I meant to make a Christmas Day post wishing everyone a happy holiday. But we spent Christmas Eve frantically packing and tying up loose ends so we could leave early Christmas morning for a twelve hour drive to our youngest daughter's house. Our son-in-law was working and our eldest daughter wanted to spend Christmas day at home with her boys. It didn't bother us to postpone our celebration a few days. We rediscovered that driving on Christmas day is the same as Thanksgiving day. The only places open were convenience stores, and only a handful of those had an adjoining restaurant that was open. Luckily, we had tossed in a package of bread and vienna sausage (which I have said I would never eat again, but hunger does funny things to people.)
I thought about taking my EPP (English paper piecing) kit, but I grabbed an unfinished cross stitch project instead. I can't even remember when I started this; it's been years. I stayed up late the night before, so I spent the drive up there reading and napping, and looking at the beautiful Arkansas scenery. Once there, I was a bit worried that I wouldn't be able to find any time to stitch. Brownie's boys are a couple of whirling dervishes, and having a needle and thread near them would be a disaster. But they had long naps and went to bed early, so there was time to get quite a bit of work done.
With that project, I maintained my 100% success rate for December and raised my year's rate to 45%. Two more days of December and I should end December with 100%. First. Time. Ever. My yearly goal for 2019 is 70%, but if it doesn't happen, I'm not going to be too disappointed. This year has taught me that goals should be flexible.
Since I spent the majority of this week cross-stitching, my stash has remained static. Nothing in and nothing out. Next year, I want to make headway reducing my existing stash, not just using what I bring in. I am going to have to spend some time making sure I have unpacked all my fabric before the start of 2019.
I forgot to put my weekly goals in this post, and since that really seems to help me, I'm adding this late:
1. Join Depression Blocks into 2 rows.
2. Lovers Knot Blocks, make 1 red
3. Pond Lily, make 1 red
4. Snowball Blossom, make 1 red
That's how many triangles are in my Depression Blocks quilt. But I'm happy to say that all the blocks are done now, so my December One Monthly Goal is complete. Whoo-hoo, Yee-haw, and Hallelujah! It's on my design wall now, but in a few minutes I am going to pack up the blocks until next year when it will become my first OMG (One Monthly Goal).
I just noticed that I didn't post my weekly goals last Sunday. One was to finish the Depression blocks, which I did. Another was to finish the clamshell wallhanging, which I didn't do. I have taken it apart twice and it still isn't what I want. I'm just about ready to throw it in the trash. After watching a couple of videos and seeing a couple of blog tutorials, I've changed the way I'm doing the clamshells a couple of times. On the very last row, I finally found a method that worked for me and kept the rows straight. Yeah, last row. There may be more at the top though. Stay turned. Oh, and I also added their cat.
My goals for next week are pretty small, because I plan to spend more time playing with grandsons than quilting. In fact, I only have two goals:
1. Work on the clamshell wall hanging (which was supposed to be a Christmas gift.)
2. Work on EPP (English Paper Piecing) stars.
I thought I was done with my Christmas shopping, but after talking to my daughter, I need to go find something else for each of the boys. And my mother-in-law says she is desperate for clothes, so we'll try to find some shopping time in the next two days, maybe first thing in the morning or right before closing. Maybe the crowds won't be too bad then. Oh, did I mention the store we have to go to? Walmart! Walmart on Christmas Eve. Eeek!
I am actually excited to say that I have sewn every day this week, and every day this month. I know it's going to be hard to keep it up during Christmas, but I'm determined to have my first ever 100% month. That increased my yearly success rate to 44%. Not exciting, but better to be going up than going down.
Working on scrappy projects has not done wonders for my stash. On the good side, I didn't add to the stash this week, but on the bad side, I didn't decrease it either. Maybe next week if I get to make a backing or binding, or something.
As I said before, I've been thinking about this for awhile, trying to decide what I want to accomplish in 2019. Things are so up in the air with me that it's hard to plan too far out, but optimistically, this is what I'd like to do in 2019.
1. UFOs are my priority. I'd like to finish all I have, but I have to be realistic and remember how much longer it takes me to do things now. Rather than list the UFOs here, I'll just say that I am going to join Patty at Elm Street Quilts with her monthly OMG (One Monthly Goal) linky parties. Even though I stopped quilting this year when it got really hot, I don't think that will stop me in 2019. Something else might, but not the heat.
2. I am going to continue linking to Kate's weekly 15 Minute Challenge at Life in Pieces, where my goal is a 70% success rate for the year, but I am going to limit linking to other linky parties to once a month for each one. I don't have anything new each week anyway and linking to parties takes time, both to make the posts and to visit and comment on other blogs, and who can see all those pretties without visiting?
3. This isn't a quilting goal as much as it is an sewing room goal, but here it is. When, not just if, we get our house finished to the point of being able to unpack and move things down, I'd like to make my sewing space in the attic a little more convenient. Hopefully, that will be early in 2019.
4. I want to participate in soscrappy's Monthly Rainbow Scrap Challenge. I think that will help me finish some UFOs and make more giveaway quilts too.
5. I want to participate in the Garden Sunshine BOM at Quilt Doodle Designs. Her quilts always inspire me.
6. If I start any new quilts, other than BOMs, I want to finish them before moving on to the next.
7. After finishing my list, I thought of something else I've been wanting to do for awhile. I'd like to find a daytime quilt guild. The one I've belonged to meets at night and is now twenty miles away. None of my local friends go to the meetings because they don't drive at night either. lol. If not a daytime guild, maybe I can find another sewing group. My sewing group disbanded last month.
That's probably enough to keep me busy all year. I have most of this listed on my right sidebar, along with buttons to the various websites mentioned above. Now to go find all the UFOs I want to finish, so I can complete that list. Join me as I link to the 2019 Planning Party at Quilting Jet Girl.
If you've noticed my sidebar, I've started my list of UFOs I want to work on each month of 2019. I had to revise the list a couple of times when I couldn't find a couple of the UFOs, but I think I've found all those currently listed. Some are so near completion that it won't take more than a week or two to finish, and some have so little work done on them that they will take a couple of months, so I broke their work down into smaller goals. I'd like to only work on UFOs next year, but I know that won't happen. Some new project will catch my eye, I hope, and I'll start it too. I'm just determined not to let any more become UFOs.
I have a couple of other small goals for 2019, but my biggest goal will be to have a clean space to sew, even if it does have to be in the attic. I'll probably spend a lot of time dreaming about a finished sewing space when and if we ever finish the attic. I'd also like to make that Sunbonnet Sue and Overall Sam quilt that my mother wanted.
Sewing Depression Blocks over and over makes my mind wander a bit and I think I've spent too much time dreaming while I sew. In the meantime, I've been working on my clamshell wallhanging which I've temporarily named Puppy and Fox. I need to find out if Puppy and Fox have real names. I didn't like the straight line of clamshells, so took them off and made staggered lines. Much better. I'm not sure what kind of eyes I am going to put on the fox, but it can be done later.
I am probably the only quilter who needs to use silencing ear muffs while working in the sewing room. It's not because my sewing machine is noisy. It's not. But on weekends when Hubby is cutting lumber on the other side of a wall consisting of a single thin sheet of foam board, it can get pretty loud. And as you will see in the picture below, my sewing room, aka the attic, is unfinished. Ah, the things we quilters put up with for our hobby.
Over the Christmas break, Hubby wants to insulate the wall between the attic and garage. That will help muffle the sound as well as keeping the cold breeze from coming through the cracks between the foam pieces. In the meantime, I have made progress on the Depression Blocks. I exceeded my goal of eleven by making twelve blocks. That doesn't sound like much, and really the blocks are simple to make, just time consuming when each set of half square triangles need to be sewn together, pressed, and squared up before joining into rows and then blocks. I try to make two blocks each evening and make enough half square triangles to get a head start on the first start the next day. It's easier to build momentum if the block is ready to be put together without spending time searching for fabrics first.
I normally crop my photos to avoid showing my attic space, but the blocks are off my design wall board and the only way to show it is to back away and take a big picture. Besides, if anyone is unhappy with their sewing space, this should make you feel better about it. But someday... someday, I hope to have a beeeautiful space up there.
I was able to get in sewing time every day this week, so I'm still on a roll for December. At this rate, I'll be up to 45% by the end of the year. Not the number I was hoping for when I started keeping track in January, but months off will do that. Currently, my success rate is 43%.
My local quilt store is liquidating and I finally made it over there this week. I bought some Fat Eighths, which I've never seen, or maybe noticed before at other places. I bought a few colors to help finish the clamshell wallhanging and used a couple to add to my dwindling supply of half square triangles for the Depression Blocks. I bought a couple of yards of pretty fabrics, just because I wanted them, a ruler set, and a glue stick. I used enough of the Fat Eighths that the remainder went into the scrap basket. I quit counting my stash sometime in June, the same time I took a leave of absence from quilting, but I never started recording it again. One of my goals for 2019 is to have my entire stash unpacked (there are still boxes of fabric here and there), and start working on reducing the total as well as tracking how much I add and use for the year. For now, just the amounts for this week and month:
Added this week: 2.50 yards
Used this week: .50 yards
Total gain this week: 2.00 yards
Total loss for December .25 yards
Making weekly goals is really helping me keep on track. My goals for last week were:
Make at least 10 blocks for Depression Blocks quilt. (I made 12.)
Finish piecing Black and White Starburst. (I finished paper piecing.)
Cut fabric for scrappy EPP stars.
Cut fabric for white EPP stars.
Make two rows of Puppy and Rabbit wallhanging. (Instead, I took off the row I had made and redid it.)
Cut 14 strips for blue and green fabric basket. (I only made 4.)
My goals for next week:
1. Make 11 Depression Blocks.
2. Cut fabric and templates for clamshell wallhanging.
3. Cut fabric for white EPP stars.
4. Cut 14 strips for blue and green fabric basket.
That's enough for the coming week. I probably need to do a little Christmas shopping and a lot of cleaning too.
I didn't work on this wallhanging much this week. I made some paper pieces to square it off, and prior to taking a picture this morning, I noticed one corner was put in wrong. I had to rip it out and make a new piece. I also found that while I prefer using paper to secure the fabric to the smaller paper pieces before stitching, I much prefer a temporary glue for the larger pieces. I hope to finish this to the flimsy stage next week.
I have quilt blocks on the design board and Hubby is chomping at the bit to do a little construction on that wall, so my plans are to finish those blocks as quickly as I can (and they are going slowly) and get the blocks back into a project box until January. I'll have plenty of handwork to keep my busy until I can get my design wall back up.
I thought I would expand on the English paper piecing with some clam shells. They aren't as travel friendly as the other EPP I've done. In fact, they aren't travel friendly at all. But, they are fun to make and I think the finished wall hanging will make two little boys happy. I need to get busy on it. I was recently reminded that Christmas is only 15 days from now. Eeek!
Linking to: Design Wall Monday at Small Quilts and Doll Quilts Monday Making at LoveLaughQuilt Main Crush Monday at Cooking up Quilts. She doesn't have a post up yet. Moving it Forward Monday at Em's Scrapbag
If you want to see more linky parties, or click on the button for their blog, look near the bottom on my right sidebar.
I thought I did pretty good this week, great in fact, until I looked at my numbers. Then, I wondered what I did all week when I thought I was making progress.
I'll start with my goals this week.
Finish the backing for Gairden Walk (It didn't take long.)
Make binding for Gairden Walk
Make at least 10 blocks for Depression Blocks (I made 11 but thought I'd make much more.)
Rip seams on varigated EPP stars
Cut fabric for scrappy EPP stars
Cut fabric for white EPP stars
Cut strips for blue and green fabric basket (I should have specified a number. I only cut two.)
I also did some EPP, but still, looking at the accumulated stitching, it doesn't seem like I did much. I think I spent more time looking for scraps that would work in the Depression Block quilt than I actually did cutting, pressing, and stitching. I'm also running out of room on my design wall and I need to make three more rows. I don't want to start stitching the rows together because I'm afraid the newer blocks will stand out too much. I'd rather spread them out among the other blocks which were all made from the same group of fabrics and I have very few of those fabric scraps now.
Susan asked what size squares I started with. I answered her comment, but I'm going to put it here too in case anyone else wants to know.
I had a question (after I finished all the blocks) asking what size I made these blocks. I started with 4-1/4 inch squares and made the quick 1/2 square blocks.
But after I made a few, I noticed there was too much of a color pattern, so I just started cutting the fabric into triangles that were 4-1/4 inch on the short sides. Then I could mix the colors better and avoid having the same colors touching. I wish I had made the original triangles 4-1/2 inch though. By the time I finished the blocks, some of the fabrics had frayed and in some there was no way to cut off the frayed edge when I squared the block. After squaring each half square block, they were 3-1/2 inches, which became 3 inch when sewn into the block. The finished block contained sixteen half square blocks and made a twelve inch block.
My goals for the coming week:
1. Make at least 10 blocks for Depression Blocks quilt.
2. Finish piecing Black and White Starburst.
3. Cut fabric for scrappy EPP stars.
4. Cut fabric for white EPP stars.
5. Make two rows of Puppy and Rabbit wallhanging.
6. Cut 14 strips for blue and green fabric basket.
On the good side, I sewed 7 out of 7 days this week, which puts my weekly and monthly percentages at 100%, but only raised my yearly percentage from 41% to 42%. Big whoop.
Another yawner is my stash report. I haven't added anything to my stash, but I haven't used anything either. Using scraps doesn't do much for stash busting. With any luck, I'll finish the Black and White Starburst and use a tiny bit of fabric for the backing and binding.
That's it for me this week. Nothing notable, at least nothing that has to do with sewing. I've been cleaning my mother-in-law's apartment and would have spent the weekend cleaning there if it hadn't been raining. I don't think she ever cleaned her windows and I wonder if we have to do that to get her deposit back. The inside isn't difficult, but there are roses in front of all the windows which would make it difficult, not to mention the mud. It's been too long since we rented anything with deposit; I can't remember the requirements. We rented a duplex from a friend in 2016-2017, but the windows there were so dirty, I had to clean them in order to see outside. I didn't bother to clean them again when we moved out a few months later.
I'm linking to the usual parties, or I will tomorrow after they are posted:
If you want to see more linky parties, or click on the button for their blog, look near the bottom on my right sidebar. 15 Minute Challenge at Life in Pieces Oh Scrap! at Quilting is More Fun than Housework Sunday Stash at QuiltPaintCreate
I've been practicing stitching by feel. Since black is so hard for me to see, it seemed a good choice to practice on. I have trouble getting started, but once I have the first stitch in place, I can sew down a side pretty well. My paper pieces are made of cardstock and it's pretty easy to pinch the sides of the diamonds between thumb and forefinger and feel the edges and then stitch between my fingertips and then inch down the side as I stitch.
I'm not sure what I'll do with this star now, but I think I'll make it into a mini wall hanging. I've only got a couple of small scraps of the black and white fabric, so it can't get any bigger, at least with these colors.
I just saw that I've already posted about this. I think my memory must be slipping along with my mother-in-law's. I'm not ready to be her roomie though. I hope. So I'm sorry to bore you with this again, but the post is already written, so I'm going to leave it.
This is the top, finished several years ago. I called it Gairden Walk because the magazine said the idea for the pattern came from a Scottish garden.
I had finished the backing, all except one corner. My excuse at the time was that I would finish the corner when I put in the label, but the truth was that I ran out of fabric and needed time to find more. But I never did find more of the same fabrics and then I didn't know what to do, so I just stuck it in a box to finish "someday" when I could figure out how to make it work with the scraps I still had. Now that I'm trying to finish as much as I can so I don't leave boxes and boxes of unfinished quilt tops for my kids to deal with, I decided to finish this backing and move the project to the "send out" stage. So this week I pieced together some scraps to make more piano keys for the border, finished the back, and made the binding.
Last week, I spent several days packing up mother-in-law's apartment, and Hubby and I moved all the boxes over here. Our attic space was already crammed with our stuff, leaving just enough room for me to have a cutting table and my sewing machine on one side, and Hubby's desk on the other side. But there are still boxes of her stuff that need to go up there, so my sewing space is about to get much smaller. I just hope I have enough room to work on bigger quilt tops. I am really ready to get the sheetrock done in the main house so we can start unpacking the attic.
Yesterday afternoon was spent cleaning her apartment so we can get her deposit back. I barely made a dent in it, but I did the hardest stuff first. We hope to sell the remaining furniture this weekend, so I can really clean next week. In the meantime, it's raining, and I want to start sewing on those Depression Blocks! The past few days, I've been practicing my blind stitching. Or should I call it unseeing sewing.
I wish there was a tutorial on youtube, but if there is, I'm not using the right keywords to find it. My sense of feel is just not that sensitive, but I think it may be possible. I'll show you an example in a few days.
I posted my linky parties below, but for those of you who aren't really interested in linky parties, I want to tell you more about the post at Powered by Quilting. She has the cutest little binding babies. It looks like a wood thread spool with a head on top, but it has a slit through the middle of the spool to keep the binding from slipping when winding onto the spool. It looks like it comes in several sizes, and if it is a spool size, maybe it will fit on a thread rack. I can't tell. But in any case, Sherry wound her binding onto the spool to keep it safe and secure. Lately, I've been making a lot of binding for future use, so I think this is the neatest thing I've seen lately. I might have to dig out the binding I've made and stuffed into the box with flimsies and backings, and do it up right.
On a sad note, my local quilt shop is closing down. The owner wants to concentrate on long arm quilting so she is selling her fabrics and notions. There be no more quick runs to her store when I need the perfect fabric to complete a project. The closest place to buy fabric for me will be twenty miles away now. Rain permitting, I am going to go over there today to stock up on some threads and see if she has a couple of rulers I've been looking for. In the last year, our little town has lost a good cafe, the only feed store, and now the only quilt store, all of them truly needed.
Last January, I decided that my December OMG (that's One Monthly Goal) was going to be Summer Crossroads, started in 2016. What I didn't realize in January was that our already crowded upstairs would become even more crowded when we moved all of my mother-in-law's belongings up there too. Now it's wall to wall boxes, bags, lamps, and other items to trip over. Finding Summer Crossroads, even neatly stacked in project boxes, is just not going to happen. Instead, I decided to work on the first project box I could reach. In that box was Gairden Walk and Depression Blocks. My goals for December are to finish making all the blocks for a queen size quilt for Depression Blocks and to finish piecing the border and making binding for Gairden Walk.
Yesterday afternoon, I finished the border for the backing of Gairden Walk and wish I had finished it when I originally made it. I never found any more matching fabrics, and had to piece scraps to finish. I'm also going to have to make the binding out of smaller pieces than I would like, but that seems to be what is left of this fabric.
On my design wall are the blocks I have made so far. I need 56 completed blocks and already have 22, so I think I can complete this goal even missing several sewing days over the holidays.
Thursday, my daughter and her boys came to visit for a few days. After a busy weekend, made busier by two boys who never stop moving, they left yesterday after the Christmas parade. Hubby went straight to his recliner, turned on a football game, and promptly fell asleep. Not being much of a napper, I started sewing. I finished the Floating Stars quilt, or at least finished it to the flimsy stage. I don't have anywhere to lay out a quilt right now, so quilting it will have to wait awhile. I also feel like I am running out of time to finish UFOs and would like to get as many as possible to the flimsy stage while I can. I did find backing fabric for the stars quilt and made six yards of Susie's magic binding; then I packed everything away.
I can't tell if the photo is in focus. If it's not, sorry about that. I'll get Hubby to help me with it later.
Finishing this top and pulling the backing and binding fabric out of my stash meant that I used a bit of fabric this week. I also had to buy a yard to finish the borders, but used 3/4 of that. So while I don't have a formal report, here it is:
Fabric bought this week: 1 yard
Fabric used this week: 3-1/4 yards
Total loss: 2-1/4 yards
I sewed 7 out of 7 days this week too. Evenings are still my productive time. So my sewing report reads:
I like that December percentage. lol
Goals for this week:
1. Finish the backing for Gairden Walk
2. Make binding for Gairden Walk
3. Make at least 10 blocks for Depression Blocks
4. Rip seams on varigated EPP stars
5. Cut fabric for scrappy EPP stars
6. Cut fabric for white EPP stars
7. Cut strips for blue and green fabric basket
