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 :)

January Quilty 365 (2017 edition) linkup

Welcome to the first Quilty 365 linkup for 2017 !!

I'm so excited to be doing this project and the linkup - I know there are a few people continuing from last year and hopefully a few, like me, who are just starting it (if you missed the news that I''m continuing Audrey's Quilty 365 project and hosting the linkups in 2017, you can read about it here). 

I'm making squircles on 4 1/2 inch background blocks - I'll be using Audrey's maths to work out the exact amount of blocks needed but it will be at least 365 of them.  When I visited Audrey's blog thsi week I noticed how many pieced circles she used - it makes for an awesome bunch of blocks !

here are my January blocks - they are laid out in day order for the monthly photo !

there are already quite a few favourite fabrics among them and still a few blocks to be sewn.

I'm on day 32 and although I'd love to be keeping up with the sewing I'm happy if I can pick the fabrics each day.  I've got a little notebook that I'm writing what I use for each block and if I have a reason for picking that fabric !  I think it will be fun to look back on - can you guess what day it was that The Ghastly Cats appear ?

 

I've decided to piece some circles as well as have weeks of colour themes otherwise I might just end up with a pink circle quilt !!  Although looking at my selection so far, while there are a few pinks, there are also a range of other colours so it mightn't be too bad !

   

    An InLinkz Link-up

   

Sugar Block Club 3.0

I'm so excited to share all of my finished blocks from last year's Sugar Block Club 3.0 - a free BOM run by Amy Gibson of Stitchery Dickory Dock !

I made 6 blocks in 2016 (photos here) so I'm happy that I've managed to finish the final 6 at the beginning of 2017 - this might be one of my faster quilts - ha !!

October's Bear Tracks

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 !

quilty365

Audrey over at Quilty Folk started a Quilty 365 project in November 2015 - she started making circle blocks with a 4 1/2 inch square background with the aim of making one block a day for a year - picking fabrics that feel right each day !

As others wanted to join in this project Audrey started a monthly linky party for everyone to link up their monthly blocks.

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 !!

we have a winner !

thanks so much to everyone for visiting to see what I made for the First Blush blog hop - it was so fun to read everyone's comments and I was happy there was so much positive chat about my use of the dark background - phew !!

Unfortunately there were quite a few who left comments but I couldn't reply to as they are no-reply commenters or otherwise their link goes straight to their Google Plus page and there aren't any contact details there - so if you didn't hear from me then you may be in this group.  My friend Rachael of Blue Mountain Daisy has a little post on her blog about this.  I know that Blogger changed things a while ago which has caused issues - probably the easiest thing to do is leave your email when you comment - longhand of course !!

anyway onto the winner of the fabulous prize !! thanks to Windham Fabrics and Aurifil our winner will receive a fat quarter bundle of First Blush fabrics (that's 33 fat quarters) and a box of 10 small Aurifil 50wt threads to match First Blush- woohoo !!

I used Mr RNG who picked comment #127

Congratulations Gloria - I'll send you an email shortly :)

thanks again to everyone for visiting and have a wonderful day !!

First Blush Kaleidoscope quilt

it's my day on the First Blush blog hop and I'm excited to show you the Kaleidoscope quilt I made !

After receiving the bundle of sweet First Blush fabric by Ruby Red Designs I had so many ideas of what to make and then I spotted the new Summer Breeze Kaleidoscope pattern by It's Sew Emma.

I decided to go with a charcoal background even though my initial thought was to go with white and I love how the luscious spring and summery colours really pop against the darker fabric !

It was a fun pattern to make and I really love the finished quilt.

I also have enough triangle leftovers to make another fun quilt - always love being able to use leftovers!!

While I was making the quilt I found it so hard to keep it a secret and not post photos !! so to keep myself entertained I played around with the Prism app and I think the mosaic filter is fabulous :)

First Blush is now available in stores so check your favourite retailers for the collection. You can also join in the planned Block of the Month that the Fat Quarter Shop is running.

First Blush Hop Schedule (US time):

Monday, October 10 – Chris Dodsley, Made by Chrissie D

http://madebychrissied.blogspot.com/

Tuesday, October 11 – Sinta at Pincushion

http://pinkpincushion.blogspot.com/

Wednesday, October 12 -  Fat Quarter Shop - plus an extra special giveaway !

http://fatquartershop.blogspot.com/

Thursday, October 13- Windham/Two Blondes and a Sewing Machine

https://windhamfabrics.wordpress.com/

Friday, October 14- Jennie at Clover and Violet

http://www.cloverandviolet.com/

Saturday, October 15- Aurifil- Hillary Jordan

https://auribuzz.wordpress.com/

Sunday, October 16- Tina Egner

http://www.onelittlepooh.net

Monday, October 17 – Kristyne Czepuryk

http://prettybyhand.com

Tuesday, October 18 – Allison Harris

http://cluckclucksew.com

Wednesday, October 19 – Erin Cox

http://whynotsew.blogspot.com

Thursday, October 20 – Angie Wilson Gnome Angel

http://www.gnomeangel.com/blog-4/

Friday, October 21 – Debbie at happy little cottage

http://happylittlecottage.blogspot.com

Saturday, October 22 – Heidi Staples - and an extra special giveaway !

http://fabricmutt.blogspot.com

Sunday, October 23 – its my day right here !!

http://www.daisyandjackhandmade.com

Monday, October 24- Greg Jones Grey Dogwood Studio

http://greydogwoodstudio.com

Tuesday, October 25- Wendy Sheppard Ivory Spring

https://ivoryspring.wordpress.com

Wednesday, October 26 – Stephanie Lynn Denton

http://creativereveries.blogspot.com

Thursday, October 27 – Lisa Ruble

http://lovetocolormyworld.blogspot.com

Every day of the blog hop you have a chance to win a bundle of First Blush fabric from Windham Fabrics, along with a small First Blush thread box from Aurifil.

Giveaway now closed :)
How do you win ? just visit each blog and leave a comment on the daily blog posts !

The giveaway is open from Monday 10 October to Thursday 27 October (US time) and its also open to everyone worldwide - woohoo !

Winners will be chosen randomly from comments posted on blog posts and will be announced on Friday 28 October - so make sure you leave a comment and don't forget to leave an email address so I can contact you :)

Thanks so much to Crystal at Windham Fabrics for organising this hop and thanks so much for visiting my blog today - don't forget to check out the others on the hop for more chances to win !!