One Monthly Goal - March Wrap Up

Just a few days left in March. It's been a busy month, work is absolutely crazy.  Thankfully the sewing room has been a nice refuge in the evenings.  I've made good progress on March's One Monthly Goal. 

The plan for March was to start piecing the last of the graduation quilts.  There was a laundry list of things that needed to be done to make that happen.

Wash and press all the fabric ✔
Print the center panel on fabric ✔
Rinse, dry and cut the center panel to size✔
Print pattern from EQ, write cutting and pressing instructions ✔
Cut fabrics and start sewing✔

I count a quilt as "started" once the fabrics are cut.  That happened on March 11th.  Since then, the first two borders have been added and I've got a good start on the Friendship Stars that make up the third border. 

 The First Amendment Quilt
self designed

The left star border has already been sewn together and attached to the center panel.  The star blocks for the right side are still being assembled.  I wasn't sure how well that news print fabric would work, but I'm liking the effect.  Thankfully Drama Teen fully approves.   So I'm three for three on my 2017 OMGs.  I really do like this link up, it's been a great motivator each month. 

I've also been working really hard to get my Meadow Mist Mystery Quilt into finished flimsy form to show off in April.  I've been assembling the last set of blocks. 

 Meadow Mist Designs Mystery
By Cheryl Brickey of the Meadow Mist Designs Blog

The quilt has 8 of these blocks.  That's number 6 and 7 up on the design wall still under construction.  So just 3 blocks left to assemble and I can start sewing the blocks together.  Drama Teen and My Guy are going to a concert tonight, so I'll have the house to myself.  I'm contemplating putting this project front and center for one night to see if I can get it together before Friday.  I'd like to be able to submit a finished flimsy for the quilt parade.  

It's been a good month in the sewing room.  Wish I could say the same about work!  

Linking up with:
Let's Bee Social at Sew Fresh Quilts
Needle and Thread Thursday at My Quilt Infatuation
March Finish Up - One Monthly Goal at Elm Street Quilts
UFO-2017 at Patchwork Times

Printing Quilt Labels and Fabric Panels with the Software You Have

Quilting is probably my favorite pass time, but photography is a close second.  My Guy and Drama Teen share the photography bug, we have a lot of fun after outings comparing photographs.  I occasionally even take some nice shots and it's always seemed a waste to just print them up and stick them in albums.  Early on, it just seemed to be a natural step to start using some of those photos on labels.  

I first used photos in a quilt when I needed a design fix for a quilt for DT.  I didn't have enough in one of the fat quarters to get 4 tigers for the diagonal, so I took pictures of her favorite stuffed versions and used those.  

That was a big hit.

When The First Amendment became the theme of one of DT's commissioned graduation quilts my first thought was to embroider a panel.  I wanted the center panel to be good sized, definitely larger than 8.5 by 11.5. But as the months wore on, time became short.  I can't sew and embroider at the same time, so I thought about printing that center panel on fabric.  Turns out Electric Quilt produces printable fabric sheets in 13" x 19".  They are not cheap, but I only needed one, so a package of six was a reasonable purchase.

  

From that I can easily get a 12.5 X 18.5 panel that's large enough to be the center.  Not all printers can feed something that large.  Since we do so much photography (and science fair projects etc), I bought a printer that could handle the bigger paper sizes. 

There's just regular sized paper in there now, but the 13" fabric sheets will fit into the feeder.   Places that do lots of business printing, like Staples can print on fabric.  I've never used those services, so I'd talk with the staff and be willing to sacrifice a dry run piece (maybe in a much smaller size) to be sure you can get what you want before you commit to a bigger piece.    

There are lots of software programs that will let you play with pictures.  I use Photoshop Elements for photo editing and My Memory Suites for digital photo scrap booking.  Those two are my go to programs for any fabric printing project.  But it's amazing what you can do in Microsoft Word these days.  Microsoft Publisher and Microsoft Power Point are also programs that allow for manipulation of photos and then printing in over sized formats. I'm sure there are others, but these are the most common I have routine access to.  

To begin any photo on fabric project you need to decide what the final size is going to be.  For labels I've been using 4" x 5". The First Amendment Panel was 12.5" x 18.5".  When you open the file, you'll need to go to the page layout menu is and select the page size you want to finish with.  That's important so you have the proportions right when it comes time for printing. 

This is the option from My Memory Suite, but it's similar to most of the other programs.  There is usually a drop down box with the different page sizes that you can select from.  Some programs, like Photoshop Elements and My Memory Suite, that will let you set custom page sizes.  

From there I usually select a background, for quilt labels, it's usually just a solid background.  For the First Amendment panel, I used a background from one of the kits I'd purchased for digital scrap booking.  Then I faded the background so the words would show up more clearly.  In Word, you can use the Design Menu and color the page.  I've not played much with this feature, so I'm not sure what all you can do.  But it's a great start.  

Photoshop Elements will also let you do things like this, but I'm a lot less proficient with that part of that software than I am with the photo editing part.  In Word you can then add a photo and text using the Insert Menu for the photo and the Format Text Effects shown above.  Word has lots of fonts and you can resize those as needed. 

A trick to working with photos in Word is to click on that little white (yellow in my graphic) box. That's the Layout Options Icon.  It takes you to a menu that will allow you to adjust how your photo interacts with any text and frees you to move it around by dragging and dropping.  You can also add borders to the page and color those. 

Once you have what you want, test print on paper.  It will save you a lot of grief and lost fabric sheets.  Before printing make sure that printer properties are set to the proper paper size and the type of print you want. This can usually be done from the print preview page in most programs. 

I usually use a draft print mode when printing on paper to check image alignment and how well the image fills the page.  Once that passes muster I use "best photo" printer mode and matte paper settings on my printer when printing on fabric sheets. You may have to play a bit with your printer settings to get best results. 

 Once you've got the final print, it usually needs to be soaked and rinsed to get rid of any extra ink.  I've used HP and Epson printers for labels and other photos on fabric, I've not had any problems with excess ink or bleeding on any of the labels.  Once it's dry, press and use. 

One final comment about using photographs in labels or fabric panels.  For a small quilt label the quality of the photo isn't so critical.  You can probably get by with a with 0.8 megapixel photo (so something taken by a cell phone would probably work).  For a large fabric panel like the First Amendment, you need a much better quality photo or you'll end up with a bunch of dots printed on the fabric.  There you'll need at least 6 megapixel, but 12 would be better (from a higher end point and shoot or good DSLR).  Fading will help a little bit, but if you want a clear image, you'll need a very high quality photo.     

I hope this post shows that you can do a lot of with photos and quilting without the fancy programs.  The specialty programs make a lot of manipulation and adding effects easier, but that doesn't mean you can't make some stunning stuff using what you have. It may mean learning about the extra features you don't use when typing a document.  Most of what I know about using photos in Word was gained from a quick training session with Drama Teen that I begged for when putting a calendar design for one of My Guy's organization into the commercial printer's template.  She's taken a number of computer classes in high school.  So by all means engage the teenagers or computer nerds in your life.  Of course Microsoft has lots of excellent tutorials out there for all of their products and there are lots of "how to" videos from other sources on You Tube. 

If there is enough interest, I'll do more tutorials with using clip art, scrap booking kits, and other photo to fabric topics.

Linking up with Late Night Quilter Tips and Tutorial Tuesday.   

Weekend Stitching: Finished and Not

It wasn't a relaxing weekend, laundry and taxes took care of that.  But it was a productive weekend.  Laundry is as caught up as it ever gets and the taxes are almost done.  Even better, I was able to recover from both activities by spending the afternoons in the sewing room.  After a marathon session of hand stitching, the binding and labeling of Bejeweled got done.  It was early evening and there wasn't great light, but I did get a few preliminary pictures. 

Bejeweled
From the book "All About Strips" by Susan Guzman

It's not a really great photo, the colors are so much more vivid than this shows.  The binding is the deep purple used in some of the "jewels".

The light blue backing also makes an appearance in the front of the quilt.  It will probably be next weekend before I have a chance to get really good photos.  Bejeweled is number two of four graduation quilts commissioned by Drama Teen that need to be done by May.  So I'm half way there!  

Finishing Bejeweled was one of my goals (that post is here) for the first quarter of the 2017 Finish Along.  Poinsettias also got finished. 

Poinsettias
By Judy Blok for the December 2013 issue
of American Patchwork and Quilting Magazine

But Geometry didn't make it to the finished mark.  

 Geometry, self designed

But there was a lot of progress it went from finished flimsy to quilted. It will definitely show up on my list for the second quarter of the 2017 Finish Along.  The label's not made yet, nor is the binding.  There are still 5 evenings of sewing left in the quarter, so it might get done, but most likely not.  

Linking up with:
2017 Finish Along at Cut and Alter
Main Crush Monday over at Cooking up Quilts
Monday Making over at Love Laugh Quilt
Design Wall Monday over at Patchwork Times

Stitching and Shopping

Spring in Oklahoma is always a guessing game. It was so nice this last week, other then being really windy.  It was cold, rainy and just plain miserable yesterday.  After my initial wrestling match with the tax stuff during the morning, I retreated to the sewing room for most of the afternoon.  My goal this weekend is to get the binding sewn on Bejeweled.  

It was very soothing to just sit and stitch for a bit.  I've turned two corners, so just two sides left to do today.  I'm hoping to have a finish by the end of the weekend.  That would be nice.  Then  I can start on getting Geometry bound.  

On our way home from lunch I persuaded My Guy to let me stop at the new quilt shop in town.  Not that I really need anything, but if you don't support the local vendors, they don't stick around.  They were having a class, so the shop was pretty busy.  That was good to see.  I did walk out with some fabrics for an ongoing project.  I need some additional variety in my red and orange stash. 

I also added some blues.  As much as I like blue, there's not much variation in that part of the stash either.  I'm not doing real well with stash management this year.  I've already added more than I intended, but I've been using the new stuff along with the old.  Maybe I should look at this year as "rebuild" year.  I've done pretty well at keeping purchases to a minimum the last 3 years.  Here's the damage from this week:

Used this week:  1.14 yards
Used year to date:  20.65 yards
Added year to date:  76.3 yards
Net added:  55.65 yards

At least there has been a steady stream of fabric in the outgoing column.  It does help that I've stitched on something every day this year.  That's 84 days for the year so far. That's definitely a record.  I'm really close to my record fabric out number for the first quarter.  Back in 2013, I used 22.74 yards.  So if I can eek out 2 more yards out before the end of the month, I'll be on track for record fabric usage for the year.  That may be a bit of a stretch with just 5 days left in the quarter, but you never know.

Linking up with Kathy's Quilts for Slow Stitching Sunday and with Patchwork Times for the Stash Report.  

Rainbow Scrap Challenge - Really Red

It was a long week, especially since I was off so much of the week before.  I'm definitely ready for the weekend, though this weekend will be busy.  I've put off doing the taxes, but they need to get done, so that's on the agenda for part of the weekend.  Doing lots of laundry is also on tap.  They finally got the part in for the washer and it got fixed Thursday evening.  After almost 2 weeks with no washer, the dirty clothes piles are reaching epic proportions.  

I did get in some decent sewing time this week.  Though it was spent un-sewing more than anything else.  Even so, the first set of red blocks for the Starburst quilt did get stitched up.  

Very bright and bold, especially against that black background.  One red set down and three more sets of four left to make.  I'm not sure I'll get them all done this month, my focus in the sewing room is making progress on the graduation quilts.  The binding is sewn to the front of Bejeweled so it's ready for hand stitching to the back.  Geometry came back from the quilter this week. So it needs a label and binding as well.  Both of those projects are on my list of finishes for the first quarter of the 2017 Finish Along.  Bejeweled will get done, but I'm not sure there will be time to finish Geometry.  

Linking up with Soscrappy for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge on Saturday and with Quilting is More Fun Than Housework for Oh Scrap on Sunday.  

Weekend Stitching: Bits and Pieces

It was a beautiful weekend, highs in the 70s and 80s.  We spent the time in Eureka Springs, Arkansas since Drama Teen was on spring break.  We shopped a lot, ate a lot and walked a lot.  Which made for a tiring but fun weekend.  We had a wonderful rental there, but I was happy to get home yesterday afternoon.  The luggage is unpacked and all the purchases in their new homes. After that was all done, I got to sew just a little bit.  

The first order of business was to finish off the label for Bejeweled.  

This is the label, minus the personal message.  Drama Teen asked me to remove that before posting.  DT also renamed the quilt.  The new moniker is a take off on the recipient's name.  I think it fits the quilt.  The label has been printed, soaked and rinsed.  It will be dry by the time I get home tonight.  The binding is all made, so that should get attached this evening.  Hopefully that means another finish before the end of the month.

Once the label was finished off, I got back to work on the last graduation quilt.  

I've got a good start on the friendship stars that make up the third border.  Only one of the stars is completely sewn together, the remaining four are in various stages of assembly.  I like how it's coming together.  More importantly, so does Drama Teen.  

That's it for this week.  Linking up with:

Monday Making
Main Crush Monday
Monday Design Wall

Stash Report - Week 11 of 2017

Saturday was gorgeous, warm and sunny.  Unfortunately, both Drama Teen and I ended up down for the count yesterday afternoon. Both of us with sinus headaches.  Today won't be as fast paced as yesterday was.  Along with doing a bit more shopping, we hung out for the St. Patrick's parade yesterday.  It was a fun bit of silliness. 

The more shopping included a new to me quilt shop.  With that visit and the shopping expedition on Thursday, I've managed to rack up quite a total of incoming fabric this week.  

Used this week:  0.24 yards
Used year to date:  19.51 yards
Added year to date:  71.8 yards
Net added:  52.29 yards

Most of what's been added has been reds and oranges, colors I don't have much of in the stash I use for my Rainbow Scrap quilts.  I fixed that on Thursday.

It's a good mix of the various shades.  I didn't get a picture of the fabrics purchased yesterday.  That included some orange and red fat quarters, a very pretty green and a very pretty blue, plus 5 yards of flat black to replace the background fabric that's being used in the Cabins and Fans quilt.  The black was on sale, so it just seemed prudent to back fill so I'll have it for the next project. 

On the stitching front, DT and I have been pretty busy running around and such, so I've not spent much time at the sewing machine. But I've been working on some embroidery in the few minutes I've had here and there.  So I've managed to sew a bit each day this week, so I'm still 100% for the year on finding time to stitch each day.  

Linking up with Patchwork Times for this week's stash report.  

Rainbow Scrap Challenge: Really Red and Totally (done with) Teal

Drama Teen's been on spring break this week.  I took off the last 3 days of the week to spend some time with her.  Since she decided to take off with friends on Wednesday, I got to sew most of that afternoon.  Thursday we did some prom dress shopping and found her dress. I also managed a quick trip to one of the quilt shops that's off my usual beaten path since we were out that way looking for fancy dresses.  We did some more just fun stuff and necessary stuff shopping on Friday.  Today is supposed to be warm and sunny, so My Guy wants to go hiking.  That's the plan for today. 

The last of the aqua and teal blocks are finished. 

These are the 3.5" fans that go with the 7.5 fans finished earlier.  I only need one set of each in aqua/teal for this quilt.  But I'll need 4 sets of 4, 3.5" fans from the red.

I made a start on the first set of 4.  This set uses what reds I had available in 1.5" and 2" strips.  Cutting from strips was much faster than cutting around the templates. 

That's it for me this week in terms of scrapping sewing.  Linking up with Soscrappy for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge on Saturday and with Quilting is More Fun than Housework for Oh Scrap on Sunday.  

WIPS: A New Start

I'm taking a few days off to spend with Drama Teen as she's on spring break this week.  However, since the washer is out of commission (parts are on order) the day isn't going to be what we'd originally planned.  I'm heading off to the laundromat this morning, while DT is going ice skating with friends.  We were going to go prom dress shopping, but DT's friends came up with an alternate plan.  So I'll get to sew this afternoon then DT and I will have a girls night out this evening. At least that was the plan when we went to bed last night. 

Geometry came off the design wall last week and has been sent out for quilting.  That left the big design wall completely empty. Time to pull out the fabrics for the last graduation quilt and get started.  

I've gotten the first two borders on the center panel.  The next set of borders will be friendship star blocks.  The pieces are cut, but none of them are sewn together yet.  I'm hoping this project goes together pretty quickly.  This quilt is for DT's journalism teacher, so the use of the newsprint fabric was deliberate.  I wasn't sure how well that was going to work, but I like the effect.  The center panel was designed using My Memory Suite and printed onto fabric using the tools available in Photoshop Elements. It turned out much better than I thought it would.  DT loves how it's coming together.  

Progress has also been made on getting the Meadow Mist Mystery quilt into a finished flimsy.  The 4 patches needed to assemble the last block are all made. 

I'm hoping to get some of these made into blocks this afternoon.  Slowly but surely these WIPs are moving along.  That should mean some finishes later this year.  

Linking up with Let's Bee Social and Needle and Thread Thursday.

Weekend Stitching: Christmas in March?

Sunday was another cloudy and cold day, perfect for staying home.  The plan had been to start with laundry, but when I discovered a large puddle of water in front of the washer after the first load it was pretty apparent that laundry was out for the rest of today.  Thankfully that first load was the important stuff we had to have to start the week.  I'm off on Wednesday, so rather than sewing all day, I'll be spending some time with a service guy.  

On a much happier note, there was a finish this week.

Poinsettias
Pattern by Judy Blok for the December 2013 issue
of American Patchwork and Quilting Magazine
Started February 27, 2014, Finished March 8, 2017

Poinsettias is finally finished.  It's far from perfect, but I love it. This was what has recently been called a "squirrel" start.  I found the magazine while cleaning the house, saw this quilt on the cover and decided I had the perfect fabric for it up in the sewing room.  

The fabrics are more than 10 years old, it's Hollywood and Vine from Moda.  I justified starting this quilt since it was using stash fabrics, nothing had to be purchased and I needed a new leaders and enders project.  

Since the center is the focus, I bound the quilt in the same fabric as the border.  The black makes a nice frame for the whole quilt. 

Trudy quilted it with a holly leaf and berry motif, which is best seen from the back.  The extra wide backing is the only purchase I made for this quilt.  I cut it close with the fabrics for the top.  There's not much left of any of them.  

Poinsettias is the first finish for 2017.  It reduces my UFO list from 18 to 17.  It's also on my list to finish as part of the First Quarter 2017 Finish Along.  The next three finishes will be graduation quilts, which are all WIPs (less than a year old).  Hopefully I'll get some other UFOs finished in the last half of the year.  I'd really like to see that count go down.  On the other hand, I've ended the last two years at 17, so at least the count isn't going up every year.  

Linking up with:
Monday Making
Monday Design Wall
2017 Q1 Finish Along

Stash Report for the 10th Week of 2017

From 80 and sunny on Friday to 47 and raining on Saturday.  It's typical spring weather for Oklahoma.  But boy, 47 definitely feels much colder after an 80 degree day then after a 32 degree day.  Saturday was definitely a good day to spend inside.  

It's been a busy week, but I still managed to get in at least 15 minutes of sewing time in each night, so for the year I've managed that 70 days out of 70.  Definitely a record for me.  I put the final stitches into the binding for Poinsettias earlier in the week.  No photos yet.  It was pretty dreary yesterday, but it's supposed to be sunny today.  And I got started on the last graduation quilt yesterday.  So it was a really good week.  

Before I could get started on the First Amendment quilt, I had to wash all the fabric for it.  Since I'm going to haul it down to the washer anyway, I grab any other fabrics in the color range that haven't been washed.  After a load each of red, white and blue, my to be pressed pile is pretty tall.  

Like cutting up scraps, pressing tends to fall to the bottom of my to do list.  The blue was already pressed by the time I took this picture, but the top newsprint fabric has since been pressed and the red will probably get pressed today. I'll have to work my way down from there.  

Since I count my fabric as it get's made into blocks and borders, all the fabric from Poinsettias has already been counted.  But I made some progress on En Provence this week, as well as on the new quilt project.  That's the bulk of what went out this week. 

Used this week:  0.69 yards
Used year to date:  19.27 yards
Added year to date:  59.05 yards
Net added:  39.78 yards

There was nothing in, so I'm slowly chipping away at the hole created at the first of the year.   

I'm hoping for a solid afternoon of stitching today.  The plan is to focus on making good progress on the First Amendment Quilt, plus get the binding on Bejeweled.  

Linking up with Patchwork Times for this week's stash report.  

Rainbow Scrap Challenge: Calling All Red Scraps

The science demos are over, thankfully!  I'm still pretty wrung out from 4 hours of assisting with demos and then take down.  We didn't get done till about 7 PM on Thursday.  Yesterday was clean up day at work, so lots of moving stuff and cleaning in the labs.  Let's just say I got more than my minimum of steps in both days.  Unfortunately my plantar fasciitis kicked in big time, so that means staying off my feet for a couple of days till the inflammation goes down.  So no prom dress shopping this weekend.  Drama Teen is OK with that, she's a bit wrung out from mid terms and said she wanted to sleep in today.  

It was another busy week, so not much sewing in the evenings.  I did make some progress on finishing off the 4 smaller aqua fans. 

  
One is done, two more are in various stages of assembly.  I haven't cut the fabrics for the fourth one yet.   On my too tired to stitch evening, I started looking for my red scraps.  I'm become such a fan of the starburst layout that I changed the layout for the quilt these blocks go into.  The new layout needs 16 small red fans.  I always seem to be deficient in red.  But then remembered there are 2" and 1.5" strips in the pre-cut strip drawer and added those to the mix.  

There's a larger variety of reds in the stash than I thought.  Surely I can get 16 blocks out of all of this.  Repeating fabrics is OK as only 4 blocks will be right next to each other.  Next step is to assign a pair of fabrics for each block.  Hopefully I'll have some red blocks to show off next week.  

Linking up with the Rainbow Scrap Challenge over at Soscrappy on Saturday.  Then for Oh Scrap over at Quilting is More Fun than Housework on Sunday.  

Weekend Stitching: Filling an Empty Design Wall

It was a fast weekend, but they all seem to be that way these days.  Saturday was pretty much an all sewing day.  Sunday morning was chores, but there was enough time to get Geometry prepped for quilting before we headed out to set up the 5th grade science demos 

Now that Geometry is all pressed, folded and packaged, the big design wall is empty.  By the time we got home from getting all set up for the 5th grade demos, I was pretty brain dead.  It didn't seem wise to make a start on a new project.  So I finished off the last block #2 block for the Meadow Mist Mystery Quilt.  I've got enough done to be able to lay out the center of the quilt. 

  Meadow Mist Designs Mystery
By Cheryl Brickey of the Meadow Mist Designs Blog

The black prints don't show up so well from a distance.  The orange may have been a mistake.  We'll see.  I still have the last set of 8 blocks to make before this one can be assembled into a flimsy.  Those will have to made catch as catch can, the last graduation quilt needs to be the focus in the sewing room this month.  The plan is to get going on that project tonight after work. 

Linking up with:
Monday Making
Main Crush Monday
Monday Design Wall 

Stash Report - Week 9 of 2017

March weather around here really does live up to that Oscar Hammerstein line "Oklahoma where the wind comes sweeping down the plain".  Though it was fairly warm, it was hard to be outside due to the wind. A perfect day to spend in the sewing room, which I took full advantage of.  Though I didn't do as much sewing as I did fabric washing and pressing.  The backing fabric for Geometry and the fabrics for The First Amendment quilt needed to be washed and pressed.  The backing got pressed, but this is what's left in that freshly washed pile. 

Not all of the pile is for the new quilt project, some of it is fat quarters for this month's Rainbow Scrap Project blocks.  I keep saying I have no reds to work with, well there were a bunch in the "to be washed" bin in the fabric closet, so they got added to the load.  

I did eventually get back to the sewing machine yesterday and pieced the backing for Geometry.  That yardage is most of what went out this week.  

Used this week:  4.63 yards
Used year to date:  18.58 yards
Added year to date:  59.05 yards
Net added:  40.47 yards

I'm slowly working my way back to the stash busting side of stash management. 

We were on the go a lot this week, so my evening stitching time was pretty much limited to just 15 minutes.  Thankfully, I'm still hand stitching the binding onto Poinsettias.  That's something easy to pick up and put down as I had the time.  For the year I've managed to sew for 63 of the 63 days in 2017.  That's the best I've ever done on finding time to stitch.  

Today is set up for the 5th graders science demonstration workshops.  I'll be spending my afternoon wrestling room dividers and tables.  I'm hoping to get some stitching time in later this evening.  Linking up with Patchwork Times for this weeks Stash Report.   

Rainbow Scrap Challenge - Not Ready for Red Yet

So happy it's the weekend. Today is our down day.  My Guy organizes a three day workshop for the 5th graders in our county and set up for that starts tomorrow afternoon.  He'll be tied up with that all week.  I can't get off work to help with all 4 days, but I'll be doing demos and helping with break down on Thursday.  Life will even out for a few weeks once the workshop is over.  

We were out every evening this week, so my stitching time was pretty limited.  I did manage to finish up the last large aqua fan. 

I really like the star burst effect when the blocks are set together this way.  I still need to finish the small aqua blocks from last month.  Then I need to pull together my reds and see what I've got to work with to make this month's blocks.

Linking up with Socrappy for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge and with Quilting is More Fun than Housework for Oh Scrap.  

March One Monthly Goal: Trudging Along With the Graduation Quilts

It's been a busy week.  I've not managed much stitching time, pretty much just 15 minutes each evening.  I should have some time to sew this weekend and I'm really looking forward to that. Before I get back to the sewing room a new One Monthly Goal needs to be chosen so I can arrange my priorities.  

There are three graduation quilts that still need to be finished.  Bejeweled needs binding, Geometry needs a backing and to be sent out for quilting, The First Amendment quilt needs to be started.  I don't mind doing the bindings, plus those are good projects to work on when I don't have much time to sew.  So I think that one will get done at some point this month.  Since Geometry has such dark fabrics in it, it shouldn't be too bad to prep for quilting, so that should get done too.  That leaves the First Amendment quilt, which at the moment exists only as a file in my Electric Quilt folder.

The First Amendment Quilt - self designed

The fabrics are all purchased, but none of them are washed and pressed for use. The center panel needs to be printed on fabric.  I've done some dry runs on large sheets of paper to work out the process, but haven't done that final transfer to fabric.  This quilt isn't going to get done this month, I just don't work that fast.  But it has to be started before it can be finished.  So that's the OMG for March, to get the First Amendment Quilt (FAQ) started.  The day I start cutting fabric for a quilt is what I consider the start date for a project.  I've got a bit to do before I get to that point.

The FAQ will also be my UFO-2017 Challenge project for the month.  I know it's not really a UFO, but there's just not enough sewing hours in a month for me to split efforts.

Linking up with the March One Monthly Goal over at Elm Street Quilts.