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Well, here we are with another month with no finishes! My biggest accomplishment for April was helping Mom move and, while it was a lot of effort and time, it was the smoothest move either of us could have expected. I also made a big decision in April to vend at the AQS show in Virginia Beach in October. That means twice as much dyeing to do between now and then. I'm getting into a new routine but the first 2 weeks took a little getting used to. On the project front, I've been making a bit of progress but nothing is done.  I finished the applique borders and I'm ready to attach them to the quilt and applique the 4 corner blocks.  The Stars at Sea top is done and I've started piecing Antelope Canyon  A new Pleiades quilt is underway  Lost my marbles was moving along at a great pace until I had a giant TMJ flare up this past weekend so I haven't worked on it in a week. I want to get all of the little marbles done and then I'm going to take it off to catch up on veteran's quilts and to quilt Stars at Sea. Then I'll reload Marbles and finish it off later this summer. I also cut one more project, Indonesian Scraps, that I'll work on as one of my travel sewing projects.  I did finish one project when I got another tunic made. I have fabric for a few more and hope to finish another one in May. My goals for May are lenient. We have a family vacation at the end of the month. So it's a 3-week month for me. I want to : - finish the small marbles on Lost my marbles - quilt Stars at Sea - quilt some veterans quilts - cut out the rest of the blocks for Pleiades II - work on the mosaic beaded wall These are very achievable goals as long as I don't have any more TMJ pain or some other little surprise. My starting goals for 2018 were:
Starting UFO 15 Finished YTD Goal 12 Started YTD Planned 6 Ending UFO Goal 9 Veterans YTD Goal 40 Here are my stats as of April 30: Starting UFO 15 Finished YTD 1 (Goal 12) Started YTD 4 (Planned 6) Ending UFO 18 (Goal 9) Veterans YTD 4 (Goal 40) Fabric Postcards 54 Pet Beds 2 Garment 2 Placemats - 4 It includes the fish postcards that I made earlier this month.
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There's good new and there's not so good news.  I finished 4 projects which is great but none of the 4 were planned! I also cut out one more quilt with the Indonesian batik fabrics. I didn't finish anything on my UFO list but I'm making progress on the Lost My marbles quilt, the applique quilt and the mosaic wall. So I'm calling the month a success! My starting goals for 2018 were:
Starting UFO 15 Finished YTD Goal 12 Started YTD Planned 6 Ending UFO Goal 9 Veterans YTD Goal 40 This month I finished 1 garment(!) 2 postcards, a set of placemats and started 1 more quilt! That leaves me with these stats: Starting UFO 15 Finished YTD 1 (Goal 12) Started YTD 3 (Planned 6) Ending UFO 17 (Goal 9) Veterans YTD 4 (Goal 40) Fabric Postcards 45 Garments 1 Pet Beds 2 I do not have any expectation to finish anything in April. I'm helping my Mom move and get settled in her new apartment and I have a LOT of dyeing to catch up on when my new 2000-meter order of fabric arrives next week. My goal is to get the rest of my marbles quilted and to get my applique borders done and sewn to the quilt so I can finish up the 4 corners. I've ordered some more batik rayon so I might make another summer top. I hope you are doing better with your UFO projects! I know that I'm adding 1 more to my list for my travel sewing projects but I hope to stop after that and finish some things this summer. If you want to track along with my you are welcome to leave a link or your status int he comments.  Thank goodness for the Maine quilt! I have my first finish for 2018.
My starting goals for 2018 were: Starting UFO 15 Finished YTD Goal 12 Started YTD Planned 6 Ending UFO Goal 9 Veterans YTD Goal 40 This month I finished 1 quilt, quilted 4 veterans quilts and started 2 new quilts: Stars at Sea and Antelope Canyon. Both of those will probably be done this year but I'm in no hurry. I already know that I'm going to cut out one more quilt soon with the new Indonesian Batiks. That leaves me with these stats: Starting UFO 15 Finished YTD 1 (Goal 12) Started YTD 2 (Planned 6) Ending UFO 16 (Goal 9) Veterans YTD 4 (Goal 40) Fabric Postcards 34 Pet Beds 2 I'm heading in the wrong direction but I"m not going to worry about that yet! In March I want to make a new set of placemats, make some progress quilting Lost My Marbles (the brown drunkard's path) and cut out the Indonesian Batik quilt. I night even be able to make more progress on my applique project or look at one of the smaller projects that I have on the UFO list. Time to check in to see if I actually accomplished anything in January! My 2018 goals are: Starting UFO 15 Finished YTD Goal 12 Started YTD Planned 6 Ending UFO Goal 9 Veterans YTD Goal 40 For January I didn't finish any quilts and almost started a new one. I'm really holding off on starting Antelope Canyon until I get the Maine quilt top done. But mostly in January I've been working on getting my classes and booth ready for Birds of a Feather next week.  But I did make 34 fabric postcards.  Last night after I finished my booth prep list for the day I had a couple of hours to fill so I emptied my overflowing scrap bin to make 2 dog beds for my friend, who is now a board member of Richmond Animal League.
So, YTD here are my stats: Starting UFO 15 Finished YTD 0 (Goal 12) Started YTD 0 (Planned 6) Ending UFO 15 (Goal 9) Veterans YTD 0 (Goal 40) Fabric Postcards 34 Pet Beds 2 What are your goals for the year?  Time to wrap up and plan ahead. I ended December with a couple more finishes. I quilted several veterans quilts and the one above was my last one.  That quilt is still on the frame because I'm filling the edge with trees for next year's postcards. This quilt brought my total for the year to 39 against a goal of 40. I did include all of the quilts that were quilted on FloMo, even those by Marcy and Tina. There are 4 more that were quilted by Tina on her machine. Since I only have one top left in the closet to quilt I'm really happy that we are pretty much caught up.  I also finished Parasol this month. I was determined not to finish the year with this one hanging over my head. I do still need to do a label but we're calling it done! Here are my stats for the year: Starting UFO 19 Finished YTD 17 (Goal 11) Started YTD 13 (Planned 6) Ending UFO 15 (Goal 14) Veterans YTD 39 (Goal 40) It's interesting to compare these stats to 2016: Starting UFO 24 Finished YTD 7 (Goal 14) Started YTD 3 (Planned 6) Ending UFO 20 (Goal 15) Veterans YTD 40 (Goal 40) I started and finished 10 more projects in 2018 than 2017 and I'm down to 15 UFO projects. I think that's the least ever since I started quilting! For 2018 I have the following UFO projects: Actively In Process Vintage Flower appliqué (blocks and inner border done, need to put together the rest of the top and applique outer borders) Maine sunprinted quilt Second mosaic wall section - beaded curtain Mosaic backsplash Ready to be quilted (have backs) Baby Drunkard’s Path Brown Drunkard’s Path Kaleidoscope Block of the Week (Jackie's Choice) Postage Stamp Quilt (the oldest UFO) Tops/Projects In Some State of Progress Shibori dyeing series (need to decide if I'm doing anything with them) Flower appliqué on green wall hanging (need setting plan) Blue vintage flower applique (after the big vintage flower applique) Dark red screen printed fabric (in gold) for placemats Coming Home sun prints for wall hanging Red leaf prints for wall hanging Blue scrappy tumbler quilt  The next project to come off the long-term list will be this one. These are blocks that I hand appliqued and they were inspired by a project that Deb levy made using Go! Cutter shapes. I used this project to learn how to hand applique. I don't really have a use for these blocks so I'll either make them into 12 placemats or a small donation quilt. This will be the next project that I work on while I spend most of my time with FloMo catching up on some of the tops. The list of projects that I want to do remains the same as last year:
Projects I Want to Do (not counted) New symmetry quilt new Quilt Along project QOV/veterans mystery quilt New guest house quilt Here are my goals for 2018, I want to end the year with less than 10 UFO projects Starting UFO 15 Finished YTD Goal 12 Started YTD Planned 6 Ending UFO Goal 9 Veterans YTD Goal 40 Sometime things go as planned and sometimes they don't. This was a don't month but not a total failure.
There seems to be a vicious cold going around our area and both Chris and I caught it. For me it's been the entire month so I did not finish 3 project like I wanted. A cold doesn't put you totally down (except for 4 days) but it does sap your energy. That meant that I wasn't in the mood to stand at the longarm. Instead I decided to get working on my Christmas postcards. I finished 2 of 3 sets and I consider that a big accomplishment. The third set will be done this weekend. I don't track postcards are part of my project tracking. That would really get things out of hand.  My only finish for the month was this ornament kit and, honestly, I'm thrilled and calling November a big success. I also didn't start anything new so that's good too! Here are my numbers: Starting UFO 19 Finished YTD 15 (Goal 11) Started YTD 13 (Planned 6) Ending UFO 17 (Goal 14) Veterans YTD 31 (Goal 40) So I'm down 2 for the year so far and I have serious hope to finish 2 projects in December. Both are easily completed. That would get me down to 15 at year end, one short of my goal. Maybe I can find some other small UFO to finish to get to my end game.
Regardless, I'm better that I was when I started tracking and had something like 28 UFO projects! Tracking my projects is really helpful for me so I'll keep it going in 2018. If I can get this list to less than 10 I'd be incredibly happy. How have you done on your projects? You are welcome to link up or leave a comment. Oh this was going to be a big month for finishes because I finished both of these lingering ornament kits. But then I started 2 other projects! The sun printed Maine quilt is going to be my CSQ monthly retreat project and the mandala is something that I've been promising myself to do for months. Statistically I'm about even, but I'm actually really happy with my progress in October. I finished 2 old things and started 2 things that I REALLY wanted to do. The lingering things are slowly being removed from the list. I expect to have at least 2 (maybe 3) finishes for November and, hopefully, no more than 1 start. Here are my stats: Starting UFO 19 Finished YTD 13 (Goal 11) Started YTD 13 (Planned 6) Ending UFO 19 (Goal 14) Veterans YTD 31 (Goal 40) I thought that I might be done with the mandala quilting but I think I'm going to put it back on and do some sort of fill work in two white rings with more blue thread. As much as I dislike pink this has been fun to work on.
How are you doing on your quilting (or other project) goals for the year? I had one goal for September and one goal only: finish the quilts for Paula Nadelstern. I met that goal even though I can't share them quite yet.  I have lots of goals for October and one of them is to finish this ornament. It's now officially become "that stupid ornament". I'm that tired of it. This one has way too much gluing for my taste. There's especially a lot of gluing slippery things to other slippery things. Yesterday during my marathon of football watching I got all of the blue sequins glued on and started gluing the pearls and rhinestones. You can only do a few at a time because if I turn the ball the glued things will slip around.  But the worst was making the hanger. They are famous for some of their convoluted directions but this kit takes the proverbial cake. Usually the hanger elements are sewn but this one was all glued and nothing wanted to stick to that white ribbon. So I considered the weekend a huge success to get this far.  Just in case you think it's close to being done.....you are wrong. I still have all of this to add to it. My goal is to complete this one in October. (I split my TV time between the ornament and applique). Then I'll have 2 more kits (better ones) to do before the end of the year and then I'll be done with ornament kits.
On the quilting front I will start 2 new quilts in October. One is the quilt made from the Maine sunprints and the other is the Antelope Canyon quilt. At the longarm I want to quilt a few veterans quilts, the latest crumb block quilt and one of my crystal mandalas. It's also time to make more progress on the mosaic wall. It's going to be a busy month! Here are my stats for September: Starting UFO 19 Finished YTD 10 (Goal 11) Started YTD 11 (Planned 6) Ending UFO 20 (Goal 14) Veterans YTD 23 (Goal 40) How did you do on your projects? You are welcome to post a comment or share a link or even to just think about it on your own. Time for project confessions! Lets start with the good news of 2 finished projects.
Having these 2 quilts done was a big accomplishment for me this month. I feel like these cleared out space in my head as well as my sewing room. Of course, nature doesn't like a vacuum and that applies to me and my sewing room too and I filled it with 3 new projects!
The new charity quilt will be put together in the September sewing days with Country School Quilters and I'll likely make the Maine quilt my next project to do in CSQ sewing days when the charity quilt is done. Both of these will be perfect for packing up to take to sew. I've also received Paula Nadelstern's new fabric samples and am starting on designing what I'll be doing for that project. The quilt is due October 15 and I will not be able to share it until after Quilt Market.  While on vacation I pulled out a old UFO to work on. If you have been following my blog for more than a year you might remember that I have made over 100 Cracker Box Kits. I started making this sometime around 1994 and work on them intermittently. They are a TV watching project and, honestly, I'm kind of over them. I'm over making and displaying them. Not for any reason except that we change interests over time. But I have 3 kits left and they are expensive so I want to finish them. I added them to my UFO list to motivate myself to try to get them done this year. I think I'm going to set aside Monday and Thursday night football to work on these and Saturday and Sunday for the applique.  I'll say that if you are into Christmas ornaments you won't find better kits than these. Some are really pricey too so don't be shocked when you go to the website and see some over $100....for a kit! They have a lot of Swarovski and other expensive "ingredients". This one is called Discovery and now I'm on the highly tedious task of gluing pearls on the end of these petals.
Here are my stats for the end of August: Starting UFO 19 Finished YTD 8 (Goal 11) Started YTD 9 (Planned 6) Ending UFO 20 (Goal 14) Veterans YTD 23 (Goal 40) How did you do on your projects? You are welcome to post a comment or share a link or even to just think about it on your own. Normally I do this post on the first of the month but I thought the sale announcement was a little more important than my little project accounting. Although I'm really happy with my project accounting this month! Starting UFO 19 Finished YTD 6 (Goal 11) Started YTD 6 (Planned 6) Ending UFO 19 (Goal 14) Veterans YTD 21 (Goal 40)
I finished 2 projects in July (the wedding quilt and the rainbow lap quilt) and am very close on 2 more (HSTeria quilt and Rainbow's End quilt). Both just need binding. I'm back to even on the UFO count but I don't plan on starting anything else in August. I'm also thinking about tackling the 3 beaded Christmas ornaments starting this month to see if I can get one of them off the list too. I also quilted 5 more veteran's quilts! It was a good month.  I even did an absolute boatload of sun printing this month!
How did you do on your projects? You are welcome to post a comment or share a link or even to just think about it on your own. |
About Vicki
I'm Vicki Welsh and I've been making things as long as I can remember. I used to be a garment maker but transitioned to quilts about 20 years ago. Currently I'm into fabric dyeing, quilting, Zentangle, fabric postcards, fused glass and mosaic. I document my adventures here. Categories
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