Baby girl. She's cleaned up her act a fraction since then.
I'm writing this post ahead of time as I'll be spending Sunday morning watching my baby girl graduate from college. She's turned into an adult, but I haven't aged a bit.
I missed last week's progress and goals post as it was Mother's Day and my son came for breakfast (before having to scoot out for work), and my ILs came for an early dinner. I wasn't particularly busy on Sunday but enjoyed relaxing during the times I had between company.
My goals for the week of May 3 were to:
- Get my friend's block done.
- Make progress on the mug rug.
- Complete two butterflies on butterfly project.
- Complete two Craftsy classes.
Progress:
So you'd expect more given it's two weeks' worth of progress, but it was a catch-as-catch-can kind of two weeks.
Threaded chain stitch, if I recall the name properly.
- Get my friend's block done. Done and mailed. More about this once the quilt is complete, I think.
- Make progress on the mug rug. Done and mailed! Woo! Yes, upon my question on the topic, Sandi did confirm that I was probably the last one to get mine in the mail. Oops. But better late than never. And in a few previous swaps I was way ahead of the game so it all comes out in the wash. Fortunately Kerry, my swap partner, was extremely patient and understanding. Once again, I was teaching myself new techniques on this one, which is part of why it took longer to get done. I enjoyed the process and I like the result--I hope Kerry does too! I'll do a "reveal" on this one once I've got confirmation that Kerry has received it.
- Complete two butterflies on butterfly project. For once, I beat one of my own goals! I got three whole butterflies done! (Hey, I'll take celebrations where I can get them at this stage.) I'm finding myself repeating a lot of stitches now as the Crewel Wool embroidery class I'm doing on Craftsy is a lot of the same stitches I'd already done in Sue Spargo's class, although she has some different variations. I will have brought this one with me on my trip for graduation weekend so hopefully even by the time you're reading this I'll have made more progress.
- Complete two Craftsy classes. One done, anyway. I still have to post the review to my blog but I did finish watching all the lessons; I even picked up one or two new supplies for fabric painting based on the class, and I'm now in the process of debating whether my May journal quilt will use paints, including techniques from this class, or colored pencils (recall the Thread Art class I did awhile back). I've moved a new class into rotation and am still plugging away at others.
Goals for This Week:
Okay, let's start putting into place the Short List concept I've borrowed from listener Donna at quiltpaintcreate. I debated the number of categories I want to have--I know fewer categories is better in terms of achievability. But I've decided that so many of my categories will actually have overlap projects--things I'll be working on that would fit into more than one category at a time--that I'm okay with the current number. Plus, I'm looking at my categories from a monthly perspective even if I'm doing weekly goals--so every one of these categories may not appear in every week's post, as long as I cover all of them in some way each month. Does that make sense? Anyway, here are my categories:
Everything In It's Place (aka EIIP) bag in process
- Accessories (read: Annie Unrein!)--I actually have several "accessories" I would like to try to make, even beyond the Annie Unrein Craftsy class. I have a tool holder thingie pattern I bought off Craftsy that would be handy, a halfway completed duffle bag that, as a UFO, would knock out two short list categories, and tons of totes and purse patterns that really are appealing to me as finished products, for as little as I like the process of actually making them. I am testing out the theory that part of why I hate doing these is that I'm not particularly experienced at fiddly things so, maybe, with practice will come less anger and frustration. This may be a short-lived category, though, if I decide I really do hate this process as much as I currently think I do. I may end up off-loading a whole lotta patterns.
- Embroidery--Contrary to my experience with bag-making, I'm really seriously into the whole embroidery thing now, a la Sue Spargo style and the crewel embroidery look. I do want to keep having it in the rotation. There will be a lot of overlap between this short list category and the next one.
- Art Quilt--this is what makes my soul sing. This category will most certainly include my monthly journal quilts, but will also periodically overlap with embroidery projects and UFOs. Mostly, though, I'm going to try to keep this category new, fluid, and open to whim.
- UFO--it's just gotta happen. I think I'll start with "easy win" UFOs--those that I think I could finish more easily than others. My assessment process will also include strong consideration of UFOs I may just choose to ditch or give away. There will be a fair amount of overlap between this category and a lot of the other ones.
- BOM--I do, after all, still have that Jinny Beyer Craftsy BOM that I'm now 3 1/2 months behind on. I need a week's vacation just to catch up! If it doesn't stay on my radar, it'll never get done and I'll just be kinda ticked at myself for the expenditure by the end of the year. So....It. Will. Get. Done.
- Hand-Dyeing/Surface Design--I want to keep this on my radar. As often as not, this category will overlap with the art quilt category. This is unlikely to be a weekly goal but I want to make sure I do something about once a month.
Therefore--this week's goals are:
- Accessory category: Get back to the Annie Unrein bag. At this stage, I'll be happy to just get one more step in the process completed.
- Embroidery category: three more butterflies. I can do it--I know I can!
- Art Quilt Project: FMQ my "fire" project. I have a hand-dyed tapestry piece--one of my half-yard pieces that really needs to be used as a single piece--that I fused to some batting maybe a year ago, with the intent of doing some free-form FMQ on it. I need to find backing and then just go to town. It's unlikely to ever be more than a practice piece; I'm not expecting it to be a gorgeous finished product as it's still sort of an experimental piece for me, but it'll be fun to do and give me the chance to test out some techniques, as well as use gorgeous variegated threads. (Getting this done would actually also would be a "win" in the next category.)
- UFO category: (in addition to the above goal) Assess my UFO list and make sure all of them are listed with all the steps required to complete them. I'm pretty sure I'm covered on this one but I feel the need to review my lists so I can make informed decisions about what to move into rotation at any given time.
- BOM--not sure I'll get to this this week, although I do have Monday off to help my daughter get all her stuff organized in our basement, now that she's moved home from school. I'm not planning on spending the entire day in the basement, however, so I will get some sewing room time in. I'd probably feel world's better if I even just got the second February block done so I wouldn't be quite so far behind. I'm waffling on whether this one will surface this week or not.
- No goals on the hand-dyeing this week, as I'm also out of town next weekend, and weekends are best for this process.
Ahem. Wish me luck.