Look what came home with me yesterday! 

My Mom's former neighbor, and quilting buddy, died a few months ago and her husband is starting to tackle her sewing room. She had 5 machines and I decided that I could uses this one as an extra travel machine. When my friend, Laura, travels with me we tend to fight over sewing machine access. Now we will both have one. It wasn't very expensive and I've already tested it out. It makes a great stitch! In a few weeks he's going to have a heck of a yard sale of her fabric. We will not be going back to Farmville for that because neither of us need more fabric. But I'm happy to have this sweet little machine.

(The quilt just in the corner of the photo is one of the "Paula" quilts so there's your sneak peek!)

On to project accounting. I really don't have a lot to actually show for what was a really productive month.

Here are the starting stats:

Starting UFO 16 (15 in 2018)
Finished YTD 4
Started YTD 3
Ending UFO 15
Veterans quilts made - 7
Veterans quilts quilted - 40
Fabric Postcards - 57
Pet Beds 6
Garment 
​Placemats -
​​Quilted for others - 1

Here's what's happened in September:
- I've finished 2 of the Paula quilts (one needs a sleeve and both still need labels) and I started a 3rd one. She only wanted 1 quilt but once I got inspired I couldn't stop. But I'm going to count then as 3 starts for September. They will all be finished by October 14, the day before they are to be mailed.
​-  Crazy lady postcards so that's 7 more for the year
- Quilted 2 baby quilts for Mom
​- Finished the 4th of July top. I bought this backing for it yesterday
- Finished 1 of 2 veterans quilt tops
- Got a new quilt idea that involves ice dyed blocks that my friend, Anne, and I are going to start on this week!

I still haven't grouted the mosaic sections yet because it's still too hot but supposedly fall is finally arriving this week. So as soon as the Paula quilts are done that's the next thing on my agenda.

My current stats are:
​Starting UFO 16 (15 in 2018)
Finished YTD 4
Started YTD 6
Ending UFO 15
Veterans quilts made - 7
Veterans quilts quilted - 40
Fabric Postcards - 64
Pet Beds 6
Garment 
​Placemats -
​​Quilted for others - 3

My goals for October:
- Finish 3 "Paula" quilts
- Quilt 4th of July
- Grout the mosaics
- Finish the 2 sun print veterans quilts
​- Start Christmas postcards

Let's face it, my progress report is for me and no one really cares about it so let's have the important information first! These are the winners of the giveaway week drawings. There were over 700 entries every day. That has to be a record!

I've notified all of the winners but if you see your name on the list and haven't received my email just get in touch with me.

Monday - bag os scraps - Sandra Solberg
Tuesday - Reflections - Bernie Crawford
Wednesday - greens - Lynn Morhous
Thursday - blue and orange - Margaret Griffiths
Friday - wide blue - Caryn Sakaguchi
Saturday - waste fabrics - Kristin Farwig

Congratulations to all of the winners and thank you to everyone who entered.
​

My goals for August were simple. I knew I'd be gone for 2 weeks so my goals had to be modest:

- Finish the puppy quilt top and get backing fabric ready
- quilt 4 more veterans quilts
- work on 4th of July quilt 
- plan a project for another of my UFO items. I'm feeling some placemats coming on from a set of orphan blocks.

I'm pleasantly surprised that I actually got all of these things done! The puppy quilt top was the big accomplishment. It can now move to the to-be-quilted pile. I also quilted 4 more veterans quilts and have completed my personal goal of 40 for the year.

Yesterday between border sewing sessions I decided to look around for something to sew after the dog quilt is done. It's not difficult to find something new to sew! I have loads or projects that I want to do but I also still have over a dozen projects on the UFO list. I looked at a couple of see if I might be able to do something fast with them to get them done. Plus I want to grout the mosaics and start my Spirograph floor cloths in September so I need a couple of quick and easy sewing projects. Here's what I came up with.

It's been a couple of years since I've done any sunprinting and one reason is that I still have a stash of sunprinted fabrics. This is one of those stashes. I sunprinted these in an autumnal color palette because I intended to make a wall hanging with them. But I'm in quilt mode, not wall art mode so it's time to do something else with them.

I had set aside these fabrics to put with them so I think I'm feeling a couple of autumnal veterans quilts. I'll need to wash the sun prints to get out the excess paint and soften them up but I think I can make at least 1 nice veterans quilt with them. Maybe 2!

These blocks are the blocks I made when learning to applique. I never really had a plan for them and they've just been sitting in a basket for years. It's time to use them for SOMETHING. These aren't tight for a veterans quilt. But they will be great for placemats and placemats make great Christmas gifts.

I had this stack of fabrics with them. These are the fabrics I pulled my applique fabrics from. I think I envision the blocks set in a bright checkerboard frame. The blocks are different sizes so I can use the checkerboard to get each piece to the right size. I'll ponder it more until I start on them in September.

​But at least I have some things to work on when the puppy quilt is done....probably tomorrow!

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