A Lovely Year of Finishes: August Completes

It is that time for be to list what I got done this month, and I will say it wasn't as much as I wanted. But I do have a very good reason.  Early in the month we had air conditioning issues, and in Texas in August that is a big thing.  It took about a week to get it figured out and fixed, but during that time I did very little of anything, because it was just too hot.  I know people asked why I didn't go to a hotel, but I couldn't leave my fur babies.  We set up fans for them as well as us, and made it through, but it wasn't fun.  Then I got sick, so August basically just wasn't my month. But I did get a few things done. So let's go down the list.

1. Bee Block. I have to say I did not like this month's block.  Curved piecing and I did not get along. I had to make the block three times.  I finally figured out on the last one if I make it just a little bigger, it gave me room to trim it easier.  I'm glad I did it, but I won't be adding this to my favorite blocks anytime soon.

2. Gypsy Queen Mystery Quilt. I did get my review in on time, and the top is pieced. I struggled with completing the top because it was in the midst of no air-conditioning, but it is done. I can't show it to you because the mystery QAL is just starting.  But once it is done I will show it off.

3. Midnight Mystery QAL. I am caught up on this one. We had to make flying geese this month and I love the method she uses. It is fast and easy.  I am all ready for our next set of instructions which come later this week.

4. Turning Twenty BOM blocks. I am caught up with this one as well.  We get two sets of blocks per month and I've completed both.  I will admit I'm not loving the 6" blocks because they are just so small, but I do love the 12" blocks.  I still can't picture in my mind how they are all going to come together, but it is fun making them. Here is the last set I completed which made me up to date.

5. Sharla's Machine Cover.  I didn't get it done. Didn't do anything with it at all. With my lost week because of no air, all quilting went out the door.

6. Memory Quilts. I did make a little progress, but not much.  So I'm not counting this as being done.

7. Cross Blocks. I did get some more done.  I wanted to complete 20 and I got 20 done...woohoo!!!  I still love these blocks. They are quick and easy and I can almost do them in my sleep now.  I did more grey and yellow blocks because those were the colors I had the lowest number of blocks. Here are a few of my favorites that I made this month. Next up is to count them all again and see what I need to cut next.

8. Quilt something else. Nope not done, see #5.

9. Clean the sewing room. I would say I got this done. All the FQs are put away, and the floor has been swept (more than once even), I've cleaned my sewing table and my sewing machine. I do still want to do some re-arranging, but I don't yet know what I really want to do, so I'm not going to move things just for the thrill of moving them.  I need to work on my fabric storage, once I have that all figured out, then I think the rest will fall into place. No photos, it is clean but not really photo worthy yet.

10. Take more photos. Well I took a ton of photos this month, unfortunately they weren't of my sewing projects. A good friend asked me to take some family photos, and we had a grand time doing a little photo shoot.  I did get a white board, and wrote a list of to-dos on it, but not really the photos I needed to take.  I'm going to have to work on this one a little more. But here is a photo of my white board and the last cross block I made this month.

All in all not a stellar month, but not bad either. I am actually getting a long weekend for Labor Day, so I'm hoping to get lots done. But I'm not telling ya'll what until next month (which is actually tomorrow...boy time is flying).  Today I am linking up with Melissa of Sew BitterSweet Designs and Shannon of Fiber of All Sorts.

A Lovely Year of Finishes: August Goals

Well it is time to set my goals for August and to be honest I'm just lacking a little motivation...ok I'm lacking a lot of motivation.  Now I'm guessing it has to do with the fact I'm on day three of limited to no a/c and the temperature in Texas has just be dang hot. So I have no desire to do anything but sit in front of my fan.  But hopefully it will be fixed tomorrow and I have lots of things I need to get done. So let's get listing

1. Bee Block.  I only have one to do this month because I'm the queen in my other bee. Of course I'm afraid of this one because it has curved piecing, but I'm going to muscle through if it kills me.

2. Gypsy Queen Mystery Quilt. I'm testing the pattern and I think I would have been done, if I had a/c. But my sewing room tends to be warm anyway. I have all the pieces and I just need to get it pieced together. It is a fun quilt and if you've not checked it out, then you can find the info on it at Cora's Quilts blog.

3. Midnight Mystery Quilt. We got the first sewing instructions today and it is for flying geese. How awesome is that, I'm been crushing on anything and everything geese. So I plan on knocking those off soon. And she even has us using the no waste four at a time method which is my favorite.  There is still time to join this QAL as well and you can find out about it at Meadow Mist Designs' blog.

4. Turning Twenty BOM blocks. We get instructions for 2 blocks per month and we do a 12" and 6" of each block. So far I'm staying up with it, and I don't want to fall behind. So far the blocks have been lots of fun. I've not done many star blocks so it is fun doing all these different ones.  Here is the last one I finished for July.

5.  Sharla's Machine Cover. I have to get something quilted and this one should be easy. Plus it will get me brownie points with her. And it is something off of this quarter's list too.

6. Memory Quilts. I think I have devised a plan. I am going to cut all the sashing and then I will sew one row every time I go into the sewing room. It won't be fast, but it will be progress. If I can do this then hopefully I will have another top completed by the end of this month.

7. Cross Blocks. I need to push and do some more of these. I'm about 75% done, so the end of doing blocks is getting close. I want to complete at least 20 more blocks this month.

8. Quilt something else. Now I have several things ready to quilt, and at this point I don't really care which item I pick, I just want to get something quilted. Two somethings would be even better.

9. Clean the Sewing Room. I know this goes on the list often, but it gets messy. I bought lots of tubs for my FQs, so many in fact they all don't fit on my shelves. So I want to do a little re-arranging to see if I can make it work a little better.  This one definitely has to wait until the a/c is working.

10. Take more photos. I want to document what I'm doing better, and I need to get into a better habit of taking photos of the different steps. I am still working on how I'm going to get that done, but recently I said I was going to print a list of my to do's and the wonderful Carla from Granny Maud's Girl told me she used a white board for her projects.  I'm thinking of getting one and using it to list shots I want to get and then I can check it off as I go along.  And if it doesn't work for that I can always use it to list my projects.

Yes I know it is a long list this month, but hey I would rather aim high and miss than not to try at all. Today I'm linking up with Shanna of Fiber of All Sorts and Melissa of Sew BitterSweet Designs.

Sunday Stash: Going a little Wild

I've fully admitted to the issue that I am a fabric-holic. I love fabric and just can't resist it. Lately it seems like Sharla and I have been on a spree. We've bought fabrics for several different project and then tell ourselves that is it for a while.  Then that sale ad appears in our inbox and all is lost again.

I love Tula Pink, simply adore her fabrics, so when Massdrop had a bundle of her True Colors, I just couldn't resist it. It contained 16 of the 20 fabrics in that line (and yes I'm going to get the other 4). I don't really have a project decided for this fabric, but I'm sure it will be put to good use.

Next up is Cotton & Steel purchase. I got an email from Craftsy about a sale and they had Cotton & Steel Mystery boxes for $49,57 and each box contained 40 fat quarters. So that would make it about $1.25 per fat quarter. You had the choice between, yellow, aqua, pink and navy. By the I decided to order the navy was already sold out, But I decided to go ahead and get the aqua, pink and yellow. My thought was that I want to do some "utility" quilts for the kids (yes I know they are all grown). And these would be a good base to use. I was so exited when they arrived. The aqua was the first I opened it and it was great. The pink was good too, but then I opened the yellow.  Now as with the pink and aqua, I didn't expect every FQ to be all yellow, but I did expect that more than 1/2 the box would be yellow. But it wasn't.  So I emailed Craftsy and they were great. They gave me a couple of different solutions, and were very quick to handle the issue.  I ended up keeping the box as a greatly reduced price.  Now I have lots of duplicates, but since I need to make at least 3 if not 4 quilts, I don't think that will matter at all.

All in all it was a great week for fabric coming into my stash. Now I just have to decide what patterns I'm going to use for the kids quilts.  I was really hoping for more yellow, because I have an idea for Callie and Beau's quilt. And since they are big Baylor fans, yellows and greens are going to need to be prominent in it. I'm thinking of mixing the aqua and teals in Trey and Jess's but don't have a pattern in mind. No clue what to do for Cole yet, and I have a great idea for Mecca and Tom, but I'm not sure these colors will work for them. Guess that means I'll have to buy more fabric...you know that isn't something I enjoy (hehehe). Today I'm linking up with Molli Sparkles.