This monthly challenge was a great motivator for me to write down what I wanted to make for the month and actually get it done. Sad to see it’s going away in 2016. However, I think the momentum will continue.
Over the year, I also found new bloggers that have opened my eyes to new ideas. Thank goodness I added them to my Bloglovin feed.
It’s great to see my nine finishes in one place. I’m starting a tag for my 2016 finishes to make it easier to track. While I only set and completed these 9 projects with my goals, I was able to finish 41 sewing related projects in 2015. That does not include growler bags or bee blocks.
Happy New Year!! 2015 was a great year for my family and I’m excited to see what we do and achieve in 2016. My goals for 2015 were pretty much met with the help of A Lovely Year of Finishes. I did try to pull out those old WIPs and finish them. Here are the quilts I finished from my WIP stash. Some stuff did just end up back in my stash. Maybe something fresh will come from it this year.
Over the last month I have been planning and thinking ahead for the new year. With my grown up job I work with people to set goals on what they want to achieve. One key part is how do you plan to achieve that goal? Is it realistic, actionable, and measurable (SMART)?
Everyone says they want to work through their stash as a quilter, plus it was part of my goal last year. While I do, I know that’s not completely realistic to only use my stash. Instead, let’s put some parameters on that goal and make it a SMART goal.
I’m giving myself a fabric budget of $100 for the year. Here is what is not included in the budget: thread, batting, notions, and postage. The budget is just for fabric. Seems realistic correct?
Money that comes from selling fabric and quilts will be used to help with some of my personal financial goals. It will probably help cover all the other incidentals of quilting that aren’t in the $100 budget. I will update each month the money used towards fabric.
With this goal I hope it helps me some things I noted in Being Social. Focusing on collaboration with others, connecting with other quilters, and expanding my network of quilters.
One quilt I have in mind will be a scrappy string quilt. As I went through my scraps a few weeks ago I pulled out so many strips, mostly solids. I think a strip quilt will be a great way to use them up. Granted a string quilt isn’t new or trendy, but my main focus is using what I have. The trash bag full of scraps has gotten out of hand.
Another goal for 2016 is to actually write more patterns and tutorials. Remember that blog series I mentioned a couple of weeks ago, well I’m going to follow along. Why not? I’ve never written a pattern and I want to make sure it doesn’t come out complete and utter crap.
Throughout 2016 I want to create my own journey to share with you, inspire you, and well just have fun. Quilting and sewing started out as a way for me to have a creative outlet. That’s what I want to get back to. Care to join me in 2016?
Do you have any goals set for 2016? I’d love to hear them. Let me know if I can help in anyway.
On December 23rd gramma came into town to stay with us for the holiday. She kept P entertained and I had some time to work on my Christmas Quilt.
The top and pieced back were finished but needed to baste and quickly quilt. I knew the quilting design would be meandering squares and rectangles.
When I had some time to actually baste this quilt, it didn’t go so well. There is a HUGE wrinkle in the aqua that I could smooth out. Screw it, it’s staying with us, I can live with the wrinkle. As we wash it, I’m hoping it fades into the wrinklyness (that’s a word right) of the quilt.
Pay no attention to the giant wrinkle in the aqua.
Basted on December 23rd, started quilting on the 24th, and finished on Christmas night. I machined that binding on as quickly as possible. For binding I had a fat quarter of a gray with snowflakes on it. The pattern works perfectly for this quilt. It was pretty late, but I finished it before 12am December 26th. That counts right?
Stacked Windmill – my favorite from the book
Good thing you aren’t looking too closely at this quilt. Flaws galore, but that’s not why I made it. I wanted a Christmas quilt finally and if I didn’t finish it, it would have never gotten done. That’s honesty.
I would have loved to photograph it over the weekend. Apparently, mother nature decided we needed three days of non stop rain and grossness. Didn’t she know I had a quilt to show off? After the rain stopped and it’s kind of dried out I snuck in some photos.
Currently I’m snuggled under the quilt binging on Making of a Murderer on Netflix. Have you watched this series at all? I’m so mad and furious over this documentary. Comment below if you want.
Yep, that’s a sippy of milk from P and my glass of wine beside it.
Thanks to my modernbeehive11 ladies for helping me create this wonderful quilt.
Linking up with A Lovely Year of Finishes for my December Goal.
Brace yourself folks, we do not have a Christmas quilt. That changes this year. Currently my goal for December is to sew the quilt top together and quilt it before Christmas. My grown up job really picks up this month and I need a goal that is pretty easy.
My #moderninstabeehive11 ladies made these lovely blocks last year. Colors are aqua, red and gray.
I adore this scrappy random layout. While the colors or idea for this quilt was more for Christmas, it could stay in our living room all year round. Add some black and you would have all my living room colors.
What Christmas quilts have you made in the past?
Back to piecing together the top so I can maybe baste it this weekend.
They are DONE!!! All 80 blocks done! If I could do a back handspring I would, but I will spare you that visual. That also means I met my goal for the month of November.
If you follow me on Instagram, Facebook or Twitter, you know what really happened. Got done, had everything pressed and realized I was missing 3 blocks. They were in the basket where I had thrown my strips a couple of weeks ago.
Monday night I laid the blocks out with a sick toddler at home. Despite his best efforts with his monster trucks, he did let me lay this out in the living room.
For the layout I wanted only 1 of each color per row and not repeating background fabrics. I am very happy with this layout. What do you think?
Last night I was able to start piecing the rows together. I labeled each row and sew left to right to help keep it all organized. Once I start pressing I will know if there are mistakes.
All the rows are now pieced and ready to be pressed. I may get that accomplished today or tomorrow. The kid is going to grandma’s tonight so we can run a 4.5 mile Thanksgiving race tomorrow.
The tags will stay on until the rows are pieced together.
Do you have any sewing plans for the holiday weekend?
Linking up with A Lovely Year of Finishes for November and WIP Wednesday
Block-a-moly? What the heck is that? Not sure myself, but I feel like there a ton of blocks in my life this month. I’m going to keep it simple for November. These 2.5″ squares just need to become 80 blocks this month. 80 blocks will all be worth it in the end.
All of the rainbow squares are scraps or gifted to me from swaps. I added these black and white squares as well. Last weekend I managed to wrangle the toddler into a local quilt shop and grabbed a couple new black and white prints. That was an experience for another time.
Yes, I am making another Charming Plus quilt. I wanted to make a larger scrappier version of this quilt. Plus I needed better pictures for a tutorial.
Chain piecing is my jam. Organizing my blocks likes this helps me keep everything together.
Linking up to A Lovely Year of Finishes for November and The Oh Scrap weekly link up. I will meet my goal this month.
