2014 - a sort of plan !

so I've been thinking about all the quilts that I want to make and all the tops that I want to quilt and wondering when I'll get them done!

I'm joining up with the 2014 Finish-Along again this year (which is being hosted by Katy at The Littlest Thistle) and I really hope to do way better than last year - I only got one finish done last year - having said that I did get a few tops done !  I'm also going to try and join up each month to the 2014 A Lovely Year of Finishes to try and get a few smaller projects done.

I also read on Carrie's lavieenrosie blog the other day about Passion 48 - it was something that was started by the staff of American Patchwork and Quilting last year and it involves working on one project for one hour per week (with four weeks off for holidays etc - hence 48 !)  I have a few quilts that I want to make that will take a while to do and I thought that concept was a great idea - slowly but surely they will get done !

So the projects that are going into my Passion 48 list are...

the Single Girl Quilt...

the Polka Dot Dresden...

and the HexyMF quilt...

I'm in no rush but I'd like to get them done !

I also cleaned out my linen press over Christmas - its where I keep my finished and almost finished quilt tops as well as backings for quilts yet to be made.  I counted 15 tops finished and ready for quilting, 2 tops that need borders, and 10 backing and binding fabric sets for quilts that are waiting to be made - that's not including the three mentioned above !

I'm a third of the way through straight line quilting this one - "through the trees" so that leaves only 14 still in the cupboard !

I also have other fabrics put away in plastic tubs waiting to be made into quilts but they will have to wait until later (much later) !  there are two exceptions - the Spinning Stars quilt and the keep calm quilt, both of which I'd like to get done this year.

of course, today I just discovered the 2014 Pantone Quilt Challenge and having quite a few purple fabrics it does sound interesting ! 

I'm also currently doing a weekly sew along (Quilty Fun) that finishes in March, and a continuing bom (Modern Blocks QAL) that will finish mid way through the year.  I've also decided to do four other boms (including a paper pieced bom by my friend Kristy at Quiet Play) - its a good way to get some of my fabrics off the shelf and into a quilt !  I also think that doing boms are a bit like the Passion 48 project - you just work on one block a month. Of course I'll still be doing blocks and quilts for the Care circle at do.good stitches.

I made two of the January blocks this month - the first one is the large centre block for the Globetrotting mystery block of the month by Pat Sloan.  I'm using some yellow and grey floral fabrics I bought in a bundle from Spotlight a while ago that I really wanted to get rid of use up and pulled some coordinating fabrics from my stash !

I also made the January block for the 2014 Aurifil Designer Block of the Month - I am using fabrics from some blogger's bundles that I get each month from the Fat Quarter Shop - I find that a lot of the bundles play so well together !

It was also handy to get these blocks done so I could use them for blog buttons - I find it so much easier to have the links on my blog so that I don't have to remember website addresses each month - I just link direct from the buttons on my sidebar !

so my plan is just to plod along and try and get as many projects done as I can !  I've got a long list for the 2014 Finish-Along already but I think I'll try and keep it to only a few projects a quarter and try and get them done - I really got sick of seeing the same projects in each quarter last year.

actually, I was rushing to get a quilt bound in time for the link-up for the last quarter and discovered that I hadn't even put it on the list - I had listed it for Q1, 2, and 3 so I'd obviously decided to forget it !!

I have to put this cute little quilt on the first quarter list - I made it over the christmas break - the catvent quilt along by Elizabeth Hartman !

but for the next little while I'll be finishing the Doll Quilt Swap 14 quilt that is due to be posted in 11 days - as I'm wanting to get so many of my ufos and other projects done this year I've decided not to take part in any more swaps!

hope you have your plans for 2014 sorted !

yoo hoo !

well hi there :)

I can't believe its been soooo long since I last posted.

I had a bad case of tendinitis at the beginning of April which kept me off-line for a few weeks - it took a couple of weeks to find out what was wrong but once I got some good drugs I was fine.  But having the sore shoulder kept me away from sewing as well - I actually spent a week on the couch as I was in quite a bit of pain as I couldn't sit up but I did manage to get a few hexies done that week - I'm now 1/3 of the way through my Hexy MF quilt-along!

I obviously got out of the habit of blogging fairly quickly but I have so much show and tell I'll probably be posting every day this month !

I signed up for the A Lovely Year of Finishes this year to get some of my UFOs done and I've only completed the January project - I did list an old embroidery to be made into a cushion for my February project and I didn't get it completed until May but I'm happy to report that I got all three UFO cushions done - better late than never :)

I'm hoping to link up with A Lovely Year of Finishes for July - just need to find one project that I can get done in a month !

Its also time for the final of the 2nd quarter of 2013 Finish-A-Long.  I have made progress on my projects for that but I still don't have a complete finish - I'm off to finish the quilting on Lucy's quilt as I promised my mum that I wouldn't show another photo of that quilt until it was done - I was hoping to have it totally finished but the hand binding will take a little time so I'll have to settle on having that done next week.

I'll be back later today (eek two posts in one day!) with my Q2 wrap - see you then :)

weekend sewing

I had a fairly productive weekend of cutting and sewing last weekend.

I'm making an interlocking wonky stars quilt for the down under doll quilt swap - I cut and sewed all the wonky star blocks - its going to be fairly big at 20 inches square.  Its up on the design wall where it will stay for a little while until I'm happy with the final layout before I sew it all together.

I also cut out the blocks for the June, July, and August blogger's block of the month - it finishes soon so I'm happy to be up to date with this one - well, after I sew all the blocks together that is !

and I finally sewed the blades of the traditional dresden plate block together and then made the circles for both the dresden blocks from the craftsy bom - using the perfect circles templates that arrived last week.

I'm really happy I bought those little circles - its a quick and easy way to get a perfect circle !!  they're now pinned and ready to be appliqued to the backgrounds.

Oh, and before I go - I've actually done some more hexy flowers for the hexy MF quilt-along - 9 done and only 65 to go - gee - they really are slow going :)  you may have seen this photo before as I used it in my august fresh sewing day post the other day.

I think I need to up my sewing rate otherwise I won't be finished this one until the middle of next year ... on second thoughts ... maybe I should just make this a 12 month project so I don't worry about how slow I'm going - you know, I think I'll just do that :)