Sew Saturday | OMG | April Goals

My sewing goal for the One Monthly Goal (OMG) quilt challenge is to complete my Arts Walk challenge quilt.  Arts Walk is in late April, and our guild will be showcase improv quilts using one of the fabrics below.  We can include any other fabric we want.  The only other rule is that it must be at least 20" square.

Here was my progress as of April 1st.  I still have a ways to go, but as long as my sewing machine doesn't malfunction again, I should be good to go.

What is your One Monthly Goal for April?

Sew Saturday ~ March Finish ~ Grandma's Quilt

As most of you know I ran into a bit of a snag finishing grandma's quilt last week.  My sewing machine broke just as I was getting ready to quilt it.  I was so disappointed that I wouldn't be able to finish it before my trip to go see her.  Even though my quilt wasn't finished I took it with me and showed grandma my progress.  I'm pretty sure she liked it, but she wasn't happy I took it away to get it quilted.  Until I told her I would have to finish it up and bring it back down to her, then she was happy again.  Not sure I will be able to do that, but I am going to try.

My grandma cracks me up.  I told her I had a gift for her, but that it wasn't finished.  She said, "well, why not?"
I said, "because my sewing machine broke"
She said, "well, what are you going to do about it"
I said, "I've already taken it to the repair shop.  Hopefully it will be done by the time I get back home."
She responded, "I should hope so"

Oh, how I love that feisty woman!  I'm not even sure she understood what I meant by needing to finish this quilt.  I do not come from a family of quilters and grandma has the early stages of dementia. 

I draped the quilt over her and it was a perfect fit.  She must have liked it because she didn't want to let it go.  She didn't want me to go either.  That is honestly the hardest part of visiting her.  Saying goodbye knowing it could be months before I see her again... if I get to see her again.  I take each moment and count my blessings.

Shhh... Grandma has a boyfriend.  That is Joe sitting beside her.  She won't admit he is her boyfriend, but they sit beside each other every day in the nursing home and eat their meals side by side too.  It's so cute.  Especially considering grandma has not dated once since my grandfather passed away in 1988.

Can you tell which border I used?  I'm going to bind it with the same fabric.  If you missed my earlier post I asked for votes on whether to use a light or dark blue border.  Clicky

I'm linking up with the OMG challenge, because I did make my monthly goal of getting the the orange peels attached to their white backings.  My machine is home from the shop, so hopefully I will get this quilt quilted and bound soon.

Sew Sunday | Grandma's Quilt | OMG Goal Update

Happy Saturday!  It's a miserable, wet, windy, rainy weekend here in the Pacific Northwest.  Perfect weather for staying inside and sewing!!!  :)  I've made a lot of progress on my Grandmother's lap quilt.  After much deliberation I decided to machine sew on the orange peels rather than sew them by hand. I loved the idea of working on grandma's quilt each night by hand, but the process was going to take to long.  She is in poor health, and I would rather her have those extra months snuggling under my blanket than waiting for me to stitch by hand.

After I had most of my wedges sewn down, I decided to pull in a few more light fabrics to make the quilt look more balanced and lighter.  I didn't have any more of the Charlotte line by Kensington Studio for Quilting Treasures, so I pulled went to my stash.  I had purchased a kit off of Craftsy on black Friday that went with another blue & white quilt I planned to make for my mom's beach room.  (shhhhh, it's a secret)  The fabric line is Summer Breeze III by Sentimental Studios for Moda.

The good news is that my piecing went so fast that I completed my OMG goal early.  As I finished ironing the final seem it occurred to me that I could have folded my 5" blocks in half and pressed to find the center line.  I wasn't really sure how to line up the orange peels, but it doesn't really matter.  Grandma will love it and with her poor eyesight she will never notice that it isn't "perfect".

Speeding up the process means I met my One Monthly Goal early.  Now I need help with choosing the border(s).   I'll be using the yardage I have from Summer Breeze 3 to tie in those fabrics even more.  Would you choose the darker fabric on the left or the lighter fabric on the right for your first border? 

Sew Saturday | OMG Challenge | March Goal

It's time to set a new monthly goal.  What I really wanted to do was work on my grandmother's quilt, but it's a new project.  I've been doing A Lovely Year of Finishes for so long, that I've been making my goals be items that have sat for awhile and need to get done.  It dawned on me though, that I am doing a new challenge this year, One Monthly Goal.  It's about making a goal each month and seeing it through, so Grandma's quilt is back on the table.  (Thank you, Heidi!)

Grandma wanted a blue quilt so I chose Charlotte by Kensington Studios.

I've cut out all the orange peels and now I need to add interfacing and attach them to their white blocks.  I haven't yet decided whether I am going to sew the blocks on by machine or hand.  If I do it by machine I just might be able to get the quilt finished this month and give it to my grandma when I go down to see her.  If I do it by hand it means more time spent loving working on a quilt for her.  Either way, my March goal is get all the orange peels attached to their white blocks.

The cool thing about this is that last night my husband and both my sons came into my sewing room to talk and all 3 of them made comments about this cool new design.  It might be the first curved piecing they've ever seen me do.  My husband even said this was his favorite design he's seen so far.  He just might get a quilt in this pattern too, if the process for grandma's quilt goes well.  So far so good. 

What are your sewing goals for March?  Be sure to link up with OMG and share them with all of us.

Sew Sunday ~ Sew Expo ~ OMG Link-up

It has been such a fun sewing weekend for me, starting on Thursday with a trip to Sew Expo in Puyallup, WA and continuing on to the In Stitches quilt show in Centralia, WA on Friday and ending with an inspired weekend of sewing at home.  Yesterday I even had 4 hours alone at home to sew.  I should have cleaned house or worked on taxes, but it was good for the soul to spend quality time with my sewing machine watching videos on Bible Art Journaling. 

I have loads of pictures to share with you over the coming weeks, but for today I have just a quick post so I can get back in the sewing room before a sniper (kids, dogs, hubby, chores) gets me.  ;) 

Today is the last day of Sew Expo at the Washington State Fairgrounds in Puyallup, WA.  If you are local, it is definitely worth the trip, especially today.  Many vendors offer deep discounts on the last day so that they won't have to pack and ship their merchandise home.  Especially for furniture, sewing machines and bolts of fabric.  

  

Time to link up my February finish for the One Monthly Goal challenge and I am happy to say that yesterday I finally finished sewing together the blocks that have been on my design wall since last summer!  Nice to finally have that goal complete.

It was only 10 blocks, but it was just taking the time to work on them.  Now I can put them away until I am ready to do a little more work on Michael's quilt.

I also completed the 2 February blocks for the SSMQG Patchwork City QAL.  If you remember getting caught up with that QAL was my January goal, and my personal sewing goal is to stay caught up.

I'm heading back to my sewing room to see what else I can accomplish this weekend.  I finished a super secret block project yesterday and started on the binding for a guild quilt.  I like to sew the binding on onto the front and hand tack it down in back.  It's a relaxing thing for me to do in the evening while watching TV with the hubs.  I'm seriously considering starting something new today after I finish the binding.  We shall see what happens.

Sew Saturday ~ February Goals ~ OMG Challenge

February is my youngest son's birthday month, so I think it is high time I went back to work on his quilt.  My goal this month for the One Monthly Goal (OMG) challenge is to get the squares on my design wall sewn into blocks.  Hopefully I will exceed that goal and add more blocks, but for now I will happy with getting these blocks finished.  They have been on my wall since June!  I haven't wanted to take them down for fear of having to figure out how the pieces all go back together.  Each square has different, yet similar fabric.

It's really only 10 blocks total, and I already have 3 done.  7 more block.  This is such a silly goal, yet it has sat as a UFO for going on 9 months now.  That is too long, so it is my goal to FOCUS on it.  Sometimes I just have to make it my goal or it won't get done.

In addition to this goal, I also want to keep up with my QAL for the SSMQG.   Last month I got caught up through February, so it will only take make 2 blocks to be on track by the time of our next guild meeting in early March.

I'm also working on attaching binding for 2 charity quilts made by our guild. I'll have to share pictures with you once they are done.  It is so fun to see these quilts come together and know that it was made by women I admire and cherish, and then to know I had a small part in it too.

Please consider linking up your sewing goals with this new challenge. Heidi has a fabulous fabric giveaway and the challenge has a new sponsor this month.

Sew Saturday ~ OMG Finish

It's the end of the month and time to link up my finish with the OMG (One Monthly Goal) challenge.  Not only did I make my goal of getting caught up on our guilds QAL, but I exceeded it and got next month's finsihed too!  WOOT-WOOT!!!

Linking up my finish with One Monthly Goal, then I am off to see what you all have finished!  I'm so grateful that Heidi picked up the reigns and started a new goal setting/finish party for our sewing.  It helps me stay focused on completing something each month.  Did I mention that my word for 2016 is FOCUS?  I might need to write up a blog post on that, but I digress.

Jan Finish

Sew Tuesday ~ OMG Challenge

Normally I post my sewing stuff on the weekends, but I just had to slip in another post to let you know of a new challenge that has spun off from the A Lovely Year of Finishes challenge.  It was created by Heidi of Red Letter Quilts misses ALYOF as much as the rest of us and decided to pick up the torch and start a new challenge to help all of us reach our sewing goals.  

The challenge is called One Monthly Goal or OMG for shot.  (I like her already, don't you?)   Link up with your goal the first 7 days of the month, then link your finish at the end of the month.

My overall quilting goal for 2016 is to get my design wall projects made into quilt tops.  (at the very least)  I currently have 3 quilts going on this wall.  At the very top is a quilt of the month applique that I joined 2 years ago.  This is the one I am hoping to finish first, so that I can actually hang it on the wall or use it next Christmas.   I have 6 blocks that are at or near completion, and 3 more blocks to do before I can trim them all up and sew them together.

Those cute little x squares (in progress) were started for my younger son's quilt.  He has been so patient waiting for me to get it done.  My plan was to complete it in the Fall, but I got news that my brother's fiance was going to have a baby, so I put his quilt on hold in order to make a baby quilt for my niece's arrival.

The squares in the middle/bottom are for our guild's QAL.  To stay on schedule we are supposed to have all our blocks done by our September meeting.  Everyone who has a completed quilt by our December meeting will also get a special prize.  That is why I am making my goal this month to get back on track with my QAL blocks.  I didn't reach my goal last month, so it is rolling over to this month.  I need to complete 9 blocks in order to be on schedule and I now have 6 done.  If I get done early I will start on the next 2 for February.

In addition to this I also want to:
-make a lap quilt for my grandma

-participate in the Art's Walk Challenge

-quilt 3 quilt tops

Now I need to figure out how to add a button to my sidebar again. :)  I hope to see all my quilting friends on this new challenge blog.