Well welcome 2018! I thought I would start the year off right and link up to the one monthly goal. After a difficult 2017, I'm ready to reset and start again. Like always there are many projects I could pick to focus on for the month, but I'm going to pick a fairly easy project for January.
Most of you will know that my aunt passed away a week before Christmas. I will have to make several trips to Toronto this month to help my sister wind up my aunts affairs and empty her apartment. Sewing and quilting time will be limited. I'm aiming to get my Triangle Transparency Quilt top finished in time to link up with the party at Quilting Jet Girl. Here's the one block I have finished so far.
It's freezing up here in Canada with the Polar Vortex bringing us cold air from Siberia. I'm hoping that these beautiful tropical colours can help to keep me warm. I'm linking up with Patty at Elm Creek Quilts now and hopefully later in the month as well.
The last 7 months of 2017 were really difficult for me so when I reviewed my 2017 goals I found it ironic that my overarching goal was to have more fun. It's a good thing I have a sense of humour!
I thought I would reflect a little on the good things that I can remember from this year. The best thing that happened in 2017 was that Elisha (rhymes with Elija) Luke was born and he is the happiest baby. He laughs and smiles almost all the time and he brings me lots of joy, as does his older brother Gabriel. I did a lot of babysitting this year and looking after my grand kids was a lot of fun. I also had a blast at Quilt Con way back in February. Throughout the year I kept a gratitude journal so I could remember to focus energy on the small good things that occurred.
I wasn't able to make it to the Christmas party at my work but I do know that they had a quizz with prizes and one question was "Which employee would you be most likely to come across dancing in the store aisles". The answer to that question my friends was yours truly. I do love to dance so I think my overarching goal this year will be to keep dancing through life...the good, the bad, the ugly.
Here are the goals. They are very similar to last years goals. I will continue to be busy with chairing the community outreach committee of my local guild and with my grand kids so I know that what I can accomplish is limited.
Quilting Goals
1. Continue playing with colour and fabric and quilting techniques like improv and maybe some bias strips. Step one for this goal will to be to set aside a time each week to focus on this kind of play. I've got some ideas I'd like to play with and I love this type of work so it needs space.
2. Continue to work on free motion and walking foot quilting techniques. I'm planning on joining Jess of Quilty Habit in her FMQ QAL. I'm not sure if I'll do a quilt as you go, or just work on the assignments.
3. Complete at least three of my Craftsy Classes. Since most of these are quilting classes, this will help me to work on goal number 2. as well.
6. Complete at least 6 quilts. I've got two baby quilts to finish and I will be making a wedding quilt as well.
Blogging Goals
1. Continue to aim for 2 posts a week. This is a big goal given that I didn't manage even one a week last year. But my life circumstances have changed somewhat so it might be do able.
2. Share more of the community outreach work on the blog. That should help with the goal 1 for this section.
Personal Goals
1. Spend time with my sister doing fun things.
2. Go to the Art Gallery in Toronto more often
3. Figure out some better cooking, cleaning and eating strategies.
4. Get back to daily goal setting and reflection.
As usual I'm linking up with Yvonne of Quilting Jet Girl for her 2018 Planning Party. Oh yes, and I would love an accountability partner if anyone is up for it.
Lisa
Hello out there. Are any of you left? It's been so long since I've posted. It's been a very challenging Fall and I've had a hard time squeezing in quilting let alone blogging, or even reading blogs. My family has been dealing with health challenges with my daughter in law, and with my aunt.
My daughter in law is on the road to recovery, however my dear sweet aunt passed away in her sleep in the early hours this morning. My daughter was the last member of our family to spend time with her and was able to make sure that she was comfortable before she left the hospital. Gloria was happy to know that Dwight and I were going to visit her today.
My last visit with her was on Friday I read her a few chapters of a book and sang her lullabies because she asked me to sing to her and they were the only songs I could remember the words to. I planned to bring a song book in with me for today's visit.
Gloria was a very strong and courageous woman. She was an editor and writer by profession. She spent many volunteer hours writing letters for Amnesty International and volunteering with Chilean Refuges in the 1970s. In her later years she did volunteer work for the Older Woman's Network. She had no children of her own but considered my sisters family and my family to be her family. We are really sad to see her go and will miss her terribly.
Gloria was supportive of my quilting and came to my local guild's quilt show. She showed off my placemats that I made for her and really loved the quilt that I made for her which you can read about here.
Most of the quilting I have done over the summer and fall has been done on behalf of the Outreach Committee of my local guild. I've done mega amounts of cutting, planning, organizing and attending meetings. The quilts in the photo above are some of the quilts that will be donated to the Sexual Assault Domestic Violence unit at our local hospital in early January.
I will be joining the Goal Planning Party hosted by Quilting Jet Girl and I'm hoping to resume more regular bloggin in the new year.
I belong to a couple of guilds (Modern and Traditional) and I also a member of Stash Bee. I make a lot of blocks for these groups for block of the months and block lottos and I thought it would be nice to share some of the blocks I've been working on. Making a few blocks is a nice way to work some sewing in when there isn't a lot of time to spare.
Last week I shared a photo of a quilt top that my friends and I put together at our mini retreat. It was put together with block lotto blocks. While we were together we also worked on some blocks for our local guild's outreach program.
These majestic mountain blocks where the September block of the month blocks. They are really big blocks,
16 inches in width so it will only take a few to make a quilt top. My block is the orange one.
Little Tent Block are very popular in my area right now with blocks being made by both local guilds. Little Tent Blocks are improv blocks based on a quilt designed by Daisy of Ants to Sugar (now Warm Folk). You can see her original Little Tent Quilt here. It turns out that Daisy was inspired by Jennifer Johnston's triangle quilt and Jennifer is a member of the local Modern Guild. The blocks above are for the local Traditional Guild, Royal City Quilter's Guild and are the blocks for the November block lotto. The top left and bottom left are my blocks. I love making these blocks and I'm planning on making more with some interesting background fabric I picked up recently.
This here is my Stash Bee block for September. It was a fun little block to make, once I settled on the 6 fabrics. I managed to pull them all from the scrap bins! I'll be working on the October block this week. It's a simple block but the challenge again was finding the right red.
When I find some time, there have been some really nice honey pot bee blocks that I would like to add to my collection, so I'll be sure to update when I get those done. I'm heading over now to link up with the Let's Bee Social link up over at Lorna's blog Sew Fresh Quilts.
I've decided to pull an older quilt out of the mix for my OMG October goal. I'll be doing a little of this...
and a little of this...
as I finish the blocks and put together the top of my clam shell quilt. I love the warm and bright colours of this quilt and I'm looking forward to spending some more time with it.
I haven't done a lot of curved piecing and it's been a while, so I'm hoping it's like riding a bicycle. This pattern uses the quick curve ruler and some trimming, so it's a little easier than some drunkard paths. I'm linking up with the OMG linkup at Elm Street Quilts. I'm hoping it will keep me motivated and on track. I was supposed to be working on these blocks all this week but that didn't happen. Tomorrow is always another day.
This has been one busy year for me and the finishes are not coming fast and furious, but never being one to give up hope I'm compiling a list for this last quarter of the year.
I'll start with the Circle of Friends Quilt. It just needs to be quilted, and to add to that There is the Charm Pack Quilt which also just needs to be quilted.
Another quilt that just needs to be quilted is Preppy Pod. This one is likely to get done as it is for my grandson.
And I would like to finish this quilt which I started several years ago.
It's a pretty colourful group of quilts isn't it. It should be fun working this grouping closer to completion. I'll be linking up with the 4th Quarter FAL linkup at She Can Quilt and with the Let's Bee Social linkup at Sew Fresh Quilts.
This past weekend Wendy and Cyndy and I had our annual retreat. This time we went to Cyndy's sisters place close to Paris Ontario. It was a beautiful quiet place to get some quilting done and an awesome place for photo shoots.
We arrived on Friday before lunch and stayed till just after lunch on Sunday. Cyndy's sister and her husband were away visiting friends so they left their dogs Beau and Sam, to be our hosts. This is Beau.
And this is Sammy. Sammy is still a pup and never sits still.
It was great having the dogs with us. They made sure we got out for walks and kept us company.
We spent most of our time working on projects for the community outreach committee of our local guild but for today I'll just share the main one. These were blocks we received for our block lotto last fall. In a typical block lotto someone wins all the blocks but in this lotto we divided the blocks three ways. Two individuals won 1/3 of the blocks and the community outreach committee kept 1/3. We made a couple of blocks each to expand our flock and put them up on the design wall to figure out how to put the project together.
We originally thought we would use a white with black fabric for the sashing but we decided to use this vintage robins egg blue fabric which Wendy had brought along. Her parents recently downsized to a retirement complex and she needed to downsize her stash.
We put together the quilt top in vertical rows. We staggered the blocks in the vertical rows by putting a 2 1/2" sashing strip on opposite sides of each block. We then put a 2 12" strip between each block going down the row. Sorry I didn't think to take pictures of the process. We then spread out the rows a bit by putting a 1 1/2" strip between each row and on each of the vertical sides.
Of course we couldn't spend the weekend at a retreat without a visit to Quilt Junction in Waterford. We were half way there after all. Here is what I picked up there.
It's been a while since I visited my friend Beth at Cooking Up Quilts so I'm going to head over there right now and join the Main Crush Monday link up.
