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!

!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

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!

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!

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

Monthly Goal Check in

Why is this month so short?  It is time already to check in with the One Monthly Goal. I thought I kept it simple by saying I would just keep up with my daily circles this year.  Here are some more circles I showed to try to catch up.

Block 238

 

This looks like a chair to me.

 

Block 239

A circle with spikes/spokes. I saw a picture of a quilt at the QuiltCon that had spikes.  Mine are too fat, but it is a small block and I want to keep things easier for me.

Block 240

A semicircle and its reverse.

Block 241

A collage with lots of layers. Using up the pretty trash.

Block 242

This is a spiral, and I had leftover when I got to the center so it became a Q.

Block 243

 

A semicircle is still a circle. See, it has "circle" in its name.

 

Block 244

 

Love the colors in these beautiful batiks.

 

 Block 245

 

I hope there is enough variety in these blocks. I am using scraps from On Ringo Lake mostly, plus a few bits that are still in the trash scraps bowl.

We've had 59 days this year, and I've made 45 circles, which means I haven't met my monthly goal, but I have made good effort, and the circle box is getting fuller, so I am okay with my progress.

Linked to:

One Monthly Goal - February Finish Link-up

Valentine Art Quilt For Swap

A while ago, I showed you the quilt I received for the art quilt swap that was organized by one of my Facebook groups, Stitching with Fibers, Paper and More. Today, I thought I would show you the quilt I made for my swap partner.

I made two so I could choose the best one for my partner. It would also show that I did give my partner a quilt that I would be happy to get myself.  I tend to worry that the quilt I like may not be a quilt the recipient will like. Making two quilts helped, because one of those was mine, so I could make it to please myself, and the other one just used the same techniques.

I started out with a variety of fabric and paper scraps.  I have been focusing on the blue/green turquoise/aqua color scheme from Ringo Lake and decided to keep with that, but most of these scraps aren't from Ringo Lake. There are lots of upholstery scraps, paper and fabric scraps. I decided to do raw edge to make it more artsy and less traditional.

I added a border fabric on two sides.

The stitching that holds them down also double as quilting lines. I added the heart stitching around some of the edges to secure the edges.

The heart is a separate quilt (three layers and batting) that was appliqued on. I glued on paper hearts in case there wasn't enough paper. One of the rules of the quilt is to use 25% materials that you are not familiar with, and there are only a few squares of paper, so I thought adding more would bring it closer to 25%, although the upholstery and other fabrics should also count in the "fabrics I'm not familiar with" category.

Here are the two quilts. Neither of these stand out better than the other one to me. I mailed the one on the left because I thought it had a neater looking heart, and because it was skinnier and fit the envelope better.

They both have different hanging techniques. That was also one of the guidelines for the swap. I usually use applique pins for quilts this small.

I made a mistake in the mailing address so my partner did not receive the original quilt. I mailed her the other one last week to replace the lost one, and the tracking number shows she received this on Saturday, so I can finally show these to you.

Linked to:
Ad Hoc Improv Quilter Share Your Improv #30