August Goal Completed, FrankenWhiggish Rosebuds Are Done!

Oh my gosh, y'all -- pigs have sprouted wings and Rebecca has finally accomplished her One Monthly Goal by the end of the month.  I know what you're thinking: flying pigs are much easier to believe.  All nine of my FrankenWhiggish Rose blocks now have their eight tiny broderie perse rosebuds stitched down in their centers:

Rosebuds Completed on All Nine FrankenWhiggish Rose Blocks

The block on the lower left is the only one that is 100% complete with its stuffed berries, so making 96 more of those and stitching them to the other eight blocks is the next task for this project.  Side note: I wish I'd used a greater variety of fabrics for my pieced block backgrounds, because it was annoyingly difficult to come up with a layout for the blocks that didn't put two of the same fabrics next to one another.  And I'm loving how my new-and-improved design wall is working out in the hallway:

FrankenWhiggish Blocks On the Design Wall

By the way, there's an added benefit of the white Bump drapery interlining that I used to recover my design wall, in addition to it complementing my gray walls better than the natural cotton batting.  This is one of those projects where the colors in my photos never look much like the fabrics do in real life, but it was so easy to correct that with a single click using the White Balance tool in photo editing software, just by clicking the white design wall surrounding my blocks.  

Just ONE Monthly Goal for January: Complete Four More Blocks for My Retro Building Blocks Sampler Quilt

 Y'all, I am hangin my head in shame over this one.  Here I am, gleefully ordering fabric for my son Anders' high school graduation quilt, when all the while the quilt that I started for him back when he was in MIDDLE SCHOOL is still languishing on my design wall.  Where did the last 5 years go?!

13 Blocks Completed, but 35 Remain

I told you about my plan for his high school graduation quilt in yesterday's post, and yes, that will need to be a priority in 2021.  Hopefully, Anders will get to participate in the quilt blessing ceremony that our church usually does for the graduating high school seniors in June (if this pandemic abates, anyway), so that gives me a hard deadline to work towards.  But I can't start on that one until the fabric gets here, and I don't know how long that will take due to how backed up and messed up package delivery has been lately.  So until then, my version of the Moda Modern Quilt Blocks sampler will be my top priority.  Anders deserves TWO finished quilts in 2021.

One Monthly Goal: October 2020

 I'm late to the OMG (One Monthly Goal) party this month, slipping in my link right before the OMG goal setting linky closes over at Elm Street Quilts.  I did not meet my September goal, and wasn't sure what my October goal should be.  So hard to pick ONE goal when so many are swirling around my monster to-do list!

October OMG Part I: Modern Baby Clam Shells Quilt

Okay, so my October OMG is going to be a two-fer-one special, because these two quilts are going to the same home.  By the time Halloween rolls around, I need to finish my Modern Baby Clam Shells quilt for an almost-two-year-old who is newly a Big Sister, AND I need to finish my baby sized monogram version of the AQS Letter Home QAL for the baby brother who was born on October 1st.

October OMG Part II: Letter Home Baby w/Pieced Monogram

The current status of the butterflies-and-clam shells quilt is that it's loaded on my long arm frame, 2/3 of the way quilted, and should be ready for labeling and binding by the end of today.

Clam Shell Quilting is Currently In Progress

The baby brother's quilt is still in the piecing stage.  Everything is cut out and I'm close to having all of the blocks pieced.  Hopefully this one will be ready to load on the frame soon after the butterfly quilt comes off.

Letter Home Block Construction is Currently In Progress

I've purchased and prewashed/shrunk the backing and binding fabrics for Letter Home, but still need to seam two backing lengths together and actually make the binding.  Plus I still need to digitize, embroider, and attach a label for each quilt, and I usually hand stitch my binding so that will take some time as well.  

So the plan is to get both of these quilts finished, wrapped, and sent off in the mail by Halloween!  If you don't see me posting as often this month, it will be because I'm busy QUILTING instead of just WRITING about quilting!  ;-)

My March OMG Requires Reinforcements: Teaching My Mom How to do Foundation Paper Piecing

Look Who Learned Foundation Paper Piecing Today!

I looked at my calendar last night and realized that I only have seven weeks to get this quilt top made if I want it to be ready to quilt when I get back from Quilt Week at the end of April, and I gotta be honest, folks -- I was feeling panicked.

But then I remembered how much fun I had with my mom -- and how much sewing we got done in a relatively short period of time -- when she helped me make my Victorian Christmas caroling costume:

My Ridiculous Caroling Getup, Made With My Mom in 2015

I did almost all of the sewing myself, but I never could have finished it without my mom there to explain the convoluted pattern instructions, help with fittings, keep me motivated and on task, and assist with hand stitching that trim along the skirt hem while I was frantically sewing something else at the machine.  I always seem to be sewing something frantically at one of my machines, don't I?  

And then I remembered how much fun I had with my mom and HER mom back in 2001 when they helped me sew a yellow duck costume for Lars's very first Halloween:

Lars's Duck Costume Made by Me, My Mom, & My Grandmother in 2001

I wish someone had taken pictures of us working on these projects!!

Anyway, when the panic sets in and the situation looks desperate, that's a great time to call your mom, don't you agree?  Now my mom do all kinds of alterations, tailoring, clothing and costumes and even bridal gowns, but she's not a quilter (yet).  Before today, she'd never made so much as a 9-patch block before!  Nevertheless, despite not knowing anything about quilting and never showing any interest in learning, my mom agreed to learn in order to help me get Lars's quilt done on time.  If she and I make it together, then Lars's quilt will be made with twice as much love!  Still can't believe that little dude in the duck costume is about to graduate from high school...

My Mom's First Attempt at Paper Piecing on my Bernina 475QE

So we each made one of the flying geese arcs, side by side and step by step in my studio.  Another bonus of having two Berninas set up for paper piecing in the same room!  Now my mom can come and sew with me without having to pack up her machine and bring it from home.

See?  Paper Piecing Is Fun, and Doesn't Hurt (Until You Nick Yourself With the Rotary Cutter)

So now there are five completed arcs (out of 48 needed) plus two more that we started after dinner and abandoned when we realized that A: We were tired and B: The alarm clock goes off EARLY on Sunday morning.  I'm lucky that my mom lives close by but still don't like her to drive home too late at night when she's tired.

Five Arcs Pieced, Forty-Three to Go!

I am SO EXCITED about this project now -- I LOVE how those geese look together!  Pinned in the center of the circle is a swatch of the Spoonflower custom printed fabric that I'm 90% sure I'll be ordering for the backing.  I put the swatch through the laundry today to make sure it's colorfast and I didn't notice any fading at all.  The washing softened it up a little, too -- I'm going to have it printed on the same Kona cotton base fabric as the solid colored fabrics used in the quilt top, and I did NOT wash or preshrink any of those, so probably best not to prewash the backing either.

Tomorrow I'm only singing at the early church service so we can take Lars back to UNC-Asheville for a second visit.  The theatre department gave us comp tickets to a matinee performance of their one act plays.  We're looking forward to seeing the play, but also looking forward to the chance to see more students, faculty, parents, etc. to get a better feel for this school as Lars narrows down his options.  May 1st is the deadline for making a decision and sending a deposit.  

Whether I get any more sewing done tomorrow will depend on how late we get back to Charlotte and how tired I am at the end of the day!  But I do have my quilting bee on Monday afternoon and I'm planning to take this project "on the road" every opportunity that I get until it's done.  Don't expect to see much in the way of hand stitching from me until this quilt top is ready to quilt!

My One Monthly Goal (OMG) for March is to piece all 48 arced flying geese for this quilt, with mom's help!

I'm also linking up with:

SUNDAY

·      Slow Sunday Stitching at http://kathysquilts.blogspot.com/  

·      Oh Scrap! at Quilting Is More Fun Than Housework http://quiltingismorefunthanhousework.blogspot.com

MONDAY

·      Design Wall Monday at Small Quilts and Doll Quilts http://smallquiltsanddollquilts.blogspot.com 

·      Main Crush Monday at Cooking Up Quilts http://www.cookingupquilts.com/

·      Monday Making at Love Laugh Quilt http://lovelaughquilt.blogspot.com/

·      Moving it Forward at Em’s Scrap Bag: http://emsscrapbag.blogspot.com.au/

Hello, New Year 2019! Let's Set Some "Soft" Goals for January

Now, don't get all excited and think I'm going to join you on your 5 AM jog or give up wine and chocolate or anything as ridiculous as all that.  If sweating and starving is what makes YOU feel jazzed about 2019, more power to you!  No, I'm just setting out some "soft" goals for January, so I can link up with the January OMG (One Monthly Goal) linky party.

I am calling these "soft" goals because, for 2019, I resolve to remove all stress and anxiety from my creative hobbies, and that means no more deadlines, no more guilt, no more internalizing other quilters' goals and values around finishing UFOs, not buying new fabric, or not allowing myself to start anything new until I finish what I've already begun.  If I run out of room for my fabric, I'll buy more shelving or commandeer the guest room.  If I get bored with a project or run into a roadblock, I hereby give myself permission to set it aside and start on something else.  

However...  I do have a few works in progress that are well enough on their way for me to look forward to finishing them.  SOFT goals, see?  This is what I LOOK FORWARD to working on in my studio during the month of January:

1. I look forward to finishing the borders and assembling my 2013 BOM Jingle quilt into a finished top!  The border stripe is slow going because I'm cutting it single layer and decided to "edit" that outer stripe by cutting away the small scale floral stripe in the middle and seaming the other stripes back together again.  My neck is still a little stiff and sore, so I only cut for 15-20 minutes at a time.  Hence the delay, even though I love how the "edited" stripe looks for that outer border:

   

   Jingle BOM, Finalizing Inner and Outer Borders

2. I look forward to meeting new quilters and learning some new applique techniques at a workshop I'm taking this Saturday!  I opted for the No Fabric kit, so I need to pick out fabrics to work with from my stash and gather my supplies:

   

   Class Samples for Christa Smith's Applique Workshop

3. I look forward to adding borders to my 2014 pineapple log cabin quilt so it's a completed top, too!

   

   Pineapple Log Cabin, Awaiting Two Borders

4. Finally, I look forward to machine binding this outreach cuddle quilt so I can get it out of my studio and on its way to someone who needs it!  I've wanted to come up with a machine binding technique that I can live with and I'm hoping this will be the project to make that happen.  It's DEFINITELY not a quilt that needs or warrants a hand-stitched binding:

   

   Guild Outreach Cuddle Quilt Awaiting Binding

That's plenty for January.  I'm hosting an end-of-Christmas party for my church choir this Sunday afternoon and I'll be at that applique workshop all day on Saturday, so the next few days will be more about shopping, cleaning, and cooking than quilting.  My sons (also known as Hoodlum the One and Hoodlum the Other One) go back to school tomorrow (yay!).  Right now they are scrambling to complete all the assignments that they conveniently forgot about until the very last day of vacation.  Smirk.

Happy New Year!

October OMG Charity Quilts Finished, Pineapples Progressing, and New Outreach Quilt Headed to My Frame

First, I have to show my friend Colleen that YES, I am still working on my pineapple log cabin quilt:

S.L.O.W.L.Y., Joining These Blocks Into Rows

I timed myself, and it takes me a solid ten minutes just to get two blocks pinned together and ready to sew, due to all of the seam allowances stacking rather than nesting.  Once they're pinned, I'm sewing them together at a fairly slow machine speed, watching out so my needle doesn't hit any of the pins, using my stiletto to swipe beneath the work to ensure seam allowances aren't flipping underneath, and correcting for the tendency of the diagonally place pins to create wobbles in the seam.  But it's worth it when I open the seam and see that all of my seams are matching up just the way I want them to.  Today's big accomplishment is that all 36 blocks have been joined into rows.  Woo hoo!  There is LIGHT at the end of this tunnel!!

Of course, at this pace, it's going to take me a full HOUR just to pin two complete rows together before I can stitch them.  That means I have five hours of pinning to look forward to...  That is Downstairs On the Sofa Watching Evening Television work for sure.  But it feels good to walk into the studio in the morning and have things all pinned together and ready to sew.

Diagonal Pins Fight With Feed Dogs

But my pineapple quilt isn't the big news for today.  Oh my gosh, you guys -- I finished a goal!  And I finished it ON TIME for being last week's Tuesday To-Do goal (even though I neglected to post about it on Tuesday), and EARLY for being my October One Monthly Goal!!!  Pinch me!

I have been sitting on these two charity quilt tops that I offered to quilt for my church for months now.  Well, to be more precise, I've been alternating between procrastinating, panicking, and fighting with them.  These quilt tops were challenging for me because:

• The piecing and pressing weren't as accurate as what I'm used to with tops I've pieced myself.
• Both quilt tops and one of the backings were made of bed sheets and other tightly wove, non-traditional quilting fabrics that contributed to excessive needle flex/directional tension issues.
• I'm still such a beginner with my longarm machine, fumbling along and learning as I go.
• I opted to load both of these 60" 80" bed quilts sideways so I could quilt the edge-to-edge pantographs in fewer passes, with fewer stops to advance the quilt, baste the sides, and reposition the laser -- but that meant I had LONG rows to quilt in a single pass.  As a newbie, those long passes of quilting were tiring, so I might have been better off loading the quilts along the short sides instead.

Church Charity Quilt No. 1 of 2, With Bed Sheet Backing

Anyway, I finished quilting the first of the two tops a couple of weeks ago and I finished quilting the second top a few days ago.  On Wednesday morning, I returned them to the church quilting group so they can bind them and deliver them to the YWCA Women In Transition program.  

Church Charity Quilt No. 2 of 2 Completed!

I definitely had an easier time with the stitch quality on this one, using Glide trilobal polyester thread top and bobbin and a 100% cotton quilt fabric backing rather than a bed sheet.  I used the Scribble pantograph pattern from Anne Bright Designs.  It's a less dense design than the Floral Meander panto I used on the first quilt, and more forgiving for a newbie -- however, without any points in the design, there wasn't really a good stopping point where I could sink the needle, stretch my neck and shoulders, and adjust my feet as I was working.  

60 x 80.  My Quilting Looks So Much Better From a Distance...

The other nice thing about choosing my own backing fabric (in addition to knowing it wasn't going to fight my needle with every stitch) is that I was able to pick a nice, busy print and a color that could match the quilting thread.  Even though my stitches on this one look a lot better front and back than they did on the first quilt, it's still nice that those occasional wobbles here and there are camouflaged by the paisley backing print:

Much Better Stitch Quality on the Backing Side on Quilt No. 2

Wobbly Quilting Camouflaged By Busy Print

Well, I've certainly learned a lot from these two charity quilts!  Like, no more bed sheets.  Never, Ever, Ever!  I am still not enjoying following these pantograph designs from the back of the frame, where I can't see the fabric as I'm quilting it.  Also, I am totally spoiled by the ginormous bobbin on my domestic Bernina 750QE sewing machine, and it's really annoying me how quickly the APQS size L "Smart Bobbins" are running out on the longarm machine, especially with these edge-to-edge pantographs.  With the custom quilting I did on my last personal quilt, I was changing thread colors so much that the smaller bobbins didn't make a difference anyway.  I mounted this 60 x 80" quilt top sideways to minimize how many times I'd have to stop, advance the quilt, baste the edges, reposition the needle to align the pattern, etc.  

Following Pantograph Pattern From Back of My Machine

So I quilted the first pass of this very open, 14" pantograph pattern, advanced the quilt, quilted the second row...  Only to walk around to the other side of the machine and realize that my bobbin had run out in the middle of that second row, and I'd just been wasting my time and poking needle holes all over the place without actually making any stitches for 15 minutes!  Boo, hiss!

Supposedly the smaller APQS size L "Smart Bobbin" (the size for which my machine is currently configured -- it's the same size as the bobbins for my Singer Featherweight machines) enables me to use a greater variety of specialty threads without any issues.  Because Physics and Inertia, Blah Blah Blah.  However, reviews from APQS owners who have the larger M style bobbin configuration are not reporting any regrets or remorse, and their bobbins hold twice as much thread as mine do.  I believe I can order a kit from APQS for my 2013 Millenium that would allow me (and by "me," I mean my husband) to switch out the hook system to the larger M bobbins, fairly inexpensively -- and if I didn't like the larger bobbin/hook system, we could just change it back again.  Seriously considering that.  

But MEANWHILE, my quilting frame is not remaining empty for long, because another (much more manageable!) quilt is getting loaded today!  

This Week's Goal: Charlotte Quilter's Guild Outreach Quilt

Yes, another charity quilt is going on the frame this week!  This one is a baby/crib size for the Charlotte Quilters' Guild's Outreach program.  It's much smaller and more manageable than the last two charity quilts -- a 33" x 41" baby quilt destined for the children's cancer unit at either of the two main Charlotte hospitals.  Someone else has already pieced the top, cut the backing fabric and batting to size, and even provided binding strips all ready to go for me, all labeled and packaged neatly into a nice little kit.  Since this one is all made from quilter's cotton fabrics, with 1/4" seam allowances, and the batting is more like what I'm used to, this one should quilt up more smoothly -- and I'm jazzed about the bright colors and cute little novelty prints, too.  

33 x 41 CQG Outreach Quilt is Next On the Frame 

Meanwhile, our schools are closed AGAIN due to Hurricane Michael, even though we're just seeing steady rain and occasional strong winds here.  There have been power outages reported in Charlotte already but thankfully we've still got power at our house -- Son the Elder, also known as He Who Is Responsible for My Gray Hairs and Wrinkles, is working on his college application essay, and he does NOT need any more excuses from the power company...

I'm linking up with:

•           Needle and Thread Thursday at www.myquiltinfatuation.blogspot.com
• • Finish It Up Friday at www.sillymamaquilts.com 
• • Whoop Whoop Fridays at www.confessionsofafabricaddict.blogspot.com 
• • Finished Or Not Friday at www.busyhandsquilts.blogspot.com
• • TGIFF Thank Goodness It’s Finished Friday, hosted this week at www.prettypiney.com

My One Monthly Goal for October: Church Charity Tops Quilted and Delivered

This is the third time I'm linking up with One Monthly Goal over at Elm Street Quilts.  I did not manage to ACCOMPLISH my goals for either of those previous months, but what the heck -- I'm giving it another go.

Just. ONE. Goal...  Hmmm...

OMG for October: Load and Quilt Second Church Charity Quilt Top

Okay, you guys, here's my goal: I have already quilted the first of two charity tops that I volunteered to quilt for my church, and struggled with it dreadfully due to the mix of fabrics in the top itself and the tightly woven bed sheet backing that was provided to me.  After having such a difficult time with the first of these charity projects that were supposed to be quick and easy practice, I've been DREADING the second one...  But at the same time, I really want these off my conscience and out of my house so I can move on to other projects.  

So that's my One Monthly Goal for October -- I'm going to finish loading this charity quilt top, quilt it, and deliver both of the quilts back to the ladies at my church by the end of this month.

Now honestly, I should be able to get this top quilted in one or two days if I don't run into any major problems, so this is also my To Do On Tuesday goal for the week.  It would feel SO GOOD to have this finished by Friday!  But life has a habit of intervening and throwing my lofty plans into disarray.  Also these are not my favorite colors, and that makes it even harder for me to get motivated to begin...  So my "super goal" is to get it done this week, and my "reality check, backup goal" is to get it done by the end of the month.

Thread Selected: Smoother, Slippery Fil-Tec Glide Trilobal Polyester

I strongly suspect that this second quilt top is also made primarily of bed sheets, and some of the squares feel like that same poly/cotton almost twill of the backing bed sheet that I was fighting with on the last quilt, so I've been thinking about what I can do differently to get better results with less frustration this time.  I'm switching to Fil-Tec Glide Trilobal Polyester thread (which reminds me of Isacord machine embroidery thread except that it comes on much bigger cones), in hopes that the slicker surface of this thread will help it to slide through the tight sheeting weave easier and form better stitches.  

I chose a thread color that would blend okay across the quilt top fabrics, but more importantly, it's a close color match to the backing fabric this time.  For this second charity quilt, I'm not using the bed sheet I was given for backing.  Instead, I bought an extra-wide quilting cotton with my JoAnn's coupon in a busy paisley print, and as of this morning that backing is already partially loaded on the quilt frame.  The hope is that if the tight sheeting weave of the quilt top fabrics continues to cause directional tension issues even with a quilting cotton backing and slippery thread, at least the intermittent flatlining won't be as apparent on the back of the quilt when the thread matches the backing AND the backing is a print.  A print backing hides a multitude of sins!

Do You See That Strand of Thread Across the Backing Fabric?  Neither Do I!

I did a partial float for the first of these charity quilts, thinking that having the top rolled up nice and straight on the quilt top roller would help coax it into the straightest, squarest quilt it could possibly be, but I'm thinking I might just do a full float with this one.  My vertical and horizontal channel locks make it easy to check and adjust seams for straightness every time I advance the quilt, for one thing.  But the other factor I'm considering is that pulling the quilt sandwich too taut on the frame can contribute to the needle flex/directional tension problems I've been dealing with.  I know I have difficult fabrics in this quilt top that are already going to be fighting my needle with every stitch.  I wonder whether fully floating the quilt top might give me extra "insurance" by reducing the likelihood that I accidentally have the quilt top too tight in the frame.  I can't pull it too tight if it's just basted in place on top of the batting and backing and not attached to any rollers, right?

The next decision is how am I going to quilt this one once I've gotten it loaded?  My APQS dealer, who was patiently helping me troubleshoot the problems I was having on the previous quilt, suggested that I quilt an allover freehand design from the front of the machine rather than following a pantograph in a situation like this where there are questionable fabrics involved and possible bulk challenges at some of the seam intersections, and that makes perfect sense.  However -- I always have a HOWEVER, don't I? -- my personal learning objective with these two quilt tops was a chance to practice hand guided pantograph quilting.  I don't trust myself to maintain the same quilting density from one end of the quilt to the other with a freehand design, and I can't imagine it would look very good when it was finished, either.  So I hunted through my trove of paper pantograph patterns, looking for something that I could execute quickly AND successfully.  

14 Inch Scribble Pantograph by Anne Bright

I'm leaning towards the 14" Scribbles pattern by Anne Bright Designs.  It's a nice, openly spaced pantograph that will give me good practice on smoothing out my curves, with no tricky backtracking points to slow me down.  It doesn't look very exciting on paper, but some of the simplest pantograph designs surprise me by how much better they look once you see them actually quilted on a quilt.

Okay, so now that I have committed to the entire Internet that I am going to get this quilting done, I need to sign off the computer and get into my studio to do some quilting!  That quilt guild I joined is meeting tonight, too, and I'll feel better about going if I actually accomplish some quilting today!

Today I'm linking up with:

• To-Do Tuesday at Stitch ALL the Things: www.stitchallthethings.com
•  One Monthly Goal at Elm Street Quilts: www.elmstreetquilts.com/
•  Let’s Bee Social at www.sewfreshquilts.blogspot.ca/ 
• Midweek Makers at www.quiltfabrication.com/
• WOW WIP on Wednesday at www.estheraliu.blogspot.com 

OMG; It's June Already!

I know I said I wasn't going to play that One Monthly Goal game anymore, but here it is a brand new month, and I'm trying it again!

Pineapple Progress Is My One Monthly Goal for June

When I first sat down to write this post, I didn't know what my OMG for June was going to be yet.  It was only a few days ago that I finally, FINALLY finished the Tabby Mountain quilt that was supposed to be my goal for February of this year.  Failing to reach my goal by the end of February, I moved the goal back to the end of March, and failed to reach it again.  I didn't even bother setting a monthly goal for March, April, or May, and it ended up taking me until the end of May to finish that quilt.  Yes, you are reading that correctly

 -- it took me FOUR months to finish a goal that I thought I could reasonably finish in ONE month.  

This just shows how UNreasonable I am at goal setting... And that's precisely why I am going to keep trying this OMG "One Monthly Goal" thing, with an underlying goal of improving my time management abilities by learning to more accurately estimate how long it takes me to do things.

So Far, I Am the Garfield of the OMG Linky Party

So the first thing I did, before I selected a goal for June, was to look at my CALENDAR for June, to get an idea of how much time I might have for sewing.  My kids are done with school on June 7th, then they are both serving as Vacation Bible School counselors the following week before heading to Florida for a week with their high school youth choir, and then they go to Houston right after that for the ELCA National Youth Gathering.  This means that June looks pretty calm and quiet in my household, like a preview of the Empty Nesting that is yet to come.  I'm estimating PLENTY of time for sewing in June!  Now, what would I like to make this month?  Well, there are a bazillion new quilts swirling around in my head that I'd like to start, but at the moment I'm feeling overwhelmed by the six quilts currently in progress.  So I'm NOT planning to start my Esther's Garden, Dear Jane, Love Entwined, Lars's Quillow quilt, or any of those other really involved projects in June.  The goals under consideration for June are:

• I want to make myself a new knit garment, like a cute top or a dress, with my serger and coverstitch machine.
• I want to make progress on my WIP quilts -- especially the pineapple log cabin that I started 4 years ago for my master bedroom, the Jingle BOM that I started 5 years ago (currently hogging my design wall), and the modified twin sized Modern Building Blocks sampler that I (barely!) started for my younger son's bedroom a year and a half ago
• I want to piece a NEW "quick and easy" longarm practice quilt so I can continue building those skills
• I want to make an upholstered headboard for my master bedroom
• I want to make a window treatment for my master bath from fabric that I've been holding onto FOREVER...

And that is when I had to to tell myself:  "ATTENTION, REBECCA!!"

When I look at that list of so many different projects, I just feel paralyzed and nothing is happening at all.  I clearly need to narrow it down.  Since I just finished a project for someone else, since I'm feeling some stress from having too many projects in progress, and since I so very rarely make anything for myself, I decided to  work on something for myself this month.

And so, without any further ado, my One Monthly Goal for June is going to be my Pineapple Log Cabin quilt!  

Pineapple Log Cabin Blocks for June!

However, in light of how long even the "quick and easy" quilts end up taking me, my OMG isn't going to be FINISHING that quilt by the end of June.  No; my goal for June is to settle on a layout for the 5 x 6 body of the quilt, remove the foundation papers from those blocks, and get them sewn together.  

I haven't done this yet because I don't have anywhere in my home that is large enough to lay all of the blocks out and view them from a distance, so I can make sure I like the way everything balances.  I need to pack up all of my blocks along with some labeling stickers, enlist my husband and/or my sons, and then lay the blocks out on the floor of the Lower Commons area of my church on a quiet day when there won't be hordes of people traipsing through on their way to and from meetings, rehearsals, or vacation Bible school.  This is not just a sewing goal but a LOGISTICAL goal as well.

The Pineapple Plan, If I'm Brave Enough, And If I Have Enough Fabric

Then, although I came up with a design that I love using partial pineapple log cabin blocks to create a scalloped border for my quilt, I have NOT verified that I have enough of the coral fabric left for all those additional block centers as well as the additional fabric that I scalloped binding would require...  And I have not gone back to the Fedex shop to make the paper foundation patterns for those partial blocks yet, either.  Another factor is whether I will have the courage to attempt to quilt something with scalloped edges on my longarm machine by the time this is ready to quilt.  

That's it; that's my One Monthly Goal.  But maybe, just maybe, if I'm REALLY productive and well-caffeinated and I get a burst of creative energy and ambition, maybe I'll sneak that cute dress or top in there as well.  

I'm linking up with One Monthly Goal at Elm Street Quilts: http://www.elmstreetquilts.com/  

By the way, Google is currently working on an issue that is making it impossible for Blogger authors to respond to comments from readers.  I'm not getting notifications about comments, and even when I log into my Blogger account, see pending comments, and approve them for publication, I can't see your email address in order to respond to you.  Please know that I am still reading every comment, I appreciate your feedback, and I am not ignoring you on purpose!  Thanks for your patience while I wait for Google to get this fixed.