Category Archives: 2021 Crafty Goals

2021 Crafty Plans, recent Updates and September plans

Another late post… like really late. Life has been insane.

As always, I went into extensive detail on my plans here, for quilty here, for knitty here, and for cross stitch here.

Here’s the short list:

Quilts –

  • Jan Krentz – Diamond Star – At some point, I started working on this project again. I applique’d a center star and chose my border fabric. I plan to get the border done in April
    • Finished the top! 4/25/2021
  • Bonnie Hunter – Grassy Creek – I finished Clue 4 and I need to get started on Clue 5. See here for the most recent post.
    • Recently finished clue 5 and I’m working on Clue 6. My goal is to get this finished before the next mystery quilt comes out in November. 🙂
  • Scrappy Stars Around the Corner – finished top! 8/7/2021
Scrappy Stars Around the Corner 8/7/2021
  • Dancing with the Stars – I pulled this project out because Linda Ballard will be coming to our guild in 2022 and I want this quilt finished when she comes.
    • Finished 7/17/2021
Dancing with the Stars – 7/17/2021
  • Radiant Jewel – Finished top 8/14/2021
    • I need to take a pic of the final top. This picture below was the picture I took when I had all the blocks on the design wall and was moving parts around for the final design.
Radiant Jewel – right before the top was finished
  • Gardenvale – no progress
  • Allietare – no progress
  • Civil War Diary Quilt – no progress
  • Judy Niemeyer = Double Wedding Ring quilt – no progress

Hand work

  • Hawaiian block – finished top. At the moment, it’s hanging around where I can enjoy it. I’m still enjoying it so I’m in no rush to do anything with this project.
  • Raining Cats and Dogs – no progress
  • Rainbow Garden – no progress
  • Simple Days BOM – you can see my last update here. no progress
  • Halloween quilt – I’ve not touched this in many years. 🙂

Knitting

  • I’ve not done a ton on my knitting…. I finished a pair of socks but I still have to weave in ends.
  • My Weasley Sweater – pulled this out to work on in August and I haven’t started on it. I am now way behind and may not get this done in my goal of xmas.
  • 24 days of Christmas Shawl from Jimmy Bean – finished! I am done weaving in the ends, so I need to get this blocked and then do my glamour shots.
    • still need to do my glamour shots. weather has been perfect to do this but I’ve not had the time to do so.
  • Water Lily – finished knitting! I’m working on weaving in the ends during my Thursday knit nights.
    • the ends are woven in and I need to do my glamour shots; I still need to do this.
  • Beanie for Kayla
  • Tranquil Mist – Now that it’s April and the Weasley sweater is back on the priority daily list, this project was shifted down to a weekly project to be worked on on Thursday knit night.
    • pulled this out 6/13/2021 and started working on this until the end of the quarter.
  • Orient Express – I work on this one weekly and it’s still small enough that I enjoy it.
  • Blue Hat – pulled this out of hibernation, wound the second skein of yarn and have picked this back up for knit nights.

Cross Stitching

  • Like my knitting, I’ve not been stitching much either.
  • Gamer Nouveau – did a bit of this but I’m not going to make my goal for the year. I’m way behind and the goal was way too aggressive for the amount of time I save for stitching.
  • A Stitch In Time – no progress
  • Shades of Red
  • Autumn Owls
  • Titania
  • Tsuru kame
  • Unicorn
  • Bountiful Blossoms

And I realize that I didn’t even mention my to be quilted list… here.

  • Staycation – is finished! got this done before February ended!
  • Good Fortune
  • Glam Clam – I’ve got a few clams quilted but it’s not yet done.
  • SoCal Quilt Run Area 1 Mystery Quilt from 2012
  • SoCal Quilt Run Area 4 Mystery Quilt from 2012
  • Provence
  • saved top from the august treasure hunt some years ago – I’m calling this my Orange quilt top and since this was at the top of my to be quilted pile, this is the one I’m working on next. I hope to get this finished in March but with 2 workshop classes and a very busy work schedule, I’m not going to be upset if I can’t finish it. I just want to be sure to work on it every weekend to help push me forward on getting this done!!!
    • This top is being quilted right now. I plan to be done quilting next week and will work on the binding, label and picture.
    • This was not done in time to be a finish in April. But I’m plugging along. I have the inner part quilted and my plan is to finish this in May.
    • This is done. 5/10/2021
  • Jan Krentz – diamond quilt – finished April 2021 and added to the to be quilted list…

Short List – May goals

  • Top 3 piecing quilts – Grassy Creek, secret project, 45 & Life to go
  • Hand work – Simple days, Raining Cats and Dogs
  • Knitting – morning socks, Weasley Sweater (sleeves)
  • Cross Stitching – just do a bit on my weekly project every day (whatever tiny decisions selects)
  • To Be Quilted – Glam Clam

I hope this isn’t so boring for you as it’s simply a short (but very long) list to quickly refer to everything I’m working on.

Happy Crafting!

Melanie

2021 Crafty Plans, May Update and June plans

Another late post…

As always, I went into extensive detail on my plans here, for quilty here, for knitty here, and for cross stitch here.

Here’s the short list:

Quilts –

  • Jan Krentz – Diamond Star – At some point, I started working on this project again. I applique’d a center star and chose my border fabric. I plan to get the border done in April
    • Finished the top! 4/25/2021
  • Bonnie Hunter – Grassy Creek – I finished Clue 4 and I need to get started on Clue 5. See here for the most recent post.
    • I haven’t touched this since I posted this. Dancing with the stars jumped the line.
    • Clue 5 has two parts and I finished the first part. I’m almost done with Dancing with the stars so I’m going to finish that before pulling this out again.
  • Scrappy Stars Around the Corner – no progress
  • Dancing with the Stars – I pulled this project out because Linda Ballard will be coming to our guild in 2022 and I want this quilt finished when she comes.
    • I finished the inner top 6/13/2021 and I’m starting on the border next.
  • Radiant Jewel – no progress
  • Gardenvale – no progress
  • Allietare – no progress
  • Civil War Diary Quilt – no progress
  • Judy Niemeyer = Double Wedding Ring quilt – I started this with my Sunday quilty friends in January 2020 at a monthly class at one of our local quilt shops. Then covid happened and the world shut down. I got all the rings done and in October 2020 met with the teacher to help me get to the next step. But I didn’t touch it again until now. In fact, it wasn’t on my list of things I wanted to get done this year. But then the teacher set up a zoom session and suddenly, this is now on the list.
    • This was added to my list this month. My friend and I started this project in January 2020 with the intention of doing it together. But I’m very much a process crafter and I’ve not enjoyed working on this with my friend. When the pandemic hit, we put a pause on working on this because we were going to a monthly class that helped us move this along. That obviously ended in March 2020 and we hadn’t felt comfortable going back when they resumed classes. We tried last fall and got our next steps and started actually moving forward soon after the cushion project was done. Unfortunately, I’ve not enjoyed it. I am a bit competitive and working with someone brings that out in me. I feel like it’s a race when it shouldn’t be. This is all me and nothing to do with my friend. As a result I am setting it aside. I don’t want to feel that kind of pressure when quilting.

Hand work

  • Hawaiian block – finished top. At the moment, it’s hanging around where I can enjoy it. I’m still enjoying it so I’m in no rush to do anything with this project.
  • Raining Cats and Dogs – I continue to work a bit on this every Sunday. I wish I had the time to do a bit of quilting every day as I need the practice. It’s been a long time since I’ve hand quilted and I’m slowly starting to get back in the groove. I forgot how much I like hand quilting.
    • I’ve not worked on this all month. The cushion class took over and then I was struggling to catch up on the Simple Days BOM so this got waylaid. I will want to bring this out again.
  • Rainbow Garden – I’ve not touched this in about a year. I still haven’t touched it. … still not going to touch it.
  • Simple Days BOM – I started this and you can see my update here. I’m a little further along but I haven’t posted about it yet so I that’s something I need to do.
    • I still need to post an update.
  • Halloween quilt – I’ve not touched this in many years. 🙂

Knitting

  • My Weasley Sweater – my Q1 goal was to knit the back and I finished that. So I’ve set this aside until Q2.
    • Now that it’s April, I’ve started working on the front.
    • Finished the front panel this week, 6/9/2021.
  • 24 days of Christmas Shawl from Jimmy Bean – finished! I am done weaving in the ends, so I need to get this blocked and then do my glamour shots.
    • still need to do my glamour shots. It’s been a surprisingly overcast April so I’ve not had a chance to do this.
    • It’s going to be in the hundreds this week so hopefully I have time to pull this out, block and take picks.
  • Water Lily – finished knitting! I’m working on weaving in the ends during my Thursday knit nights.
    • the ends are woven in and I need to do my glamour shots
  • Beanie for Kayla
  • Tranquil Mist – Now that it’s April and the Weasley sweater is back on the priority daily list, this project was shifted down to a weekly project to be worked on on Thursday knit night.
    • pulled this out 6/13/2021 and started working on this until the end of the quarter.
  • Orient Express – I work on this one weekly and it’s still small enough that I enjoy it.
  • Blue Hat – pulled this out of hibernation, wound the second skein of yarn and have picked this back up for knit nights.

Cross Stitching

  • Gamer Nouveau – I haven’t touched this in weeks. I tried to get that one page done and didn’t and now I haven’t touched this. This is why focusing on one project doesn’t work for me because then I tend to not want to touch it for a long time. I’m trying to get over this.
    • I picked this up again and did about 300 stitches last week. (April)
  • A Stitch In Time – I am working on this one and I’m trying to get a diagonal done before going back to Gamer.
    • I worked on this a few weeks ago and I’ve set it aside for now. (April)
  • Shades of Red
  • Autumn Owls
  • Titania
    • I worked on this for one night last week (April) and that was it. Time to move on.
  • Tsuru kame
  • Unicorn
  • Bountiful Blossoms
    • This was supposed to be a new start last October but with the move happening at that time, I never got it started. It came up on my Tiny Decisions App for this week so I started it this week.
Titania

And I realize that I didn’t even mention my to be quilted list… here.

  • Staycation – is finished! got this done before February ended!
  • Good Fortune
  • Glam Clam – this is under my Q20 needle as I quilt this one. I took a ruler work class and I’m using each clam to practice a different motif.
  • SoCal Quilt Run Area 4 Mystery Quilt from 2012
  • SoCal Quilt Run Area 4 Mystery Quilt from 2012
  • Provence
  • saved top from the august treasure hunt some years ago – I’m calling this my Orange quilt top and since this was at the top of my to be quilted pile, this is the one I’m working on next. I hope to get this finished in March but with 2 workshop classes and a very busy work schedule, I’m not going to be upset if I can’t finish it. I just want to be sure to work on it every weekend to help push me forward on getting this done!!!
    • This top is being quilted right now. I plan to be done quilting next week and will work on the binding, label and picture.
    • This was not done in time to be a finish in April. But I’m plugging along. I have the inner part quilted and my plan is to finish this in May.
  • Jan Krentz – diamond quilt – finished April 2021 and added to the to be quilted list…

Short List – May goals

  • Top 3 piecing quilts – Dancing with the Stars, Grassy Creek, Scrappy Stars Around the Corner
  • Hand work – Simple days, Raining Cats and Dogs
  • Knitting – morning socks, Weasley Sweater (front)
  • Cross Stitching – just do a bit on my weekly project every day (whatever tiny decisions selects)
  • To Be Quilted – Finish the orange quilt (finish quilting, add the label, do the binding, take a nice picture and post about it) – done.

I hope this isn’t so boring for you as it’s simply a short (but very long) list to quickly refer to everything I’m working on.

Happy Crafting!

Melanie

Cross Stitch: Gamer Nouveau

Gamer Nouveau 5/13/2021

Last week, Gamer came up on my Tiny Decisions App. And if you remember, my goal for 2021 was to finish row 3, which after some calculation, meant I would need to do ~700 stitches per week. I can tell you that that’s not going to happen. I struggled hard at the beginning of the year to do the 700 stitches per week and after a couple of months, put it away until now.

Here’s a close up of what I’ve worked on recently:

Gamer Nouveau 5/16/21

Happy Stitching!

~Melanie

Tuesday of week 21, 2021

Dancing with the Stars – block A

Short List – May goals

  • Top 3 piecing quilts – Dancing with the Stars, Grassy Creek, Scrappy Stars Around the Corner
  • Hand work – Simple days, Raining Cats and Dogs
  • Knitting – morning socks, Weasley Sweater (front)
  • Cross Stitching – just do a bit on my weekly project every day (whatever tiny decisions selects)
  • To Be Quilted – Finish the orange quilt (finish quilting, add the label, do the binding, take a nice picture and post about it) – DONE

How I did last week –

  1. Cross Stitch – I stitched on Gamer twice last week.
  2. Knitting – do 10 more rows on my Weasley Sweater and do the heels on my morning socks. – I did my 10 rows on the Weasley sweater and I finished the second heel on my morning socks.
  3. Gardening – watered the plans every other day or so
  4. Quilting:
    1. orange quilt top – get label and binding ready – done. I just kept going and finished the quilt. 🙂
    2. simple days, continue to embroider the 3rd block of the January clue. – I’m back in love with this project. Another one of my guild mates is working on this and I love what she’s doing. It’s inspiring me to move forward on it.
    3. Dancing with the stars – continue piecing more of Block A – I finished piecing all of Block A! So I set this aside while I worked on Grassy Creek
    4. Pull Out Grassy creek and start clue 5 – which meant I was able to pull this out, figure out where I was on Clue 5 and keep going. I’ll need to cut more fabric on the small 9 patches to get this part of the clue finished. => I have cut some more fabric and will start piecing again.

This Week:

  1. Cross Stitch – this week: Ariadne
  2. Simple Days – I have two zoom sessions with the cool quilty people on Tuesday and Wednesday so I plan to do a little on both days.
  3. Grassy Creek – Get the itty bitty 9-patches done. I will need to cut more fabric and I’m fussy cutting scraps so it takes much longer than strip piecing but it thrills me to no end to use up as much scraps as possible.
    1. I have 7 -9 patches done so quite a few more to go. I’m doing these the long hard way to use the most of my itty bitty scraps. I plan to keep working on this for now and will not move on to dancing with the stars until this is done.
  4. Dancing with the stars – figure out how many of Block B I need and start working on it. => haven’t done this yet.

Happy crafting, friends!

Melanie

Tuesday of week 20, 2021

I know I posted this picture yesterday. I think I can post another picture. 🙂

Short List – May goals

  • Top 3 piecing quilts – Dancing with the Stars, Grassy Creek, Scrappy Stars Around the Corner
  • Hand work – Simple days, Raining Cats and Dogs
  • Knitting – morning socks, Weasley Sweater (front)
  • Cross Stitching – just do a bit on my weekly project every day (whatever tiny decisions selects)
  • To Be Quilted – Finish the orange quilt (finish quilting, add the label, do the binding, take a nice picture and post about it)

How I did last week –

  1. Cross Stitch – I stitched on the dragonfly 3 times last week.
  2. Knitting – do 10 more rows on my Weasley Sweater and do the heels on my morning socks. – I did my 10 rows on the Weasley sweater and I finished 1 heel on my morning socks. I’m about a third of the way through the second heel. I was able to knit on my socks 4 times and on my Weasley Sweater.
  3. Gardening – I did finish planting the seedlings I had. I also went to Sego Nursery and bought more cosmos, marigolds, rosemary, orange balm and lemongrass.
  4. Quilting:
    1. orange quilt top – get label and binding ready – done. I just kept going and finished the quilt. 🙂
    2. simple days, continue to embroider the 3rd block of the January clue. – I fell out of love on this project. I worked on it a bit during my minigroup meeting but I used that time to work on the orange quilt top.
    3. Dancing with the stars – continue piecing more of Block A – I finished piecing all of Block A! So I set this aside while I worked on Grassy Creek
    4. Pull Out Grassy creek and start clue 5 – which meant I was able to pull this out, figure out where I was on Clue 5 and keep going. I’ll need to cut more fabric on the small 9 patches to get this part of the clue finished.

All in all, even though I worked a lot, I still go a lot of my crafting goals done. part of it is being super focused about what I want to get done this week and making sure I’ve got a list of things to do before each crafty session. Even if I only get 1 strand stitched on the cross stitch, that’s okay. I may not get done with it fast but I’m a process crafter so that’s 1 strand stitched.

This Week:

  1. Cross Stitch – this week I get to work on Gamer again. It’s been months since I pulled her out and I’m not done with that second row. I’m almost done but I think I can get it finished this week assuming I stitch every day.
  2. Simple Days – I only have one zoom session with the cool quilty people on Sunday so I plan to do a little bit on sunday.
  3. Grassy Creek – Get the itty bitty 9-patches done. I will need to cut more fabric and I’m fussy cutting scraps so it takes much longer than strip piecing but it thrills me to no end to use up as much scraps as possible.
  4. Dancing with the stars – figure out how many of Block B I need and start working on it.

Happy crafting, friends!

Melanie

Cross Stitch: A new start – Bountiful Blossoms #2 – Cheerful

Last week, Cheerful was my xstitch project of the week.

This was a SAL (Stitch A-Long) with Off the Grid Needlework Podcast that was supposed to start last October 2020. I had planned to participate as October is my birthday month and I thought this would be my birthday 2020 start and treat. Well, last October we just moved into our home and I was just too busy to start the project. I added this to my tiny decisions app and last sunday, the app picked this project for me to work on.

Here is what it will grow up to be:

Designer: Jeannette Douglas

I’m using the called for silks and things on 32 count linen. I bought the kit from 123stitch.com.

Here is where I ended up at the end of the week:

Bountiful Blossoms #2 – Cheerful

I was able to stitch 4 days last week and I enjoyed stitching with the silk. I’m not sure if it’s worth all the money silk costs but we’ll see how it goes.

Hopefully I am able to continue stitching this week.

Stitch on my crafty friends!

Melanie

Monday of week 19, 2021

Short List – May goals

  • Top 3 piecing quilts – Dancing with the Stars, Grassy Creek, Scrappy Stars Around the Corner
  • Hand work – Simple days, Raining Cats and Dogs
  • Knitting – morning socks, Weasley Sweater (front)
  • Cross Stitching – just do a bit on my weekly project every day (whatever tiny decisions selects)
  • To Be Quilted – Finish the orange quilt (finish quilting, add the label, do the binding, take a nice picture and post about it)

How I did last week –

Blooming Bouquets #2 Cheerful

  1. For my cross stitch – Blooming Bouquets #2: Cheerful – I stitched 4 times last week and below is a picture of where I left off.
  2. continue knitting on my morning socks and do at least 10 rows on my Weasley Sweater. – DONE
  3. Gardening – Plant the seedlings Julie gave me, as well as the others I bought this weekend. 🙂 – I did get a number of these planted but I still have a few more to plant. We got hit with a brief heat wave and my seedlings wilted by the end of each day of heat. I had to water twice a day to keep them going and it looks like they will be fine.
  4. Quilting
    1. finish quilting the orange quilt top – DONE
    2. Simple Days – continue embroidering the 3rd block of the January clue – worked on this and I’m still working on it.
    3. Dancing with the stars – continue piecing more of block A – worked on this a bit more and I’m still working on it.
    4. Pull out Grassy Creek and start clue – NOT done

This Week:

  1. Cross Stitch – this week I’m working on my Dragonfly piece.
  2. Knitting – do 10 more rows on my Weasley Sweater and do the heels on my morning socks.
  3. Gardening – finish planting the seedlings I have. I will be making my bi-weekly trip to Sego Nursery, my local garden nursery that I love to go to and check out what they have. I’m looking for nasturtiums, more basil, more mint, and whatever else I find.
  4. Quilting:
    1. orange quilt top – get label and binding ready
    2. simple days, continue to embroider the 3rd block of the January clue.
    3. Dancing with the stars – continue piecing more of Block A
    4. Pull Out Grassy creek and start clue 5.

Happy crafting, friends!

Melanie

2021 Crafty Plans, April Update and May plans

I can’t believe how fast time is marching along. I am reminded that time is a fixed notion and no matter how much I try to manage my time, there is only so much of it. I have to remind myself to say no to the things that do not matter and say yes to the things that do.

As always, I went into extensive detail on my plans here, for quilty here, for knitty here, and for cross stitch here.

Here’s the short list:

Quilts –

  • Jan Krentz – Diamond Star – At some point, I started working on this project again. I applique’d a center star and chose my border fabric. I plan to get the border done in April
    • Finished the top! 4/25/2021
  • Bonnie Hunter – Grassy Creek – I finished Clue 4 and I need to get started on Clue 5. See here for the most recent post.
    • I haven’t touched this since I posted this. Dancing with the stars jumped the line.
  • Scrappy Stars Around the Corner – no progress
  • Dancing with the Stars – I pulled this project out because Linda Ballard will be coming to our guild in 2022 and I want this quilt finished when she comes.
  • Radiant Jewel – no progress
  • Gardenvale – no progress
  • Allietare – no progress
  • Civil War Diary Quilt – no progress
  • Judy Niemeyer = Double Wedding Ring quilt – I started this with my Sunday quilty friends in January 2020 at a monthly class at one of our local quilt shops. Then covid happened and the world shut down. I got all the rings done and in October 2020 met with the teacher to help me get to the next step. But I didn’t touch it again until now. In fact, it wasn’t on my list of things I wanted to get done this year. But then the teacher set up a zoom session and suddenly, this is now on the list.
    • This was added to my list this month. My friend and I started this project in January 2020 with the intention of doing it together. But I’m very much a process crafter and I’ve not enjoyed working on this with my friend. When the pandemic hit, we put a pause on working on this because we were going to a monthly class that helped us move this along. That obviously ended in March 2020 and we hadn’t felt comfortable going back when they resumed classes. We tried last fall and got our next steps and started actually moving forward soon after the cushion project was done. Unfortunately, I’ve not enjoyed it. I am a bit competitive and working with someone brings that out in me. I feel like it’s a race when it shouldn’t be. This is all me and nothing to do with my friend. As a result I am setting it aside. I don’t want to feel that kind of pressure when quilting.

Hand work

  • Hawaiian block – finished top. At the moment, it’s hanging around where I can enjoy it. I’m still enjoying it so I’m in no rush to do anything with this project.
  • Raining Cats and Dogs – I continue to work a bit on this every Sunday. I wish I had the time to do a bit of quilting every day as I need the practice. It’s been a long time since I’ve hand quilted and I’m slowly starting to get back in the groove. I forgot how much I like hand quilting.
    • I’ve not worked on this all month. The cushion class took over and then I was struggling to catch up on the Simple Days BOM so this got waylaid. I will want to bring this out again.
  • Rainbow Garden – I’ve not touched this in about a year. I still haven’t touched it. … still not going to touch it.
  • Simple Days BOM – I started this and you can see my update here. I’m a little further along but I haven’t posted about it yet so I that’s something I need to do.
    • I still need to post an update.
  • Halloween quilt – I’ve not touched this in many years. 🙂

Knitting

  • My Weasley Sweater – my Q1 goal was to knit the back and I finished that. So I’ve set this aside until Q2.
    • Now that it’s April, I’ve started working on the front.
  • 24 days of Christmas Shawl from Jimmy Bean – finished! I am done weaving in the ends, so I need to get this blocked and then do my glamour shots.
    • still need to do my glamour shots. It’s been a surprisingly overcast April so I’ve not had a chance to do this.
  • Water Lily – finished knitting! I’m working on weaving in the ends during my Thursday knit nights.
    • the ends are woven in and I need to do my glamour shots
  • Beanie for Kayla
  • Tranquil Mist – Now that it’s April and the Weasley sweater is back on the priority daily list, this project was shifted down to a weekly project to be worked on on Thursday knit night.
  • Orient Express – I work on this one weekly and it’s still small enough that I enjoy it.
  • Blue Hat – pulled this out of hibernation, wound the second skein of yarn and have picked this back up for knit nights.

Cross Stitching

  • Gamer Nouveau – I haven’t touched this in weeks. I tried to get that one page done and didn’t and now I haven’t touched this. This is why focusing on one project doesn’t work for me because then I tend to not want to touch it for a long time. I’m trying to get over this.
    • I picked this up again and did about 300 stitches last week. (April)
  • A Stitch In Time – I am working on this one and I’m trying to get a diagonal done before going back to Gamer.
    • I worked on this a few weeks ago and I’ve set it aside for now. (April)
  • Shades of Red
  • Autumn Owls
  • Titania
    • I worked on this for one night last week (April) and that was it. Time to move on.
  • Tsuru kame
  • Unicorn
  • Bountiful Blossoms
    • This was supposed to be a new start last October but with the move happening at that time, I never got it started. It came up on my Tiny Decisions App for this week so I started it this week.
Titania

And I realize that I didn’t even mention my to be quilted list… here.

  • Staycation – is finished! got this done before February ended!
  • Good Fortune
  • Glam Clam
  • SoCal Quilt Run Area 4 Mystery Quilt from 2012
  • SoCal Quilt Run Area 4 Mystery Quilt from 2012
  • Provence
  • saved top from the august treasure hunt some years ago – I’m calling this my Orange quilt top and since this was at the top of my to be quilted pile, this is the one I’m working on next. I hope to get this finished in March but with 2 workshop classes and a very busy work schedule, I’m not going to be upset if I can’t finish it. I just want to be sure to work on it every weekend to help push me forward on getting this done!!!
    • This top is being quilted right now. I plan to be done quilting next week and will work on the binding, label and picture.
    • This was not done in time to be a finish in April. But I’m plugging along. I have the inner part quilted and my plan is to finish this in May.
  • Jan Krentz – diamond quilt – finished April 2021 and added to the to be quilted list…
Jan Krentz – Diamond quilt – finished 04/25/2021

Short List – May goals

  • Top 3 piecing quilts – Dancing with the Stars, Grassy Creek, Scrappy Stars Around the Corner
  • Hand work – Simple days, Raining Cats and Dogs
  • Knitting – morning socks, Weasley Sweater (front)
  • Cross Stitching – just do a bit on my weekly project every day (whatever tiny decisions selects)
  • To Be Quilted – Finish the orange quilt (finish quilting, add the label, do the binding, take a nice picture and post about it)

I hope this isn’t so boring for you as it’s simply a short (but very long) list to quickly refer to everything I’m working on.

Happy Crafting!

Melanie

Monday of week 18, 2021

auditioning fabric for the border

how I did last week –

  1. Cross stitch on Titania – I only stitched on her once.
  2. Continue knitting daily on my morning socks and Weasley Sweater. I want to get to this 100% next week. – I skipped my bullet journal last week so I’m not sure how well I did. I believe I knit probably 3 times last week and for my Weasley Sweater I’m about 1/4 of the way through. It’s almost 1/3 of the quarter so I’m a little behind schedule.
  3. Gardening – My friend Julie gave me some more seedlings so I’ll need to get those planted this week. – I planted one of the seedlings. I’ve got pole beans and something else to plant. I just can’t decide where to put them. I will need to determine that this week though.
  4. Quilting –
    1. finish quilting the orange quilt top – not done
    2. wash the new fabric for the border of the Jan Krentz quilt – done
    3. Judy Neimeyer – Double Wedding Rings – trim the pieces – done
    4. Simple Days – embroider the 3rd block of the January clue – worked on. It’s not done but it’s in progress
    5. Dancing with the Stars – continue piecing more of block A. – yes. I did this. It’s not finished but I’m working on it.

this week –

  1. For my cross stitch – I’m switching projects. More on this another time. But my tiny decisions app picked “bountiful blossoms”.
  2. continue knitting on my morning socks and do at least 10 rows on my Weasley Sweater.
  3. Gardening – Plan the seedlings Julie gave me, as well as the others I bought this weekend. 🙂
  4. Quilting
    1. finish quilting the orange quilt top
    2. Simple Days – continue embroidering the 3rd block of the January clue
    3. Dancing with the stars – continue piecing more of block A
    4. Pull out Grassy Creek and start clue

Happy crafting, friends!

Melanie

2021 Crafty Plans, March Update and April plans

I forgot to post my March Update. And it’s already mid April!

As always, I went into extensive detail on my plans here, for quilty here, for knitty here, and for cross stitch here.

Here’s the short list:

Quilts –

  • Jan Krentz – Diamond Star – At some point, I started working on this project again. I applique’d a center star and chose my border fabric. I plan to get the border done in April
  • Bonnie Hunter – Grassy Creek – I finished Clue 4 and I need to get started on Clue 5. See here for the most recent post.
    • I haven’t touched this since I posted this. Dancing with the stars jumped the line.
  • Scrappy Stars Around the Corner – no progress
  • Dancing with the Stars – I pulled this project out because Linda Ballard will be coming to our guild in 2022 and I want this quilt finished when she comes.
  • Radiant Jewel – no progress
  • Gardenvale – no progress
  • Allietare – no progress
  • Civil War Diary Quilt – no progress
  • Judy Niemeyer = Double Wedding Ring quilt – I started this with my Sunday quilty friends in January 2020 at a monthly class at one of our local quilt shops. Then covid happened and the world shut down. I got all the rings done and in October 2020 met with the teacher to help me get to the next step. But I didn’t touch it again until now. In fact, it wasn’t on my list of things I wanted to get done this year. But then the teacher set up a zoom session and suddenly, this is now on the list.

Hand work

  • Hawaiian block – finished top. At the moment, it’s hanging around where I can enjoy it. I’m still enjoying it so I’m in no rush to do anything with this project.
  • Raining Cats and Dogs – I continue to work a bit on this every Sunday. I wish I had the time to do a bit of quilting every day as I need the practice. It’s been a long time since I’ve hand quilted and I’m slowly starting to get back in the groove. I forgot how much I like hand quilting.
  • Rainbow Garden – I’ve not touched this in about a year. I still haven’t touched it.
  • Simple Days BOM – I started this and you can see my update here. I’m a little further along but I haven’t posted about it yet so I that’s something I need to do.
  • Halloween quilt – I’ve not touched this in many years. 🙂

Knitting

  • My Weasley Sweater – my Q1 goal was to knit the back and I finished that. So I’ve set this aside until Q2.
    • Now that it’s April, I’ve started working on the front.
  • 24 days of Christmas Shawl from Jimmy Bean – finished! I am done weaving in the ends, so I need to get this blocked and then do my glamour shots.
    • still need to do my glamour shots
  • Water Lily – finished knitting! I’m working on weaving in the ends during my Thursday knit nights.
    • the ends are woven in and I need to do my glamour shots
  • Beanie for Kayla
  • Tranquil Mist – Now that it’s April and the Weasley sweater is back on the priority daily list, this project was shifted down to a weekly project to be worked on on Thursday knit night.
  • Orient Express – I work on this one weekly and it’s still small enough that I enjoy it.
  • Blue Hat – pulled this out of hibernation, wound the second skein of yarn and have picked this back up for knit nights.

Cross Stitching

  • Gamer Nouveau – I haven’t touched this in weeks. I tried to get that one page done and didn’t and now I haven’t touched this. This is why focusing on one project doesn’t work for me because then I tend to not want to touch it for a long time. I’m trying to get over this.
    • I picked this up again and did about 300 stitches last week.
  • A Stitch In Time – I am working on this one and I’m trying to get a diagonal done before going back to Gamer.
    • I worked on this a few weeks ago and I’ve set it aside for now.
  • Shades of Red
  • Autumn Owls
  • Titania
  • Tsuru kame
  • Unicorn

And I realize that I didn’t even mention my to be quilted list… here.

  • Staycation – is finished! got this done before February ended!
  • Good Fortune
  • Glam Clam
  • SoCal Quilt Run Area 4 Mystery Quilt from 2012
  • SoCal Quilt Run Area 4 Mystery Quilt from 2012
  • Provence
  • saved top from the august treasure hunt some years ago – I’m calling this my Orange quilt top and since this was at the top of my to be quilted pile, this is the one I’m working on next. I hope to get this finished in March but with 2 workshop classes and a very busy work schedule, I’m not going to be upset if I can’t finish it. I just want to be sure to work on it every weekend to help push me forward on getting this done!!!
    • This top is being quilted right now. I plan to be done quilting next week and will work on the binding, label and picture.

I hope this isn’t so boring for you as it’s simply a short (but very long) list to quickly refer to everything I’m working on.

Happy Crafting!

Melanie