Category Archives: Get It Done

20

Jan. ’20

Monday’s POA, Week 3, 2020

I won’t say last week was a fail.  I didn’t get to spend as much time on my crafts as I like and as I plan but I spent time with friends and family. Especially my daughter who has now left for Boston and my parents who are still here.

And this week life seems to continue to run amok at a break neck pace. Today is a holiday and I had planned to get some work done this morning to catch up on some things that I’ve been procrastinating about.  Then spend the afternoon at a friend’s house quilting before I head over to my Monday yoga class with another friend.  This plan is already potentially going to be scrapped as I wasn’t able to get any work done over the weekend which means I have to do those things today.

Tuesday and Wednesday I’ll be in Century City for work. This means nothing to you probably but for me, it’s about an hour and a half drive one way. In the morning, it can go as long as 2 hours depending on traffic.  Both evenings I’ve got a guild thing to do. Tuesday evening I have my mini group meeting at my place so even though I’m going to be in Century City during the day, I should be back by 6pm for my 7pm meeting. I will be working on my long standing WIP of A Rainbow Garden (wool applique) or my hand quilting project, Raining Cats and Dogs. It really depends on which project my hands can do. Lately I’ve been quilting more than appliqueing for some reason.

Wednesday evening, I have a guild committee meeting at a guild mates house.  Nothing crafty there. Just discussions on how we can increase membership to our guild.  As with a lot of traditional organizations (quilt guilds and other organizations), membership is slowly decreasing as our older members choose the day guild (ours is the night guild) or pass away or move away.  Let me know if you have any ideas.

Thursday is knit night and afterwards a friend and I will drive over to Ontario for Road to California!  This is a show I’ve gone to almost every year since returning to Los Angeles in 2014.  I love it when I can afford the funds and the time to take a class and this year I am lucky enough to do so. And even better, I have a hotel room so we even though it’s not too far, it’s so much better to stay in the area.  I’ll be gone until Sunday.

So, there will not be a lot of time crafting this week. But I’ll be able to report back on Road and the classes I attend.

Happy crafty week!

Melanie

 

 

 

 

Posted by . Categories: 2020 Crafty Goals, Get It Done, Quilting. Tags: . 2 Comments

08

Aug. ’17

Getting my sewjo back… fixing the space where it all happens

Earlier this year, we got rid of our office space (outside of the home) and opted to save money and move everyone virtual.  For me, that meant my sewing room/office became my full-time office.  And part time sewing room.  While I love working from home, every time the weekend and evenings came, I would stay out of this space.  That meant that my happy place was no longer my happy place and I stayed away from that room whenever I was not working.  I decided things weren’t working.  I want to sew again but I was cramped and I had no room to pull things out and craft. I needed a change and I needed to revamp my space so it would once again be a place of joy.

Here’s what it looked like before:

 

It’s so cluttered and full of stuff.  A couple of weekends ago the hubby promised to help move out the big entertainment center and move another piece of heavy furniture in its place.  Since he agreed to do that I didn’t see any harm in just changing the whole room around.  To help with the change, I moved everything out.

And here’s my room rearranged:

 

It’s still a work in progress.  There is a bunch of stuff cluttered around that I need to organize better and I’ve still got a lot of stuff waiting to be put away in my living room.  But I also got rid of a lot of stuff (thrown away, to be sold, or to be donated).  But I’m much happier now with it the way it is.  And I hope as I continue to craft and work in here I will find other ways to make it better.

~happy crafting!

~Melanie

Posted by . Categories: 2017 Goals, Get It Done, Living Simply, sewing. Tags: . 1 Comment

16

Oct. ’14

Priorities and To Dos…

Okay. This is a long post.  That’s my warning.  If you’ve followed my blog for any bit of time, you can see I talk about the same three projects from week to week to week.  Basically, every month, I hit the same three projects.  In case you’re new, they are:

  1. BOM – Tell It To the Stars by Judy Laquidara at Patchwork Times
  2. BOM – Moon Glow
  3. BOM – Hampton Ridge

Every once in awhile, during months where I had more quilting time, I worked on a second list of projects… I lovingly call this my wish list.  That wish list changes during the year but right now, this is it:

  1. Quilt Flowers and Baskets
  2. Hand applique Raining Cats and Dogs
  3. cutting for Scrapitude 2015
  4. Celtic Solstice

That’s pretty much all I have time to get to each month.  I very rarely reach Celtic Solstice because by then, the month usually resets and I’m back to Tell It To The Stars.  So… the BOMs are ending pretty soon.  Tell It To The Stars is ending November or December.  I’m on the final block for Moon Glow and will be starting the finishing instructions next month.  I’m on the final set of blocks for Hampton Ridge and will be starting the finishing instructions soon also.  As they get done and off the list, it makes room for Bonnie’s mystery quilt, Grand Illusion! from December – January and then off the priority list and down to the wish list.  Then Scrapitude 2015 will be on the top 3 list from January until May.  And then what happens?  I’ve got a ton of things just waiting to jump onto the wish list and then the priority list.  I do not want to start anything new and I do not want to buy fabric without a project in mind.  But I have no room for new projects and I have no room for new fabric so… I have to get them on the list to get them finished.

Here’s what I’m thinking, every year NewFO Challenge happens.  I wanted to do it this year but I can’t imaging how insane I’ll be if I started something new each month.

So I’m tweaking it for myself for next year.  Instead of working on something new each month.  I will work on a new UFO each month.  It won’t take the place of my priority projects but will be in the second category (where Celtic Solstice is now).  That way all my UFOs that are floating around waiting for space in my top three projects can still feel the love (at least for a month).

Here’s my list of projects I want to hit up next year in no particular order:

  1. A Rainbow Garden (which will one day take the place of Raining Cats and Dogs)
  2. My Hawaiian Quilt (started at PIQF 2013 and will be the next hand project after A Rainbow Garden)
  3. BOM from LQS 2012/13 Asian Color Way
  4. BOM from LQS 2012/13 Provence Color Way
  5. Thimbleberries #2
  6. Grandma’s Flower Garden
  7. Craftsy BOM 2012
  8. Corduroy Quilt
  9. Dancing with the Stars (started at PIQF 2013)
  10. Kimberly Einmo’s mystery quilt from Craftsy in 2013 (or 2012?)
  11. Missing Ivy
  12. Sylvia’s Bridal Quilt in Red and White
  13. Lucky Star BOM

I know I’ve listed 13 and there are only 12 months out of the year.  But I’m thinking of frogging Craftsy BOM 2012.  I only did the first two months and I did not pick out fabrics for the year and I’m not toatlly in love with the quilt.  So… it’s on there for now but may come off when I solidify my list.

All of these projects are stored away in my sewing studio, shelves, drawers, with the intent that they will move into the top 3 spots as the BOMs and other projects move off.  But they haven’t made it to the top of the list for one reason or another.  I still have a bunch of KITS that are not opened, but hidden away outside of my sewing studio.  Not to mention the ever growing list of quilts I WANT to make.

  1. Dear Jane
  2. Swoon
  3. the patterns I have but didn’t buy fabric for
  4. etc. etc. etc.

Okay, now I’m getting carried away and I’m driving myself crazy… I will let it go at this point… but this is what is in my head and sometime before the new year, I’ll be putting rhyme to reason… the projects will be put in some sort of order and assigned months for me to work on them.  I’ll probably work on my monthly lists too so that they are in line.

I used to link to Judy’s “Get It Done” monthly list at PatchworkTimes.com but she stopped doing those this year.  I’ve been looking for a good replacement.  I try to post at “A Lovely Year of Finishes” at Fiber of All Sorts and “Finish Along” at The Littlest Thistle.  But it hasn’t worked as well for me.  I think it is because they concentrate on finishes while I do not finish things that fast.  If you know of a good blog where I can just post my goals for the month and share with others, please let me know.

 

Posted by . Categories: Get It Done. Tags: , , , . 3 Comments

14

Oct. ’14

Tuesday ToDo’s

October’s To Do List

  1. Tell It to The Stars – October clue – DONE 10/4/14
  2. Moon Glow – Block #11 – PIECES ARE CUT; NEED TO PRINT THE FOUNDATION PAPER
    1. NEXT: applique the center and piece the borders of the block on
  3. Hampton Ridge – Month 9, 10, 11
  4. Finish Quilting Flowers and Baskets* – QUILTED 2 BLOCKS
  5. Raining Cats and Dogs – work on this a little bit at a time. – WORKING ON PIECE #2
  6. Practice FMQ**
  7. Celtic Solstice – Step 5
  8. (added later) Get the med/dark pieces cut for Scrapitude

This week, I plan to do:

  • Work on Raining Cats and Dogs during the week.  Since I started working on it last weekend, the project is laid out all over my sewing table.
  • Kayla’s Cowl – this is almost done.  I’ve only got 2 more rows to do.
  • Moon Glow – applique the center, piece the borders
  • Hampton Ridge – last 4 blocks (#38-41)

~Happy Quilting

Melanie

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07

Oct. ’14

Tuesday ToDo’s

October’s To Do List

  1. Tell It to The Stars – October clue – DONE 10/4/14
  2. Moon Glow – Block #11 – PIECES ARE CUT; NEED TO PRINT THE FOUNDATION PAPER
  3. Hampton Ridge – Month 9, 10, 11
  4. Finish Quilting Flowers and Baskets* – QUILTED 2 BLOCKS
  5. Raining Cats and Dogs – work on this a little bit at a time. – WORKING ON PIECE #2
  6. Practice FMQ**
  7. Celtic Solstice – Step 5
  8. (added later) Get the med/dark pieces cut for Scrapitude

This week, I plan to do:

  • Moon Glow – at a minimum, I plan to print the pages I need and put together the foundation part of Block #11.  If I can get the whole block finished, I’ll be pleasantly surprised.
  • Work on Raining Cats and Dogs during the week.  Since I started working on it last weekend, the project is laid out all over my sewing table.
  • Kayla’s Cowl – this is almost done.  I’ve only got 2 more rows to do.

~Happy Quilting

Melanie

Posted by . Categories: Get It Done, Quilting. Tags: , , . Leave a comment

01

Oct. ’14

Quilty Goals – October, 2014

This month flew by fast and I didn’t get nearly as much as I normally get done.

September Goals

  1. Tell It to The Stars – September clue  DONE
  2. Moon Glow – Block #10 DONE
  3. Hampton Ridge – Month 9, 10, 11
  4. Finish Quilting Flowers and Baskets*
  5. Raining Cats and Dogs – continue to work on this a little bit at a time.
  6. Practice FMQ**
  7. Celtic Solstice – Step 5

October Goals

  1. Tell It to The Stars – October clue
  2. Moon Glow – Block #11
  3. Hampton Ridge – Month 9, 10, 11
  4. Finish Quilting Flowers and Baskets*
  5. Raining Cats and Dogs – work on this a little bit at a time.
  6. Practice FMQ**
  7. Celtic Solstice – Step 5

 

PRIORITIES –
Quilting Station – Flowers and Baskets
Piecing Station – The BOMs
Hand Station – Raining Cats and Dogs

* One of my Quarterly FAL items

**One of my 2014 Quilty Resolutions

~Happy Quilting

Melanie

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01

Sep. ’14

Quilty Goals – September, 2014

A Lovely Year of Finishes

August Goals

  1. Continue working on myBOMs
  2. Quilt Flowers and Baskets*
    • This quilt is basted and just needs to be quilted.  I’m planning on giving it to my mother.
  3. Block # 7 (THE LAST BLOCK) of Raining Cats and Dogs
    • This is the last block
  4. Practice FMQ**
  5. Take out and play with a new project just for kicks**

I actually got a lot finished this month.  For the BOMs, I’m caught up with Tell It To The Stars and Moon Glow.  I was able to get Month 8 finished for Hampton Ridge.  So for September, I should be fine staying caught up with the first two and be in a pretty good position to get a lot done with Hampton Ridge as well.  I’ve got 3 blocks in Month 9 to finish, 4 blocks in Month 10 and then Month 11 is part 1 of the finishing kit. As we head towards the end of the year, the BOMs are finishing up.  Tell It To The Stars is getting close to wrapping up.  The September clue basically has me arranging the blocks together and putting the sashing around each of the blocks.  Moon Glow has 2 more kits arriving and I think Hampton Ridge has only 1 last kit.  I think I’ll take a little break from BOMs once it is all done.  I think by the time the last kits arrive we’ll be heading into November.  If I stay caught up I should be finishing things up around then and Bonnie Hunter’s next mystery quilt will be starting.  I still have old BOMs that are now UFOs that I have to finish up so, right now the plan is to pull those out and start working on those as my current WIPs finish up and sit in the quilting queue.

Flowers and Baskets is being quilted.  I have a method in mind and I’ve got a third of the flowers and baskets quilted.  I do not have a lot of energy to quilt everything at one time and I lose motivation fast.  So even though it takes a lot more effort, I pretty much change out my machine from quilting to piecing on a regular basis.  If I had the space, I would pull out Kayla’s bernette and use that one while my machine is set for quilting.  For September, the plan is to get this all quilted.  If I could get this all quilted and bound, then my Q3 FAL would be finished and I would be ecstatic.  But at my rate, I’ll be happy to get it all quilted.  This would be Finish #5 and only 1 quilt to accomplish my 2014 goal.

I finally got started on Block #7 for Raining Cats and Dogs.  The background has been pieced together and I started appliqueing the first piece down.  The goal is to do a little each week, however much I get done.  So, the goal for September is to work on this weekly.

I was able to get a bit of practice for FMQ.  I worked on 3-4 practice sandwiches and finished up the sandwiches I prepped and started at my machine quilting class at PIQF 2013.  I also started watching Leah Day’s Craftsy Class on FMQ while I was working on Block 33 last night.

September Goals

  1. Tell It to The Stars – September clue
  2. Moon Glow – Block #10
  3. Hampton Ridge – Month 9, 10, 11
  4. Finish Quilting Flowers and Baskets*
  5. Raining Cats and Dogs – continue to work on this a little bit at a time.
  6. Practice FMQ**
  7. Celtic Solstice – Step 5

PRIORITIES –
Quilting Station – Flowers and Baskets
Piecing Station – The BOMs
Hand Station – Raining Cats and Dogs

* One of my Quarterly FAL items

**One of my 2014 Quilty Resolutions

See more quilty goals at  A Lovely Year of Finishes

~Happy Quilting

Melanie

Posted by . Categories: Get It Done, Quilting. 3 Comments

23

Aug. ’14

The Weekend Line Up

I was able to get Moon Glow caught up last weekend so 2 of my 3 BOMs are caught up.  I’ve got 3 kits of Hampton Ridge in a pile for me to complete and that’s one of the top to do items for this weekend.  For some reason – I’m not feeling Hampton Ridge right now.  I have a feeling it’s because I’m so behind and unlike the other BOMs – 3 kits translates to 12 blocks.  Oh well, I’ve just got to put my big girl pants on and just start doing it.  Hopefully, I’ll start getting into it once I do.  That’s what happened with Moon Glow last week.  I didn’t have any intention to finish up Moon Glow so I hope that whatever bug got into me then will get me going on Hampton Ridge.

I have been keeping myself busy on other things.  I actually started quilting Flowers and Baskets.  I realized the other day that my finish quilt goal this year is 6.  I’ve already finished 4 so I only have 2 more to go.  While I’m doing well on my BOMs, none of them will be ready for quilting and finishing this year.  Which means, I have to take two of my finished tops and quilt them by the end of the year to meet my goal.  I have three quilts on my target list to finish for 2014.  Those are Raining Cats and Dogs, Missing Ivy, and Celtic Solstice.  All three of those are nowhere near ready to be quilted so I doubt that they will be done this year.  I originally wrote that list at the beginning of the year so I need 1 other quilt to finish.  I think that will be Month by Month.  That is my last quilt top waiting to be quilted.  So over the next couple of months I’ll be quilting Flowers and Baskets on my little Bernina.  Then once that is done, I’ll be quilting Month by Month.  And by the end of the year I will meet my 6 quilts for 2014 goal.  🙂

Quilting Flowers and Baskets

Quilting Flowers and Baskets

Right now I’m quilting the straight lines on Flowers and Baskets with a walking foot.  I’ll be done with that this weekend.  Then, I’ll be quilting inside the blocks of flowers and baskets.  That may take me a little while as it’s a mix of straight lines and FMQ.  But they’re going to be different on each block.  Then I’m going to work on FMQ on the empty blocks between the flowers and baskets.  I’m still not sure what to put there but they’ll be the same on each empty square.  And finally, I’ll quilt the borders.  Everything within the borders will be quilted with black Aurifil 50w.  The borders will be quilted with a purple Aurifil 50w.

 

Celtic Solstice - Step 4 4 Patches 100 assembled the rest waiting for me

Celtic Solstice – Step 4
4 Patches
300 assembled

I was also able to finish up Step 4 of Celtic Solstice.  I’ll check out what’s involved with Step 5 and put that on next week’s to do list. 🙂

So this weekend’s lineup is:

  1. finish straight line quilting Flowers and Baskets
  2. Practice FMQ
  3. Hampton Ridge
  4. get the next part of Block 7 for Raining Cats and Dogs set up for applique-ing.

Happy Quilting!

~Melanie

 

Posted by . Categories: Get It Done, Hampton Ridge, Month by Month, Quilting, Raining Cats and Dogs. Tags: , , , , . Leave a comment

15

Aug. ’14

Quilty Goals Update – August, 2014

 

Tell It To The Stars August Clue 8/14/2014

Tell It To The Stars
August Clue
8/14/2014

I barely finished the August Clue for Tell It To The Stars last night.  This month’s clue required quite a bit more cutting than the previous months and it just took a lot longer for me to finish.  I’ve been on vacation these last couple of weeks and I had hoped to spend more time in my sewing room.  But, vacation for a business owner doesn’t really happen unless I leave my house, put away the laptop and do not have internet access.  So – I spent more time working than I wanted to.  However, I was able to spend a few days in Carlsbad, CA and finally take the boy to Legoland.  I’m really glad I did as I’m pretty sure he would be too old for it next year.  With that said, I better get my act together if I want to get more than 1 item done on my August list.

August Goals

  1. ContinueworkingonmyBOMs
    • Tell It To The Stars -> August only – DONE
    • Moon Glow – Block 7 and 8 – #9 will be here shortly (YES, #9 IS HERE NOW SO I’VE GOT 3 BLOCKS TO FINISH)
    • Hampton Ridge – Kits for Month 8 and 9 – #10 will be here shortly (#10 IS HERE TOO SO I’VE GOT 3 MONTH’S TO FINISH)
  2. Quilt Flowers and Baskets*
    • This quilt is basted and just needs to be quilted.  I’m planning on giving it to my mother.
  3. Block # 7 (THE LAST BLOCK) of Raining Cats and Dogs
    • This is the last block
  4. Practice FMQ**
  5. Take out and play with a new project just for kicks**

PRIORITIES –
Quilting Station – Flowers and Baskets
Piecing Station – The BOMs
Hand Station – Raining Cats and Dogs

* One of my Quarterly FAL items

**One of my 2014 Quilty Resolutions

~Happy Quilting

Melanie

Posted by . Categories: Get It Done, Quilting, Tell It To The Stars. Tags: , , . 2 Comments

05

Aug. ’14

Quilty Goals – August, 2014

A Lovely Year of Finishes

July Goals –

  1. Easy Street* – Finish the binding and label this baby! 🙂 – DONE! I actually finished this early in July.
  2. My goal for July is to get caught up on my BOMs

August Goals

  1. Continue working onmyBOMs
  2. Quilt Flowers and Baskets*
    • This quilt is basted and just needs to be quilted.  I’m planning on giving it to my mother.
  3. Block # 7 (THE LAST BLOCK) of Raining Cats and Dogs
    • This is the last block
  4. Practice FMQ**
  5. Take out and play with a new project just for kicks**

PRIORITIES –
Quilting Station – Flowers and Baskets
Piecing Station – The BOMs
Hand Station – Raining Cats and Dogs

* One of my Quarterly FAL items

**One of my 2014 Quilty Resolutions

See more quilty goals at  A Lovely Year of Finishes

~Happy Quilting

Melanie

Posted by . Categories: Get It Done, Quilting. Tags: . Leave a comment