January and a New Year of Goals

Goals for January~
First up is the New Year's Day Mystery that I started on that day. My friend Janie joined me and she is making one too. Her fabrics are much different, both are scrappy. My goal is to finish this quilt top by the end of the month for a Lovely Year of Finishes. Half of the Anvil blocks are ready...

The remaining are cut, marked, ready to be sewn into HSTs and into blocks for a total of 40...

Alternating blocks are also cut, ready to mark and sew into 40 large HSTs. This is the layout:

This is my January goal for A Lovely Year of Finishes

Second is to work on the next blocks for Amaretto Cottage, a BOM that Janie and I are working on together. Janie is using the fabrics sent with the kit. I am pulling from my CW stash. We are on Block 5 and working at our own pace (Originally a 2012 BOM) My first four blocks...

and this week I made my log cabin blocks for month 5... 

Eight plus four corner blocks for a total of 12. Love that gold and cheddar Jo Morton fabric!

These are Janie's first blocks in her fabrics...

She is coming by today to finish her log cabin blocks and share our progress on the NYD Mystery. 

Third is to work on the design of my Tree of Life quilt and finish this top too!...

Center field is finished. Adding more HSTs for a pieced inner border. Outer border to be added in the red fabric. Almost a flimsy, then it will be set aside until I have my second longarm set up and ready to go! I am so excited!!! 

Which brings me another goal for 2014... to get to know my new machine (once it arrives :0) again, so exciting! Looking forward to working on and improving my machine quilting skills. There is so much beautiful machine quilting being done by some amazing quilters, I want to learn as much as I possibly can. Practice, practice and then practice some more! 

One new 2014 BOM I am doing for sure is Barbara Brackman's 2014 BOM Threads of Memory. Each block will be posted the last Saturday of the month on her Civil War blog. 

The Mystery quilt is my goal for a finish in January for A Lovely Year of Finishes with Bitter Sweet Designs. I really enjoyed the motivation to finish UFOs last year with Carrie at A Passion for Applique.  I would be sew very happy to finish 12 projects in 2014!!!

What are your goals? 

Enjoy a New Year!

UFOs for November

Well, my list doesn't look much different from October's! I did make progress on the Tree of Life project...

Not pictured are more HST's sewn into sashing that will go around the center block or as a sawtooth border or both. Will see how many there are left when I get there ;0) Brandie (ABC blog) and I are planning to get together and get her started on growing some trees!

Still have these two to get back to. Backing for the flimsy above and to finish the blue and white top below.

One of my distractions is a BOM one of my customers wants to make. She asked me to help her with the blocks. It's a gorgeous quilt called Amaretto Cottage, a 2012 BOM by Marianne Elizabeth of Classically Home.

It's gorgeous as are the fabrics! Wouldn't this be nice in Civil War fabrics! Several of the blocks are the same or similar to blocks we made in Barbara Brackman's BOW and in her Civil War Sampler book.

Janie and I will be meeting today to finish the first block and set some goals. She is doing amazing, recovering from knee surgery, she is ready to get going on this beauty!

I am linking to Carrie's ~ A Passion for Applique ~ Nothing But UFOs in 2013...

November, wow this year wrapping up too fast! Holiday commercials are up and running. The wind looks like it's let up for today. After 3 or 4 days of wind, it's really looking like Fall around here!

Enjoy your day, stitching away! 

UFOs for October

Back to business now that Annie's Star quilt show is behind us, it took me about three days to recover. Lots of work, sweat and tears but I think it's one of the best shows we've had. Thanks to Brandie and Suzanne leading a herd of guild members and committees. Job well done to all!

I am sew looking forward to starting some new projects, especially with all the goodies I purchased from our vendors at the show! But I am going to be good and work on UFOs. Not going to pretend there won't be any new projects started as I already know I will be joining in with Lori's new SAL 'Faithful'. It's perfect as I have a tub of HSTs. I always make an extra stitch and keep the cut off from previous projects with snowballs and flying geese. Wait... does that make them UFOs?! ;0D

First on my list is a Tree of Life quilt. It will be a small quilt and it's made from HSTs, all the cut offs from the snowballs in my big red and white quilt that I had in the show. OK, my name is Jo and I am frugal, OCD, fabric hoarder, fabraholic... you pick! Yes... but... is it worth it?...

#2 is a really old UFO...  it's even made with old vintage calico from the 90s (refer to above)!

#3 A blue and white quilt started last year. Oh, oh, more HSTs... (again, refer to above ;0)

I am linking up to A Passion for Applique ~ Carrie's Nothing But UFOs.

Check out what other quilters and projects are 'in the works' for October. Hummmm, I don't have any Fall projects started to work on. May have to fix that. Hopeless. Thank you for visiting!

Enjoy the day, stitching away

UFOs for September

With one quilt finish in August, that carries two projects into September and adding a third to get that one on it's way to getting finished...

1. First up is my Medallion made earlier this year with Lori and Randy's SAL...

To do: finish FMQing, binding and a label. That's doable and a have to do this month for ASQG quilt show. Deadlines, like I don't have enough going on. Why do we do this to ourselves? Gets me up in the mornings.

2... a UFO since 2005. A mystery quilt pieced in one day with Planet Patchwork

Also doable as most of the quilting was done last year. The hangup... there is a ziplock bag containing the thread that I used, fabric for the binding and scraps for the label. That bag exists somewhere, problem is I have not been able to find out where it's hiding!
To do: find that bag, finish the quilting, binding and a label.

3... is a UFO from 2002, a BOM with Claudia's Quilt Shoppe. This pattern is still available on their website! The fabrics are vintage... all calico scraps from the 90's. Yikes!

The top is pieced. To do: Piece the backing, quilt, binding and attach the label that is ready :0) I am hoping when I pull the fabrics for this one, maybe I'll find that ziplock bag. Just thought of another place it might be in a stack of (clean/unused :0) pizza boxes I use for storing BOMs and BOWs in progress. I also made a small version of this quilt with the same fabrics. It's a finish.

I am linking up with Carrie's Nothing But UFOs. With one week into the month, I better get going!

 Enjoy the day, stitching away

UFOs for August

I am joining in on Carrie's blog, a Passion for Applique, for her Nothing But UFOs for August.
She has some wonderful applique and needlework projects on her list. There is a linky to see what 3 projects everyone has on their list for August. Thank you Carrie!

#1 is a true UFO from 2005, the top was made in five hours! for a One Day Mystery by Planet Patchwork. A quilting friend from St.Louis, Mary Kay was visiting and we worked together. I had all the preliminary cuts ready, she did the sub cuts while I sewed and together we were able to keep up and finish the top. We even changed the design a little. That was on July 30, 2005 and now eight years later still waiting to be finished! Most of the quilting is started, have a little more SID to do, then add binding and a label for a complete finish!

#2  I can't wait to start on is quilting my Medallion SAL that I did with Lori and Randy. It's wonderful to have so many talented quilters and needle artists that share their time in Blogland!

Using a wool batting, my plan is for some crosshatch behind the center block, lots of SID, outline stitches with a 1/8 inch echo around all of the applique with some feathers along the borders, or maybe piano keys, will see when I get there!

#3 is the quilting on my Willow Weave top made for Aunt Reen's Place  June Jelly Roll...

Note:  ** Doreen has a new project posted yesterday! Check out the Hexie table runner for her August Sew Along using 5 inch charms. More fun ** I know, my bad! It's so hard not to start new projects! and this one is Hexies!!! I'll go to my (sewing) room now :0)

Enjoy the day stitching away!