March goals

Despite the short month, I managed to achieve most of my February goals:

Metrorings: Finish quilting the feathers between the melon shapes  DONE

Patchworkcity: Prepare the sashing strips - have prepared enough for 2 or 3 rows

Rainbow at Sea: Finish piecing the six 'orange' blocks - not quite there yet, still the middle SiaS to go, then piece the parts together

Linedried: Piece the three larger blocks for Section 2; make a decision on the smallest blocks (follow pattern or substitute?) - DONE

Summer Sampler 2017: Decide on fabrics / colours - DONE

Venus: Keep on working away on this, 1 block per 'sewing session' - first column DONE

Sparkler: Cut enough white 2 1/2" strips to piece another 3 blocks (which will bring total to 10) - DONE

Celebration / Perseverance: SID around all centre blocks - DONE

After years of hit and miss goals I had finally picked some achievable goals 😍. Let's see if I can do this for March, too.

March goals:

Metrorings: Ghost quilt the melon shapes incl. feathers (9 in total)

Patchworkcity: Sew first couple of rows together to check on size

Rainbow at Sea: Finish the orange blocks, then cut fabric for the yellow blocks

Linedried: Piece Section 3 blocks. 

Summer Sampler 2017: Piece blocks for weeks 1 & 2

Venus: Continue as leader / ender project

Sparkler: Piece 4 blocks

Celebration: SID around the 'in between' blocks

In other 'news', while today marks the official start of autumn, the endless summer seems to continue, and still no rain on the horizon. Parts of the region are on Level 4 water restrictions, we are still on Level 3 but I have basically given up watering the veggie garden now, the tomatoes and capsicums are still going, some small courgettes are still appearing but that's basically the end of it. One positive is that the grass doesn't need much mowing lol and the temperature of our pool, which is luckily still full enough to operate, is still at 29 degC.

Happy Sewing!

More progress on February goals

Sometimes I surprise myself by how much progress I can make. It’s taken several years to get the mixture of projects and the breakdown of steps refined, and this month it seems just right!

Linedriedquilt: The blocks for section 2 are completed - even the teeny-tiny ones! Don’t worry, though, I’ll alternate them with 3 1/2” blocks so I won’t have to match the points. On track for #monikasuzchallenge2020!

Venusquilt: The first column is done :) The pieces go together better than I had feared though I can foresee some seams matching better than others - so far so good.

Sparklerquilt: The blocks go together so quickly, even more so when pre-cutting the strips. One more block to go to meet my 10/20 blocks goal for February.

Patchworkcity2020: I have started cutting the sashing strips (after much deliberation I have cut 5 1/2” wide after all). I won’t cut all just yet, I want to see the first couple of rows pieced together first.

Metrorings: The feathers are done (TG, I really want to get this finished...). March goal will be to finish the 9 corresponding ghost blocks

This gives me time to finish the centre SID on Celebration / Perseverance next weekend.

Rainbow at Sea Quilt: 2 more parts to piece before I can piece my 9 ‘orange ‘ blocks together. I need to think carefully how I break this project down so it doesn’t still hang around as WIP in 2025...

Summer Sampler 2017: I’ll make up my mind on the fabric choices by next weekend. I want to use my Alison Glass Rainbow FQ pack that also makes Linedried but the colours don’t quite match the pattern so I need to do a bit of juggling.

While work has been no less busy than a couple of weeks ago, some of the stress has lessened and I have been able to do some ‘other stuff’, too. With the very dry summer (officially in drought) the peaches and tomatoes have been plentiful so I got back into some of my past homemade pursuits: Bottled peaches, frozen tomatoe paste and soap :)

Happy Sewing!

February progress (copied from IG)

As expected too busy to sew regularly but small goals help me make some progress:

#linedried needs just one more block to piece from Section 2 for by #februarygoals 

#sparklerquilt has plenty of coloured strips pre-cut and 1 of 3 blocks for the month pieced.

#rainbowatseaquilt: The current colourway is slowly coming together.

I have also started cutting the sashing for #patchworkcity2018

Any progress is good, right? #sewdayfromacrosstheditch 

February goals

Having been back at work for 3 weeks I do feel like I need another holiday, and that is despite two Public Holidays thrown in! A week of hui (meetings) with the nationwide Raranga Matihiko team, followed by our annual Waitangi Day festivities at the Waitangi Treaty Grounds PLUS  the opening of our new museum Te Rau Aroha have taken their toll already - and we have barely started teaching...

Luckily, life is not just about work and we have enjoyed two weekends of camping over the last month. This summer seems endless at this stage, and while the lack of rain is starting to cause serious problems for many communities, thankfully we are still fine at this stage. The pool is a balmy 30degC (without any form of heating), so we are really enjoying ourselves at the moment. Our oldest DS has settled into the Finnish weather and his uni routine, and the two younger ones have returned to high school, so things are getting back into some resemblance of normal.

I hadn't quite gotten to the point of setting monthly goals in my Happy New Year post. I can see from January that I will need to include small, achievable goals, especially as work gets busier. These are my February goals:

Metrorings: Finish quilting the feathers between the melon shapes (14 to go)
Patchworkcity: Prepare the sashing strips
Rainbow at Sea: Finish piecing the six 'orange' blocks
Linedried: Piece the three larger blocks for Section 2; make a decision on the smallest blocks (follow pattern or substitute?)
Summer Sampler 2017: Decide on fabrics / colours
Venus: Keep on working away on this, 1 block per 'sewing session'
Sparkler: Cut enough white 2 1/2" strips to piece another 3 blocks (which will bring total to 10)
Celebration / Perseverance: SID around all centre blocks

The Scraptherapy top and the Footstool keep on getting put off, but I will keep them on my list so they are on my radar.

Some of my progress to date:
Linedried

Section 1 is pieced but not sewn together as I want to be able to swap blocks across the top.

The larger blocks for Section 2 are prepared.
Missing are two of the smallest size blocks:
At 3" finished I'm not sure yet if I am up for the challenge or if I will substitute them

I feel I am starting to get better at piecing the hourglass blocks: I had struggled getting them to fit and sit flat when I realised that my 1/4" seams were too generous. I have since corrected my needle position, have started starching the fabric before cutting and changed my method. Rather than cutting triangles, I make two HSTs by putting two squares on top of each other, I mark a diagonal with my Hera marker and then stitch to either side. Cut along the diagonal to end with two HSTs, press seams to the darker side, put both squares back together, right sides facing but one square rotated by 90º and  voila! you get beautiful hourglass blocks:) Thanks as usual goes to Suz who always has a solution to my sewing conundrums :)

Sparkler

Seven blocks so far

It's almost too easy to put this together; I'll stick with light blue, dark blue and aqua for this quilt and work on distributing the colours when all 20 blocks are pieced. There are many beautiful examples of this online, but the limited colour way works with my goal of reducing stash and scraps. One of the few patterns I could well imagine repeating...

Celebration / Perseverance:

So far just some SID

I have to keep on reminding myself that I don't need to love every project: At this stage I don't love this one. I'm not in love with the feel of the material or with the colours, and this is the second quilt I'm using the new to me cotton-poly batting which, after years of 100% cotton or cotton-bamboo mixes, I struggle with. Just looking at it now I could imagine leaving it as a simple SID, but I will try to get push through that and make this my ruler quilting practice.

Hope you have your monthly goals sorted? Happy Sewing!

Sparkler quilt

As mentioned in a previous blog post, the Sparkler pattern came as a freebie from Freshly Pieced after I purchased the 2017 Summer Sampler pattern. Just recently I had looked over my 2.5” strips in my scrap box, there’s a large number of blue and aquas in there - tada!

I looked over the instructions, they suggest 2.5” strips for the lap quilt version, resulting in 12 1/2” blocks - a 4x5 block layout will give me a nice little rectangular  baby quilt, just the size I like.

I slightly simplified the block construction, only cutting 6 1/2” and 4 1/2” rectangles. I use my Hera marker to help with the diagonal and them trim back to 1/4” from the seam.

It takes me less than 30 minutes to construct a block, and overall there is very little seam matching required. So far I’m up to 3 (of 20) blocks; there are enough strips for a few of these in my scrap bin 😉

Happy Sewing!!!

Venus Quilt

(Copied from IG)

Starting the New Year the way I finished it, playing with fabrics:

When your best buddy @suzjob1 sends you IG posts with intriguing quilts like in this case from @eyecandyquilts and you end up cutting up bits’n’bobs on NYE :) another IG rabbit hole I seem to have fallen into 🤣

Given that curved seams are a tad fiddly, I doubt this will go beyond baby quilt size though.

______________________

It took a while to cut all my pieces (necessary in this case as I wanted to spread the fabrics around) - probably not helped by the fact I cut 30% more green than I need 🙄

The blocks go together surprisingly easy. I couldn’t resist to piece the first four together 🥰

I’m aiming for baby quilt size, always good to have one ready when a friend has a baby.

Happy New Year!

The new year isn't that new anymore lol but as I'm still on annual leave I'm definitely still in holiday mode! I have been watching other quilters' NY resolution posts appear, and like many others I have been mulling over my plans for the year.

Looking back at 2019
At the beginning of 2019 I decided to revive my blog, and while I still posted way more on IG (126 posts 😮), 24 blog posts for 2019 is more than I have written in any year since 2013! I have been more disciplined about taking my quilting photos only with my private phone and eventually saving those photos to my MacBook organised in folders which helps with record keeping. I had looked but couldn't find a (free) blogger app for my phone at the time, so IG was still much more accessible.

I also made myself a Quilt Planner which I have updated as required. It helped my keep all the projects I had in mind listed in one place. Lots of other quilters use actual paper copies, but digital documents work well for me in my day job as it did for my WIPs for 2019. It's not the prettiest version out there, and I like to add a section 'all blocks pieced' and 'completed flimsy', but it will do again for 2020.

2019 finished quilts:

1. BerninaZenChicQAL for DH
2. Giant Panda Quilt for my niece
3. Elephant Cushion for youngest DS
4. zenstudioqal, a baby quilt for a colleague
5. Arco Iris - Rainbow, a baby quilt for another colleague
6. ScrappyAppliqueQuiltAlong: Aotearoa
7. Vintage Quilt Revival: Tutti Frutti

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

Quilts that progressed in 2019:

• Rainbow at Sea quilt: Just about half the blocks are pieced.
• Patchwork City 2018: All 30 blocks are pieced, and I have bought the backing
• Metrorings: There is still some more quilting to do,  but I can see the finish line.

The only quilt on my list with no progress is the Scraptherapy top.

Looking ahead at 2020

1. I want to continue blogging, and just today I found a free iPhone app that appears to work for use with Blogger. Provided this works I should be able to post straight from my phone to Blogger - and if it's just a copy of what I post on IG.
2. I will also continue tracking my WIPs with a 2020 version of my Quilt Planner
3. Suzanne and I had a look through my sorry excuse for a stash the other day; for 2020 I want to use up many of the left-overs and scraps in projects so I can start building a new stash with a clear conscience 😉
4. There are a number of projects I want to work on in 2020:
• Metrorings: I first blogged about this in June 2015 - 2020 is the year to get this finished.
• Patchworkcity 2018: It would be great to have this finished and on the bed by next Christmas. However, at this stage I want to custom quilt it, so this might take longer.
• Rainbow at Sea: I love the pattern, but it can be tedious piecing the blocks. Realistically, by the end of the year this should be at the flimsy stage.
• QAL were the 'stars' of 2019, they actually got done lol. Therefore Suz and I have set us the challenge to make Linedried by Coriander quilts. My goal is to not fall behind Suz 😂
• As a bonus, I want to use the same FQ pack but a different background fabric to make Summer Sampler 2017 by Lee Heinrich and co. I have been ooing and aaing over their various sampler patterns for a while, so I finally jumped in and bought the pattern. Still contemplating how to exactly distribute my colours, but I hope to have all blocks pieced by the end of the year
• It's only the 15th, and I have already fallen down some rabbit holes... I could not resist Venus by @eyecandyquilts. Using almost exclusively fabrics from my stash and the clammy ruler from @latifahsaafirstudios, I am making a baby quilt sized version as leader & ender project
• With the Summer Sampler order came the free Sparkler pattern; using 2.5'' strips from my scrap bin, this will become another baby quilt (I really hope we get some babies at work this year 😆)
• Judi Madsen's Celebration panel has been sitting in my drawers for most (all?) of 2019, and it's been challenging to say the least! Before I received the panel, a message said there was a delay as the panel had not been printed to their standard and needed reprinting. Eventually it arrived, and while I knew it was polyester, I was still not prepared for how different this feels to cotton. Despite the reprint, there were still some bleeds and smudges on the top due to which the owner of Honest Fabrics offered to replace it. Though I love Judi Madsen's work, I am not in love with the texture or the colours, so the quilt won't end up on my bed any way. I will use it as a practice for ruler quilting, so I declined her kind offer and kept the top as it is. Today I finally pieced a backing, then made it larger (though still not quite wide enough so will trim the final border back a bit) and sandwiched the top. Suz will either 😂 or 🙄at me as I (once again) pricked my finger with the safety pin and ended up with blood stains (I'm quite good at removing these, years of practice...). Due to the rain, I threw the sandwich in the dryer, but once I took it out, I had some new smudges on it 🙄🙄 which I (almost) removed, then proceeded to hang the quilt on the line after all. ONLY to drop the wet end on the ground 🙄🙄🙄. I think I will call this quilt Perseverance when I finally get it done!!! Karin from https://thequiltyarn.blogspot.com/ is planning a ruler quilting linky-party, so I will try to get some work done and link up.

This will have to do for now - teenagers are requesting an urgent taxi service lol

Happy Sewing!!!