2009 New Years Goals - Final Review

WOW the end of the year is finally here. So it's time to take a look at what I had set out as my goals for this year, what was I able to accomplish, what didn't happen and what else came along. First is a list of my original goals and what happened with each one.

Jan: finish my first quilt that I started 6 years ago – completed
Jan: workshop Luminous Diamonds quilt – decision not to go forward due to extensive fabric requirements to properly complete quilt
Jan: workshop Falling Splendor quilt – I have all my leaf blocks ready for button hole applique stitching, then need to assemble the quilt
March: Dragon quilt wall hanging for a birthday if possible otherwise it becomes a Christmas present – completed for the birthday
March: 2 maple leaves for International Fiber Collaborative project "Interdependence" – completed
April: Quilt Guild challenge – did not start this project so I know have a bunch of fat quarters to use for something else
May: Baby quilt – completed
June: Leaf lap quilt for Anna at work – completed
Christmas present: Turquoise and brown lap quilt – cancelled this project
Christmas present: Flower garden lap quilt in purples – moved to 2010
Christmas present: Flower garden lap quilt in blues – moved to 2010
Christmas presents: Origami Stars and quilted birds (assorted) – never happened
Any time: Bird of Paradise Harmonic Convergence wall hanging (for me to hang in my office) – never happened
Any time: One block wonder quilt ( I already have the fabric and am curious as to how this will turn out) – never happened

So from this list I completed 5 projects, 1 is partially finished, 3 I decided not to go forward with, 2 I have moved to next year to be done and 3 just never got off the ground, but hopefully sometime in the future may get done.

In addition the following new projects happened in 2009:

Feb: Bush Fire wonky star quilt project – completed
Aug: Stacked coin quilt dinosaur motif – completed
Sep: Cat and Dog paper pieced blocks for small quilt group swap – completed
Oct: workshop Painting with Threads by Maggie Vanderweit – completed (this was just learning new techniques, no actual project)
Oct: workshop Colour in Design with Kaffe Fassett – I have a preliminary quilt layout ready to look at once I’m in the mood to tackle this one, since this will be a big project in terms of sewing and quilting
Dec: Christmas quilt with cardinal border – completed
Dec: Christmas quilt with holly border – almost completed, will be finished 1st weekend of January so I'm counting this as completed for 2009 since the bulk of the work was done in 2009
Throughout the year: participated in Friday Block Party block challenge – made 35 of the 52 blocks

So in addition to the 5 completed projects from the original list I did another 5 projects in 2009. So over all a pretty successful year. Over the next few days I'm going to review what my goals are going to be for 2010 and then will post them as my start to the New Year.

I wish everyone a a very happy, healthy and prosperous New Year,

Vicki

Progress on First Quilt - Completed

My first quilt that I started 6 years ago is now finally finished. I got the embellishments on over the weekend.

I have added peacock feathers which are encased in Angelina fibres to make them easier to attach to the quilt and add some additional sparkle. Please note that for anyone who has never used Angelina fibres and has asthma please use them in a well ventilated place and you may even need a mask. When you heat the fibres they do release an odor and I found that it did affect my breathing.

I also added some decorative variegated yarn to a section on the middle right hand side. All embellishments were hand sewn and I used YLI's Wonder Invisible thread. It was interesting to use in that it is a very fine, and it was the only invisible thread that I had. It handled beautifully and never tangled, I was very amazed.

So now on to some current projects now that this 6 year old UFO is finished!

Progress on first Quilt - Part 3

I have finished the quilting on my first quilt and got the binding on last night. The last thing now is the embellishments in the light blue areas on the quilt - 1 square in the top middle, 1 square on the left hand side in the middle and 1 long rectangle on the right hand side in the middle. I won't get a chance to get this done until later next week because this evening I'm over at the Friday Block Party working on this week's block and the weekend I have to get the rest of my stuff prepared for the workshops with Cathy Tomm this coming Tue & Wed. So it's going to be a busy few days.

Progress on First Quilt - Part 2

I made considerable progress on my first quilt this weekend. I got the inner and outer boarders done. In the inner border I did free motion stippling where I tried to mimic the seaweed looking pattern of the batik fabric. In the outer border I did 3 radiating loops from the middle of each triangle of the square which ends up looking like a flower. It's amazing how much thread you go through doing this. I was winding bobbins like crazy.

I did a row of echo quilting on the two stars and I'm debating whether to do another row or will it be too much. In the two checkered blocks on the upper left hand corner I ran diagonal stitching. the first one I tried free motion with the stippling foot and it was hard to keep the stitching straight even though I had drawing in the lines but it was easy to manipulate the fabric. On the second one I went back to the walking foot so the lines are nice and straight but much more work manipulating the fabric. In the section to the right and below the checkered blocks I just ran 3 diagonal lines in each triangle from the centre of the 4 blocks. If you click on the picture below it will give you the full image and you will be able to see some of the details.

So I just have the block in the bottom left hand corner to do and some simple quilting in the light coloured blocks because those will be embellished once I have the binding on.

Progress on First Quilt

It's was a busy week at work so I didn't get much time to work on my projects this past week. Today I finally was able to get back to working on my first quilt. Last weekend I got all the stitching in the ditch done. Today I started on some of the free motion quilting. I'm pleased with how it turned out but I must say after while of doing those circles it can get mesmerizing and if you aren't paying attention the circles can start to look a but wonky.

2009 New Years Goals - Part 2

Happy New Year Everyone!

I've been thinking about what my goals are for this coming year and the list has grown. First on the list are those infamous UFOs that everyone seems to collect. Obviously my main UFO is my first quilt that I showed you in my previous post. I'm actually looking forward to getting it finished. the other UFOs that I have are as follows:

Hawaiian appliqué pillow – do the hand quilting
Gloria Loughman workshop – Layer by Layer piece
Gloria Loughman workshop – Colour is Magic piece

I'm not sure when I will get these 4 items done nor in what order, but the goal will be to get them completed sometime in 2009. The reason why I haven't put concrete deadlines to these projects is that I have some new projects that have some real deadlines that I will have to meet. So here are my new projects for 2009:

Jan – workshop Luminous Diamonds quilt
Jan – workshop Falling splendor quilt
March – Dragon quilt wall hanging for a birthday if possible otherwise it becomes a Christmas present
March – 2 maple leaves for International Fiber Collaborative project "Interdependence"
April – Quilt Guild challenge
May – Baby quilt
June – Leaf lap quilt for Anna at work
Christmas present – Turquoise and brown lap quilt
Christmas present – Flower garden lap quilt in purples
Christmas present – Flower garden lap quilt in blues
Christmas presents – Origami Stars and quilted birds (assorted)
any time – Bird of Paradise Harmonic Convergence wall hanging (for me to hang in my office)
any time – One block wonder quilt ( I already have the fabric and am curious as to how this will turn out)

So as you can see it looks like it's going to be a busy year and who knows what I'm going to see during the year that I'm going to want to try.

Finally as a review this is what I have accomplished this past year:

May – Hawaiian table runner and place mats (completed)
May – Hawaiian appliqué pillow (appliqué completed, quilting to be done)
Sep – started blog
Oct – Leaf lap quilt (completed)
Dec – Curious Kitties lap quilt (completed)
Dec – Oriental Mosaic lap quilt (completed)
Dec – Oriental Harmony lap quilt (completed – similar in design to Oriental Mosaic)
Dec – Gloria Loughman workshop – Layer by Layer piece (started)
Dec – Gloria Loughman workshop – Colour is Magic piece (started)

When I look at this list I'm very pleased with what I've been able to accomplish considering that a year ago today I was waiting to go for carpal tunnel surgery on the 10th of January. Then I was in for a good 6 months of serious physiotherapy and rehab because the surgery did not go well. I'm please to say that I have about 95% use of my right hand which is amazing considering I probably only had about 30% use after the surgery. So I'm looking forward to a creative and productive 2009.

2009 New Years Goals - Part 1

Quilt Pixie's post on Sunday December 28th started me thinking about what my goals were going to be for the coming year in relation to my quilting projects. One goal that I do have for 2009 is to actually finish the quilting on my very first quilt that I started to make about 6 years ago. I took a series of classes to learn the basics and got it as far as making the quilt sandwich and then froze. I was afraid of ruining it and packed it away. So it's time to bring it out of hiding and finish it.

This morning I actually took the quilt out of the box and took this picture. I'm surprised I was able to find it so quickly so it really must be time to get it finished. The pale areas in the main body of the quilt (top centre square, left centre square and right centre long narrow strip) are going to have some embellishment work done once the quilting is done.

Tomorrow I will post the rest of my goals for the New Year. I starting thinking about them last night and I think it's going to be a busy year.