Stories from the Sewing Room

New month, new goal.

New to One Monthly Goal?  Welcome!  To join, share a photo of your project plus some words about what you want to accomplish in a blog post or Instagram post and add that photo to the link up.  Return at the end of the month and share your results.  (Results link up opens for the last 7 days of the month.)

My goal this month is to quilt my Range quilt. I debated quilting each "range" separately, but in the end I decided a simple texture would be more to my taste. I am kind of considering switching thread colors as I go along. However, my backing is mostly white and that may pose a bit of a challenge. We'll see how it goes. 

Bonus points if I can at least get the binding on one side this month as well. My kit had the royal blue for binding, but I think I'd rather go a shade or two lighter. I'll have to see what I have. I will hand-stitch it down, but that may not happen this month. 

How did you do with your goal this month?

This link up will remain open until August 31 at 11:55 pm EST.

For quilting, we decided on the Get in Loser design from Melissa Kelley. The thread is Glide Grape on the bottom and Amethyst on the top. It was a pretty long stitch-out even though I feel like I went with a standard size for the design scale. This first one is true colors.

My full quilt photo color is so far off. I couldn't adjust it to look remotely close to actual.

We debated which color binding to use. I used the darker color simply because I had a better all-purpose thread color match for it (or so I thought). After quilting, the quilt now measures 88" x 102.25". I was a bit shocked that I lost 2" of width just from quilting. I haven't completely finished yet since I was feeling tired by late Monday afternoon and I still had to make a trip into town to deliver my son's car to him. But I'll get the binding completed for sure before the end of the month and then I'll update the post with a final picture or two.

Edit: I finished this on August 26. 

 Join us in choosing a goal to work towards this month.

New to One Monthly Goal?  Welcome!  To join, share a photo of your project plus some words about what you want to accomplish in a blog post or Instagram post and add that photo to the link up.  Return at the end of the month and share your results.  (Results link up opens for the last 7 days of the month.)

My goal this month is to press 20 yards of fabric, sew them into a quilt top and quilt backing, and quilt and bind them into a new bedspread for my daughter. She's had her current one (a Pottery Barn kids pink quilt) for over 20 years! It's been in at least five houses throughout her childhood. Anyway, I thought it was time to replace that one since it's worn and stained. She wanted purple. I've moved it a bit more towards lavender since it's in my house and she is not. The walls are light blue and I'm not planning to repaint them.

This goal might be a bit aggressive. August will probably be emotionally tough for me since our son will be leaving for college. Maybe it will be good to have a challenging project to work on. I don't know. If I can get this done, it will remove two bolts of fabric (which are fluffy and big since I've already washed them) from my sewing closet. That would be great! I need more room in there.

Now it's your turn to link up. The link up will remain open through August 7.

The One Monthly Goal accomplishment link up will be available on August 25.  Make sure you add a link to this OMG post so others can find the OMG link up from your blog--just copy and paste this link into your post:  

Stories from the Sewing Room One Monthly Goal August Link Up

Take a few minutes to visit others, offer encouragement, and make new friends!

It's time to share your July progress.

This link up will remain open until July 31 at 11:55 pm EST.

My goal this month was to bind my Linda J. Hahn Beach Bumz quilt. Ta-da.

I added hanging tabs to the back.

I custom-quilted this quilt, which measures 32.25" square. I used Glide Tar Heel, Blizzard, Air Force Blue, Limerick, and Bright White threads. I used a combo of freehand and computerized designs. The batting is a Quilters Dream poly Frankenbatting.

Now it's your turn to share your finish (or your progress if you didn't quite make it to the finish line).

Take a few minutes to visit others, offer encouragement, and make new friends!

This link up will remain open until 11:55 pm EST on July 31. Make sure you add a link to this OMG post so others can find the OMG link up from your blog--just paste this link into your post:  

Stories from the Sewing Room July One Monthly Goal Finish Link Up

Join us in choosing a goal to work towards this month.

New to One Monthly Goal?  Welcome!  To join, share a photo of your project plus some words about what you want to accomplish in a blog post or Instagram post and add that photo to the link up.  Return at the end of the month and share your results.  (Results link up opens for the last 7 days of the month.)

My goal this month is to bind my Beach Bumz quilt. 

My secondary goals are to bind my dino quilt, sew my Athena bag, and perhaps sew an article of clothing or quilt my purple whole cloth bed quilt (this requires pressing 20 yards of washed fabric though 😳).

Did you make progress on your June goal?

This link up will remain open until June 30 at 11:55 pm EST.

Want to see everyone's goals? Check out the June goal page. 

My goal this month was to custom quilt my Linda J. Hahn Beach Bumz quilt. I made a Frankenbatting and picked a backing from my stash early in the month. 

I had a rough plan sketched out for the quilting.

After four hours and 20 minutes of quilting, I thought I was done. I had a few issues during quilting. I hate quilting with my ruler base on this machine. I cannot for the life of me figure out why I can't stitch at angles when it is installed. I needed some ruler work, so I went rogue and used the ruler without the base. It worked, but the lines weren't especially smooth. It's not the safest thing to do either.

Since I was having issues with the rulers, I programmed in a cross hatch in my Intelliquilter for those light blue areas. I didn't realize how tiny/dense it was until the first one had stitched out. I was aiming for 1/2" grid and ended up closer to 1/4". I was not ripping that out, so I just went with it. This was probably not the best choice.

After leaving the quilt hanging over the frame for several hours, the larger un-quilted area in the center and also the green border were really droopy. I'd done a good amount of stitch in the ditch, so I was pretty surprised. 

Another couple hours and I now have this.

I wasn't happy with the big loops I stitched in the outside border and now the density is all over the place. I think I need to rip it out and put something a little more dense in that outer border to help the quilt lay flatter. Maybe I need to add more stitching to the white parts of the star blocks too? And then what about all the spiky white parts? Ugh. 

My June goal is technically complete since the entire thing is quilted. I'm just not totally happy with it.

Now it's your turn to share your finish (or your progress if you didn't quite make it to the finish line).

Take a few minutes to visit others, offer encouragement, and make new friends!

This link up will remain open until 11:55 pm EST on June 30. Make sure you add a link to this OMG post so others can find the OMG link up from your blog--just paste this link into your post:  

Stories from the Sewing Room June One Monthly Goal Finish Link Up

 How did you do with your May goal?

This link up will remain open until May 31 at 11:55 pm EST.

Want to see everyone's goals? Check out the May goal page. 

My goal this month was to get my Magnificent Mystery quilt pieces sewn into a top. Here's how it looked at the beginning of the month. The half blocks were sewn and the rest needed to have the rows sewn into blocks.

Last week I had finally finished the pink and blue blocks. I think I sewed every intersection at least five times. 😟 

Saturday it was raining again and I thought I'd spend some time trying to get the green and blue blocks sewn. It took me around two and a half hours to get the seams aligned correctly and sewn on the 13 blocks. From there I thought I'd at least sew the half-block rows together before dinner. I almost wept with joy that there was nothing to really align. I could just sew, so I kept going. I got all but two seams sewn before dinner. I think it took about half an hour.

I finished up the last two seams yesterday! I really didn't think I'd be able to finish this goal this month, but, much to my surprise, I did. I am so glad this project is done. I like my fabrics, I like the quilt design, but I did not enjoy sewing this one. 

I'll need to figure out how I'm going to quilt it. It's definitely getting an edge-to-edge. But that's a goal for a different month. 🙂

Now it's your turn to share your finish (or your progress if you didn't quite make it to the finish line).

Take a few minutes to visit others, offer encouragement, and make new friends!

This link up will remain open until 11:55 pm EST on May 31. Make sure you add a link to this OMG post so others can find the OMG link up from your blog--just paste this link into your post:  

Stories from the Sewing Room May One Monthly Goal Finish Link Up

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It's time once again to share your monthly progress.

This link up will remain open until April 30 at 11:55 pm EST.

My goal this month was to get my Magnificent Mystery quilt pieces sewn into a top. Here's how it looked at the beginning of the month. 

And here's how it looks now. I completed all the partial blocks and made some good progress on the piecing, but it's not done. 🫤 The pink and blue blocks just need the rows joined. The green and blue blocks need one more unit sewn to each row before I can join the rows together. 

What will be your focus project this month?

I have a lot of bindings to do on the work side, so even getting my quilt top made is going to be a stretch.

Now it's your turn to link up. The link up will remain open through April 7.

The One Monthly Goal accomplishment link up will be available on April 24.  Make sure you add a link to this OMG post so others can find the OMG link up from your blog--just copy and paste this link into your post:  

Stories from the Sewing Room One Monthly Goal April Link Up

Take a few minutes to visit others, offer encouragement, and make new friends!

We've made it through another month and it's time to share our progress.

This link up will remain open until March 31 at 11:55 pm EST.

Then I went to sew the spire units to the stars and WHAT?! They don't fit. I figured out that I had cut the center strips 1/2" too large, so I had to disassemble one row of spires on each, trim off the excess, and resew everything. 

I got the center unit completed.

Here I am auditioning the skinny and outer borders. The instructions call for 1.5" finished and 3.5" finished, but I went with 1" finished for the skinny border because I thought the other was too heavy. 

Here is my finished top. I'll probably do some light custom quilting on this one. It's around 33" square. 

It's time to share this month's progress.

This link up will remain open until January 31 at 11:55 pm EST.

Want to see everyone's goals? Check out the January goal page. 

My goal this month was to get caught up on the Magnificent Mystery quilt. At the beginning of the month I still needed to sew steps 3, 5, 6, and 7. 

beginning of January

I've been slowly chipping away at the clues. 

Step 6/December's clue took me quite some time. I had to create 120 HST and sew them into blocks. Friday I cut apart and pressed the HST. Yesterday I trimmed all the HST. Last night I finished up sewing the green blocks. I'm now caught up. 

I do have some assorted background pieces left over. I guess we'll find out if I just counted wrong or there are a few more pieces needed. 

Now it's your turn to share your finish (or your progress if you didn't quite make it to the finish line).

Take a few minutes to visit others, offer encouragement, and make new friends!

This link up will remain open until 11:55 pm EST on January 31. Make sure you add a link to this OMG post so others can find the OMG link up from your blog--just paste this link into your post:  

Stories from the Sewing Room January One Monthly Goal Finish Link Up

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Happy new year! I hope 2026 is your best year ever. Let's start the year off right by selecting a new goal to work towards.

New to One Monthly Goal?  Welcome!  To join, share a photo of your project plus some words about what you want to accomplish in a blog post or Instagram post and add that photo to the link up.  Return at the end of the month and share your results.  (Results link up opens for the last 7 days of the month.)

My goal this month is to get caught up on the current Meadow Mist mystery. I need to do steps 3, 5, and 6. Step 7 comes out today, so I'll have that to do as well.