I have been sewing quite a bit lately but I'm working on so many things at once that I haven't gotten things to a point where I have much to share. So I thought I would share some progress.
One of my goals this year is to play more and it is my intention to spend some time each Wednesday playing with fabric and exploring something for myself.
I have been wanting to play around with log cabins for a while and I made this piece improvisationally, meaning I figured out what I was doing as I went along. I chose to work with my purple scraps so I could share my work with Sarah Goer's new link up Show Me Something....which for this month is Show Me Something Purple. I'll see if I get the project a little farther along before I link it up.
Showing up for Creative Play on Wednesdays has been an interesting and insightful process. When I work with improvisation I work really slowly, thinking about each piece as I cut and place it. It puts me in a different zone and I really love it. You would think that I would jump at the chance to do this. But no I have to push my self to start and then I love it. There is a part of me that just wants to finish up those other routine projects that are waiting in the wings.
I also have to make sure that I take that time for me and that I don't give it up. One week I gave up the time to get some housework done before my husbands cousin came to stay with us. I told myself I would have plenty of time to work the creative play into the weekend, but things came up and it didn't happen.
I have also been working on the Mosaic Mystery and here are the blocks slapped up on the design wall. I just wanted to share a glimpse here. I still have a couple of blocks to do before I put the top together.
And this lovely pile represents my progress on my One Monthly Goal . I've actually exceeded the goal and I think I can get the whole quilt top done before the end of the month.
This project is City Harbour and it is from the book City Quilts,by Cheri House.
I have no photos to share but I have been working on free motion quilting the stacked Coins Quilt and making slow but steady progress. Although at the rate I am going it will take me forever to get it done so I may need to work out some extra time on Sweet 16 into my schedule. I have been practising using the ruler for straight lines and going over several repeating motifs in the coins. I'll try to remember to bring something I can take a good picture with when I go to Wendy's next Tuesday.
So that's my progress for now. I hope to have at least some completed quilt tops to share for next week.
Lisa
It's time for me to choose a goal for January and I have decided to borrow something Rebecca Grace is doing on her blog Cheeky Cognoscenti. She gives herself one piecing goal, one quilting goal and one garment making goal. I am going to give myself a goal in each of these areas as well, but I will choose one to be my OMG.
My quilting goal will be to make headway on my stacked coins quilt. My garment making goal is to cut out the pattern pieces for the Emerson Pants and my piecing goal which will be my OMG for January is to cut out the pieces for the City Harbour Quilt and sew 1/2 the rows.
This may not seem like a big goal but there are several other projects keeping me busy this month as well and I am scheduled to work one Saturday which eats up one whole day of sewing.
One reason for choosing this project for my goal is that I am trying to use up more of my stash. As I just ordered fabric for Yvonne's Push Pull Quilt Along and for the Quilters Planner Quilt Along, I decided I better jump into making something from the stash. I want to set up good habits early in the year. Making up this quilt seems like a good start and I think it will come together quickly.
This past weekend I put together two quilt backs entirely from stash and I am using some fabric from my stash for the Planner quilt but the fabric buying is higher than the fabric used so far.
Speaking of habits, I am also using my planner to pencil in times during my week for doing specific things. I can see how spending most of my Tuesday afternoons working on the sit down long arm has improved my quilting skills and confidence so I am planning creative play time on Wednesday mornings and a time on Friday mornings to make myself healthy snacks. Time will tell If I can stick to these plans or if I need to work out something else.
I'm linking my post to the January OMG linkup over at Patty's blog.
We have entered that time of the year in southern Ontario where it is getting hard to get decent photos of our quilts and this year it is even harder as our usual snow covering has been replaced with rain and dampness. But I am excited to share this finish with you because it has been a long time in the making.
This is my version on the Penny Patch quilt. I started it in 2013 ( I think) in a quilt along with Rachel Houser of Stitched in Color. This was the first quilt along I joined in and it is pre blog. Rachel shared really good tips on choosing colours and getting balance in the quilt. I learned a lot about colour from participating and I think those lessons have done me well. I'm looking forward to purchasing Rachels book The Quilters Field Guide to Color in the near future.
I finished the quilt top in May of 2015 and it sat in the to be quilted pile until October when I quilted it on the Sweet 16.
It's lightly quilted with the dogwood pattern that Rachel used on her original quilt. I used a 50 weight light pink Aurifil thread and a Hobbs 80/20 batting.
There are so many things I love about this quilt. I love the balance of colours and I love that the background is a mixture of low volume neutrals, white, cream and grey. I also love that my quilting is improving and that my enjoyment of the quilting process has moved from fear to confidence.
I'll be linking this finish up to Brag about your Beauties, to TGIFF which is hosted at Devoted Quilter this week, and I think it qualifies for the 4th quarter FAL so I'll link up with Sarah Goer Quilts as well. But if it doesn't, no worries. The original post is here.
