Mini-Goals #4

By writing weekly goals, it has kept me on track and my stalled project moved forward. In the last few weeks, I didn't reach all my goals and that is fine too. The mini-goals are there to help me focus on what is at hand and I have got the freedom to work on other things too.  Eventually, I will return to those project and they will be done. 

The Cross:

1. Order fabric
2.Drawmaster pattern
3.Copy master pattern
4. Colour pattern
5. Cut the pattern out and number each piece
6. Cut out the pattern on the fabric

Millefiore Rosette 9

1.Sewed pieces together
2. Sewed block together
3.Sewed larger rosettes

Rosette 9

Dress:

I still haven't work on that yet

Quilt Tops 

- A designed pattern for 2/5 for finished quilt tops.
-Quilted Trinket

                          TRINKETS Quilt Pattern by Monika Dunkley

Jean Bags

I've been working with other ladies of our church to sew jeans bags for a senior home. We're making 60 of them. What an accomplishment in such a short time.

An old pair of jeans is so useful for a project like this one.

Rosette #9

This is one of the smaller rosettes I've done on my millefiore. Love the combination of blues in it.
This is a perfect long term project if you want to do hand-sew while you watch TV.   Some quilters have spent 4 -5 years doing it, but they are so beautiful and that what makes me want to continue my project. So I will be entering my third year doing it and it's taking shape.

Rosette 9 has:

9-hexagons of 6"
3 different blocks
55 pieces in all

And it's all stitch by hand.

Organize-Declutter-Minimize

Will it make a difference if I organize or declutter or minimize something around my house? Will the end of my effort be worth it? Sometimes I don't even think about organizing until it does happen. Then BAG!  And then you start organizing something you hadn't plan to do at the moment.  Perhaps you find something that was left to be classified but you didn't. Should you deal with the undone task or run in the other direction and forget all about it.

Organize

But where do you start something that is definitely time-consuming?  When I decided to remove a small dresser from my basement and replaced it with a small 6 unit shelving for my art supplies and books.  First I had to empty the dresser of all the miscellaneous supplies so I could store the dresser in my shed. After that, I emptied the unit of all the old photo albums and boxes which we have accumulated in the last 30 years. That's when the 'BAG' happened. I needed to rid of some old photos and I shredded hundred of blurred photos, some were doubled ones, other not so significant. I rather quilt then go through this, I thought, but once I started it, I was on a roll. My husband helped me too.

Declutter

 Another thing I dealt with is the surplus of batting growing in my crawl space. Batting tends to be bukly and does take room. If I can use it on a project, then it's not laying in one of my bin.  I pulled all the pieces out and was surprised how much I had.

1.  First I organized the batting by type even if they were all cottong. Some batting cotton are different in thickness and softeness.

 2. I sorted the long pieces, square ones and smaller pieces in piles.

 3.  Then I trimmed them to equal size and they could be used for practicing my free-motion quilting.

4. I zig-zagged the longer strips together and had enough for a small quilt top.

Minimize 

 As I'm going through this mindset why not extend this to other areas like my old patterns. Why am I keeping all this if I'm not using it or will never use it or look at it ever again? It just takes space that I don't have.

The binder holds patterns that I've used once and will never do them again and I've copied pages from a magazine for inspiration. Those are left in binders and I'm not interested in half of them now. So why keeping it? I wonder:0 

The file organizer boxes I have purchased are of good use this time and I've decided to store my patterns in them instead of old binders.

That's all was left from 4 binders and many old tangs. Those old magazines will eventually go too.  As I'm getting older, I tend to of unessary stuffs that filled space. Yes, it was time-consuming, but I had fun going through the family photos.

Now it's time to go quilt

Mini-Goals-3

My mini-goals for this week were:
1) Cross: Create quilting patterns
2)Millefiore Rosette #9- Glue pieces on the fabric
3)Apparel: Cut out dress

1. Creating Quilting Patterns- Done!

This idea of expressing my faith for Jesus Christ through the expression of designs on fabrics has been in my mind for many years and my first attempts with my Creation quilt didn't go too far. After only two blocks, I just left the idea alone unsatisfied with its result. Maybe because my idea is not quite develope on paper. Also, I didn't like how dense quilting made the fabric pulled at its center, so  I abandoned the project. But at the back of my mind, it nagged at me constantly.

And then last Fall, another design came into mind. I kept brainstorming this beautiful design in my mind, never letting it go. At times I drew pieces here in there in my notebook. And it grew bigger and I really wanted to make it.  That idea cames last Fall and still, I hadn't done it on paper, so it was time to make it happened. I drew a Cross on my drawing tablet and used a thin tracing paper over it to draw my quilting designs.  A Cross would be definitely simpler and my quilting designs would develop furthermore my skill in quilting.

Now can you imagine this done on fabric?!

2.Millefiore Rosette #9- Glue pieces on the fabric

Not done, because I realized that doing rosette 8 would be more effective. Also, I have started to sew the bigger pieces together as I watched TV.  I've made tremendous progress in three weeks and it's very encouraging to see this long term project taking shape. 

One hexie of rosette 9

3. Apparel: Cut out dress

That, I did not do this week, because I was just too busy working and getting ready for  Holloween gathering with kids and parents.

 My daughter and I made a very simple display and candies and hot chocolate were given for free to local children. It was a fun night. Indoor and not in the pouring rain and windy night.

Quilt it!

Now that I've many completed tops, I can have fun quilting some of them. I've done a few already from my pile of the 18 quilts. Last year I subscribed to a quilter's blog that gives ideas for your tops. It has been very inspirational and interesting to see other quilters' work done too.

 I drew all my lines before pinning the layers together and used a white thread.

  For each square area, I used my square ruler to draw my lines.

Simple and effective design. 

This is the back of the quilt. To keep the cost down, I've started using left-over fabric and other pieces that would go well with it.