May Goals

On to May.

I have a lot of goals for May, my main two being the upstairs of my house and the next insurance exam.  The story of my life.  But of course I have sewing goals.

I have 4 that will be done done this month.  Considering I am aiming for completing 12 UFO’s this year and I already have 4 done, this will double my total quickly.  It should also put me at about 46 yards for the 100 dash from stash, which is right about where I should be.  I wanted 2 more UFO finishes by the 4^th of July and now I will have at least 4.

Easy Street

X’s and O’s blue boy

Blue D9P

Pink Boxy Stars

Other goals:

Thimbles BOM – finish top to flimsy stage; the back will be a Sister’s Choice flimsy.

Sister’s Choice – will use the Thimbles BOM to figure out how many Sister’s choice blocks I need.  For May, make all 9 patches, which I think is 49, last time I checked my math.

Orca Bay – the last seam is giving me fits.  Don’t even ask.  I would like this to the binding stage.

Bricks & Stepping Stones – finish the blocks.  This is harder than it seems.

Beau’s – make the center, which is the huge 25-patch, the coping border, the inner box (with the column units), the next coping border and the first round of Mellie’s quilt blocks around the outside. Also make more 9 patches and HST’s as needed.

Homework – I am woefully behind in homework, so I will try to ease back into it.  Since I have so many 9 patches to make, those will be my leader-enders for a while. 

LCRR blocks – done and mailed in May.

Just Takes 2 (JT2) – There are 4 Tuesdays in May which normally would mean 8 blocks, so let’s aim for 12.  We get as far as we go.

BOMs – I have 5 that I do.  3 are caught up. 1 is one month behind and the other is not so hot.  The goal for May is the get the first 4 caught up and maintained and do one third of the work on the one I am behind.

I am away from home 8 weeknights this upcoming month, plus one night is our anniversary, so we hope to do something fun.  I should be able to block and tackle this list pretty well if I am diligent.

April Update

Y’know, April has not turned out sewing-wise so far as I had hoped! 

It’s OK.  I had another insurance exam and I will continue to have them in even-numbered months.  So I guess that helps me set expectations until I’m done with them.  I also have the urgent to deep clean again and really declutter.  What I have learned that if I leave the machine I quilt on set up on my kitchen table with quilts ready to be quilted, I alternate 15 minutes of cleaning with 15 of sewing and I get a lot done.  That is how I got through studying for this last exam and now Easy Street is done being quilted.  So I am just going to go on a quilting jag for a while and not worry about piecing except for BOMs where I have to show them my progress.  Don’t worry; in the heat of the summer I will be in my basement piecing non-stop.

So yeah.  I’ll do what I can.  Only one thing got done on my list and that is the Blue Boxy Stars.  It’s done done.

What did get done:

Easy Street – binding is attached.

X’s and O’s blue boy – binding is attached.

Not on the list:

Blue D9P – binding is attached.  When found, this one was just a flimsy.

Pink Boxy Stars – under the quilting needle.  When found, this one was just a flimsy.

And the deep cleaning has begun.

April Goals

On to Q2!  I have high hopes for Q2 in lots of areas of my life and so sewing may take a back seat.  If I can get to the 4^th of July with 2 more UFO finishes I will be pleased.  But of course I want more than that!

Quilts to be done done:

Bricks & Stepping Stones – for a wedding gift.

Sunrise Point

X’s and O’s blue boy

Blue Boxy Stars

BOM jacket – I have a completed BOM that I think would make a lovely jacket.  I want to wear it for a conference on April 18, so I best get cracking!

Projects to work on:

Thimbles BOM -  finish top without borders.  I am making this reversible with a Sister’s Choice.

Sister’s Choice – I can finally start new things!  I will use the Thimbles BOM to figure out how many Sister’s choice blocks I need.  For April, make all 9 patches.

Orca Bay – quilt this.

Beau’s – make the center, which is the huge 25-patch, the coping border, the inner box (with the column units), the next coping border and the first round of Mellie’s quilt blocks around the outside.

Homework.  Since the strings blocks are all done, there’s some shifting here.  That’s fine; keeps me interested.

5 LCRR blocks – I did nothing on these and so I have 15 to do.  Finish and mail these.

Just Takes 2 (JT2) – To complete April’s pdf’s, I would have also assembled one quadrant of the quilt, but not be as far block-wise.  We shall see if I also get through block 36.

Color Challenge Sampler – moving this to BOM status, because that is what it is.

Yellow Log Cabin / LCRR – Frogging 4 blocks would be good.

Batik Weed Whacker – Part of the Pay It Forward (PIF) challenge.  Blocks are started; I just want it done.  This month, all the blocks.

Hopscotch – complete the top.

BOMs – These I’m caught up on. Easy to maintain.

And I need 2 wall hangings for an event on April 21.

Now of course, that I see the list I’ve made for myself, I am indeed nutso.  I’d be lucky to complete this by the end of June, much less the end of April.  But a girl can dream!

March Wrap-Up

So March is at an end and so is Lent.  I’ll get back to my Lenten challenge in another post, so for this post, I’ll talk about me and my March goals.

The following were quilted and bound:

Easy Street Mini

Easter Carrie Nation

Easter Carrie Nation Mini

String Blocks (down in the homework section)

Here’s the status on these 3 that didn’t make it.  At the beginning of March, Ted decided that he wanted to build his 5,000 piece Tower of London Lego set.  I really didn’t mind, and he and Renee each did a tower and they did it together.  However, such a set takes over the kitchen table.  So besides having nowhere to eat for about 3 weeks, I also had nowhere to quilt either.  I tried to quilt using my little Janome Jem, but sadly the large needle broke off and fell into the machine.  IT fell to the floor so its sews just fine, but now I am leery of trying that little adventure again.  So these 2 are exactly as they were on February 28: sandwiched and waiting patiently.

Easy Street

X’s and O’s Blue Boy quilt (unearthed while cleaning)

However on Easter I was able to get some quilting in, so Blue Boxy Stars is almost completed with its quilting. 

I also had 2 quilts in progress.  Orca Bay has its rows put together and only needs a coping border and the pieced border to go.  Whoo hoo – this was a long one!  Beau’s quilt had the goal of having the columns done.  I’ve changed the design once again and I plan to use the column units in a different way, but I did indeed make all the column units I could with the parts that I had from the swap.  I call these two projects successful for March.

Then there’s the homework.  This I was more than 50% successful with.

5 LCRR blocks – I did nothing on these and so I have 15 to do. 

Just Takes 2 (JT2) – I am caught up through March’s pdf’s.  This was no small task.

String Blocks – This was FINISHED!  Done done!

Color Challenge Sampler – Completed February and March so I am up to date.

Yellow Log Cabin / LCRR – Oh, I did nothing at all.

BOMs – These I’m caught up on. Easy to maintain.

Yarn efforts – I made progress on all 3 projects.  I see the finish line approaching for all 3 of them, so that helps.

And I didn’t need the table runner, so I didn’t make it.

So overall, I had 4 finishes, 3 of which were UFOs.  I also had a UFO finish in January, so I am ahead of the pace by 1 UFO, if I am aiming for 1 per month.  This is a good thing.