WIPs and UFOs: Seeing Stars but no Angels Yet

We are getting back into the routine after graduation and the holiday weekend.  The repair guy made it to the house yesterday.  The locking mechanism on the front loading washer is bad.  He'll have to order the part.  So I'm likely to be without a washer till sometime next week.  Looks like DT will get her laundromat lesson sooner rather than later.  

On the stitching front, I've felt just a little bit lost.  I started on the graduation quilts in May of last year, so I've gotten used to the "have to sew" projects that have been calling my name.  It's been a bit strange to walk into the sewing room with nothing that has to get done.  So it's time to refocus and figure out what's the goal for the rest of the year.  There are 21 quilts on my WIPs/UFO list.  Of those 18 are UFOs  (projects that were started more than a year ago).  So I've been doing really well at finishing off all the new starts, but not getting back to projects that got put up for one reason or another.  

I joined in with Judy of Patchwork Times for her UFO-2017 campaign at the beginning of the year.  But substituted in the graduation quilts for the first 4 months of the year.  May's focus was on quilt number 11 from my 2017 Quilt Plan.  That's my Christmas Angels quilt started in 2013.  The project box contained all the pieces for the alternate blocks so the easiest thing to do was to start sewing those parts together.  But before starting on that, I needed to fix the pattern.  I didn't realize until the quilt got added to this year's project list that the seams in the alternate blocks didn't match up to the seams in the focus blocks.  It didn't look bad from a distance, but close up it looked sloppy.  So the first step was to fix the design.  That meant adjusting the focus block since no fabric had been cut for those yet.  Here's the adjusted design. 

Christmas Angels:  Self Designed

With that done, I got started on the alternate blocks. 

The centers and four patches are really a dark green, not black as they appear in the photo.  I need 12 of the alternate blocks, so I've made good progress on those.  If Judy continues the UFO challenge, she'll pick a new UFO for June.  Working on multiple projects is pretty natural to me so I'll probably keep working on these alternate blocks as they are almost done.  Whether the focus blocks get started or the whole project gets put back in the box for later will depend on what June's UFO turns out to be.  

Linking up with:
Let's Bee Social
Needle and Thread Thursday
UFO-2017 Challenge

Weekend Stitching: May One Monthly Goal Finished

It's a beautiful weekend for honoring all those who've served our country.  My father in law was injured in World War II.  He really was a man of peace, but served because it was the right thing to do.  He really was an incredible person.   Our thoughts and prayers are with those who've served and the families who've supported them.  

Our  holiday weekend started off with Drama Teen's graduation. 

We are so proud of her.  She's been accepted into the Honors College at Oklahoma State University.  So come fall she'll be on to the next set of adventures and challenges.  

We had a fun visit with the family that came for graduation this weekend.  But that meant there wasn't much weekend stitching going on till last night.  The final borders were added to the Meadow Mist Mystery quilt on Friday.  

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

I'm really happy with how this one turned out.  Getting the borders on was part of May's One Monthly Goal. The rest of the goal was to get the back made and get the project ready for Trudy to quilt.  That happened last night.

All that's left is to seal up the box and write out an address label.  So May's OMG is done.  I'm 5 for 5 on my OMG goals for 2017.  I've really enjoyed this challenge.  Picking one priority for the month has really helped me get to the finished line with a few projects this year.   

Enjoy the rest of this holiday weekend. 

Linking up with:
May One Monthly Goal Finish
Monday Making
Design Wall Monday
Main Crush Monday

Stash Stuff for Week 21 of 2017

Hope everyone in the US is having a wonderful Memorial Day weekend.  Ours has been a bit busy, but we should hit the relaxing stuff today.  I'm sitting in my recliner, drinking my first cup of coffee for the day trying to decide if I'm going to write a stash post or not.  Patchwork Times has discontinued the weekly stash report link up.  Doing a linky party is a lot of work and since stash management just wasn't a priority for her I definitely understand why she dropped it.  The stash report was my first ever linky party when I started blogging, almost seven years ago.  Having to confess those stash enhancements exercises coupled with those times I've been completely AWOL from the sewing room has lead me to develop strategies to incorporate regular sewing time into what is often a pretty hectic schedule.  So I'm a bit loath to give up on these posts as I find them useful. So here is this week's stash report.

Used last week:  0.30 yards
Used year to date:  29.28 yards
Added year to date:  188.42 yards
Net added year to date:  159.14 yards

I've not been doing such a hot job on managing the the incoming flow to the stash.  But Hancock's and Craftsy both had really good sales.  I bought some yardage of the black and a dark blue batiks from Hancock's, enough to use as background fabric.  No pictures of that addition.  But I did get some of the Craftsy additions. 

I love brights but never seem to have enough blenders, so this set of Robert Kaufman Fusions Meadow fabrics just jumped into the cart.  So did these RJR Basically Patrick fat quarters. 

To top off my week of acquisitions, I checked out the second new quilt shop in town and in the spirit of supporting a new local business walked out with a few fat quarters to use in my scrappy projects.

I need to just delete all those sale notices.  A stash enhancement diet would probably be wise for the next few months.  

On the finding time to stitch front, in spite of our busy schedule this week due to DT's high school graduation, I did manage to find 15 minutes in the sewing room 7 out of the last 7 days.  So sewing happened 140 out of the last 147 days.  Not bad.  Definitely a banner year on that front.  

Quiltpaintcreate is hosting a stash report linky for the next month.  If it catches on, she'll keep hosting the stash report linky party.  You could link up or just check out how everyone else is doing on managing their stash.    

WIPS: A Timely Finish

It's graduation week for Drama Teen, so it's been a bit busy here.  Sunday was Senior Sunday at church.  Monday night DT and I ran a few errands to get ready for the last end of school celebration and sleep over.  On Sunday, DT decided that we really needed another label for the The First Amendment quilt, one that had been signed by all the newspaper staff.  So that left me scrambling Monday night to get the second label sewn to the quilt.  The plan was to present the quilt during the end of the year journalism party yesterday.  That stitching was done and the quilt was wrapped up ready to go before I went to bed Monday night.  So now I can claim that all the graduation quilts are done!  Talk about just in time finishes.  

Here's the finished First Amendment Quilt. 

The First Amendment Quilt, pattern self designed

The First Amendment is printed in the center panel.

The panel was printed using the largest size printable fabric sheet I could find.  This quilt was for Drama Teen's journalism teacher, so that seemed to be the most appropriate theme.  The background fabric is a fake newsprint, which also seemed appropriate.  Trudy Lindemann did a wonderful job on the quilting as always.

A chain of stars in the borders.  

And loops in the star center.  

The quilt was gifted yesterday during the end of the year journalism party.  According to DT, Miss T loved the quilt.  I got a very nice hug when I got home.  Doesn't get much better than that in terms of being thanked.  

The First Amendment quilt is my forth finish this year.  Considering that I only finished 4 quilts in all of 2016 (the same for all of 2015) and it's not even June yet, this is looking to be one of my better years for finishes.  I'd like to have a shorter WIP/UFO list for 2018.  The First Amendment quilt was on my Second Quarter 2017 Finish Along list.  It was number two on my list, so I'm halfway to my goal for the quarter.  That's a good feeling too!  

Linking up with:
Let's Bee Social
Needle and Thread Thursday
Can I get a Whoop, Whoop
Second Quarter 2017 Finish Along

Weekend Stitching: The Small Design Wall

Today starts the last week of high school for Drama Teen. She's got finals all week.  Physics is Wednesday, that's the one she's really dreading.  The last day of school is Thursday.  We're hosting the annual end of school year party and sleep over that day.  The graduation quilts will be gifted then.  I've got my fingers crossed that they are liked.  I put the last stitches into The First Amendment Quilt binding last night.  Pictures have to get taken this afternoon.  It needs to be wrapped up tonight as it will be gifted on Tuesday during the journalism end of year party.  Nothing like taking it down to the wire, but they are all done!  Now I'm ready to play with some non-deadline stuff for awhile.  

I've been working on getting the final borders on the Meadow Mist Mystery quilt.  It's been taking up space on the big design wall.  The next to last border is pinned on ready for stitching, so at the moment that project is laying by the machine.  But there is stuff up on the small design wall.  This month's UFO project is the Christmas Angels quilt started back in 2013.  

All the pieces for the alternate blocks were in the project box when I pulled it off the shelf.  The path of least resistance was to start assembling these blocks.  Before I started on the assembly, I did end up tweaking the final quilt design just a bit which meant cutting new centers for these blocks.  The plan is to make progress with this project this month, it will probably not get finished.  But moving it along is better than not.  

The other project up on the small design wall is block 7 of EnProvence.

 En Provence, A Bonnie Hunter Mystery (2016)

EnProvence is my current leaders and enders project.  I'll start sewing this block together this week.  I'm hoping there is enough fabric to make 12 blocks, so I'm just at the halfway mark with this project.  The plan is to finish it before then next mystery starts.  

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