meantime I'm ignoring that square.
22. Quilt Grandma's quilt (ideally by Christmas) - in progress

For December, my top goal (and the goal for A Lovely Year of Finishes) is
1. Finish the picture quilt.  I have everything framed, but need to finish putting them together, quilt, and bind.  Hopefully before Christmas.  I should be in fine shape unless December gets significantly busier than I expect.

I also would like to
2. Quilt Grandma's quilt (this needs to be finished in order to finish number 1.)

3. Work on the T-shirt quilt.

And the other things that are still on the list, hanging out:

4. make the wall hanging for office.
5. pretend to work on scrap quilt.
6. finish green coasters.
7. Aunt's throw. 
8. Pillow for family room.
9. Jeweled floors.
10. Lost piece (almost whole cloth quilt)
11. Baby girl daisy quilt
12. Baby paper airplane quilt
13. Baby quilt - urban cabins
15. Winter quilt
16. Orphan rocket block
17. Quilt mint green baby quilt
18. Quilt nautical quilt
19. Quilt a doll quilt (for Christmas?)

Linking up with Fresh Sewing Day.

WIP Wednesday

I feel like I'm in the middle of a gazillion things right now.  But here are two...

I started quilting Grandma's Christmas quilt.  It is going to have swirls on the outside.  I was a little nervous about swirls, but they are turning out ok.

I also worked on Urban Cabins.  Then I realized I didn't have enough blue for the sashing...so it's on hold until I can get more.

Linking up with WIP Wednesday.