Weekend Stitching: Mystery Sewing

Hard to believe it's the last day of 2018.  I'm hoping to spend a good part of it in the sewing room as I've not really had a chance to do that yet.  I've been tackling the closets while My Guy has been dealing with the decluttering the kitchen cabinets, so it's been a productive holiday break.  

I did get in a solid afternoon of stitching yesterday.  The focus was clues 5 and 6 of Good Fortune. 

I'm hoping to make more progress today.  Bonnie's been known to post the reveal on New Year's Day, so I'd like to have enough pieces to get a few blocks made right off the bat.  

I'm able to concentrate on Good Fortune because this month's One Monthly Goal is finished.  The binding was finished as of last Friday.

Boo! (Halloween Mystery)
designed by Carrie Randall (Quilter's Hideaway)
Started  September 8, 2018, Finished December 28, 2018

This was a fun and quick project that used up some odds and ends from the stash.  The bats got crystal button eyes cause My Guy said they needed something. 

Those worked out pretty well. Trudy add some fun details during the quilting. 

A spiderweb in the corner complete with spider.  

And pumpkins in the last border that show up much clearer on the back. 

I didn't have enough of the jack-o-lanterns fabric for the whole back so pieced in that yellow strip, which isn't quilt so pale in real life. 

And the label's been stitched down too.  

Boo! is finish number 4 for 2018.  Since this project was started in 2018, it's not on the UFO list, so that number didn't go down. But getting it finished means it won't go on the list. So it's all good.  Boo! was one of the quilts on my 2018 Finish Along List.  So I'll be linking up when Q4 FAL Link UP opens in January.   

It was a bit odd working on a Halloween quilt over the Christmas holiday.  But now it's all finished and ready to use for next Halloween. 

I'm hoping to end and begin 2019 in the sewing room.  Wishing everyone a very Happy New Year with lots of new projects, finishes, and dwindling UFO lists.  

Linking up with:
UFO Busting
Monday Making
Design Wall Monday
One Monthly Goal
Bonnie Hunter 

Weekend Stitching: Holiday Stitching?

Merry Christmas Eve!  We are hanging out with family today, doing a bit of cooking and a lot of laughing.  Unfortunately part of the family has to work today, so we won't see them till tonight.  I have plans for some handwork while we all visit, that will be about it for stitching today.  

Between all the gift wrapping, card addressing, and house cleaning there wasn't a lot of time spent in the sewing room this weekend.  I did get some holiday stitching done, Halloween stitching, not Christmas.  

My Guy said the bats needed eyes, so I found some crystal buttons that add just a bit of sparkle and hopefully help those bats look more like bats.  I've turned the second corner on getting the binding stitched, so there should be one more finish before the end of 2018. 

The only progress on the Good Fortune clue #5 was to get the instructions printed out and a decision made on how I'm going to make the blocks.  I'll get back to that on Wednesday after our holiday celebrations with the family are over. 

Wishing everyone a joy filled week.  

Linking up with:
Monday Design Wall
Monday Making
Tish's UFO Busting

Week 51 of 2018: Stashing and Stitching

Our frantic preparations for the holiday came to a climax yesterday.  As of midnight, all the gifts are wrapped, Christmas cards sent and laundry done.  All managed with a bit of stitching time worked in as things were moving along.  How did you do at getting in some stitching time along with your holiday preparations?

I did much better this week on working in a few minutes to stitch here and there. 

15 minutes stitching days/week = 7/7 days
15 minutes stitching days/December = 17/22 days
15 minutes stitching days/2018 = 331/356 days
Success rate = 92.98%

I'm still on track to end my year with a better than 90% success rate with stitching every day.  Just one more week and it will be time to start fresh with a new year. 

I managed to get the binding sewn to the front of the Halloween Mystery quilt while the Scientist in Training was wrapping gifts (my cutting table doubles as gift wrap central during the holidays)

I've turned one corner and are quickly closing in on the next. It does seem to be a bit strange to be stitching on a Halloween quilt during the Christmas holiday season, but getting it finished now, means it will be ready for next fall.  Linking up with Kathy Quilts for slow stitching Sunday.  There will be more slow stitching today for sure. 

The only fabric out this week was the binding for the Halloween Mystery. 

Fabric used this week = 0.29 yards
Fabric used in 2018 = 42.17 yards
More in than out for 2018

I'm way off my fabric usage goal for the year. Hopefully 2019 will be a better year on the stash management front.  Linking up Quiltpaintcreate for the weekly stash report.  

So how did your stitching week go? 

1. Meloney 2. Marti

3. Shasta 4. Christina's Handicrafts

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Stitching Plans for December 2018 - The One Monthly Goal

The first week of December is almost done.  This time of year the days seem to pass at warp speed with lots of extra things on the to do list for many of us.  One item on my to do list is to decide what is December's One Monthly Goal. 

I've not done very well this year in meeting my OMG, a measly 36% success rate, versus a combined 88% success rate for my 2016 and 2017 OMG efforts.  What's even more head scratching, is that I'm sewing more.  So where's the disconnect?  Something to contemplate as I try to decide on my quilty ambitions for 2019.  

All that aside, I need to figure out what's the goal for this month.  Turns out that's a pretty easy decision.  It would be nice to get one more finish this year and the only project that's going to happen with is the Halloween Mystery quilt. 

Halloween Mystery designed by Carrie Randall (Quilter's Hideaway)

The label is made. 

But the binding hasn't been cut and assembled yet.  I've also purchased some buttons to add eyes to the bats, in hopes that makes them a bit more identifiable.  The Halloween Mystery quilt is supposed to be a Christmas gift, so that's added incentive to get it finished.  Hopefully, getting this project to finished quilt is a goal that I can manage.  

Linking up with Elm Street Quilts for the December One Monthly Goal.  

November - Where Did It Go and Where I have I Been?

As I was drinking my coffee and checking out a few blogs this morning, it slowly dawned on me that today was the first of December (You think I would have noted the date that is so very helpfully located on the task bar).  I completely missed the November One Monthly Goal Link up.  

Probably just as well it was out of sight, out of mind as there was almost zero progress on my OMG for November.  The plan was to piece a backing for Inverted Star.  The only progress on that front is that I've searched the stash and found the fabric for the backing. It's been blessed by the Scientist in Training.  

But that is as far as I got on the November goal.  

So what did get done last month? The label for the Halloween Mystery Quilt (BOO) is ready to go. 

I'm really happy with how it turned out.  I hope to get the binding made and get this quilt finished off in the next week or so.  Yes I know the label says finished in November and it's already December. That sometimes happens to me where I'm off by a month on my labels.  My logic is that years from now, one month isn't really going to matter much.  

So what did I work on in November?

Christmas Mystery designed by Carrie Randall (Quilter's Hideaway

The blocks for the Christmas Mystery quilt are all finished and sashed.  As soon as I finish this post, I'm heading to the sewing room to finish the borders.  The last class to show off our finishes is this morning, so I'm going to see what I can get done between now and then.  I'm hoping to get this quilt out to Trudy for quilting after Christmas to keep it off the UFO list.  

The other distraction in November was the kick off of Bonnie Hunter's annual mystery quilt.  I really, really don't need another project, but I'm playing along anyway.  I'm up to 20 plus 4-patches, plus have sewn and trimmed two HSTs from clue 2.  What gets done, gets done.  I'm just enjoying the process on this one.  

So ends the 7th month out of 11 that I've not made my OMG goal.  I'm not going to be sad about that, progress was made, just not on what I'd planned.  Not sure what I'm going to do for December.  Crazy will get crazier this month. I have two big projects with December 31st deadlines. Add in the holiday shopping, wrapping and family time, it's not likely I'll have much time to stitch.  I'll pick something, but it's likely to be something really easy.  I'd like to end the year on a high note.  

November Plans - The One Monthly Goal

The One Monthly Goal hasn't gone so well for me this year. I've gone from being wildly successful with OMGs the previous two years, to missing the mark more often then not this year.  Due in part to trying to finish a UFO each month and then not having the stitching time to do it.  Work has been a bit more nuts this year than the previous two.  So the key to being successful is not being over ambitious when setting my November One Monthly Goal. 

So what's likely to get done?  We'll have a lot of family stuff the week of Thanksgiving, so I won't have as much time to stitch as normal that week.  And we have some commitments this weekend that will impact my stitching time.  So the goal for this month needs to be a pretty small one.  There are two projects in the queue that are closed to being finished.  The first is the Halloween Mystery quilt (BOO!).  

Halloween Mystery
designed by Carrie Randall (Quilter's Hideaway)

It needs a label and the binding pieced then sewn down. That's doable.  

The second and probably higher priority is to get Inverted Star finished.  

Inverted Star block by Jessica Boschem of Common Threads
available from Craftsy as a free download, setting by Kate

It needs a backing pieced and then both have to be prepped so it can go out for quilting.  Piecing the backing is probably doable.  Cleaning off the loose threads from the back of the top and getting it all pressed is going to take some time.  That's going to be a tall order when I've got two weekends with limited sewing room time.  

So looking at the time available, I'm going to go for getting a back pieced for Inverted Star as my one monthly goal.  If I can get it prepped for quilting and out the door even better.  But I honestly do not think I'll get that far.

Linking up at Elm Street Quilts for the November One Monthly Goal.  

Weekend Stitching: Finally a Finished Flimsy

We are getting a preview of winter this week.  Lows in the 30's with the high at 50 F for today.  We finally turned the heat on yesterday afternoon to avoid waking up this morning to a very cold house.  Thankfully we'll be back to highs in the 60s in just a couple of days. 

I got as far as opening the boxes containing my new sewing table.  The insert wasn't included, that will come later.  So I'm leaving everything boxed up till those come, hopefully they will be here sometime next week.

It was a good weekend at the sewing machine, the big design wall is empty again.  The Halloween Mystery quilt has made it to finished flimsy stage. 

Halloween Mystery
designed by Carrie Randall (Quilter's Hideaway)

It's not a large quilt, just 49" by 55".  The top was pieced completely from stash fabrics. Not sure how all those Halloween prints ended up in my stash, but it was fun to use them in this project. I finished off the backing (completely forgot to take any photos), pressed and de-threaded both the flimsy and the back. Now the project is ready to send out for quilting. All that's left is to make the binding and the quilt label.  I'm leaning towards "Boo" as the name for the label.  Not very original, but it definitely fits.  

The design wall will not stay empty for long. The plan is to put the Inverted Star project back up and get the star border laid out and stitched together.  That one needs to get done before Christmas.  

Linking up with the usual Monday linky parties. 
Monday Making
Main Crush Monday
Monday Design Wall 

2018 Finish Along - Fourth Quarter Projects

We are already into week two of the fourth quarter.  Time flies, especially this time of year. Hard to believe it's time to decide on what projects go on the list as potential finishes for the fourth quarter of the 2018 Finish Along. 

Out of all the projects on my 2018 Quilt Plan, only three have made it to completed status.  That leaves nine quilts left that could go on the list for this quarter. Out of those nine, there are three that have a good chance of making to to the finished list. 

1.  Halloween Mystery Quilt (new start)

 Halloween Mystery
designed by Carrie Randall (Quilter's Hideaway)

The rows have all been sewn together since this picture was taken and the first border strip has been attached.  The second border strip is pinned, ready to sew on.  So this one has a good chance of making it to the finished stage.  It's not on my UFO list, but finishing it will keep it off the list.  That counts right? 

2.  Inverted Star (From Third Quarter Quilt Along list)

 Inverted Star by Jessica Boschem of Common Threads
available from Craftsy as a free download

The center is all stitched together and the blocks for the pieced border are all done. Now to figure out where those stars go in the border and start stitching them together.  It will also need a backing pieced before it can go out for quilting. This is a graduation quilt for one of the Scientist in Training's friends.  The friend graduates in December so this one really needs to get done. 

3.  Christmas Angels (From the second quarter list)

 Christmas Angels  Pattern by Kate

Another project that just needs the borders and the backing finished so it can be sent out for quilting.  It would be nice to get this one done so it could be gifted as a Christmas present this year. 

The top two are definitely doable, not sure about number three.  Maybe.  But since there is no penalty associated with not getting everything on the list completed, I'll add one last project to the list.  

4.  Vintage Dresses (from the first quarter list).

 Vintage Dresses blocks by Charise Randell, Setting by Kate

This was supposed to be a high school graduation gift, but it didn't get done in time.  This quilt also just needs borders and backing so it can be sent out for quilting.  It would be nice to get this one finished too, but I'm not counting on it.  

That's my list for the fourth quarter quilt along.  If all four of them get finished, that will be seven total quilts completed for 2018.  That would tie my best year in terms of finishes. Fingers crossed that I can get that far.  

Linking up with the Fourth Quarter 2018 Finish Along.  

2018 Ambitions: Uneven Progress, The Third Quarter Summary

Way back in December of 2017, I participated with Quilting Jetgirl's 2018 Planning Party by putting together a set of quilting ambitions for the year.  Now that third quarter is over it's time to assess how things have gone so far this year.  

Ambition #1: Shorten the UFO List

If you compare the above chart to the one I posted on the mid-year update, I've gone down by one.  So there's been progress, just not a lot of it.  I'm doing a good job of finishing my newer projects, but not so hot at finishing off my older projects.  I've been pulling out a new UFO a month to work on and there's been a lot of progress on each, but I've just not managed to get many to the completed quilt stage. 

Ambition #2:  Participate in select quilt along/mysteries

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

            
I'm actually up to date on this year's Rainbow Scrap Project, Squared Away.  All but October's blocks are done, I just don't have an updated picture yet. 

I had planned to participate in the Meadow Mist Design's Plus Sign Sampler Quilt Along, but the sampler just didn't appeal to me.  So instead, I signed up for the Halloween Mystery quilt along at my local quilt shop.  

 Halloween Mystery
designed by Carrie Randall (Quilter's Hideaway)

The Halloween mystery was such fun, that I've signed up for the Christmas mystery as well.  That one isn't on my list, but it uses up stash (that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it).  I'm also planning to do Bonnie Hunter's annual mystery quilt that should kick off at the end of October with the fabric requirements.  

Ambition #3:  Find 15 minutes to stitch each day.

      Success rate = 93.95%

This ambition is on track.  I'm hoping to end the year at 90% or better. 

Ambition #4: Stash Management
     Purchase less than 5 yards per quarter - nope didn't happen
     Organize the stash - a little progress
     Use only stash fabrics for any new projects - on track

Ambition #5:  Blog once a week
      121 blog posts for 40 weeks = 3/week

So I'm on track here. 

So everything is on track except for finishing quilts and stash management.  Areas to work on for 2019. 

Here's the project progress since midyear:

February Project: Magnolia Mystery - Done

 

April Project: En Provence - Done

 




June Project - Red, White and Blue Stars (blocks finished)

 

July Project - Inverted Stars (border blocks finished)

 


August Project - Twinkle Star Quilt (blocks finished)

 

September Project - On Ringo Lake (made more blocks)

 


So there were two finishes last quarter, plus a lot of progress.  So it's all good.  Hopefully there will be at least two finishes for the last quarter.  I have a graduation quilt to finish before Christmas!  

Good luck with your ambitions for the fourth quarter.  It's always a busy time of year.  

Weekend Stitching - Seasonal Stitching

For a weekend with nothing going on, it was surprisingly busy.  The Scientist in Training was home, deciding on Thursday that she needed a weekend out of the dorm and some home cooking.  Since she had a lot of studying to do, I stitched while she worked on classwork. 

The final clue for the Halloween Mystery quilt along at the local quilt shop came out.  I finished all the blocks and started assembling the top.  

Halloween Mystery
designed by Carrie Randall (Quilter's Hideaway)

Not my normal style, but it was a lot of fun to make.  I even manged to finish the 4 applique blocks.  I plan to add a couple of borders to make it lap quilt sized.  As far as a final home, no decision on that yet.  My sister and my niece are both big Halloween fans, so it could end up under the tree so they have something to use for the season next year.  We'll see.  I am hoping to get this one to finished flimsy stage, a back made and get it sent off for quilting by the end of the month.  It would be nice to have another finish for the year.  

There has been slow and steady progress on the Twinkle Star blocks.  The last block was finished over the weekend.  

Twinkle Stars

Tutorial by Andrea Feldbush of Soscrappy

Laying out the blocks with the colors along the diagonal works really well.  This isn't the final layout, there needs to be a bit of moving around to address some of the really dark stars.  For now these blocks are back in the project box. As much as I'd like to finish this one off, I have another graduation quilt that needs to be done by December, so the Twinkle Stars need to come off the design wall for now.  I'm sure they will be back early next year.

It's going to be a long week at work, with lots going on.  Sanity sessions in my sewing room are going to be very necessary.  

Linking up with the usual Monday crowd.
Monday Design Wall
Main Crush Monday
Monday Making   

October One Monthly Goal - Missing the Mark

We are almost a week into the month, so it's time to pick a One Monthly Goal. But deciding on October's One Monthly Goal has been a challenge.  

This is my third year to participate in the OMG and it's been my worst in terms of actually completing the selected goal each month.  I've been trying to figure out why the previous two years I only missed one or two monthly goals, but this year I've missed completing my goal five out of the nine months.  What's even crazier, I've had more sewing time this year.  Maybe I've just been too ambitious on my goal for each month?  Am I working on too many projects at a time, so there's not enough focus on the OMG project?  Probably a bit of  both. 

So this month, I should pick something more limited in scope than I have in previous months.  There are two that come to mind.  The first is to finish all the blocks for this year's Rainbow Scrap Challenge Squared Away Sampler.  Two of Septembers blocks are finished. 

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

The third has been started.  I'll need to make three of October's block, which hasn't been posted yet.  That should be doable.  

The other project that's doable is to finish off all the blocks for the Halloween Mystery Quilt.  This is what's finished so far. 

 Halloween Mystery designed by Carrie Randall (Quilter's Hideaway)

I still need to complete one more spiderweb and finish off the two bats, plus start on the final block that I wasn't able to pick up till Wednesday this week.  But that's definitely doable.

Of the two, I'm having a lot of fun with the Halloween blocks, so I think that will be the goal this month, to get all those spooky blocks made.  It will be a bonus if I get them all set together (but I'm not counting on that).  Maybe I can focus long enough to actually make my OMG for this month and raise my success rate to 50%? 

Linking up with Elm Street Quilts for the October One Monthly Goal.  

September Stitching: Progress not as Planned

Hello October! I was more than ready to say good-bye to September.  Work was a zoo last month. Though, it's not going to be much better on that front this month. Performance reviews and a high priority project are going to keep this month busy there.  Shoulder problems sidelined me the last week of the month, but on the bright side, that forced me to deal with the poor ergonomic set up of my sewing table.  

The final coup-de-gras for the month was not paying attention to where things were on my cutting/ironing table and my wrist made contact with my iron.  I'm not sharing any photos as a burn that matches up with the top 2" of an iron is just not a pretty sight.  I probably should have gone to the doctor, the burn was deceptively deep (that wasn't obvious till I debrided all the dead skin a couple of days afterwards).  Just know that a good iron set for cottons is capable of doing significant damage and be very mindful of where it is versus where your limbs are.  

Now on to the more fun quilty stuff that happened the last week.  My One Monthly Goal for September was to get all the block pieces made for the On Ringo Lake project.  I definitely bit off more than I can chew this month.  There are 8 flying geese in each block.  That's a lot of sewing and trimming.  I managed to make enough pieces to finish 5 more blocks. 

On Ringo Lake, Bonnie Hunter 2017 Mystery Quilt

The pieces for four more blocks are laying over on the sewing table waiting to be sewn into blocks.  I need about 38 for my version, so I'm about halfway there.  So not enough progress to link up with Patty's OMG post, but I'm happy to have moved the project along just a bit. 

One reason there wasn't more progress on ORL is the Halloween Mystery quilt sponsored by the local quilt shop.  It sounded like too much fun to pass up.  The third spiderweb is all stitched together. 

Halloween Mystery
designed by Carrie Randall (Quilter's Hideaway)

The strips for the fourth web are cut out.  Hopefully that block gets finished this week. Last week the assignment was to make 4 applique blocks.  I finished the two ghosts.

Halloween Mystery
designed by Carrie Randall (Quilter's Hideaway)

I'm not fond of applique, but these two weren't so bad.  With the shoulder problems last week it was nice to have something that I could finish by hand.  I've made a start on one of the two batty blocks. Those blocks need half of a Dresden plate block and I'm struggling a bit with that part.  Hopefully that will get resolved this week too.  We went to see the Scientist in Training this weekend, so I will not be able to pick up the last clue till Wednesday.  

Hopefully, I've identified all the hazards in my sewing room and October will be an injury free month.  Linking up with the usual Monday linky parties. 

Main Crush Monday
Monday Making
Monday Design Wall