Update my Bucket list from the American Patchwork and Quilting Group

The American Patchwork and Quilting Magazine has changed their idea this year, and for the better.  Instead of making a list of twelve quilts to do - one a month -they have come up with a list of things to learn throughout the year.  Every time they publish an issue of American Patchwork and Quilting, they will have a list of things in the "Now Trending" page to help you check off items form your list.  You can download your own list here and read all about it. My list is below.  I love that you add a few quilts that you want to make sure you do throughout the year at the end.

I thought it's been a while since I've talked about this and it's the end of the month, so I thought a "catch up was needed.  Lets review what I've gotten done (in green) and my plans are in red.  Lets review.

1. Use acrylic or paper templates to piece a block.  the Gracie SchoolHouse using an acrylic template for it's white pieces.  I'm doing that one right now.

2. Donate a pillowcase to charity. (Add it to the online counter: AllPeopleQuilt.com/donate.)

3. Organize your fabrics and scraps.  Still working on this one.  But look at how it's cleaning up so far....  Desk is clean but still needs the other side working.  Notice the bookcase to the left?  And at the right, most of my projects are in containers for organization.

4. Change your needle - I do this for every quilt I start.
    replace your rotary cutter blade
    clean your machine.

5. Identify a problem area in your sewing space and find a solution.  All the paper patterns I have printed out.  Putting them in binders but still need to organize.

6. Attend a quilt guild meeting in your area.  Every Month.  I am their secretary.

7. Sew accurately using foundation piecing.  Black and white quilt or mom's table topper quilt.

8. For one week, set aside 20 minutes a day to sew.

9. Sew a quilt using only your scraps and stash.  Loving this one.  It's 1/2 done with 12 inch blocks..  Strip quilt.  Hardly made a dent in my scrap stash.  So this little thing (48" block) is turning into a queen with 8 blocks across and 10 down....

10. Get topsy-turvy with curved piecing.  The sew kind of wonderful quilt for my barn door of the birds or the bats.

11. Take a quilting class (in person or online).

12. Read the pattern completely before starting the project. I have read this for all the BOM's because you need to understand how to make the HST's for the HST Quilt.

13. Submit a reader tip to our magazine at apqtips@meredith.com.

14. Take your handwork to a surprising location.

15. Join a fun quilt-along.  Take your choice - I have 5 of them.  Read about them here.

16. Creatively piece your quilt backing.

17. Go on a quilt retreat.

18. Machine-sew a decorative stitch sample.

19. Label a quilt. (Don’t forget your name and the date!)

20. Take a picture/journal about each quilt you make this year.  This is my journal

21. Assemble a pincushion. (Cross this off with Wool Welcome by Roseann Meehan Kermes in the February issue.)

22. Sew a quilt for charity.

23. Meet your quilting hero (in person or online).

24. Make a quilt using only solids.

25. Slow down and hand-quilt.  The Wool Quilt.

26. Make a bed-size quilt, then snuggle under it.

27. Attend a national quilt show.  My Guild has a quilt show this June.

28. Read your sewing machine manual.

29. Change out all your quilts for a new season.  Christmas is over, changing to a spring theme.

30. Visit a new quilt shop (with your best quilting buddies).

31. Try English paper piecing.

32. Explore a quilt museum.

33. Safely wash and store your quilts.

34. Finish a Christmas project before December.

35. Splurge on a quilting tool you’ve been eyeing.

36. Quilt your own project. (You can do it!)

37. Stay calm when you realize you’ve run out of bobbin thread while sewing.

38. Add a little (or a lot) of appliqué to a project. (Cross this off with Down to Earth by Deanne Eisenman in the February issue.)

39. Post a photo of a quilt you’re proud of on social media.

40. Learn a new embroidery stitch.

41. Go on a shop hop.

42. For a week, spend 3 minutes picking up your work space after each sewing session.

43. Teach someone to sew.  Teaching Jean how to make a jelly roll quilt for her son's wedding gift.  She's almost done...

44. Finish a UFO.

45. Make a two-color quilt.  Looking at a red and white quilt or blue log quilt.

46. Take part in a block exchange or swap fabric with a friend.

47. Alter a pattern to a size or colorway you like.

48. Make a pix-elated quilt.

49. Make an animal (wolf or horse or Northern animals) quilt.

50. Make a collage quilt with flowers.


That's it so far, not bad for 2 months.  No grass growing under these feet.

OMG going at it...

Well, my "middle of another quilt (it's a surprise so you have to wait until the middle of February to see it),"  is completed and I've given it to my mom for her birthday.  She loves it.  People at her surprise birthday party (there were 80n people in total) all signed in the lighter part of the quilt in permanent ink, so she has a record of how many friends came.  Some people even came after the party the next day to sign it.  It's a reminder of how many friends she has.  

But my goal this month was not this one (although I do get side stepped quite a lot because of ADHD), but trying to start my BOMs that I signed up for.  Here is the list and the pictures to see it. 

• 5 of the blocks from the Harry Potter QAL from Sew Fresh Quilts.  I'm doing both the big one and the small one

I was wrong, they only gave 4 blocks to complete, and all are done, so I've completed this goal...  On to the next...

• 3 blocks from Quilt Doodles Garden Sunshine BOM.  January and February completed, so this goal is done...

• I didn't complete the 3 blocks from Choose your Own Adventure from Moda Blog - that one was this summer but I've always wanted to do another medallion quilt, and I gave my first one away so...
• I did not do the two 2 blocks from Freshly Pieced, a modern HST BOM that I bought into.
• And the 10 blocks from Anna Marie Channey's Conversation BOM that I get through email, I just got the material last week.  So I didn't get them done...  Sorry.

OMG I'm trying....

Well, I didn't make my promises this month.  I wanted to catch up with all of my BOMs and quilt along(s) but I only got two out of the four caught up.  The Harry Potter quilt along is doing great with SewFresh, and so is the Quilt Doodle.  Both caught up, with terrific pictures...

And two more as well!!!

But the others can wait...

So what's the big dream of finishing this month?  What do I want to do???  A quilt that I promised to my cousins in Idaho.   Here's what it looks like now... In this tiny shoe box.

 In this small box...  is the quilt  

Some of the blocks are completed, most are cut waiting to be put together.

The material by Judie Rothermel as well as the pattern.

I bought both from Craftsy two years ago.  It's been cut and waiting since this summer.  

Time to finish...

So One More Goal to complete.  Hooking up to Elm Street Quilts.  Wish me luck

 Getting lots of help from my quilting partner.  Can you see him testing out this quilt at the back of my couch???  We've worked hard so he's taking a break.....

 Caught up on my Quilt Doodle Garden Quilt.  There's still time to join, and as usual Cindy is designing something absolutely Gorgeous.  Haven't missed a single one of her BOMs, each is so special and makes a great gift for a special friend.  January and February is below, and one is a double block together with not one but two appliques (I button stitched them).  Loving the design!!

Did the forth block for SewFresh's Harry Potter's QAL.  The blocks can be huge like I'm doing (21 inches) or smaller for a lap (10 x 10 blocks).  I'm finding the huge ones so simple to do.  See previous post for the last ones.  This one is still free, so join us.  It makes a queen size quilt.

 Been working on getting my sewing/painting/everything room cleaned up a bit, because I can't take it anymore!!  :)  So one of the problems is my scrap bin which means all of my scrap materials is in a giant laundry bag... So I'm doing a string quilt to get that down.  The blocks are 12 inches each.  And so far I have 16 of them.  Still have tons of scraps but the actual quilt is shocking me...  Loving the colors and the triangles.  Now looking at making it 8 blocks by 8 blocks and just doing horizontal and vertical strips around the edge when completed.  Seriously, this will be great color when done and on my queen size bed.

And how does my room look now?  The first picture is the before, the next is the after...

Before

After

Before

After

Before

After

 This corner is still very messy, but it's projects that I have to complete.  The material in the corner is all organized for backing and for the neutral colors to complete with 4 projects in bags waiting to be sewing.  As for the books - all patterns and books as well as quilt patterns I've completed.  There's also some painting books in there, and to the top right you'll see paints.  Still working on this.

So it's been a very busy couple of days, with both sewing and quilting.  When I'm done two more quilts (just quilting them) it will be cleaner.

Back to work with family day over.  Have a great week.

Working at it....

With two snow days (actually I only had the one to catch up) I was able to complete a number of quilts, and that gives you great satisfaction.  But it's only because of all this snow in Vancouver (over 5 inches in a day.).

So lets get right to it and show what we've done....

The Harry Potter QAL from SewFresh has four of their blocks out and ready to go.  So far I have 3 completed, and I'm even starting to quilt as I go.  Here they are:

Each one so unique...

 And so much fun to do!!

Three done, one more to go for February.  They're close to 20 inches each, so it's going to be a very large quilt.  That's why I'm going to do "Quilt as you Go".

The other quilt I completed was one for my mother's 80th birthday party.  It was a quilt by Missouri Quilts.  Here's the video I watched.

And here is the finished production...  People signed the light blue around the quilt.  It worked out perfectly as my aunt's theme for the birthday party was daffodils.

I stitched in the ditch and got it all done.  It was so easy, using a jelly roll, two whites and one color sewn together, then sew two colors with a white in between, then sew it all together on top of each other, then cut.  Really, see the video, which is really well done.

So now, no more rushing to sew.  Now I can finish (or rather catch up) on my quilt alongs.  It's suppose to snow again tonight and into tomorrow and I have family day, so we'll see how much I get done this weekend.  I do have 3 quilts to actually finish off and quilt so they're off the UFO table.  We'll see.

Hope you all have a sunny, happy day.

OMG for February and things to try with scraps....

A star quilt with no Y seams, which is what scares me.  It actually uses a jelly roll but if you can cut up some of your extra fabric into 2 1/2 inch strips it would be great.  It's from Jordan Fabrics, you have to see their web site, fa-nominal.  


Her free pattern is here.

I would like to try that for this month's OMG but I have more important things at this point.

I am proud to say that I finished my January's goal, and I want to finish at least 10 of the goals I set.  so I need to choose wisely.

So although I am in the middle of another quilt (it's a surprise so you have to wait until the middle of February to see it), my goal this month is to catch up on all of my BOMs.  That means:

• 5 of the blocks from the Harry Potter QAL from Sew Fresh Quilts.  I'm doing both the big one and the small one
• 3 blocks from Quilt Doodles Garden Sunshine BOM.
• 3 blocks from Choose your Own Adventure from Moda Blog - that one was this summer but I've always wanted to do another medallion quilt, and I gave my first one away so...
• 2 blocks from Freshly Pieced, a modern HST BOM that I bought into.
• 10 blocks from Anna Marie Channey's Conversation BOM that I get through email.

You think that's enough?  I can catch up on all of this in February and keep on cleaning my sewing room.  That's another blog entry later this week.  So if I pull this off, I am going to be absolutely amazed with myself, considering I've already started two new habits this month (exercising every morning for 1/2 hour, and swimming every Tuesday) as well as my painting class is on again.

Someone told me I'm acting like I'm retired but with a job.  What do you think???  Taking on too much?  I think so to.  Happy Friday.

Nicole