Life In Pieces: The Best of 2018

Hard to believe Christmas is over and the end of the year is less than a week away.  It's the time of year for reflection.  Cheryl of Meadow Mist Designs makes reflection fun by hosting her "Best of 2018" Linky Party.

What constitutes "best" is up to the blogger.  So here's my top 5 from 2018.

1. Largest Number of Views (427), A Little of This and That. That post highlighted the first assembled blocks from Bonnie Hunter's 2017 mystery, On Ringo Lake.

2. Most Comments (28), Stars and Stars.  The post showed the finished Red, White and Blue Star blocks that is currently my oldest UFO.

3.  My favorite quilt finished in 2018, Chain Reaction.  This quilt was made for the Scientist in Training to use in her dorm room. She loves it and I really loved making it.  

4. My favorite quilt started in 2018, The Christmas Mystery Quilt.  This quilt was the second mystery quilt along offered by the local quilt shop.  This one was so much fun and I'm really happy with how it turned out.  Now it just needs a backing so I can maybe get it finished to enjoy next Christmas. 

5.  Most requested tutorial, How to Make Quilt Labels.  The most common question that shows up in comments on the blog is how do I make my quilt labels.  So I put together a tutorial on the basic process. 

That's my top 5 for 2018.  Now I'm off to check out more top 5s over at Meadow Mist Designs.  

2018 Ambitions - Checking in for Mid-Year

Hard to believe we've passed the mid-year point for 2018.  I just finished doing mid-year reviews at work. It's a chance to look at the goals from the first of the year, make sure they are still appropriate and that you are on track to complete them.  Back in April I  reviewed how things were going on my quilty ambitions (that post is here) for the same reasons.  Yvonne over at Quilting Jetgirl is hosting a mid year review linky party to encourage us to take a look at where we are mid year. 

So here's how I'm doing on my quilty ambitions as of the end of June.  

1.  Shorten the UFO list.  

I started 2018 with 17 quilts on the UFO list. As of the end of June there are 18 quilts on the UFO list.  I consider a quilt a UFO once it's been on the project list for a year.  There's only been one finish this year and it wasn't on the UFO list yet.  So I'm not doing so hot on this ambition. It's not from lack of trying. There has been good progress on the six projects I've worked on this year. It just hasn't been enough to get those quilts to the finish line.  

2. Participate in quilt alongs/mysteries.  Since the goal is to finish up the old stuff, I limited myself to just three this year.

     2018 Rainbow Scrap Challenge - Started
     Meadow Mist Designs Plus Sign Sampler Quilt Along
     Bonnie Hunter Mystery


I've decided not to do Cheryl's Plus Sign Sampler, but may start one of the quilts in her Modern Plus Sign Quilts book.  Or since my goal is to clear off the UFO list, I may skip out on that quilt along completely. 

3. Find 15 minutes to stitch each day. 

I'm doing well with this ambition.  The success rate for the year is 94.54%.  So I'm not sure why I'm not seeing any finishes.  

4.  Stash Management/Stash Organization
       Limit purchases to 5 yards per quarter: at 18.91 yards incoming
       Spend 30 minutes each week on organization:  hit and miss
       Any new projects must use stash fabrics only:  good here
       Pick a RSC project that uses precut strips:  Sampler uses strips

Well 3 out of 4 ambitions on this point is pretty good.  I'm over my goal for incoming fabric as of the mid-year point, but as long as I don't add more than one more yard the next 6 months, I'll be OK on that one for the year.  I'm not doing so hot on organizing the stash.  It's been hard to find time to sew this year, so spending time organizing has just not been as high a priority. 

5.  Blog once a week.  
I've managed at least 2 posts a week since the first of the year. So I'm doing OK on this front too.  

Other than getting quilts to the finish line, the year is going pretty well.  I'm linking up with Yvonne's mid-year review party where you can see how well other's are doing on meeting their quilty ambitions.  

Since finishes don't seem to be happening, I'm going to use the rest of this post to document the progress for the year.  I need the morale boost.  The picture on the left is where the project was as of 12/31/2017. The picture of the right shows the status as of the last time I worked on the project. 

January Project:  Chain Reaction (aka Geek Chic) Done 

 


February Project:  Magnolia Mystery Quilt (Needs binding)

March Project:  Vintage Dresses (Needs borders)

April Project:  En Provence (Sewing on binding)

 

May Project:  Christmas Angels (Needs borders)

 

June Project:  Red, White and Blue Stars (Finish making blocks)

So I'm close to finishes on two quilts.  But only one is on the UFO list.  Magnolia Mystery wasn't started till September last year, so it's still a WIP.  Well I got this far in the last 6 months and there is still 6 more to go.  Time enough to move a couple more off the list you think?  

2018 Finish Along Second Quarter - Chain Reaction

The second quarter of 2018 ended yesterday, so it's time to link up with the 2018 Finish Along.

The "to be finished" list for second quarter had six quilts on it.  There were no finishes in first quarter, so all the quilts from first quarter were rolled onto the second quarter list with the three planned finishes for second quarter.  From that list of six, there's just one finish for second quarter, Chain Reaction (aka Geek Chic).  

Chain Reaction  (Geek Chic)
Pattern is Under Construction by the Missouri Star Quilt Company
found in Missouri Star Quilt Company Block Idea Book (Summer Vol 4 Issue 3)
Started: September 5, 2017, Completed April 14, 2018

This quilt was started in 2017 as a Christmas present for the Scientist in Training who is pursuing a chemistry degree.  Well it didn't get done for Christmas, nor for her birthday in January.  The backing was finished at the end of January so it could be sent out for quilting.

It took me a couple of months to get the label made once it came back from Trudy. 

And then get the binding made and sewn down. 

The quilt was finally finished in April 2018.  The SIT was more than happy to cuddle with it on vacation in May.

Chain Reaction made it's dorm room debut with the start of the summer semester in June. 

It's nice to have a finish that is well loved and in use.  That leaves five quilts from second quarter that didn't get completed.  Some years are just that way.  Hopefully, third quarter will be better.  Maybe I can finish two?  

Odds and Ends From One of Those Weeks

Do you ever wake up on Monday and wonder what happened to the weekend?  Or for that matter what happened to all of last week?  I've been pretty much AWOL from my personal computer as I seemed to be stuck like glue to the work computer the last week.  It's mid-year review season at work, couple with with the need to wrap up some projects and it's just been completely insane.  So there hasn't been a lot of responding to email and blog reading the last week, so I hope you'll forgive me for being so far behind.  I will catch up eventually.  

The sewing room hasn't seen too much of me the last week either, so there's not much progress there. I did find a few minutes here and there to contemplate the final borders for Vintage Dresses.  I think I'm about there.  Now to decide on the final color, pink or blue. 

  

 Vintage Dresses blocks by Charise Randell, Setting by Kate

I may change the corners so the colored borders better mimic the frames around each block. It's a lot of borders, but I like the 3-D effect you get by moving from lighter to darker from the center of the quilt.  Now that I've got a plan, hopefully there will be some time in the sewing room soon to see if I've got the fabrics to make either one of these color schemes work. 

The Scientist in Training has been home for just a little bit over a week.  She hadn't seen the final version of the her Geek Chic quilt.  To say she loves it is a bit of an understatement, it's become her go to quilt for relaxing.  

 Yes, the SIT has been treating herself to massive doses of Pokeman on the DS and while binge watching Netflix.  It's OK, she made A's in everything but calculus.  (There have been a few breaks for laundry, doing dishes and volunteering at the local animal shelter.)  

I never shared the final name for what's been called around the house as the SITs chem quilt.  Here's the label, minus Mom's message. 

She loves it.  That's the best thank you. 

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