please bear with us…..

I’m in the process of finalising the “Year of  Blooms” pattern now and finished quilting it yesterday….so I guess you could say it was my first UFO finish of the year!!!!!?????

Once I have the pattern all written up (which should be today or tomorrow if there are no interruptions………listening, family?????), I will get it out to those of you with December finishes, along with the December block!

Keep up the good work with all the finishes…  if you’re anything like me, your UFO pile is growing instead of shrinking…..*eek*

We’re onto a new year so we’ll be offering a new gift each month for those of you with finishes…..but you’ll just have to wait and see what that one is!!!! 

In the meantime….

Sew many hugs xo :o)

Wendy & Dawn

Blocks have been sent

OK, our free Block of the Month blocks have been sent out to our lucky finishers for May….check your inbox if you had a finish in May and let me know if it didn’t arrive and I’ll check into it!

We had thirty-eight finishes this past month…..not the top score, but a great score nonetheless so well done to all who managed a finish in May.

If you check in our sidebar, you’ll see this takes our total to  278 finishes which leaves 222 to reach our goal of 500 by the end of the year!!!…..well on track if we do 37 per month for the rest of 2013……can we do it????

YES WE CAN!!!!!

I did notice however, it was a bit trickier to tally this month as I wasn’t sure whether all our finishers were UFOs or new finishes……

Just a couple of notes…….

1. Sew It’s Finished is a blog for finishing off UFOs from previous year(s)…..doesn’t matter how old they are, but they need to be from 2012 or before
2. Soooo, if you blog about a finish, could you please note how old it is (if any of yours are like mine, they could have been around when the dinosaurs roamed, so a roundabout figure will do!!!)
3. We don’t mind looking at new finishes, in fact it’s very inspiring,  but  please just make a quickie post and direct us to your blogs to read more about them…that way we can focus on congratulating getting those cobwebbed projects out and in the open and we’ll direct readers to your personal blogs as well!
4. Please also remember to add labels to your post as to what number finish it is,  how many you’ve done so far and your name  and any other relevant information such as type of project, whether it’s a bag, or table runner or a designer name , for example.  If you don’t know how to do this, when you write your post you’ll see the  labels (circled) on the sidebar…..you can write your own in the box or add ones from the arrowed list by clicking on them.    Then click on the ‘done’ box at the bottom and that’s it….they’ll be added to your post.

So let’s see how many we can kick over for June……30 days……can we make 60 finishes??????   We’ve done it before……let’s …….

REACH FOR THE STARS!!!!

xox

Dawn & Wendy :O)

March Count is Complete.....

and again you continue to amaze me!!!!

25 ladies had finishes for March with a total of .....wait for it.........

 

SIXTY-ONE  (yep, that's 6-1)  FINISHES!!!!!!!

 

blowing me away.....every month...you gals are IN-CRED-I-BLE!!!!

such inspiration....

I've even got a finish for April.....which I must get around to posting about!!! LOL

I've counted right up to Kathleen's post on April 1 (our time), only because it was still March in the US of A.....lucky!!!!!!!!!

 

and  had a giggle with Cathy's post following Kathleen's, only because my hubby has been reminding me to take his 'new' work jeans hems up since last year and now he's resorted to putting them on the end of the couch to remind me to take them up for him.   Each day they've been moved a step closer and closer to my sewing machine....do you think he's trying to give me a 'subtle' hint???

 

I'm sorry Susan, I only saw your comment after I was doing the count......missed this one...must've slipped through the cracks, but there ya go.....sixty one finishes for March....that's about 2 a day!!!!

 

Which also means

our total tally is now  184 finishes to date for 2013

leaving 315 to reach our target of 500 for 2013

that means 35/ month to reach our goal which we're eeeeasily achieving so far!

 

and to boost you girls even more......that means were over 1/3 of the way to achieving our target......and that also means we are well above target!  wheeeeeeeeeeee........

 

YOU GO GIRLS!!!!!!!

 

So ....I will be sending out freebies to those 21 lucky ladies.......(which I will do shortly).......but as a sneaky peek....here it is.......

 

Daffodils for our March Birthdays......hope you like it!

 

I'm off to post out these designs....and to create some new ones!!! 

Keep on Stitching....

xox

Wendy & Dawn :O)



Housekeeping

A reminder as I've only had a handful of replies....just in case you missed it! ;o)

Hi ladies,  this is for those of you who are members of our blog, not just followers!!!),
for ease of organising our blog, would you please be able to send the following info back to me at my (Wendy’s) email address?
Blog name : eg....As Sweet as Cinnamon
Blog Address: eg. ..... http://dawnhaydesigns.blogspot.com
Your contact name (eg. Dawn) You may wish to keep this private and not referred to on
the blog..that’s fine, just let us know....just helps us in the count each month!)
4. Preferred email contact: this is so we can send goodies out to you, like the BOM we did last
year!
5. where you are situated......town, state, country please.....just gives us an idea of the spread
of our blog and also an understanding of your needs

1. town
2. state
3. country

thanks so much....this helps us make our blog even better for you!
email by reply to wbert4(at)gmail(dot)com
Sew many hugs
Wendy and Dawn :O)

HOLEY GUACAMOLE…WHAT A START TO THE YEAR!!!!

Oh My Goodness…what can I say!!!….Wowza, you girls are

A-MAAAAAAAAY-ZING!!!

If you could only see me….I’m doing backflips, frontflips, doing it gangnam style and breakdancing all at the same time….well….in my head anyway!!!! 

Why, you may well ask??? 

Can you believe a whopping 75 finishes for the month of January????!!!!   That’s right…..SEVENTY-FIVE……..three score and fifteen….wooohooooooooo!

Yes I know…I did give you extra time, because I was away…and this was an additional 16 items but still…..my jaw is dragging on the ground….literally!!!!!    When I forecast 500 finishes for the year….I really was thinking 12 full months but I think we’ll do that in about 7????

So….let’s see……a predicted 500 finishes less the 75 completed already…that leaves 425.  Given 11 months to go, thats about 39 finishes a month….I think we’ll do it, no problems….considering there are 45 of us so far…..one each a month will get us there, eeeeeasy!

Oh girls…..I’m speaking for Dawn and myself, we’re just like proud clucky little mother hens…..so proud of you all!!!! 

And because I’m brimming with absolute joy…..I’m sending each and every one of you the first month’s block of the month pattern….just because!!! 

But don’t expect it to be a regular thing….I’m caught up in the moment now….each month, you are going to have to have at least one finish of a UFO project you’ve started or have fully organised from before Dec 31 2012 to get the next block…or you miss out!

Remember, February’s a short month so get stitching and rip out your UFO’s (metaphorically!!!! )  and let’s see how many we can do this month!

Sew Many Hugs xox

Wendy and Dawn :O)

Mid-month ideas and encouragement…..

I’m loving all your enthusiasm and watching lists go up, inspiring one another and seeing finishes appear already!!!  Wow….when Dawn and I first started this blog, that was the whole intent ….but we never thought it would grow so big!!!!

Now I’ve noticed some of you are getting a little disheartened with all your UFO listing, but you know, we’re not alone!  I’ve been hopping about in Blogland and there are quite a few others who have the same problem and are offering some useful tips…….

  Pat’s first post is HERE and helps out with ‘The Sort”!!!  Sorting out those UFOs is such a daunting task, and even though a lot of us have listed them down, Pat goes through where to start once you’ve sorted them….I’m going to have a play with my list over the weekend!!!!

Another blogger who has some fab ideas for busting through that UFO pile is Patchwork Posse aka Becky Jorgensen.     Becky’s having a 52 UFO quilt block  pick up on her blog, so every week there will be a tutorial, a hint or some inspiration on how to use up those UFO blocks that gather up in your pile that you don’t know what to do with!

She’s adding each week’s link HERE so you won’t need to go searching!  Just be careful not to ADD to your UFO stash!!! LOL

Another idea Dawn and I have come up with to spur you along, is to continue our Block of the Month for all those ‘good little finishers’……so, each month, if you have a finish posted by the last day of the month, once we’ve done our tally up,  we will send you a free block pattern  in our block of the month.  After twelve months, you’ll have the whole pattern and finishing instructions AND a ufo to start you off the following year!!!! hehehe….see…..method in our madness….you’ll NEED to keep with us then!!!! LOL

What is that I hear??? You want a sneak preview and some hints???

mmmmmmmmm……… let’s just say there’s some piecing and  some stitcheries and it’s ‘blooming’ wonderful, if I do say so myself!!!! *wink wink*……  But you’ll have to wait for more details closer to the end of the month……I’ll just keep you guessing for now!!!!!

So, on with the UFO busting……..

sew many hugs

Wendy :O) and Dawn xo

 

Did Mr Random Generator pick you???

As a special thank you to you all, we  have decided to give one lucky finisher a prize…..
……..we really really wish we could give every single one of you something, but we figure, cutting your ufo stash down is a pretty good present….sooooooo, we thought, rather than give the person who completed the most ufo’s the top prize, as we have before,  we’d enlist Mr Random Generator  to look at the number of finishes that were completed and pick one.  Then we counted down the list to see who that lucky person was….how truly random is that!?!
And the lucky person is………..

Number 302 on our list, which just happens to be the person with the most finishes……….now that’s random!!!!!

Congratulations to SUE B

Your prize is a $50 quilting voucher at Dawn’s quilting studio…this is for a quilt up to 80 inches square and is for an all-over stipple design…...and a little birdie told me she’s pretty good at it too!!!!  Dawn will be in touch with you soon with further details.   Woooohoooo….lucky ducky!!!!

We have lots more surprises in store for 2013……with quite a few new members, we think we’re going to have loads of fun!

Don’t forget to publish your list of UFOs on your blog and blog about it here too, if you want…..a little bit of accountability is good for the soul!!!!!  I know I need to update mine and  I’m sure Dawn does too.  Unfortunately, mine seems to have been breeding in 2012 as I’m sure there are far more than I had last year!!!!

Keep reaching for the stars this year girls…..500 is our aim again and who knows, we may even surpass that if we work at it….I  know I’ve just finished my first UFO for the year ….but I’ll post that later!

Sew many hugs

Wendy :O) and Dawn xox

Fabulous Effort

Wow ladies..

 We are thrilled...

 As of May 31st we have overtaken

 last years whole total of 228 finishes.. TO

 231 finishes in five months of 2012...

 What a fantastic effort you have all made!

Keep up the great work...

 We love seeing the finishes, your all such and exncouragement.

 Now Wendy and I have been chatting as we do... 

on most Wednesday nights.. he he

 And because you have made a fantastic effort

 we will be holding a little incentive for anyone in our group

to spur you on to post a finish during June...

Surely you still have some finishes hanging around..

 THE PRIZE you could win is:

  A charm pack of Sew Stitchy by Aneela Hoey

 There are two charm packs for two lucky winners.

 So get those UFO's finished and posted...

 Conditions apply...

 1 - The UFO must be from 2011 or earlier

2 - Every finish must be posted individually 

1 Finish = 1 Entry

 The more you enter the more chances you have to win...

 so get sewing....

 Happy UFO-ing.

 Hugs Wendy and Dawn

 x x x x x x

Last month’s gift block

Hi all,

how are you going with your ufo-busting this month???

I’ve got one in the fire and hopefully will be finished by next Thursday….yep, that’s right, NEXT THURSDAY is the last day of May so get those needles working overtime, find yourself a smallish finish to get done (if you haven’t started yet) and posted on the blog to qualify for your free block of the month! 

Remember a ufo is one you’ve started BEFORE the 31 Dec 2011 !

I just thought I’d show you last month’s freebie stitched out…..

This is another of Dawn’s beautiful designs…..two poppies symbolising Anzac Day on April 25th…..such an important day in Australia and New Zealand, and the Cross behind them symbolising Easter……both representing how much has been given so that we might live.

You’ll notice I varied the stitching as per Dawn’s instructions…..(I do like to be different!!!! LOL)  I added satin stitch to the poppy pods, backstitched the cross and then echoed it with running stitch in gold thread….don’t know if you can see that in the photo but perhaps if you click on it it might show up better?!

This month will be my design month and it’s all ready to go….something special for May…..I wonder if you can guess what it will be?????

Our computers are all going well (touch wood!) so we’ll have no delays in getting them to you this month!

So keep working on reducing those piles …. (of ufo’s, that is!)

Sew many hugs xox

Wendy :O)

 

Block 2 “Seasons of…..”

February’s finishers will have already received their gift of the second block of “Seasons of…” 

Last month was Dawn’s month to design, so I spent the afternoon in front of the telly stitching it up.

It’s a gorgeous little design, don’t you think?  Full of flowers and hearts….very Valentine-ish..….she’s such a talented gal! 

Next month it’s back to my turn to design and I have a little St Paddy’s magic in mind!  Have to wait and see!!!

Keep up the fantastic effort on the finishes……58 for February which was sensational, seeing it was a shorter month (even though it had an extra day!!!)

Now, if only I could keep up with you all!!!!!

Sew many hugs xo  :o)

HUGE January Finishes……

What a start to the year ladies!!!!   You are truly ay-may-zing……and so inspiring…….Dawn and I nearly lost our breath as we counted up our finishes for last month……..

SIXTY-TWO altogether

…..that’s incredible, considering last year’s entire total was 228….

You girls have managed to accomplish more than 1/4 of all last year’s finishes in only one month!!!!    Holy Guacamole!!!!!!!  Incredible!  What are we going to achieve THIS month???!!!!  The sky’s the limit, I say! I can hardly wait to see!

For those of you who are kicking themselves under the table now for not quite making January’s deadline for the first surprise we promised you, Dawn and I have been discussing how we really didn’t give you much time to plan a finish so……….any finishers in February will qualify for both January and February’s blocks which we talked about here.

Maria’s given us a sneak preview of the ‘gift block’ all finishers received for January….how slick is she!!!….. now, you really have no excuses…..and seeing as it’s a leap year this year, you still have 27 days to get at least one UFO completed!  Whaddya say????

As Dawn and I added up the totals, we thought we might just touch on a few housekeeping matters just to clarify……

*  A ‘’finish’, in Sew It’s Finished terms, must be a completed UFO from your pile of UNFINISHED OBJECTS…..this can be small, big, individual, a pair or a set, but they must be from the depths of your cupboards and have been sitting there for more than a couple of months (before Dec 31, 2011) and are annoying the irrits out of you because they’re still UFO’s!!!!   After all, that’s what our blog is all about!!!

*’Completed” means just that……it has to be completed…finished, terminado, cesado, accompli, finito!  Nothing left to be done to it but used/gifted/hung/shared…..you get the idea!

*Posting – When you post about your finish, could you please indicate within the post  which finish it is, when the item was started (can be approximate if it’s been faaaaar too long!),  what you needed to do to finish it, whether it was just the binding, sew a button on, quilt it, etc and finish with your name.  Just be aware that we now have 100 members, and some of you do share the same name so poor ol’ Dawn and I get so confused!!!!!   If you share your name with another member (you can check the finishers’ list on the right hand sidebar), can you add the first initial of your surname as well please???  That way, we won’t do our heads in quite as much as we normally do! LOL

* Labels - you’ve probably noticed the cloud of labels in our right hand side bar and wondered why on earth we have so many and what do they do??   Well, when we are looking for something in particular, say… how many finishes Dawn has done…..we can click on the word ‘Dawn’, and every post that is labelled ‘Dawn’ will be listed!   If you haven’t labelled your posts, finding info quickly is just not going to happen!   Soooooo. when you write your post, it’s important you add labels to the end.

How you might ask?????…  Once you’ve written your post, over on the right hand side of Blogger, there is a list of ‘Post Settings’….the first one is, you guessed it, “LABELS”.  Click on ‘labels’ and it will open up with a box you can type in,  plus a list of labels that have already been generated.  Your labels' for each post MUST include…

1 your name,

2 your blog name …..and….

3 which finish it is…..we’d love you to put both your overall finishes (12th finish) and this year’s finishes ( 1st finish 2012) 

You can either type them in, in which case, if they’re already in the label list, they’ll come up in a dropdown box which you can click on;  you can click on the existing labels listed, or you can just type in one that summarises your post…eg.  embroidery, stitchery, piecing, Dawn Hay Designs, etc.  You’ll get some ideas from looking through the existing labels if you’re not sure….don’t be afraid……you won’t get it wrong, and you definitely won’t be sacked!!!!! LOL

*Full House – we do have a full house at this moment…..100 bloggers have joined our ‘little’ group to commit to attacking their pile of UFO’s and make way for some new ones!   We do have people wishing to join, but Blogger will only allow us a maximum of 100 so, with this in mind, we would ask that if you feel you are no longer interested, or if  life circumstances just won’t allow you to put UFO’s high on your priority list at this point in time, could you let us know by dropping us a quick email?  We certainly won’t be offended , we’ll  understand completely and that will allow those who are waiting patiently in the wings a chance to join in and benefit from your collective enthusiasm.  If circumstances change and you’d like to rejoin, you are always more than welcome!!!!

And talking about welcoming………A HUGE big welcome to all our members……we’ve had a few changes since Christmas with a few leave the group and a few more join so we’d just like to say, we love having you with us……the encouragement is overwhelming and we’re so happy  you’ve chosen to DELVE into your UFO piles with us, with the goal of not SHELVE–ing too many new ones in two thousand and TWELVE!!!!!  (ewwww…it’s not getting any better with time, is it??? LOL)

Sew many hugs

xo Wendy and Dawn :O)

 

Our Surprise for you….revealed!!!!!

Hi Ladies,

remember I told you that Dawn and I had been chatting and we have a surprise for each of you, and that you’d better get onto finishing at least one UFO by the end of the month????

Well................ we can reveal a monthly ‘reward’ if you like, for each of you that complete at least one UFO by the last day of a month. Whether your finish is big, little; old, a bit newer (but not new!); one or many, it will qualify you to receive our gift for the month. Yes, you ARE hearing reading correctly.......you WILL receive a gift EACH month you complete an outstanding UFO that must be from last year or before.

How are we going to do that, you may ask?

Well.....Dawn and I have been thinking long and hard and thought you guys could do with some rewarding for all the hard work you’ve been putting in ..... delving into those piles of ufo’s so, between us, we will be designing a “Seasons of “ BOM for Sew It’s Finishers, but only if you blog about a UFO finish from your list on the SIF blog by the end of the month . Each month there will be a new design for a block which will be in both stitchery and appliqué format and then on the twelfth month you will receive finishing instructions to complete your quilt.

Remember, no completed ufos for the month = no block!...sorry, but we need to encourage you to get those oldies out of the cupboard!!!!

We would be more than happy to see progress photos of your gift blocks on the SIF blog too.....I know...we’re sneaky but we want to keep inspiring and encouraging as many of you to finish your older UFO’s so that you want to get our gifties each month!!!

So.....let’s get to it....you have just over a week to go before the first gifts are sent out...so make sure you have a finish posted by then.

Hint: If you’re worried you’ll miss out, work on a small finish this month so that you can squeeeeeeeze it in before next week!

Can’t wait to see what you complete!

Sew many hugs...

Wendy and Dawn xoxo

1st finish for me!

What an amazing effort ladies...

Pat yourselves on the back!

So many finishes...

 Wendy and I challenged each other 

to finish some projects that have 

just sat around forever..he he

Waiting waiting  to be finished!

 Then this blog was born for others to join us.

 and I am happy to say you have been a huge encouragement.

 I have now finished my 1st UFO!

Pattern - Moda Bakehouse Here
Fabric - Mill House Inn.
 Time to complete - One year..

 Now to make the next one...
 Hugs Dawn x x x

Happy List making!

List List List!

Happy New Year 2011

Is your UFO list ready.

Well grab that pen and start searching your sewing stash's and boxes

for all those UFO's that are in desperate need to be finished...

 Come On!

 Lets get some projects finished together next year.

We all can get them done with some help and encouragement.

 We all need to be spurred on to finish.

 I know I do 

but I certainly don't need to be spurred on to start some new ones.

 But to finish some oldies thats another story....

 Happy Searching

 Many Hugs Dawn x x x