Monthly Goal Check-in: end of January

Can you believe we are about to say goodbye to January of 2013? This month has totally flown by...I think these next few months will be a blur, since my oldest son is in his senior year of high school.

At the beginning of January, I listed some quilting goals I had for the month. Here's how I did on them:

1. Make Judy's free pattern for Quilts of Valor during the New Year's Day Sit and Sew. Done. See this post for photos.

2. Make 1 block for my All-Star UFO quilt. Done. But you'll have to come back tomorrow for my "First Friday UFO" post to see photos :)

3. Finish my Easy Street quilt top. Not Done. This is one goal I totally overestimated on. When I was making my January list, it was at the end of my 2-week Winter Break, so I was a bit over-ambitious! This quilt requires lots of thinking and pinning, and I've been using it as my leaders/enders project for my other quilts this month.

4. Piece the black fabrics for my CQJP 2013 project. Done. See this post for photos.

For extra credit, I have two more things I'd like to accomplish:

1. Quilt my AP&Q Mystery Quilt. Not Done. Not even close. It's still sitting on the ping-pong table, where it's been since I finished the top. Here's a photo of the top.

2. Start the Fibonacci's Challenge quilt that a local quilt shop is hosting, using more of the Christmas fabrics in my stash. Done. I decided this was a higher priority than Easy Street. If I bring in my progress to the quilt shop, I will get the February directions for free. But if I don't have any progress, I'll have to pay $3.00 for the directions. Here are photos of the first border.

SO....

That's how I did this month. Judy asked on her blog if we thought having goals helped us get more done in January. I think it definitely helped me to stay focused on a few projects.

Here are my February goals:

1. Piece the 2nd border for my Fibonacci's Challenge quilt.

2. Make 5 blocks to send to Alycia for her block drive. You can join in the fun. For every 5 blocks of her pattern that you send to her by March 8th, your name will be put in a drawing for a gorgeous fat quarter pack.

3. Make 1 block for my All-Star UFO quilt.

4. Embellish the February seams of CQJP 2013.

My two extra credit projects are:

1. Finish 9 block A's of Easy Street (I'm trying not to be too ambitious with Easy Street this month!)

2. Baste and quilt my AP&Q Mystery Quilt.

I made a little photoshop document to print fullsize and hang up on the wall in my studio. I think it's more fun to look at than a hand-written list.

How did you do on your January goals? Have you written February quilting goals yet? Go visit Judy to see how others are doing with their goals.

Happy stitching!

Fibonacci border #1

I got my first border all assembled and sewn onto the center block for my Fibonacci's Challenge quilt. I will go back to the shop either Saturday or next week after school one day to get the instructions for the February border.

Here's a closeup of two of the blocks in the border. The green is the same fabric as the center block (that's one of the requirements for this 1st border). The lower cream/beige fabric inside the red frame is the "challenge fabric" that I had to buy from the quilt shop for this challenge. All pieces of this first border have to be rectangles (another of the requirements for the challenge).

I haven't really done anything on Easy Street this week, but I did get the black fabrics pieced for my CQJP 2013 project. You can read about that here.

Go see what others have on their design walls over at Judy's.

Happy Stitching!

CQJP 2013 background piecing

I've finally finished piecing the background fabrics for my CQJP 2013 project (Crazy Quilt Journal Project). As I mentioned back in November, I'm going to make a wall-hanging crazy quilt to hang up each Easter. My plan is to use black fabrics in the background (or maybe it should be called the border?) Anyway, the inside of the quilt will be a circle with a "landscape" of a hill with a cross and some flowers. I'm tentatively calling this "Celebrate the Resurrection."

The seam treatments for the black fabrics will start out with black threads on the outer edges, then progress to grays and white as they get closer to the circle. I know what I'm envisioning, but I'm not sure if I'm getting it across in writing. The big trick will be to see if the finished product looks anything like my vision ~ LOL!

Since I'm making more of a wholecloth quilt this year, rather than working on individual blocks, I'm aiming to embellish approx. 8 X 8 inch sections each month. The total size is 24 X 24 at this point; I might add a solid black border at the end.

This project will be a challenge to me for a few reasons:
1. I've never done a whole-cloth crazy quilt before, so the larger size will be a challenge.
2. I will need to stay consistent in how I progress from black to gray to white threads as I go around the quilt.
3. I've never done any type of landscape quilt, either in a crazy or a sane quilt, so this will be a new thing for me.

I started off piecing this basically like I would piece a crazy quilt block, putting a 4 or 5-sided piece near the center of each corner. I then machine-stitched pieces to each side. However, I got to a point where there were funny gaps.

At that point, I pieced chunks of fabrics together. (Yes, these are black, but the color is a bit off on this photo.)

 The 3-piece I sewed together will go in this spot above.

 I attached the 3-piece chunk by machine on one side.

Then I turned under a seam allowance and hand-stitched the left side of the chunk to the base. Since I will be doing fancy stitches over the seam, I didn't worry about making tiny applique stitches. Just enough stitches to hold it in place until I can do the fancy work.

When I wasn't working on this, I had it on the ping pong table, on top of some patriotic fabric and on top of my American Patchwork and Quilting Mystery Quilt top. Callie decided to rest right on top of this! I've never seen her on the ping pong table before ~ this must be her stamp of approval on my work!

After I hand-appliqued the chunks that connected the corner areas, I turned the piece upside down and stitched on the blue lines I had marked before I started the piecing. This white stitching will help me know how far to do my fancy stitching on the seams.

My plan is to piece the inner circle on a separate piece of muslin, do all the embellishing, then applique it onto the black. But that may change as I get further into this project.

No, I haven't forgotten about my CQ Anniversary Quilt. If you remember, my goal is to make 25 blocks for our 25th wedding anniversary (December 2015). So far, I have 15 blocks made and 2 years to finish. I'm taking a break from that to work on this project. I don't expect this new project to take all of 2013, so I will probably make a few more anniversary blocks at the end of this year. Click the "Anniversary quilt" label in the sidebar to see the blocks I've already made.

Happy stitching!

Calling all Quilters

Alycia is hosting another "Block Drive" to make into quilts for Quilts of Valor (QOV). According to their website, the mission of QOV is to "cover all combat service members and veterans touched by war with comforting and healing Quilts of Valor."

To participate, you just need to make blocks in the pattern Alycia has on her blog. It's a simplified log cabin. You can either make your block(s) in a patriotic colorway or in plaids.

To further entice you to make a few blocks for this worthy cause, a gorgeous fat quarter pack has been donated by Vicki Welsh. For every five blocks that you send to Alycia by March 8th, your name will be put into a drawing for the fat quarter pack.

See here for all the exciting details!

Happy stitching!

Design Wall Monday ~ MLK Day

Happy Martin Luther King Jr. Day! I've got a few things on my "design wall" this week.

First, I finished my top for Quilts of Valor. It's so long that you can just barely see my husband's toe peeking under the border! I used the free pattern that Judy gave out on her blog, but I eliminated the middle 1" border. Although I had plenty of scraps for the main part of the quilt, I did go buy some yardage for the two borders. And I had some leftover to add to my patriotic fabric bin :) I've had such a fun time making this quilt. Red, white, and blue is one of my favorite color combinations, and it was a joy to use many different patriotic fabrics. I know this isn't much, but I hope this quilt will help a soldier to know that we do care; we appreciate what they are doing for us; their sacrifices do not go unnoticed.

While I added the borders to the QOV, I made some more units for block A of Easy Street as leaders/enders. The 4-patches sewn to the double bricks are rotated from the ones I made last week, since you need some of both for this block.

After finishing my QOV, I got to work on the 1st border for my Fibonacci's Challenge quilt. Here's some information about that quilt. After laying out some fabrics for my border, I decided I didn't like it, so I revamped my plan.

Since this border can only have rectangles, I sewed two 1 1/2" strips of creams and golds together, then cut into 2 1/2" pieces. Then I framed them with green 1 1/2" strips. So the finished width of each piece will be 1" and the finished blocks will be 4" squares. I will be alternating green and red blocks; here are the 8 green blocks I have made.

I'm hoping to finish this border later on today, since I'm off school for Martin Luther King Jr's Birthday.

You can see what's on other quilters' design walls at Judy's blog.

Happy stitching!

QOV and Easy Street Progress

This week, in between going back to work after two weeks off, getting a haircut, going to a parents' meeting for younger son's basketball, and spending 2 1/2  hours in the emergency room with younger son who sprained his ankle at basketball, I was able to sew the seven rows of my quilt for Quilts of Valor (QOV) together. Please ignore my husband's hands at the top of the quilt and his feet at the bottom. When a quilt top gets this big, he is my "design wall" ~ LOL! I just need to cut and piece the borders, then sew them onto the center of the quilt.

While I worked on the QOV quilt, I worked a bit on Easy Street, using it as leaders and enders for the QOV. At first I was going to assemble Easy Street one block at a time, but then I decided I'd rather piece together two units for all the blocks I'm going to make. Here are half of the 4-patches sewn onto half of the double bricks. The pattern calls for half of the 4-patches to be sewn on one way and the other half sewn on with them rotated. I had hoped to have my entire Easy Street quilt top finished by the end of January, but I'm not so sure that's going to happen now. When I have a break from my job at a school, I tend to forget that life gets pretty busy during the school year! I'm just happy to keep this as my leader/ender project for now. I know it will come together soon. I'm not whining, but these last two steps are pretty involved :)

I'm linking up to Judy's Design Wall Monday.

Happy stitching!

Hello, Fibonacci!

So, I've started a new quilt project. Yes, I know, I'm in the middle of my QOV quilt and Easy Street. Not to mention a few other things that are sitting on the back burner. But I have a good reason for this new one!

Many years ago, I made lap-quilts for my mother-in-law and my sister-in-law, using Christmas fabrics. There were 6 other relatives I wanted to make Christmas quilts for. One is finished, but not given to the person because I wanted to give them all at the same time. I cut out the fabrics for one before I got pregnant with my 3rd child. (He's in middle school now, so you know this was awhile ago.) I am in various stages with 4 of the 5 that still need to be made. My Easy Street is one of these 4. My goal is to finish all these quilts for this Christmas. I think I will need all year to get them done LOL.

So when I heard that one of the local quilt shops is having a challenge called "Fibonacci's Revenge," I decided to try it with Christmas fabrics in my stash. It is based on the Fibonacci number sequence of 0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13... You add the previous two numbers to get the next number. Apparently this number sequence shows up in nature a lot.

For this challenge, you first have to start with a 12" (finished size) block of your choosing. I love using a star motif in Christmas quilts, so I thought the Rising Star would be an appropriate center block. For the inner star, I used a gold scroll fabric and the outer star is a beautiful green Bali. The background is a light cream tone-on-tone that doesn't show up real well in the photo.

One of the requirements for the challenge is to buy at least one yard of their "challenge fabric." There were three neutrals you could choose from. The other two choices were a bit too Civil War-ish for me, so I went with this cream and tan Moda Marbles fabric. It's a bit darker than I would have chosen, but I guess that's part of the fun of a challenge, right?

So, each month you go to the store and get your directions for the month. We will be adding a border each month to make a medallion-style quilt. If you bring in your progress from the previous month, your directions are free. If you do not have any progress, you have to pay $3.00 for that month's directions. Hopefully this money incentive will keep me on track. 

For January's border, you need to make a 4" border using only rectangles (squares are allowed in the corners if necessary). You have to use some of the challenge fabric, plus at least one fabric from the center block, plus add at least one fabric color. I will be adding red.

I stayed up later than I should have last night, sketching out different border possibilities. I think I'm going to go with the one on the left side of this photo. I was inspired by one of the quilts that Judy from Patchwork Times made and sent to Alycia for Quilts of Valor. Alycia showed a photo of the quilt at this post. 

I'm planning on making this a "controlled scrappy" with Christmas fabrics. I will probably make the borders my leaders/enders while I finish up my QOV. 

Happy stitching!

Easy Street Clue #8

Since my focus last week was on my quilt for Quilts of Valor (see here for my latest progress), I didn't get real far on Easy Street Clue #8. I did make one of each of the blocks, just to see how they look. Here's block A.

I love how the star looks, made with those house units or squatting turkeys or whatever you want to call them, in block B!

Putting the blocks next to each other. Some of my golds don't have a lot of contrast from the background fabrics, so you can't see some of the pattern as well as you can on Bonnie's quilt. I'm fine with that.

I'm linking up to Bonnie Hunter at quiltville.

Happy stitching!

January First Friday UFO and QOV photos

Well, after not having any success the past few days getting my photos to upload onto blogger using internet explorer, I tried installing google chrome as an internet browser. It finally worked. Here's the latest block I made for my All Star UFO. When I first saw the white background fabric with the eagle, I knew I wanted to fussy cut an eagle and frame it for one of these blocks.

 Here's a closeup of the eagle.

Some progress on my Quilts of Valor quilt, using the free pattern that Judy generously gave on her blog. You'll notice the small pieces of paper in the upper left corner of each row. Before I started sewing together the rows, I laid out all the blocks on the floor in the great room to make sure I didn't have a large cluster of the same fabric. I'm sewing one row together at a time, marking the rows as I go. I simply write "Row 1" (or whichever number it is) then safety pin it to the fabric.

I haven't had any more time to work on this. My extended family came over last night for our Christmas  celebration, so I've been busy this weekend cleaning and cooking. I'm hoping to finish the last few rows today, in between loads of laundry. Maybe even get the rows all sewn together? Sadly, today is my last day of break before we head back to school tomorrow. That of course means less time for me to sew. I'll have to make the best of my day :)

Edited January 7: I'm linking up to Judy's Design Wall Monday.

Happy stitching!

First Friday UFO...maybe

Happy First Friday of January. I was hoping to show you the block I made for my All Star UFO and my progress on the quilt I'm making for Quilts of Valor, but Blogger is acting up. It won't let me upload any photos from my computer!

So I'll just tell you that in all the excitement of Easy Street, I was able to make another block for the All Star quilt. If you're new here, I'll give you the background of the "First Friday UFO" posts. A few months ago, a local quilt shop was hosting an "almost free" Block-Of-the-Month (BOM). To participate, you had to buy the fabrics for the first month's block. Then if you brought the completed 1st block back to the store during the next month, you got the 2nd block's fabrics for free. I was thinking of joining, because one of the colorways was patriotic, and I love patriotic quilts. Then I remembered that I had a patriotic UFO sitting in my armoire. So instead of joining that quilt shop's BOM, I decided to do my own BOM and make one block in my All Star quilt per month. On the first Friday of each month, I'm posting photos of the blocks. To see the other blocks in this quilt, click on the "All Star" label at the end of this post or on the left sidebar of the blog.

Since I've been off school this week, I was able to continue working on my quilt for Quilts of Valor. I was hoping to finish it on New Year's Day, but that didn't happen. My kids and husband wanted to eat! LOL. I have finished piecing all the blocks, and I got 4 rows sewn together.

I'll try to upload those photos later today.

Happy stitching!

Quilts of Valor New Year's Day Sit and Sew

Wow, this must be a record for me: three posts in one day!

Yesterday when I was looking at some of the blogs who were linked to Judy's Design Wall Monday, I read about the "1st Annual Quilts of Valor New Year's Day Sit and Sew." This is an invitation to quilters to make a quilt top for Quilts of Valor (QOV), an organization that gives quilts to soldiers wounded in war. Then I saw that Judy had posted a free pattern to make a QOV. I decided at the last minute to jump in, since I have lots of patriotic fabrics which I bought for my All Star quilt. This will be my first QOV quilt.

This large bin is full of my patriotic fabrics. Yesterday I looked through it to find the fabrics I want to use, then I ironed them and started cutting my strips.

Here are my strips sewn together into sets, ready to be cut into units for the blocks.

So far I have finished all the blocks with a blue "frame." This photo is just a representation of what I've done. I'm hoping to get the red-framed blocks pieced tonight also, but I needed to take a little break from the studio.

I'm really liking the way these blocks look. This is a great pattern for this project. Quick and easy and fabulous-looking when you use a lot of scrappy fabrics! I'm so thankful to Judy for giving us this pattern on her blog. This would also be a good pattern for a new quilter to learn some basics, since it doesn't have any angles.

Happy stitching!

January To-Do List

Judy at Patchwork Times is hosting a linky party where you list four quilting things you'd like to get done this month. Technically, you're supposed to write the list on the last day of the month, but I was busy with other things yesterday so I forgot all about it!

So here are the four quilting items I really want to get done this month:

1. Make Judy's free pattern for Quilts of Valor today, during the New Year's Day Sit and Sew.

2. Make 1 block for my All-Star UFO quilt.

3. Finish my Easy Street quilt top.

4. Piece the black fabrics for my CQJP 2013 project.

For extra credit, I have two more things I'd like to accomplish:

1. Quilt my AP&Q Mystery Quilt.

2. Start the Fibonacci's Challenge quilt that a local quilt shop is hosting, using more of the Christmas fabrics in my stash.

You'll notice that these all relate to my 2013 quilting goals :)

Happy stitching!

2013 Goals

Happy New Year!!! I hope you had a safe New Year's Eve. We spent the evening at home, just the way we like it :)

I've decided to create a list of quilting goals for 2013. Hopefully this will help me to be more accountable! Without further ado, here's my list:

1. Make one Quilts of Valor top.

2. Finish 5 quilts made of Christmas fabrics for gifts in 2013 (which are in various stages, ranging from not even started to having all blocks made but not assembled).

3. Finish my American Patchwork and Quilting 2012 Mystery Quilt (quilt, bind, make label).

4. Finish 2 UFO quilts (All-Star and maybe Red and White squares).

5. Stay up-to-date with my CQJP 2013 project.

Do you have any quilting goals for this new year?

Happy stitching!