Stories from the Sewing Room

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 😳).

What will your June sewing goal be?

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

Other things I'd like to work on include quilting and binding Magnificent Mystery, sewing and quilting the whole cloth purple bed quilt, and continuing to work on piecing other projects. I have a lot of work lined up though, and many bindings in those bookings, so my time will probably be somewhat limited. Any progress, no matter how small, is still progress though, right?

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

 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

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

This month has flown on by and it's now time to link up your finish. (If you're looking for my regular weekly post, I will post it tomorrow.)

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

   

   

Here are the stats for this quilt:

Pattern: Pink Grapefruit by Coleen Merte

Finished size: 72" x 84"

Fabrics:  Kona white, unknown green text, green polka dot from JoAnn, Architextures Blueprint text by Carolyn Friedlander, plants by Paula & Waffle for Dear Stella, Velvet Sky Netorious by Cotton + Steel, green with arrows Greatest Adventure from Riley Blake, Moda Kelly, Moda Sapphire (also used for binding), and one unknown green print. The backing is Carolyn Friedlander 108" Widescreen Crosshatch in Pacific.

Quilting design: Mandelbrot

Here is a picture of my initial fabric cuts back in 2019.

       

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

 It's time once again to share your August OMG finish.

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

My goal for the month was to completely finish my Swiss Star quilt. This is one that my daughter has claimed. She selected the colors, quilting design, and thread. My contribution was the background fabric and binding choices. Oh, and all the labor! I got it done pretty early in the month and she's already taken it back home with her. 

Yes, that is a snail quilting design. It sort of looks white in the pictures, but the thread is a variegated rainbow, front and back. 

I didn't have a fun time quilting this one, so I opted for full machine binding to get it completed quickly.

This project was also on my PHD list. I like to double-count whenever possible. 

Now it's your turn.

 It's time to share your progress for the month.

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

My goal this month was to quilt my Churn, Churn, Churn mini quilt. I wanted to custom quilt it, and I did. Typically I have a plan for what I am going to quilt prior to starting. I did not do that this time. 

I did a combination of FMQ and ruler work. There are definitely things I would have done differently. I thought I was going to do the pebbling in all the blue, but I was really tired after doing the outside, so I did quicker things on the inside. In retrospect, I would have done the coils on the outside and the pebbles on the inner parts. I probably should have redone the corner coils because they are kind of sloppy. 

And I made some big errors in my crosshatch considering that I used a ruler, but I was tired and my back was killing me, so I left it. 

I tried a boxy quilting in the red that turned out pretty well. I know that's one of the more basic FMQ patterns, but I've never tried it by hand before.

I finished sewing down the binding yesterday morning! I didn't think I'd get it done in time.

For the backing, I sewed together a bunch of red charms I received years ago from an international swap. I thought I had centered the top with the backing, but as you can see, it was a bit off. Luckily I did not run out of backing fabric! 

  

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 is my birthday month and I'm celebrating a big birthday this year, so I thought I'd choose something enjoyable from my list of unfinished projects as a treat. My goal this month is to quilt my Churn, Churn, Churn mini. As you may recall, I made this in a class with Kelly Young in May.

I made a pieced backing. I think I am going to custom quilt this since it's not too big. At any rate, it will be quilted in some fashion and possibly bound by the end of the month.

Now it's your turn.

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 paste this link into your post:  

Stories from the Sewing Room One Monthly Goal July Link Up

 It's time to share your progress for the month. 

A few days later I started sewing down the binding and soon I had a finish. I don't think I've ever finished an OMG this quickly. It measures 13.75" x 13.875".

In the meantime, add your link to show your finish and then go visit other linkers and make new friends.

How did you do with your sewing goal this month?

My goal of sewing the rest of my Log Cabin Stars quilt into a top felt insurmountable as my to-do list feels never-ending and we have many events scheduled with the end of the school year/college year quickly approaching. I rallied and managed to get my blocks sewn into a top. I'm happy to look at something else on my design wall now. 🙂

I was really hoping to get this thing quilted and partially bound too, but I've just been swamped with work. There are still seven days left in this month, so maybe I will be able to get it quilted before next month. Stay tuned, and I'll see you next week for May's goal setting--I think I have a doozy selected.

It's time to set your October goal. If you're here for the first time, welcome! Let's set some goals and have some fun!

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 Malted Mystery quilt. I need to do August (cutting), September, and October's clues. October's clue releases on the fifth. The only thing I've done so far is select the fabric. The nice thing about Cheryl's mystery quilts is that they are very easy to get caught up on if/when you fall behind.

I'm also working on my version of the Log Cabin Stars quilt by Emily Dennis. This is a QAL I joined in on without reading through the timeline. I had a fabric pull that looked like it would work, so I thought, why not? Then the emails started coming. Oh my. 😅 I won't be finishing this one on time, but it's more about the journey, I guess. 

If I can get caught up, I'd also like to sew the remaining Grassy Creek border units. 

One thing that may help me slightly is that I'm scheduled to attend two (daytime) retreats this month.

A stretch goal is to get a few more of my to-be-quilted tops quilted. I'm entering my busier season of quilting, so this will probably be unlikely. 

I also have my dress form pieces waiting to be sewn and some clothing to make. I don't know about you, but I never run out of things to be sewn.

*I am trying to visit and comment on all your posts, but I am having great difficulty with the commenting. I'm sorry.*

Can you believe it's August already? On the July finish post, I shared my finished top that I was disappointed not to have fully finished. I'm happy to report that, as of yesterday afternoon, it is now complete. I'll be sharing more about it tomorrow so as to avoid making this post overly long.

What will be your goal 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.)

Patty at Elm Street Quilts and I are co-hosting  One Monthly Goal. You can link up at either of our blogs and your project will show in the same link party!

I've decided to tempt fate this month and work more on my Grassy Creek borders. In case you're unfamiliar with my project, every time I have selected these borders as my goal, something in my life goes haywire and I never finish. I'm making a modest goal this month to finish half of the border blocks. You can see in my picture that I have some partially done. I have started sewing 2/3 of the blocks that lean one direction. I'm hoping to finish those 2/3 and completely sew the other 1/3 of the same-angle blocks. That's clear as mud. 🤪 Send good thoughts my way!!!

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 paste this link into your post:  

Stories from the Sewing Room One Monthly Goal August Link Up

Have you finished your July goal? It's time to link up. 

This link up will remain open until July 31at 11:55 pm EST. Remember, you can link up from either my post or Patty's at Elm Street Quilts and your link will show up in the same link party. 

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

I am still visiting everyone's links, however, something in technology land is making it very difficult for me to comment. Have you been experiencing challenges too?

I was confident that I would not only create the top, but quilt and bind it too.  However, life just got in the way and I did very little sewing this month. I was worried I wouldn't even meet my stated goal of creating the top. Luckily, I rallied and finished it just hours before I needed to publish this post. 😅