Sunday, March 25, 2018

15 Minutes to Stitch

It's time to update my progress on the 15 Minutes to Stitch challenge.  I'm not perfect anymore.


As you know all last week, I sewed sashing pieces for On Ringo Lake.  I've been working on the sashing for several weeks, in fact.  So when it came time to do more sewing, I could not find the motivation to do it.  I do know that if I keep at it, eventually I will be done. I know that the bigger pieces show more progress and once I get through the sashing, there won't be any small pieces to sew.

But instead, I wanted to watch last season's Relative Race and do genealogy research. I did do a lot - cooking, cleaning, working, filing taxes, grocery shopping, walking the dog, etc.. Genealogy and quilting tend to compete and this week, genealogy won.

I was almost going to clock a big fat zero for the whole week and then I thought about the challenge, and I didn't want to go from perfection to a total dud, so I managed to get about 30 minutes of sewing today. Having this challenge check-in did motivate me to get more done.


Days with stitching this week:  2 out of 7 days
Days with stitching this month:  20 out of 25 days
Days with stitching this year:  79 out of 84 days
Success rate:  94%


That's still an A on most grading scales, so I will take it. 

Linked to:
15 Minutes to Stitch

Saturday, March 24, 2018

Prize Winner!

I won a charm pack from Brooke at Silly Mama Quilts. Seriously you should go visit her because she has these drawings for prizes quite often, and all you have to do is comment.



This is such a sweet fabric with cute little motifs. I am going to have to find something very special to do with this. I am thinking of Kathleen Tracy's small quilts.

 
When I got the package though, I found that she had included a lot of other beautiful goodies in the package.  There is a cute pattern by Elizabeth Hartman. 


There are beautiful pink and orange fabric scraps. I may use these right away with my bonus HSTs from Ringo Lake.


There are also cute little buttons, a star pattern, a beautiful fabric ribbon.  Thank you so much Brooke!

Sunday, March 18, 2018

!5 Minutes to Stitch Update






As you  know, I've been trying to make progress on my quilting every day, even if it is only 15 minutes at a time. I was more successful this week with touching fabric than I was last week. Sometimes it takes a while to find a good routine when the schedule changes.

Other times a shift in the schedule shakes things up so much, everything falls in place in a better way.  In fact, I had a very productive week, working, cooking and cleaning, walking the dog, taxiing people to the airport, house sitting, changing internet providers, making up lost work time, genealogy research, and even assembling an office chair.

AND, I managed to quilt five out of the seven days.  The goal is always to try to stitch every single day.  And as usual, I am giving myself credit for all seven days, because I was able to make up the time I missed the other days.

I worked on sewing more sashing for On Ringo Lake - cutting fabric, drawing lines, sewing, trimming, pressing.  There is still more to go, but I am making progress.  With the limited time, the routine of making the same block over and over again doesn't bother me at all. I can see that progress is being made, and when the sun shines, I admire the colors of the quilt all over again.

So with my very flexible definition of "days," here are my results!

Days with stitching this week: 7 out of 7 days
Days with stitching this month: 18 out of 18 days
Days with stitching this year: 77 out of 77 days
Success rate:  100%

Linked to:
15 Minutes to Stitch

Sunday, March 11, 2018

Weekly Recap

I haven't been able to sew 15 minutes a day this week, as it is getting busy at work.  I marked some seams on Monday, but for the rest of the business days, I didn't do any sewing.  It is a matter of adjusting to the new schedule, but on the weekends, I managed to make time to sew.

This means I have to come up with new rules for my 15 Minutes to Sew challenge. In other weeks, if I missed a day, but made up the time, I gave myself credit. I have decided to keep this relaxed, easy going management style, and give myself leeway to make up the time, even if it means do all the time in one sitting. I'm not going to make myself sleep between sessions! I think it will give me incentive to do more sewing, and after all, isn't that the whole point of this, to keep making forward progress?


In previous weeks, I have been making both left and right sides of the sashing strips for On Ringo Lake. This week, I decided to be more consistent in a production line fashion and sew just the left sides.


I've even been sewing the bonus triangles. I like the challenge of working with these babies.  It works as part of the quality control step. If I am satisfied with the seam, I sew my seal of approval .


I think my quality control steps need quality control steps.  I'm not worried about these. I have insurance on this quilt, and cut a few extra pieces so I wouldn't have to rip. These extras can go into the orphan bin.  I have forgotten how many extras I made though, so some of these might need ripping, but they are short seams and no big deal.


Here they are all chopped up and ready to press. This a few of them; there are more on the ironing board. I am going to call this side done and move on to the next side.


Linked to:

15 Minutes to Stitch
I might have to rethink this chart, since it really isn't showing me which days are better for sewing.   I might have to simplify it, but I'd rather spend my time sewing!

Monday, March 5, 2018

Fabric Mandala


My sister was inspired by my scraps for the On Ringo Lake quilt and decided to make a mandala out of them.

 
The mandala was made on a canvas board. 
 

She drew some concentric circles on the board. Then she cut up pieces of my fabric scraps and laid them around the circles.


She used variegated and non-variegated embroidery floss to highlight some of the shapes.


She painted the backgrounds, added teeny tiny beads and added texture in the corners.


As incredible as this mandala is, the best part is that she gifted to me. It's mine!

Linked to:
WIP Linkup - I know it isn't a WIP, although Sis did make suggestions on how additional things could be added. Besides WIPs are supposed to eventually become finished projects!

WIPs on Wednesdays - Second verse, same as the first.

Wednesday Wait Loss - what a sweet creative name name for a linkup! And there is green in this project!

Let's Bee Social!

Friday, March 2, 2018

March Goal



Spring is a busy time for me, with work, spring cleaning, gardening, and enjoying the time outside, so I am going to keep my monthly goal simple, and continue with making circles and making progress on On Ringo Lake.

To make the goal quantifiable, I suppose I can still say I will  make one circle a day for the month of March, but that seems to not be very realistic if I keep making progress on On Ringo Lake. I will say I will make at least one circle every other day. That way, I can keep making progress on both quilts.

Linked to:
One Monthly Goal - March Goal Setting Link-up