I'm getting smarter about setting goals for the month. My goals for July were much more realistic than usual. Maybe my new strategy is to set the bar low and overproduce!

My goals for July were:

- finish both mosaic walls - the mosaic part is done but I didn't factor in that it's summer and I can't open the windows. I'll have to wait until September to do the grouting but I'm happy that I got the fish backsplash mosaic done.
- one EQ lesson -  I actually did 2 EQ lessons but there's not enough to share to really make a post. But I learned a couple of new things! I did play around in EQ a lot this month designing the puppy quilt and some quilts for the new Paula Nadelstern fabric samples that I'll be making in September.
- make something with the blue quilt - I made 3 somethings with that blue quilt! I turned it into 3 veterans quilts and even wrote a tutorial for one of the designs.
- start something new! - I started and made great progress on the puppy quilt. I feel like I will absolutely get this done by the end of the year.

But my big accomplishment for the month was quilting veterans quilts. I even got 2 more done this week.

Both of these were made by my friend, Patty. She kindly makes a couple of veterans tops for us each year and sends them to me with binding already cut.

She used some fun flannel sports prints and I got to use my wavy cross hatch again. I have missed doing that fast quilting motif but I haven't had good candidates in a while. It was perfect for these 2 quilts.

I used a pretty pale blue hand dyed fabric for the backing. I quilted several other veterans quilts in July so my total for the year is up to 36 and that doesn't include the 7 that I've made on my own. I commit to do up to 40 so I'll get the last 4 done in August. After that I'm not committing to any more veterans quilts for the rest of the year. It's time to get some of my own quilts done.

I also made nine more postcards and I have more to finish in August.

Here are my ending stats for July:
Starting UFO 16 (15 in 2018)
Finished YTD 4
Started YTD 3
Ending UFO 15
Veterans quilts made - 7
Veterans quilts quilted - 36
Fabric Postcards - 43
Pet Beds 6
Garment 
​Placemats -
​​Quilted for others - 1

My goals for August are:
- Finish the puppy quilt top and get backing fabric ready
- quilt 4 more veterans quilts
- work on 4th of July quilt (it will get a lot of attention while on vacation)
- plan a project for another of my UFO items. I'm feeling some placemats coming on from a set of orphan blocks.

​I'll grout the mosaic walls in September.

My goals for June were:

- one EQ lesson (nope)
- finish the fish mosaic (spent the month shopping for more background tile)
- grout both mosaics (nope)
- finish Lost My Marbles (YES!!!!!)
- quilt a few veterans quilts (4 to be exact)

You just saw Lost My marbles last week so just to have a photo I'll share the 4 veterans quilts again. My stats for June are:

Starting UFO 16 (15 in 2018)
Finished YTD 3
Started YTD 2
Ending UFO 15 
Veterans quilts made - 4
Veterans quilts quilted - 29
Fabric Postcards - 26
Pet Beds 6
Garment 
​Placemats -
​​Quilted for others - 1

When I started tracking my UFO projects several years ago I had over 30. I feel like I've made good progress in clearing many of them out but also have changed my habits a bit and are a little more thoughtful about starting new things. I don't really join quilt alongs or challenges anymore. I may get back to that but, for now, I want to spend my time on my projects.

Now I'm really itching to start a new project or three but before I start new projects make myself go through the unfinished list to see if there's something that I should tackle first before I start something else. I don't think Kathie Lee Gifford and her TACKL app can help with this.

I found this quilt top on my list. It's made with the Accuquilt Go! small tumblers and when I made this I had big plans to raw edge applique giant sunflowers on it. It was going to be for one of the twin beds in the guest house. But it's not really big enough and I lost interest in making more tumblers and completely lost interest in the idea of giant raw edge applique. I pulled it out and started thinking about what I can do with it. Check in later this week to see how I'm taking another UFO off my list.

The fish mosaic can now proceed again because I found a local tile distributor that could get another sheet for me! This tile was stupid expensive, including $20 for shipping, but it was worth it to be able to finish it with the dots.





My goals for July are:

- finish both mosaic walls
- one EQ lesson
- make something with the blue quilt
- start something new!

Well May didn't go as planned but it was still a great month! Of course any month that ends with a perfect beach week is going to be great. That was followed up by Chris' fishing buddies visiting during the week for a very successful Mahi fishing expedition. My dinners Thursday, Friday and Saturday were fabulous because you can never beat fresh fish. The weekend was made even better with a friend of my own visiting. Cheryl is a former co-worker from England. She still works for the company and we meet up when she's in Virginia working. This time she spent the weekend with me. We found a great hike to do close by and spent a beautiful Saturday afternoon in my friend's pool. (It's important to have the right friends!)

All of that is to say that I didn't get near the computer this weekend and barely touched it last week. It's now time for me to get reorganized and I'm hoping that my monthly progress post will be just the kick off that I need.

My May goals were:

​- finish yard work - I got 3 of 7 truckloads of mulch spread and the 4th is in the driveway waiting for me in the morning. I will get this finished the next 2 weeks and then I'm going to be pretty much done for the summer.
- finish 1 EQ lesson - well, I did accomplish this!
- finish the fish mosaic - I didn't finish the mosaic yet but it's the only think I worked on this week and I worked on it long enough to determine that I'm going to run out of tile. So I've got to go on a search for more tile this week.
- grout both mosaics - this is on hold until I solve the tile issue on the backsplash
- progress on 4th of July - I made great progress on this quilt. I'm down to the border blocks now. But there won't be any progress in June because quilt club isn't meeting this month.
- finish large circles on Lost My Marbles - nope.....
- a few veterans quilts - 13 to be exact!
​- finish planning the Wild Gears floor cloths (make them in June) - I'm not going to start the floor cloths until the mosaic walls are grouted but I'm still working on designs.

The biggest accomplishment for May was fixing my Great-Grandmother's quilt.
I also made a new set of postcards using my Wild Gears and made 3 dog beds for the local shelter from all of the veteran quilt trimmings.

All in all, a darned good month considering that the month really was only 3 weeks.

My ending stats for May are:
Starting UFO 16 (15 in 2018)
Finished YTD 2
Started YTD 2
Ending UFO 16 
Veterans quilts made - 4
Veterans quilts quilted - 25
Fabric Postcards - 26
Pet Beds 3
Garment 
​Placemats -
​​Quilted for others - 1

My goals for June are:

- one EQ lesson
- finish the fish mosaic
- grout both mosaics
- finish Lost My Marbles
- quilt a few veterans quilts

My goals for April were:
- finish mosaic the beaded wall  - I did!
- quilt the big circles on Lost My Marbles - I'm about half done
- 2 EQ lessons - I finished one more that I'll share later
- start the Spirograph floor cloths - instead I ordered more gears so I'm practicing more designs
​- finish yard work - the weeding and tree/shrub trimming is done but the 7 truckloads of mulch are still to be done

We also too a hiking trip and I got some had sewing done while we were away.

I also made good progress on the 4th of July quilt, made some Wild Gears postcards and made a bunch of fused glass fish for my backsplash wall/

All in all, a good month! At least I didn't start anything new.
Here are my stats for April:

Starting UFO 16 (15 in 2018)
Finished YTD 1
Started YTD 1
Ending UFO 16 
Veterans quilts made - 4
Veterans quilts quilted - 12
Fabric Postcards - 16
Pet Beds 3
Garment 
​Placemats -
​​Quilted for others - 1

In May we have our family beach vacation so it's going to be a short month and I have to get the mulching done to finish off the yard work for the year. So I'm going to try to be reasonable about my goals:

- finish yard work
​- finish 1 EQ lesson
- finish the fish mosaic
- grout both mosaics
- progress on 4th of July 
- finish large circles on Lost My Marbles
- a few veterans quilts
​- finish planning the Wild Gears floor cloths (make them in June)

As I look back on March I see that I was very distracted from sewing by dental work, vacation and now lots of yard work. We are busy trimming trees and shrubs. We've filled the truck 7 times so far and are maybe 60% done! This will be followed by lots and lots of mulching. So April is going to be busy too.

But quilting veterans quilts always gives me a sense of accomplishment and I got 4 of them done in March.

I also quilted Mom's scrap quilt, made good progress on my wall and on planning my new kitchen floor cloths. All in all, not bad! 

But when looking at my goals I didn't make a lot of progress:
- finish the mosaic part of the beaded wall (almost)
- start the big circles on Lost My Marbles (didn't work on this at all in March)
- plan the making of new kitchen floor cloths (good planning progress)
- progress on 4th of July (got to sew on this 1 day)
- 2 more EQ lessons (nope)
- quilt Mom's quilt (yes!)
​- quilt 2 more veterans quilts (quilted 4!)

My ending stats are:
Starting UFO 16 (15 in 2018)
Finished YTD 1
Started YTD 1
Ending UFO 16 
Veterans quilts made - 4
Veterans quilts quilted - 12
Fabric Postcards - 7
Pet Beds 3
Garment 
​Placemats -
​​Quilted for others - 1

My goals for April are:
- finish mosaic the beaded wall (grout in May)
- quilt the big circles on Lost My Marbles
- 2 EQ lessons
- start the Spirograph floor cloths
​- finish yard work!

Before we get into the accounting part that is really only for myself, I do have 2 more veterans quilts to finish off February.

​The one on the left was one of the kits that I did for my quilt club program in January. Karen pieced this one. The GO! 6.5" HST die made cutting this one quick and easy. The teal fabric was a black on white that I overdyed and the black in my hand dyed black. The pantograph that I used on both of these quilts is going to one of my staples going forward. It goes really fast and create really nice texture.

 This clever quilt was made by Becky. She had a collection of blocks left over from previous block drives. She cut the all down to about 6.5" and purposely cut then wonky. The effect, with them set in black, is really cool. What a great idea for orphan blocks!

Here were my stats in January
Starting UFO 16 (15 in 2018)
Finished YTD 1
Started YTD 1
Ending UFO 16 
Veterans quilts made - 4
Veterans quilts quilted - 4
Fabric Postcards 
Pet Beds 3

This month I made some great progress on my mosaic wall and Lost My Marbles. I've also gotten enthralled with my new Wild Gears. But as far as finishes I have 4 veterans quilts quilted and the Dragonfly postcards.

Ending stats:
Starting UFO 16 (15 in 2018)
Finished YTD 1
Started YTD 1
Ending UFO 16 
Veterans quilts made - 4
Veterans quilts quilted - 8
Fabric Postcards - 7
Pet Beds 3

But while there aren't a lot of finishes, my goals were actually met!
- 2 more EQ lessons  - done
- progress on the mosaic wall - lots done
- get back to quilting Lost My Marbles - almost done with the small circles
- progress on 4th of July - 4 blocks and fabric cut for the rest
- Zentangle labels for 3 quilts - DONE!
​- get the kitchen finished, all of the cabinets reorganized and back to normal life in the house - will be done today

So I'm really happy. I actually stayed focused. We have a trip planned in March so March will be a 3-week month. Here are my goals:

- finish the mosaic part of the beaded wall (grout in April or May)
- start the big circles on Lost My Marbles
- plan the making of new kitchen floor cloths
- progress on 4th of July
- 2 more EQ lessons
- quilt Mom's quilt
​- quilt 2 more veterans quilts

I'm going to start out this month's report with a little show-and-tell.

When I did the AQS show in October the AQS folks surprised my by wanting to do a video in my booth. Honestly, I had forgotten about it until I got my AQS magazine this week and saw that I had bee featured in their Product Spotlight. If the video doesn't play, here's the direct link: https://youtu.be/kx0Df5LV-BM

Yes, I'm a Southern girl!

Now on to my self-report. My goals for January were:
- finish 4 veterans quilts - DONE!
- bind and label Indonesian Batik - DONE!
- label for Antelope Canyon - not done and 2 other quilts need labels too
- possibly start a foundation piecing project, I have a couple of choose from - DONE!
- resume quilting Lost My Marbles - not done, but resumed my mosaic wall instead
- 3 EQ lessons - only 1 done so far

I consider that a pretty darned successful month because I also quilted 4 veterans quilts and made 3 pet beds with all of the scraps.

The month looks great when viewed like that! My goals for February are:

- 2 more EQ lessons
- progress on the mosaic wall
- get back to quilting Lost My Marbles
- progress on 4th of July
- Zentangle labels for 3 quilts
​- get the kitchen finished, all of the cabinets reorganized and back to mormal life in the house

Last month I said that I was going to drop my goal of reducing the number of UFO projects. Just tracking my projects helps me keep some sort of control over the new projects that I start. So in this post I'm going to wrap up December and talk about my goals and projects for 2019.

My goals for December were:
- bind Indonesian Batik (didn't happen)
- make labels for Antelope Canyon and Indonesian Batik (didn't happen)
- finish the last set of Christmas postcards (Done!)
- make veterans quilt kits (well underway)
​- make placemats with the last of the leftover Indonesian batik fabric (Done!)
Instead of finishing the batik quilt I made 4 veterans quilts because I'm doing a program on veterans quilts for my quilt club next week. I also quilted 4 other veterans quilts.

Here are my stats for 2018:
Starting UFO 15
Finished YTD 4 (Goal 12)
Started YTD 6 (Planned 6)
Ending UFO 17 (Goal 9)
Veterans YTD 22 (Goal 40)
Fabric Postcards 150
Pet Beds 2
Garment 2
​Placemats - 16
​Chair cushions/pillows - 3
Potholders - 3
​Big Fabric Flowers
​Quilted for others - 2

​I expect to have more time in 2019 so I'm hopeful that I'll get more of my projects finished this year. I'm dedicating the beginning of the year to veterans quilts. Over the next few days I'll have 4 designs to share that I made for my program next week and I have a few more ideas percolating.

I'm also planning to be more dedicated to  learning Electric Quilt. I bought some workbooks for EQ8 that I'm going to work through.

On the longarm, next up is to re-load and finish Lost My Marbles. Does anyone even remember that one? But the one goal that I do want to set for the year is to get my 2 mosaic projects done.

My specific goals for January are:
- finish 4 veterans quilts
- bind and label Indonesian Batik
- label for Antelope Canyon
- possibly start a foundation piecing project, I have a couple of choose from'
- resume quilting Lost My Marbles
- 3 EQ lessons

When I started my UFO Busting tracking a few years ago I had over 30 UFO projects. Making myself track them has been a great exercise. I find that simply because I keep a list that I'm better disciplined about starting new projects. When I think about starting a new project (especially all the fun quilt-alongs that I see on social media) I always have my list to keep me focused. Now when I start a new project I know that I REALLY want to start that project.

I'm going to end this year with the same count that I started assuming that I get the Indonesian Batik quilt bound this month....and I will.

This monthly accounting has been good for me and I will keep it up although I'm not going to call it UFO Busting anymore. It's just going to be my monthly accounting, although I will still try to get that lost down below 10 at some point.

November was a great month because I finished Antelope Canyon. I also got the Indonesian Batik quilt quilted. It only needs binding to call it done.

I also made over 60 postcards for Christmas and quilted 2 veterans quilts. It was a really good month and December is looking pretty good so far.

Here's my status at the end of November:
Starting UFO 15
Finished YTD 4 (Goal 12)
Started YTD 6 (Planned 6)
Ending UFO 17 (Goal 9)
Veterans YTD 18 (Goal 40)
Fabric Postcards 127
Pet Beds 2
Garment 2
​Placemats - 10
​Chair cushions/pillows - 3
Potholders - 3
​Big Fabric Flowers
​Quilted for others - 2

I've decided that I'm declaring 2019 the year of Electric Quilt and veterans quilts. I want to become proficient at EQ8 so I bought some lesson workbooks. Because of my arm injury and the show, I didn't get to quilt very many veterans quilts last year. I also have a lot of fabric stash that I want to downsize. So I'm going to use my new EQ8 lesson books to design some veterans quilts and make kits with my stash. I'll use my monthly sewing days at Country School to work on them. I'll also make some quilts for other club members if they want them. Then I'll get back on track quilting them as they come in.

My goals for December are:
- bind Indonesian Batik
- make labels for Antelope Canyon and Indonesian Batik
- finish the last set of Christmas postcards
- make veterans quilt kits
​- make placemats with the last of the leftover Indonesian batik fabric

I was so wrapped up in that show in the beginning of October that I totally forgot to do a UFO post for September. That's great for me right now because with 2 months of activity it might appear like I've actually done something!

The most recent something was finishing the cat postcards. I posted about the one of the left last week and that one is a true "one of a kind" because making one was more than enough. I had to come up with a better use for that cat ribbon and I think I accomplished something that was a lot more fun to make and a a lot better design. I found a cat paw stamp in my stash, Estelle loaned me the cat stencil, I had letter stamps that I had never used before and there was a random pink polka dot ribbon in my stash to finish it off. I'm quite please and had enough ribbon to make 8 of these. 

Also in the last 2 months I made a couple dozen fabric flowers and Maine-themed potholders and postcards. To wrap things up, late last night I quilted 2 veterans quilts. I'll have photos of them to share tomorrow. Given my total focus on the show, I'm overall happy with what I accomplished but I am overjoyed to be back into mu old routine.

My goals for November are:
- bind Antelope Canyon
- make 80 Christmas postcards
- resume quilting Lost My Marbles (Spirograph blocks)
- finish the Indonesian Batik quilt top

Here are my current stats:
2018 Stats
Starting UFO 15
Finished YTD 3 (Goal 12)
Started YTD 6 (Planned 6)
Ending UFO 18 (Goal 9)
Veterans YTD 18 (Goal 40)
Fabric Postcards 66
Pet Beds 2
Garment 2
​Placemats - 10
​Chair cushions/pillows - 3
Potholders - 3
​Big Fabric Flowers
​Quilted for others - 2

How are you doing on your list?