With my decision to join One Monthly Goal comes also the necessity to check my progress more regularly.
Finished
One Monthly Goal
The goal was to finish all plus blocks for No. 4 on my FAL list. And they are all done! Most of them even have their sashing. And all the blocks for the backing are also done.
Do I need to tweak the layout a lot? Hopefully as the fabrics are so diverse, they can stay mostly as they are. With a recent fabric order some black on white snuck into my cart. I will wait for this fabric to arrive and might add some “unnecessary” blocks that can work as jokers. Also means more blocks for the backing.
For February I will make it my One Monthly Goal to sew the additional pillows for my Dad – No. 11 on my FAL list.
While doing that, I will also ponder the layout and try to decide on a quilting design.
Any ideas? Something for walking foot without much twisting… Either with a thread color that works on both so opposite fabrics or a design with two thread colors…
Progress
Sewing for my FAL list
Again thanks to the #30minssewingdaily challenge I am happy with my sewing time. I think I could not have done better.
I finished the last of my Ocean Waves blocks and sewed a tiny bit on my Sew Together Bag. I also finished my Bee Blocks for January, started on an overdue one for Katie and am super early on my February ones for Daniela :)
I also made a lot of progress on Whirly Girl – No. 5 on my FAL list.
Over all I have worked on four different projects and the bee blocks. But I am still not crossing off items/WIPs of my list. Hence I am stuck on the realization, that it will not take me a quarter to finish most of my old WIPs but rather a whole year?!
I am not really counting Technocolor Galaxy at the moment. So I have 10 projects plus bee blocks on my plate. To finish all in a quarter would mean to finish about three projects each month… That’s why a bit of frustration realism might be crawling in at the moment. I will further ponder motivational ideas and cheating options or just simply new goals aka additions like “for every three I start, I can start something new”.
Of course I will keep going with the #30minssewingdaily challenge, it is helping a lot & is totally fun. I hope you join us too!
I sincerely hope you managed your January goals and are not already doubting your year plan :)
Best wishes
xo Melanie
Linking up at
One Monthly Goal – January FINISHES @ Elm Street Quilts and later on the
One Monthly Goal – February GOAL SETTING @ Elm Street Quilts
These blocks look just great! Thanks for linking up with Elm Street Quilts One Monthly Goal and congrats on your finish.
Well, while I can certainly understand your frustration with your finishing expectations versus realizations…. I think you are doing AWESOME! I am also holding myself more accountable this year and have a goal of finish three, start one. While I haven’t *completely* hit that… I have been so much more contientious of NOT starting every pretty thing that passes me by. Which means I sent two quilts out to be quilted before even planning my next project. That’s a win… right?!
Your projects are looking SO good! Love your plus quilt!
Wow, Melanie!! Your Plus blocks are really amazing as a set. It’s funny, because my daughter and I were just now talking about ideas for a baby quilt for her preceptor, and we want to do a plus quilt for that. I can relate to your not-crossing-off frustration. I, too, am happiest working on several projects at once, and while January was most excellent in terms of getting alot of work done, it was dismal on the crossing-things-off scene. I had a lot of intense projects that were not close to being finished. I’ve tried to change up my group of projects for February so that I can still work on a couple of intense projects to move them toward finishes later in the year, but also give me projects that can be crossed off in February to satisfy that need to see the finishes happening now as well.
I love your plus quilt design. I pondered several different design plans but never came across yours — keep all the background the same and add sashing. Brilliant. Have you noticed the organic lines Lorna of Sew Fresh Designs uses? Here’s a link to one of her quilts that uses that method. Scroll down and there’s a good close up of it. I’ve always liked her lines.
That’s a lot of productivity!! The quilting on the plus blocks looks really tricky, as they are not aligned. Perhaps a grid following the lines of the plus symbols, with a very dark grey, stitching in the ditch on the symbols themselves? Or something completely different like a diamond grid…
As for frustration-realism-motivation goes, what helps me is ticking boxes in my project tracker (like, fabric prewashed, check, blocks completed, check..). This past month I finished one small thing, but I ticked some boxes that, although not a finish, really showed process on several projects.
Hope that any of that helps! Good luck with your next monthly goal!
I love the plus quilt, so classic in black and white!
1. I am jealous that you have a such a large collection of low volume prints.
2. I am impressed that you took a simple block and made it into a gorgeous design.
3. I love it.
4. I am happy to call you my friend.
Hugs,
Preeti.
I love your version in low volumes and black – that looks really good! And I can’t wait to see the pillows for your Dad because I loved the ones you already gave to him!
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