December One Monthly Goal, Just in Time

It's not quite the midnight hour, but a lot later than I normally am on finishing off my One Monthly Goal sewing.  

The plan for December was just to make four blocks. But I forgot just how many little pieces there are in those blocks.  The goal was to make the last 4 Twinkle star blocks to fill in the hole in the lower right corner.

Since Geek Chic is currently taking up the big design wall I couldn't put all the blocks back up, but I did find room to photograph the four blocks that will fill up that hole. 

 Twinkle Stars

Tutorial by Andrea Feldbush of Soscrappy

My favorite of this set is that last teal and pink block.  For now these four will join the rest of the blocks in the project box.  Since there are two other quilts with due dates early in 2018, Twinkle Stars will have to wait for a bit to become a finished flimsy.  

Finishing off these four blocks means that every project on the 2017 Quilt Plan saw some progress, with seven getting all the way to finished. That's a nice place to end this year and a good start on next year.

Linking up with the December One Monthly Goal finale over at Elm Street Quilts.  

Stash Stuff and Return of the 15 Minute Challenge

Happy New Year's Eve!  We aren't party people.  Our plans will be to hang out at home as much as possible today (it's too cold to run around much anyway).  I'll sew and My Guy will probably play in the kitchen some. If we can make it to midnight, we'll watch the ball drop in Oklahoma City on TV.  Not exciting, but it works for us.  The Scientist in Training isn't home this year, she's off in Florida with friends this holiday.  But she'll be home for her birthday in about a week.  

All I can say about the stash report this week is that life threw me a curve ball in that I was sick for two days.  Thankfully it wasn't the flu, but it was some stomach/respiratory thing that came with a massive headache for two days.  I made it to the sewing room, but not a lot got done.  So though there is some out this week, it's not the big push I was hoping for.

Used last week:  0.52 yards
Used year to date:  57.43 yards

So I'd need to use 2.5 yards to break 60 yards out for the year. I'll never say never, but it's not likely.  I'll give a full accounting in my 2017 wrap up post later this week.  

Now for the other part of the stash stuff.  Those who've followed me for while know that I try to spend 15 minutes every day in the sewing room.  That started as a way to deal with a complete lack of sewing mojo back in 2011.  That personal challenge to myself was so useful that in March of that year I started up a weekly linky party for anyone who wanted to join me in the challenge of finding 15 minutes of stitching time each day.  I stopped the linky party in 2013 as it became too hard for me to reliably write a post that went live on Tuesday and interest waned in the challenge.  There's been some interest in some of the newer bloggers I've met in applying the challenge to see if it helps them find time in their busy lives to do more in the sewing room (and some interest from past participants as well). So I'm going to restart the challenge on a trial basis for the first quarter of 2018.  Here's the details (and a new button):

When: Linky party will go live on Sundays, as part of my usual stash report

What:  Just report how many days of the week you found time to stitch (If you decide 15 minutes is too much or not enough, set your own challenge time). What you count as stitching time is also up to you, I count time in EQ designing projects and making quilt labels as stitching time since it advances a project towards completion. 

How:  You can track it any way you want to.  I'm a spreadsheet kinda gal, so I do my tracking in Excel with way more statistics than anyone could possibly want.  But here's what my spreadsheet looks like.  

But you could do as well with a bullet journal or whatever tracking tool you use for your quilting projects. 

Hope to see you next Sunday for the revived 15 Minute Challenge link up.  

Linking up as always with Quiltpaintcreate for the weekly stash update.  

2018 UFO Challenge: The Quilts and the Plan

In 2017 my plan wasn't so much about finishing UFOs as it was about finishing quilts that had deadlines.  Namely the graduation quilts that had to be done by May.  All three of the graduation quilts got done, as well as four other quilts that came off or were kept off the UFO list by being finished.  So seven finishes all together, that ties my best ever total in a year.

In 2017, I learned that setting priorities is key to moving things off the list. Participating in the the One Monthly Goal over at Elm Street Quilts will help set the priority each month.  Linking up with American Patchwork and Quilting's 2018 UFO Challenge and with Patchwork Time's 2018 UFO Challenge will provide some accountability.  Hopefully all of this leads to finishes in 2018.  

There is one rule for the UFO challenges that I've decided not to follow.  I won't be selecting the UFO by following the monthly drawing. Some of these projects have deadlines, so they'll need to be first in line no matter what numbers get drawn.  

January:   Geek Chic (aka Scientist in Training Quilt)
     Status:  Assembling quilt (no photo as the SIT follows my blog)
     Due Date:  January 14, 2018

February:  Magnolia Mystery Quilt
     Status:  Piecing blocks
     Due Date:  Finished Flimsy by February 15, 2018

  Magnolia Mystery by Cheryl Brickey of
Meadow Mist Designs

March:  Vintage Dresses
     Status:  Framing blocks to standard size
     Due date:  May 2018 (graduation quilt)

 Vintage Dresses blocks by Charise Randell, Setting by Kate

April:  En Provence, Bonnie Hunter 2016 Mystery
     Status:  Needs backing pieced

 En Provence, A Bonnie Hunter Mystery (2016)

May:  Christmas Angels
     Status:  Piecing Blocks
     Due Date:  December 2018

 Christmas Angels  Pattern by Kate

June:  Red, White and Blue Stars
     Status:  Piecing Blocks

  Red, White and Blue Stars, Setting by Kate

July:  Inverted Stars
     Status:  Piecing border blocks

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

August:  Twinkle Star Quilt
     Status:  Piecing blocks

Twinkle Stars
Tutorial by Andrea Feldbush of Soscrappy

September:  On Ringo Lake, Bonnie Hunter's 2017 Mystery
     Status: Piecing blocks
     Due Date:  November 22, 2018 

On Ringo Lake, Bonnie Hunter 2017 Mystery Quilt

October:   Fans (2017 RSC Project)
     Status:  Piecing blocks

November:  Scrappy Butterflies
     Status:  Needs setting plan

Scrappy Butterflies
Block is available in EQ 7 Block Library

December:  Neutral Gems
     Status:  Piecing Blocks

  Neutral Gems Pattern is "Gems" by Donna Lynn Thomas
found in the book Patchwork Palette

So that's the UFO list for 2018.  If I finish one project early, I'll just move on to the next.  Even if I don't get all of these to the finish line, I'm hoping to advance each to at least the next step.  Hopefully that will mean more finishes in 2019.  

The Best of 2017 at Life in Pieces

As the year winds to a close, Cheryl of Meadow Mist Designs is hosting a linky party to highlight your five best posts of 2017.  

How you define "best" is up to you. My top five are below.  You can click on the blog title to see the full blog post.  

1.  Largest number of views (468): Christmas in March, which featured the completion of Poinsettias. 

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

This was my long term leaders and enders project.  It's not perfectly done, but it turned out perfectly for me.  This quilt was gifted to a co-worker as a retirement present.  

2.  Most comments (27):  But First Coffee from October

Scrappy Coffee Cups (aka But First Coffee)

Block patterns from Karen F. Srebro and Janet McCarroll

publised in Block Magic and Block Magic Too by

Nancy Johnson-Srebro

But First Coffee is my first every Rainbow Scrap quilt started in 2012.  It was recently gifted to My Guy for Christmas.  He loves it.  I had told him earlier that it was a gift for someone else in the family and he responded that it didn't need to go, it could stay and live with us.  Little did he know that was my intention.  

3.  Most Facebook likes (661):  Progress on Mystery Stuff:  En Provence 

 En Provence, A Bonnie Hunter Mystery (2016)

I reposted the finished En Provence on Facebook.  I don't do much on Facebook, so was really surprised at all the likes and comments on the post.  I really like my version of En Provence.  Hopefully it will be an early finish in 2018. 

4.  Most Pins on Pinterest (8) Finished My Geometry Assignment

Geometry
Self Designed

Geometry was one of four graduation quilts commissioned by the Scientist in Training for friends and teachers.  Both of us were really happy with how it turned out. It was a big hit with the future math major who received it too.   

5.  My Favorite Post:  Finishing Blooms and Butterflies

Blooms and Butterflies
Back Porch Bloom block by Lea Anne Brummett,
setting by Kate

Blooms and Butterflies was a quilt for me.  I love the crisp white with the scrappy blue and reds.  It's been very nice to cuddle under this winter. 

That's my Best of 2017.  Linking up over at Meadow Mist Designs.  Now it's time for more hot tea while I check out the other Best of 2017 posts. 

2018 Quilting Ambitions

As the year winds down, it's just natural to start considering plans for next year.  Yvonne's 2018 Planning Party gives bloggers a great opportunity to share ambitions the upcoming year.  I played along last year.  Here's how this year worked out and what the ambitions are for 2018.  

This past year has been productive on a couple of fronts and less so on others.  The biggest accomplishment was finishing seven quilts this year, that ties my all time best.  Plus there was some progress on each of the twelve quilts on my 2017 quilt plan.  Finding time to sew each day was another area of success.  But, managing the stash didn't go so hot this year.  Considering the success and failures for 2017, should I be doing something different for 2018?  

It's obvious from this last year that getting to the sewing room and setting priorities on what happens when I get there makes a huge difference in what gets done.  So do the 2018 ambitions focus on what worked this year or do I set a higher priority on the areas that didn't go so hot?   

Here's what I finally decided should be the focus for 2018. 

1.  Shorten the UFO list.  I've been holding at 17 UFOs for the last three years. 

It's not the same quilts on the list, a few come off, but others go on. I'd like to have no more than 10 quilts on the UFO list by the end of 2018. 

2.  Participate in select quilt along/mysteries. As much as I want to reduce the UFO list, not starting new projects just takes the joy out of the sewing room.  But I'll limit my participation to just three with the intent that all of them will pull from existing stash (see ambition 4).

• Rainbow Scrap Challenge
• Meadow Mist Plus Sign Sampler Quilt Along
• Bonnie Hunter Mystery

3. Find 15 minutes to stitch each day. I did really well at this in 2017 and it showed in the project progress.  It will be a challenge to do as well with this in 2018.  One change I'm going to try for 2018 is to spend the first 15 minutes (maybe the only 15 minutes)  on that month's priority project.  Hopefully that will help meet ambition number 1.   

4.   Stash Management/Organization.  This is my number one challenge each year.  I like fabric, but I'm really out of storage space, so the incoming needs to slow down for a bit. 

• Limit purchases to no more than 5 yards a quarter
• Spend 30 minutes each week organizing the sewing room                and the stash
•  Any new projects have to use stash fabrics only
• Pick blocks for this year's Rainbow Scrap Challenge that use scraps that are already cut to size. 

5.  Blog at least once a week.  My blog activity took a big nose dive after I switched positions back in June.  It doesn't look like things will be any better in 2018, so I'm going to scale back my blogging ambitions until I can figure out how to get in both my sewing and personal computer time when I've often got "homework"  in the evening and on weekends.  

Not the most original set of ambitions, but I really want to get that UFO list whitted down. Well that and I want to use up some stash.  If I can make both of those things happen in 2018, I'll count it an excellent year.  

You can check out all the other 2018 quilty ambitions posted over at Quilting Jetgirl.