Happy New Year!

 Out with the old, in with the new. Are you ready for the new year? Are you ready for 2022 to leave? This past year wasn't as bad as 2020 and 2021. Hopefully next year will be even better for all of us!

This years finishes are few, but I do have finishes!

There are a bunch of links (they will open to a new tab), most free and I'm not affiliated at this time to any.

In quilts, Valentine's Day wall hanging, Oh My Stars table runner and I finally finished the Jelly Snowflake from last year... or was it the year before!? I still have to hide the stitches from the problems I had with my quilting machine. But I can get nice and cozy will I do that. Here's a picture of it, I'll have a better when when I'm finished with the thread mess.

I completed a flimsy of the String Bean quilt from Pat Sloan's block a day in March. She does this every year. I believe this was her third year and she is talking about 2023's block, or at least trying to decide which block would be good. She picks an easy block, beginner friendly and easy to keep up. I don't think I have a picture of it yet, but I will post one as soon as I get one.

Other projects are; several cloth napkins, Tilda Duck from Tilda's Hot Chocolate book and fabric eggs. I finished another Rhapsody shirts from Love Notions and in the crochet department I made the Chill Time cardigan.

For Cross Stitching I finished Chicken Love, Stitches in aquas and Little Quaker Christmas.

The Love Chicken pattern is free from Fat Quarter Shop. Head there for that and other patterns.

Stitches and Little Quaker Christmas are free patterns from Aurifil <follow that link to their site of not only these two but a bunch of cross stitch patterns that are free!

I have several QALs I've started this year, you have to add to the WIPs! Most are Pat Sloan's QALs including Sweet Dreams (4 blocks left), another String Bean Block A Day (10 blocks left), Summer Camp (all blocks done), Hometown Charms (3 blocks left). A couple through Fat Quarter Shop that I started but haven't quite finished are FlapJacks and Christmas Time Mystery QAL both are free quilt a longs. The Christmas Time mystery link will take you to a page that also has the cross stitch patterns, they are patterns are separate so you'll have to go to several pages.

I also started a pattern I designed and hope to get that up and available for you. 

That is basically my year in crafy review. This didn't include my drawings because I didn't track them, but I will from now forward! I'm hoping for more finishes next year, but then aren't we all!

The very best New Year to all! Love Y'all and thanks for stopping by!

Sheila

July Is Here! How Did That Happen? OMG, Block Count, And Finally Finished!

July already? How did that happen! I don't know about you, but the older I get the faster the year goes! This month is, for me, an anxious month. My hubby starts his new job in Franklin Ky and we have be looking for a home somewhere around the Bowling Green area. We've been packing everyday and now have a house full of boxes! I'm embarrassed to say I don't feel like I've made a dent in my art studio!

I make a point to sew everyday, it calms me...most days! I say most days because I'm working on Jelly Snowflake again and again it's giving me fits! I had this as my OMG for March and didn't finish because my Tiara 3 Long arm wouldn't cooperate. I decided to try again to get it out of the way for the tentative move and I've found a way to make it work most of the time. I'm making this my One Monthly Goal, to finish the quilting on the snowflake quilt! Next month my OMG will probably be to hide all those threads! 😆

Here's a close up of some of my stitches. I saw this pattern on Angela Walters Free Motion Challenge, the link takes you to her video. If you are wanting to learn how to quilt or add more variety to your repertoire check out Angela's videos! And don't forget to print out the diagram and tip sheet. She really is great at helping new quilters!

 Look at all those threads! EEEK I think that will be a good distraction on our ride to Bowling Green. It's at least 2 hours away and hubby will be driving, a great way to spend my time productively and get my daily sewing in!

Here is another close up of my Paisley Feathers. Not as smooth as I would like, but considering having to deal with skipped stitches I'm fine with it.

As much as I would love to say I will have the binding put on too, I don't want to push it! I think I'll be lucky to get it quilted!!!

Elm Street Quilts One Monthly Goal July Link-up

I want to say if you are on the fence about playing along in OMG, you really should! I find it helps keep me on track, motivated and gets me blogging, introduces me to other quilt bloggers and there are prizes!!! I'm happy to say I won a $25 gift card to Fat Quarter Shop!!! I feel like I'm a winner ever time I get a project complete!I 

Here are updated posts of my journal pages for tracking "my sew everyday" and projects in the works.

These 2 pages are my new starts for 2021.

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This page gives me a more detailed snapshot of the projects.

My pages with all my WIPS! How embarrassing!

Do you keep track of your daily habit, like sewing everyday?

Last months block count is 4! Yes only 4 blocks, but I did get 4 shirts done and finally completed the Out Of This World quilt!!!! I've also been sketching, doing the ICAD Index-Card-A-Day by Daisy Yellow. In the next couple days I'll post what I have done so far. I must admit I haven't worked on it everyday, but the last few days I've been getting better!

I hope you had a productive June and your July is even more eventful!

Sheila 

Duke had a hard day hiding for the noisy booms of fireworks.
 I'm sorry to say I missed out on the OMG for this month. Hopefully next month!!!

My OMG Progress

Elm Street Quilts One Monthly Goal - March Finish Link-up

It doesn't look like I will be completing my snowflake quilt in time to use this winter, because my long arm has been giving me fits this month! I broke 2 needles and it's out of time again! I barely got started as you can see here...

This is the topside

And this is the bottom

I finished my son's space quilt though and I just need to bind it. That will be after hiding all the threads from the problems my machine was giving me!!! I love how the border quilting turned out! I used Sew Steady 1 1/2" spine ruler and put washi tape on it, lining up the edges of the border as seen here...

and here are some other pictures of the quilt, mostly of the back with inspector Mittens!

I love the happy moon face in this block!

A view of the quilting on the back

More quilting on the back. I like how the rays look with the ripples!

Inspector Mittens. Everyone's a critic!

I think he approves! But then he is a cat and it is a quilt!

When I get the binding on I'll post the full quilt. Hopefully that will be sooner as opposed to later!

 

I'll have another post coming out after midnight...sorry for bombarding your email! I don't usually post that close together!!!

Sheila

My Month In Review, Counting Blocks, Phd Finish and OMG

 I feel pretty good about what I got done in the quilty part of my life, not so much in the packing and getting rid of part! And that stresses me! But onto my block count and project finishes and what is in store for February.

First I'm linking up with Prairie Moon Quilts to keep track of my block count. And I'm happy to say my count is 32! Most of the blocks are from my new/first pattern! Sorry no pictures at this time. I hope to start writing up the pattern this week along with continue to make more blocks and completing it. I made 4 blocks from Pat Sloan's Home Is... QAL and 2 of the Merry Mini blocks more on that below. I posted them on my last blog post. I think I have to figure out a better way to get my posts scheduled!

 

I'm also linking up with Quilting Gail who runs the PHD on her blog. PHD stands for Projects Half Done...LOVE IT! And I'm happy to say I actually finished one of my projects from 2019! I know I posted it yesterday, but I'm posting it here too otherwise I'll have nothing to show!!!

This is the Merry Mini quilt from The Fat Quarter Shop. You can still access the pattern here.

Here is one way I'm tracking my Projects.

The first project on my list, Out Of This World quilt has it marked that I quilted it, but I just got carried away when coloring it in! I will work on that next along with #12 Jelly Snowflake.

Here's my Jelly Snowflake that I have done so far. The four corners are complete and all I have are the fourth section and the center block to do, then quilt and bind and it's a finish. Hopefully in time to use it this winter!!! And to help me get it done in time for us to use this year, This is my OMG for February! I want to get the top pieced and ready for quilting.

Elm Street Quilts One Monthly Goal February Link-up

 

 

I thought I would share my tracker for sewing everyday. I don't put a time limit on how long I have to sew, I just have to sew. I set this up the beginning of the year with the date in a box. That is the most extensive time I put into this. Then all I have to do is color in that date. 

It may not be pretty, but it works for me and makes me feel good about staying on track.

Another way to track your progress on your projects is with TRELLO. If you like apps and doing things digitally this may be the way for you. I use it to keep track of my projects, what quilts I finished and what quilt books I own. I have it on my phone and I can access it on my computer. I like that I can work on it on more than one device and I can actually post my pictures in it. I'm a visual person and like to see what is going on, besides the colors always cheer me up!

This is my Trello quilting page, called boards. I can click on the project and it will open up to let me see what I have done, needs to be done and if I need to add anything like a completed block or new photo. The other nice thing about this program is when I complete a project, let say The Out Of This World quilt, I just move the "card" to another board...The finished quilts board under the list for 2021 finishes. You can also share sections if you are working on a project with others. I haven't done this so I can't give you much info on that. I thought this was a nice way to track your projects if you like digital instead of the manual nature of a journal. Or like me want another way to look at your projects. The section I have on my quilt books helps me NOT buy the same book! I'm sure no one ever does that!

That's all for today!!!

Sheila