Progression

My boss reviewed my (last year's) vacation time, lieu time, and sick time on Wednesday - - and insisted I start taking some time off.  So, I didn't have anything booked for today, and decided to take a day off to spend with Itty Bitty before he goes back to university.  Instead of doing something fun, we actually ended up doing chores - laundry, groceries, cleaning.  But that leaves the weekend free for fun!

So, I thought I would post tonight about my progress with January's goals.

I did go to the library on Wednesday to get some books (inspiration!) for how to finish some of these partial quilt tops, and spent the last couple of evenings leafing through them. For Virginia Bound, I am going to do a scrappy piano key border, and tonight I sketched out the borders for Black & White, and the Tulip appliqué.  I also made a decision about how to finish my Sylvia's Bridal Sampler (which involves making four more blocks).  It will be similar to this, but a little longer: 

When designing the borders for my quilts, I had to figure out just how big I wanted them.  So, I consulted a few websites.

Standard Quilt Sizes

Worksheet for Calculate Your Bed Quilt Sizes (pdf)

and from Pinterest:

I also finished the 10 bookmarks, and took them into work to give to my colleague.  She was very excited to donate them to Action Read, and picked one out for herself to keep.  That made me feel good about that finish!

Partial finishes of goals: 1) I've caught up with Grandmother's Choice blocks - four more to go, and 2) I have one Dear Jane block done - one more to go.

Dear Jane, it's been awhile...

Yes, I found my Dear Jane software, my Dear Jane rulers, and even my Dear Jane book - signed by author Brenda Papadakis.

One of my goals for this month is to complete at least 2 DJ blocks monthly.  I'll be consulting another website "That Quilt" for advice on how to best approach some of the tricky piecing in these tiny 4.5" blocks.  And block #1 for January:

F8 - Church Window - 36 pieces

Cheyenne

Yah...I'm not sure what I was thinking here.  Cheyenne is this week's Grandmother's Choice BOW.  I went with the measurements, and the centre square ended up too big.  I should have paper pieced the centre Square-in-square.  Also, the examples on the website had a lot more fabrics in it.  I played it safe, and spent more time thinking about the red fabric all going in the same direction.  So the side rectangles were supposed to be two squares, and I wimped out!  But it's finished, and I'm learning important quilting lessons along the way.

So, if you are doing this BOW too, get some tracing paper and draft out the centre block for accuracy.

Is it bedtime yet?

I've read (and LOVED!) everything by Kate Morton - - and today uploaded her latest book "The Secret Keeper" to my kobo.  I read in bed every night.  Is 5:30 to early to go to bed?

Mother's Delight

Mother's Delight was last week's Grandmother's Choice BOW.  It took some precise drafting, cutting, piecing and pressing.  I was sure it would finish too small, or not square.  It took nearly two hours of sweating!  I reckon the points will get cut off when sashing is added, but finished is good enough.

My star likely looks much heftier than other's block, because I did draft it myself, so the arms of the stars have some extra arm flab. And horizontal stripes are never flattering, are they?

Embrace the Fear

While I was on the treadmill this morning, I listened to the December 20th episode of the podcast "Quilting for the Rest of Us" by Sandy Hasenauer.  In it, she talked for a few minutes about "embracing the fear" which really resonated with me, as it applies to my pile of UFOs with which I'm going to be reacquainting myself over the next year.

It makes a lot of sense to me that this pile has grown so high, not because of negative feelings about the project, but about my own feelings of fear that my skills don't measure up, that I will somehow mess it up, and the finished object might disappoint me.  As long as these objects remain in pristine, perfect, unfinished condition - I don't have to experience the discomfort and anxiety of failing. 

Furthermore, it's interesting to consider that projects become UFOs for me when they 'get too hard': maybe the technique (for example, blanket stitching around appliqué) didn't look as perfect as the picture in the book and I judge my skills as not quite measuring up, or I don't get around to adding borders because I'm not confident about my creativity, or I get behind on a BOM, so I'm obviously not as productive as everyone else (whoever they are).

Fear keeps us static, never developing, changing, learning.  Embracing fear is a crucial task of growth.  

So, as I move through the year of "Nothing but UFOs" I intend to be mindful of the process, and ask myself "why is this a UFO?" and work through the negative feelings.  This will not simply become an act of striking things off of to-do lists.

Capital T

Capital T is the Grandmother's Choice block from a couple of weeks ago. I paper pieced the Flying Geese sections which accounts for the very near perfect points...however, somehow the corner HSTs finished a tad skimpy.  I will have to be extra careful when sashing this block, because it is a smidge under sized.  (sigh)