Design Wall Monday - Jan 3rd

Today is my last day of holiday vacation (Corporate decided today was our day off for New Years).  I'm hoping to spend most of it in my sewing room.  Kiddo is back to school today.  She's up and scowling at her bowl of cereal this morning.  I'm sure I'll get up tomorrow and scowl at my bowl of cereal too!  It's going to be hard to go back to work after 2 weeks off.  I'm not going to think about it till tomorrow. 

On to Design Wall Monday.  Even being off work all week, I don't seem to have much to show for it on the design wall.  I finished block 4 of the Layer Cake Quilt Along and have started on block 5. 

Layer Cake Quilt Along Block 4



Layer Cake Quilt Along Block 5

 I'm not sure I really like block 5. Trying to use 4 fabrics was worse, so I just stuck with 2. 

I had hoped to finish up 2 other quilts which just needed binding during my holiday vacation.  I've got the binding sewn on the front of one and have started had sewing it to the back. 

I've got about 2 more sides left to sew down before it's finished.  This one will probably be my first finish of 2011.  The other quilt has to be trimmed and squared before I can start binding it.  Maybe I'll get to that one later this month. 

For 2011, may your design wall never be empty, may you finish all that you start, and may all your UFOs become completed projects.  Yeah, I know, not likely, but you have a dream a little.  It's the beginning of a new year, anything is  possible!

Hop over to Judy's Patchwork Times and check out the other design walls. 

Stash Report: January 2nd

A new year.  A fresh start.  My stash busting goal for 2010 was to use more fabric than I bought.  It didn't quite work out that way, I ended 2010 very much in the red.   This year the focus will be on managing the stash, with the aim of using more than I buy.  The goal is to just finish in the black.  I've given myself a "stash enhancement budget" of 10 yards/quarter (or a little over 3 yards per month).   I have holes in my stash that need to be plugged so I can make new quilts, plus I like fabric too much to realistically expect myself to not buy any all year. 

So how did the first week of 2011 go?  Here's the stash report:

Used this week: 0.78 yards
Added this week: 0 yards

Used year to date: 0.78 yards
Added year to date: 0 yards

Net used for 2011:  0.78 yards

Not as much sewing as I had hoped for the last week.  Even though I was off work, so was my guy and kiddo.   Plus the house needed some serious attention.  Between work, weekend volleyball games, and weekend swim meets this fall and winter I missed a lot of house cleaning time (I'm not sorry for spending my time that way, but at some point you do have to deal with the chaos!) 

Whatever your stash busting/enhancement goals are for 2011, good luck with them.  Click over to Judy's Patchwork Times to see the first stash reports of 2011. 

First Photo of 2011 - Foto Finish Saturday

Happy New Year!  Today's Foto Finish post is supposed to be about new beginnings.  Here is this week's effort:

We are early risers at my house (we actually slept in till 6:30 AM this morning).  I wanted to capture the start of the new year, so I put on my coat, gloves, and scarf (it was 15 F this morning) and walked to the end of the street to catch the breaking dawn.  I love seeing the sun come up.  It's one of my favorite times of the day to photograph.  Not so much in the winter, I'm pretty much a fair weather sunrise photographer!   Even so, watching the sun come up, seeing the sky change from black to midnight blue, to just the hint of peachy pink at the horizon, turning yellow orange as the sun gets higher just takes my breath away.   Hope your 2011 has dawned bright and clear this morning.

Check out the other great beginnings over at Cat Patches Foto Finishes. 

2010 - A Review from the Quilters Perpsective

Happy New Year's Eve!   Are you staying in or going out to celebrate?  We'll stay in, eat cheese and crackers, drink some wine and hang out till midnight.  Kiddo has a sleep over tonight, so it will just be my guy and I.

How did we get to the last day of 2010?  I'm always amazed that another year has gone by.  It seems that time has sped up as I've gotten older, each year seems to pass faster then the year before.     My baby girl will turn 12 next week.  How did that happen?  When did my adorable Spiderman T-shirt clad toddler turn into this long legged, skinny jeans and boots attired pre-teen?  She'll probably pass her mother in height this next year, at least that's her goal for 2011! 

Looking back at the quilty part of my life, 2010 was a pretty good year. I met all but one of my goals.  So here's my "Annual Quilting Accomplishment Report" complete with graphics. 

Record number of quilts completed, 75% increase over previous best year. 

A 44% reduction in UFOs for the year.  Includes completion of the two oldest UFOs on the list.


*Red text indicates UFOs, defined as unfinished quilts over 1 year old. 

Stash reduction performance was poor, with over a 600% increase in stash yardage. 

Going forward, the goals for 2011 are on target to produce equal performance in both quilt completions and UFO reductions.  Stash management goals have been refined to address under performance in this area. 

I hope you enjoyed my tongue in cheek report on how my quilty life went in 2010.  How did you do on your 2010 quilting goals?  Are you willing to share the good, the bad and the ugly?  If so use Mr. Linky to share your highs and lows for 2010. 

An Old Fahsioned Mystery - Solved

Finally, a finish to celebrate.  This afternoon I managed to get the label sewn onto the mystery quilt from last year!  So one more quilt off the UFO list!

I really wanted to try a mystery quilt.  I was just discovering the quilting community on the Internet last year,  but had not really discovered blogs.  I came across a shop in Monument, CO during an afternoon of Internet shop hopping on FabShopHop.  The Homespun Hearth sponsors Agatha & Sherlock's Mystery of the Week, with new mysteries every quarter. So I signed up.  I got my packet of floral fabric, the first couple of clues and I was off sewing.   

The shop called this mystery "Parties at My Place".  When I got the fabric packet, my husband commented that it looked like "old time" fabric.  So I  named my completed quilt "Old Fashioned Mystery".  The pattern is by Debbie's Creative Moments, INC. I didn't get a good picture of the quilting, but it's a lovely floral pattern done by Trudy Lindemann of Keepn' You In Stitches.

I enjoyed getting the clues each week and trying to guess what the final quilt would look like.  It did get a bit nerve wracking a couple of times because you really only get enough fabric to finish the quilt.  There is not much extra if you mess up, which thankfully I didn't. 

If you've never done a mystery quilt you should give it a try.  I've since learned that Bonnie Hunter also posts mystery quilt alongs, as has Judy over at Patchwork Times and Planet Patchwork will be doing it's annual New Year's Day mystery again this year.  I did Planet Patchwork's summer mystery quilt and it was a lot of fun.  Though I did find that I can't sew and instant message at the same time!

Thanks for stopping by and helping me celebrate my 7th finish of the year.  I'm still hoping to bind and label two more quilts, but with just two more days of 2010 to go, I'll be lucky to get just one finished!