My Goals for September

Here we are at the beginning of spring and it is time to set my goals for the month.  I kind of had them sorted in my head, but on Sunday I had to have a rethink.  You see, at the last minute I decided to attend the “Spring in the Scrub” retreat this coming weekend and I need to have a few projects ready to work on.  So this is what I have come up with……at this stage…..

ONE MONTHLY GOAL & CHOOKSHED STITCHERS’ CHALLENGE

Once again, one project will tick both these boxes.  The number that Deana drew out of the hat was 7.  For me that is “Three Yard Quilt - Start and Finish (for Donation)”.

I have selected a pattern and initially chose these fabrics.  That has since slightly changed, but I didn’t get a photo.  It is already kitted up to take on the weekend.

RAINBOW SCRAP CHALLENGE

I haven’t really been able to ascertain the colour for the month, but have a feeling it is black or neutral?  If so, it is a little difficult for me.  I don’t want those colours in most of the projects I’m working on.  

Initially, I didn’t think it would work on my bright fish, but the pattern that will be released next week is tropical fish, and I want to use orange.  An orange and black fish will work, so all good.  I also want to catch up on August’s fish.  I may just use some random colours for that month.

Other than the fish, I may also just work on some random colours for the other projects.

BATIK FISH

I will be making some more fish this month.  I found another small scrap of batik in a stash I inherited that is a salmony colour.  It will work well.

FIFTEEN MINUTES A DAY

Of course I want to keep up with this.

OTHER STITCHING

• I didn’t get to work on my Chookshed Stitchers’ Challenge in June and it is fairly simple, so I will kit that up and take to retreat.  It is just another small donation quilt.
• I want to quilt my Laundry Basket Mystery Quilt, but want to try a new pantograph on something smaller before using it on the larger quilt.  At least one of the donation quilts will work for that.
• Hand stitching is always on the list these days, to take to my stitching days and for any Zoom times.  My hexies are ticking that box at the moment.
• I didn’t get any knitting or crochet done last month.  I want to set an actual goal this month to deconstruct the crochet baby rug, so that I can sew the squares together rather than crochet them, so that it will sit flatter.
• Also, I have purchased some fabric to use for sashing and border on the Sashiko table runner.  I’d like to get that done this month too.

That should keep me going.  There is always plenty more if I go looking.

MY OTHER GOALS

These  are simple.

• Try a new recipe.
• Read a book - I’ve been failing at this lately, so need to lift my game.
• Have a fun day out.
• Write Isle of Man blog posts - before I forget what we did.

I’m linking up at Dreamworthy Quilts, Stories From the Sewing Room, So Scrappy and Life in Pieces. 

Let’s see how I go at the end of the month.

August Stitching Wrap Up

I did have a rather productive month in August. As I stated after the first week, it makes a huge difference when I actually stay home.

Just to recap, I finished the little Half Square Triangle Baby Quilt.  Thanks to Lou for giving me the encouragement.

Then I finished the little Blue House Sampler mini quilt.

I also achieved my One Monthly Goal and Chookshed Stitchers’ Challenge by completing the Laundry Basket Mystery Quilt top.  I have decided to quilt it with a pantograph, but I want to try a new pantograph on something smaller first.

I was rather productive with the Rainbow Scrap Challenge.  Completing the split nine patches, a crumb block and four orange Hexy Flowers.  The Fish will be caught up next month.

Which brings me to my Scrappy Hexy Flowers.  This was just to be a pick it up whenever type project and maybe do one in the RSC colour each month.  Well, it has progressed, as I cut out heaps of fabrics, then glue basted them and have actually stitched fourteen flowers this month.  That has been helped by taking them to my stitching groups and joining in on quite a few impromptu Zoom sessions hosted by Chookyblue.  They are the perfect project to work on while chatting away.

I have now completed thirty flowers.  I’ve decided on a project to use them in.  It is called “Bigs and Smalls”.  The designer is Anorina Morris and the pattern was published in the May edition of Homespun magazine.  I have quite a way to go, as there are one hundred and eleven one inch hexy flowers and eight two inch hexy flowers.  They are appliquéd onto six inch background squares.  That should keep me out of trouble for quite some time.  There’s no rush.

Although I am leaving my RSC fish till next month I still made my Batik Fish this month.  I made three versions of the pattern, which all look quite different.  I’m continuing to enjoy playing with this project.

The final thing I worked on was making a block for a group quilt that our Wednesday Patchwork Group are making.  The instructions were rather broad. “Make a 12 inch block, any pattern, any colour.”  Eventually, there was some fabric provided to tie the blocks together.  The blue in the centre and the background come from those fabrics.  I will make a second block using another provided fabric.  The hardest part is selecting a pattern.

Looking back at my goals, I didn’t do too badly.  The only one that was missed was working on my knitted jumper.  It will happen, all in good time.

As for my 15 Minutes a Day, this is how I went:

August = 29/31

Year to Date = 221/244

Sucess Rate = 90.57%

At least I am still above the 90% mark……just.

Now to start thinking about September.  It’s always fun to look forward and make plans.

Chookshed Stitchers Challenge and One Monthly Goal Completed

 My goal this month was “Laundry Basket Quilts 2023 Spring Mystery Quilt - Progress”.

This is where I was up to at the beginning of the month.

Finally, after I had finished the little Blue House Sampler hanger I could turn my attention to this quilt.

My plan was to add a narrow border and then a half square triangle border, but first to work out the maths.  Ideally, I would have liked to have added three inch HSTs, but that would mean only a half inch narrow border, so in the end it was a one and a half inch first border and then four inch HST.  

I pulled out this selection of fabrics that I thought would work.

They looked nice all cut out ready to go.

I marked them all out ready to stitch and started pinning them together when I realised I’d had a brain freeze and pinned them right side of the neutral to the wrong side of the coloured fabric! Doh!  Thank goodness I woke up to myself before I had stitched and cut them apart.

After I made them and started to lay them out I thought the overall effect was a bit drab, so removed a few colours and replace them with something a bit more vibrant.  Here is my final selection, ready to stitch together.  Much happier.

So, here she is, all done, in the poor indoor night time light.  I had just enough of the narrow border fabric left over from the pieced centre.

And outside in the daylight.  I’m really pleased with how it looks. All fabrics were from stash.

The next big decision is whether to quilt it now using a pantograph, or wait until I have the confidence to custom quilt it.  At this stage I am leaning towards a pantograph to just get it done and being used.  Mick has commented that it would be a nice springtime quilt on our bed, so let’s see how I go.

Anyway, for now the challenge has been met, as I definitely “progressed” the quilt.

I’m linking up with Stories From the Sewing Room and will link to Deana in a couple of days.

Wrapping Up July

It’s time to have a look at what else I managed to get up to during the month of July.

I seem to have been a bit lost with my stitching since coming home from Scrub Stitchin’, back in April.  No real direction and not a great deal of inclination.  Add to that, two trips away and not a great deal has been achieved.  Also, as usual, when my sewing room gets in a mess I feel somewhat overwhelmed by it all, and don’t know where to start.

When looking back at my goals for the month I did so, so.  Some things were a fail, while others were above expectations.

You can see here that my Rainbow Scrap Challenge and One Monthly Goal were both achieved.

I had mentioned that I would be taking my blue stitchery sampler away with me.  I didn’t do any while travelling, but have added a few stitches since we returned home.  I’m not worried, as this is just a little something to work on every now and then.  There is no pressure.

I haven’t touched my knitting.  I have to be in the mood to sit quietly and concentrate for the lace pattern.

I said that my Batik Fish would have to wait until our return.  Well, as we returned a little earlier than expected, that gave me time to devote to them.  On Sunday I traced out May, June and July, as well as made up another two blocks to kind of represent a snapper.

On Monday I selected fabrics and fused the eight blocks down, ready to stitch.

Yesterday, I got stuck in and stitched all of them.  In addition, I hadn’t stitched the eyes on the previous twelve blocks, so I finished them off too.

You will notice that one fish is swimming the wrong way.

There’s always one rebel, isn’t there.  These two blocks were supposed to be the same as the top one.  However, some silly billy traced one back to front.  Not to worry…….until I realised that I had somehow managed to actually trace the head the right way around and it now wouldn’t fit.  Doh!  Fortunately, I had cut this one out first and was able to do a head transplant, and fortunately, the colours still worked.  I had only rough cut out the other head, so I was able to have a fiddle and redesign it to use the fabric.  It turned out surprisingly well and now looks to be a rather happy fish.  I’m amazed how different they now look, just from that one modification.

Here are the first twenty blocks.  I’m so very pleased with how they are turning out.  It is such a good feeling to be back up to date.  I have another sixteen to make to achieve the size that I want.  They look so very different to the bright version I am making. It’s been great fun making use of the various design elements in the batik fabrics.

The other thing that I have worked on is the little Natalie Bird pincushion that I started while overseas, by stitching the little saying. 

One side consists of a panel of half inch hexagons.  The other day I cut them out of tiny scraps that any sane person would throw away and today stitched them together.  

I think my stitchery looks a bit chunky stitched in two strands, so will probably redo it in one strand.  It is only tiny, so won’t take too long.  The other two sides of the pincushion consist of a small house applique and a feature fabric.  I’m looking forward to working more on this, as it is a pattern I have been wanting to make for many years.

As expected, I didn’t use Monique and didn’t work on any donation projects, other than the Rainbow Scrap Challenge blocks.

Surprisingly, I didn’t even read a book.  I thought I may do that while away.

Finally, I’d better report in on my 15 Minutes a Day.  For most of the month I just did a the bare minimum each day, and on some days didn’t do anything.  Hopefully, that will change now that I am back home.

July = 26/31

Year to Date = 192/213

Success Rate = 90.14%

I’m lagging a bit behind last year’s rate of 93.42%, so had better lift my game.  No pressure on myself.  LOL

I’m linking up over at Life in Pieces.

So, that wraps up July.  Hopefully, we will be at home during the next month.  My sewing room is still an absolute mess, but in the last few days I seem to have found some of my stitching enthusiasm.  I’m looking forward to deciding what to work on in August.

A Stitching Update - May

As you can imagine, our little impromptu trip to the UK meant that my stitching goals for the month of May were thrown out the window.  You can see what my goals were back here.

Despite our trip, I was already way behind the eight ball.  I just hadn’t really been feeling very motivated.  Having said that, when I look back through my little diary, I had done lots of little bits and pieces.  This is how I went.

The Chookshed Challenge to quilt the half square triangle baby quilt hadn’t been started.

My One Monthly Goal was to applique all the fish I had prepped, as well as those for May.  It turns out that I had appliquéd all the fish that I had prepped in April, except for their eyes. I just haven’t taken an updated photo.  This is my one from the start of the month.  All I had done towards the May blocks was to print out the pattern.

The Rainbow Scrap Challenge colour of pink wasn’t progressed very far either.  No fish had been made and I had only cut out a couple of fabrics towards the split nine patches.

My granny square rug progressed no further.

So, what did I do?

I did complete the last of the three sashiko panels for the table runner. Now I have to find a suitable fabric for the sashings, border, binding and backing.

As I didn’t seem to have much in the way of hand stitching to take to my two stitching mornings, I made a small start on a counted cross stitch.  It is a little kit that would have come with a magazine or something.

I then decided that I would make some one inch hexy flowers, using RSC colours.  I have no plans on what I will do with them, but they are something to pick up and work on when I am at stitching, or I just want to work on something mindless.  I have prepped a few, using what I have in my small scraps tubs.  I will have to now dive into my other fabrics to cut more.  I have stitched a red and pink flower, so I suppose I did in fact make something towards the RSC for May.

I had hoped to make a start on knitting a jumper using some wool I purchased at an op shop in Yeppoon last year.  The pattern I have chosen is Salty Air Sweater, which is knit in the round, from the top down and has a lace work yoke.  I haven’t knitted a jumper for maybe 30 years, have never knitted an entire jumper in the round, (I have knitted a fair isle circular yoke many years ago), let alone from the top down and haven’t done much lace work.  The pattern has lot of terms I am unfamiliar with, so this will be a great learning exercise.  Thank goodness for YouTube tutorials.

I treated myself to some interchangeable circular needles, rather than buying multiple ones for this project.  I looked on line and to my surprise and delight, our local craft store had the ones I wanted in stock and a heck of a lot cheaper than those on line.  I hopped straight in the car and went and bought them and they only had one set, so I’m one very happy little Vegemite.

I did manage to make a start……..twice……. You know they say to be very careful not to twist the cast on row when knitting in the round, well I only noticed that I had indeed twisted it after I had knitted a few rows.  Blast!!!  Second time around I checked, had Mick check and then double checked and managed to get it right.

I am currently halfway through the lacework yoke.  It is going well, so far.  (For once, the photo is showing the true colour of this wool, normally it is photographing as more like a brown.)  I am taking my time and really concentrating on what I am doing.  Once the yoke is finished it will be a good project to take to my stitching mornings.  I’m looking forward to getting back into it, but first I will need to do another YouTube refresher on some of the terms.

I knew that I would want some stitching to take away with my, but it needed to be compact and mindless.  Previously, I have taken redwork and that seems to be a good option, but what to take?  I started looking through some of my books and ended up prepping three projects.

Firstly, the stitching on a small pincushion by Natalie Bird that has been on my wish list for many a year.  

It didn’t take long to get it stitched while waiting in airports etc.

The next project is a Gail Pan bag.

I managed to get it stitched while on the Isle of Man, some of it sitting beside the race course, waiting for proceedings to start.  I can’t say that this was a project that was on my radar, but it will be a nice addition to my bag collection, once I make it.

Finally, another Gail Pan project, from the same book.  This wasn’t started in May. Once again, not a project that was on my radar, but it is definitely one that I like and will be happy to have made.

One other thing I did in May was finally donate the quilts that I had been making for that purpose.  I have previously donated to Ronald McDonald House in Orange, but this time wanted to donate closer to home.  I approached the local organisation that looks after foster children, but they said “Thanks, but no thanks, they have plenty already”.  I then approached Wattle Tree House who support victims of domestic violence and they were more than happy to accept them, as they were currently putting together packages to give people who needed support.  I think I will donate to them again in the future.

So, it seems that despite a trip to Canberra and travelling to the UK, I did in fact achieve quite a bit, although nothing was completed.

How did I go with my 15 minutes a day?  Surprisingly, I only missed one day, the day after we had been on the go for 41 hours.  I’ll excuse myself for that.

May = 30/31

Year to date = 151/152

Success rate = 99.34%

Overall, I’m very happy with what I achieved in the month, despite not ticking everything off the list.  Let’s face it, it doesn’t matter one way or the other.  I’ll get them done at some stage.

Chookshed Challenge for March Completed

The number selected by Deana for March was Number 4, which for me was to make a donation quilt from a panel.  

I had plenty to select from and chose the teddy bears’ picnic one.  This wasn’t my favourite by any stretch, but I wanted to push myself to do something with it.

I’m pleased to now share the completed quilt.  From a panel I wasn’t fussed on I now have a quilt that I love.

I used the Plumeria pantograph again, which seemed to suit it.

It is fairly sizeable, as the panel was the full width of fabric.  This will be ideal for a single bed, coming in at 46 inches wide by 68 inches high.  As usual, all fabric came from stash.

I’m so pleased that Deana suggested and administers this challenge.  It has pushed me to work on projects that would otherwise still be sitting in the “To Do” pile.