You know what I’ve been missing? My monthly goals and weekly updates. I haven’t been posting these in a long while and the reason is because my quilting is stuck on Celtic Solstice.  It’s still under my machine and I’m really very close to finishing the quilting of it.  But I hate to keep putting it as my goal each month and then not accomplishing it.  It’s a bit demoralizing.  So I stopped.  But I miss doing it and I feel that maybe I need to just make those goals a little smaller each month.  Like – quilt one more row.  Quilting one row on a king size quilt on my domestic (granted it’s a Bernina 790 with a larger throat size than most but still a domestic!) takes about an hour for me. And afterwards, I’m so exhausted and a bit overwhelmed that that’s all I can do in a weekend.  So I plan to make smaller goals and hopefully that will get me through this hump.

I did attend a retreat in September and I was all excited about blogging about it. Then life took over and it just fell by the wayside like a lot of half written posts I’ve made this year.  At the retreat though I made a lot of progress on various quilty projects that had stalled over the past couple of years.  I’m really excited about moving on those but I can’t because my machine is in quilting mode and I really do not want to take out any of my other machines.  As I write this I kick myself in the butt because what’s the point of having multiple machines if I can’t even bother taking it out when one machine is in the quilty mode?  I mean, that’s why one has multiple machines.  I need to blog more. It helps me figure things out as I write out my problems and excuses.

So after that long preamble, here are my goals for November.

Quilting: 

1. Celtic Solstice – It would be wonderful to get the last 2 rows quilted and then quilt the borders.  But I know (after my rant above) that is setting me up for failure. So, my goal is to take one weekend in November and do 1 row.  Maybe I’ll step it up and actually prep the binding.  That way when it’s finally quilted that part is ready to go.
2. Staycation – This top is done. I finished it at the retreat I mentioned it above. The pattern calls for a border but I am okay with where it is at. I think I may want a thing border around it and I just have to make a decision and move it to the next step.
3. 

   Staycation 9/22/18

    

4. Provence quilt – The inner quilt is done. I think I need to work on the border next.

5. 

   Provence
   9/22/18

6.  Bonnie Hunter’s 2018 Mystery quilt – Gather my supplies and get ready! I’m hesitant to join as I’ve got a number of UFOs from her previous years’ quilts but I love the community surrounding these quilts each year and even if I only get a bit done a week at a time, it is fun.

Knitting: 

1. November Socks – I’ve been good about finishing a sock each month so I will continue to do a bit each day until they are complete.

2. 

   November Socks

3. Jacob’s Weasley sweater – I want to finish the letter part.

4. 

   Jacob’s Weasley Sweater
   11/4/2018

5. My Featherweight cardigan – I want to get through the first part.  I need to get to row 70 and I’m on row 50.

6. 

   My Featherweight Cardigan
   11/4/18

Cross Stitch:

1. Bukid – Columns 11, 12 and 13.  If I could I would love to get through column 14 because then I’ll be done with pages 2 and 5. But that’s asking a bit much for me. I am a little out of love on this project and I force myself to do a bit every day so I continue to progress on this.  So to try and do more than column 13 would be torturous for me.  I know, I can hear you tell me to set it aside since this is cross stitch and it should be fun.  But I want this project done by the end of 2019 and the only way it will be is if I continue to work on it as diligently as I have been.  If I set it aside now… who knows when I’ll pick it back up.
2. Gamer – I do a little bit each week. This is my fun piece and I do not have a goal for this.  I’m almost done with page 5 so it would be wonderful to get page 5 done.
3. A Stitch In Time – I do not remember if I’ve even posted about this but it’s my first HAED (Heaven And Earth Design for non cross stitchers) and it’s 25 count and really tiny I need to wear readers when I work on this.  So, I only work on this a bit at a time because my eyes start to hurt after awhile. Again, I do not have a goal for this but I’m currently stitching on page 1, column 3.  My goal for this month is to set up a project page on here for it so I can post pictures for you.

And that’s it for November!

Happy crafting!

Melanie