April Goal Setting Post!

In February, I totally did not make any progress on my A Lovely Year of Finishes goal.  In March, I actually finished my goal way ahead of time, but I forgot to post a goal setting post, OOPS!

This month, I am going to make a mug rug for my kids' school silent auction.  I have some Cuppa Joe Blocks from a Block Swap I did (gulp) 3 years ago.  I'm going to take one of those blocks and quilt and bind it for a mug rug.  I need to find a fancy label explaining mug rugs as well.  This will have to get done by April 30th, as that's the date of the silent auction!!

I tempted to do another car caddy as well, but I think I'll keep this small this month.  It's going to be a busy month!  Plus, I'm going to be helping my friends in a pregnancy, infertility, and infant loss support group make angel baby gowns from wedding dresses for the NICU Helping Hands project. (or something similar but more local).

February, total bust. March, total win!

I not only did not finish my goal for February in A Lovely Year of Finishes, but I also barely even got started!  Yikes!  So, maybe that goal was just too big. Let's go smaller in March.  Unfortunately, I missed the deadline for signing up, so this will not count toward ALYOF, but will count toward my personal goals.

My older daughter wanted a car caddy to tote her matchbox cars to restaurants.  So I looked at a few tutorials, and didn't see much that I liked.  So I kinda winged it.

Finished car caddy with "garage" and race track.  Colors/fabrics picked out by my 5 year old.  She also helped with the race track.

Car caddy in use.

Folded and tied up and ready for the diaper backpack.

March goal done.

On to February!

I really think my February goal for A Lovely Year of Finishes should be to clean and organize my craft room/sewing area!  Between the last minute Christmas items and just general lack of time, it's gotten a bit messy.

However, I do want to continue to make progress on sewing goals.  So, this month, I will tackle a small wall hanging for above my mantle in my living room.  There was a clock there, but the clock had been broken for years and neither of us really liked it any more.  So, my idea is to finish the top this month.  My idea is to do two Bento Box-type squares with sashing to bring the whole piece to roughly 20" tall by 36" wide.  My rough sketch on my tablet:

Using these fabrics from my stash: (forgive bad photo, messy table, and bad lighting!)

I can't wait to get this started and finished (well, the top at least) in one month!

January goal done!

I finished my January goal for a Lovely Year of Finishes, just in time for the end of January!  Forgive the bad lighting and photos...I can only work at night here for now.

The first block was a partially paper piced block

The second was a log cabin inspired block

Now here's all 12 of the blocks from the 2012 Block of the Month series together:

The blocks were called Earth Alchemy and inspired by the four elements: water, earth, fire, and air.

Going to try to complete one thing per month in 2014

I'm joining in with A Lovely Year of Finishes for 2014, so I can get the motivation to dust off the sewing machine and make some progress on projects this year.

I have 3 ideas in mind for a January goal:  something for my daughters for their upcoming birthdays, the Christmas tree skirt I've been putting off for two years now, or finishing the blocks of the month blocks from my local quilt shop's 2012 Block of the Month.  I have 10 of 12 blocks done.  I think I'm going to go with this goal, as it seems to be the most attainable for me just getting back unto the sewing groove after taking a break.

So, finish June and December blocks.  I can do this.

These are the blocks I managed to complete.  

The two unfinished blocks as of today, January 6th.  They will be done by the 31st!

Thanks to Shanna and Melissa for the inspiration to join you and get sewing again this year.

Restarting the blog

I'm hoping to start entering quilting/sewing/motivation groups like a Lovely Year of Finishes or even just WIP Wednesdays, but I need to see if I remember how to make a blog post!!

A few finishes over the past year -- new hat and gloves for my daughter, mug rug for a Christmas gift, ornaments, quilt for the new baby, quilt blocks for the block of the month I joined last year (most of the monthly blocks done), even some sewing -- fixing some cloth diapers, making a case for my tablet, and other random things.

There was a new baby, so progress was severely limited by that.

I look at the WIP/UFO list from my last post 20 months ago, and ha!

Needlework: absoutely nothing changed here
1. Frame the QR code for my husband
2. QR code for me
3. Geisha girl (started 2002; about 1/4 finished)
4. Southwest scene (started 1997; about 3/4 finished...and really ugly)
5. Catalina bell tower and Colorado sampler -- patterns bought while on vacation


Quilt :
1. Block of Month from local quilt shop (need to finish two blocks, 4 "extra" blocks and put the top together)
2. Christmas tree skirt using Kate Spain's Flurry
3. Lap quilt with small blue/orange Jelly roll (stacked coins or bricks?)
4. Meadow friends quilt
5. Brown bear quilt (done!! this was the baby's quilt)
6. Bed quilt (King-size -- eek!)
7. Mug rugs/mini-quilts for Christmas gifts (finished one)

Sewing:
1. lounge pants for me (done!)
2. extra comforter and pillow cases for my daughter
3. purses and/or bags
ADDING:
4. Stocking for baby
5. Ornaments for Christmas gifts
6. Finish fixing cloth diapers

An old finish and a WIP/UFO list

First, I thought today that I should blog about some of my older finishes.  First, a quilt for my daughter that I made using a Jo-Ann's quilt kit:

Daughter (a baby here) blurred to shield her from Mom's bad sewing

Another quilt finish (my first) from a quilt class taken at least 11 years ago (eek!).

My first quilt -- a sampler made in a quilt class

And now my bucket/WIP/UFO list.  One of these days I will get all this done:

Needlework:

1. Frame the QR code for my husband

2. QR code for me

3. Geisha girl (started 2002; about 1/4 finished)

4. Southwest scene (started 1997; about 3/4 finished...and really ugly)

5. Catalina bell tower and Colorado sampler -- patterns bought while on vacation

Quilt (note: one started, but fabric purchased for others)

1. Block of Month from local quilt shop (January block cut and 1/2 pieced)

2. Christmas tree skirt using Kate Spain's Flurry

3. Lap quilt with small blue/orange Jelly roll (stacked coins or bricks?)

4. Meadow friends quilt

5. Brown bear quilt

6. Bed quilt (King-size -- eek!)

7. Mug rugs/mini-quilts for Christmas gifts

Sewing (none started)

1. lounge pants for me

2. extra comforter and pillow cases for my daughter

3. purses and/or bags