Extended January goals

Several on-going projects and challenges will shape my monthly goals this year.  One of my favorite projects is always the Saturday Sampler at The Pin Cushion.  It's an opportunity to do a "sew along" type of project of course, but the best part has to be the Show 'n Tell each month. The ladies share such amazing projects from all kinds of skill levels.  It's inspirational.

So I'm setting the following goals for the month of January - which may be more than I can handle.  But any progress is better than no progress:

1.  keep up with Saturday Sampler

2.  Rainbow Scrap Challenge 2020 (green)

3.  finish the top for Fourth of July (photo above)

4.  make 2 more paper pieced Pineapple blocks

5.  sandwich and mark the French General project for quilting

6.  finish the top for Harvest Road project

7.  work on sashing for Batik Stars (UFO Challenge)

8.  find all of the fabrics/patterns/embellishments for the Gingerbread project

Welcome to 2020 - January goals

January 2020 - a whole new year with wide open possibilities!!  Following a couple of UFO challenges last year gave me some great focus and the results were some great progress of UFOs - finishes and forward progress.  I finished 15 projects and made progress on quite a few more.  Of course I started a lot of new things too - some finished and some not. It's all good. 

So . . . the number drawn for January is #2, and the easiest thing to finish would be this wall hanging made of French General fabrics (started with a charm pack) and disappearing 4-patch blocks.  This was an August 2018 project, but didn't get the outer border until much later.  It just needs to be quilted and bound.  It's only about 42" square and I think I am going to quilt it myself with a simple diagonal grid.  So my first task today is to dig into the stash and see if I have anything suitable for a backing, and then find a batting leftover that is big enough so I can sandwich it for quilting.  

Looking at the photo now makes me think the square cream areas could use a small quilting design rather than just a diagonal line going through.  Hmmmm - we'll see what happens. 

And, then I should find the other 2 UFOs on the list because I'm not sure where I put them.  Both of the other projects are from past year Saturday Samplers.  The Batik Stars is a good sized quilt, but the Gingerbread project is much smaller.  

There isn't a PIG (project in grocery sack) on the list for this month, but I'll continue working on the red, white, and blue PIG from December with a goal of getting it to flimsy stage by the end of January.  

Escaping to sew

I managed to carve out an hour to sew last night.  This is the beginning of the Quilt of Valor that Sophia helped me cut out.  The pattern was for a scrappy quilt, but I had these 3 fabrics and decided they would do just fine.  Scrappy would be even prettier most likely but that will have to wait for another time.  

My daughter and her husband managed to get home safely yesterday but it took them a lot longer than usual to get from Minneapolis to Sioux Falls.  They said they saw a lot of accidents.  We decided to keep the kids one more night because the Interstate between Mitchell and Sioux Falls is really bad yet and there was no point in taking chances in the dark with the grand-kids in the car.  So they are stuck with us until this afternoon.  

ADDED NOTE:  This pattern is a free Bonnie Hunter pattern called Fourth of July.  I've added a link to her Free Patterns page because she has so many great patterns. https://quiltville.blogspot.com/p/free-patterns.html

Design Wall Monday - fat quarters

I will confess that I have a weakness for fat quarters.  And the random fat quarter collection USED to fit into this plastic sweater box.  Guess now I need 2 of these boxes.  My granddaughter sorted them on Sunday but that doesn't solve the space problem.  What I really need to do is USE them up!!  Sounds like a New Years resolution to me!

I'm hoping to get a little sewing done today, but it might not happen. Right now I'm supposed to be working on invoices for work.  And we still have grandchildren here because we are not dug out from the blizzard that is just ending today.  No rush to get out because we can't take them home until their parents get home, and they have a long drive on snowy roads today.  

What's on your design wall this morning? 

https://smallquiltsanddollquilts.blogspot.com/

Blizzard projects

Sophia is 7 and she loves to sort things and organize things.  So this morning while grandpa was outside blowing snow (first 12") I brought up everything I needed to cut the parts for a new Quilt of Valor.  Sophia turned all of my squares right side up and put into sets of 20 so I knew how many I had cut.  When we took it all downstairs again she saw the overflowing bin of fat quarters in my sewing room and then spent an hour sorting those.  The bin is still overflowing, but it's better organized now.

After lunch Sophia and Jack headed outside to play in the snow.  They worked on creating a snow fort on the back deck.  The deck is sheltered between wings of the house, so they were out of the wind there.  Dave cleared the driveway and sidewalks once because we could see 18" or more of snow before it ends tomorrow.  It took him 2 hours and was hard work.  It's fairly wet heavy snow so moving half at a time is a good idea.   

Hot cocoa was a treat when they came back inside.  

Icy weekend stuff

We have ice and slush now but the forecast says we may see 18-24" of snow by Monday morning. My plan was to go to a baby shower this morning for my nephew's wife, but I decided not to make that 30 mile drive.  Seems like a good weekend to just hide out at home.  After feeding the grand-kids breakfast this morning, I took my coffee and went to my sewing room for an hour.  The final 2 rows of La Caribe were added, and then both borders.  The narrow grey border frames the design, but that wide print border just makes me smile.

This border fabric is a Kaffe print called Sea Urchin, and I fell in love with it yesterday when I stopped at The Pin Cushion to check out possible border choices.  My original plan was to buy yardage of one of the Kaffe prints in the Hunters Star blocks, but then this one called out to me.  

And . . . while I was sewing for one hour, grandpa was in charge upstairs.  

Sophia and Jack are having fun - and not currently fighting - so I'm trying to control my growing NEED to pick up toys.  I've never been good with having the floor covered with toys, even when my own kids were little.  I prefer making them put away something before getting out anything new.  And yes - call it OCD or whatever - but I can hardly deal with the Legos mixed in with the cars, and all mixed in with stuffed animals scattered on the floor at the same time.  But I will survive - I think!! 

A little progress

Six of the 8 rows of La Caribe are now sewn together.  My ambition level was at -1 yesterday, so that was pretty much all I accomplished other than a couple of loads of laundry.  Oh - and I did play with the new ruler a little bit and found that it does a great job squaring up hourglass blocks too.  It was the letdown after Christmas, like a big drop in blood sugar.  

I have no idea whether I'll get any sewing done at all for the next few days but am hoping for a little time in my sewing room.  We are expecting a winter storm AND will have 2 of the grand-kids here from tonight through Monday while their parents go to Minneapolis to the Vikings and Bears football game.  I told my SIL that the snow is all his fault. Every time they go to this game we have a snow storm - without exception for several years now.