Quarterly Goal Check

Well, it's been three months since I wrote my goals for the year and I figured it's probably time to check and see where I'm at with them. So...

10 Things I want to Accomplish in 2015:

1. Finish my Vintage Stars Quilt - quilting and binding 
***Update: I pinned this and tried to quilt it, but my machine is so frustrating I had to stop. I love this quilt so much I don't want to mess it up and I've already picked twice. I have been practicing with manual quilting vs. BSR, so I might try one more time.

2. Finish my son's Pirate Quilt 
***Complete!! Yeah! I even got a wall hanging done to match.

3. Finish the Alaska Stars Quilt - order more fabric to accomplish this 
***Not yet, but I did complete another Alaska quilt in the meantime, if that counts at all.

4. Make at least one Alphabet Quilt 
***Not yet

5. Complete a quilt from something pinned on Pinterest 
***Not yet, but I have done some recipes from Pinterest

6. Add at least one tutorial to the blog 
***Not yet, but I have some ideas

7. Complete a quilt pattern to post on Etsy 
***Not yet

8. Complete the BOM quilt top 
***So close. I've finished all the blocks and am in search of sashing and borders.

9. Make a quilt for the sofa for hubby
***Not yet. On the fabric hunt

10. Minimize fabric purchases to only necessities/work thru stash 
***On-going, but I feel like I've been doing well with this, especially when it comes to backings.

So far I'vc only been able to cross one off the list. I feel like I'm getting close on some of them though. At least three of them are on their way. Hopefully at the next check I'll be able to cross more off. I am on a mission to get the BOM quilt done quickly, unfortunately it means I'll need to buy fabric, which goes against #10. 

The sofa quilt for hubby also goes against #10. He asked why I don't use what's in my stash and then he looked at it. There's a lot of pink, yellow, and blue. Not really his colors. I have ideas, it's just a matter of finding the right fabric for the right price. Meanwhile, I'm continuing to work thru my stash and try to use as much of it as possible without buying too many new pieces. Let's see where I am at the end of June. Until then, it's back to work.

Paisleigh Handkerchief Quilt

At the end of the year, our LQS had a huge sale of retired fabrics. I really tried hard to control myself and even delayed visiting the sale in hopes the fabrics I'd be interested in were already gone. But...you know how it goes. When it comes to fabrics, I can always find something that's irresistible.

When I got home with my purchases, I was so excited about them I had to get right to work. Of course, nothing goes as smoothly as you hope, right?

The fabric is called Paisleigh by Maude Ashbury. There was a panel and a series of corresponding pieces. I only got the panel and figured I'd cut out the blocks, add some sashing and be done. No such luck. They weren't perfect squares (off by 1/2") so after much a-do I finally trimmed them down to make them squares and used the beautiful periwinkle for on-point diamonds.

I got the large blocks pieced together, but it was too small and narrow and I was out of periwinkle. Luckily my Mom had bought the rest of the bolt, so I was able to use some of hers to create borders. I decided to go more modern with the a-symmetrical layout and cut smaller blocks out of the remaining pieces from the panel. I've done this type of layout before in my ZigZag Quilt and I like it. Kinda fun and different.

Now that the top was done, I started work on the back. The pink chevron was another sale fabric I picked up at the same sale, but it wasn't quite big enough. Sooo...

I got creative and pieced together the last of the scraps from the panel and added periwinkle scraps to each end to make it long enough. I was kind of proud of myself for coming up with this as a solution. Using every scrap and saving money at the same time; felt like a win-win!

The last piece to this puzzle was the batting, and I had just finished my roll. Once again, I was piecing scraps together to make a full sheet of batting to use. This quilt is truly a patchwork project from start to finish. I felt so frugal and efficient. It was a fun little challenge. The finished size is 55x67, so a nice lap quilt or wall hanging.

I wasn't thrilled with the quilting, but I'm reaching the point that I just want to be able to get my quilts finished so I'm doing what I can until I have a machine that can handle the type of quilting I really want to do. A basic meander in the periwinkle and we're good. It would have been fun to do something more like some paisleys similar to the ones in my Cowgirl Quilt (which needs better pictures, I need to get on that), or practice some feathering, but not today. Not on this one.

Overall, I'm super happy with how this one turned out.  It was a lot of fun figuring all of the scraps out and the colors and prints are just so much fun to look at. Love it.

I'm linking up with Needle and Thread Thursday on My Quilt Infatuation and Finish Friday at Crazy Mom Quilts. Come on by and check out all the great projects fellow quilters are working on.

Clip it to Keep it

I know I've blogged about this before, but it is something I am constantly working on so it keeps coming up. Now that my daughter is in preschool 4 days a week (this mama has separation anxiety apparently) I fear her loosing and/or damaging her implants. So I came up with these little straps...

Then I decided since she always has both on, I'd put them both on one clip. It took a little adjusting for her. If one fell off she needed to put it back on rather than yank on it because yanking pulls the other one off, too. They work great though...

So, now that I have a design I really like, I've decided to celebrate the seasons with clips. Why not have fun with it, right?!? She loves to dress up, so this is just one more way to dress it up. I made hearts for Valentines Day (see the picture of the double clip above), green ribbon with glittery shamrocks for St. Patricks Day (now she's guaranteed to have green on this holiday), and a soft purple for Easter. I also starting making some red/white/blue ones for upcoming holidays like Memorial day and the 4th of July.

They are just a lot of fun. It was quite challenging getting the clips to do these; order issues. But now that I have them again, and I can go to town. Until I ran out of snaps. Well, it's back to the craft store for me. Not a bad place to be.