Tag Archives: goals

• 12 Comments

•

Happy New Year! Thank you for visiting!

New year, new goals. With the busy holiday season behind us, it's a great time to set some goals for 2107. I feel a little like I could just move all my 2016 goals to my new list. It seems that 2016 didn't really go as planned. It was an emotionally hard year for a variety of reasons. I think I let a lot of things go in my life in favor of sewing. But I did sew a lot. In addition to bee blocks and progress on new and existing projects I think I finished twenty-one quilts (most of those mini quilts or baby quilts), including those I helped my kiddos finish. That also includes my daughter's first two quilts. We're now a family of three quilters. :-) I've spent a lot of time thinking about my intentions as 2016 came to a close: for my quilting, my blog, and my life.

On the blog, 2017 will be for...

Finishes. I started a lot of quilts this year. This includes the numerous quilts started in QuiltCon classes in February. I've made progress on many of my WIPS (full update later this week when I post my Q1 Goals). I've purged a couple projects that were low priority. And I think I'll be opting for some hired long arm quilting to help with moving projects into the finished column. One way that I'm focusing on existing projects is by participating in the All People Quilt UFO Challenge for the first time. I picked 12 of my WIPs that I love and would like to finish. These are on my numbered list and each month APQ will tell us which number to finish. This month it's #6, for me that's my Color Strata quilt from a class with Rob Appell last January. (photo above)

Patterns. My first pattern is getting its finishing touches to be ready this month. It will be available for free to newsletter subscribers. What? Newsletter? Yeah, that's happening too, later in January. More on that soon. I have a variety of other patterns in the design stages. (not a newsletter subscriber yet? Sign up here.)

Tips and Tutorials. I'd like to work on the education angle of my blog. I was a teacher for eleven years before having kids. People often ask me if I miss teaching. There are certainly aspects I miss about the job, but there are so many ways that I teach on a regular basis. (My kids are four and six... plenty of teaching opportunities there.) I see pattern writing and my blog as ways I can still use those teaching skills coupled with my passion for quilting (and math!).

 

SaveSave

• 14 Comments

•

Once again, I finished 5 projects off my goal list for last quarter. Three baby quilts, my oldest WIP, and I helped my daughter finish her first quilt.

Moving forward, there are a lot of projects I really want done right now. I have a couple swaps coming due this month. Plus submissions to finish for QuiltCon. Plus my kids' bed quilts. Plus holiday gifts. Okay, I'm gonna just throw this out there. I'm gonna finish TWELVE quilts this quarter. Go big or go home! ;-) If you need me, I'll be in my sewing room. (By the way: Eek! I'm up to 33 WIPs!) I also want to spend some time thinking about passing on some WIPs that I'm not as in love with anymore. It would be good to start the year fresh heading into 2017.

Quilts

  1. Disney Rug Mug. Shipping real soon. 
  2. Heather Ross Mini Quilt. Shipping first week in November.
  3. Heather Ross Mini Mini Quilt. Shipping first week in November.
  4. Striped Quilt (my daughter's second quilt). I just need to help her get the binding on. 
  5. Creative HST project from Jeni Baker's class at QuiltCon. I'm close to 144 units. Here are some of them.
  6. 9-Patch Challenge for QuiltCon. Designed. Fabric purchased.
  7. Michael Miller Fabric Challenge for QuiltCon. Fabric selected.
  8. Star Light Star Dark. With Quilty Habit. I'm having a lot of fun quilting this one! It's 25% quilted.
  9. Very Hungry Caterpillar twin quilt. Same pattern as Caterpillar Fizz. Finished quilt top.
  10. DONE. Quilt my 6-year-old son's most recent quilt top and help him bind it. He's making a twin sized bed quilt for his sister.
  11. In the Middle quilt. From The Bee Hive #beehiveswarmtisha.
  12. Cotton & Steel (and low volume) HST Quilt.
  13. Meadow Mystery. With Meadow Mist Designs. Join us!
  14. Ocean quilt for my daughter. This was take one on appliqué and my blue fabrics bled. :-(
  15. Midnight Mystery Quilt. Finished Quilt top. 
  16. Color Strata Quilt. My stratas are made. 
  17. Patchwork City Metro Area Quilt. 
  18. Little Letters in Blues/Greens Quilt. I might need to change gears on these two to make them faster finishes.
  19. Little Letters in Brights Quilt.
  20. Very Hungry Caterpillar small lap quilt. Quilt top finished.
  21. Batik SCVQA philanthropy quilt. I just need to quilt it.
  22. Roman Stripez with butterfly backing. Some blocks done. (see #23)
  23. 2nd Roman Stripez.
  24. Memory House Vol. 1 Quilt (2 houses complete) 
  25. Swoon Quilt. 
  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. Rainbow Chain. The pattern is Autumn Chain from The Bee Hive quilts. 
  28. My Floating Squares improv project. (from The Improv Handbook for Modern Quilters by Sherri Lynn Wood.)
  29. Rainbow Remix from Rebecca Bryan's class at Quiltcon. Blocks are all done. Next up, the big job of piecing together irregular blocks.
  30. Wonky Cross quilt from Rossie Hutchinson's class at QuiltCon. I added a second palette of fabric that I thought worked with the first. Here are the blocks I've completed so far.
  31. Quartered Log Cabin quilt from Rossie Hutchinson's class at QuiltCon. 
  32. Purple Royalty quilt. 
  33. La Passacaglia. No way I'm finishing this anytime soon, but including it so my list is complete. 

Other Sewing

  1. Zippered Pouch with my EPP hexies from Johanna Masko's EPP class at QuiltCon.
  2. Frog shirt for my son. Bowling Shirt (pattern by Scientific Seamstress). 
  3. Winnie the Pooh Skirt/Shorts for my daughter.

Stats: I love data. I think I'll try to start showing the following graphically, buy I think it's a great metric for seeing my progress and not feeling like my lengthy WIP list is solely a bunch of languishing, forgotten projects. Those 20 that are in progress... many are much farther along. I promise.

  • Planning Stages (pre-fabric pull): 4 (Q1), 0 (Q2), 2 (Q3), 0 (Q4)
  • Fabric Pulled: 1 (Q1), 1 (Q2), 2 (Q3), 2 (Q4)
  • Fabric Cut: 1 (Q1), 0 (Q2), 0 (Q3), 2 (Q4)
  • Piecing in Progress: 15 (Q1), 20 (Q2), 20 (Q3), 21 (Q4)
  • Quilt Top Completed: 7 (Q1), 9 (Q2), 7 (Q3), 7 (Q4)
  • Quilted: 0 (Q1), 0 (Q2), 0 (Q3), 1 (Q4)

Bucket List: Because I need more projects, right?

  1. Triangle Squared quilt.
  2. Equilateral triangle quilt, perhaps Chopsticks pattern.
  3. Raspberry Kiss lap quilt.
  4. Technicolor Galaxy.
  5. Polaroid quilt.
  6. Chopsticks quilt.
  7. Pirate Quilt. (I have fabric, but no firm plan on design yet.)
  8. Leah Day's Dancing Butterflies to develop my free motion quilting. (I joined, but never... um... started.)
  9. More Mini Mini Quilt Swaps on IG.

I'm linking up to the Q4 Finish-A-Long. Thank you to all the co-hosts for this year! I'm very thankful for Finish-A-Long helping me stay organized and motivated.

Thank you for visiting!

2016 Finish-A-Long

Things I Make

• 22 Comments

•

Last quarter I finished 13 of the 36 projects on my Q4 WIP list and made progress on many others. I axed a couple projects and added eight (I think, I may have lost track) new quilts to the list. It really helps me to have a list that I can look at. I like having it all written out here, even though I recognize that this is an overwhelming list. The beginning of the quilt list (until about #11) is in priority order. I'm going to try to finish one old quilt per month. 2004 baseball quilt, I'm looking at you. (Maybe that one and the other eleven projects that have been on this list for over a year).

Quilts

  1. My safari animal baby quilt. I've started graffiti quilting on it.
  2. Very Hungry Caterpillar twin quilt. Quilt top is complete, backing fabric is washed. Somehow I missed a picture of this one. Just look at #16 and think "twin sized."
  3. Midnight Mystery Quilt. Blocks are just about done. Today we get the directions for the final assembly.
  4. Wizard of Oz baby quilt. I have some fabric orders headed my way and a general idea in my head. My sister is expecting a baby in March. Nothin' like a deadline. ;-)
  5. Rainbow Mini Swap (Round 2). I have a plan. It involves lots of paper piecing. I showed off the fabrics I'm using in yesterday's post.
  6. Rainbow Mini Swap mug rug. Using the same paper piecing pattern as above.
  7. Patchwork City Mini Mini for Mary. Here's my initial fabric pull (minus my feature fabric that I'd like to keep hidden for now).
  8. 2004 Baseball Quilt. Quilt top is just about done for the initial plan... but I think I'll have to do something to make it larger than I was originally planning.
  9. Color Strata Quilt. Class on January 26th.
  10. Cotton & Steel (and low volume) Quilt (I have a HST plan... with these 5" squares) 
  11. Patchwork City Metro Area Quilt. I love these blocks, but they do take some time. This project has been on the back burner far too long. Here are a couple of my six "finished" blocks. I really need to get the sashing on them.
  12. Little Letters in Blues/Greens Quilt. These look so close to being done, right? Except that the sashing has little corner stones so there is a fair amount of piecing still necessary before I have a finished quilt top.
  13. Little Letters in Brights Quilt.
  14. Very Hungry Caterpillar doll/mini quilt. Quilt top finished.
  15. Very Hungry Caterpillar baby quilt. Quilt top finished.
  16. Very Hungry Caterpillar small lap quilt. Quilt top finished.
  17. Ocean quilt for my daughter. I still need to make a final plan for how I'm adding the appliqué animals to her quilt. She's 3 1/2 and the poor girl doesn't have a quilt of her own yet. She has, however, called dibs on the Safari quilt in #1.
  18. Batik SCVQA philanthropy quilt. I just need to quilt it.
  19. Roman Stripez with butterfly backing. Some blocks done. (see #20)
  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. Monster Quilt (first applique block in progress)
  24. Swoon Quilt (finished my first block, next two are in progress) 
  25. Primary mini quilt. Same pattern as my Cotton & Steel mini swap. Hoping to get better at adding those bias edge triangles to finish it. 
  26. 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.
  27. Rainbow Chain. My bee quilt for this month's Bee Hive, swarm Tisha. Here are my two sample blocks. The pattern is Autumn Chain.
  28. My Floating Squares improv project. (from The Improv Handbook for Modern Quilters by Sherri Lynn Wood.)
  29. Angel mini quilt. Pattern and fabric selected. Certainly not the lowest priority. :-)

 

Other Sewing

  1. Frog shirt for my son. Bowling Shirt (pattern by Scientific Seamstress). 
  2. Winnie the Pooh Skirt/Shorts for my daughter.

 

Stats: You can see that I got a bunch of projects moved forward from the fabric pull step, most were turned into completed tops or completed quilts. Right now I have a bunch of quilt tops. I've started quilting R's Pattern. Then I'd like to get my son's Very Hungry Caterpillar bed quilt and my Midnight Mystery quilts quilted soon.

  • Planning Stages (pre-fabric pull): 2 (Q3), 1 (Q4), 4 (Q1)
  • Fabric Pulled: 10 (Q3), 7 (Q4), 1 (Q1)
  • Fabric Cut: 6 (Q3), 3 (Q4), 1 (Q1)
  • Piecing in Progress: 14 (Q3), 19 (Q4), 15 (Q1)
  • Quilt Top Completed: 3 (Q3), 5 (Q4), 7 (Q1)
  • Quilted: 0 (Q3), 1 (Q4), 0 (Q1)

Bucket List: Because I need more projects, right?

  1. Triangle Squared quilt.
  2. Equilateral triangle quilt, perhaps Chopsticks pattern.
  3. Raspberry Kiss lap quilt.
  4. Technicolor Galaxy.
  5. Polaroid quilt.
  6. Chopsticks quilt.
  7. Pirate Quilt. (I have fabric, but no firm plan on design yet.)
  8. Leah Day's Dancing Butterflies to develop my free motion quilting. (I joined at the start of the year, but never... um... started.)
  9. More Mini Mini Quilt Swaps on IG.

I'm linking up to the Q1 Finish-A-Long. Thank you to all the co-hosts for this year! I'm very thankful for Finish-A-Long helping me stay organized and motivated.

Thank you for visiting!

2016 Finish-A-Long

Things I Make