1. Use acrylic or paper templates to piece a block. the Gracie SchoolHouse using an acrylic template for it's white pieces. It's completed and it looks like this. It's for my cousin Garett and his wife.
2. Donate a pillowcase to charity. (Add it to the online counter: AllPeopleQuilt.com/donate.) Have done a couple of quilts for the hospital and one for a retirement. It's a charity so I guess this one is done....
3. Organize your fabrics and scraps. Still working on this one. Desk is clean, all my projects are in containers for organization. I've been printing out my patterns on the ipad, and organizing all the patterns.
4. Change your needle - I do this for every quilt I start.
replace your rotary cutter blade
clean your machine. - all done. Got a tip off of YouTube to use a makeup brush to clean you machine every once in a while. Great idea!!
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 and now I have to find room for them.
6. Attend a quilt guild meeting in your area. Every Month. I am their secretary.
7. Sew accurately using foundation piecing. I made a quilt with paper piecing for books. It is adorable and it's also a surprise retirement gift for a friend of mine who is a librarian. Thus the books. I embroidered in the corner the saying "Onto the next chapter" for life. Here's a picture of the final:
8. For one week, set aside 20 minutes a day to sew. I've sewing over 30 minutes each day this week to finish my quilt for the quilt show on the 17th at FVQG in Langley BC. I don't have much choice, it's two weeks away and the quilt is not finished :o
9. UPDATE: Sew a quilt using only your scraps and stash. Loving this one. It's done with 12 inch blocks.. Strip quilt. Hardly made a dent in my scrap stash. Changed into a wedding gift for a cousin's daughter. Put ribbon in every corner, tied knots in the ribbons, and put the words "tied the Knot 2019" on it. See this post all about it.
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. UPDATE: Take your handwork to a surprising location. Going to Manitoba and taking my glasswork there. Need to sew the black around the objects so that will take some time.
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. It's my color quilt. Yes I entered it in a couple of other things but you can't believe how much work is on that sucker!!! I learned so much from this quilt and the lessons on Craftsy that I signed up for. It's now BluPeint but the lessons are the same, the quilt kits are fantastic and on sale days priced so right that I don't resist them at all!!! Just bought one last week. But it's OK because I completed 3 quilts, and just binding them. The rule is, complete 2 quilts and I get to buy a new one. So I've done that.
19. Label a quilt. (I do it for every single quilt now.)
20. Take a picture/journal about each quilt you make this year. This is my journal
21. Assemble a pincushion. Got a great one of snail I'm hoping to try.
22. Sew a quilt for charity. The plan is to make 5 this year. So far two done.
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. Almost done. My string quilt or Harry Poster quilt.
27. Attend a national quilt show. My Guild has a quilt show this June, 2019. Not national but with five different towns going to it. Over 120 different quilts.
28. Read your sewing machine manual. DONE!! Needed to do this to see how to clean my machine.
29. Change out all your quilts for a new season. Christmas was over, so I've changed to a spring theme on my bed. Also have a pure white for the summer and I changed my barn doors twice so far this year.
30. Visit a new quilt shop (with your best quilting buddies).
31. Try English paper piecing.
32. Explore a quilt museum. How about an antique evening gown show, with tea included. Did that at the Surrey Museum. Had a wonderful time with my friends. Even dressed up for the occasion. Was a blast. I need to do that more often.
33. Safely wash and store your quilts. Need to send out two, but over 30 quilts all stored in tubs that I take out and rotate once a year.
34. Finish a Christmas project before December. Here's one. A wall hanging one.
35. Splurge on a quilting tool you’ve been eyeing. Mini curve that I absolutely love from SewkindofWonderful. And then I bought a book to go with it from them. It's called Mini Wonderful Curves. Take a look at it here. It's on my list now to make the Halloween bat quilt for my barn door. Hopefully I can get it done.36. Quilt your own project. I do all my quilts. I'm sorry I'm frugal (that's another way of saying cheap). And I do take pleasure in quilting, but I seem to quilt too much, to the point of stiffness on some of my quilts... That's not a bad thing. Here's a sample to your right.
37. Stay calm when you realize you’ve run out of bobbin thread while sewing. All the time. I make 10 - 12 bobbins before I start quilting. But I always have off white and black ready to go.
38. Add a little (or a lot) of applique to a project. I appliqued the geese on this quilt so that it looks more three dimensional. It added to the quilt for the geese to go off the panel like this.
39. Post a photo of a quilt you’re proud of on social media. You're at my site..... I do this so my mother in another province can see what I'm up to.
40. Learn a new embroidery stitch.
41. Go on a shop hop. Went with Jean a friend of mine to three different stores looking for a jelly roll that she would like for her quilt that she is making her son for his wedding. It had to be perfect and I'm OK with that. Went to the following in less than 4 hours.... Real fast road trip.
42. For a week, spend 3 minutes picking up your work space after each sewing session. How about 20 - 30 minutes a week, slowly but surely getting things under control.
43. UPDATE: Teach someone to sew. Taught Jean how to make a jelly roll quilt for her son's wedding gift. It's done and here is how it looks:
44. Finish a UFO. Which one this month????? I have plenty... That's why I'm trying to clean up my room, they're full of containers and boxes of patterns with the material, and some of it cut. Here is one that was over 5 years old.
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.
This is going great so far, I can't believe how much I've done this year so far, when I've been so busy with work (which by the way I'm cutting down on - I quit being department head this term, and I'm quilting being the computer fixer at our school, so I'm going back to the classroom only, which believe me will free up a lot of time.). Now I've quit being the computer person and I'm going back into the classroom, so I don't really have to help other teachers with computer problems. I'm hoping this will help with free time, but that also means I'm teaching more classes. So we'll have to see how it goes.
Wish me luck.
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