February’s Goals:

1. Finish Anita’s Arrowhead top (photo below).  Never touched it.  Instead, I finished piecing my tumbler blocks top.

2. Make more red-black-white blocks for my guild challenge quilt.  Needed 35; made 50.  (Well, I cut out too many.)  I can make two 5×5 baby quilts, or a 6×8 bigger lap quilt.  (The original size was 5×7.) 

3. Work on the Branching Out applique blocks.   Yes, did some a small amount of work, but that qualifies.

4. Felted pin cushions — continuing project. Click HERE for information on the pattern.  Finished another pin cushion. 

5. February’s postcard for guild exchange.  Done on time.

March’s Goals:

1.  Go to Paula Nadelstern’s 5-day kaleidoscope class in New Braunfels, TX.  (Barring a disaster, this is a slam-dunk!)

2.  Quilt and bind one top.  I’m not going to name which one, because I am finding I’m not always in the mood to work on what’s on the list.

3.  Finish up the Anita’s Arrowhead blocks.

4.  One monthly postcard for a guild member.

Linking to:  Judy Laquidara’s Patchwork Times

My participation in Judy Laquidara’s “Get It Done” challenge in January was a good first month.  After I looked my list over last month, I knew I had too much handwork and not enough machine sewing, and I was right.  Also, I shoudn’t have planned on any longarm quilting for a while.

January’s Results:

1.  Quilt Niece Summer’s 1910 Reproduction quilt.  Nope.  Pushed out to about March.
2.  Quilt Grand-Nephew Colton’s Minkee quilt.  Nope.  Also pushed out to about March.
3.  Complete four more appliqued blocks on my Branching Out quilt.   This is a partial completion with more leaves made and some blocks glue-basted.
4.  Work on my felt pin cushions.  Yes!  Finished three and cut out 10 or so more. I also prepared some of the inner pouches and filled them with ground walnut shells. 
5.  I have five pillowcases to finish up and mail for nieces and nephews.  Done.  Done.  Done.  Done.  Done.

Extra stuff, since I couldn’t quite stay with the program:

6.  Finished 8 more blocks on my Anita’s Arrowhead quilt.
7.  Knit several inches onto a purple scarf.
8.  Finished my January postcard for our guild’s postcard swap.  (Can’t show it to you yet as the recipient may read my blog.  In future months, I’ll be able to show the previous month’s postcard.)

February’s Goals:

1.  Finish Anita’s Arrowhead top.
2.  Make more black/white/red blocks for my guild challenge quilt.
3.  Work on the Branching Out applique blocks.
4.  Felted pin cushions — continuing project.  Click HERE for information on the pattern.
5.  February’s postcard for guild exchange.

I liked working this way, with specific projects in mind for the month.  I will be shooting for a better balance of projects in February, although I don’t mind that I strayed from my goals projects a bit.

Four audio books read this month:  Nortorious Nineteen (Janet Evanovich), Royal Flush (Rhys Bowen), My Antonia (Willa Cather), In the Woods (Tana French).

Linking to:  Judy Laquidara’s Patchwork Times.

Judy Laquidara is a great motivator, and I like her new Get It Done challenge for 2013.

The rules are easy.  The last day of the month (for example, TODAY!)  post four quilting-related things you would like accomplish in the following month (January, in this case).  Ready?  Here is my January list:

1. Finish Niece Summer’s 1910 Reproduction quilt.  (Needs to be quilted & bound).  The name of this pattern is “1910 Nine-Patch”, and I found it the January/February 2007 issue of Fons & Porter’s Love of Quilting.  A big difference, though, is in the original pattern each finished 9-patch measured ONLY 2 1/4″.  I bumped the block size up to 6″ finished.  I love how old it looks already.
2. Finish Grand-Nephew Colton’s Minkee quilt.  (Needs to be quilted & bound)
3. Complete four more appliqued blocks on my Branching Out quilt.  (I have all 12 pieced blocks done and two out of 13 of the appliqued blocks done.)  The pieced blocks will be alternated with the appliqued blocks.  This pattern is from the book Sisterhood, a Quilting Tradition by Nancy Lee Murty.
4. Work on my felt pin cushions.  I’m using a pattern by Sandi Andersen.  I also have some patterns by One Wing Wool I’m going to work on.  (This will be an on-going project all year long.) 
5. I have five pillowcases to finish up and mail for nieces and nephews.  (No photo, but you know what pillowcases look like 🙂

(I know that’s five instead of four, but I was never much good at math.)  Hmm, I see I have a lot of handwork and no piecing for the month.  I might have to change out a project as the month goes along as I do like to sit at the sewing machine!

I’m going to try hard to stay on task and get these four five things done in January.  Thank you, Judy, for thinking up ways to make us more productive!

Check out Judy’s blog to see what other participants are planning on doing in January.  Maybe you will want to join in too!

Sue