Tag Archives: a lovely year of finishes

July Goal {ALYoF}

July 7, 2015 kittywilkin 8 Comments

July came in with a literal bang, and here we are already a week into it! I’m squeaking by with my July goal setting post for A Lovely Year of Finishes (ALYoF) just in the nick of time. This month I have a super fun but secret project to finish. I have a pattern coming out in the September issue of Make Modern eMagazine, and my goal for July is to finish it all up! I need to trim, bind, and photograph the quilt, and need to finish proofreading the pattern write up.

I can only show you tiny peeks until the issue comes out, but you can count on a full reveal come September.

alison glass ex libris — I plan to bind the quilt with this Alison Glass Geometry print from her Ex Libris line. The fabric designer aficionados among you probably noticed that the quilt includes the 2015 Sun Prints by Alison Glass… surprised? 🙂

I’m confident that I’ll meet this goal, since, well, I have to! The deadline is a week away. For this reason, I considered choosing a different project as my July goal, but ultimately opted not to. ALYoF emphasizes the selection of ONE goal per month, which really helps me prioritize my project progress. Finishing this quilt submission is my biggest goal, so it is a perfect choice for ALYoF.

As a mom of a newborn, and newly a mom of three, my progress is made in very small bits. I have learned that if I set lofty, time consuming goals, I set myself up for failure or at the very least, a stressful anxious push to complete the goals in time. On the other hand, when I set small, attainable goals, I’m motivated to complete them without stress, and then feel good that I’ve actually accomplished something, which then motivates me to create more. Just because I complete my ALYoF goal before the end of the month doesn’t mean I can’t then work on other projects. It’s a win-win of positive, fun quilty progress without stress.

I’m linking up to A Lovely Year of Finishes July Goal Setting party with Fiber of All Sorts and Sew BitterSweet Designs. When I complete this month’s goal, you’ll get another sneak peek or two to hold you over until September!

Hand Stitching, Life

June Finish {ALYoF}: Baby! & EPP Table Runner Flimsy

June 29, 2015 kittywilkin 22 Comments

It’s hard to believe that less than a month ago, I was still pregnant. Yet in early June when I was setting my goal for A Lovely Year of Finishes (ALYoF), my goal was to have a baby!! I also added in a little hand stitching goal of completing my Summer English Paper Pieced (EPP) table runner top. I’m happy to report that I accomplished both of those goals!

Many of you have been appropriately introduced to baby Finn, who made his appearance 5 days into the month. Earlier today, I completed the final stitches attaching the EPP pieces to a solid border, finishing the table runner quilt top just in time.

blind ish stitch Lucy Boston applique — I used blind-ish stitch to sew the Lucy Boston blocks to a solid border fabric.

I used Aurifil 1320 – Medium Teal and a blind-ish stitch, which I hear is a highly favored stitch, to attach the EPP Lucy Boston blocks to a solid border fabric, Moda Bella solid in Coastal. I have not yet cut away the fabric behind the blocks, but I most likely will do so before layering, basting, and hand quilting the table runner.

Now that I’ve grown my Aurifil 12wt thread stash, I’m excited to hand quilt this table runner. I have not yet decided on a quilting pattern, but I probably will go with a simple echo-border pattern. Finn doesn’t seem too interested in the stitching, but that’s ok!

I’m linking up with A Lovely Year of Finishes June Finish Party, and already contemplating my goal for July. I’m really enjoying being a part of ALYoF, since it is a little added incentive to focus on one project and actually make visible progress. This is my fourth successful monthly finish, since I missed the goal setting deadline for January and completely missed May. Not too bad!

Life

March Finish {ALYoF}: Dr Seuss Diamonds Quilt

March 27, 2015 kittywilkin 11 Comments

I managed to finish my March goal for A Lovely Year of Finishes quite early, so this is just a recap for the sake of linking up and meeting my March goal requirements. I basically began and finished the Dr. Seuss Diamonds quilt during the month of March, which is nothing short of amazing! It just goes to show how much tiny little windows of progress add up to a completed project. As I’ve said in previous posts, I made this quilt as a donation to a fundraiser at my daughter’s preschool. Each grade put together a basket to be either auctioned or raffled off at a Poetry Jam that took place last night, and the Pre-K’s basket had a Dr. Seuss theme.

dr seuss quilt displayed for raffle — Here is my quilt, displayed under clear plastic (!!!) with the rest of the epically awesome Dr. Seuss raffle basket items.

I’m happy to report that the fundraiser Poetry Jam went really well! The school raised over $700 from all of the baskets, which for a small rural school of only 50-60 students is pretty stellar! One of my daughter’s preschool friends won the Dr. Suess basket (and quilt), too, so I’m happy that it will be well loved. I have no idea how much the quilt and basket helped earn, but the ticket box was stuffed to the brim with tickets. I’m pleased as punch at the outcome.

If you’d like to see more about the quilt, visit my post Friday Finish: Dr. Seuss Diamonds Quilt, or to see progress read When Duty Calls: A Dr. Seuss Raffle Quilt or Dr. Seuss Flimsy Finish.

I’m linking up with A Lovely Year of Finishes, and I’m plotting what project to choose for April! I’m on a roll so far!

Quilting

February Goals {ALYoF}

February 3, 2015 kittywilkin 11 Comments

January flew by, but somehow I managed to meet my sewing goal for the month. Now we’re on to February, an already short month. To top it off, QuiltCon is in the middle of the month and there is a TON to do before I head to Austin. I have been debating which project to choose for this month of A Lovely Year of Finishes (ALYoF) and I’ve decided NOT to choose any of my QuiltCon prep projects (just in case I have to abort mission and go to the conference without newly handmade accessories) and instead to choose Maddie’s Rainbow Jellyroll quilt as my goal. All I have left to do is square up the quilt and bind it. Sounds doable, even though I’ll most likely be working on it after I return from QuiltCon.

I quilted it with straight lines 1/4″ from each seam, in coordinating colors of Aurifil 40wt thread. I am LOVING it and clearly, so is my little helper. This quilt is for Maddie, but Max certainly had a grand old time rolling around with it during the photo shoot while Maddie was in preschool.

I like how the quilt lines look on the back WAY more than I thought I would. I was all worried they would look off kilter, but it looks fine to me (don’t mind the fluff balls!).

I’m linking up with the February goals for ALYoF.

Quilting

A Secret Finish {Still Secret}

January 30, 2015 kittywilkin 9 Comments

I did it! I set my goal to finish this quilt in January for A Lovely Year of Finishes (ALYoF), thinking it would be quite an accomplishment if I met it by the end of the month. But lo, here we are on January 30th (with still one more day to finish burying those last threads and defluffing) and I have a finished quilt!

I can’t show you any more than this tease of a peek at the binding and folded back, but I promise the full reveal will be soon. Since my tardy goal-setting post on January 14th, I’ve pieced the quilt back–including my first ever needle-turn applique–, layered and basted, quilted on my domestic machine–both straight line quilting with a walking foot and free motion quilting–, and bound this quilt. For slow sewing me, that is quite an accomplishment. Enough of an accomplishment, in fact, that I felt the need to take the quilt out into the snow to take some sneak peek photos so that I could post them here as proof–it’s finished!

doe secret quilt peek — Everyone takes their newly finished quilts out into a snowstorm to take photos, right?

I can’t wait to show you more of this quilt. But I will. I’m planning an epic whole-family quilt photo shoot this weekend, weather and toddler willing, so you will get to see every detail. Soon.