April Goals

I would absolutely LOVE to get another quilt finished this month! 🙂 I actually have 2 goals this month, I want to finish my Good Night Irene quilt that I basted last month, and I would like to start working on my blue and white challenge quilt for guild. I have the quilt designed, and I need to stitch out blocks on the embroidery machine.

I also have a commission quilt that I need to have done for next month, but I don’t know an exact due date yet, as soon as the fabric I ordered gets here I’m going to get to work on that too, the top should be done by the end of the month. So many things that need to be done this  month, but I don’t think there’s a lot going on around here and I might get a lot of time to work on projects this month.

Linking up with Elm Street Quilts.

March OMG Results

Wow, I wasn’t sure I’d meet my goal this month, but somehow I managed to fit it in with all the other craziness going on! I’m pretty sure I know how I’m going to quilt it, hopefully that can be done in April. I think this will be a quilt we can throw in the trailer for camping season, we are always needing one outside or just as an extra on the bed.

Here’s the reason I could barely get a quilt basted this month! This little sassy princess turned 4 this month. We just had her annual checkup and she’s 3’2″ and 32 lbs, she’s so tiny but her doctor says she’s perfect. I’m still in disbelief that she’s already 4, seems like just yesterday that we were at the hospital getting ready to bring her home. Before I know it she’s going to be 5 and ready to join Alex on the bus ride to school. Time is flying by WAY too fast!!

Linking up to Elm Street Quilts.

Knitting and some Cross Stitch

So over the weekend we were childless, my wonderful sister took the kids for the weekend. That meant Saturday night we could make a nice dinner (something the kids won’t eat) and start working through all the shows we needed to catch up on. While we were watching shows I was working on various projects and made a decision. Last fall I had bought 5 skeins of yarn that were on clearance and decided to make a blanket for Cassie’s former day care teacher that was having a baby in December. Now I am a VERY slow knitter, especially when it’s long rows. Saturday I decided that I hadn’t made a very smart choice to make her something and it was time to set that particular project aside for  now and work on other things. I’m almost through with the 2nd skein and I’ve a long ways to go on the project. At some point I’ll finish it and give it away, but right now it just needs to be put away.

Once I got that decision out of the way I pulled out the dish cloth I’ve been working on since November 2016 and finished it. I don’t know why it takes so darn long for me to work on knitting, wait yes I do, I have too many projects that are hand work!!! 🙂 The yarn is Peaches & Creme in colorway Pink Lemonade that I picked up at Walmart just because I liked the colors. I’ll see how I like using it to clean the kitchen and maybe I’ll make more someday.

I mentioned cross stitch in the title, I’ve found a pattern that I was really interested in making in January and I kept going back and forth on whether I needed another project. No not really but I did it anyway! I bought the pattern and the fabric from the author and started in on it. It’s a small section a  month, and once I’m caught up it shouldn’t be too hard to keep up with everyone else. I’m almost caught up now, once I get the rest of the title done and March’s block that was just released I’m golden! Hubby and I are BIG Harry Potter fans and I just loved the idea of having all the classes in a sort of sampler piece. No clue where it will go when finished, but that’s ok I’m making it anyway! Perhaps I can start working on other cross stitch pieces too, I have a Cleveland Cavaliers one and a Monopoly board around here somewhere to make!

March One Monthly Goal

This isn’t the best picture of it, but almost a year ago I finished piecing Good Night Irene, a SAL that I participated in in 2014. Now, it took me a long time (obviously) to finish the quilt, because 2014 was the year that my little Cassie girl arrived. I had a hard time sitting in front of the sewing machine and then once she arrived, sewing time went out the window! Anyway, my goal for the month is to get the backing sewed together, I have the fabrics sitting here ready to be cut and sewn, and then get it basted. IF I have time I’d like to start quilting it, but since Cassie turns 4 in a little over 2 weeks I’m not sure I’ll have the time! I was really hoping to get this done in March, it just didn’t happen though. Hopefully I’ll have more time than I think and I’ll have it all done before the end of the month, yeah right what am I thinking!

Linking up to Elm Street Quilts.

February OMG Update

Well it wasn’t the easiest tasks I set for myself this month, but I did finish both of them! The first item was Alex’s winter jacket that the dog decided to snack on the zipper. I finally got the darn thing off and it took 2 afternoons to get the new zipper sewed on. It’s NOT even remotely perfect, however I am not a seamstress, I cannot stand mending, but it perfectly wearable and no one would notice that it’s not aligned properly unless I point it out. Alex is happy and it’s one more thing off my sewing table!

The other item I wanted to get done this month was a secret project, my husband’s t-shirt quilt that I don’t even remember WHEN I started! I’ve had the top done for SO very long and I know that I’ve gifted it to him at least twice already over the years – once for his birthday and then again for Christmas (I think the same year!). I knew he was going to be out of town from Sunday to Thursday and I knew if I worked hard I could get the whole thing quilted and bound before he got back and then I could gift it to him for Valentine’s Day! I’m not 100% happy with the quilting, I just meandered all over it – gray thread in the blocks and black thread in the borders. I had a lot of problems with the t-shirts and puckering, it’s been so long they aren’t sticking to the fusible anymore and moved around a lot while I was quilting. The issues in the border are because the end was in sight and I wanted to get it finished, there’s a lot of eyelashing on the back because I was going way too fast. At some point I might take it out and fix it, but for now he’s able to use it and it’s off my list. One of the reasons I was procrastinating on this quilt was because I don’t like piecing backs. It takes so long to get a piece big enough and I’d rather get to the quilting. I was walking through Pat Catan’s (local craft store) and saw the beer can fabric and knew what I could use it for! This is the brand hubby drinks, so I knew I needed it for his quilt. I even went back and got an extra yard so I could use it for the binding. The patches in the corners were chest images from t-shirts or patches from actual shirts he’s worn. He was so surprised to see it done, and that I had even included those pieces in the corners. I have a gazillion more t-shirts I’ve stashed away over the years and I’ll do more quilts at some point, but right now I’ve got too many things to get completed first!

Linking up to Elm Street Quilts, Crazy Mom Quilts and My Quilt Infatuation.

February Goals

I have 1 secret project I want to finish, hopefully by Valentine’s Day that I can’t take a picture of or the secret will be out!!

Our ding-a-ling dog decided to take a bite out of Alex’s coat and it’s been sitting here waiting for the zipper to be replaced. Now I don’t really like mending, and replacing a zipper is really not on my favorites list. This jacket is a Lands End jacket he really likes and right now he’s wearing a size too small winter jacket until I get this fixed. I started taking the stitches out last night, still have a ways to go before the old zipper is totally out there. There’s a lot of stitches in there!

If I can get these 2 items done I might see if I can baste a few quilts that need quilted to prep ahead for March goals.

Linking up to Elm Street Quilts.

Pokemon Quilt

So I’ve been busy for the last few months working on a Pokemon quilt for the kids to cuddle up in. It WAS a secret project only the hubby knew about (although I was posting updates on Instagram!) until a week or so ago when Alex was snooping and saw the words “Pokemon quilt” on my computer screen. So the jig was up and I had to fill him in on it – I kept it a secret for 8 blocks though! I’m happy with the progress so far, the picture is all of the completed blocks along with the header piece. Still waiting for the sashing information to put the blocks together, we might not get that until the last 3 blocks are done though. Want to make your own Pokemon quilt? The pattern is available free at Seriously I think it needs stitches!

January OMG Finishes

I really didn’t think I’d finish all 3 projects, but I did! I was planning on putting the table topper in my Etsy shop, but while I was quilting it I saw a bunch of things that bothered me so much I just couldn’t sell it. So now Cassie will get a new blanket for her dolls. I did very simple quilting because it just didn’t need anything detailed.

The fun part was quilting these 2 double wedding ring runners. I quilted 1/4″ in all the sections and that was the easy part. I had to find the right color fabrics for the bindings and then figure out how to make bias binding and apply it. It was a lot easier than I thought it would be, which is good since at some point I’ll need to do it on a Dear Jane quilt with scallops! Mom might be getting one of these runners, I’ve made her things before for her living room with the same fabrics, the Christmas runner is for my living room during the holidays. I started these in July, the Xmas fabric one was made during our guild event Christmas in July and the other I cut out to use as a practice piece. Glad they are done and off my list!

Onto next month’s challenge!

Linking up to Elm Street Quilts.

January OMG

I know I haven’t been around for awhile, I kinda skipped the month of December when it came to sewing. I had exactly 1 project that I made for Christmas, however I spent a couple of days stitching out candy cane holders for the kids to give their friends at school. I made ornaments for the teachers, but it looks like I didn’t get any pictures of them.

For January, I have 3 items I want to get basted and quilted. 2 table runners that I’m not yet sure what I want to do with and a table topper that will be listed for sale in my etsy shop. I want to start out the year with some small wins before I get into the larger quilts I have left to finish. Not sure if these 3 items will be on my 2018 UFO challenge yet, depends on if they are done before the next guild meeting or after. 🙂 I have the table topper basted today and hope to get started quilting it in the next day or so.

Linking up to Elm Creek Quilts OMG.

November Goals … MET!

I did it! I finished the 2 quilts this month that I wanted to get done this month. It was a VERY busy month, with multiple birthdays and a lot of days that I was helping out at school either in Alex’s classroom or at the Book Fair.

So all I had left to do on the Dear Jane quilt was complete the binding and the applique of the triangles I had completed. Back in 2016 I decided that I just wasn’t happy with the colors in this quilt and I wasn’t going to get back to it. So I finished it with what I had completed. I’m happy with the quilting, it was VERY time consuming since each block was quilted on it’s own, but it was actually worth it. I had many ladies at guild telling me that they’d take it since I wasn’t happy with it. 🙂

My second quilt to get done this month is also a Dear Jane related quilt. In 2012 I signed up to participate in the signature swap. We all made I think it was 50 blocks and signed each one, sent them to the coordinator and then eventually we got one of each person’s block sent to us. Mine didn’t sit here long for me to decide what I was going to do with them.  In January 2013 I finished putting the top together. Then it sat for years until I got it basted and quilted. I’m happy it’s finished and it didn’t take too long to quilt either.

Dear Jane Quilt
Dear Jane Quilt
Dear Jane Quilt – Back
Dear Jane Quilt – Back

So back to work on something, I have lots of EPP, a knitting project and a Secret Santa box to finish up! Hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend!

Linking up to Elm Street Quilts.