HAPPY NEW YEAR, 2017!!

Another year is over!  Wow!  A new year to plan for and think about.

Before we get to that, here is one of the baby quilts/wall hanging that I finished before Christmas.  The panel was found at a quilt show that had a "store" of items from the members.  It has a hanging sleeve in case someone wants to hang it up, or it can be a baby quilt.  It hasn't found a home yet.

I made this robe for Abby at the last minute and it fits!

Here is Abby opening her gift from our DS#3/DIL.  A sewing kit!  My DIL sent the box and I helped her fill it with supplies.  The small Altoid tin has pins in it.  Abby is anxious to start sewing more (a friend of hers got a sewing machine for Christmas).  Hopefully, we can get started soon.  With the holiday, some sickness in the family, etc.  we haven't been able to start yet.

Here she is with her robe on.

I haven't really made a complete list of goals, but here is what I have thought of so far:

1.  Secret project
2.  Finish Dear Jane quilt this year
3.  Finish American Crossroads - the blocks are all done.
4.  Continue working on Bowdacious, a Bonnie Hunter design - I have about 12 blocks done.
5.  Make a Christmas wall hanging - "Merry Trails" from the Quiltmania magazine, Dec. 2015.
6.  Make a quilt out of men's shirts for GS for next Christmas - I have Virginia Bound finished for his brother.
7.  Use up fabric - try really hard to make things with fabric I have on hand.

That's enough!  I also want to make lap size patriotic quilts for veterans in hospice - a project from my quilt guild.

Happy New Year to all you dear readers/friends!

NEW GLOVES FOR CHRISTMAS!

Not winter gloves - quilting gloves.  See them below.  My old pair was practically shredded!  I asked Santa for a new pair and he did it!

Here's a few other items I received.  Smoked salmon!  A couple books!  I even found a recipe for smoked salmon quiche in the recipe book.  I think I'll make it!

I also asked for a boot cleaner.  When I go for walks my hiking boots pick up all kinds of stuff and it's very hard to get it out of the grooves on the bottom and the sides of the boots.  This should do the trick!

Time to make some more Dear Jane blocks.  Besides these three from Row G, there are 2 more prepped.  I might be able to squeeze a couple more in before the end of the year, hopefully.

Amazingly, I am finding it easier to get these done, probably because practice makes perfect and I have been doing a lot of PPing and appliqué with the first 6 rows.  I'm thinking about setting a goal of getting a row finished each month.  There are 6 more rows after this one (which I doubt I'll finish by Thursday), so if I set that goal and meet it I would finish the center blocks by the end of June.  I haven't set the goal yet, I'm just thinking about it.

I'm going to think about some other goals for 2016 as well.  Are you going to set goals? 

GOALS FOR 2013

Before I bore you with my goals/UFOs, I'll show you what I worked on over the weekend.

I finished the six baskets that I prepped 3 different ways.  The ones I prepped in #1, which was using the magic sizing to stick the seam allowance onto the back, worked the best and was the easiest applique to accomplish.  I prepped 3 more like that to do this week.  All the baskets came out ok, but I wasn't satisfied with methods #2 & #3.

Here's a picture of all the baskets I've finished so far (on my design door).

I also decided to do the QAL that Lori posted on her blog.  It's a small one this year.  I can't believe all the problems I had while putting it together.  First, the needle broke and when I put in the new needle, I couldn't get my automatic needle threader to work.  Then I lost one of the large triangles for the flying geese on the middle star and had to cut another one (found 1st one under a cabinet).  While cutting some fabric for the second round, I cut off the corner of the sawtooth star and had to replace the corner square.  When I made the brown/pink flying geese, I cut the brown square the wrong size, made the 4 FG and thought - they sure look different than normal - had to do those over again.  Then I misplaced one of the cheddar pieces and had to hunt for it - it was folded in a piece of pink fabric!   don't know what my problem was, but I finally got the top finished!!  Yea!

I cut a bunch of 1" strips to use in my log cabin blocks from the scrap bag I got.  There's still a lot of fabric left from the bag.


So far I have 196 block finished.  I'm not sure how big I will make it, but I figured if I had 225 blocks, it would measure about 71" square.  I'm going to want it to fit on a bed.

I have quite a few UFO's which I will list and will put an asterisk next to the ones that are a priority.  I have 3 categories of projects:  hand work, which includes embroidery, appliqué, quilting and sewing bindings; quilts; and Miscellaneous projects, such as finishing an embroidery project into a pillow or wall hanging.

Handwork

1.  Over the River and Through the Woods wall hanging - 2 panels of embroidery are finished, one more to do, then it goes into the quilt category.

2. * Baskets for You BOM - applique 12 baskets per month for 10-12 (?) months and then a large floral design in the middle.  I don't want to get behind on the baskets, so will try to do them as soon as I get them from the quilt shop.

3.  Finish flower basket appliqué project that I won from Lori, then decide if I want to make more & how to use in quilt.  Almost finished with one.

4.  Enlarge my GMF lap quilt by about 4 rows all the way around.

Quilts

1.  *Civil War Quilt - the blocks are ready to put together.  It's ready to baste.
2.  **Quilt for DIL - machine appliqué  - Need to finish by March birthday.
3.  **2 secret quilts - Need to finish by September - I'm almost to the point of putting the blocks together.  *As of 5/7/13, the blocks are put together and I'm starting to put the borders together.    As of 9/9/13, one quilt is finished and the other is ready to baste and quilt.
4.  Red Hexie mini quilt - almost finished and ready to be layered - idea from JoAnn - Thread Head.
5.  A Tisket A Tasket applique basket quilt - 8 baskets are done, need to do 4 more and then make into a quilt.
6.  Veranda Views - all embroidery is finished - need to make into blocks and put together.
7.  Oak Leaves & Turkey Feathers wall hanging - started, but not much done - machine applique and piecing.
8.  Scrappity Do Dah - blocks finished - need to put together into queen size quilt.
9.  Grandmother's flower garden lap quilt - need to decide if I want to make it bigger and then finish.
*  I decided to make it bigger, so I'm working on more hexies by hand.
10.  Log Cabin Quilt - I've been working on this mainly on trips and have 196 blocks made finishing at 4 3/4".  No hurry on this one.
11.  Seasons in a Row - my oldest UFO that was a guild project.  I have about 8 rows finished  and there's one for each month.  *As of 5/7/13, the top is finished.
12.  Basket wall hanging - need to fix it a little, then it's ready to layer and quilt.
13.  Ohio Star boys donation quilt - have about 12 blocks made.
14.  4-patch donation quilt - have lots of blocks made - it's a leader/ender project.

Miscellaneous

1.  Finish embroidery on Denim shirt.
2.  Finish round wool pincushion.
3.  Finish bird pincushion.
4.  Put together Liberty Bell embroidery project - stitching is finished.  I decided I didn't like the fabric that the Liberty Bell was embroidered on, so I need to make a new one.
5.  Put together sampler cross-stitch project - stitching is finished.

If I can resist starting any more projects, I should be able to complete some of my UFOs.  I plan to dedicate myself to getting projects finished.  I also want to organize my sewing closet and scraps so I can use them more efficiently.  I'm not sure when I'll get to those tasks.

Wish me luck!