Tag Archives: 2020 Goals

Mugrugs, Coasters and orphan blocks…

 

 

I finally bound these little mats. They were orphan blocks made for one reason or another. The top one was for a paper piecing workshop offered through my guild. I used these mats to practice on my Q20 (among others) and finally got around to binding it.  Don’t tell anyone but I forgot to take the paperwork out of the top one so it’s crinkly.  I don’t care.  They will Most likely be used as coasters or mugrugs.  I love them and plan to give them away to friends.  Since the quarantine we’ve been passing along various items to each other – oranges from the trees, yeast, sourdough starters, chili, cookies, bread, etc.  So I’ll slip these and the others I’ve finally finished up.

~ Happy Monday,

btw, I’m feeling better this week and have high hopes in accomplishing a lot…

<3

Melanie

 

2020 Crafty Plans: Everything Else – sewing, bag making, etc etc

Good Morning,

Sundays are my sew days. I’m currently taking a class at my sewing machine shop and plan to continue with the Sunday sew days.

I started with Dress No. 1 from 100 Acts of Sewing. Here’s how it turned out:

I really love it but it’s a little too big. So I’m going to make another in a smaller size.  I already have the fabric for it and it’s washed and ready. Before I do that I will be making the Megan Dress in LAFS:

I’ve already started tracing the pattern onto a thin interfacing and cut out fabric.  Before my next class, I will need to finish marking the registration marks on the fabric and sewing up the darts.  At the next class I’ll be ready to sew all the pieces together.

Other projects down the line is to continue working my way through the book, LAFS, and get more confident in my garment sewing skills. I have dress no 2 and skirt no 1 from 100 acts of sewing to do as well.  Those projects seem to be on the simpler side so I can probably do those on the Sundays my sewing class does not convene.

Once a month, I want to work on bag making. I have a roll of 2 yards of vinyl that I bought specifically to make project bags. I also have kits of bags I purchased at various shows over the years that I want to complete.

And finally, I want to work on card making as well.  I have finally finished all my blank cards and holiday cards that were in a box to use for any occasion.  I have a ton of supplies for card making since my scrapbooking days that I just need to take the time to make them and then I’ll have them to use.  I just need to schedule this and my bag making days into my calendar.

Happy new year!

Melanie

2020 Crafty Plans: Knitting

Good morning,

For Knitting, I plan to knit on socks every morning for 15 minutes.  I am currently knitting some sock tubes and when I use up the yarn I will be adding cuffs and then putting an afterthought heel.  When those are done, I’m going to work on some slipper socks that my Knitting BFF says will be fast.  and then I’ve got a third pair of socks that I’ve wound the yarn for and will work on.

Last year I kitted up 15 sock projects and over the course of the year picked a project at random whenever I finished a project.  I finished the year with about 6 or 7 projects untouched.  This year, I kitted up 13 sock projects with yarn and pattern in a project bag. This includes the projects that rolled over from last year. Knitting 15 minutes every morning Monday thru Friday takes me about 2 months to knit a pair.  Some projects will be finished faster and some take a bit longer.  So I hope to get through about half of these kitted projects in 2020.

Other than my socks, my priority project is Ricky’s Weasley Sweater.  Like I said in a previous post, I have a long term goal for each of my family to have a Weasley Sweater.  In 2018, Kayla’s was finished, Jacob’s was finished in 2019.  I am working on Ricky’s for 2020 and mine in 2021.  I would have started on mine in 2020 but I’m still waiting for the yarn.  So Ricky’s Sweater has a drop-dead deadline of Xmas 2020.  All of my other projects do not have a deadline so I work on them as I feel like it. Since this has to be done, I plan to work a couple of rows every evening Monday thru Friday.

On Thursdays, it’s knit night.  My local yarn shop is closing in January so my little knitting group will need to find a new place to knit on Thursdays.  I’m so sad to see it close but the owners are retiring and are excited for new retirement adventures.  I’m happy that they are moving on happily rather than other not so nice reasons that many of our local crafty shops have fallen to.  But at knit night, I do not work on my socks. I work on other more fun projects that I usually do not have time for during the week. Here they are and I’m sorry I do not have any pictures.  I’m travelling as I write this and my projects are sitting at home waiting for me.

Fairy Hill Shawl – I’m about 70% done with this project and it’s my next priority project because it’s very close to being done. I really only have about 30 rows or so left and I try to do the difficult row during the week because it’s harder for me to work on that during knit night. Too much fun happening that I’m not able to actually pay attention to my knitting sometimes. At knit night, I knit the wrong side row which is just a bunch of purls and can easily be done during knit night. Just so you have an idea, a row contains about 350 stitches right now and every row there’s an increase of about 4 stitches.

24 days of Christmas Shawl from Jimmy Bean- This is the shawl I started last December (2019) with my Advent Calendar I purchased from Jimmy Bean. During the month of December I knitted a couple of rows a day. But now in January, I pushed this down the priority list and only work on it during knit night.

By the time I get to this point at knit night, my knitting friend Liz gets in from work and we are working on the mix wave cowl together.  We are both a bit overwhelmed with this project and it helps when we have our BFF Knitting guru, Mindy, there to help walk us through any questions we have, which we have a lot of.

Then I work on my Water Lily top for a handful of rows.

My travel project is a headband for Kayla and I was halfway through my final one.  Unfortunately I didn’t have enough yarn so I ripped it up.  I have a skein of a different red yarn. I will make a beanie for her with that and when the beanie is done I will use the remaining yarn and the rest of the first yarn to make the headband for her. My plan is to alternate every row so we get a striped affect.  Both yarns are red but they are different enough that you could tell.

At Stitches SoCal last November I bought a kit and yarn for a number of various projects.  They are numbered and kitted up on my shelves. When the Fairy Hill Shawl and the Advent Shawl is done, I will work on the Orient Express shawl.  I have yarn for 3 hats and I need to find patterns for them. When the mix wave cowl is done, Liz, Mindy and our knitting group will be working on the Soldotna, a color work hat, Tranquil Mist Twinkle shawl, Wine Country shawl, or color work mittens.  I think we’ve got a bunch of KALs going on and I’m not entirely sure what’s next. When my Water Lily top is done, I’ve got purple cashmere yarn set aside for a sweater for me. I just need to figure out which pattern I want to work on. That’s a lot of projects that are queued up and as one project is completed, another is ready to take its place.

~here’s to a great knitty 2020!

Melanie

2020 Crafty Plans: Cross Stitch

Last year I didn’t finish any of my cross stitch goals but I made a lot of progress on everything. So I moved my projects over to this year and added new ones.  Because I’m crazy and I am loving my stitching right now.

Mama’s Bukid – Cross Stitch Priority Project #1

Mama’s Bukid
12/24/2019

My goal for December was to finish 2.5 columns and I only got halfway.  So I do not think I’ll be finishing this in February as I had intended.  I am struggling hard with finishing this project.  Part of it was that December had a lot of events and family and friend time.  All of it was wonderful and time well spent but my cross stitch time was hurt.  And I am totally unmotivated with this project.  I have had to force myself to work on this.  It is really hard but it’s so close to finishing that I can’t stop, it’s just taking me longer.

Gamer Nouveau – Cross Stitch Project priority #2

My goal for 2019 was to finish 6 pages but I only got 2.5 pages done.  I will work on this one week a month until Bukid is done and then I can work on this two weeks a month.  I hope that this year I will be able to get 6 pages done. There are a ton of pages and I do want to get this done sooner rather than later. I started using a new app called Pattern Keeper and it has changed my stitchy life.  It has taken a lot of the struggles I’ve had working on full coverage pieces. I’m currently at 20% completed on this project.

And because I like big projects (or BAPs – Big A$$ Projects), the new cross stitch project – priority #3 is a HAED (Heaven And Earth Design) which is a full coverage piece also.  Here’s my current spot:

And here’s what it will grow up to be:

Each of those gridlines marks a page and I’m still only on page 2. I do not have a goal for this year other than working on it each month.

I’m also working on a smaller project: A kiss for Snowman

This is only about 6″ square but I’m not enjoying this project at all. I only work on it when I’m travelling. On my personal retreats I may take this with me to do some stitching.  Hopefully, this will be done soon and I can start a new small project.  I am currently in love with full coverage projects and I’ve got another one started but I rarely work on it.  I do have a lot of projects kitted up and I plan to start another 2 or 3 over the course of this year.  But, the 4 projects shown above are my top priority projects for now.

Happy new year!

Melanie

2020 Crafty Plans

Over the last 3-4 years I’ve added more crafts to my crafty life and I only have so much time for crafts.  Time is a fixed element.  There is only so much time and I love to do all the things. I quilt, knit, cross stitch and now I’m learning to sew and make project bags, and on and on and on.  Over the holiday break I used my gifted Christmas money to get a bobbin lacemaking kit.  I’ve got a ton of half done projects and plans for other projects but not enough time to do everything I want to do.  So rather than have goals each month of making progress on certain things I’ve decided to dedicate time to different crafts.

To summarize my crazy, I knit on my socks for 15 minutes every morning and 1-2 rows on my high priority knitting project every evening Monday thru Friday.  I cross stitch on my projects every evening Monday thru Friday. I quilt on Saturdays and I sew on Sundays.  Obviously if something comes up like an event or party or meeting, I will not be crafting. As a result, I like to avoid attending events and tend to stay home or hang out with like minded crafty people (just kidding – I still go out and see friends and family, I’m not totally crazy…. yet).

So here is a list of projects I will be working on during the craft times:

Quilting: So even though I’ve added new crafts to my life I still consider myself a Quilter with a capital Q.  And over the next year I want to learn to use my new machine (*more on that later when it arrives).  I want to learn how to service my featherweight, I’m taking a year long Judy Niemeyer class, take the monthly workshops offered by my quilt guild, take the embroidery class offered at my local sewing machine shop, do more hand work, and finish more of my WIPs.

My current WIPs:

Staycation

This is not really a WIP because the top is done. I just need to quilt it. I actually have this and possibly two other tops and a multitude of smaller projects ready to be quilted.  Those are top on my list to finish and will be done when my new machine arrives*.

Good Fortune 

Good Fortune
1/1/2020

I am currently finished with Border #3.  I’m working on the 4th and final border.

Glam Clam

I’ve been doing a row at a time at the various retreats I’ve gone to over the last 2 years and I only have about 3 rows left.

Scrappy Stars – I do not have a good picture of this because this was a mystery quilt from a few years ago and I’m currently on step 4 or something.  I believe that I’m at the point where I start putting the pieces together to make blocks. But right now, there are just a bunch of pieces…

Area One Mystery Quilt – 

This is another project I’ve been working on primarily at retreats.  I actually have two more sets of blocks done and I only have another 2 sets of blocks left before I can start piecing the blocks together. I know that doesn’t make any sense but I’m getting so close to a finish.  Here’s how the center looks which I got done after the above picture was taken.

Craftsy Mystery quilt from a long time ago by Kimberly Einmo.  I cannot remember where I am with this project but I started it at the last retreat I went to.

Area Two  Mystery quilt – I finished all the blocks that I have but apparently I do not have the finishing instructions!  So now I have a bunch of blocks that I have to figure out how to put together.  I will work on this at a retreat because I need a big design space and fellow retreat attendees’ help to decide how to move forward.

Dancing with the Stars by Linda Ballard – I pulled this out and started working on it again at the last retreat I went to and the last time I worked on this was in 2013.

Dancing With the Stars
2-Block A and Snowball

I get a lot of work done at retreats I attend throughout the year. These are formal retreats for my guild, and various retreats offered by shops but I also plan personal retreats with friends and with my family.  I generally work on one project at home and that is currently Good Fortune and when that is done I’ll work through this list in order.

This is a lot for one post so I’m putting my other crafts for other days.

Happy new year!

Melanie