Breathing Space

It's time to make a plan for the next few months - mostly having to do with home improvement, cleaning and quilting.  The big list of things to do has reared up, and I am diligently trying to prioritize it, although I have found that in the end, just grabbing something at random and getting it done works better for me than going down a priority list.

There are so many quilting projects I want to start, but hopefully I will be able to hold off long enough to get one or two projects down the finish line before I start anything new. I have been wanting to make a quilt using scraps for a while, so that is what is at the forefront, and hopefully I will be able to decide while I finish something else.

 I am making this list in case I ever want to look down memory lane and see what actually got done:

Scrappy trips around the world
Demented Quilt
Cheri Payne Sweet Land of Liberty
Lego Quilt or the other similar one which uses different size scraps (Scrap Vortex)
Equilateral triangles
Half Rectangle Triangles

Blogiversary

I don't normally blog about my blogiversary because I don't really tend to remember it, but Exuberant Quilter had her Blogiversary in July, so I decided to look up the date, and write up and schedule a post so it will show up on the right day!



Please click on the links to go to the actual post if you are interested.


My first post on this blog was on August 13, 2008, so it has been ten years since I shut down my previous blog and started this one. I basically started this blog showing a recent quilt I had received in a swap as if I knew everyone and everyone knew me and there was no need for introductions.

I've written a lot of posts over the last ten years, and Blogger is slow in moving from page to page.  I thought I would look over some of my older posts and give you some of the highlights. I've started almost 100 quilts in my lifetime and have finished about 80.  You can see some of the quilt reveals here.



Some of my favorite posts are the end of the year recaps. Even though I hardly ever think I have done enough, they give me a quick snapshot of the things I finished that year and (sometimes) make me feel better about my productivity. My biggest takeaway in looking at these is that I like to make small projects! I can see a marked improvement in my volume and quality of projects in 2015 and on-wards.

2008
2009
2010 
2011 
2012
2013 
2014 
2015
2016
2017

Besides making quilts, I have also enjoyed showing them to you.  I really enjoy the conversations I have had with my readers, and try to keep things interesting by presenting my quilts in a variety of ways. Finding good settings involves my taking my quilts for a walk. On this day in 2014, I took my rail fence quilt for a walk.

I took Simply Squares for a walk and made a slideshow out of it.

I've made a collage for a still unfinished quilt, Lansing Leaves.

In 2017, I had my favorite presentation yet, of a gifted quilt, The Earth Laughs in Flowers, where we took pictures at a park, and made a smilebox presentation.

Besides quilts and other crafty projects, I started taking daily photographs and enjoyed showing those to you as well.

Thank you for taking a walk through memory lane with me.  To celebrate this big anniversary, I will be making a small gift and sending it to one of you, my precious readers!  It could be a postcard, an ATC, a coaster, who knows? I don't.

To enter to win the drawing, just leave a comment by August 30. I want to give my followers time to find this little post on this little blog. What's your favorite post? What do you like best about my blog? Lavish me with praise!

Thank you for your visits and comments over the years. I look forward to many more!

P.S. Cluck Cluck Sew has also recently had an anniversary and wrote a list of things she has learned over the years.  It is such a good idea, and I thought about editing this post to make my own list, but you ight as well just read hers, because my list would be similar.

Lack of Stitching Recap

It is time to document my progress on stitching 15 minutes a day. As the title shows, very little stitching has been happening.

I bought this stitchery kit from the thrift store several years ago and have been working on it about once a year or so, so it was about time to add a few more stitches. I don't think the pattern cover was in the kit, but it does have the direction sheet, so how the colors look together will be somewhat of a  surprise.

The green was done last year. The crosses on the green cross stitches have not been finished, but I was in the mood to add the red this year.  Is this 15 minutes worth of stitchery? I'm not sure, but I will round up and count it anyway!  Stitching with yarn is not as easy or fun as stitching with embroidery floss, and as much as I am tempted to use floss, I would like to keep true to the period and use the kit as it was intended.

15 Minute sessions of stitching this week:  1 out of 7
15 Minute sessions of stitching this year:  184 out of 224 sessions
Success rate: 82%

That's all the stitching I've done since my last recap, which causes my success rate to plummet from 90% to 82%.   I am hoping to end the year above 80% so I'm not disappointed. In fact, I am happy, because I don't expect the rest of the year to be as busy and I will likely be able to increase my numbers by the end of the year.

Linked to:
15 Minutes to Stitch, Week 32

15 Minutes to Stitch Recap

God gives every bird its food, but He does not throw it into its nest.

Josiah Gilbert Holland

God gives every bird its food, but He does not throw it into its nest.
Read more at: https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/josiah_gilbert_holland_104929?src=t_bird

God gives every bird its food, but He does not throw it into its nest. Josiah Gilbert Holland
Read more at: https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/josiah_gilbert_holland_104929?src=t_bird

Yet another week has passed, so it is time to recap the 15 minutes to stitch progress. I can't believe it is day 203 of the year already!  I spent only one session cleaning this week.  My success rate went down 3 points in just one week.  Interesting how it only goes up a tiny bit but when it goes down it plummets! Since I am hoping to end the year above 80%, I am still happy with the results.

The good news is that I didn't do anything this week to undo what I had cleaned.

15 Minute sessions of stitching these weeks:  1 out of 7
15 Minute sessions of stitching this year:  183 out of 203 sessions
Success rate: 90%

Linked to:
15 Minutes to Stitch

15 Minutes to Stitch Recap

I haven't done much stitching this week. I put the binding on the Star Spangled Banner this week. As usual, I didn't remember to take the reveal photo until it was dark and haven't set up a light to brighten my bulletin board.

Mostly I spent this week cleaning up the living room where I sew and other parts of the visible areas of the house. The living room was clean enough to invite a gathering of relatives. Since then, I also spent some time cleaning up the Cave of Wonders, where the supplies reside.

 

Faced with what seems like an impossible task, a group of folks will do well to remember the African proverb: When spider webs unite they can tie up a lion.
Johnnetta B. Cole 

This spider web is close to the outside hose, and this spider web got wet while I was watering some grass seed I am trying to grow in the back yard. I liked the sparkly suspended water droplets and the shadows they made.

15 Minute sessions of stitching these weeks:  7 out of 7
15 Minute sessions of stitching this year:  182 out of 196 sessions
Success rate: 93%

Last week, I said that cleaning up sewing areas counted as stitching time, and in that regard, I had a successful week of "stitching," and with the help of rounding, was able to bump up my yearly success rate.

Linked to:
15 Minutes to Stitch

Star Spangled Picnic Quilted

I have quilted Star Spangled Picnic. I free-motioned stitched some fireworks on the top.

I used the decorative stitches on my machine for the tablecloth / ground. More fireworks. We really like fireworks in this neighborhood, and by "we," I mean the neighbors, and not Zeus.

I used wavy stitches for the flag.

The bird is carrying the E pluribus unum banner.

To add to the summer picnic theme, there are bicycles near the watermelon.

I thought I missed a week of reporting my fifteen minutes to stitch, but, oh my, it has been a month!  I'm pretty sure I managed to sew the required amount of time during the month. I finished making the top for On Ringo Lake, now known as Sorrento, put away all the fabric used in making this top, and started the Star Spangled Picnic. It just needs a binding and label.

15 Minute sessions of stitching these weeks:  7 out of 7
15 Minute sessions of stitching this year:  175 out of 189 sessions
Success rate: 92%

Linked to:
15 Minutes to Stitch
Oh Scrap!
Design Wall Monday 
Let's Bee Social 
WIP Linky Party
Midweek Makers 
WIPs on Wednesdays 

Star Spangled Picnic

Since I had the day off yesterday, I decided to truly take the day off and do whatever I wanted to do. No rules whatsoever. I made a nice meal and made this from a free pattern that was available from Laugh Yourself Into Stitches. I've been wanting another Fourth of July quilt, and figured fourth of July was a perfect time to start one.

I was going to use a pink fabric for the watermelon but wasn't sure how well it was going to work with the flag. Then I found the dotted fabric and thought it would work great for seeds, and I could use it without having to put the seeds in separately. I was also thinking about taking another shortcut and not use the HSTs either.  In the end, I decided not to be lazy and just make it the way the pattern suggested.

I did decide to make this project more primitive and some of that was even on purpose.

Then when making the bird, I found the striped fabric, and decided that making the fabric do the work wasn't lazy, it was smart, so I used the striped fabric.

Linked to:
Finish it Friday - hey, I finished the top!