April One Monthly Goal

March flew by for me, did it for you as well?

I'm hoping to be more deliberate (and therefore more productive!) in April. However, I've already been thrown off-kilter and the month's only just begun! I was hoping to make good headway on my Venice quilt, and I still hope to, of course, but things come up. As is usual when you don't live under a rock, haha.

I have a dear friend I roomed with in college who is expecting her first baby in July! I'm so excited for her, and immediately began to think about making her a quilt. She currently lives in Seattle, and I expected to mail it to her in June or July. But! She texted just last week to tell me she is making a last minute trip to Utah in mid-April and her mother-in-law is throwing her a shower. I'd much prefer to give it to her in person, so my deadline got moved up by a few months and all the sudden the pressure was on! 

I rushed out to get background fabric--I had all the prints I needed--and set to work on the pattern I selected: a modified Red Cross quilt from Vintage Quilt Revival (my favorite book!). But, preparing is one thing.

Her shower is on April 21st and so my goal (with a very firm deadline!) is to finish the baby quilt for my friend. 

I've already spent an hour piecing it, so I shouldn't have too much trouble.

My other goals I hope to get to include the following.

• Make progress on my Venice quilt, specifically finish four of the sixteen blocks.
• Trace the pattern for Lisette 6411 and prepare the fabric. This is my least favorite part of garment sewing, and I think I could get a lot more done if I didn't procrastinate this odious task so much.
• Bind my triangle quilt. This one is actually pretty important too, because I plan to submit it to an art competition. I don't have it back just yet, but the quilter has finished it, and I'm anxious to see it. First, I must pick a binding fabric...
• Take my girls on a fun outing for spring break.
• Exercise three times a week. Odious but necessary. I am very unfit right now. 
• Plan a summer weekend away. I have a feeling we'll need it. I'm hoping to talk my mom into taking my girls for a few days, but I think she's worn out and that might not happen, so a family camping trip would also suffice.

I'm linking up to One Monthly Goal link up. :-)

Venice Quilt Underway!

So, my March goal for One Monthly Goal was to get my fabric completely cut out for my Venice quilt (using the Wallflower pattern). I was overwhelmed by being back from vacation and getting back into a routine, and I wasn't sure how much sewing I would get done or even what I needed to get done. So, I set myself a very reachable goal. And, as you can imagine, I blew it out of the water. Yes! So much better than falling short, though, so I'm glad I set a really simple goal.

I not only got everything cut out, I got all the block components sewn and pressed. Now I need to piece the blocks together and then just sash them together. This quilt has been faster than I expected, but just as enjoyable as the Shimmer quilt, which has a very, very similar block. I love Allison Harris's quilt patterns so very much! I'm also very excited for this quilt to come together.

This month, I also managed to get two shirts sewn for my girls. I made the Hopscotch shirt from Oliver and S, and the girls LOVE them. Hooray! I added two extra inches to my eight-year-old's, and I should have added another, and I should have added some length to my five-year-old's. Oh well, next time. And there will for sure be a next time, because this pattern is great. Not difficult, and a great, basic look.

I'm linking up to One Monthly Goal at Elm Street Quilts.

March One Monthly Goal

I've had a hard time coming up with a goal for this month. We just returned from Hawaii, so I'm still in vacation mode, coupled with jet lag, and a requirement to resume regular mom-duties. But, one of the first things I did was start cutting out my Venice quilt (I'm using Cluck Cluck Sew's Wallflowers quilt). This has been a long time in coming: I've had the fabrics picked out for over a year and just couldn't settle on a pattern. I finally decided right before we left, so I was anxious to get home and get started.

So, I guess my very obvious one monthly goal is to finish cutting out that quilt, even though I'd rather have a goal for actual stitching. I don't really like the cutting out part of quilting, so, while I haven't minded cutting out what I've started, I'm still not looking forward to finishing and making time to do that. I'd rather do the sewing! :-)

Unfortunately, cutting out all the background fabric is rather dull. I got through the colorful fabrics today, but now I've got hundreds of background pieces to cut. Hopefully, I'll get it all done. It is so satisfying to have a whole quilt project cut out!

I'm linking up to Elm Street's One Monthly Goal.

Reversible Bucket Hats

I made my twins matching reversible bucket hats for the beach! We went to Hawaii the last week in February, and I was worried they would really need sunhats, because they still don't have a ton of hair, and instead of beating my head against the wall trying to order some, I just made them instead.

I used Oliver and S's free pattern, and I think they are so cute! I took a risk and sewed them together, instead of sewing one first to make sure it worked, but luckily it totally did. They don't have straps, so I was a little nervous about how useful they'd even be. As it turned out, we had mostly overcast days, so they didn't need to keep them on (which they didn't...haha). Still cute, though!