One Monthly Goal

Heidi at Red Letter Quilts issued a challenge at the beginning of the year to limit oneself to just

One Monthly Goal and then report at the end of the month.

My goal for February:

Finish Smith Mountain Morning.

Smith Mountain Morning

I started this quilt in a class with Bonnie Hunter at Mountain QuiltFest two or three years ago. My husband admired the picture in the book Scraps and Shirttails II: Continuing the Art of Quilting Green and when I asked him what attracted him he said "the colors," so I decided to go with Bonnie's scheme -- except she used old plaid shirts.

If you follow me, you know I am not a scrappy quilter like Bonnie. But I was determined to take this opportunity to use up lots of blue and brown scraps as well as some muslin I inherited from my mother who died in 1979 (it still smells like her). I really believe the scrappiness is what made me not love this quilt; however, a recent conversation with another blogger has given me the inspiration to coordinate the scraps within each block. Now I'm back on track!

A quest for a missing blue fabric related to the Rainbow Scrap Challenge (RSC) in January caused me to pull out this project. (Fabric wasn't there, by the way.) Rather than put cram everything back in the box I decided to at least get all the pieces for SMM cut and, in that way, I could re-shelve any unused fabric (one of my general yearly goals) and the cut pieces could become leaders/enders for other projects along the way.

Well, imagine my joy when I discovered the RSC color for February is brown! So I can get credit for using brown scraps and accomplish a monthly goal at the same time!!! A week-long retreat later in the month should give me plenty of time to finish. But I need to finish cutting this week so SMM remains on my design wall for a second week.

Learn more about One Monthly Goal here.

Discover the Rainbow Scrap Challenge 2016 here.

And hop over to Patchwork Times to see what other quilters are working on this week.

Reporting in at Red Letter Quilts.

*  *  *  *  *  

Forgive me for taking a personal aside here, but my Disappointment may have been short-lived. Hope to fill in the details soon. Also, MIL continues to hang on.

OMG

How did I do?

It's the end of the month and time to assess how I did on my One Monthly Goal (OMG). To recap:

My goal for January:

• Finish assembly of yellow/gray pineapple top, make back, take to LAQ, name and label.

Yellow/gray exploding pineapple -- needs a name

Well, I finished the top, sort of ...

Un-named Pineapple Finished, sort of, still un-named

I am not happy with the corner blocks in the border. I didn't get a photo but they are a simple square in a square -- very large and klunky compared to the pineapple blocks. I have enough fabric to make some more pineapple blocks for the corners and I think that would make me happier. So it could be called a finish, but ....

The second hiccup is that adding the wide borders caused me to run short of what I planned to use for the back. I will be stopping at Whittle's next month on my way to a retreat so I can take care of the back situation and also replace the corners at the retreat.

The bottom line for OMG: it definitely helped me to have one finite goal for the month and I will not beat myself up for not reaching the total goal.

I will be reporting in with Heidi at Red Letter Quilts. Pop in and see how other quilters did with their One Monthly Goals.

 

 

Wrapping up the Blues

Rainbow Scrap Challenge 2016 - January

The color was blue, the challenge met

Seven Twinkle Stars for the column-along ...

Two of Seven Twinkle Stars

... with only one blooper ...

Oops -- fixed later

... a bin of tiny 4-patches ...

4" 4-patches

... a HUGE stack of string blocks, both dark and light ...

String blocks

... and note the strip of sashing on the right from some 1-1/2" leftovers.

In the process I pulled out a UFO, also blue

Smith Mountain Morning

For my first time participating in the Rainbow Scrap Challenge, I did OK.

Reporting in with Angela at So Scrappy.

Disappointment

Plan B

A little over a year ago my husband and I purchased a couple of acres in a lakeside subdivision south of Knoxville with the intention of building our "dream home."

Big Dreams

Being an architect, my husbnd was wise enough to check out the architectural guidelines because he had some very specific design ideas that wouldn't fly just anywhere. With a little adjustment in his plan we found the guidelines acceptable so we proceeded with the purchase. He began drawing.

Now we have been informed that the guidelines have changed and our minimalist roof slope will not be acceptable. What is most irritating is that my husband volunteered to serve on the architectural review committee but was never given an opportunity to voice an opinion on this change. Even if the powers that be (and that's the problem with most HOAs) reversed the decision, we have such a bad taste in our mouths that we have no desire to continue at that location.

So this weekend we're off to look at some properties further east.

Needless to say the last couple of days have been spent poring over multiple listings and nothing has been accomplished in the sewing room. Wish us luck!

Blue Monday

What's Wrong With This Picture?



Whoops!

Blue is the January color for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge so, confined indoors by the snow,  I decided to work on a few more Twinkler Stars for Angela's Column-Along. I looked under every pile on my cutting table, between strips in the blue box, under the ironing board, on the floor under the sewing machine -- that fourth 3-1/2" background square was nowhere to be found and I had no more of that particular fabric to cut a new one.

A solution!

BUT, I did have a 2" strip, so I cut two 3-5/8" chunks ....

It barely shows

... stitched them together along the long side with a scant 1/4" seam, and trimmed to size.

Voila! A complete block!  Despite my recent rants about Tri-Recs units (the dark points) I think I have finally mastered the process. I'll share my tips in a future post.

In my quest for fabric to finish the corner I even searched in the Smith Mountain Morning project box(es). I haven't touched this project since I took the class from Bonnie Hunter at Mountain Quiltfest two or three years ago.

This is it!

I found it woefully incomplete with far too many blue and brown fabrics tied up in limboland. So I decided to spend today cutting what I need to complete it and then I can file the fabrics back in their appropriate containers.

Smith Mountain Morning, from Scraps and Shirttails by Bonnie Hunter, is what's on my design wall today.  Oh, and did you notice what the star points are made from? Yep, more Tri-Recs! I will NOT be deterred. I might even finish the border on Celtic Solstice ......

Take a peak at other design walls at Patchwork Times.

Life in Black and White

Snow Day!



3 Inches at  9 a.m

Heavy snow on Japanese maple

Garden angel

Rhoddy through the screen

Final measurement -- 6 inches.  The most snow since 2003 (last year was mostly ice).

Let the Fun Begin!

Cleanin' and Organizin'

Stage 1 -- Inventory the unquilted tops. This included measuring, photographing, noting if back and/or binding had been prepared, and starting a spreadsheet to track.

First 20 of the unquilted tops

Altogether I counted over 30!!! A few I plan to keep for myself, including one that my husband admired as I had it spread out on the dining room table to measure. The rest will probably go to charity. I know one local guild needs to replenish its supply of bed-size charity quilts. Some would be appropriate for wheelchairs and a couple are crib size. I am amazed at how much floor space has appeared throughout the house!

Stage 2 - Organize/reorganize the stash.  One of my blog friends (sorry, I don't recall exactly who) mentioned that she is making string blocks (among other things) for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge. That became my next organizational task -- do something with the enormous pile of strings (wish I had thought to photograph it) that had accumulated over the last 6 months. First I pulled out all the blue strings (January's color); the rest went into a large plastic tub, but not before I went through a second large tub of scraps looking for anything thin and blue. I also took that opportunity to pull out strings of other colors to go into the string bin.

String blocks and a string border

The studio is already looking neater after I made about thirty 6-1/2" string blocks, a length of 2" wide sashing/border, and about sixty 2" 4-patch units.

Itty-bitty 4-patches

Even my light squares came from the blue pile!! In the end I had a few strips that could go in labeled strip drawers and a few chunks that could go in the blue scrap box. And the surface next to my machine is clear ... for now!

I think this much progress is whoop-worthy so I'm linking up with Sarah at Confessions of a Fabric Addict.