Q3 Goals for 2018

Just like last year, I missed the first two quarters of the Finish-Along, but hopefully I'll participate in the last two quarters.

Batik Lap Quilt

Since this project is my One Monthly Goal (OMG) for July, and that I received my beautiful silk thread, I'll be finishing this quilt in about another three hours of quilting. The feather meander FMQ is looking as good as I hoped 😊

Feather Meander design for the batik lap quilt

This project is also my finish since I'm hosting this week's TGIFF - I'll see you there!

Neutral Lap Quilt

I started this quilt at the beginning of June. It's going much better than I hoped. Part of the reason is that I can cut the fabric in batches after I've finished piecing the last batch. It's my favourite way of cutting and piecing - a small batch at a time. I can handle 10 or even 20 blocks, but not 80! 

Neutral lap quilt is coming along

I love working in batches

Kingfisher Stitch-Along

I'm having so much fun with this stitch-along, but it's going to take a lot longer than a couple of months to finish the quilt! My goal is to have the quilt top finished by the end of the quarter. Probably not very realistic, but I'll certainly keep at it cause someone might decide to make this much fun illegal 😊

Lots of hexie flowers and many, many more to go!

The first hexie on a diamond

Connected by a Thread Art Quilt

I've only posted a few little parts of this art quilt. It's coming along but will need some dedicated time soon to get it finished by the September deadline. How I dislike that 8 letter word....

More work required to finish this art quilt!

Art Quilt with Embroidery

The Out of the Box is putting on a display of art quilts with words, sayings, etc. at a local library. Since it's for November, I would really like to see what I can do to add words and possibly some FMQ to one of my embroideries. I found the words so now it's a matter of putting all of this together. It will be both fun and a challenge 😊 I'm sure I'll learn lots - so what's not to love?

Étude in Stem Stitching

FMQ motifs in stem stitch

Art with Fabric Blog Hop

This is an event that I love participating in. Since I'd like to be able to show it in next summer's show, it will have to be based on something that doesn't have any copyright. Buildings, ancient, medieval and Renaissance art fit well into that category, so what ever the theme, this criteria will help me narrow things down when it comes to deciding what to do.

Welcome to My House Blog Hop

I've always wondered how quilters joined the blog hops until I found Carol at Just Let Me Quilt. She hosts many blog hops and since she was looking for participants for her next blog hop, I accepted the challenge :-) I love that the only criteria is a house on the finished piece. I think I can do that! I'll see you all in September for this one.

Note: these last 2 projects don't count for the Q3 since they haven't been started, but I included them here so that I could keep track of all my plans.

What I learned

• This should probably read, "what I didn't learn" and "what I'm doing again!" which is to over commit. In my defense, many of these projects are things that I'd like to do but don't really have to do. In reality, there are only two items that I've committed to - the Connected by a Thread and the Welcome to my House blog hop. At least, that's my excuse and I'm sticking with it 😊
• There seems to be a pattern here about missing the first 2 quarters of the Finish Along. I think that in the winter, I just go, go, go, but in the heat of summer, I take more time to plan and reflect....maybe?
• I expect to have a lot of fun in the next quarter. Hopefully I'll have the time to play on most of these. Like I keep telling my husband, if you're not having fun, why bother? (that's about hockey and golf but it could apply to quilting and art!)

Related links

There are quite a few related links here, so I'm just going to post the last time I mentioned these particular projects on the blog. From there, if you want, you can see their related links.

• Squirrels and July Plans, July 2, 2018
• Epic Neutral Bow Tie Quilt, June 12, 2018
• June is finished? June 30, 2018
• June beginning, June 6, 2018
• Inspiration and slow work, January 22, 2018
• Art with Fabric Blog Hop
• Welcome To My House Blog Hop

Linking parties
I will be linking this post to the Q3 Goal Setting Link-up of the 2018 Finish-A-Long,  as well as many others. Let's see what everyone is planning and doing!
Monday Making, Main Crush Monday, Design Wall Monday, Moving it Forward Monday, Linky Tuesday, To-Do Tuesday, Tuesday Colour Linky Party, Midweek Makers, Silly Mama Quilts WIPs, Needle & Thread Thursday, Finished or Not Friday,

2018 Planning Party

After reviewing 2017, it's now time to plan 2018. Thanks to JETgirl for hosting this party!

I was very ambitious in my planning during 2017 and really hope to learn from this.

When I said that I was tired in my last post, I wasn't kidding. Thank goodness that I'm able to take 5 weeks off work, from the end of December to the end of January. The beginning of January will be spent on a vacation while the rest of January is for relaxing. I had booked an in-town retreat with my guild, but I even cancelled that! No plans, just rest :-)

Needless to say, that's going to affect my quilting and blogging plans.

So, having learned from 2017, these are just projects and learning that I would like to pursue in 2018. There is no pressure and no big over-arching plan.

2018

Possible Quilt Alongs

I've committed to participating in Alida's Starry Bright Sky QAL. It looks like it will be challenging but since it's once a month, I hope that I'll be able to manage it. I love stars and I love learning new techniques, so this sounds like a good fit.

I've also been admiring the Block of the Month Series presented by Bernina. It started in March 2017 and seems to be going for a few more months. I fell in love with the quilt, or probably more precisely, with the fabrics and amazing colours.

Bernina's Block of the Month Series

Beautiful fabrics from Studio 39 Fabric

Since I was the lucky winner of a $25 gift certificate from Studio 39 Fabrics during the 2017 Q3 Finish-A-Long, I invested in some Alison Glass fabric as well as other matching fabric.

Thanks to the hosts of 2017 Finish-A-Long and Studio 39 Fabrics. I'm really thrilled to have found another Canadian online shop!

I'm already several months behind, so there is really no stress to make it on any schedule. The blocks are quite large and don't seem very complex, so I'm really looking forward to making it....eventually. Now I just have to pick up some background fabric and I'll be ready to go.

Learning Quilt-A-Long

The end of the Learning Quilt-A-Long

I hosted the Learning Quilt-A-Long from August to December. It was a lot of fun, but very few people have linked up. I've decided to stop this event, after the December Learning Sum Up. I learned a lot and made some neat projects that I'll keep working on.

I would love to host some kind of link-up but I haven't decided on a theme. I know that I don't have the time or energy to host a link-up every week, so I'm going to have to think about it.

If you have any ideas about an event or a link-up that could be fun, please let me know :-)

Update my blog

I've learned so much about blogging by reading and seeing other bloggers' work. I've got a few ideas for updating my blog this year. It doesn't need a complete make-over, just a few tweaks, a little at a time! I have already started by creating a 2017 Finishes page using Inlinkz. Eventually I'd like to have a page for every year that I've blogged.

You may also have noticed a new Featured Post widget at the top of my blog. I'm hoping, from time to time, to highlight an older interesting post that might be relevant.

Gaïa, Mother Earth

Art Quilts

I have no doubt that if Alida hosts another Art with Fabric Blog Hop, that I will participate.

I also want to keep working on my art quilts. This year, it's the Common Threads Quilt Guild's turn to host the quilt show in May. The good thing is that many of my Art with Fabric quilts were made since our last quilt show two years ago, so I could just enter those. It's great to have a backup plan!

Lone Tree 2

This year, the Out of the Box Fibre Art Group has a challenge. There is a theme as well as a size requirement, but nothing else, so I will have to look into it. We will also host Fibre Fling 7 this year. It would be great to have at least one new piece in there.....we'll see.





I think that it would be wise to leave it at this. I know that I will continue learning this year, even without a quilt along. It might be nice to do it without any pressure (from myself).

A picture from my first post.
Merry Christmas!

This whole post is essentially about what I learned, so I'm going to allow myself to leave it at this :-)

Wishes & Thanks!

I wish you all a great end of 2017, a wonderful Christmas or holiday season and a terrific new year!

Thanks so much for taking the time to read my posts. I also appreciate your comments, even if I'm not always good at replying.

Related Links

• Starry Bright Sky QAL, main page
• Block of the Month Series by Bernina
• 2017 Finish-A-Long
• Studio 39 Fabrics
• Best of 2017, December 23, 2017
• 2017 Finishes page
• Art with Fabric: Gaïa, Mother Earth, October 10, 2017
• Lone Tree 2 - Tired or Overachiever?, January 24, 2017
• The First One!, March 27, 2012

Linking Parties: First of all, I will be linking this post to JETgirl's 2018 Planning Party. Check out what everyone is planning! I will also be linking this post to these other parties. Come and see what's happening... Finished or Not Friday, Can I Get a Whoop Whoop?, Linky Tuesday, Let's Bee Social, Midweek Makers, 

More goals...Really?

After posting my October Learning QAL Goal Setting Post, I decided that I was going to skip joining more goal setting posts....well, that seems to have lasted a whole 5 days!

I can't help it - I'm a planner by nature :-) I like having some idea of what I want to work on, but that I'm not bound by. The only firm obligation I have this month is the Art with Fabric piece which is almost finished. I will be writing a pre-post a couple of days before the event of Wednesday, October 11th.

This beautiful lady is my inspiration for my Art with Fabric quilt. Can't wait to finish it and show her off. I've used some new techniques as well as my hand-dyed fabric. Now I just have to finish the embellishment and figure out how to finish the piece.

Oh, and I have the Learning QAL for October which is to quilt using different batting.

Oops, and I promised my friend that I would sew a cat Halloween costume for her son.

I guess I had some pretty sound reasons for not wanting more goals....however, I could participate in the 4th Quarter (4Q) of the 2017 Finish-A-Long since it spans to the end of December. As far as I know, I have no plans for November and December. Maybe it's time to make some?

Hexies

More hexies?

I do have all of those hexie flowers that I'm steadily working on - it would be nice to have something done with them. They've now doubled in number to 8 with 4 more partially completed!

I think that I want to add something in the middle - maybe a diamond medallion that would be surrounded by the flowers. I would like it to be large enough to go on my kitchen table. Any larger and it would take me forever to make....and I'm not that patient!

Fun Art Quilt

While working on my Art with Fabric piece, I realised how much I love playing with fabric and making things up as I go along. I start with a few ideas, try things out, make adjustments and Voila! an art quilt is created.

My favourite projects are the ones that I make up as I go along. They don't have time to become intimidating! So for 4Q, I would like to make two small art quilts - just for fun. They may involve trying new techniques, or they may not. I'm not going to put any restrictions or expectations on them, other than to have fun making them. These will be my play dates to myself :-)

For those of you who don't know my work, here are a couple of examples of my fun art quilts.

Fantaisie 2

Hockey Day in Canada

Fantaisie 1

As you can see, these are collages with lots of applique, embellishment and free motion quilting (FMQ). Just a few hours or a couple of days spent playing.

I'm going to leave it at this since I will still have to come up with projects for upcoming Learning QAL.

To-Do Tuesday

Speaking of goals, I've found another weekly goal link-up. I don't often have weekly goals but if a post contains one, then I will certainly link up. The week I've linked up my Art with Fabric Blog Hop post since I definitely have to work on it this week!

What I learned

• I think that I'm perilously close to having over committed myself in October. Darn, why do I keep doing that? 
• I wish that I could just go play right now. What's stopping me? Just the need to sleep. If I want to procrastinate this long weekend, creating a fun art quilt just might do the trick!

Related Links

• Learning QAL October Goal Setting
• Q4 of 2017 Finish-A-Long
• Hexies: Lots of projects, September 12, 2017
• Fantaisie 2, Art Quilt Practice Pieces, May 15, 2016
• Hockey Day in Canada Landscape Quilt,  May 8, 2016
• Fantaisie 1, A Small Fantasy Art Quilt, June 10, 2016
• To-Do Tuesday with Stitch ALL The Things

Linking Parties I will be linking this post to the Q4 of 2017 Finish-A-Long Link-up as well as many others. Let's go see what everyone is up to! Midweek Makers, Linky Tuesday, Let's Bee Social, Needle & Thread Thursday, To-Do Tuesday, Main Crush Monday, Design Wall Monday,  

Neutral lap quilt finished

It's been a long time in the making. I guess since it was never a UFO, it hasn't been that long! 😊

In early April I wrote in a post that I had cut all of the fabric ahead of time since there was a strip of each fabric in every block. I guess 6 months for making a lap quilt is not that long, but usually when I get right into it, it takes less time.

I had finished the top by the end of April so it looks like I was busy with other things in May. On the last weekend in June I had sandwiched the quilt and started FMQ it with stencils. Just in time for my June OMG (One Monthly Goal).

Then I got bored and a little frustrated. Turns out that marking the stencils was very difficult on these different shades of brown. I was hoping to finish quilting it by the end of July - it was my July OMG, but that didn't happen. I finished quilting it by the end of August but have had so many things to blog about that I'm just getting around to it.

We also had a major heat wave for the last two weeks and I was estivating. No way I was going outside for the photo shoot in that weather! I've actually found another spot to take pictures near my home, but it seems to be more convenient for me to just take the quilt to work in the morning and take the pictures before I go in to work.

I'm keeping this post simple - just pictures from the photo shoot. I had so much fun snapping those pics! Isn't this baby photogenic?

In the end I did a lot more FMQ without stencils because the marking was just getting ridiculous. It also took quite a while quilting between all of the blocks. I do like the results...and this quilt will go to my sister-in-law before her 61st birthday!

This quilt was also one of my goals for the 3rd Quarter Finish-A-Long. Here are the links to my original goals, the 3Q FAL goal setting link up and the final link up.

What I learned

• It's such a great thing to be able to look back on my blog and see what I did many months ago. I don't usually remember what I did yesterday or this morning, so having a diary of my quilting adventure is a real treat! I could never have written this post with any accuracy without past posts!
• I like using stencils to follow when FMQ because it gives me other patterns that I would not be able to do free hand. However, marking a stencil on a quilt with fabric from light to dark made it very difficult. The very dark and very light fabrics were fine. It was those in between that gave me trouble.
• I tried not to over FMQ this quilt since I didn't want it to be too stiff. I think that it turned out well.

Related Links: 

• Neutral lap quilt
• August Finishes, August 30, 2017
• Planning Post, July 4, 2017
• Progress, June 30, 2017
• April Finished, April 30, 2017
• Progress and Fun, April 11, 2017

Project Details

Neutral Lap Quilt - Take 5 Loves Coffee Milk
48" x 48"
Based on the Take 5 Loves Coffee Milk pattern in the More Take 5 Quilts by Kathy Brown.
Materials: cotton
Techniques: piecing, FMQ






As I mentioned, this quilt is part of my goals for the 3rd Quarter Finish-A-Long. I also linked up my second placemat (Classy and Scrappy 2) and my Hexie Table Topper. The other two projects didn't get worked on at all. Oh well, sew many projects and so little time!

I will also be linking this post to many linking parties. Let's see what others are doing! Can I get a Whoop Whoop? Finished or Not Friday, Monday Making, Main Crush Monday, Midweek Makers, Linky Tuesday, Let's Bee Social, Needle & Thread Thursday, Free Motion Mavericks,

Embroidering Frog Panels Completed

I joined the &Stitches Finish-Along! a little over a month ago.  Here's my original blog.

I had posted a picture of a couple of the embroidered frog panels that make up this quilt. I thought I had finished those, but when I looked at the pattern more closely, I realised that I hadn't satin stitched the eyes nor added the french knots to the cattails.

Completed embroidered frog panels

Here are the completed embroidered panels. They do look much better with the satin stitched eyes.

I've gathered the beige and green fabrics that I'll be using in the quilt. That's one of my favourite parts of making a quilt! The pattern calls for 6 beige and 6 green fabrics but I couldn't bring myself to just choose 6, so there will probably be 8 fabrics of each.

Each block is made in both 6 and 9 inches. Here is a photo of the first set of completed blocks.

First set of blocks for the quilt

Frog Work Pattern

What I've learned:

• I "see" the blocks better when I photograph them than when they are in front of me. Did you notice the mistake in the large block above? I hadn't noticed until I started working with the photo. The small block is correct. Notice that the dark blocks and the light blocks form a diagonal line. In the large block, I inverted the bottom piece. Oh well, back to the sewing machine it will go!
• I like the fabrics of the large block, but I'm not sure if the gold leaf fabric will go with the swamp look. I've decided to keep it for now. If it doesn't look right within the quilt, I can always make another block with different fabrics!

Joining the &Stitches Finish-Along!

I've joined one of my favourite blogger, Julie from Button, Button... on an stitching Finish-Along!

I don't embroider very much since quilting takes up so much of my leisure time, but I do have a couple of stitching projects that I'd like to finish. Of course, one of them is a quilt, but with some REALLY CUTE embroidered frogs - yes, I wrote frogs!

I found this pattern on the Intranet a couple of years ago when I was searching for a picture of a quilt for my work computer's desktop background. I was planning on making a swamp quilt at the time (still am, but not in the near future) so I Goggled images of quilts with frogs, cattails, etc. I fell in love with this quilt and had it as my desktop background. It would literally make me smile every time I looked at it! After several months of looking and smiling at this picture, I had to make the quilt!

Two finished frog embroidered panels 

Frog Work Pattern by Briarwood Cottage

What I learned:

• Be careful what quilt you put as your desktop background. You'll probably eventually convince yourself that you just have to make it!
• Watch out when working on more than one blog post - this post got published at the same time as Finishing up Winter Quilts. It wasn't my intention. Not sure how I did this :-(
• When taking pictures of my quilts, it happened a few times that when I'm working with the picture on the computer, that I notice a very obvious renegade thread. I was sure I had removed them all. Is it possible that as quilters, threads are just a fact of life that we tend to not see them?

Here's the link to a later blog on the progress of my Frog Work project.