Tag Archives: goals

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While there are still quite a few WIPs needing my attention, with looming swap deadlines my August goal will have to be a swap mini. I'm hosting my first mini quilt swap on Instagram, the Halloween Mini Swap. Our shipping window is the second half of this month and there's some great stuff in the works. Confession time: I haven't started sewing my mini. I have narrowed down my fabric. Here's what I'll be using. The main fabric is "unhappy hour" from The Alexander Henry Fabrics Collection 2004. The reason I chose to host this swap is so I would actually use some of my (never before touched) Halloween stash fabrics like this one. Not sure the specifics on the orange spider webs and the top fabric is Tula Pink True Colors Makin' Waves in Ink.

I'm linking up to the A Lovely Year of Finishes August Goal Party. Look for a finish from me in a couple weeks and progress pic along the way on IG.

Thanks for visiting!

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My July ALYoF goal was to make some progress on my oldest WIP. Specifically, it was to finish the snowball blocks so I could reassess what my next step would be on this project.

I "gave" this quilt to my brother in 2004 for Christmas. I had 8 blocks done at the time. As of the beginning of this month I had... 8 block done. ;-) Now I have 40 completed blocks, and I've decided that I'll set them in a 5 block by 8 block rectangle and add a 10-12" border (in some boring solid, probably) to make it approximately twin sized. I figure about 65" by 90" is a reasonable lap quilt size for someone who is 6'5" tall. And it would have the added benefit of being able to be used as a bed quilt in the future if he'd like. Here are all the blocks together. (Oh yeah, that's a little busy! My 2015 self is kind of asking my 2004 self what she was thinking.)

I'm excited about making progress on getting the oldest WIP off my to do list. I've decided in a manner of letting some things go that I'll send out a few of my WIPs to a long-arm quilter once the tops are complete. (I recently sent out my first quilt to a long-arm quilter. It was like quilting magic! More on that later.) Since I'm not particularly excited about this project (sorry, Chris) I think skipping the quilting step will make me happier since it will allow me to move on to some other sewing. It will also ensure that it gets into the finished column sooner since it would just get pushed aside for more exciting sewing in the short term if I held onto it to quilt it myself.

With less than an hour to spare, I'm linking up to A Lovely Year of Finishes July Finishes Party. ;-)

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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.

2015 FAL at On the Windy Side

Things I Make