Thursday, February 28, 2013

March Goals


As I mentioned in my February wrap-up post, I’ve been sandwiching.  Right now I have 6 items ready to quilt and finish, and they total over 32 yards, which is short of my Lenten goal, but still really darn good.  (As an aside, I’m doing well on the crochet and knitting goals as well for Lent.) I also want to average about 1.5 UFOs finished per month and right now I have 1, so by the end of March I need another 3.5.  Well 4 of the 6 are UFOs, so that helps too!

So without further fuss, here are March’s goals:

Quilt and Bind (done done):

Easy Street
Easy Street Mini
Easter Carrie Nation
Easter Carrie Nation Mini
Blue Boxy Stars
X’s and O’s Blue Boy quilt (unearthed while cleaning)

Projects:

Orca Bay – Progress.  I would like the top done.

Beau’s – The first part of the top requires making what I am calling the columns.  I would like the columns made.

Homework – Since none got done last month, I will keep current as best I can.  I will double up or divide between March and April as works best for each assignment.

5 LCRR blocks – I never finished a set for a swapper and she still has one of my sets.  There are 20 blocks total, so I am doing 5 per month.
Just Takes 2 (JT2) – I diligently saved all the downloads last year for me to make them this year.  My colors are unbleached muslin and pink.  Since by the end of April there needs to be another 26 blocks made, I will do 11-23 in March.
String Blocks – Many of these were done as homework last year.  Since the quilt will be 30 blocks, I am taking a third of what is made, making enough more to get to 10 blocks, and joining them together into two rows, as the blocks are QAYG.  I will do 2 months’ worth this month.
Color Challenge Sampler – This is actually 2 challenges in one.  One is a color challenge and another is a monthly free sampler off of someone’s blog.  I’m combining the two.  No clue at this writing on the February color.  Or the March color or block.  I will do both this month.
Yellow Log Cabin / LCRR – Completely undo one row and start sewing the top together.  I will do what I can in light of the rest of the stuff.

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

Also I need to finish 2 crochet things and 1 knit thing.  These are moving along as I would hope.

And I need a table runner for a gift basket.  Since this is a donation, I do not feel bad about starting this new thing during Lent.

February Report


First things first, I passed my insurance exam.  2 down, 3 to go.  Then it’s time for a new sewing machine!

February was the non-sewing month.  I didn’t get a darned thing done.  Not one finish!  Between the insurance exam, Girl Scouts and cookies, DD’s birthday and life in general, it just didn’t happen.  I was hit by migraines twice that were so bad I got sick and had to take off work. 

The last few days / week, I’ve been working on sandwiching quilts.  So here’s the status of stuff.

Easy Street – Done done. 
Actually the top is done and it’s sandwiched.

Orca Bay – Progress.  I will be happy if it is sandwiched and somewhere in the quilting process. 
Not too much progress and that’s OK.

Blue Boxy Stars – Done done.  This was in January’s homework pile; I’ve budgeted 2 months for this one, so now it’s time to finish it! 
Sandwiched.

Beau’s – Started.  Nancy, Near Philadelphia hosted two lovely swaps, a quilt for Miss Melanie and Ashley’s quilt.  If you know anything about Gone With the Wind, you can see where I got the name Beau’s quilt.  I hope to combine all these blocks, pieces and parts together into a very large quilt for my king sized bed that holds two pretty fluffy people!  Any start on this will make my day!
Got an idea! 

Homework – none of that got done.

5 LCRR blocks – I never finished a set for a swapper and she still has one of my sets.  There are 20 blocks total, so I am doing 5 per month.
Just Takes 2 (JT2) – I diligently saved all the downloads last year for me to make them this year.  My colors are unbleached muslin and pink.  Since there are 4 Tuesdays in February, I will do 11-18.
String Blocks – Many of these were done as homework last year.  Since the quilt will be 30 blocks, I am taking a third of what is made, making enough more to get to 10 blocks, and joining them together into two rows, as the blocks are QAYG. 
Color Challenge Sampler – This is actually 2 challenges in one.  One is a color challenge and another is a monthly free sampler off of someone’s blog.  I’m combining the two.  No clue at this writing on the February color.
Yellow Log Cabin / LCRR – Completely undo one row and start sewing the top together.

BOMs – These I’m caught up on.

Wednesday, February 20, 2013

Feb at the 2/3 Point


So now we are at the 2/3 point for February and this month has been abysmal.  I mean, I haven’t sewn a stitch it feels like.  I have done a lot of crochet.

Tomorrow I have an insurance exam.  Here’s hoping I pass.  Let’s say I do for the sake of conversation.  That give me 8 solid days of quilty time.  I have got to get a lot done in that time.  I have pulled out the Easter Carrie Nation top that is done so I can get that prepared for quilting as well.  The Blue Boxy Starts top is pinned together and I have done some sewing on it.  I found a mistake with a 4 patch in Easy Street.  You can see how this has been going.

So bring on Storm Q and may we get a snow day on Friday.  That would be the awesome.

Friday, February 15, 2013

Big Birthday Bash plans


OK, at noon today we start the big Renee birthday festivities, which run through Tuesday night, due to 2 days off by the school district.  Here are my quilty goals during that time.

Have blue boxy stars sandwiched
Have Easy Street sandwiched
Trim all Beau’s HSTs – they were deliberately made oversized in the swap
Prep blue column for Beau’s quilt as a leader-ender project
Lots of knitting and crochet
Ripping the yellow LCRR

I want to get more done and I haven’t sewn very much this month so far.  I have an insurance exam coming up next week and once that is done I can sew with abandon!

Lenten Challenge


This week was Ash Wednesday, and while I am not as close to my faith as I once was, I am going to take up / give up something for Lent.  I am only going to work on projects that have already been started. I will not start anything new.  I admit I got this from another quilter, but I think it is a good one.  Let’s see how much I can accomplish.

I did start a new project on Tuesday, a crocheted baby afghan.  I have several people who are expecting either children or grandchildren in my life so I am trying to get ahead.  The afghan I started is just going to be one really big granny square in a beautiful pastel ombre-blend color.  5 rounds of granny, one round of hdc, lather, rinse, repeat.  It’s good to work on before bedtime while watching 15-20 minutes of recorded TV.

Maybe, just maybe, I will be able to bust 40 yards during the 40 days, finish 2 crochet things and 1 knit thing.  That would be a lot and it would be awesome.  Stay tuned.

Sunday, February 10, 2013

Feb at the 1/3 mark


Yeah, it’s been a less than stellar start to the month.  The month started on a Friday, which was fine, but the Saturday and Sunday were not spent in central IL, so those were non-quilty days.  Monday was a crazy afternoon and evening involving a 65 miles roundtrip to the LQS for my BOM blocks, GS cookies and a GS meeting. 

Tuesday brought a migraine that did not quit until Thursday late afternoon.  Not much of anything happened.  Thursday night I went to a local school and helped a bunch of little Girl Scouts sew for a service project.  And now we are up to today, which is the 8th.

My goal for this weekend, besides yet even more Girl Scout stuff (sensing a theme?), is to clean my house / basement and sew.  I want to accomplish a few things, but I’m not sure which things so here’s a stab at the list.

Finish all blue boxy stars blocks
Make blue boxy stars top
Sandwich blue boxy stars
Color Challenge Sampler – this month’s color is purple and the block is a Jacob’s ladder.  Since it’s only 2 blocks, that will be do-able.
Ripping on the yellow LCRR

Then for next week during the work week, I hope to quilt on the boxy stars a bit each day, and then work on things in block-quantity order.  So next up would be a 3 block BOM, then the 5 LCRR blocks, then the 8 JT2 blocks, and lastly the 10 string blocks.  I should be able to keep chipping away at Orca Bay as a leader-ender during all of this.  I won’t get all of it done, but at least there is a plan, and after a day at work, that’s what I need.  I know I will have 2 nights away next week, so if I get to the JT2 part, I will be pleased.

I also figured out a plan for Beau’s quilt.  There are HSTs and 4 patches from the Ashley quilt that I will set on point.  The 4 patches will be on point in a long column, with the 4 patches filling in the spots.  The even out the edges on each column, I will use the plethora of 6.5” squares I have from Miss Mellie’s quilt.  Imagine making a Jacob’s ladder block, setting it on point and then trimming it off.  I hope to have a blue column, a brown column and a mixed column.  We shall see what we have.  I am excited, that is for sure.  My goal this week is to sort things into piles and lay them out to confirm I like it.

I'm posting this on Sunday evening.  My weekend has not been as productive as planned from a quilting point of view, but I am OK with that.  I have an insurance exam in 10 days ans I am on pace with my studies.  Tonight I hope to watch the 2 hour Downton Abbey and sort through some of the Beau's blocks and maybe do some hand work.