Stories from the Sewing Room

Here we are at the start of another month. It's time to pick a 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.)

Looking at what I would most like to get done, I need to choose between making additional progress on the race car quilt or binding my Pink Grapefruit in Blue. 

I still need to make all of the outer border blocks and add one more border in between the existing top and those pieced blocks on the race car quilt.

I have most of one side stitched down on the binding on the Pink Grapefruit in Blue quilt. It's hard to find motivation to sit there and stitch in the evening after I've worked all day. My goal this month will be to finish stitching the binding. 

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

The One Monthly Goal accomplishment link up will be available on September 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 September Link Up

Guess who almost forgot to make the link up post? Yup, that's me. 😅 Coming in on time, but at the last possible second, here is the post!

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

I have counted out the number of units and corners needed for each color way of the blocks. If I ever complete all the binding that's in my work queue, I'll start working on these. 

Won't you join me in setting a goal for August?

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.)

This month I am hoping to make any amount of progress on my race car quilt. I don't really want to work on it, but I'd like it to be done and out of my life, so... 

There is an additional inner border to be added and a border of pieced blocks as well. I am working on the pieced blocks first because my quilt has been consistently smaller than the measurements given in the pattern. My thought process here is that I can adjust that other border if needed so that the pieced blocks fit. 

It's time once again to share your finished goal for the month.

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

This month really got away from me and I realized Tuesday that I needed to work on my post for Friday (and really, Thursday night since it goes live at 12:05 am). That was apparently the motivation I needed to start working on this project. Tuesday I fixed the parts of the blocks above that needed addressing and sewed them together.

I trimmed the panel to the correct size and then fudged it a little so that I didn't have any of the white showing. I find that a lot of panels that come through here tend to be parallelograms. This one was fairly on-grain, so that was nice. 

I cut and created the other borders.

As of Wednesday night, I made it this far. Everything lined up nicely except for the border I cut 1/2" too long. Oops! Just two borders remain. 

While I don't think I can fully finish this quilt before the end of the month, I feel pretty confident I can get the last two borders on and get it quilted. 

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

Please join me in selecting a goal for July. 

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.)

This month I would like to make progress on my Forever Neverland quilt. I currently have three star blocks sewn and 11 that are laid out, ready to sew. After that, it's time to start assembling the top. 

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

The One Monthly Goal accomplishment link up will be available on July 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 July Link Up

Another month has flown on by. Did you complete your goal?

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

After failing to finish my May goal, I decided to go easier on myself this month. My goal was to make any amount of progress on the race car quilt. I am happy to report that I added one more set of borders to the quilt (only a few days ago). 

I have started working on the 34 pieced blocks. I discovered that the pattern had me making one more strip set than was needed for each color way. I suspect that these blocks are going to be fiddly and tedious and may take me multiple months to complete. BUT...I am a step closer to being done. 

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.)

What do I want to accomplish this month? What is actually realistic? I have six projects left on my PHD list plus one new start this year that needs to be completed in 2025. I also have to make 15 of the same item for a guild program. While that task must be done soon, it's probably not the best pick for OMG since I can't share it until the end of the year. 😆

Four of my six projects are things that need to be quilted. That seems unlikely to happen this month. That leaves either the race car quilt, the alligator quilt, or the new start. Or I could go completely off the rails and choose something totally new. Hmm. It's tough to stay on task. 

I think I'll pick making any amount of progress on the race car quilt. It needs two straight borders plus a pieced, block-based border in order to finish the top. At a minimum I'd like to get the next border on and start piecing the blocks. My quilt's been measuring 1/2" smaller than the pattern pretty consistently, so I'll need to wait on the fourth border until I get the blocks pieced so that I can adjust if necessary. 

Ideally I will get my guild project done too. You'll just have to take my word on that one. 😏

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

The One Monthly Goal accomplishment link up will be available on June 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 June Link Up

Were you able to complete this month's goal?

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

My goal this month was to quilt my Pink Grapefruit in Blue. I am sad to say that I failed to complete my goal. I had a bunch of plot twists this month and it just didn't happen. I had planned to do an edge-to-edge design because I don't love this quilt. I purchased a different backing because I didn't want to waste fabric I love on a project I don't. 

Then I found myself unexpectedly purchasing a second long arm (a 2017 Lucey) and thought that maybe I'd custom quilt Pink Grapefruit in Blue after all since I now have a second machine that doesn't have a computer and therefore cannot aid in my work load. I don't really care for the replacement backing with the quilt top, but I was willing to overlook that. 

I haven't managed to come up with a hand-guided quilting plan that I like. Additionally, the machine is still not fully assembled since we've had a bunch of other things come up that needed our attention more than this did. 

So I failed to move my goal forward. I guess there's always next month. Will I choose this for a goal again or pivot to something else? Stay tuned.

Join me in setting a goal for April.

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.)

Very little has changed in my sewing status from March 1 to April 1. I didn't work on either of my secondary goals last month, but I did quilt and start binding my Melodic Mystery quilt. My quilt top and backing are primarily batik and I'm finding that the batik I'm using for the binding is a bit challenging to stitch through. I got one side stitched down during March. So my goal for April is to finish binding this quilt. 

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

 It's time to share your March progress.

My goal this month was to finish my Marble Mystery quilt. I finished much sooner than planned because I wanted to join in on the finish parade link up at Meadow Mist Designs. 

I won a QAL prize. I got a $50 gift certificate to Back Side Fabrics and picked out two yards of this Kaffe fabric. I'll use it for the backing of my tessellations quilt some year when I finish it.

I felt like I should make progress on something else too since I'd finished the binding in just a few days. I had mentioned maybe adding a border to the race car quilt or making progress on the Beach Bumz class project. I've done neither. I detest putting borders on quilts and my Beach Bumz project is in time out (sealed in bags with various odor absorbing products) because I feel like the stencils and foundations and book smell like cigarette smoke. 

Instead, I quilted my Melodic Mystery quilt and have started binding it.

Join me in setting a goal for March.

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.)

I have no idea what I want to accomplish this month. 😬 I'm taking a few classes. I have 9.5 things left on my PHD list for the year and I'll be adding one small project from one of the classes. Looking at what I've been working on most recently, that means my choices are as follows:

1. finish binding Marble mystery

 2. add at least one set of borders to the race car quilt (bo-ring!)

 3. complete the quilt top from the class (more on this next week)

I think I'll make finishing the binding be my official goal, but will hope to make progress on all three.

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

The One Monthly Goal accomplishment link up will be available on March 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 March Link Up

It's time to share your February progress.

This link up will remain open until February 28 at 11:55 pm EST.

My goal this month was to quilt something from my PHD list. I fully finished my Runway Quilt #2. 

I quilted it with the Infinity design and Limerick (green) thread. I opted for machine binding since I was unhappy with all the shadowing issues I had. Runway measures 55.75" x 66.25".

 Join your fellow quilters and crafters as we set manageable goals for the 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.)

Life has been going rather sideways lately, February is short, and we have a lot of robotics scheduled, so I'm going to go with something I hope will be easy. I will plan to quilt one quilt from my UFO list. I'm looking at Marble Mystery or perhaps the in-progress Runway version 2 quilt. Edited to add: The Runway quilt was in Quilter's World Spring 2024 and can also be purchased as a standalone pattern from Annie's.

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

The One Monthly Goal accomplishment link up will be available on February 22.  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 February Link Up

How did you do with your goal this month? Link up and share!

My goal this month was to bind my Bedford Tiles quilt. Stitching down the binding seems like such an easy task, however I am typically very slow at binding, so I was counting on this taking me all month. Much to my surprise, I finished January 11.

I'm quite pleased with this finish. I found the sewing very tedious, there was an error in the fabric requirements which led to having to track down more of an apparently out of print fabric (and then I bought everything they had and used it for backing too), and the quilting design I chose--Echoed Swirls--is very dense, even sized as large as I could go, and took forever to stitch out. 

It's done and I like it. I'm really glad I was able to find more of the border fabric because I think it pulls the whole thing together.

Next I'll be contemplating what task to complete in February.

Happy New Year! Thanks for joining me for another year of easy goal-setting and encouragement. Be sure to grab a button over in the side bar. The logo is updated for 2025. 

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 for this month is to bind my Bedford Tiles quilt. I finished quilting it yesterday! I used the Echoed Swirls design from Jess at Longarm League and made it as big as I could get it while still fitting in the throat space. It took me two days to stitch out on a 59" x 72" quilt. 😬

I made a Frankenbatting, which for some reason ended up really, really out of square even though I trimmed and squared while I constructed it.

I have the binding sewn to the front, ready to stitch down. I did not take the time to line up the stripes on the binding.

Now it's your turn to set a goal.