May's One Monthly Goal

I did it!

Finished ALL my goals for May... including my One Monthly Goal, which was to finish construction of my Iris Quilt.  DONE!  WOOHOO!

From a quarter...

To a half...

Then double it and a quick try on the bed to see how it fits...

Then onto the very long To Be Quilted Pile.

Sigh!

Check out all the other OMG participants progress HERE

One Monthly Goal for May

After much thinking about what to choose for this months One Monthly Goal, I have chosen my Iris Quilt to work on, with the hope that all of the sashing strips will be added and the four sections sewn together.

Linking up HERE

An almost One Monthly Goal Finish

Unfortunately February is just not long enough!

I need to remember next year to be kinder to myself... here in Northland, New Zealand we are still hitting temperatures in the high twenties (celcius) and while that may not seem hot to some... combined with the usual humidity it is pretty oppressive.  Consequently, I tend to find sewing enthusiasm a bit vague!

So i am a bit disappointed to report that so far I have only finished exactly 3/4 of the quilting on Dylan's Hawthorn Quilt 😣

A square stipple is my go to happy place...

And I have decided to make the first week of March an honorary week of February and get a few more tasks finished before setting March goals.

Check out other One Monthly Goal participants achievements HERE!

One Monthly Goal - February

 One of the small adjustments to my goal setting list this year is to nominate a Key Goal for the month.  This really just started because there was a space for this on my planner page and I though... Ok, well, might as well fill it in.  This also seemed like a good opportunity to join in with Elm Street Quilts who hosts One Monthly Goal (after reading about Raewyns adventures for the last few years 😉).  AND  super excited to have been  a January prizewinner on my first linkup!  THANKS to Fat Quarter Shop!

So my February Key Goal is to quilt Dylan's Hawthorn Quilt.  See other participants monthly goals on Elm Street Quilts One Monthly Goal February Link-up.

The Hawthorn Quilt is from Sharon Holland's book Utility Quilts and is big bold blocks with strong fabric choices.  I love it.

The backing is pieced from an assortment of stash fabrics... including a little applique block Dylan designed and we put together about 8 or 9 years ago (and it's finally finding a home).

January had a mini goal to get this all basted... which was done.  Now to quilt.  As I am a notoriously slow quilter... getting this finished will be a real challenge.

On a side note, I have chosen the Patchwork City quilt top to baste this month... and so the cycle somewhat carries on... fingers crossed!

On another side note, I have found my WIP list enormously useful as far as plotting which quilts have backing fabric... and taking advantage of fabric specials as I find suitable matches.  This also goes for binding options.  AND also choosing what project to work on next.  With a free day on Friday after completing everything on my January to do list I chose the Avalon Quilt to sew together the blocks.  This quilt was chosen as with 16 blocks it was relatively quick, and it was started in December 2012... high time for it to get finished.

Yay... another top to add to the quilting pile!

This Little Piggy... a finished quilt!

This month I started with several progress goals, one finish goal and a couple of projects to keep in mind throughout the month.

I am pleased to report I have finished my This Little Piggy quilt!

Having this as a priority goal meant that it was right there reminding me to get it done.  I made a separate list of tasks that needed to be done and slowly crossed them off as the project neared completion.  Writing up a blog post is the last item to tick off the To Do List.  This was my "One Monthly Goal" for January... finishing linky  HERE

Adding a label was one of my specific tasks... so easy to forget to do.  This time I hand wrote the year on the preprinted label.

It is not heavily quilted but I did do a spiral filler through the sashing which will help to reinforce those block seams.

Two backing fabrics keeps it a bit interesting without having to do any pattern matching...

And the magic flange binding is the perfect finish and is the best version I have done so far!  The black and white flange helps to control the pink overload.

 I am so happy to have this one finished... and just goes to show that i can achieve big things when I put my mind to it.

Happy New Year!

December seemed to disappear rather quickly... school prizegivings... appointments and end of year activities seemed to take over and all of a sudden its Xmas and then New Years.

My December goals were not fully met... but progressed well so happy all round.

I wanted to get the last applique block completed for the Homespun Magazine BOM My Butterfly Patch and this was fused pending blanket stitch.  This whole project fell off the radar (as they do) so I now hope to get this top sorted out over the next few months.  It is so close!

I have managed to get Nadias Bursting Star quilt top fully sewn together and added plain side borders today.  Still needs to be pressed but looking good.

The start of the year has meant new planning tools!  I downloaded some new calendars and WIP recording pages...

And sent hubby off to buy me a plain unlined journal to keep everything in.  He bought this one with a beautiful floral cover which I LOVE!

Snipping and sticking... and its all starting to come together.  This year I am using two pages per month... a calendar page and a to do list which includes a monthly focus.

It didn't take long to fill up several pages of WIPs which I split into projects being constructed and those awaiting quilting.

I also started a new project list which has 4 projects already. 

The first is a scrap sampler quilt  by Happy Cloud Creations which I'm going to tackle over the next 9 months... this is block 1, and I need to make a couple of nine patch blocks each month for an Irish Chain effect.  These are 16" blocks so will finish with a 72" quilt including sashing.

My second project is a scrap Plus quilt (inspired by the free pattern 'Transire')... using 2" cut squares.  I know this is a successful size of scrap and fits well as a leader ender project.

And these scrap projects have been allocated their own small tub to keep them contained... hopefully!

I am make super progress on quilting This Little Piggy... and have great hopes of getting this quilt finished by the end of the month... enough so that I am going to join One Monthly Goal for the first time...  January link here

I have also resurrected the Sweet Escape log cabins and started filling the design wall.

Ok... that's enough for now.