Stash Stuff and a 2017 Quilting Ambitions Update

This post is a day later than planned.  Let's just say that July didn't start off as planned and leave it at that for now. 

June was not a nice month.  The washer went out, a job change required quite a bit of overtime the last half of the month.  Both problems are now solved.  I was going to say that stitching didn't go so well, but it really wasn't a bad month on that front, other than my 15 minutes of stitching time went out the window for a week while I dealt with the fall out from the job change.  The end of June also marks the end of second quarter.  So it's a good opportunity to check how I'm doing on my 2017 quilting ambitions that I posted to Quilting Jetgirl's 2017 Planning Party.  

Since this is the stash management report, I'll start with that and if you are not interested in the rest you can stop there.  

Quilt Ambition #3:  Manage the Stash/Organize the Sewing Room

Used last week: 0.41 yards
Used year to date: 38.79 yards
Added year to date: 215.55 yards
Net added year to date: 176.76 yards

The one advantage of being really busy with work is that I've not had much time for fabric shopping, so the incoming numbers stalled this month.  That's a good thing.  Even so it's not likely I'll meet my goal of using more than I buy this year.  Fabric usage is on track.  I've used more than half of the 70 yards that is the goal for this year.  

Organizing the sewing room has seen a few fits and starts. I found a good way to organize the fabric pieces for all the in progress quilts.  I showed that off here. Now that my deadline sewing is done, I've been spending more time working on organizing the rest of the sewing room.  I still haven't done anything with the scraps.  But I have done a bit in the fabric closet.  Here's how it looked last July.  

July 10, 2016

Here's how it looks now:

As of June 18, 2017

Not a lot of progress, but this chore takes a while.  I'll keep chipping away at it. 

Quilting Ambition #1:  Finish a Few Quilts

I've done really well on this goal.  There are four finishes so far this year:  Poinsettias, Bejeweled, Geometry and The First Amendment Quilt.  Three of these were high school graduation gifts.  They were finished in time to gift them the last day of school. 

The graduation quilts:  Geometry, Zombies in Paris and Bejeweled

They were a big hit.  I got hugs from all three girls (and none of them are big on giving hugs). 

There should be at least two more finishes this year.  The 2016 Meadow Mist Mystery  is being bound and Blooms and Butterflies has been shipped off for quilting.  That will make at least 6 finishes for 2017.  Definitely not shabby.

Quilting Ambition #3:  Participate in Challenges and Mystery Quilt Alongs

I've gotten a good start on the blocks for the 2017 Rainbow Scrap Challenge.  Though I still need to finish up the yellow blocks for June. 

The Magnolia Mystery from Meadow Mist Designs starts up in a few days.  That will be the next quilt along for 2017.  There are a couple of other mystery quilt alongs that are very tempting. I'm contemplating if I can start one or both of those two.  I probably won't start either because the UFO list is still pretty huge, but I can dream anyway. 

Quilting Ambition #4:  Make Time to Sew

The goal is to spend at least 15 minutes each day stitching.  The second quarter of 2017 hasn't been as good as the first, but I've found those 15 minutes more days than ever before. 

Days with 15 minutes of stitching:  165 days out of 181 days 
Percentage success:  91%

More fabric out and more finishes this year.  Pretty sure that's tied to this one goal.  

Quilting Ambition #5:  Work on Blogging Skills

My goal was to blog three times a week.  I didn't do so hot on that each week during the second quarter.  Some weeks I managed 5 posts, other weeks just 1.  On average I posted about 3 times per week for the year.  Not sure yet if I consider that success or not. 

I've written 2 of the 4 tutorials that was in my goals for this year.  On track with that one.  The last goal was to improve my photography skills.  I've been more conscious of staging my photos this last quarter.  Not sure that equates to better photos, but it's something different I'm trying.  

It's been a really good year so far.  I'm happy where I'm at in my ambitions for the year so far.  Now to keep up the momentum over the hot summer months and into the fall.  How are you doing on your stitching goals for 2017?  

Linking up with QuiltPaintCreate for the weekly stash report.   

The Weekly Stash Report - Week 13 (A 2017 Ambition Update Too)

Hard to believe the first quarter of 2017 is already gone.  It's been a busy year at work and at home.  But I think things are going pretty well on the home front. Back in December of 2016, I put together a list of my quilting ambitions for 2017 and then linked up with
Quilting JetGirl's  2017 Planning Party.  Since we are at the end of the first quarter I wanted to see how well (or not well) my sewing room time reflected my ambitions for the year.  I'll start with the stash report so you can stop reading after that if you aren't interested in the rest.  

Quilting Ambition #3:  Manage the Stash/Organize the sewing room

Used this week:  0.93 yards
Used year to date:  21.58 yards
Added year to date:  76.3 yards
Net added: 54.72 yards

My goal this year is to use 70 yards of fabric. That means I need to use at least 17.5 yards per quarter.  So I'm on track there.  There isn't a specific goal on fabric acquisition this year.  The plan is always to use more than comes in.  I'll have to exceed my original goal to make that happen this year.  Even with that, I'm pretty happy about where things stand with the stash management at this point.  

I've not done so well on organizing the sewing room first quarter.  I'll blame that on being so focused on finishing the graduation quilts. I have done some clean up of the stash closet, but not as much as I'd like.  There is still a pile of scraps that needs to be cut to size and sorted.  So that's an area for improvement this quarter.  

That's it for the stash report this week. I'm linking up with Patchwork Times for the Weekly Stash Report.  If you are curious about how the rest of my sewing room ambitions are going read on.    
Quilting Ambition #1:  Finish a Few Quilts

Two finished.  

Poinsettias and Bejeweled were finished in March
Poinsettias by Judy Blok for the December 2013 issue
of American Patchwork and Quilting Magazine
Bejeweled from "All About Strips" by Susan Guzman

I'm on track here.  Other than finishing up the three graduation quilts due by May, there's no requirement to finish a set number this year.  I'll be happy with whatever gets finished. 


Quilting Ambition #2:  Participate in Challenges and Mystery Quilts

The Rainbow Scrap Challenge project for 2017 has been started.  

There are two other mystery quilt alongs on the list that don't start until later in the year.  So I'm on track here. 

Quilting Ambition #4:  Make Time to Sew

The goal is to spend at least 15 minutes each day stitching.  So far for 2017 I've found time every day this year.  That is 91 out of 91 days so far.  That's definitely a record! 

Quilting Ambition #5:  Work on Blogging Skills

I've blogged at least 3 times per week this year.  That was one goal under this heading.  I've written one tutorial so far.  The goal is four for the year.  The last piece of this is to improve my photography skills.  Not sure what I was thinking when I added that goal. That goal needs a bit more thought.  On the other hand it's generic enough that I can make anything fit there.  Even with that, I'm OK with where I'm at here.  

Not a bad start to 2017.  Hopefully once the forced march on the graduation quilts is done, there will be more time to focus on some of the stash organization goals. It may seem strange to have goals around a hobby. It works for me.  I'm not sure why, but I'm just more motivated if there's a plan for the year.  

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.  

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

Weekend Stitching: Finishing the January One Monthly Goal

It was a pretty good weekend.  Though My Guy felt pretty crappy all weekend.  Unfortunately, it's my turn to feel crappy. I went to bed early last night feeling out of sorts and woke up this morning with the sore throat and massive headache he had most of the weekend. So this will be a really short post as the cold medicine is already making me sleepy.  

Most of the weekend was spent getting Bejeweled ready for quilting.  The back was pieced on Friday, then pressed, prepped and packaged on Saturday.  Sunday it was the same process for the top. Everything is in the box and ready to ship.  

My January One Monthly Goal was to get Bejeweled shipped out for quilting.  Hopefully I'll be well enough to get this to the post office tomorrow, but for now I'm calling it good.  Getting quilts prepped for quilting is the longest process and one I don't enjoy.  So having the backing and top in the box ready to go is definite progress.  

Other than piecing the back for Bejeweled, not much happened at the sewing machine this weekend.  Geometry is my current focus project, but I did stick my finished block 1 and all the block 3's for the Meadow Mist Mystery up on the design wall to see how those were working.

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

  
I used two different black prints for my darks.  I've been seeing guesses of the layouts on Facebook, mine's probably not going to be as dramatic as others since you really can't tell the difference in the two black prints unless you get up close.  I'm still working on finishing the last set of blocks from December.  I still have the January clue to finish.  The big reveal comes this Thursday.  Thankfully I'll have till April to get the blocks into a finished flimsy. 

Now I'm going to find a box of Kleenex and go back to bed.  Hopefully I'll feel like catching up on all the other links later today. 

Linking up with:
UFO-2017
Monday Making
Main Crush Monday
Monday Design Wall
One Monthly Goal 

Weekend Stitching: Bordering Bejeweled

We are very thankful that the weekend ice storm wasn't near as bad as they predicted it would be.  The roads never got real bad, they were slick in places, but not glazed over.  There were a few power outages, but none affected us.  Still it was cold and miserable outside, so it was a pretty good weekend to stay home and sew.  

My January One Monthly Goal is to get Bejeweled sent out for quilting.  I'm halfway there.  The last of the borders went on just before dinner last night. 

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

It's definitely outgrown the design wall, I'll try to get better pictures of the finished top next weekend.  Hopefully there will be some sunshine around then.  Drama Teen loves it. She's pretty sure her friend is going to love it too.  Now to figure out how to use the left overs to piece a back.  That's the agenda for this week.  

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

Enough Dithering

I've seen the posts referring to a quarterly finish along for at least a couple of years.  With my ever changing schedule, I'm just happy if I make progress on a project, I don't worry as much about finishes.  However, this year, there are 4 quilts that need to be finished by May.  They were commissioned by Drama Teen and it's very important to her that I finish them on time.  So I'm pulling all the stops out this year to find ways to stay on track and finish the remaining 3 quilts.  I've been dithering about committing to a finishing challenge.  Which is really a bit silly considering, I've committed to Drama Teen that all 4 will be done by graduation.  So why not use very bit of leverage and hopefully engage a whole group of cheerleaders by joining in the 2017 Finish Along.  

I'm not going to get all 3 finished during the first quarter of the challenge, but I'm pretty sure if I stick with it I can finish two.  The farthest along by far is Bejeweled.  

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

The final border needs to be sewn on and this project will be a finished flimsy.  It will still need the backing made and to be prepped for quilting so it can be sent out for quilting.  This one will definitely be a finish by the end of March.  

I've got a start on the third graduation quilt, Geometry. 

Geometry, self designed

But I need the design wall free so I can make sure my focus fabric ends up facing the the right direction on all the finished blocks.  This quilt will be all large HSTs, so assembly should go pretty fast once I get the blocks made.  This one should also be doable by the end of March.  

I've not even started on the 4th graduation quilt yet.  The design is done, but the fabric hasn't been pulled.  I'll save that project for the second quarter of the challenge.  There is one quilt that just needs to be bound, Poinsettias.  

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

The quilt still needs to be trimmed and the binding made.  But I think this one can be worked in sometime between now and the end of March.  That would give me three finishes for the 1st quarter.  Which is much better than I typically do this early in the year.  

I'm linking up for the 2017 Quilt Along  via Abigail's Cut & Alter blog.  Wish me luck, I'm going to need it!  

January One Monthly Goal - The March to Graduation Finishes

It wasn't hard to decide what project to do for January's One Monthly Goal. 

The question was how much to try to get done?  I do not like to over commit on my projects, but considering that May is only 5 months away now and I have three quilts to finish by the middle of that month, pushing now is necessary in order to be ready for graduation.  So the plan is to get Bejeweled from where it is now,

to being shipped out the door for quilting.  There's only two columns of blocks left to be sewn together before the center of the quilt is assembled.  That leaves the top and bottom inner border and a final border to be cut and sewn on.  The backing will be scrappy left overs of the fabrics used in the blocks.  That will have to be assembled as well.  But I think it's all doable, January is a long month and other than DT's birthday, there's nothing likely to pull me out of the sewing room for a weekend.  

Bejeweled is number 1 on the quilt plan for this year, but I'm substituting it for my number 3 quilt for the purposes of Patchwork Times UFO-2017 Challenge.  I need to start and finish quilt #3, which is the First Amendment Quilt by May too, but it's just seems smarter to finish Bejeweled first as it's the closest to being done.  

Linking up with:
One Monthly Goal
Let's Bee Social
Needle and Thread Thrusday

WIPS: Here and There Progress

It has been a busy week already and it's just Wednesday.  Last night was package cookie night.  Drama Teen baked Snickerdoodle cookies to share with some of her more far flung friends.  So we spent the evening getting all the cookies into tins, adding festive trim to the tins and than packing for shipment.  Since Tuesday is also gym night, I didn't make it to the sewing room. 

I've been blogging about the progress on En Provence, but haven't said too much about the other projects which are in the works.  Bejeweled is the "priority" project at the moment.  It's one of the 4 graduation quilts, so it has a May due date.  

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

A few more columns have been stitched together and some of the sashing strips have been added.  So this project is moving along.  I'm hoping to have this one to the finished flimsy stage by the end of the month. 

Blooms and Butterflies has also been progressing.

Blooms and Butterflies
Bloom block by Lea Brummett, setting by Kate

Sorry for the slightly crocked photo.  I had to lay Blooms over Bejeweled which is taking up most of the big design wall.  It was hard to get it on the wall straight with the other blocks behind it.  At any rate, the pieced butterfly blocks borders are all attached.  This one just needs one more narrow border of the polka dot and then the final border added.  Depending upon how much time I have after Christmas, this quilt might just make it to finished flimsy stage by the end of the month. 

Linking up with 
Let's Be Social
Needle and Thread Thursday

The Last Let's Book It Challenge Post

Sharon over at Vrooman's Quilts has been running the Let's Book it Challenge for at least the last 2 years.  

The last link up was posted on Monday as Sharon is discontinuing the official challenge.  Though my collection of quilting books is legion, I only had three projects that made appearances on Sharon's linky parties.  

The most recent is Bejeweled, which is still in pieces on the design wall.

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

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

   
Flame Test had a solo post on Let's Book It.  

Flame Test
Blocks from the 2014 Rainbow Scrap Challenge Sampler
tutorials by Angela Feldbush of Soscrappy

The idea for the border came from Sunny Steinkuhler's book, "Blocks, Borders, Quilts!"

My longest running project for Let's Book It was from the 2013 December issue of American Patchwork and Quilting.  

I found out last night that Trudy is done with the quilting and Poinsettias will soon be on it's way back for it's finishing binding.

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

Thanks Sharon for all the fun and the motivation to use at least a few of my books and printed patterns.  Linking up with Vrooman's Quilts for the last Let's Book It linky party.  

WIPS: Piecing Gems

Wednesday already?  It's been a fast week, playing catch up after being out of the office for a week will do that.  There's not been a great deal of time for stitching in the evenings and what time I have had was spent on finishing up the binding for the Zombie quilt.  I've just got about 20" left to go on that. 

The few minutes I had in the sewing room Monday evening was spent cutting the remaining sashing strips needed for Bejeweled.  All the blocks were finished a couple of weeks ago.  Over the weekend I started sewing the columns together and started adding the sashing strips.  

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

The strips hang off the design wall, so some of the blocks at the bottom of the quilt are still in the project box.  I'll pull those out as I sew the columns.  It seemed prudent to start with the outside columns and work in. Overall it's coming together pretty quickly when I have a chance to work on it.  Drama Teen is happy with all the colors.  She and I discussed replacing the dark plaid, but she likes the contrast.  To be honest neither of the plaids photograph really well, they have a lot more detail in them than shows up in the photo.    

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

Weekend Stitching: A Bit of This and a Bit of That

It was a good weekend for stitching.  Drama Teen was off at a debate tournament on Saturday and My Guy ended up mowing the yard.  Hopefully that will be the last time till spring.  It's been such a warm fall that the yard is still green and growing.  We had our first freeze this weekend, so that will likely start the spread of winter brown across the landscape.  

There was a bit of this and and bit of that going on in the sewing room.  Poinsettias is pressed, de-threaded and ready for shipping to Trudy for quilting.  Once that box is dropped off at the post office, November's One Monthly Goal will be done.  Prepping quilts for quilting is probably my least favorite activity.  I'm glad to have that off the to do list.  

A few more blocks for the Bejeweled quilt are finished and up on the design wall. 

   
The last four blocks are at the sewing machine waiting for the corners to be added.  Once those are done, these blocks will have to move to the big design wall to stage them for assembly.  I'm not in love with the dark plaid, it may get replaced with one of the other fabrics.  But I'll wait till  all the pieces are laid out on the design wall before making a decision on replacing it or not. 

The Zombie quilt moved a bit closer to being finished.  The binding has been sewn to the front. 

I'll start hand stitching it to the back this evening. It will be nice to have the first graduation quilt done well before graduation.  Hopefully Bejeweled will be finished before the end of the year.  Plans are to start on the third graduation quilt next month.  I just need to get Drama Teen into the sewing room to help pick the fabrics.  

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

Weekend Stitching - The Last Butterfly

It was a relaxing weekend.  The only have to do was to sit with Drama Teen so she could finish out her college applications that required a submission fee.  Getting into college has certainly changed since I started XX years ago.  

Some time was spent cleaning up the sewing room a bit. But I still managed to get in quite a bit of stitching.  All the square in a square blocks for Bejeweled are done.

That's all 72 of them.  The first set of strip blocks are also finished.  I ran out of room on the little design wall so those got moved over to share the big design wall with Blooms and Butterflies. 

I completed the last butterfly block for Blooms and Butterflies then decided that was enough fun in the sewing room for one day.  Tonight I should get the butterflies and the alternate blocks laid out so stitching can start on the borders.  

Since November is almost here, I did give some thought to what November's One Monthly Goal should be.  With that in mind, I made some progress on making the label for Zombies in Paris and got started on squaring it up.  The other option is to get Poinsettias sent out for quilting, which means getting the backing assembled.  I've got a day or two to think about my choice.  

Linking up with
Main Crush Monday
Monday Making
Design Wall Monday

October Let's Book It - Strips and Squares

The end of the October is almost here and Sharon of Vrooman's Quilts has this month's Let's Book it Challenge linky party started.  I'm a bit behind in my blog reading (Internet issues this week), so I completely missed that she'd posted till late this morning.  

After two years of working on the same challenge project, last month I got to start on a new let's book it project finally.  The project is Bejeweled from this book by Susan Guzman.  

I'm not making the cover quilt, but one of the other fun projects called Bejeweled.  I don't have a lot of it done, just some parts and pieces up on the design wall. 

The 36 teal square in a square blocks are done and just 12 more of the pink ones to finish up.  I've also got a start on the first set of strips.  I'm hoping these fabrics all work and play together in the final project.  Not too much more and I'll be able to start working on various sections of the quilt.  Since this quilt has to be done by May, it's on the fast track.  

You can see more Let's Book it projects over at Vrooman's Quilts.  

Weekend Stitching: Blocks and Butterflies

Definitely not ready for Monday.   Thankfully this is a short week.  Fall break starts on Thursday and we are taking off work.  I'm hopeful of getting in some good stitching time at least one day of our long weekend.  Thursday is errands (cars to the shop, send in our paperwork for passports, etc).  Other than that, I'm not sure what's on the agenda.  So I just have to get through Wednesday!

Not much stitching happened on Saturday, but that changed on Sunday.  Not that you can see much has changed on the design wall.  I've got a good start on the second set of Economy blocks for Bejeweled.

Just two more of the pinky/purply blocks and I'll be half way done with that set of blocks.  

I've also finished a couple of more butterflies for the Blooms and Butterflies border.

Bloom block by Lea Brummett, setting by Kate

The third border needs 22 butterflies, so there are still 7 left to make.  Three of those seven butterflies are sitting over at the machine in various stages of assembly.  Those should get finished this week.  I need to cut more of the blue polka dot background pieces before the last four can be started.  

I'm working on stitching down the binding down on Allitare. 

I've turned the second corner.  There should be a finish to show off next week.  

Linking up with
Monday Making
Design Wall Monday

September One Monthly Goal: A Successful Start on a Let's Book It Project

Just a few days and the end of September will be here.  Hard to believe that it's almost the start of the last fourth of the year.  Since it's the end of the month, it's time to contemplate success or failure with this month's One Monthly Goal.  The end of the month link up is up over at Heidi's Red Letter Quilts. 

I started struggling with shoulder problems the end of August, so in picking a goal for September the thought was to go for something pretty easy since sewing time might well be non-existent if the shoulder didn't get better.  Unfortunately, that turned out to be truer than I had hoped.  Not much stitching got done early in the month. 

My goal was to get started on the next graduation quilt, Bejeweled. 

Bejeweled by Susan Guzman in "All About Strips"

I mark the start of a quilt as the date the fabric starts being cut for the project.  So this month's goal was just to get started on cutting out a few of the pieces.  I met that goal and even made some progress on getting a few of the initial blocks sewn. 

 I need 36 of these  Economy Blocks for the quilt.  Only 12 more to finish.  So that's a good start considering how little sewing time I've had this month. 

Bejeweled is also doubling as my new Let's Book It project.  The project is from Susan Guzman's book "All About Strips".

I'll be linking up with Sharon at Vroomans Quilts once she has this month's linky party up.

Weekend Stitching: Odds and Ends

It was a nice relaxing weekend.  Some much needed yard work got done on Sunday, which has unfortunately left me a bit sore this morning.  There was lots of stitching time this weekend, but it sure doesn't look like much when you look at what's up on the design wall.  

Good progress was made on piecing the backing for the Zombies quilt. 

All that's left is the borders to bring it up to size.  Hopefully this quilt will be ready to send out for quilting next week sometime. 

The other blocks up on the design wall are from the second graduation quilt, Bejeweled (my EQ version is here).  

Drama Teen selected the swirly gray background.  I wasn't sure it was going to to work, but it looks fine.  I've got 32 more of these Economy blocks to make, then there are 36 more in another color to construct. The goal this month was to get started on it, which in my book is when I start cutting the fabric.  I'm looking forward to making this quilt. It uses a lot of bright and fun fabrics, with lots of blues.  

Linking up this week with
Main Crush Monday
Monday Making
Monday Design Wall