2013 Finish List

As I typed my final list, I was disappointed.  8?  Just 8?  And then I remembered the Sew Eclectic Design Challenge, and the Thimble Towne Color Challenge.  whew!  Thirteen in 2013 sounds SO much better!

The first two were the surfboard memory quilts for Tiffany.  I'd spent much of 2012 working on these quilts, but it was not until the week of Road to CA in January, that they were finished and delivered.  I'm currently working on a third quilt, to pattern it, but the appliqued surfboards sit abandoned in a basket, waiting patiently for my return.

The surfboard quilts were followed by a blue and gold Log Cabin bed quilt.  No picture needed - it looks exactly as described.  Fourth to finish was my first Sew Eclectic Design Board-inspired quilt.  I had Sara Kelly's board.

Once I'd finished that quilt, I went into quilt-show mode, and quilting went by the wayside.  The only exception was an iris quilt, which I was determined to finish for the Calico Mermaid Iris Challenge in mid-April.  I finished it on time, and tied for first.  I love this quilt, as does my daughter, who received it as her Christmas gift.

In May, I finished my 2012 Valley Oak Quilt Guild challenge.  Seven months too late to compete, but it was done.  whew!

In May, I also finished my Sew Eclectic Design Board quilt, inspired by Cindy.

July saw the finish of my Sew Eclectic Design Board quilt, inspired by Barbara Daniel.

Two baby quilts were finished and delivered, and then it was time to throw together the Thimble Towne Color Challenge.  In August, I finished "Strelitzia."

In November, I finished the Sew Eclectic Design Challenge quilt inspired by Jeremy.

And last, but not least, was Penny's Big Girl Quilt, for Christmas.

Which brought my total to thirteen finished quilts.  An incomplete count of quiltlets (5x7") came to 26; an incomplete count of postcards (4x6") came to 58.

I am planning to be more productive in 2014, but as I contemplate my UFO list, along with other projects that have been suggested, I may be hard-pressed to meet my goals.

But January 1, being the popular time for goal setting, will see me finalize my potential list for 2014.  So far I have 41 quilts on the list.  That may sound like a lot to some of you, but in comparison, I began 2013 with...41!  Looks like it's a draw, even with the completion of thirteen.  Maybe I'll shoot for fourteen in 2014.

On the Third Day...

I had a "big" project to accomplish. 

In reality, it wasn't all that big, it was just ambitious to think that I could do it in a 24 hour period.  I started it the evening of the second night, and finished it at midnight on the third, just minutes after Fresno State pulled the win from SanDiego State.  I wasn't really watching the game, but it was on, so I was listening with half an ear. 
But I digress.

On the Third day, we also accepted another "30 minute challenge."  Again, it was longer than 30 minutes.  We decided the 30 minutes referred to the time allotted to begin and offer assistance to any of those needing direction.  This challenge was a round robin exchange, which began with a 3" fussy cut square of our choosing.

We had 5 people in our exchange, so we assigned four steps.  The first was to put the square on point.  The second was to square it up again.  The third was to add a pieced border, the last was "embellish."  I really enjoyed the exchange.  Keeping in mind the "30 minute" guideline, I went with simple, making the fabric do most of the work. 

This was mine, when it returned to me.  My part in it was to supply the 3" cat fabric.  Don't you just love the ball of yarn and the mouse?  (bottom left corner)

 The first 3" square I received was Wendy's carrots.  I set them on point, using a mottled green.

 For the next round, I put Karen's sewing machine back to square, using two fabrics that caught the colors.

 For the third round, Beth's little bird sang to me.  I was supposed to make a pieced border, but I couldn't think of any piecework that would make him as happy as surrounding him by some delicious tropical fabrics.

For the fourth and final round, I embellished Charlotte's little lizard.  I'm not sure you can see it, but I used a silk/wool blend for lazy daisy stitch on the dark green leaves next to the lizard, and silk ribbon on the top two triangle borders.  I used a brown perle cotton with a sort of stem stitch on the branches, then I topped it off with a purchased leafy trim.  LOTS of fun!  :)

 There were no size limitations, we just had to keep in mind we were working with a 3" medallion.  I may have added a bit much to Beth's, but I didn't want to trim the hibiscus or the palm trees.  :)

That took a chunk of the afternoon.  After that, it was back to my ambitious project.  I've debated whether or not to show it, but what the hay.  I'll give you a preview.  It's probably not going to change much with the quilting.  It's all about the piecing, doncha know?

I really enjoyed making this particular piece.  It's about 24 x 30 or so.  I LOVE mosaic work, and I LOVE stained glass.  I've dabbled in neither, I just buy both.  sort of.  But now, I think I will be making another quilt in this style.  It's going to be a while, a long while, as I have quite a list of things that need attention, but this one?  It was a lot of fun.  :)

Next post:  WonderValley wrap-up.

Goal Update

Last week, before heading to Alaska, I set a few goals.  I hit one of them.  I finished the little green piece for our Sew Eclectic Design Board Challenge.  It's the one inspired by Barbara Daniel's board.

I had planned for it to hang horizontally, but when I turn it 90 degrees, you get the feeling of taller "trees."  Her board was covered with evergreens.  (At least that's how I remember it.)  I bound it with "bark."  If you squint, maybe you can tell that the "stripe" is all vertical.  That was a bit tricky.  I'm pretty pleased with the way it turned out.  Such a simple piece.

Goal #2, to work on the quilt-for-hire, went by the wayside.

My sewing table is a mess.  Come Sept 1, I will focus on that quilt.  My intent is to finish it before touching anything else...come Sept. 1.

In the meantime, the Thimble Towne Challenge is due August 31, at 2pm.  I've quilted less than half of it.  I'm quilting it by hand.  I need to step it up desperately, if I'm going to get it in on time.  The winner will receive 20% off all purchases for a year.  Another winner will receive a $200 gift certificate.  Dangle those in front of me, and I'd call it good incentive!

The one thing that I did, that was not on my list of goals for the week, was to prep a few surfboards.  I needed something small to work on, as I sat in the airports.  The trip to Alaska takes a while, and involves layovers that last longer than it takes to run from one terminal to another.  I came home with these, all stitched and ready for the next step.  Six down, 19 to go.  I need to go on another Hawaiian shirt hunt.  I'd like to find some with vivid color.  Like orange.  Or red.  :)

Three of these boards came from shirts that my youngest wore.  The other three were made from shirts from thrift stores.

Stay tuned.  The next goal is to finish the Thimble Towne Challenge, and I've got less than a week to meet it. 

Have a great week!  I'm off and stitching!

Plugging Along

When last I left you, I stated that I would be setting some goals.  hmmm.  Which ones to set?  I've been trying to get reorganized after so much time away.  And wouldn't you know?  I've still got places to go and people to see.  It's a good thing, but traveling does eat up quilting time.

I finished another UFO. 

This baby quilt is very similar to the last one, with the exception of the back and the binding.  It is set aside for the next vet baby to pop its head out.  To my knowledge, none are in the oven, but that doesn't mean much.  I believe I've found out about the last half-dozen, a week after their appearance.  (Had they been cows, not babies, it might have pinged harder on husband's radar.) ;)

I finished another quilt-for-hire.  I've told you deadlines are my best friend, haven't I?  The maker of this particular quilt is Pat Bell.  She's to the be Featured Artist at the Kings River Quilt Festival in Reedley, September 21-22, 2013.  I needed to finish the quilting in time for her to bind, sleeve, and label it.  My part is DONE.  whew!

This is the back of the quilt (it's actually blacker than it is charcoal):

 And this was on the front.  It's a teaser - you have to go to the show to see the whole quilt.  :)

Now that those are off my plate, it's time to set some goals for this week.

This is an abbreviated week.  Travel will take a good chunk, leaving me with very little time for quilting.  For that reason, my goals will also be abbreviated.

1) Finish the "Inspired by Barbara D" piece for Sew Eclectic.  This was the small green strip-pieced quilt that I put together in La Jolla.  I'm about halfway through with the quilting of it.  It would be nice to have it completely finished by next Tuesday.  Goals are good.

2) Get back to work on a quilt-for-hire that I've had in my possession for much too long.  I don't know what my stumbling block is, it's a beautiful quilt.  I suspect it is the open-ended, "I'm not in a hurry" encouragement from the maker, that has inspired my procrastinative tendencies to reach for new levels of excellence.  (I once got an "A" on an essay, extolling my excellence as a procrastinator.  I wrote it in the bus, on the way to school, and turned it in first period.  yikes.)

3) Continue to make progress on my Thimble Towne Color Challenge.  This one has a deadline, I believe it's  August 31.  I'm hand quilting, so it's not something I can put off for any length of time.  I've been quilting 2-3 hours/day on it.  When I return, that's going to have to ramp up a lot more, to meet the deadline.

And there you go:  my goals for week 32 of 2013.  Finish, make progress, make progress.

Being able to check off any one of the three will be a good thing.  Goals are good!

Jiggety Jog

Home again, home again...oh.  my.  I left a moist overcast 65 degrees - complete with a threat of rain - in La Jolla, and arrived 12 hours later to a moist, heavily muggy 87 degrees at 10:45pm in Visalia.  I really had to ask myself why I came back.  Really?  I drove 12 hours for this?

Good thing home has more to offer than weather, even though this summer has kept weather awareness on the forefront.  I think part of it is that I'm a lot older than I was even 10 years ago, so I don't bounce back the way I used to.  I feel it more.  Boy, do I feel it!

When I set out for LaJolla, I had four goals:
1)  Completely construct green tree-ish art quilt top, for Sew Eclectic Design Board Challenge.
2)  Completely construct 25 backgrounds for surfboards, and begin writing pattern.
3)  Finish hand applique for Thimble Towne Color Challenge.
4)  Finish cutting and constructing 12 strips of background for this year's (hopeful) show quilt.

Three outta four ain't bad.
1)  Green top:  DONE

2)  Surfboard Backgrounds:  DONE

4)  12 pieced strips for background:  DONE

3)  Hand Applique for Thimble Towne Color Challenge:  not quite done.

I'll give you a sneak peek, on what I'm up to, first the inspiration, then the interpretation:

I am thrilled with the productivity allowed by relief from the weather. 

Yesterday, I hoped to baste 3 quilts, and trim the 12 pieced background strips from Goal #4.

I basted 1 baby quilt, and trimmed 2 strips.  It was almost 100, and quite humid.  That made it tough to get motivated, even though I have very little time for quilting in August.  I have to make the most of the remainder of July.

I'll leave you with pictures of one of my stops on my trip back north.  I was driving through Oceanside, in search of thrift shops as a source of Hawaiian shirts for the surfboard quilt.  I stopped at AmVets, but didn't find any to my liking.  On my way to AmVets, I spotted a banner that said, "Vintage Marketplace - today!"  I turned around and went back.

What looked like an abandoned building, had been transformed for the weekend.  Apparently they do this a couple of times each month.  My timing was excellent!

Various vendors had set up throughout the space, and there was a communal checkout desk in the back.  Simply delightful.  I found a few treasures, that were irresistible:

  I've been fascinated by Franki's succulent wall, as seen on her blog, here.  I've wanted to try it, but hesitated to make the commitment, because of our harsh weather.  The basket was the perfect way to experiment, and see if the plants can survive.

I could not resist the giant S.  I have no idea what I'm going to do with it, but I couldn't walk past it without appropriating it.

 

My third and final purchase was this chunk of antique coral.  I'd been looking for a piece, to put with the large conch from San Carlos, and the watercolor from Monterey.  Now I should probably think about framing the watercolor.

And that's about the end of my week away.  It was glorious, but it's already fading into a distant memory.

Until next time...

Goals vs. Dreams

Have you ever listened to Dave Ramsey?  He a financial counselor with a radio show.  His primary goal is to help people achieve financial freedom by getting out of debt.  completely.  Even the house.  I love to listen to him talk to people.  Doesn't matter the amount of debt, the steps are always the same.

Anyway, I was listening to him as I drove south on Friday, and he was having a fascinating discussion with a guy who wrote a book called Rich Habits.  (Remind me to check on that when I'm done here.)  Part of the conversation broke down the difference between goals and dreams.

"I want to lose weight," without a plan, is simply a dream.  Goals are concrete.  They are set, they are written down on paper, and you determine the steps it takes to reach the end.  Wow.  I knew that stuff, but merely on an intuitive level.  I may tell myself "I want to...whatever," but unless I start making a plan and moving forward, I can be pretty sure it's never going to happen.

Like, "I want to travel/vacation/get away for a while."  Over this past year, I made plans, and followed through on them.  I think I've been gone more in the past 9 months than the previous 5 years combined!  I stopped dreaming, and started doing.

If you've ever stopped by this blog, you know that my favorite phrase is "Goals are good!"  They can be little goals or big, they can be short term or lifetime, but without setting the goals in the first place, for me, it's never going to happen.

When I packed to come down here, I thought about the week.  What, exactly, did I want to accomplish?  I brought five projects with me.  I'd love to finish three of them, and make a lot of progress on the fourth.  The fifth came along, just in case I blew it and forgot something more than my hairbrush and my socks.  (I think they're still on the bed.)

So far, I have conquered Goal #1, which was to "sew out the quilt that has been in my brain since I first saw Barbara Daniel's design board in March."  whew!  Do you even know what I am talking about?  It our Sew Eclectic Design Board Challenge.  I was so wrapped up in the quilt show and the Calico Mermaid Challenge that I filed away "Inspired by Barbara D," sewing date TBD.  Yesterday was the day.

I'll have to admit that I had a tough time achieving my goal.  I finished it at noon today, rather than bedtime last night.  I spent too much time walking around town, looking at everything.  This place is amazing.

This is Barbara D's board.  (There are two Barbaras in the group, just to make it fun.)

I dreamt about it the night I got it.  Funny, because in looking back, it now says "wood."  When I first got it, it said "trees" and "overgrown greenery, with a few flowers thrown in for good measure."

I imagined a foundation pieced quilt, of radiating rays of green, reaching down like the branches of pine trees.  Bear with me.  I'm trying to sound like an Artist.  ;)

Anyhoo, I drew the pattern months ago, and cut and sewed the thing during the past 26 hours.  I'm not sure if I'll add anything besides quilting.  My goal was to get this far, and now I'm done. 

Check #1 off the list.

Stay tuned for Goal #2.  It's a doozy!

In the meantime, here is some LaJolla eye candy to satisfy those left behind.

Okay, I'm getting carried away.  I'll leave you with one reason to be happy you are NOT here.

I don't know if you can see the bottom board, but the price for regular "full serve" is $5.69!  And you can see that there is actually a car at the pump, paying these prices!  Wow.  They must have a company gas card, or be totally on "E"!  (It's 30 cents cheaper at Chevron, 2 blocks away.)

Finished!

Last night Sew Eclectic met, and it was time to reveal our latest installment of our Design Board Challenge.

I began work on mine in Oceanside, knowing exactly what I wanted to do.  I just now looked, and found that I neglected to take a picture of the board I was working from.  doggone!  How are you going to know what inspired me? 

Cindy collaged pictures from magazines.  Those that stood out were a deep blue moonlit bay, blue geode, blue beach glass, and a random assortment of gemstones.  Lots and lots of blue, shots of color, and lots of sparkle and reflection.  It only followed that I would use blue, add some color, and bead.  A no-brainer.  I just finished.  Here is my quilt, "Inspired by Cindy."

 close-up

Maybe, once the series is finished, I'll come up with "real" names for these quilts, but for now, I'll differentiate them by whose board my quilt is based on.

Next project:  Thimble Towne's Challenge is due in August.  I've got my fabric pack, I've got my idea, I've cut the first pieces.  On your mark, get set, go!

Moving Forward

Oh, how happy I am!  The carpet has been replaced, and I can happy dance day and night with that monkey off my back.  Best part?  I have yet to see/find a snag.  On the old carpet, I found dozens on the first day.  I do believe this carpet will hold up to the promised minimum of 20 years of wear and tear.  A girl can dream. 

The good news is that the Studio is back in business.  The bad news is that half of its contents are not in it.  They are in the spare bedroom.  As the carpet fellows moved the things, I realized that the reason moving everything was relatively easy was because so much remained boxed from the first go-around.  The room that was difficult was the Studio, because it was the one room I had unpacked and proceeded to live in.

Hopefully this time I will find a place for everything, and take the time to put everything in its place.  :)

In between moving things back into the Studio, I've been doing some quilting.  High time I got back into gear!  I finished 4 Komforters for Kids (guild project) that had been begun by another guild member.  They're in the bag, and ready to be given to kids in distress.  Check that off the list.  yay!

Doesn't that bare table look wonderful?  I've moved on to working on a quilt-for-hire.  I hope to finish it this week, before moving anything back onto the table.  I also have a Log Cabin of my own, that could quilt up quickly on such a nice work space.

The design wall also came down, so it was blank.  No time like the present to take those glam shots of my latest quilts as promised.

 "Inspired by Sara"

Suzanne Kistler 2013

 detail

"Iris Garden"

 

 Suzanne Kistler April 2013

detail

This week's goal is to finish the current quilt-for-hire.  Once it is complete, I will focus on returning the Studio to a state of...usefulness.  Sure, it's useful right now, as I'm getting a lot done, but it would be ideal to have everything at my fingertips, instead of in bins and totebags and boxes, stashed on the bed and floor of the room next door.  Goals are good!