quilting goals 10 in 2010

For short, 10n10-- I will refer you back to a post I wrote in early November for what this means. This idea had come out of a couple weeks of online chat with my pal Norma concerning how we wanted to stay on track in the coming year. We both admire how our friend Pat stays on track with her lists of of goals and want to keep from straying off target TOO much, LOL.

In this post you will see some of the kits and starts of projects boxed up representing some of my UFOs and PIMs stacked in the closet and shelving that need attention. That is by no means all of them either, a whole hamper full of more, mostly donation quilt stuff and in the TV stand cabinet. I need some focus and this broken down into a more manageable format.

Here is what we basically came up with. We think that there are several areas in our quilting live and we should be able to pick at in any category depending on our mood at the time.

• UFOs--something you have pretty much abandoned for some reason. The idea is to pull it out and work on it, re-purpose it or give it away/toss it but deal with it in some manner. Those things are like weights pulling you down and quilting should NOT make you feel guilty.
  

• finish to flimsy --you may have started the blocks but set them aside and you want to get at least the top done. Maybe your top just needs the borders put on. That's easy enough!
  

• quilt/bind--maybe it's pinned or you have to prep the backing and binding. It could be worked on and the quilt completed

• cutting/kitting -- usually there is something that you need to cut out in order to keep rolling
  

• Rewards--what are you "itchin' to stitch"? Finish a UFO or a deadline task then you can pick something from this "fun" list. Norma and I both know we need this to jump start our creativity and give ourselves permission to play.
  

We tried to pick two items for each category that to focus on thinking that 10 total should be a fairly manageable number for a year's time. Things should cycle through a bit and you can add another item in its place if you want.

On further consideration I decided I needed two more categories for my list writing:

• donations and deadlines---I do some commissioned work on occasion and always have some quilt, mine or one of the groups' around for WTIL. This would include any challenge quilts I do.

• ongoing---blocks I make till I have enough for a top, like my red work Santas, for example or my hand quilting on the FAB challenge.

Looks like I could revise my list to include 14 instead since I have 7 categories listed, LOL. Actually I implemented my plan a bit early so you will see some strike outs but that will show the cyclical nature of the plan.

UFOs AKA "dinosaurs" (thx, Pat!)

• Galactic Twinkle BOM
  
• Friendship Stars
  

Finish to flimsy

• Strip Twist completed 12/7/09 and on the long arm quilters list for February
  
• Two of a Kind/Cheap Trick
• Daisy Chain---just needs borders applied
  

quilt/bind:

• finish quilting the 30's sampler--6 blocks to go
• 3 Friends Stack

cutting/kitting

• Daisy Chain
  
• Sisterhood of Quilter's
• FAB challenge to gift to Cher (also listed in deadlines)
  

Rewards--itchin' to stitch:

• Sisterhood of Quilters flimsy done January 3. 2010
• Piecemaker Snowman wallhanging
• Calendar Quilt block for January

Donation and deadline:

• 4 WTIL tops to quilt (none of my making) 2 done in December, 2 this past week
  
• my WTIL BB challenge quilt once pinned
  
• FAB challenge to be mailed out by Feb 1

On going projects: no real fluctuation expected for awhile

• Redwork Santas---5 are complete and working on #6
  
• Hand quilting on FAB challenge quilt
• Triple rail blocks till I have enough for one or more donation tops

There it is in writing. It is official now! Just have to make it happen and I know with Norma's encouragement we will hold each other accountable and also continue to lead each other astray since that is what we do, LOL. Already some links for future projects are being bandied about and "take a look at this one---good for a FAB sewing weekend?"

Because my FAB challenge choice will use a technique I have not used before I need to do some trial pieces on some scrap stuff first. Frankly I need a bit of a break from the machine after 4 days of machine quilting. I need to get some steam a seam 2 if I want to do either of my "rewards" projects, darn it. So I guess, for today and maybe tomorrow, hand work is my project of choice.

Hope you have a good day in whatever you chose to do. Stay warm!

Tuesday check-in---10 n 10 plans

So far Ms. Ida has dropped 2.5 inches of rain in our rain gauge here in the NE central part of Alabama. It is still pouring and breezy so who knows what the final tally will be for this rain event? (ed: note---we topped out at 5 inches plus. The rain gauge filled but DJ was not going out in the pouring rain to empty it ) Last I heard we were 10 inches over our annual average rainfall totals and the ground is already saturated. In fact, we went through a 9 day stretch without any rain --first time since a period in late June/early July!

I canceled our quilt meeting till next week as there we were in a flash flood watch--no one needed to be out slopping around in that mess today. Also I had woke up for the 2nd day in a row of almost like migraine-like headache. I'm the one with the key to let us into the fellowship hall so I figured it would be best to just head any of the regulars off at the pass. Skyler and I went back to bed for a couple hours and I feel a bit better now.

Yesterday I spent some time doing some hand quilting on my FAB friendship quilt, something I love doing but often do not make time for. The stencil I had selected is called Four Fleur from The Stencil Company. Part of the reason I selected it was that I also needed it to provide some fill for side setting triangles and use a portion of the motif in the corner triangles as well. I am still debating whether I want to do some hand work in the outer border. After all, I do want to hang this on the wall in the bedroom at some point, LOL. Their Gentle Wave border is on hand if I do want to use it---it echoes that knobby look.

Of course, my handsome boy kitty HAD to come sit on the quilt in the hoop---just HAD to! Twice we had some snuggle time and quilt testing and a break from stitching. My camera was already out in the car or I would have taken his picture to share. I plan on working on the binding on those last three "Be Attitudes" quilt-lets I shared in the last post---got them all quilted over the weekend. Woohoo--almost a finish!

That leads me something that Norma and I have been talking about for a couple weeks now, brainstorming and tweaking as a way to keep ourselves motivated and on track. We are both impressed and inspired by how our pal Pat managed to get things done on her lists. Norma and I both would tell that all too often we want to do everything and then end of getting sidetracked. Or worse, get ourselves so bogged down with other peoples stuff that our own projects are neglected.

To that end we have come up with a "10 in 2010" plan (10n10) for next year but I am implementing it a bit early as an organizational tool. Here is what we have so far and how it should work in theory:

We think that there are several areas in our quilting lives: UFO, finish to flimsy, quilt/bind it, cut it and rewards. We should be able to pick at in any category depending on our mood at the time.

• UFOs--something you have pretty much abandoned for some reason----pull it out and work on it, re-purpose it or give it away/toss it but deal with it in some manner. Those things are like weights pulling you down and making you feel guilty.

• finish to flimsy --you may have started the blocks but set them aside and you want to get at least the top done

• quilt/bind--maybe it's pinned or you have to prep the backing and binding yet but could be worked on and the quilt completed
  

• cutting/kitting -- usually there is something that you need to cut out in order to keep rolling

• Rewards--what are you "itchin' to stitch"? Finish a UFO or a deadline task then you can pick something from this "fun" list. Norma and I both know we need this to jump start our creativity and give ourselves permission to play. She explains the "reward" system on her blog post.

Now pick two items for each category that you want to focus on. 10 total should be a fairly manageable number. Things should cycle through a bit and you can add another item in its place if you want.

On further consideration I decided I needed two more categories for my list writing:

• donations and deadlines---I do some commissioned work on occasion and always have some quilt, mine or one of the groups' around for WTIL. This would include any challenge quilts I do.

• ongoing---blocks I make till I have enough for a top, my red work Santas, the Seasonal quilter I want to do next year are examples. Hand quilting too.
  

Want to join us? Jump right in! Tweak it to suit your needs but any way you chose to do it, keep busting that stash and have fun!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Thanks to those who commiserated with me about my mixer and had suggestions of brand and ideas of where to look. Because I had primed DJ for months with how much these things run, he asked me to look online to price them. It turned out that shipping was going to be less than the 10% sale tax we would have had to pay had we found a bargain here locally. I am getting a refurbished 5 qt heavy duty professional Kitchen Aid with a 475 wt motor----in boring white. Yeah, I love the red but the rest of the small appliances are white so watcha going to do? It should be delivered this afternoon and from the tracking, it is out in the county somewhere with my UPS person. 6 qt would have been nice but I didn't want to push my luck with the fella paying for it.