day 60 update

its time for the 60 day check-in in the 100 day challenge - well that was 10 days ago so hopefully Jen over at Quilter in the Closet won't notice I'm a little late !!

My projects for this year's challenge were:

1. sew the Aurifil 2014 BOM blocks and finish the quilt top - blocks finished
2. sew the Foxley Village 2016 BOM blocks and finish the quilt top
3. FMQ and complete my cousin Susan's quilt (top done in 2011)
4. and make a Plus quilt from start to finish (new project but being planned for a while !)

Since my day 30 update I've been working on the Foxley Village BOM quilt and I've completed the houses block

a little progress !

at the beginning of January I posted about my UFO/WISP plans for 2017.  I’m concentrating on a handful of projects at a time to try and get some finished.

I was thinking a quarterly update would be fine but then I thought that I should do an update each month to keep these projects uppermost in my thoughts as I've discovered I'm very much an "out of sight out of mind" kind of girl !

I'm happy to say I've actually made some progress on most of the UFOs on my current list !

1. Bubbles block info

I’ve made another block and have three more to do - my deadline for these is March !

100 day challenge check-in

its time for a 30 day update in the 100 day challenge being organised by Jen over at Quilter in the Closet and I'm excited to show some progress !!

My projects for this challenge were:

sew the Aurifil 2014 BOM blocks and finish the quilt top
sew the Foxley Village 2016 BOM blocks and finish the quilt top
FMQ and complete my cousin Susan's quilt (top done in 2011)
and make a Plus quilt from start to finish (new project but being planned for a while !)

I've actually finished the blocks for my Aurifil 2014 BOM and now I need to sew the sashing and finish the quilt top.

There's also been a teeny bit of progress on my Foxley Village BOM - I've got the fabrics sorted for the houses block and the Tea Shoppe block is almost ready to be appliqued - this block was ready to sew a while ago but I decided the fabric I chose for the front of the shop was way too busy so I've replaced it !

I haven't made any progress on the actual quilting of my cousin's quilt or the St Kilda quilt but I hope to work on both of them this month !

Hopefully I'll have some more progress to show in another 30 days :)

2014 Aurifil Designer of the Month

I'm so excited that I've actually finished the blocks for the 2014 Auriful Designer of the Month sew along - after two and a half years it only took two weekends to get the 5 missing blocks done !!

I'm really not sure what happened in 2014 for me to stop making the blocks - obviously someone yelled squirrel !! eeek I am so easily distracted !

These are the blocks I'd already done - I really love the fabrics !

100 day challenge

I'm joining with Jen (Quilter in the Closet) again this year for the 100 day challenge - I seem to have a lot more confidence for getting goals achieved this year - maybe its getting older that's doing it !!

2017 quilt project planning

It seems a lot of quilters are planning their goals for this year and like me are taking a different approach to goal setting !!

With so many projects on the go and after a few years of planning and not getting things done or planning and then doing totally different projects I've decided to do things differently this year and only plan a handful of projects that I'd like to get done.

I'm hoping that by having a list with only a few hand sewing and machine sewing projects on it I might actually get some finished which might just motivate me to keep going - I'm also allowing myself a couple of new projects so I don't think I'm missing out altogether !

First on my short-term short list is the Bubbles Bee - this is a Flickr bee and its my only commitment this year - I only have four more blocks to make for this Bee and one of them is already overdue from November !!

2014 - a sort of plan !

so I've been thinking about all the quilts that I want to make and all the tops that I want to quilt and wondering when I'll get them done!

I'm joining up with the 2014 Finish-Along again this year (which is being hosted by Katy at The Littlest Thistle) and I really hope to do way better than last year - I only got one finish done last year - having said that I did get a few tops done !  I'm also going to try and join up each month to the 2014 A Lovely Year of Finishes to try and get a few smaller projects done.

I also read on Carrie's lavieenrosie blog the other day about Passion 48 - it was something that was started by the staff of American Patchwork and Quilting last year and it involves working on one project for one hour per week (with four weeks off for holidays etc - hence 48 !)  I have a few quilts that I want to make that will take a while to do and I thought that concept was a great idea - slowly but surely they will get done !

So the projects that are going into my Passion 48 list are...

the Single Girl Quilt...

the Polka Dot Dresden...

and the HexyMF quilt...

I'm in no rush but I'd like to get them done !

I also cleaned out my linen press over Christmas - its where I keep my finished and almost finished quilt tops as well as backings for quilts yet to be made.  I counted 15 tops finished and ready for quilting, 2 tops that need borders, and 10 backing and binding fabric sets for quilts that are waiting to be made - that's not including the three mentioned above !

I'm a third of the way through straight line quilting this one - "through the trees" so that leaves only 14 still in the cupboard !

I also have other fabrics put away in plastic tubs waiting to be made into quilts but they will have to wait until later (much later) !  there are two exceptions - the Spinning Stars quilt and the keep calm quilt, both of which I'd like to get done this year.

of course, today I just discovered the 2014 Pantone Quilt Challenge and having quite a few purple fabrics it does sound interesting ! 

I'm also currently doing a weekly sew along (Quilty Fun) that finishes in March, and a continuing bom (Modern Blocks QAL) that will finish mid way through the year.  I've also decided to do four other boms (including a paper pieced bom by my friend Kristy at Quiet Play) - its a good way to get some of my fabrics off the shelf and into a quilt !  I also think that doing boms are a bit like the Passion 48 project - you just work on one block a month. Of course I'll still be doing blocks and quilts for the Care circle at do.good stitches.

I made two of the January blocks this month - the first one is the large centre block for the Globetrotting mystery block of the month by Pat Sloan.  I'm using some yellow and grey floral fabrics I bought in a bundle from Spotlight a while ago that I really wanted to get rid of use up and pulled some coordinating fabrics from my stash !

I also made the January block for the 2014 Aurifil Designer Block of the Month - I am using fabrics from some blogger's bundles that I get each month from the Fat Quarter Shop - I find that a lot of the bundles play so well together !

It was also handy to get these blocks done so I could use them for blog buttons - I find it so much easier to have the links on my blog so that I don't have to remember website addresses each month - I just link direct from the buttons on my sidebar !

so my plan is just to plod along and try and get as many projects done as I can !  I've got a long list for the 2014 Finish-Along already but I think I'll try and keep it to only a few projects a quarter and try and get them done - I really got sick of seeing the same projects in each quarter last year.

actually, I was rushing to get a quilt bound in time for the link-up for the last quarter and discovered that I hadn't even put it on the list - I had listed it for Q1, 2, and 3 so I'd obviously decided to forget it !!

I have to put this cute little quilt on the first quarter list - I made it over the christmas break - the catvent quilt along by Elizabeth Hartman !

but for the next little while I'll be finishing the Doll Quilt Swap 14 quilt that is due to be posted in 11 days - as I'm wanting to get so many of my ufos and other projects done this year I've decided not to take part in any more swaps!

hope you have your plans for 2014 sorted !

2013 resolutions

at the end of last year while frantically trying to get ahead in my swap commitments I decided that 2013 was going to be all about me ... and getting my ufos finished rather than joining in any swaps or starting new projects.

Well of course before the new year started I signed up for two block of the months for 2013 !

Kristy from Quiet Play is hosting - And Sew On - a sewing related paper pieced block of the month- I like the idea of making a wall hanging for my sewing room so I just had to join in :)


I also signed up to the Sugar Block Club - a block of the month with a sweet treat being run by Amy Gibson who hosted the craftsy BOM that I did last year - I signed mum up as well so we will be doing it together - long distance style !

I'll still be taking part in the design camp swap which finishes in a few months and the Star of Africa swap which finishes mid year - and I'm also continuing with the do.good stitches care circle - this year I'm a quilter as well which I'm really looking forward to.

I've also joined a few craftsy classes - mainly to learn free motion quilting and thankfully there aren't any projects to be finished with those - only practice - phew !

But apart from those (hopefully I'll have some time left !) I've joined two groups to focus on finishing my ufos.

Leanne from she can quilt is hosting the 2013 finish a long where you nominate projects to get finished each quarter.  I'm going to concentrate on getting some of my quilt tops turned into finished quilts with this finish-a-long - luckily I've got a few days before I have to post about what projects I'm going to tackle first as I have quite a list to go through !

I was also invited to join a lovely year of finishes group being hosted by Shanna at fiber of all sorts and Melissa of bittersweet designs - this group will focus on one project a month with a bit more finishing off and catching up rather than having a totally finished quilt - so hopefully I can add my overdue swap blocks to this one :)

I'm going to list all of my ufos as a separate page so I can cross them off as I go - maybe I should call it my wall of shame !!
I'm really looking forward to cutting it down by the end of the year.

With mum's machine arriving next week I'm hoping to be able to do more quilting and get those tops done - I'm happy to straight line quilt as well as trying to learn some free motion quilting - mum's machine will make any quilting easier than my wonderful (but not built for quilting) Elna :)

so how about you - do you have a list of 2013 resolutions ?

here's to hopes and dreams and sticking to those new year resolutions :)