PHD Challenge

June 30 is here and the PHD Challenge is over! I have accomplished so much and I am very proud of myself.I really stuck to the challenge of getting PHD done. Any new projects that I started got done except for 1.  I committed to getting 8 projects done, knowing that it would be probably end up being 5. I did get 5 PHD done and I am further along with the other 3.

Here they are:

Table runner for my in-laws

Winter Through The Looking Glass

Walking Down the Garden Path

Summer Fun

Grammie's Garden

I also got much further on these three projects.

Winter Wonderland

Halloween Block Swap

Tulip Table Runner which I am hand quilting

I think I might take a day to relax tomorrow and enjoy Canada's birthday. Then I am going to get started on a new project!

Lost Love

or Love Lost? I have not been watching Lost for a while. I realized it was getting too intense to be half watching it while quilting. It is great for me however while binding which I have been frantically working on this weekend. I am trying to finish up for the PHD Challenge and hopefully will be able to show you on the 30th.

 In the meantime I have been trying to get caught up on my Bee Blocks.  Here is the June one for Sew Modern Bee.

My May tulip for Bee Beautiful is done except for the leaf. Then I will get to play with some amazing Neptune for Julie and make some circles for Nicole.

I just barely  got my Jelly Roll Sampler Quilt Bloc done last week

I will be happy when July 1st comes around. Canada's birthday, and I can start on new projects. I committed myself to working on my PHD and I have done really well at sticking to it. The only thing is I think I have got the PHD bug and there are a few more quilts I want to finish up.

Excuses

What a crazy week it has been. I have not had time to post about anything including my Spring to Finishes, and my OPAM.

Here was my list:

1. Remove wallpaper from my hallway. DONE
2. Decorate my dining room.
3. Get rid of some toys and books.
4. Organize my children's clothing. DONE
5. Get a label on my friend's quilt and give it to her.
6. Pick a pattern for my sister's quilt. DONE
7. Finish my mom's quilt top. DONE
8. Finish my zig zag quilt top.
9. Put together my guild blocks into a table runner.
10. Quilt my tulip table runner.

Okay, so I only got 4 done by the end of May. I love to look back at my earlier posts and see my naive optimism about getting things done.  I did get #9 done, on Wednesday making it my 1st finish for June. Some of the other items on my list got partly done. My OPAM for May was my Pinwheel Quilt.

Well, I better have some good excuses for not getting things done, even though I knew my husband was going to be away on business for a week and my family was coming to visit after that.


Here they are:

I have fallen in love with redwork. I love, love, it. I love its simple beauty and the fact that I already know it is not going to be perfect. I have the first done and have almost finished the second one.

We had a heat wave here, so I needed to cool down by working on my winter quilt. I now have the quilt top done and I am thinking about hand quilting it. I really hate machine quilting.



I thought things would be slowing down for me but I have 6 things I have to get done by the end of June including quilting a quilt. I feel like I am doing final papers and getting ready for exams. I will be happy when summer arrives. I have had to sit on my hands a few times from not joining any more swaps. It is so hard not to join things when there is so much inspiration all around.

Playing Hooky

I have signed up for a few challenges ; Spring to Finish 2010, and Myra's PHD Challenge. I took a bit of time yesterday to go through my list of what I had to do before the end of May and June and then promptly played hooky.

I took out my Disappearing 9 patch red/aqua swap that I had done with Jane last year. Technically, I guess it is part of the PHD Challenge, since it is a PHD but definitely not a priority. I saw someone who had done the blocks so that the middle looked a bit like a pinwheel. I had made a similar quilt for my nephew years ago when he was a baby. I like the look of it but I find it a bit busy. I think I will use some sashing to separate the blocks.

After playing hooky, I did get Part 1 of my secret project done and organized some sewing I have to do for my guild by Wednesday. We had a challenge this year, and now I have 8 blocks with which to play around with and make something. The finished product(s) will be shown at our dinner meeting on Wednesday.

Making Up

Well,  I kissed and made up with my quilts this weekend! I have not worked on any of them since January. I have been working on guild blocks, bee blocks, charity blocks, Christmas swap blocks, and potholders, everything but my quilts. One of my quilts and I decided to part ways for a while. I could not decide if I wanted to do anything more with my pinwheel quilt, so I gave up and sent it out to the quilter's.

The second quilt I finally got put together after a long song and dance after 3 years. I just need to add a border to it and it will be ready for the next step.

The third quilt I worked on was my zigzag baby quilt. I had done all of the blocks on one of the Friday night Sew-Ins and this weekend I was able to get half of it pieced together. (This is the before picture, not the half sewn quilt top.) My camera is out of battery power

The quilts were so happy to have me back, and I was happy to be with them. I also should have another PHD done this week for Myra's challenge.

PHD re-organization

If my least favourite acronym is QID (Quilt as Desired), then I think my favourite must be PHD (Projects Half Done). Myra has really gotten me on the PHD kick this year. I went and got a bunch of storage bins from a couple of dollar stores and spent the weekend reorganizing my PHD. I did have a system before, but I usually grouped a couple of them together in a basket. Now, they each have their own separate bin.

It is so easy now for me to see what I am working on, and I can just grab a basket, do some sewing and then put it back. The bins are big enough that I can also put my backing fabric in there if I have it. I also colour-coded it too, so that blue bins are things that have 1st priority.  

One of the good things about reorganizing is that I found a PHD that I had forgotten about. I have a co-worker who is having a baby girl in June, and now I have a baby girl's quilt that I can use for him.

It also gives me more room for this giveaway from Sarah that I won. Sorry, for the bad photo. The quilting book is great and the fabric would be amazing in my red/aqua quilt. The pink bag will come with me on my shopping trips and my daughter was so excited when I told her she could have the friendship bag. She already has her own thread catcher.

I would also like to congratulate some amazing quilters. Two of my friends have been nominated for awards in SewCalGal's Golden Quilters' Awards. Tammy has been nominated in the Best Longarm Quilter category and Julie has been nominated in the Best Designer category. They are both incrediblely talented women! I also want to mention that Andrea has been featured as a Moda Bake Shop designer, and Ariane has been a featured quilter on Amy's blog. I am so proud to know all of these women who inspire me every day!

Wishing you organization and inspiration,

January Finishes

Here are my finishes for January.

Holly Jolly Christmas Block Swap

 

  

 

Table runner for my in-laws

Now on to February!

A PHD

Here is one of my Works in Progress. It is a mystery quilt that I took last year. Part of the cost of the class was a starter pack of fabric. Unfortunately, the fabric was nothing that I have, so it took me a while to collect other fabrics. It is a scrap quilt, so the more the merrier. I put it away in a tote for a while. I took it out on Monday and started working on it again as part of the PHD challenge. This is what the quilt will look like when it is finished.

I really like the pattern. I just find this quilt hard to start and stop. I am going to have to set some time aside to work on it.  I really have been in the PHD mood lately which makes me really happy.

PHD Challenge & Friday Night Sew In

I am joining Myra's PHD Challenge. She is a wonderful blogging friend. It is a 6 month challenge to see how many PHDs (Projects Half Done) that we can do by the end of June. I love PHD so much more than UFO.

Here is my list:

1. Pinwheel Quilt
2. Strip Search Quilt
3. Winter Wonderland Quilt
4. Table Runner
5. Snowman Table Topper
6. Halloween Block Quilt
7. Red/Aqua Quilt
8. Mountain Mystery Quilt
   

I decided to say 8, hoping that means 4 or 5. Getting that much done will help me along the way with my PHD goal for the year.

By the way for the Joy to the New Year Challenge, I ended up getting 4 out of 9 done. I also ended up starting 2 new projects in the same time period.

I am also joining the Friday Night Sew-in for January 15. You work on any type of handicraft that you do and then post about it the next day.  It will be fun to see what everyone creates.