Review of February Focus and Goals

Saturday I spent the day at a friend's sewing half square triangles together into blocks and then into pairs.  At home I sat down and ironed the pairs to prep the 26 star centres and corner blocks and went OPPS!  I had forgotten I made the half square triangles oversized so I could trim them down.  By the time I realized this error I realized I needed daylight to trim them and put them away for the evening.

 I did get them all trimmed and paired up to be resewed on Monday.

 Yesterday I got the information for the next month of sewing for March.  We will add flower circles with centres for the 26 stems and add a bias edge to the circle.

 I got my first cotton and wool pieces down for my House Party Revival window 1 I'm about halfway down window two.  My plan is to do all the wool and cotton applique and then have fun with the embellishing stitches.

 Yesterday we had an unexpected snowfall.  This was my place about ten o'clock.

 It did come down heavier for awhile before stopping.

 And by one o'clock it was all gone.  Farther east they got quite a lot.  My cousin is in Palm Desert and says the desert is greener than she has ever seen it before.  She also mentioned that Chicago has set a record for snow free days this winter!  We have an aunt who lives there.

 Other February unexpected goals were designing and finishing my challenge quilt in four days.  No prizes but I was told it was Lorna's husband's favourite.  Prize enough for me.  There was a tie for second and third prize and my friend Mary was one of the tied people.

 Got the borders on my Valentine's quilt.

 Friday I went for a walk and found these crocuses and snowdrops outside the condo door.

 Witch hazel is in full display but the yellow one has almost none on display.

 This Hellebore reminded me of a dogwood bloom.

 And a pink version.

 Love the dark contrast on this yellow crocus.

 These were more of a daffodil yellow.

 The early rhododendron is out in bloom already.

 One of the crows needed a closer read of the information signs along the boardwalk.

 Love these purple crocuses that look so delicate.

 This year is Canada's 150th anniversary of Confederation on July 1st and all National Parks are free for entry.  I decided to get one of the passes.

 Time to write down my finishes and maybe get a couple of February goals that I missed started on.  I didn't get my Mika or Sunflower Gathering backgrounds stitched so maybe that will be my final February Focus goals for today.  Then to list the March ones.

February Staying Focused!

I forgot to share the the finished stitching on my English Paper Pieced Applique block for my Happy Days quilt but got it done well before the halfway point of the month.  I did get one more prepped to sew this month a rather detailed Hawaiian Applique block that I forgot to take a picture of but will share that soon.

 Earlier in January I got these fun zippers from A Threaded Needle to make up a planned project.  As a bonus I was gifted the two pieces of ribbon.

 I also ordered some variegated Sashiko and solid colour threads.  They came in the sweet raindrop and ice cream bag.

 But these Handbag zipper from Fabric Depot was my favourite zipper purchase for a new Bionic Mother Lode Bag.  The pattern is still being finalized but I'm slowly gathering the tools for making it.

 I added another BOM to do with my friend Rita.  This is All Around the Town by Susan Garman who recently passed away.

 I've prepped the templates for two blocks and they will be worked on this month.

 This one will be for March.

 I have one short term project that I started last nice with these challenge fabrics.  I got the bones done and hope to get some quilting started before adding another layer.  I forgot they changed the deadline and thought I had missed it and now want to submit it.  More later once I have it finished.

I've got my Mika, Sunflower Gathering blocks to start working on when I get back home today.  Off to have my eyes checked and then to the Dentist.  Hope you manage to Stay Focused in February.

Staying Focused!

I'm happy to say that so far I'm on track with my goal of Stay Focused!  At the beginning of the month I cut out the fabrics for Block Three of Sunflower Gathering; along with the alternate block and started sewing the background for the wool applique.

  I'm waiting until I have a few more of the four patch colour combinations sewn before I start sewing the alternate blocks together so I have a good mix of different four patches to chose from.

Here is the wool block background.

Here are most of the wool pieces cut for sewing, the red will be 52 little flowerettes so I'm waiting until I'm ready to attach them before cutting out.  The larger green left over will become some of the stems for the Sunflowers.

 I prefer not to fuse my blocks but had decided to try it with this projects.  As it has been sitting for a couple of years it did not fuse well so I have decided to pin and then fuse after sewing.  I don't like how stiff the fusing makes the pieces and I also did the window technique so just the edges are fused and not the body of the piece.

 Yes those threads at the top and side are extending off the block as they will have the red flowerettes on the next blocks.

 I also prepped the freebie block.  The colours are truer in this first photo without the flash.

 Stitched down and French Knots around the centre.

 Here is block one, the leaves will extend to the next block.

 Here is block two it also will have some pink flowers and vine onto the adjacent blocks.

 I also prepped the fans and pinwheel block three for Mika.

 Here are the finished pinwheels which will be sewn into a row.

 And the fans will be trimmed down and sewn into another row.

 I started prepping the next Mika block which will be a 16" one and will prep the next Sunflower Gathering block today.  But I've decided to work on something else until February that is on my UFO list.  Will have to see what I chose, I'm not yet sure myself! \

 I took this picture on Wednesday with my iPad of the snow on the mountains and the Native Paddle wheeler that still goes up and down the river.  There is more ice floating down the river but things are expected to warm up by the weekend.

Are you Staying Focused?

2017 Plan For The Year...

This was the beginning of the sunset on January 1, 2017, the bright reflection caught my eye.

 This is about twenty or so minutes later, love the blues, pinks and mauves in the sky.

 Yesterday I got a surprise in the mail from my friend Anna from Woolie Mammoth Blog.  I won one her 12 Days of Christmas give aways!

 She also sent along this lovely card.

 Santa made this delivery in person.  He is just so sweet, love the looped fringe on his hat and the french knots on his pompom.  He looks like he is disappearing down the chimney!

 Anna is hosting a couple of sew alongs for UFO's and she chose this Sunflower Gathering kit from Primitive Gatherings.  Well I've also got that kit and have failed in completing it so plan to join her.

 Confession time.  I did do two of the blocks and then I stalled.  But as you can see there are many pieced blocks also to add to the quilt so I'm starting with them and also finishing prepping the third one. This was the first block I made and you can see that they extend into the neighbouring blocks.

 This is block 2 on a white background.

 Another big stall for me was my Mika quilt, I'm picking it up also.

 Here is what is considered to be block one, a combination of a pieced and appliqued block.

 Block two.  So I'm going to start prepping the double block three.

 I stopped in July on my 366 challenge as I couldn't find the safely stashed piece of fabric I wanted to use for July 1st.  I've found it but decided I'm going to work backwards from December and finish it up.  A great take along project for my Friday stitching group and guild meetings.

 I am going to continue with these free cut trees I started just after Christmas.  I had hoped that a couple of friends would join me and we could swap them but I don't think this will be happening.

 I've made three sizes and will add strips of fabrics and probably offset the trees rather than have all the same size.

 This is a new project, actually two that I cut out yesterday.  To be revealed later.

 On my last post in December I wrote out my phrase for 2016 here.  This year I've decided Stay Focused will be my phrase this year.  I'm saying STAY rather than BE as I often can be very focused on something and then a flash will come and I'm off checking out the shiny thing that caught my eye. This year I hope to STAY FOCUSED.  I'll be checking in with Anna's blog though out the year as part of the challenge.  I may add some new projects because I know some are in the works.  I may add some other UFO's but not until I get a good forward direction on some I've mentioned.

Off to do some prepping so I can get started.  What is your focus for 2017?