This post is about the only think I've accomplished since last Tuesday. The day I returned from my lovely beach vacation Chris returned from a short trip to Florida. He came home with a horrendous cold that he promptly shared with me. Activities kicked off Tuesday evening with symptoms that I was sure were allergies. 24 hours later I knew it was Chris' lurgy. I've been slow moving ever since. It is probably just a cold but I suppose it could be the Omicron fungilitis. At this point the symptoms are the same and it doesn't really matter. I've done a little bit of crochet but that's about it. I'm glad I have my March summary post to put up today. Even with the last week kind of ruined, it was a fine month of accomplishments. I got 2 quilt tops made. The firefighter one is one that I consider a major accomplishment because I've had the fabric over a year and a half. I quilted two special quilts. One I did for Becky and it's for her great-nephew. The other is the special baby quilt that Mom made. I finished 4 little cuddle quilts for donations and that's about all the quilting accomplishments for the month. Probably the biggest news from March are these 3 crochet projects that I finished. The hexi sweater has been languishing for months and I'm glad to have finally finished it. I used up 8 balls of yarn this month and that doesn't offset the 22 balls that I bought that the Hobby Lobby clearance. I should be back to "neutral" inventory in a couple of months. Of course, the major accomplishment for the month was the heirloom bear for my cousin's new grandbaby. I made one test bunny out of Ultrasuede (not a genius move) before making the final version from an heirloom baby quilt.
I'm not even going to look at my goal list for March since I totally lost a whole week of productivity that I had planned for last week. Current stats: Veterans quilts made - 7 Donation lap quilts - 12 Veterans quilts quilted - 7 Quilted for others - 2 Crochet blankets - 3 Crochet shawls - 1 Crochet/loom knit hats and scarves - 12 Doll outfits - 2 Placemats - 12 Other Donated items - 74 Balls of yarn used - 8 Other items - 3 My goals for April are: - make some birthday postcards - make a set of placemats - finish quilting Mom's quilt - quilt some veterans quilts - make a new hiking backpack - get rid of this cold! My goals for February were: - keep piecing lap quilts - done - finish one more veterans quilt and quilt as many as are needed - done - practice class quilting on the lap quilts - done - finish the crochet cardigan - didn't even touch it - finish quilting Mom's quilt - not done because I'm not done with my botanicals quilting class That's a usual month. I always set some goals but I know I'll change them as the month goes along and that's OK. Mom is in no hurry for her quilt and I don't put any time limits on my crochet projects. But I am going to take that cardigan to the beach later this month and expect that I can finish it there. It will help to have my friend help me analyze the fit. I'm at the part where I need to determine the back width and that's a little difficult to do on your own. While I missed a few goals I got a lot of other things done. First off, I quilted 4 veterans quilts. The red and blue one is one of my own so I got it bound as well. I got 8 of the little cuddle quilts done and delivered to From The Heart. I practiced my floral quilting on 4 of them but going forward I'm not going to use these for practice quilting anymore. These quilts need to be really soft and snuggly so I don't want such dense quilting. I think I have 7 more read for quilting and lots more to cut and sew. I have a new project that I want to start so I'm going to try to get these knocked out in March. The surprise new project of the month was getting 12 placemats made. It all started because there was leftover fish fabric from 2 of the cuddle quilts and I didn't want to put it away. I made 8 placemats from that fabric (4 for us and 4 for my nephew) and then I decided to make placemat sets for the whole family. The bird set was next and there are more to come. On the crochet front I apparently went a little crazy with hats. I did finish one large donation blanket that will be given to a chemo or dialysis patient but mostly I finished hats. 3 are winter hats to donate next year and the others are masculine chemo hats that have already been donated. I used up 8 balls of yarn but I think I deserve extra credit because 2 of them were 16 oz balls. My last 2 finished for the month are this pincushion for my friend and doll dresses for Ella.
It was a really good month! Current YTD stats: Veterans quilts made - 7 Donation lap quilts - 8 Veterans quilts quilted - 7 Crochet/loom knit hats and scarves - 10 Doll outfits - 2 Placemats - 12 Other Donated items - 74 Balls of yarn used - 16 Other items - 1 I'll be gone one week in March to go to the beach with a friend but we are taking our sewing machines so making will be happening between beach reading and walking sessions (if the weather permits). I'm setting a long list of March goals knowing that they will not all get done but these are all the things on my radar with only 2 having looming deadlines.
There's a great benefit of winter and not being able to spend much time outside. You have more time for inside hobbies. I took full advantage of that in January. Probably my best accomplishment is finishing up 6 veterans quilts. The last one was started and finished this month. I also quilted 4 veterans quilts for other members. All this means that I got the timing on my machine worked out and hit my goal of quilting at least 7 veterans quilts. It's really nice to be quilting again! I wasn't in the mood to start a new quilt project early in the month so I spent some time making surgery drain bags. I ended up with 74 of them! I did lots of crocheting and finished 2 hats and 1 baby blanket but I started 3 new projects: a big gift blanket, a cardigan and a large donation blanket. I finally got some piecing inspiration when I decided to use a bin of well-aged fabric to make a lot of small lap quilts for donation. some will be kids blankets for a cancer camp and some will be wheelchair blankets.
I also started quilting a big quilt for my Mom. That one will be finished after I finish a new online quilting class that's all about quilting botanical elements. My goals for February are: - keep piecing lap quilts - finish one more veterans quilt and quilt as many as are needed - practice class quilting on the lap quilts - finish the crochet cardigan - finish quilting Mom's quilt (if I've gotten through enough og the class to know what I want to do) December was about 2 things: postcards and dyeing shirts and towels for gifts. I made almost 90 postcards in November and December. As best as I can tell, I have been making Christmas postcards for about 15 years and I'm not tired of it yet. Only 9 more months until I stress out about the 2023 designs! My other big accomplishment was doing a lot of dyeing for gifts. I have actually gifted 22 of the 26 tea towels! I'll order more soon so that I can stockpile for future gifts. People seem to like these and I love making them. My next batch will be heavy on tie dyeing because I really love how this batch turned out. Crocheting was good this month too. I made 9 more donation hats, a donation shawl and finished a blanket for my cousin's husband. The evening I gave it to her she sent me a photo of Barclay relaxing in his recliner all snuggled under it. That's a great feeling! On the sewing/quilting front, I haven't accomplished so much. I got 2 veterans quilt tops sewn but that's about it. I haven't quitled in 2 months for many reasons but the main one is that I'm having some problems with my machine. Thread is shredding and I keep re-timing it and I can't quite solve it. I've made it a lot better but I'm determined to get it resolved this week. I've got 7 veterans quilts to quilt and 4 of them are mine 4 or 5 of them are my own. 2022 in reviewI'm not going to post any sort of collage of my projects for the year because I have this page that has everything I've made on it. But I do have these 2 photos that represent some of my accomplishments. I emptied 14 spools/cones of threads and used 114 balls/skeins of yarn. At the thread usage rate I should be through my thread by my 148th birthday. I'm a little better off with the yarn. My purchases seemed to be getting a little crazy. I only buy yarn on sale but that doesn't mean that I need it. I wanted to see how much I use. At this rate I have about 2 years worth "in stock". I don't feel too bad about that but I need to keep an eye on my purchases. Here are my stats for the year: Quilts - 3 Veterans quilts made - 9 Veterans quilts quilted - 21 Fabric Postcards - 98 Pet Beds - 6 Quilted for others - 2 Crochet blankets - 12 Crochet shawls - 5 Crochet/loom knit hats and scarves - 47 Doll outfits - 1 Placemats - 14 Dyed shirts and towels - 36 Other Donated items - 41 Garments (sewn and cochet) - 4 January GoalsI don't make New Year's resolutions or set big goals. My big goal is the same as always: to spend as much time as possible making things. I'm really glad that I have charity organizations to make things for because my family and friends have all the stuff from me that they need. I'm always ready to make something special but I love being able to make the veterans quilts and and the crochet items for From The Heart.
For January I want to: - get the longarm straightened out and quilt 7 veterans quilts - finish a batch of surgery drain bags for FTH - replace the binding on a vintage family baby quilt I'm not much for New Year resolutions. I set daily tasks, weekly goals and monthly goals and then I have lists of things I want to accomplish at some point. I'm an accountant and I love accounting so I like to keep lists of accomplishments. As far as personal resolutions I tend to have those throughout the year. Maybe after a doctor visit I resolve to change eating or exercise habits but that happens that the time of the event, not on January 1. When my closets need to be purged, they get purged. I just can't deal with making proclamations or resolutions on a specific day. But I do reset my "accounts" to zero and start new tallies. I'll get to the annual totals in a bit but I'll review December first. What a great month I had in December! I don't know how I did so much except that several of these things were well underway in November. I finished 2 doll outfits, quilted and bound 3 veterans quilts, finished one big crochet blanket and a shawl, made 8 pet beds for donation and made about 88 postcards! I've got no complaints about all that. Two insignificant things that I started accounting for this weekend was empty yarn wrappers and spools. I accidentally started saving yarn wrappers in August and just kept doing it. Just since August I used 54 skeins of yarn! That was shocking to me. Some were small but some were quite big (over 300 yards). I also saved my empty cones of thread and I emptied 4. I don't really buy thread anymore because I have sooooooo much but I have replaced a couple of colors that I use on the veterans quilts. I'll continue to track both of these things.
It's impossible for me to track fabric in and out because most of my fabric comes out of the dye studio from leftover dye applied to bolt ends or the waste fabrics. It would be way to hard to track that. I buy very little commercial fabric but when I do it's for a special project. Yarn is another story. I've bought a LOT of yarn this year and all of it was on clearance or a very good sale. Still, as it is, I'm pretty well set for a year or so. I'm going to track the empty wrappers so I can see how much I use in a year and maybe I can use that information to help meter my purchases. My ending statistics for the year are. All of the photos of the projects are on my 2021 Gallery page. Other major projects (the floor cloths) - 1 Veterans quilts made - 9 Veterans quilts quilted - 51 Fabric Postcards - 107 Pet Beds - 18 Quilted for others - 2 Crochet blankets - 9 Crochet shawls - 3 Crochet/loom knit hats and scarves - 31 Doll outfits - 9 Placemats - 12 Pillows - 2 Donated items - 35 Bags and totes - 25 Total number of items is a shocking 314! That doesn't really mean anything because the epic projects like the floor cloths or Finally! quilt count as one and the simple postcards count as 107. But still. I'm happy because about 150 of the total were donated items. If I have a goal for 2022 it would be to keep that ratio of donated items. That's enough looking back. It's time to think about January. My first 2 goals are carryovers from December: - add borders to the vulture quilt - quilt Anne's double wedding ring (just wait until you see this spectacular quilt - start THREE crochet projects. Yes, I really am starting 3 of them I'm not much on annual goals or resolutions. But I'm pretty darned good at monthly goals. I like lists and goals but 12 months at a time is a little much for me. Several years ago, though, I had a big goal of reducing the number of unfinished projects. In 2015 I had 29 UFO projects and I was overwhelmed with it. I've slowly attacked the list and this year I finally got the list down under 10! I have a page for everything that I completed this year but this post is just about December and January. My goals for December were: - finish and mail 80 Christmas postcards - done - finish the floor cloths - didn't work on them at all because I was making coasters instead - make 3 Christmas gifts - done but can't share until January - start quilting my oldest UFO, the postage stamp quilt - this will wait until February to align with a feather quilting class that I'm going to take - return to working on Summer Sunset - made coasters instead From that summary it looks like I didn't accomplish anything in December but actually it was a really good month. I even knocked out 2 more veterans quilts yesterday to close our the month. Here are the quilts that I quilted yesterday. Clearly they were made by the same quilter and I think they are very striking. I used the Loose Leaf pantograph with King Tut thread. I picked a light denim blue for the backing. I think it goes well with the cheddar fabric. In December I also finished about half of the 80 Christmas postcards, quilted a quilt for Mom, made about 7 sets of coasters for gifts and finished a baby quilt.
I also finished a sample quilt for Paula Nadelstern and finished my best friend's Christmas gifts but all those things will have to be counted in January because I can't share them yet. That's going to make January look fantastic! Here are my final stats for 2020: Starting UFO 12(15 in 2018) Finished YTD 9 Started YTD 5 Ending UFO 8 Veterans quilts made - 15 Veterans quilts quilted - 41 Fabric Postcards - 109 Pet Beds 9 Garment Placemats - 12 Quilted for others - 4 Crochet projects - 14 COVID masks - approximately 180 Tea towels for WHEAT fundraiser - dozens! Mosaic pizza oven Coaster sets - 9 My UFO numbers will go up in January because I'm starting at least 1 new project. Here are my plans/goals for January: - finish the floor cloths - finally - work on Summer Sunset - start a quilt for my SIL - work on the Club Noir blocks (green) and make a decision about what I'm doing with them - quilt some veterans quilts - get back to fusing glass I had 4 goals for December: - Finish Groovy 2 - Finish Dog Gone Cute - Finish the sun print veterans quilts - Grout the backsplash mosaic I am thrilled that I completed 3 of the 4! I know that Groovy will get done in January because I'm about to get started quilting it. The rest of the month was spent getting my Christmas postcards done.
I started tracking my projects in 2016 and had 23 UFO projects at that time. It was pretty overwhelming. I'm much happier with a list of only 12 and that I reduced the list by another 6 this year. I don't ever expect the list to be zero but I'd love to see it under 8. That's doable if I can control new starts. Here's how I ended the year: Starting UFO 18 (15 in 2018) Finished YTD 15 Started YTD 9 Ending UFO 12 Veterans quilts made - 9 Veterans quilts quilted - 40 Fabric Postcards - 152 Pet Beds 12 Garment Placemats - Quilted for others - 4 The UFO list only includes quilts and mosaic. Veterans quilts, postcards, pet beds, placemats, etc are just bonus. It was a big year for bonus projects! Here's what's left on my UFO list: Second mosaic wall section - beaded curtain Pleiades II symmetry quilt Blue vintage flower applique - started June 2018 Loony Moony - started June 2018 1 Groovy quilt Kaleidoscope Block of the Week (Jackie's Choice) Postage Stamp Quilt (the oldest UFO) Vintage Flower appliqué (top finished in May 2018) Shibori dyeing series (need to decide if I'm doing anything with them) Flower appliqué on green wall hanging (need setting plan) Dark red screen printed fabric (in gold) for placemats Red leaf prints for wall hanging I'd love to say that I'm going to do all of these in 2020. It would only be 1 a month but I know that at least 4 of these are going to be intense quilting projects and I'm slow as molasses at custom quilting. But I can easily cut this list in half. I have 2 new projects planned already but I'll try to at least finish one before each start. For January my goals are: - quilt and bind Groovy 2 - make placemants with some flower applique blocks because they will never become a quilt - quilt 4 - 6 veterans quilts - load Jackie's Choice and start quilting 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 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 This is the last UFO report for 2016. We had 10 participants for last month and the winner is Susan!
I didn't accomplish anything on my UFO list in November but I did make over 90 fabric postcards that all went in the mail today! But there's a possibility that I will get 2 projects done in December (placemats and the QOV) which would get me down to 18 UFO projects left. I also have a goal to 1uilt 4 more veterans quilts in December and that should be easily done too. Although I didn't meet my goal I have made a good dent in the list of 29 projects that I had a couple of years ago. More importantly I've put a little brake pressure on starting new projects and that's a really good thing. I think just to keep myself accountable I'll probably keep doing thse posts next year but not make it into a big project. Anyone who wants to come along is welcome. Starting UFO 24 Finished YTD 7 (Goal 14) Started YTD 3 (Planned 6) Ending UFO 20 (Goal 15) Veterans YTD 36 (Goal 40) |
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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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March 2024
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