This quarter's motto is: Don't start any new projects.

The WIP list just keeps growing. With the kids home for summer and a variety of other "life" getting in the way of sewing time as well as sewing mojo I finished a mere 4 projects from the list last quarter. Such as life. As I like to say: I can only do one human's amount of work.

So... most of this will look very familiar to you (updated with some new pics!). Now I'm really on a break signing up for swaps (though if the IG Mini Swap round 2 comes up, I don't think I'll be able to resist... AND I've got an idea for one that I want to host -- that one will just have to wait for now).

My year end goal from the beginning of the year is to have no more than 12 WIPs on the list. (Are you laughing yet?) I sure have my work cut out for me this quarter, don't I? A number of these are clothing items for the kids. Perhaps I can whip out some of these for Hanukkah gifts.

The WIPs: In no particular order...

1. Schnitzel and Boo Mini Swap (round 4). This one is due in early November. It's the last swap I'm signed up for. Here's my initial fabric pull. I have a great idea... that has Y-seams. ;-) We'll see how that goes.
2. Sew My Stash Mini Quilt Swap. Most urgent based on the deadline. I've decided to go with HSTs and I'm using the trimmings from another project... if that isn't using my stash, I don't know what is! Here's a peak of my palette.
3. EZ Quilting QuiltCon 2016 Triangle Quilt Challenge. Due November 30.
4. The Purple Ninja Quilt. I'm getting this one done for real this quarter. It's been quilted by Patti Joki, a local long-arm quilter (my first time sending a quilt out for quilting). The binding fabric is prewashed. Now to make and attach over 400 inches of binding!
5. Help my son finish his third quilt.
6. 2004 (ugh) Baseball Quilt... This one continues to be my oldest WIP. I've finished constructing all the blocks and I've even pieced a couple of them together.
7. Little Letters in Blues/Greens Quilt.
8. Text Me Mini for myself. I made two for this swap, one for my partner and one for me. Somehow, mine didn't get done by the deadline. ;-)
9. Another Retro Camper Mini. I made one for my Home Sweet Home partner and one for myself that's currently unfinished.
10. My other Zig Zap Placemat. Ya know, so I have a pair! Just needs to be quilted and bound. Check out my tutorial.
11. Very Hungry Caterpillar twin quilt. Fabric all cut for Fat Quarter Fizz quilt and piecing has begun.
12. Very Hungry Caterpillar baby quilt. I cut all the fabric I had and had way too many sets for the twin quilt for my son's bed, so I should be able to get 1 or 2 baby quilts out of the remaining pieces. See above.
13. Hawaiian lap quilt. Again, I'm using the Fat Quarter Fizz pattern. Fabric is all cut. :-)
14. My safari animal baby quilt. Ready to baste and quilt. I'm considering going with graffiti quilting on this one.
15. Ocean quilt for my daughter (top pieced, but needs applique done)
16. Little Letters in Brights Quilt.
17. Cotton & Steel (and low volume) Quilt (I have a HST plan... with these 5" squares)
18. * Batik SCVQA philanthropy quilt. Basted and ready to quilt.
19. * Roman Stripez with butterfly backing. Some blocks done. (see #18)
20. * Roman Stripez with turtle backing.
21. * Memory House Vol. 1 Quilt (2 houses complete)
22. * Leah Day's Building Blocks Quilt Along (first 3 sets of blocks done)
23. Envelope quilt. A couple blocks pieced. I'll probably make a mini for myself.
24. * Monster Quilt (first applique block in progress)
25. Christmas Mini Quilt (using 4 orphan blocks I somehow acquired)
26. * Swoon Quilt (finished my first block, next two are in progress)
27. Primary mini quilt. Same pattern as my Cotton & Steel mini swap. Hoping to get better at adding those bias edge triangles to finish it.
28. Frog dress for my daughter. She picked out this fabric while on the Shop Hop with me. I intend to make my first Nelle Dress (by Brownie Goose).
29. Frog shirt for my son. His pick on the shop hop. Not sure what was with the frogs. He'd like a new Bowling Shirt (pattern by Scientific Seamstress).
30. Baseball dress for my daughter. Ever since my son started playing t-ball, she's had a thing for baseball. She picked out these two fabrics. I'm planning to make the Jewel's Stripwork Peasant Dress (by Create Kids Couture) without using strips for the skirt. She's been wearing the last one I made her for a year.
31. Baseball print Bowling Shirt for my son. Same fabrics as above.
32. Winnie the Pooh Skirt/Shorts for my daughter. Fabric currently MIA. Hm. Found it!
33. * Rainbow Simply Woven lap quilt with bee blocks from Stash Bee. I need to decide how big I want this to be and how many additional blocks I'll be making for myself. I didn't have a good place to lay out my whole set of blocks for a photo, so here are the first few blocks I received.
34. 4th of July shop hop table runner.
35. * Patchwork City Metro Area Quilt. It's becoming a bit of a fabric collection... I do love the blocks I've finished.
36. * Midnight Mystery Quilt. In progress, expected finish early 2016. 

* Indicates that these projects will almost certainly roll over to Q1 2016.

Stats: Since I like data, here's some further info comparing project status of my Q3 list to this one. While I only had four Q4 finishes, I made progress on many of the projects, particularly in moving them from Fabric Pulled to Fabric Cut and from Fabric Cut to Piecing in Progress.

• Planning Stages (pre-fabric pull): 2 (Q3), 1 (Q4)
• Fabric Pulled: 10 (Q3), 7 (Q4)
• Fabric Cut: 6 (Q3), 3 (Q4)
• Piecing in Progress: 14 (Q3), 19 (Q4)
• Quilt Top Completed: 3 (Q3), 5 (Q4)
• Quilted: 0 (Q3), 1 (Q4)

Bucket List: I haven't pulled fabric for these (except #9), but I can't stop thinking about them. Remember the motto: Don't start any new projects.

1. Wizard of Oz baby quilt, gift for a baby due in March.
2. Triangle Squared quilt.
3. Equilateral triangle quilt, perhaps Chopsticks pattern.
4. Raspberry Kiss lap quilt.
5. Floating Squares improv score from The Improv Handbook for Modern Quilters by Sherri Lynn Wood.
6. Technicolor Galaxy. I didn't have the bandwidth to do it real time, but every time I see everyone else's I kick myself just a little bit for not diving in.
7. Polaroid quilt.
8. Chopsticks quilt.
9. Pirate Quilt. (I have fabric, but no firm plan on design yet.)
10. Leah Day's Dancing Butterflies to develop my free motion quilting. (I joined at the start of the year, but never... um... started.)
11. Mini Mini Quilt Swap on IG.

I'm linking up to the Q4 Finish Along Goal Party.

 

I started last quarter with 30 items on my list. I finished 9 of them. (Woo hoo!) Then I added a few... okay, more than a few. My list is now longer than last quarter. Yikes! A few more swaps were added to the queue (I'm on a break for signing up for swaps for now... er, I just signed up for one more) and the kids just helped pick out fabric for some new clothes. I think July and August might be slow going for finishes, but once the end of August hits and the kids are both in school again, I should be able to knock off a bunch of these. Remember, my 2015 goal was to cut the WIP list in half (it started at 24). I sure have my work cut out for me! I'd like to get 12-15 of these done this quarter, including some larger finishes (as last quarter most of my finishes were mini quilts).

The WIPs (roughly in priority order)

1. The Purple Ninja Quilt. Quilt top complete, backing and label made, and handed off to long arm quilter.
2. 2004 (ugh) Baseball Quilt... it's really time to dust this one off and get my oldest WIP off the list! My July goal is to finish making the blocks so I can reassess the design of the overall project. Eight blocks down, a bunch more to go.
3. Little Letters in Blues/Greens Quilt. I finished cutting all the sashing and have high hopes of finishing this in the next couple days. I'm thinking that's actually pretty unrealistic though.
4. Halloween Mini Swap. Due late August. Still formulating a final plan. Here are some of my top contenders from my stash.
5. Text Me Mini Swap. Due late August. Big plans for a texty, rainbow Dresden plate.
6. Home Sweet Home Swap. Still need to finalize my plan. Due early September.
7. Dumpling Pouch Swap, cut out and ready to sew. Due early October.
8. Sew My Stash Mini Quilt Swap. The new one. Partners will be assigned soon. Due early October.
9. Very Hungry Caterpillar twin quilt. Fabric all cut for Fat Quarter Fizz quilt.
10. Very Hungry Caterpillar baby quilt. I cut all the fabric I had and had way too many sets for the twin quilt for my son's bed, so I should be able to get 1 or 2 baby quilts out of the remaining pieces. See above.
11. Hawaiian lap quilt. Again, I'm using the Fat Quarter Fizz pattern.
12. My safari animal baby quilt. Ready to baste and quilt. I'm considering going with graffiti quilting on this one.
13. Ocean quilt for The Girl (top pieced, but needs applique done)
14. Little Letters in Brights Quilt.
15. Cotton & Steel (and low volume) Quilt (I have a HST plan... with these 5" squares)
16. Batik SCVQA philanthropy quilt. Basted and ready to quilt.
17. Roman Stripez with butterfly backing. Some blocks done. (see #18)
18. Roman Stripez with turtle backing.
19. Memory House Vol. 1 Quilt (2 houses complete)
20. Pirate Quilt (pre-cut fabric selected)
21. Leah Day's Building Blocks Quilt Along (first 3 sets of blocks done)
22. Envelope quilt. A couple blocks pieced. I'll probably make a mini for myself.
23. Monster Quilt (first applique block in progress)
24. Christmas Mini Quilt (using 4 orphan blocks I somehow acquired)
25. Swoon Quilt (first two blocks cut out)
26. Primary mini quilt. Same pattern as my Cotton & Steel mini swap. Hoping to get better at adding those bias edge triangles to finish it.
27. Frog dress for my daughter. She picked out this fabric while on the Shop Hop with me. I intend to make my first Nelle Dress (by Brownie Goose).
28. Frog shirt for my son. His pick on the shop hop. Not sure what was with the frogs. He'd like a new Bowling Shirt (pattern by Scientific Seamstress).
29. Baseball dress for my daughter. Ever since my son started playing t-ball, she's had a thing for baseball. She spotted this baseball fabric on the shop hop. I'm planning to make the Jewel's Stripwork Peasant Dress (by Create Kids Couture) without using strips for the skirt. She's been wearing the last one I made her for a year.
30. Baseball print Bowling Shirt for my son.
31. Winnie the Pooh Skirt/Shorts for my daughter.
32. Rainbow Simply Woven lap quilt with bee blocks from Stash Bee. So far I've received 4 blocks in the mail, plus my first block. Aren't they fun!?
33. 4th of July shop hop table runner. Low priority at this point since it's July 14th now. ;-)
34. Patchwork City Metro Area Quilt. Here's my latest batch of new fabric from the Intrepid Thread block of the month.
35. Midnight Mystery Quilt. In progress, expected finish early 2016.

 

Bucket List (I haven't pulled fabric for these, but I can't stop thinking about them. However, I have no business starting more new projects! Edited to add even more!)

1. Triangle Squared quilt.
2. Equilateral triangle quilt, perhaps Chopsticks pattern.
3. Raspberry Kiss lap quilt.
4. Helping my son with his next project. He doesn't currently have a plan, so it's not on the official WIP list, but he's mentioned a number of ideas.
5. Floating Squares improv score from The Improv Handbook for Modern Quilters by Sherri Lynn Wood.
6. Technicolor Galaxy. I didn't have the bandwidth to do it real time, but every time I see everyone else's I kick myself just a little bit for not diving in.
7. Polaroid quilt.

I'm linking up to the Q3 Finish Along Goal Party.

Two quarters in a row I've knocked 5 WIPs off my Finish Along Goal list. As much as I'm enjoying mini quilt swaps, it's impeding my ability to get more of my old WIPs done... so I'm really trying to resist joining any other swaps. That said, I have 4 open swaps at the moment. Between starting a few new quilt projects for myself and joining additional swaps my WIP list is growing. Oops. At the start of 2014 my list had 24 WIPs in it and my yearly goal is to cut that number in half. Looking below, I think I can realistically finish 8-10 of these done this quarter. (Are you laughing at me?) 5 of those are swaps, I have 3-4 baby/cuddle size projects well underway. The chef's hat and apron should only take a day. And I have two kids in school now. If only I had nothing to do but sew. ;-)

These past couple quarters I've tried to prioritize my goal list. I'd say this is roughly in priority order until number 12 or so.

1. Rainbow Mini Swap (finished and shipped on 4/2, my first Q2 finish)
2. The Purple Ninja Quilt (quilt top complete, need to piece backing and send out to long arm quilter)
3. My safari animal baby quilt (quilt top complete)
4. Open Wide Pouches -- pair of mushroom print bag (fabric cut out)
5. Open Wide Pouch: small rainbow bag (fabric cut out and pieced)
6. Open Wide Pouch Swap (due April 25, pouch sides pieced)
7. Chef's Hat and Apron for my daughter (fabrics selected (by her))
8. Assist my son to make his next quilt (designed and cut out)
9. IG Pin Cusion Swap (due May 15, design planned)
10. Alison Glass Mini Swap (due June 15, fabrics chosen, design in progress)
11. Cotton & Steel Mini Swap (due June 19, fabrics chosen, design in progress)
12. Ocean quilt for The Girl (top pieced, but needs applique done)
13. Little Letters in Blues/Greens Quilt (all letters pieced)
14. Little Letters in Brights Quilt (all letters pieced)
15. Cotton & Steel (and low volume) Quilt (I have a plan... with these 5" squares)
16. 2004 (ugh) Baseball Quilt (some blocks pieced)
17. Batik SCVQA philanthropy quilt (sandwiched)
18. Roman Stripez with butterfly backing (some blocks pieced)
19. Roman Stripez with turtle backing (some blocks pieced)
20. Memory House Vol. 1 Quilt (2 houses complete)
21. Pirate Quilt (pre-cut fabric selected)
22. Very Hungry Caterpillar twin sized quilt (fabric and pattern selected)
23. Hawaiian lap quilt (fabric and pattern selected)
24. Leah Day's Building Blocks Quilt Along (first 3 sets of blocks done)
25. Winnie the Pooh Skirt/Shorts for The Girl (fabric selected)
26. Envelope quilt (a couple blocks pieced)
27. Monster Quilt (first applique block in progress)
28. Christmas Mini Quilt (using 4 orphan blocks I somehow acquired)
29. Swoon Quilt (first two blocks cut out)
30. Patchwork City Metro Area Quilt (BOM: current status)

 

I'm linking up to the Q2 Finish Along Goal Party.