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.

s

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!!!

March's OMG, Block Count And What Is My Latest Finishes

First my OMG for this month is to finish my Jelly Snowflake. I have the binding made and the top, back and batting sandwiched together. I just need to quilt it and bind it and then we can use it! Hopefully we will be able to use it this season...our weather has become a little warmer lately. I'm sure we will have at least one more snow before the weather changes for spring, at least that's what I hope! 

 

I highly recommend joining in on the OMG! It's a great motivator and you have a chance to win some awesome prizes!

Elm Street Quilts One Monthly Goal March Link-up

 

I'm also linking to Quilting Gail and her PHD, another great project completer motivator! I didn't complete any projects in February, but I'm set up to have at least 2 finishes this month!!! I'm very excited about that!!! One of the projects I will be completing this month is the Jelly Snowflake (above) and I'm currently finishing up the quilting on my son's Out Of This World quilt that he will be taking to college this fall...yes my baby is heading for college this year! A whole lot of mix emotions going on there! 

Here is the space quilt under the needle. I used Aurifil 40/3 #2110 Light Lemon and 50 wt #2783 Medium Delft Blue in the bobbin. For the outer border I switched to 50 wt #2780 Dark Delft Blue since the material was so dark.

and this is the back of the quilt. It's my first time using Minky and I love the feel and the look of the quilting on it.

And here are my bullet journal pages and my sweet model Duke!

Here he shows the projects I started this year...well I haven't actually started The color challenge yet, but I will this month!

 I am also counting my blocks and posting them with Prairie Moon Quilts. This month I only finished 23 blocks. That gives me a year total of 55. Spending time quilting the above quilt took time away from making blocks, but you have to get the projects done!

That and I think I need to either fix one of my sewing machines or buy a new one. I'm using my hand crank one and while it does stitch nice and help me keep things straight, it does stitch slow and my shoulder blade has been aching. 

Isn't she a beauty! I took this when I first got her in 2019. She is a Singer model #99 and was "born" on Nov. 28 1928. To the right is Sigmund my sea green sea monster! I call him a monster for a reason...He's a heavy machine!!! He is a Singer 185j and was born sometime in 1954. I loved sewing on him, but I wore him out and now I can't get him to sew past a certain point without having to push the wheel, then it will stitch until he gets to that point again. I need to get him up and running again, he stitches beautifully and I miss sewing on him.

Here is a breakdown of my block totals...
Five blocks were from the Jelly Snowflake, six blocks are from Home Is... QAL and 12 are from my Star Dancer quilt. I hope to get caught back up this month. I think I'm on target so far, but then it is the beginning of the month anything can go wrong!

These are who I'm linking to...

Elm Street Quilts  OMG

Quilting Gail PHD

Lizzie Lenard Vintage Sewing Free Motion Mavericks

Prairie Moon Quilts The 350 Blocks Projects

Check out these blogs and play along... It's a great way to get projects done, be inspired and have fun meeting new people!

See ya later!

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

Getting Back In The Groove

  And getting projects done! 

First my OMG for January... I'm so happy to say I finished it!!!! 

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

 

Here is a close ups of the quilting. I did a swirl with snowflakes/stars.

 

I used Aurifil 50 wt #4655 Storm at Sea, a variegated thread of blues and light grey. I can't tell you how happy I am to have this done and hanging on the wall! I've linked up with Free Motion Mavericks.

I was going to start on the Valentines heart everyone is working on, but it's a little larger than my quilt shelf and I don't want to put a lot of time in figuring out how to make it smaller.  

Did you get any UFO's done? Are you working on the Valentines heart? 

I am staying caught up with Pat Sloan's Home Is... QAL, but it's early and I usually do good until about the end. Mainly because I put off doing the setting blocks. Here are my blocks so far...

The first two are 14.5 x 14.5 and the third is 12.5 x 12.5 square.

And this past Wednesday has to be my most favorite! She has an applique template for a dog or cat and when I saw the dog template I thought immediately of Indy. 

He loved to sit on his hill, so I made my own template for the block.

This block measures in at 16.5 x 16.5 and went together very easily. I will add more detail to Indy either with fabric markers or thread, maybe both. I've been wanting to do thread painting and this may be the perfect project to get my feet wet. So we will see!

My next UFO I want to get done is the Jelly Snowflake. I believe I only have one round and the center, possibly 5 blocks. It would be nice to get that done while it's still cold out! I also would like to get my Out Of This World quilt quilted. It's for my son and it'll be the first one that I have made with minkie type material on the back. 

I have to post this pic...

It snowed! And Duke was enjoying himself. This picture makes me laugh and thought it would make you smile too.

I'll be posting in the next couple days, maybe tomorrow. I'll be linking up with The 350 Block Project, OMG, Free Motion Mavericks and PHD and I'll be posting more from my journal. I'll see you then! 

Sheila

No OMG Finish

My OMG for this month was to finish the Merry Mini quilt, including quilting it. I would love to say I worked really hard to get it done, but I had a lot on my mind. I wasn't even able to get the third block done! So many days I just sat in front of the sewing machine and more times than not I would get the pieces mixed up and just plain frustrated. If you don't follow my blog, the reason is due to the loss of my mom this month. So much on my mind, so much still to do. I did complete my Cozy Things quilt flimsy this month. Maybe I should have put that down as my OMG!😁 It's all good. 

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

 

Onto other subjects...

We had a white Christmas! It wasn't suppose to snow much on Christmas eve and not at all on Christmas day, but it snowed and kept on snowing. I believe it was mom knowing how much we wanted a white Christmas and letting us know she was with us. The dogs were as happy as pups. They played and chased each other and ate the snow! silly puppies!

From our family to yours, I hope you all have a much happier, healthier and calmer New Year! Until next time...

Sheila

Hello December And My OMG!

 Well December finally made it! This year is not one that I want to remember too often or too easily! And I hope and pray next year is much kinder to us all. I know come January 1st everything will go back to normal, but wouldn't it be nice!

December here in Kentucky has been on the chilly side. The dogs love it, me I just throw another quilt on the bed! We had our first snow and it was beautiful. I wasn't sure if the pups would enjoy it or not. I'm happy to say they loved it! Gracie would get snowballs all over her feet. She would let me clean them off and was ready to go back out. Duke would play snowplow and eat the snow! Gracie enjoyed eating it too but loved rolling around in it. The next morning they ran to the window like kids to see if it was still there and then run to the door to go out. My son is already asking when it'll snow again. It says 7% chance tonight...so I doubt we'll get much if any. 

 

Now for my OMG...

I started the Merry Mini QAL last year (I believe it was through Fat Quarter Shop hosting it) and only completed one block and started the second. There are only 4 blocks in the quilt! I did finish the second block the beginning of the month so at least that's one less! My plan is to finish this quilt (including quilting it) so I can hang it up on the wall rack for the winter. Right now I still have the Kitty on the Pumpkin  hanging up! 

Elm Street Quilts One Monthly Goal December Link-up

And I'll close here with Duke sitting in my chair... He thinks his butt goes on the armrest! hahahaa I hope that leaves you with a smile!!!

Until next post, have a wonderful time!

Sheila

It's October! OMG For October And A Finish!

Happy October! How's the weather in your world? It's chilly here. Wonderful for cozying up with a quilt and watching some old TV shows. But who has time for that! There are quilts to be made, binding to be added, designs to be put to paper and quilting to be done!

 

For this months OMG I would like to finish my Jelly Snowflake. The Fat Quarter Shop ran the quilt-a-long in July and Pat Sloan is running it again. I wanted to do the QAL when the Fat Quarter Shop was running it, but I had a few too many projects going. But then I always have too many projects in the works! ahahaha I wouldn't have it any other way! When Pat said she was running the QAL again I figured now was a good time. She started it September 8 and ran until October 6. I know, only a few days left and I only have the first blocks done and over half of the second blocks done. I decide to change them a little and it caused more work, but I don't mind and it makes it even more unique. I also plan on changing the other blocks too, so I know I won't get it done by the 6th! I do plan on having it pieced by the end of the month though! That's my goal! 

 Elm Street Quilts One Monthly Goal October Link-up

 

On the finished side...

 Kitty and Pumpkin, my design that I started last year! I put it aside since I didn't complete it for Halloween and so many other projects  awaited my attention. Now I'm waiting for a wall mounted quilt rack to hang it up on. I plan on using the rack to hang small holiday and seasonal quilts on. I guess I better get busy making more wall hangings!

I enjoyed quilting it. I added texture like hairs  on the kitty, veins in the leaves and swirls in the sky to give movement. I put buttons for the pumpkins eyes and filled in the mouth except for the lower part to give the look of a tongue. I used Aurifil thread in 2692-Black, 2890-Very Dark Grass Green, 2135-Yellow, 2235-Orange, 2425-Bright Pink,  2715-Robin Egg and the bobbin thread was 2600-Dove. 

I've also linked up with For The Love Of Geese and her Put Your Foot down! Join in, it's on Thursdays!!! And Free Motion Mavericks!!!

 

Time to get back to designing my next wall hanging!! Thanks for stopping by and I hope you have a lovely weekend.

Sheila

Winter Fun Quilt A Long Blocks 2 & 3

I had a few delays the last couple weeks, but I think I'm back on track! I've actually been getting off track since my surgeries in August, but I'm feeling pretty good and things are coming together. I did some secret sewing for Jen of Patterns by Jen. Sorry I can't show you it at this time! I'm working on getting caught up on my QALs and that makes me happy! Here is Block #2 and #3 of Pat Sloan's newest QAL Winter Fun.

 Block #2 is Ice Skating.

and this is Block #3 Hot Chocolate.

I'm enjoying this QAL and it's only 9 blocks! I'm using batiks in blues and purples they also have metallic snowflakes which is hard to capture with a camera. There is still time for you to join in! These 3 blocks went together quickly so grab some fabric and sew a long! 

I'll be back in the next couple days to share more blocks!

Until then happy stitching!

Sheila

October's OMG

I can't believe it's already a week into October!!!! Little T is off school for fall break, which means a break for me getting up early! It also means my routine is a mess now! Oh well I can never have too much time for my baby. 

Now for the OMG! 

Elm Street Quilts One Monthly Goal October Link-up.

This is Pat Sloan's BOM called Out Of This World. She just posted the last block and I have a couple more still to do! After seeing my Instagram friend @amaurer65's finished flimsy, I'm eager to get mine done!! So my goal for this month is get my Out Of This World flimsy done. 

And if you don't keep up with Pat Sloan, she has a new QAL started!!! It's called Winter Fun and it runs from Oct 2 to Dec 11 and is only 9 blocks. A quick one if you would like to try one of her QALs!She also has her past QALs still available if you don't like to wait!

Here is my block #1 Building Snowmen

I fussy cut my snowman, it just seemed so appropriate! I'm using all batiks and most have snowflakes on them! They also have gold and silver stamped on them, but it's hard to see in the photo that they are metallic. I love how this turned out and can't wait for Wednesday!!! That's when block #2 is released!

Thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful week!

Sheila

Main Street Block #6 and a Snowflake Block

This is block #6 of Pat Sloan's Main Street QAL. It's called Books On Main. I really like how easy this block went together and I can't wait to see how they all go together in a quilt!

And here is the Snowflake Block...

I love snowflakes! I actually had a cat named snowflake...he was a real flake! hahaha He was beautiful, pure white long hair and icy blue eyes. So when I saw this pattern I had to make it and of course use an icy blue in it! This is block 2 of the Merry Mini Christmas hosted by Fat Quarter Shop. Here is the video for this block to help you put the block together. I'm debating whether to do a table runner of just snowflakes or go ahead and do the other three blocks and make the mini quilt. I'm not sure if I have enough of this fabric pull to do both, so stay tuned!!!

Have a Merry Christmas in July!!!!

Sheila