I had grand goals and didn't quite get them all done. But it was still a good month and I'm happy with everything I got done. Here's were I sit with the goals I had:
- grout both mosaics - haven't done this yet. I did buy the grout for the backsplash but I have to do it when I can leave the windows on the basement open for a few days. The grout off-gasses so I have to ventilate. Hopefully it will get done soon.
- 4th of July quilt - done!
- both Groovy quilts - one is done and the other is under construction
- Dog Gone Cute quilt - hope to get it quilted this month
- sunprint veteran's quilts - had I taken these on my Thanksgiving weekend trip as planned they would be done. I'll get them wrapped up this week
 - Plus the 80 Christmas postcards. - I didn't expect to get all of these done in November, but I did. I'll be posting them later this week.

Here are my number through November:
Starting UFO 18 (15 in 2018)
Finished YTD 12
Started YTD 8
Ending UFO 14
Veterans quilts made - 7
Veterans quilts quilted - 40
Fabric Postcards - 64
Pet Beds 12
Garment 
​Placemats -
​​Quilted for others - 4

By the end of December I will have added over 80 postcards to the count and might have my UFO number down to close to 10. My goals for the month are:

- Finish Groovy 2
- Finish Dog Gone Cute
- Finish the sun print veterans quilts
- Grout the backsplash mosaic

If I can get those down I'll end the year with a record low of 10 UFO projects. At this point I want next year to be about tackling some of my more involved longarm quilting projects. I only have 2 projects that I want to start but I won't cut into either until these last 4 projects are done, even if it's not until February

As I look back October wasn't a particularly productive month but that's no surprise given the 10-day cold. I did eeek in one last finish (of sorts) before the end of the month. This is a quilt that my friend Anne made. Before you ask, this quilt was based on an original quilt by Lisa-Marie Sanders and we had to get special permission to make this one copy. If you have to have your own crab quilt you might be able to get in touch with her here.

I posted it a few weeks ago asking for help with quilting ideas. We liked the idea of an overall watery effect best so that's what I did. The thing I care about most is that it's done! Now I can move on to other things on my list.

My goals for October were:
- Finish 3 "Paula" quilts - I finished "I'm Not a Snowflake" and "Where in the world is my cat?" I did start a 3rd one and got it through quilting. Benartex didn't have room for it in the booth. I completely forgot about is so I'll share it next week with the story about what happened to it.
- Quilt 4th of July - no progress
- Grout the mosaics - no progress
- Finish the 2 sun print veterans quilts - the second quilt top is done and both are ready to quilt
​- Start Christmas postcards - I did get them started. I even have ideas for all 3 designs so I'll be getting back on these very soon.

But I spent most of the month on a new project which is becoming 2 quilts. That's the ice dyed quilts. The small one is ready for quilting once a back is dyed. The big one is ready to piece.

I also started a Hunter's Star veterans quilt. I'm not counting that in my stats until it's finished. It's my project for CSQ sewing days.

Here are the current stats:

Finished YTD 10
Started YTD 8
Ending UFO 16
Veterans quilts made - 7
Veterans quilts quilted - 40
Fabric Postcards - 64
Pet Beds 12
Garment 
​Placemats -
​​Quilted for others - 4

I'd really like to knock out some projects to close out 2019. I've reviewed my list and I think if I focus I can finish all of these projects:

- grout both mosaics
- 4th of July quilt
- both Groovy quilts
- Dog Gone Cute quilt
- sunprint veteran's quilts
Plus the 80 Christmas postcards. 

It's going to take some discipline but I think I can do it. That could get me below 10 UFO projects for the first time ever.

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!