February One Monthly Goal: Down to the Wire

It's the last day of February.  The last day to make any progress on my One Monthly Goal. 

This month ended up having a lot of work stuff that bled into the weekends and evenings.  Add in that it's already a short month and I was not at all sure my goal was going to be achieved. But the first half of the goal was completed on Sunday; Magnolia Mystery made it to the finished flimsy stage.

Magnolia Mystery by Cheryl Brickey of
Meadow Mist Designs

   Then tonight, the other half was completed. I was able to piece a back out of the left over background fabric. The last seam was stitched just a few minutes ago.  

 Magnolia Mystery by Cheryl Brickey of
Meadow Mist Designs

Now to get it all packaged up to send out for quilting.  So a flimsy and a back means that February's goal is accomplished.  Maybe not quite at the wire as there are a few hours left to go before midnight, but that's close enough.  

Here's how the other stitching plans worked out for February:

2.  Bind Geek Chic - Label is made, have started trimming off the extra batting.
3.  2018 RSC Squared Away sampler blocks in purple - Done 
4.  2017 RSC Fan blocks - finish the last two - Done
5.  Sawtooth star blocks in purple - make 5 - Done 
6.  On Ringo Lake - leaders and enders project - in progress

Extra credit - finished 2 blue sawtooth star blocks to complete the January count.  

So in spite of the extra homework, it was a good month for playing catch up.  So now (well in morning, it's bed time) I need to decide on what is the OMG for March and what else goes on the priority list.  

Linking up with Elm Street Quilts for the February One Monthly Goal end of month linky party.  

Weekend Stitching: All Bordered Out

Monday always seems to come faster than Friday. I'm definitely not ready to head back to work this morning.  At least the weather is going to be slightly warmer than it has been.  I'm ready for a week where I don't have to dress like Nanook of the North to survive the walk from the car to my building. 

Saturday was busy with Science Fair and a bit of furniture shopping.  We finally found a replacement for my recliner that doesn't make my back hurt.  At the moment the only places I can sit more than a few minutes without discomfort are my computer desk chair and my sewing room chair.  Sunday was pretty much a stay at home laundry and sewing day.  That made for a very relaxing and productive Sunday afternoon in the sewing room.  The last of the borders were added so Magnolia Mystery is now a finished flimsy. 

Magnolia Mystery by Cheryl Brickey of
Meadow Mist Designs

I'm pretty happy with how it came out.  It's definitely bright.  Now to get the backing pieced.  I had hoped to have enough of the background fabric to use as the backing, but I'm going to be short there.  So I need to raid the stash for something else to supplement.  My OMG was to get both the top and the backing made.  I still have a few days to make that happen.  We'll see how that goes.  

Also up on the design wall this weekend are five blue sawtooth star blocks. 

These are the border blocks for one of my previous Rainbow Scrap Challenge projects.  I need sixty something blocks for the border so I've been making these 4" x 5" blocks in whatever the RSC color of the month is.  I'd finished the purple blocks for February, but hadn't gotten to five blue ones in January.  It was good to get caught up this month.  

Linking up with the usual blogs for Monday:
BOMS Away
Monday Making
Monday Design Wall
Main Crush Monday

Week 8 of 2018: Stitching and De-Stashing

It's been a busy weekend so far. Science Fair went well. There were kids everywhere it seemed.  It's nice to see so many kids taking an interest (even if it's for a grade).  My Guy was a special awards judge, which means he has to look at a large number of projects, so it's rare that he finishes up before noon.  Since the fair is held in the building we work in, I was able to just hang out in my office getting some work done as my judging assignment ended a couple of hours before his did.  Unfortunately there is more homework on the agenda for this morning, but I do plan to get some stitching in this afternoon.  

So enough about the non-stitching stuff, let's move on to the stitching and de-stashing stuff.  Were you able to find at least 15 minutes each day to play with fabric and thread? 

My week went pretty well on that front. 
     Days with stitching this week:  7 out of 7 days
     Days with stitching this month:  21 out of 24 days 
     Days with stitching this year:  52 out of 55 days
     Success Rate:  94.6%

My goal is to maintain at least a 90% success rate.  March is going to be challenging on a number of fronts, hopefully I'll be able to sneak in stitching here and there.  Link up below to share your success rate for the week. 

As for the de-stashing, there was a bit of that this week.  
     Fabric used this week:  0.79 yards
     Fabric used in 2018:  10.54 yards
     Fabric purchased in 2018:  0 yards
     Net fabric out for 2018:  10.54 yards

So far so good on staying on the fabric diet, no fabric added to the incoming column.  Connecting Threads has a sale going on that's really tempting, but so far I'm staying strong and haven't pushed any buttons.  Linking up with Quiltpaintcreate for this week's stash report.  

That's how my sewing week went.  How did yours go? 

1. Melissa G 2. Julie in GA 3. MartiDIY 4. di

5. Mary-Kay 6. michele 7. maggie 8. Christina's Handicrafts

9. Shasta 10. Aileen K

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Rainbow Scrap Challenge: From Lavender to Ultra-Violet

From snow to sleet to freezing rain to downpours, this week has had it all.  And that was just the weather!  I'm definitely ready for the weekend.  But stitching will have to wait till this afternoon, first My Guy and I are judging at our regional science fair this morning.  Since our Scientist in Training is now in college, we will not have to stay for the afternoon awards ceremony so we should be done by lunch time.  

It's been fun rummaging around in my purple scraps for the last two Squared Away blocks.  

Squared Away Sampler
designed by Mari (The Academic Quilter)

The one on the left was on the design wall last week.  The middle block is made from a deep purple from one of Connecting Threads' fabric lines.  I used it in one of the graduation quilts made last year.  The calico like purple in the last block was used as a backing on the quilt that got me back into quilting in 2001.  So these blocks are a nice mix of the old and the new.  They make a nice contrast to last month's blocks.

Squared Away Sampler
designed by Mari (The Academic Quilter)

Not sure how this quilt is going to come together as yet, we'll have to see what else Mari has in store for us in the months to come.  But I'm happy with my blocks so far. I've been dipping into my overflowing pile of scraps to find the fabrics for each and it's been a lot of fun digging for just the right colors.  It's also been a bit of a challenge to remember where some of the fabrics were used.  A number of them never made it to the front of a quilt, but were used as backings.  

February has been a good month for stitching, the purple sawtooth stars for the border of an older RSC project also got done this month. 

The second star is a very, very dark purple.  Dark colors like that don't seem to photograph very well in my sewing room. The other purples turned out beautifully though.  It's been a challenge to remember to vary the shades of these border stars.  It's so easy to just grab the medium shades, but I want a mix of light to dark in the border.  

For once I've actually finished all my RSC sewing before the end of the month.  I'm definitely ready to see what color of the rainbow we'll be sewing with in March.  Linking up with Soscrappy for Saturday's Rainbow Scrap Challenge post and with Quilting is More Fun than Housework for Sunday's Oh Scrap linky party.  

Weekend Stitching: Getting There

It was a slow and relaxed weekend.  We have clothes for another week and the sewing room chair got a nice workout for a change.  The Daytona 500 didn't disappoint, though I was bit bummed that my two favorite drivers got taken out in wrecks.  Still it was an entertaining afternoon of stitching.  

My February One Monthly Goal is to get Magnolia Mystery to finished flimsy stage.  There was good progress on that goal this weekend. 

 Magnolia Mystery by Cheryl Brickey of
Meadow Mist Designs

I've got two of the four borders added.  What looks like black is actually a deep magenta.  The third border will be the bright yellow, followed by the final border of the background fabric.  If I have time to sew this week this will be a finished flimsy by the end of the month.  

There's also been a lot of progress on the rest of my priority list for February. 

1.  Magnolia Mystery - borders in progress
2.  Bind Geek Chic - need to finish the label
3.  2018 RSC Squared Away sampler blocks in purple - Done
4.  2017 RSC Fan blocks - finish the last two - Done
5.  Sawtooth Star blocks in purple - make 5 - Done
6.  On Ringo Lake - leaders and enders project

So even though February has turned out to be a pretty hectic month at work, there's been enough time in the sewing room to move things along. 

Linking up with:
Monday Making
Design Wall Monday

Week 7: Stitching and De-stashing

My long weekend got off to a rough start, but it lined out nicely after lunch on Friday.  The sewing room has seen a fair amount of action since then.  That's good news for both the stash report and the making time for stitching report. 

I did a much better job of finding time to stitch this week in spite of the madness going on at work. 

Days with stitching this week:  7 out of 7 days
Days with stitching this month:  14 out of 17 days
Days with stitching this year:  45 out of 48 days
Success Rate:  93.8%

My goal for the year is to maintain a success rate of 90%.  So far so good on that front.   Please share your success/failure to find time to stitch by linking up at the end of this post.   

The stash report looks a bit better this week as the borders are now going on the Magnolia Mystery quilt.  

Fabric used this week:  1.13 yards
Fabric used in 2018:  9.75 yards
Fabric purchased in 2018:  0 yards
Net fabric out for 2018:  9.75 yards

Still no incoming stash this year.  I've allowed myself new stash additions of 5 yards per quarter this year and I've been sorely tempted by some of the new lines over at Connecting Threads.  So far I'm doing pretty well at resisting.  Linking up with Quiltpaintcreate for the weekly stash report.  

Valentine's Day was pretty quiet around here as it was also Ash Wednesday.  We celebrated Valentine's Day with a dinner out on Thursday.  It was my treat since I've had to work late much of this week.  My Guy and I share the ride into work, so he can't leave till I do.  Even with my abuse of him this week, I still got flowers for Valentine's Day.  He came up with something other than roses.  

Very pretty pinks, just perfect to remind me that spring is coming. 

If you've been tracking the days/time you manage to stitch this week please share your progress by linking up below.  Happy stitching next week.  

1. maggie f 2. Melissa G 3. Meloney 4. MartiDIY

5. Julie in GA 6. Aileen K 7. Shasta 8. Mary-Kay

9. michele 10. Christina's Handicrafts

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Rainbow Scrap Challenge: Is that Purple?

This week wasn't as bad as last week, but I'm still very glad to have made it to Saturday.  Yesterday was supposed to be a day off, it was, kinda.  I did have to run out to work for a couple of hours, but it wasn't too bad.  Afterwards there was a really good afternoon and evening of stitching, so I'll call it a good day.  

Most of my effort this week has been focused on getting the Magnolia Mystery to the finished flimsy stage, which didn't happen till yesterday afternoon.  So I missed the deadline to submit a photo for the parade over at Meadow Mist Designs. That's OK. It helped to have deadline, it made the quilt a priority. There's still a good chance it will be a finished flimsy ready to go out for quilting by the end of the month. 

There wasn't much stitching going on with my other projects, though I did finish off the first of three purple Squared Away blocks for February. 

  Squared Away Sampler
designed by Mari (The Academic Quilter)

This was a fun and easy block to make.  The darker print has all sorts of purples in it. It's hard to tell from this photo, but the background fabric is a very pale lavender.  That mottled purple is pretty old.  It dates back to my second quilt class back in 2001.  The background fabric is a bit newer, it is a left over from a quilt back for one of the SITs middle school teachers.  I've got a start on the final two purple blocks, but no pictures of those two yet. 

Now to grab a bit of breakfast before heading off to the gym.  Linking up with Soscrappy for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge and Quilting is More Fun than Housework for Oh Scrap on Sunday.  

Weekend Stitching: Uneven Progress

It was a mixed bag weekend.  It was cold, with freezing drizzle on Saturday.  The Scientist in Training was home and she brought a girl friend with her this time. Someone she's hoping to room with next year.  They met up with friends in Tulsa for just a couple of hours to do some shopping, which was OK as I had to work most of the day on Saturday.  But we got to hang out after dinner and all Sunday morning.  So it was one of those busy weekends. 

I did find my way to the sewing room Sunday afternoon to temper my mood after the SIT headed back to college. The house always seems so empty and quiet after she leaves.  The first priority was to get Magnolia Mystery into a finished flimsy.  

Magnolia Mystery by Cheryl Brickey of
Meadow Mist Designs

The setting triangles are cut and I made a good start on getting the rows all stitched together.  What looks like dark brown or black is actually a deep magenta.  It's hard to see it in this lighting, the color shows up better in a close up. 

If you look closely you can see that deep red-purple color in some of the squares.  I have till Thursday to get this to finished flimsy stage for it to be in the Magnolia Mystery parade over on the Meadow Mist Designs blog.  It will be close. If work backs off a bit this week, there is still a chance of that happening.  

No progress on much else this weekend.  Though I did finish my fifth On Ringo Lake block.

On Ringo Lake, Bonnie Hunter 2017 Mystery Quilt

These blocks have grown on me as I've put more up on the design wall.  I wasn't too thrilled with them at first.  There is a medium gray in the blocks that doesn't show up well in the photos, but it adds some nice subtle shading that lets the red and yellow shine.  On Ringo Lake is my current leaders and enders project, so progress is slow, but there is progress.

I'm not ready for Monday, but I'm hoping for a short week.  The plan is to take a day off on Friday, but I've been warned by my supervisor that she suspects I'll have a assignment related to our lab moves that will require me to come in for a meeting or work from home on Friday.  So we'll just have to see if the day off actually happens.   

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

Week 6 of 2018: Stitching and De-stashing

Sorry the 15 Minutes to Stitch linky party is a bit late this morning. 

It's been a long, stressful week and my brain needed the extra z's this morning.  All three work reports are done and turned in.  I'm sure there will be a few more edits, but I can cope with those on Monday.  This morning, I'm going to hang out with the Scientist in Training once she wakes up.  She heads back to college after lunch.  Then I'm going to sew this afternoon as a reward for working pretty much all day yesterday.  

First the stash report.  There was a little bit of stash going out this week.

Fabric used this week:  0.27 yards
Fabric used in 2018:  8.62 yards
Fabric purchased in 2018:  0 yards
Net fabric out for 2018:  8.35 yards

I'm still deleting all the fabric shop emails unread.  Thankfully it's been both too busy and too cold to venture out to the quilt shop, so it's been easy to avoid buying fabric so far this year. I'll be linking up with Quiltpaintcreate for this week's stash report.  

Finding time to stitch this week didn't go so hot.  The new position I took on last June requires a lot more paperwork than my previous position and a lot of that spills over into my evenings.  The hard deadlines coming up meant that sewing lost out to stitching time a couple of times this week.

Days with stitching this week: 5 out of 7 days (Sunday to Saturday)
Days with stitching this month: 7 out of 10 days
Days with stitching this year:  38 out of 41 days
Success Rate:  92.7%

No stitching happened Thursday or yesterday. The SIT spent most of yesterday afternoon in Tulsa shopping with friends, so I didn't feel too badly about having to work.  I didn't get finished with work till just before we went out for dinner, then I wanted to spend the rest of the evening hanging out with her and her friend she's going to share an apartment with next fall.  So no stitching happened.  I'll make up for it today.  

Hopefully you did better than I did at finding time to stitch this week.  You can link up how your crafty week went below.

1. Melissa G 2. Julie in GA 3. Meloney 4. MartiDIY

5. Mary-Kay 6. Shasta 7. di 8. Christina's Handicrafts

9. maggie f 10. Aileen K

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Rainbow Scrap Challenge: Purple in My Stars

February hasn't been one of my more fun months.  The weather has been pretty yucky, with more of that on the way for this weekend.  Plus work seems never ending this month.  Most of today will be dedicated to work, I have three reports due ASAP.  Powering through those today should mean I have time for some stitching tomorrow.  

Two Squared Away blocks in purple have been started, but both are far from finished.  The only bit of purple I have to show for this week is two Sawtooth Stars.

The plan is to use these 4" blocks as the border for my 2014 Rainbow Scrap Project.  I've shown the final plan before, but it's been a while. 

 Inverted Star Block by Jessica Boschem of Common Threads
available from Craftsy as a free download.
Setting by Kate

Inverted Star is my July UFO, at least that's what was planned back in December.  

Linking up with Soscrappy for Saturday's parade of purple blocks.  On Sunday the Oh Scrap linky party goes live.  Now I'm off to get in a bit of catching up on email and blog reading before I tackle that first report.  

Weekend Stitching - A Bit of This and That

This was a good weekend to stay in and just sew. It was cold and windy, so I avoided leaving the house unless absolutely necessary.  Unfortunately most of Sunday afternoon was spent on the work computer writing a report rather than stitching. So I had to settle for just a couple hours of stitching Sunday evening as a reward for finishing off the report. 

Even with the abbreviated sewing time this weekend, one of February's priorities was finished up on Saturday. 

All the magenta fans are done.  These are the last blocks needed for my 2017 Rainbow Scrap Project.  I had already pulled and paired the fabrics for this set back in November, so I didn't want to just put the fabrics up and forget what went with which.  This project is my October UFO, so these blocks will back on the design wall then.  

Progress was also made on the February One Monthly Goal.

 Magnolia Mystery by Cheryl Brickey of
Meadow Mist Designs

What reads dark brown/black in the photo is actually a very dark magenta.  Three different fabrics were used for those squares. I picked well, because you certainly can't tell that from the photo. Not sure this is going to be a finished flimsy by the 15th, which is the deadline for the parade of quilts over at Meadow Mist Designs.  I've got one more weekend before the deadline, so it's still possible.  

Work will continue to be really busy this week.  So I expect homework just about every night.  Hopefully I'll be able to squeeze in my 15 minutes each evening, but that may be about it for sewing during the week. 

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

Week 5 of 2018: 15 Minutes to Stitch and A Stash Report

Some weeks are good, some weeks are rough, some weeks have a little of each.  I would classify this last week as one of the rough ones.  The effects are clearly visible in my 15 Minutes to Stitch report for this week. 

Having a goal to stitch 15 minutes each day has always been about incentive and making the most of the time I have each evening to do something I enjoy.  It's so easy to just play on the computer or become a blob in the recliner.  But some weeks, life just intervenes and it just doesn't happen the way you plan.  I had one of those days this week.  There have been a lot of deadlines at work, I ended up working one evening at home finishing up some paperwork that was due the next day, so I didn't make it upstairs to stitch. But the rest of the week went well. 

Days with stitching this week:  6 out of 7 (Sunday to Saturday)
Days with stitching in January:  31 out of 31
Days with stitching this month:  2 out of 3
Days with stitching this year:  33 out of 34
Success Rate:  97.06%

My goal is to end the year with a 90% success rate.  So I'm still on track with that.  How did you do with finding time to stitch last week?  You can link up below if you feel inclined to share.  

Even with missing one day of stitching, there's still a bit of stash going out this week:

Fabric used this week:  0.33 yards
Fabric used in 2018:  8.35 yards
Fabric purchased in 2018:  0 yards
Net fabric out out for 2018:  8.35 yds

I've been holding the line with not making fabric purchases. Being too busy to sit down at the computer and read email helps a lot on that front.  I've been trying diligently to get email read and keep up with everyone's blog postings, but it's just been a bit crazy with work stuff lately.  I've been told it will calm down once we get to March.  

So if you want to share your successes, challenges, failures, with finding time to stitch, you can link up below.  I'm also linking up with Quiltpaintcreate for the weekly stash report.  Happy stitching this next week. 

1. Melissa G 2. Julie in GA 3. maggie f 4. Mary-Kay

5. MartiDIY 6. Jennifer in Indy 7. Susanne 8. Shasta

9. Aileen K 10. Emily @ The Darling Dogwood 11. Christina's Handicrafts

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The Rainbow Scrap Challenge: From Blue to Purple

I was so ready for Saturday to get here.  Work has been a zoo, lots of deadlines on multiple fronts.  That made for a long and tiring week.  Spending some time in the sewing room sounds like heaven, so I may bypass the housework chores and just relax by playing with some scraps today.  Have you taken a peak at the block Mari's picked for our purple and lavender scraps?  I did and can't wait to get start on this month's Rainbow Scrap Challenge blocks. 

Though there wasn't much time to sew this week, I did manage to make a start with the purple and lavender blocks for the Inverted Star quilt.   

These are the beginnings of some sawtooth star blocks that are going to be the border for that older RSC project.  I need five of each color.  I only managed to finish two light/medium blue stars in January. 

But that's OK, whatever gets finished this month will help speed up the finish.  Inverted Star is my UFO project for July.  

The last of the light/medium blue blocks for the Squared Away sampler also made it to the design wall just before the end of the month.

Squared Away Sampler
designed by Mari (The Academic Quilter)
The 2018 Rainbow Scrap Challenge Project

The Red Cross blocks were a lot of fun to make and used up some really old scraps.  

That's it for me this week.  Now it's time for breakfast before we head out to the gym.  But when we get back, it will definitely be time for some concentrated sewing time.  You can find more blues and purples over at Soscrappy.  Also linking up with Oh Scrap on Sunday.  

One Monthly Goal: February 2018

A new month starts today, which means it's time to look at the priority list for the sewing room and to decide on what's the February One Monthly Goal.  

Entries for the Magnolia Mystery Parade over at Meadow Mist Designs are due on February 15th.  All my block pieces are made, but I need to sew all those pieces into blocks and then get them into a finished flimsy before the 15th.  

 Magnolia Mystery by Cheryl Brickey of
Meadow Mist Designs

The pieces are all laid out on the design wall ready for assembly.  What looks black in the photo is really a very deep magenta color.  I think a finished flimsy is doable by the 15th.  Since my goal is to cut the number of projects on the UFO list in half, this needs to be finished.  So the February OMG is to not only get this to finished flimsy stage, it's also to piece a back and get it ready to go out for quilting.  

Since I can't seem to work on just one thing, writing up a priority list helps me keep those multiple projects moving. Here's this month's list:

1.  Magnolia Mystery, finish flimsy, piece back, prep for quilting
2.  Bind Geek Chic
3.  2018 RSC Squared Away sampler blocks in purple
4.  2017 RSC Fan blocks - finish the last two
5.  Sawtooth Star blocks in purple - make 5
6.  On Ringo Lake - leaders and enders project

My priority list is down to 6 items from the 7 on the January list.  I'd like to get it down to just 4 items each month.  At least I'm going in the right direction.  

Good luck on your goals for February.  Linking up over at Elm Street Quilts for the February One Monthly Goal.